What is "gallifrey"

Gallifrey ( or ) is a planet in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the original home world of the Doctor, The Master, and The Rani, as well as other Time Lords that have been seen in the show. It was located in a binary star system within the constellation of Kasterborous, at "galactic coordinates ten-zero-eleven-zero-zero by zero-two from galactic zero centre".

During the first decade of the television series, the name of the Doctor's home planet was not revealed, although it was actually shown for the first time in The War Games (1969) during the Second Doctor's trial. It was finally identified by name for the first time in The Time Warrior (1973–74). It is never definitively stated when the appearances of Gallifrey in the television series take place. As the planet is often reached by means of time travel, its relative present could conceivably exist almost anywhere in the Earth's past or future.

Gallifrey's position in the revived series (2005 onwards) was filled in slowly over the first three years of the series' run. In the series 1 episode " The End of the World", the Ninth Doctor describes the planet as "rocks and dust", "dead [...] before its time" and having "burnt" like the Earth had done in the year 5 billion in a " war" the Doctor's people had lost. The planet was not referred to by name after the show's return in 2005 until the 2006 Christmas special, " The Runaway Bride". It was depicted in a flashback in " The Sound of Drums" in series 3 and played an important role in the plot of The End of Time (2009–10). It appeared briefly in the seventh series finale, " The Name of the Doctor", which shows the moment the First Doctor and Susan stole the TARDIS. Gallifrey is revealed at the conclusion of " The Day of the Doctor" (2013) to have survived the "(Great) Time War" and didn't burn as the Doctor originally believed, though it was frozen in time and shunted into another dimension, before returning to the universe at some point before " Hell Bent" (2015).

Gallifrey is the umbrella title of a line of audio plays set in the Doctor Who universe, produced by Big Finish Productions, featuring Louise Jameson as Leela, Lalla Ward as President Romana II, and John Leeson as two K-9 units, Mark I and Mark II. The title refers to the home planet of the Time Lords.

The first play in the series, Weapon of Choice, was released in 2004. The most recent: Gallifrey: Intervention Earth, was released in 2015.