Still relatively new to who and thinking if I look up wiki then I might end up spoiling big plots for me when I get round to watching more than doc 11. So can anyone give me a spoiler free description into what timelords are exactly. I've heard about the doctor killing them or something May well have picked up the wrong end of the stick on that one though. Just thinking that next week's storyline seems to be timelord(ish) and talk about the little girl maybe being a timelord, river e.t.c. It didn't dawn on me until now, I have no idea what one is

The Time Lords are the Doctor's people. He is a Time Lord. This'll explain it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timelords

Ok, well I am new who not old who but spoilery free basically:

The Doctor is a Timelord. Time lords are a race of people who can travel through time and space. They are very knowledgeable and powerful. I think the Doctor stole a Tardis and ran away from his people to adventure through time and space as he did not stick to their policy of non interference in other worlds...? Anyway, the Timelords had a time war with the Daleks and the Doctor had to time lock his own people to stop the war so killing all time lords and daleks...(sort of because Daleks keep reappearing and Time Lords did resurface briefly in season 4 but are locked away again now...) As a result the Doctor is sad and lonely and the last of his kind (apart from the Master who is also kicking about somewhere - he is a crazy timelord type). time Lords can regenerate when they die which means they create a new body for themselves with a bit of a different personality to boot. Well there you go, no doubt many on this forum can and will explain in more detail and much better than that but hope it helps...

Ok, simply, TimeLords are aliens from the planet Galifrey who have 2 hearts and can cheat death by a process known as regeneration. Of old the race was stuffy and old as some on the show have described them. They basically governed the use of time travel to an extent. Then the Time war came along against the Daleks (and if you don't know who the Daleks are then I give up) where the Doctor destroyed all the Daleks and TimeLords. As to anything else I can't say as that would be spoilers as River would say. Technically the Time war thing is a spoiler but it is revealed so early on in Rose (the 1st episode of the 1st revival series) and overall has not much affect on the general overall plots it doesn't matter that much. That is really all you need to know to follow the next episode assuming that it does involve Time Lords some how. Sorry if this isn't quite as spoiler free as you'd like but I have tried my best.

Edit: I'm slow! Can't type fast enough :/

Thanks everyone! I feel a little more clued up now