The assumption being that Rassilon is permanently locked in the dark tower, could therefore Rassilon have become a title, (much like Caesar) bestowed once a Timelord becomes Lord President. After all, most of the things the president gets such as the sash etc are referred to as the X of Rassilon. Perhaps it was a title created at the start of the Time War to bolster morale and send a signal to their enemies...

Pure speculation of course....

It is the Real Rassilon, especially as it seems the Time lords can resurrect people, no reason why Rassilon was excluded. And the dialogue seems to back this up as well.

Rassilon is actually high lord president, the only time lord to hold that title, the rest are only lord president. Rassilon was resurrected in the early days of the last great time war from his tomb in the dark tower in the deah zone to lead the time lords to battle. I always thought it was a running joke in the classic series naming things after him. The sash of rassilon, the key of rassilon, the crown of rassilon, the coronet of rassilon, the harp of rassilon etc etc. Some interesting reading here http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Rassilon

Is that from a book, comic or audio drama? I don't remember it from any TV story.

yes....

Yeah, I reckon it's the real one. Taken out of the Matrix and put into a new body, with a new set of regenerations. Who else would the Time Lords want as Lord President during the Time War? Apart from the Doctor?

He was never in the matrix and didn't need resurrecting, he was asleep in his tomb.

Why does he call himself Rassilon the Resurrected in Hell Bent then?


Wouldn't Rassilon the Woken Up be more accurate if that was the case?

He was dead in his tomb

I think he was locked in a state of perpetual regeneration, although I could be getting mixed up.

To be fair, he was only 'dead-ish' in his tomb. When the Doctors turned up he was quite chatty #TheFiveDoctors

Allegedly. It's never absolutely confirmed that Rassilon did become immortal, what we saw in The Five Doctors could have been some kind of stasis effect, or just his dead body and an AI hologram or something.

This is a society that thinks The Sash of Rassilon to be a good name for an energy shielding device. Needs to be more pretentious!

Talk about "connected things making the DW universe seem smaller"!

Aren't there any other significant characters in Timelord history apart from Rassilon and Omega!

At the risk of exposing my Classic DW ignorance, aren't there any significant female Timelords - and I'm not counting Romana or - dare I say it - the Rani. Nor the Corsair or the Master/Missy.

And why was Rassilon asleep in the first place if he could be so relatively easily revived?

There was 'the other'

Not necessarily.

There were two American presidents called Rooseveldt, eight kings of England called Henry and twenty three popes called John. So why not more than one Time Lord called Rassilon?

It could be that Gallifreyans hold the original Rassilon in such high esteem that many of them name their offspring after him.

No. its not

Yes he is.

The world ended 2 days ago.

Do you have proof about this statement?

Dramatically, I think it would be a bit of a damp squib if it turned out he wasn't a resurrected Rassilon and he was simply a clone, or a matrix duplicate or something.

I think the whole dramatic impact of his first and subsequent appearance are based on an assumption by the audience (i.e. the fans who know his history) that it is him, resurrected during the Time Lord's time of greatest need.

I'd have thought the Resurrection process would pretty much be that anyway.

Create a new body cloned from a bit of Rassilon DNA (just scrape a bit off his Orb or Staff if they don't have any stored ) and download his consciousness from the Matrix into the new body.


We know the Master had to have a brand new body when they resurrected him as his previous one was squashed into a singularity in a Black Hole.

I think the New Series intended him to be the real Rassilon. The problem I have with that is that Rassilon is one of the greatest figures in Time Lord history. He's revered, he's legendary and yet his guards turned their back on him in favour of the Doctor? So the New Series now states that the Doctor is now the greatest and most important Time Lord ever. For the viewer that's obviously the case, but it seems unlikely that would be the case for the Time Lords.

I think it would have been better for it to have been someone else in Hell Bent rather than Rassilon, perhaps Borusa or someone else.

Not on TV there wasn't.

Presumably the Time War went on for quite a while, and the General didn't exactly sound enthused about the High Council or their plans by the end of it. I'm guessing Rassilon's once stellar reputation took had taken a bit of a battering, whereas the Doctor was the one on the front lines with the rank and file troops who saved Gallifrey and spent 900 years protecting it. I can see how that might have been good for his status.

Is "the other" canon?