First Law of Time: Difference between revisions
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{{ | {{First pic|10DY2 9 A Rose by Any Other Name Rose stops herself.jpg|[[Rose (A Rose by Any Other Name)|Rose-the-Cat]] uses time travel to intervene in her own past, averting a series of events she found to be mildly annoying. This concept, of using time travel to change one's own past or future, is crucially what is banned by the First Law of Time. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[A Rose by Any Other Name (comic story)|A Rose by Any Other Name]]'')}} | ||
The '''First Law of Time''' ([[TV]]: ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]'') or '''First Time Law''', ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Three Doctors (novelisation)|The Three Doctors]]'') also called the '''Protocols of Linearity''', was the most important and widely-discussed of the [[Laws of Time|Protocols of the Great Houses]], which were hard-wired into the [[Spiral Politic]] during the [[anchoring of the thread]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'') It forbade [[Gallifrey]]'s present from interacting with its own subjective past or future. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible (novel)|Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible]]'', ''[[Lungbarrow (novel)|Lungbarrow]]'', ''[[Alien Bodies (novel)|Alien Bodies]]'', ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'') | |||
One consequence was that [[Time Lord]]s could not meet each other out of temporal sequence ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Goth Opera (novel)|Goth Opera]]'') or meet their former selves. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]'') That restriction could even apply to non-Time-Lords: the [[Fourth Doctor]] refused to return [[Eldrad]] to her native time because that would have been a "distortion of history" that "contravened the First Law of Time". ([[TV]]: ''[[The Hand of Fear (TV story)|The Hand of Fear]]'') The [[Ninth Doctor]] once told [[Rose Tyler]] that there "used to be" laws banning interference with one's own past. ([[TV]]: ''[[Father's Day (TV story)|Father's Day]]'') Likewise, the [[Fifth Doctor]] described [[the Brigadier]]'s encounter with his past self as being bad. ([[TV]]: ''[[Mawdryn Undead (TV story)|Mawdryn Undead]]'') The [[Eleventh Doctor]] said that a time traveller's own grave was the one place they could never go. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Name of the Doctor (TV story)|The Name of the Doctor]]'') | |||
Another consequence of the Protocols of Linearity was that if a [[Homeworlder]] were to leave [[the Homeworld]] for five years, though they could theoretically return moments after they left, upon their return they would inevitably find that five years had passed there as well. In effect, whenever an agent entered an area of time outside the Homeworld, their relative histories would be temporarily linked so that their "present"s would be indistinguishable, despite being aeons apart. This rule applied to other [[time-active]] powers as well, including [[Faction Paradox]] and [[the enemy]], which many speculated could be due to the Houses' inability to revoke the Protocols, an agreement between the parties, or mutual fear of the consequences of non-linearity. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'') | |||
== Violations == | |||
{{video|The Three Doctors Unite! - The Three Doctors - Doctor Who - BBC|thumb|left|The [[Time Lord]]s unite the [[First Doctor|First]], [[Second Doctor|Second]] and [[Third Doctor]]s. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]'')}} | |||
This law could be bent without breaking: on several occasions, objects from [[the Homeworld]]'s past were "hooked" and dragged into the present. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'') For instance, [[the Doctor]]'s incarnations were pulled together several times through Time Lord sanction ([[TV]]: ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]'', ''[[The Five Doctors (TV story)|The Five Doctors]]'', ''[[The Two Doctors (TV story)|The Two Doctors]]'', [[PROSE]]: ''[[World Game (novel)|World Game]]'') or by accident. ([[TV]]: ''[[Time Crash (TV story)|Time Crash]]'', ''[[Twice Upon a Time (TV story)|Twice Upon a Time]]'') | |||
The [[Eighth Doctor]] chastised [[Sebastian Grayle]] for breaking the First Law of Time after Grayle told him they would meet in the future. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Seasons of Fear (audio story)|Seasons of Fear]]'') The Eighth Doctor's [[companion]] [[Charlotte Pollard]] similarly broke the First Law by later travelling with his [[sixth Doctor|sixth incarnation]], thus exposing the Doctor to his own future. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Brotherhood of the Daleks (audio story)|Brotherhood of the Daleks]]'') | |||
In the years before the [[War in Heaven]], the [[Great House]]s encountered their future counterparts several times. For instance, [[Thessalia]] interacted with War-era agents of Faction Paradox during a [[Violent Unknown Event]] on [[Zo la Domini]] ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'') The [[Eighth Doctor]] encountered the War several times while it was in his future, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Alien Bodies (novel)|Alien Bodies]]'', ''[[Unnatural History (novel)|Unnatural History]]'', ''[[The Taking of Planet 5 (novel)|The Taking of Planet 5]]'') saying that he was "breaking one of the major Laws of Time... It could be the third." ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Alien Bodies (novel)|Alien Bodies]]'') | |||
After [[Faction Paradox]] signed the [[Gregorian Compact]] with [[George II]] in [[1752]], agents of the Faction and the Great Houses alike found it difficult to penetrate Earth's causality for the next seventy years: observing this period would be too much like looking into their own future. However, Cousin [[Belial (The Book of the War)|Belial]] slipped through the [[time lock|lock]] on the late 1700s by being reborn in [[1782]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'') | |||
[[Robert Scarratt]] was known to test the limits of linearity by using [[timeship]]s to go [[AWOL]] for periods totaling at least a year of subjective time. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'') | |||
When the [[Remote]] left Faction Paradox, they became divorced from linearity. As a result, [[Compassion]] could be born during the War but go on to travel with [[the TARDIS|an old-fashioned timeship]] in the pre-War era. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Interference - Book Two (novel)|Interference]]'', ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'') | |||
During his [[Ninth Doctor|ninth]] and [[Tenth Doctor|tenth]] incarnations, the Doctor willingly caused tiny loops in his own timeline. ([[TV]]: ''[[Father's Day (TV story)|Father's Day]]'', ''[[Smith and Jones (TV story)|Smith and Jones]]'') In contrast, the [[Eleventh Doctor]] later told [[Carter (Let's Kill Hitler)|Carter]] that he'd "best not" cross his own timestream; ([[TV]]: ''[[The Wedding of River Song (TV story)|The Wedding of River Song]]'') [[the TARDIS]] later tried to stop him from visiting his grave on [[Trenzalore]]. He believed this visit had made his fate unchangeable, ([[TV]]: ''[[The Name of the Doctor (TV story)|The Name of the Doctor]]'') though with the Time Lords' help he was able to change the future. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time of the Doctor (TV story)|The Time of the Doctor]]'') | |||
The [[Eleventh Doctor]] was content to bring a young [[Kazran Sardick]] into his own future in an attempt to change his past. ([[TV]] ''[[A Christmas Carol (TV story)|A Christmas Carol]]'') | |||
{{video|No sir, all THIRTEEN! - Peter Capaldi's 1st Scene as Twelfth Doctor - The Day of the Doctor - BBC|thumb|Thriteen [[incarnation]]s of [[the Doctor]] interact with each other to save [[Gallifrey]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Day of the Doctor (TV story)|The Day of the Doctor]]'')}} | |||
Due to the actions of [[the Moment]], the Doctor crossed his own timestream in a big way when he met the [[War Doctor]] and the Tenth Doctor and they shared an adventure together. They later broke the law in an even bigger way by calling forth thirteen incarnations of themselves to help with their plan. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Day of the Doctor (TV story)|The Day of the Doctor]]'') | |||
The [[Twelfth Doctor]] refused to help [[Clara Oswald]] save [[Danny Pink]] as it meant crossing her own timeline which was a bad idea. ([[TV]]: ''[[Dark Water (TV story)|Dark Water]]'') Unknown to the Doctor, he had earlier accidentally crossed his own timeline when Clara piloted the TARDIS from the [[end of the universe]] and they landed in [[Barn (The Day of the Doctor)|a barn]] where the young [[First Doctor]] was crying. However, Clara kept the Doctor from knowing the truth and convinced him never to return to find out when and where they had travelled to. ([[TV]]: ''[[Listen (TV story)|Listen]]'') | |||
== Other references == | |||
The [[Seventh Doctor]] stated that interfering in Gallifrey's past time travel experiments was against the First Law; ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible (novel)|Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible]]'') by several accounts, [[the Other|he]] was present during those experiments. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks (novelisation)|Remembrance of the Daleks]]'', ''[[Lungbarrow (novel)|Lungbarrow]]'', [[COMIC]]: ''[[The Lost Dimension (comic story)|The Lost Dimension]]'') | |||
The [[Fourth Doctor]] said it was a criminal act on Gallifrey to meddle with one's own time coordinates. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Master of the Blackhole (short story)|Master of the Blackhole]]'') | |||
The [[Seventh Doctor]] once joked that the first law of [[spacetime|space-time]] [[time travel|travel]] was "avoid voids". ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Highest Science (novel)|The Highest Science]]'') | |||
Through the projections of [[the Matrix]], the [[Last Great Time War|Time War]]-era [[Time Lord]]s saw that the [[Twelfth Doctor]], whilst attempting to [[Hybrid Incident|demonstrate]] [[mercy]] to a young [[Davros]], had shown some way of circumnavigating the [[Blinovitch Limitation Effect]], allowing him to return to an exact space-time event multiple times and influencing the outcome of that event. Investigations were undertaken as to how the Doctor was able to achieve this, and discussions took place at [[High Council]] level to determine whether they constituted a breach of the First Law of Time. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)|Dalek Combat Training Manual]]'') | |||
== External links == | |||
{{fpx|Protocols of Linearity|Protocols of Linearity}} | |||
[[Category:Temporal theory]] | |||
[[Category:Gallifreyan laws]] | |||
Latest revision as of 19:51, 30 March 2024
The First Law of Time (TV: The Three Doctors) or First Time Law, (PROSE: The Three Doctors) also called the Protocols of Linearity, was the most important and widely-discussed of the Protocols of the Great Houses, which were hard-wired into the Spiral Politic during the anchoring of the thread. (PROSE: The Book of the War) It forbade Gallifrey's present from interacting with its own subjective past or future. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible, Lungbarrow, Alien Bodies, The Book of the War)
One consequence was that Time Lords could not meet each other out of temporal sequence (PROSE: Goth Opera) or meet their former selves. (TV: The Three Doctors) That restriction could even apply to non-Time-Lords: the Fourth Doctor refused to return Eldrad to her native time because that would have been a "distortion of history" that "contravened the First Law of Time". (TV: The Hand of Fear) The Ninth Doctor once told Rose Tyler that there "used to be" laws banning interference with one's own past. (TV: Father's Day) Likewise, the Fifth Doctor described the Brigadier's encounter with his past self as being bad. (TV: Mawdryn Undead) The Eleventh Doctor said that a time traveller's own grave was the one place they could never go. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
Another consequence of the Protocols of Linearity was that if a Homeworlder were to leave the Homeworld for five years, though they could theoretically return moments after they left, upon their return they would inevitably find that five years had passed there as well. In effect, whenever an agent entered an area of time outside the Homeworld, their relative histories would be temporarily linked so that their "present"s would be indistinguishable, despite being aeons apart. This rule applied to other time-active powers as well, including Faction Paradox and the enemy, which many speculated could be due to the Houses' inability to revoke the Protocols, an agreement between the parties, or mutual fear of the consequences of non-linearity. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
Violations[[edit] | [edit source]]
This law could be bent without breaking: on several occasions, objects from the Homeworld's past were "hooked" and dragged into the present. (PROSE: The Book of the War) For instance, the Doctor's incarnations were pulled together several times through Time Lord sanction (TV: The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors, The Two Doctors, PROSE: World Game) or by accident. (TV: Time Crash, Twice Upon a Time)
The Eighth Doctor chastised Sebastian Grayle for breaking the First Law of Time after Grayle told him they would meet in the future. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear) The Eighth Doctor's companion Charlotte Pollard similarly broke the First Law by later travelling with his sixth incarnation, thus exposing the Doctor to his own future. (AUDIO: Brotherhood of the Daleks)
In the years before the War in Heaven, the Great Houses encountered their future counterparts several times. For instance, Thessalia interacted with War-era agents of Faction Paradox during a Violent Unknown Event on Zo la Domini (PROSE: The Book of the War) The Eighth Doctor encountered the War several times while it was in his future, (PROSE: Alien Bodies, Unnatural History, The Taking of Planet 5) saying that he was "breaking one of the major Laws of Time... It could be the third." (PROSE: Alien Bodies)
After Faction Paradox signed the Gregorian Compact with George II in 1752, agents of the Faction and the Great Houses alike found it difficult to penetrate Earth's causality for the next seventy years: observing this period would be too much like looking into their own future. However, Cousin Belial slipped through the lock on the late 1700s by being reborn in 1782. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
Robert Scarratt was known to test the limits of linearity by using timeships to go AWOL for periods totaling at least a year of subjective time. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
When the Remote left Faction Paradox, they became divorced from linearity. As a result, Compassion could be born during the War but go on to travel with an old-fashioned timeship in the pre-War era. (PROSE: Interference, The Book of the War)
During his ninth and tenth incarnations, the Doctor willingly caused tiny loops in his own timeline. (TV: Father's Day, Smith and Jones) In contrast, the Eleventh Doctor later told Carter that he'd "best not" cross his own timestream; (TV: The Wedding of River Song) the TARDIS later tried to stop him from visiting his grave on Trenzalore. He believed this visit had made his fate unchangeable, (TV: The Name of the Doctor) though with the Time Lords' help he was able to change the future. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
The Eleventh Doctor was content to bring a young Kazran Sardick into his own future in an attempt to change his past. (TV A Christmas Carol)
Due to the actions of the Moment, the Doctor crossed his own timestream in a big way when he met the War Doctor and the Tenth Doctor and they shared an adventure together. They later broke the law in an even bigger way by calling forth thirteen incarnations of themselves to help with their plan. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
The Twelfth Doctor refused to help Clara Oswald save Danny Pink as it meant crossing her own timeline which was a bad idea. (TV: Dark Water) Unknown to the Doctor, he had earlier accidentally crossed his own timeline when Clara piloted the TARDIS from the end of the universe and they landed in a barn where the young First Doctor was crying. However, Clara kept the Doctor from knowing the truth and convinced him never to return to find out when and where they had travelled to. (TV: Listen)
Other references[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Seventh Doctor stated that interfering in Gallifrey's past time travel experiments was against the First Law; (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible) by several accounts, he was present during those experiments. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks, Lungbarrow, COMIC: The Lost Dimension)
The Fourth Doctor said it was a criminal act on Gallifrey to meddle with one's own time coordinates. (PROSE: Master of the Blackhole)
The Seventh Doctor once joked that the first law of space-time travel was "avoid voids". (PROSE: The Highest Science)
Through the projections of the Matrix, the Time War-era Time Lords saw that the Twelfth Doctor, whilst attempting to demonstrate mercy to a young Davros, had shown some way of circumnavigating the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, allowing him to return to an exact space-time event multiple times and influencing the outcome of that event. Investigations were undertaken as to how the Doctor was able to achieve this, and discussions took place at High Council level to determine whether they constituted a breach of the First Law of Time. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)
