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The '''Laws of Time''' were a set of guidelines and laws guiding what a time traveller could do. As opposed to physical laws, which were observations of constants of behavior found in nature, like the laws of motion or gravitation, the Laws of Time were rules put in place to prevent massive changes to the primary timeline by time travellers.
The '''Laws of Time''' ([[TV]]: ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]'') or '''Time Laws''', ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Three Doctors (novelisation)|The Three Doctors]]'', [[COMIC]]: {{cs|The Incomplete Death's Head (comic story)}}) also called the '''Protocols of the [[Great House]]s''', ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'') were the laws the [[Time Lord]]s observed and enforced regarding the use of the power over [[Time]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]'', et. al.)


They traditionally prevented [[Gallifrey]]'s 'present' from interacting with its subjective past or future. ([[NA]]: ''[[Lungbarrow]]'').
These laws were hardwired into the structure of the [[Spiral Politic]]. As most were synonymous with the laws of [[physics]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'', ''[[A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)|A Brief History of Time Lords]]'') the ones usually mentioned were the ones with "a [[moral]] basis". ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Love and War (novel)|Love and War]]'', ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'') Unlike most [[lesser species|species]], who view preserving [[life]] as the highest moral imperative, the Great Houses considered the preservation of [[history]] of greater importance. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'')


It was unknown how those law were enforced, or what was the exact punishment for breaking them. It was possible the effects of breaking them — such as the destruction of the [[causal nexus]] or the deterioration of the [[Web of Time]] were serious enough that they would themselves serve as a deterrent.
Although at least [[Boy (Heaven Sent)|one]] late Time Lord historian speculated that the Laws of Time had predated [[Rassilon]], and that the legendary [[Founders of Gallifrey|Gallifreyan founder]] had deceptively described inherent truths of the universe as his own commands in order to increase his mystique, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)|A Brief History of Time Lords]]'') many accounts agreed that Time and its laws did not exist in the [[Dark Times]] ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Enemy of My Enemy (audio story)|The Enemy of My Enemy]]'') that preceded the [[anchoring of the thread]], and, indeed, that the very purpose of the anchoring had been to bind the whole of the Spiral Politic to the edicts of the early Time Lords. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'', ''[[Christmas on a Rational Planet (novel)|Christmas on a Rational Planet]]'') In the [[Post-Time War universe|post-Time Lord era]], the laws of time became closer to "suggestions". ([[GAME]]: {{cs|A Christmas Carol (game)|page=113}})


The Doctor stated that he was ''"...Defender of the Laws of Time"'' in his [[Seventh Doctor|seventh persona]] and [[Eighth Doctor|eighth persona]]. ([[DW]]: ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks]]'', [[EDA]]: ''[[Vampire Science]]'')
[[Merlin (Dr. Who's Time Tales)|Merlin]], whose magic allowed him to send others backwards or forwards in time, knew that there were "laws that [could] not be broken, even by [[black magic]]" forbidding a man from leaving his original era entirely and living out his life in the past. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Dr. Who's Time Tales (DWM 34 comic story)|Dr. Who's Time Tales]]'')


The Laws of Time became weakened during the [[Second War in Heaven]] so that future events filtered back to influence interact with events prior to the war's outbreak. ([[EDA]]: ''[[Alien Bodies]]'', ''[[The Taking of Planet 5]]'')
== First Law of Time ==
{{main|First Law of Time}}
The [[First Law of Time]], ([[TV]]: ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]'') also called Linearity, was the most important and widely-discussed of the Protocols. ([[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]]'') As the [[Seventh Doctor]] explained to [[Bernice Summerfield]], travel within Gallfirey's own [[time stream]] wasn't allowed for a number of "very good reasons". ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Flashback (comic story)|Flashback]]'')


==Fixed points in time==
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 Laws of Time were connected to the concept of "fixed points" in time — events and/or individuals who have such a long-standing impact on the timeline that no one, not even Time Lords, were allowed to interfere with their natural progression. [[Tenth Doctor|The Doctor]], while free to interfere in alien invasions and save planets in most cases, cannot interfere/interact with these fixed points. Examples included [[Jack Harkness]] after his rejuvenation by [[Rose Tyler]] ([[DW]]: ''[[Utopia (TV story)|Utopia]]'' (although the Doctor nonetheless shared several adventures with him), the destruction of [[Pompeii]] by the [[Vesuvius]] volcano ([[DW]]: ''[[The Fires of Pompeii]]'', and the death of explorer [[Adelaide Brooke]] ([[DW]]: ''[[The Waters of Mars]]'').
Another consequence 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. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'')


The case of Brooke marks one of the only times the Doctor intentionally interfered with a fixed point, under the rationale that, as the last surviving Time Lord, the Laws of Time were his to command. Ultimately, he was unable to prevent Brooke from committing suicide, thereby allowing the timeline to unfold, with only a few minor changes. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Waters of Mars]]'')  
This law could be bent without breaking. 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 Time Lord [[Volnar]] noted that while technically impossible by the Laws of Time, meeting one's past selves thusly would have been somewhat less impossible with an advanced [[TARDIS]], though the fact that the Doctor could possibly do it with "an antiquated [[Type 40]]" boggled his mind. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Eight Doctors (novel)|The Eight Doctors]]'')


Exactly what constituted a fixed point in time was unclear. For example, the birth of Earth religious leader Jesus Christ was a major event in the cultural evolution of the planet Earth, so much so its common calender was dated from his estimated year of birth, and innumerable aspects of human civilization related to worship of the Son of God. Yet [[Tenth Doctor|the Doctor]] once claimed to have influenced the birthplace of Jesus, who was born in a barn due to the inn in Bethlehem having no rooms; the Doctor said he'd gotten the last room at the inn. ([[DW]]: ''[[Voyage of the Damned]]''). However, much like the eruptions of Vesuvius, it may have been simply a case of the Doctor experiencing a predestination paradox and being part of the natural progression of events.
== Other laws of time ==
A Law of Time forbade the presence of objects from nonexistent [[timeline]]s in the current one. In deliberate violation of this, [[Justine (Alien Bodies)|Cousin Justine]] of the [[Faction Paradox]], a [[time-aware]] faction antithetical to Time Lord philosophy, possessed a [[mask]] from another timeline. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Alien Bodies (novel)|Alien Bodies]]'')


==Specific Laws of Time==
The [[Seventh Doctor]] once joked that the first law of space-time travel was to "avoid [[void]]s". ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Highest Science (novel)|The Highest Science]]'')


The Time Lords codified the rules regarding time travel into a set of enumerated "Laws of Time". Beyond the First Law, however, the exact details of these laws were not well understood. 
The [[Tenth Doctor]] told [[Martha Jones]] that "crossing into established events is strictly forbidden, except for cheap tricks". ([[TV]]: ''[[Smith and Jones (TV story)|Smith and Jones]]'')


===First Law of Time===
Lesser Protocols of the Great Houses included bans on breed-mixing with the [[lesser species]], but those were lifted to create [[regen-inf]] soldiery. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'')


The First Law of Time specifically prohibited a [[Time Lord]] from meeting a ''former'' incarnation of themselves. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Three Doctors]]'')  Despite this, the Doctor on numerous occasions did just that — either accidentally ([[DW]]: ''[[Time Crash]]'') or through Time Lord sanction. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Three Doctors]]'', ''[[The Five Doctors]]'') [[Charlotte Pollard]] broke the First Law of Time by traveling with the [[sixth Doctor|sixth version of the Doctor]] after having been the [[companion]] of the [[eighth Doctor|Doctor's eighth self]], thus exposing the Doctor to his own future. ([[BFA]]: ''[[Brotherhood of the Daleks]]'') Similarly, [[Seventh Doctor|the Doctor]] may be said to have broken the First Law of Time by leaving messages for himself. ([[NA]]: ''[[No Future]]'')
One Law of Time dictated that Time Lords were sworn to prevent any alien aggression that was deemed to threaten the indigenous population. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Hand of Fear (TV story)|The Hand of Fear]]'') Although, criticised for interfering in [[history]] so often, the Doctor defended himself by stating he could only prevent "outside interference". ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Dead Man's Hand (comic story)|Dead Man's Hand]]'')


The First Law of Time was a moral as well as a legal one. ([[NA]]: ''[[Love and War]]'')
The [[Fifth Doctor]] stated that Time Lords served time and not the other way around. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Axis of Insanity (audio story)|The Axis of Insanity]]'')


===Other Laws of Time===
The [[Sixth Doctor]] informed the [[Sontaran]]s that allowing them [[time travel]] to rectify their past defeats would be against the Laws. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The First Sontarans (audio story)|The First Sontarans]]'')
[[Ninth Doctor|The Doctor]] once told [[Rose Tyler]] that "there used to be laws preventing this sort of thing" in reference to her interference with her own past. However, he failed to enumerate them. ([[DW]]: ''[[Father's Day]]'') Likewise, [[the Brigadier]]'s encounter with his past self was described by [[Fifth Doctor|the Doctor's fifth self]] as being bad, but not as a specific violation of the First Law. ([[DW]]: ''[[Mawdryn Undead]]'')
:''It was therefore possible that other laws of time were concerned with the [[Blinovitch Limitation Effect]], the more generalized problem of ''any'' being meeting a past version of themselves. ''


:''Likewise another law of time might have governed a single incarnation of a [[Time Lord]] from influencing an earlier version of the ''same'' incarnation, as the [[ninth Doctor|Doctor's ninth]] and [[tenth Doctor|tenth selves]] both willingly caused tiny loops in the timeline of those specific incarnations, without citing a violation of the First Law. Indeed, the Doctor once told [[Martha Jones]] that "crossing into established events is strictly forbidden, except for cheap tricks". ([[DW]]: ''[[Father's Day]]'', ''[[Smith and Jones]]'')''
== Other information ==
Prior to the time that the Laws were actually enforced, a Time Lord librarian visited the histories of planets. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Love and War (novel)|Love and War]]'')


Another of the Laws of Time stated that an object from a non-existent timeline cannot be present in the current timeline. [[Justine|Cousin Justine]] of the [[Faction Paradox]] had a mask of such description. ([[EDA]]: ''[[Alien Bodies]]'')
The Doctor stated that he was "Defender of the Laws of Time" in his [[Seventh Doctor|seventh]] and [[Eighth Doctor|eighth]] incarnations. ([[TV]]: ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)|Remembrance of the Daleks]]'', [[PROSE]]: ''[[Vampire Science (novel)|Vampire Science]]'')
 
After the supposed destruction of the Time Lords in the [[Last Great Time War]], the [[Tenth Doctor]] claimed that the Laws of Time were his and that they would "obey" him. He quickly regretted his interference with established history. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Waters of Mars (TV story)|The Waters of Mars]]'')
 
The [[Eleventh Doctor]] said that the Laws of Time were too powerful for anyone to control wholesale, and that repeatedly acting in disregard of them would make time "fold in on itself" and destroy all of existence. ([[GAME]]: ''[[City of the Daleks (video game)|City of the Daleks]]'')
 
After the destruction of time caused by the explosion of [[the Doctor's TARDIS]], the Eleventh Doctor implied that the laws of time no longer applied. He met himself in order to buy more time. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Big Bang (TV story)|The Big Bang]]'')
 
By using an [[extraction chamber]], the [[Twelfth Doctor]] removed [[Clara Oswald]] from the moment before a [[Quantum Shade]] [[execution|executed]] her. In doing so, the Laws of Time were bent to keep her in a [[time loop]] that would allow her to continue experiencing life (of a kind). This meant her existence was now confined to a window of time between her penultimate and final heartbeats, while the Time Lords' technology allowed them to manipulate other elements of time so she would still be able to remain fully conscious and interact with other people. This effectively placed her on borrowed time. She now existed as an anomaly, but because her physical state was looped, she did not breathe, have a heart beat or age. ([[TV]]: ''[[Hell Bent (TV story)|Hell Bent]]'')
 
== External links ==
{{fpx|Protocols of the Great Houses|Protocols of the Great Houses}}


[[Eighth Doctor|The Doctor's eighth self]] once said that learning "anything about future [[Gallifreyan]] history" would seriously unbalance the concept of causality. When he proceeded to nevertheless break this law, he claimed, "I'm breaking one of the major Laws of Time...It could be the third." ([[EDA]]: ''[[Alien Bodies]]'')
[[Category:Temporal theory]]
[[Category:Temporal theory]]
[[Category:Time Lords]]
[[Category:Time Lords]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Gallifreyan laws]]
[[pt:Leis do Tempo]]

Latest revision as of 19:06, 23 November 2024

The Laws of Time (TV: The Three Doctors) or Time Laws, (PROSE: The Three Doctors, COMIC: The Incomplete Death's Head [+]Loading...["The Incomplete Death's Head (comic story)"]) also called the Protocols of the Great Houses, (PROSE: The Book of the War) were the laws the Time Lords observed and enforced regarding the use of the power over Time. (TV: The Three Doctors, et. al.)

These laws were hardwired into the structure of the Spiral Politic. As most were synonymous with the laws of physics, (PROSE: The Book of the War, A Brief History of Time Lords) the ones usually mentioned were the ones with "a moral basis". (PROSE: Love and War, The Book of the War) Unlike most species, who view preserving life as the highest moral imperative, the Great Houses considered the preservation of history of greater importance. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Although at least one late Time Lord historian speculated that the Laws of Time had predated Rassilon, and that the legendary Gallifreyan founder had deceptively described inherent truths of the universe as his own commands in order to increase his mystique, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) many accounts agreed that Time and its laws did not exist in the Dark Times (AUDIO: The Enemy of My Enemy) that preceded the anchoring of the thread, and, indeed, that the very purpose of the anchoring had been to bind the whole of the Spiral Politic to the edicts of the early Time Lords. (PROSE: The Book of the War, Christmas on a Rational Planet) In the post-Time Lord era, the laws of time became closer to "suggestions". (GAME: A Christmas Carol [+]Loading...{"page":"113","1":"A Christmas Carol (game)"})

Merlin, whose magic allowed him to send others backwards or forwards in time, knew that there were "laws that [could] not be broken, even by black magic" forbidding a man from leaving his original era entirely and living out his life in the past. (COMIC: Dr. Who's Time Tales)

First Law of Time[[edit] | [edit source]]

Main article: First Law of Time

The First Law of Time, (TV: The Three Doctors) also called Linearity, was the most important and widely-discussed of the Protocols. (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) As the Seventh Doctor explained to Bernice Summerfield, travel within Gallfirey's own time stream wasn't allowed for a number of "very good reasons". (COMIC: Flashback)

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)

Another consequence 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. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

This law could be bent without breaking. 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 Time Lord Volnar noted that while technically impossible by the Laws of Time, meeting one's past selves thusly would have been somewhat less impossible with an advanced TARDIS, though the fact that the Doctor could possibly do it with "an antiquated Type 40" boggled his mind. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)

Other laws of time[[edit] | [edit source]]

A Law of Time forbade the presence of objects from nonexistent timelines in the current one. In deliberate violation of this, Cousin Justine of the Faction Paradox, a time-aware faction antithetical to Time Lord philosophy, possessed a mask from another timeline. (PROSE: Alien Bodies)

The Seventh Doctor once joked that the first law of space-time travel was to "avoid voids". (PROSE: The Highest Science)

The Tenth Doctor told Martha Jones that "crossing into established events is strictly forbidden, except for cheap tricks". (TV: Smith and Jones)

Lesser Protocols of the Great Houses included bans on breed-mixing with the lesser species, but those were lifted to create regen-inf soldiery. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

One Law of Time dictated that Time Lords were sworn to prevent any alien aggression that was deemed to threaten the indigenous population. (TV: The Hand of Fear) Although, criticised for interfering in history so often, the Doctor defended himself by stating he could only prevent "outside interference". (COMIC: Dead Man's Hand)

The Fifth Doctor stated that Time Lords served time and not the other way around. (AUDIO: The Axis of Insanity)

The Sixth Doctor informed the Sontarans that allowing them time travel to rectify their past defeats would be against the Laws. (AUDIO: The First Sontarans)

Other information[[edit] | [edit source]]

Prior to the time that the Laws were actually enforced, a Time Lord librarian visited the histories of planets. (PROSE: Love and War)

The Doctor stated that he was "Defender of the Laws of Time" in his seventh and eighth incarnations. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks, PROSE: Vampire Science)

After the supposed destruction of the Time Lords in the Last Great Time War, the Tenth Doctor claimed that the Laws of Time were his and that they would "obey" him. He quickly regretted his interference with established history. (TV: The Waters of Mars)

The Eleventh Doctor said that the Laws of Time were too powerful for anyone to control wholesale, and that repeatedly acting in disregard of them would make time "fold in on itself" and destroy all of existence. (GAME: City of the Daleks)

After the destruction of time caused by the explosion of the Doctor's TARDIS, the Eleventh Doctor implied that the laws of time no longer applied. He met himself in order to buy more time. (TV: The Big Bang)

By using an extraction chamber, the Twelfth Doctor removed Clara Oswald from the moment before a Quantum Shade executed her. In doing so, the Laws of Time were bent to keep her in a time loop that would allow her to continue experiencing life (of a kind). This meant her existence was now confined to a window of time between her penultimate and final heartbeats, while the Time Lords' technology allowed them to manipulate other elements of time so she would still be able to remain fully conscious and interact with other people. This effectively placed her on borrowed time. She now existed as an anomaly, but because her physical state was looped, she did not breathe, have a heart beat or age. (TV: Hell Bent)

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

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