Time Vortex

Time Vortex
Also called:	Time and Space Vortex, Space-Time Vortex, The Vortex, The Bifrost, The Tourbillon
Type:	Dimensional plane
Natives:	Vortisaurs, Reapers, Chronovores, Pantophagen, Time Roaches, Great Old Ones, Eternals, Guardians of Time, Titans, Warp Perceptives, Cherubim, Vormatoda, Time Vortex leeches, Ravenous
First appearance:	An Unearthly Child [+]Loading...["An Unearthly Child (TV story)"]

The Time Vortex, also known as the Time and Space Vortex, the Space-Time Vortex, sometimes simply the Vortex, and occasionally the Bifrost (PROSE: A Bright White Crack ^[+]Loading...["A Bright White Crack (short story)"], Requiem ^[+]Loading...["Requiem (novel)"]) or the Tourbillon, (PROSE: The Bloodletters ^[+]Loading...["The Bloodletters (novel)"]) was the dimensional plane (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang ^[+]Loading...["The Shadow of Weng-Chiang (novel)"], Twilight of the Gods ^[+]Loading...["Twilight of the Gods (MA novel)"]) where time and space met, intersecting at an angle determined by non-Euclidean geometry. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark ^[+]Loading...["Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark (novel)"]) Other universes had their own Vortices. (AUDIO: The Choice ^[+]Loading...["The Choice (audio story)"])

Nature

The medium through which the Doctor's TARDIS travelled was described by one account as "infinite strands of Energy that criss-crossed all Space-Time". (PROSE: Who is Dr Who? ^[+]Loading...["Who is Dr Who? (short story)"]) It existed within the 5th-dimension. (COMIC: Vortex Butterflies ^[+]Loading...["Vortex Butterflies (comic story)"]) It existed outside of time and the universe itself, (PROSE: The Dark Path ^[+]Loading...["The Dark Path (novel)"]) meaning time and the Vortex that being in the Vortex constituted being "outside" of time; (TV: The Time Monster ^[+]Loading...["The Time Monster (TV story)"]) travellers through the Vortex were "neither connected to nor separated from time". (PROSE: Harvest of Time ^[+]Loading...["Harvest of Time (novel)"]) The War Doctor described it as akin to a series of corridors that connected everything and everywhen in the universe. When one was in the Vortex, they were both nowhere and everywhere. (AUDIO: Eye of Harmony ^[+]Loading...["Eye of Harmony (audio story)"]) The Monk once described the "Tourbillon" as "the past and future circling one another like a two-headed ouroboros". (PROSE: The Bloodletters ^[+]Loading...["The Bloodletters (novel)"])

"The Space/Time Vortex exists outside of any normal frame of reference. Within it, light, darkness, matter and energy all blend, divide, shift and change. It underlies the whole of Creation, touching the normal Universe only slightly. Its pathways are twisted, unstable and hard to follow. A journey through these strange dimensions might take a moment and carry a traveller a million years and a billion light years from his/her/its origin. Alternatively, a journey of months in the Vortex might end in a shift of six feet and ten days in conventional space. Without being able to calculate the pathways, there was simply no telling."The Chase

One account explined that "at best, verbal explanations of temporal phenomena [we]re only crude approxi- mations, if not actual mistranslations of fact"; as such, "to say that a TARDIS moving through the Time Vortex 'touche[d] all places and times simultaneously' [was] a gross inaccuracy lending itself to false interpretations" but was nevertheless "the closest one can get to the truth when trying to explain a complex scientific concept in simple terms (and in a language that was never intended to handle such ideas in the first place)". (GAME: "Temporal Anomaly" ^[+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Temporal Anomaly","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})

These features were those of N-Space's Time Vortex; other universes, such as the pocket universe Ecto-Space, could have a Space-Time Vortex of their own, whose laws could be subtly different. (AUDIO: The Choice ^[+]Loading...["The Choice (audio story)"]) However, they could be connected, with the Doctor's TARDIS once falling through into a parallel world after falling through a "gap" in the Vortex of the Doctor's home universe. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen ^[+]Loading...["Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)"])

According to some accounts, all time travellers passed through the Vortex, often using space-time machines including TARDISes and vortex manipulators to achieve "time-flight". (PROSE: Harvest of Time ^[+]Loading...["Harvest of Time (novel)"]) However, other accounts indicate that there were other dimensional planes where one could travel through time and space, such as the Maelstrom, (PROSE: Elementary, My Dear Sheila ^[+]Loading...["Elementary, My Dear Sheila (short story)"] et al.) the Very Fabric of Time and Space, (PROSE: Mad Dogs and Englishmen ^[+]Loading...["Mad Dogs and Englishmen (novel)"]) and the temporal shoals. (PROSE: The Bloodletters ^[+]Loading...["The Bloodletters (novel)"])

Additionally, one account suggested that, even without travelling in time, warp drive involved passing through the Vortex. (AUDIO: The Choice ^[+]Loading...["The Choice (audio story)"]) In contrast, however, other accounts claimed that warp drives functioned by taking the spacecraft through hyperspace. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Nightmare of Eden ^[+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Nightmare of Eden (novelisation)"])

History

Origins and Gallifrey's rise

According to one source, the Vortex was built by the Time Lords as a transdimensional spiral that connected all points in space and time to allow them to travel through time and space and to control it. (PROSE: Just War ^[+]Loading...["Just War (novel)"]) The Sixth Doctor once stumbled upon the Toymaker while believing that he'd been tracking "the NexusN of the Primeval Cauldron of Space-Time itself", and deduced that this was because the Toymaker had "set up the Space-Time Vortex"; the Toymaker cryptically corrected him with "Doctor, I am the Space-Time Vortex". (PROSE: The Nightmare Fair ^[+]Loading...["The Nightmare Fair (novelisation)"])

By other accounts, it existed before the Gallifreyans had control over time. (PROSE: The Evil and the Deep Black Sky ^[+]Loading...["The Evil and the Deep Black Sky (short story)"], et. al) The Vortex nevertheless did exist in Interstitial space, (AUDIO: Neverland ^[+]Loading...["Neverland (audio story)"]) which surrounded and separated every space/time event. (PROSE: Falls the Shadow ^[+]Loading...["Falls the Shadow (novel)"]) During the Defence of Gallifrey in the Dark Times, the Eighth Doctor used an explosive and a Kotturuh crystal to force the Dalek Time Squad's saucer into the Time Vortex. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass ^[+]Loading...["All Flesh is Grass (novel)"]) He continued to sabotage the vessel, resulting in it breaking apart in the Vortex. (AUDIO: Mutually Assured Destruction ^[+]Loading...["Mutually Assured Destruction (audio story)"]) This exposed the Daleks inside to the time winds, which tore them apart. (PROSE: Exit Strategy ^[+]Loading...["Exit Strategy (short story)"])

Millions of years of exposure to the Time Vortex via the Untempered Schism was in part responsible for Gallifreyans becoming Time Lords. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War ^[+]Loading...["A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)"]) The moment any of them first entered the Vortex, they became inextricably linked to it. (PROSE: Omegamorphosis ^[+]Loading...["Omegamorphosis (short story)"]) Omega was the first Time Lord to enter the Vortex. (PROSE: The Evil and the Deep Black Sky ^[+]Loading...["The Evil and the Deep Black Sky (short story)"]) While establishing history with the Eye of Harmony, Rassilon "anchored" the Time Vortex. (AUDIO: Neverland ^[+]Loading...["Neverland (audio story)"]) In their early days of exploring the Time Vortex, the Time Lords encountered time spiders and sought to wipe them out. (AUDIO: The End ^[+]Loading...["The End (11DC audio story)"])

The Order of the Black Sun tried to prevent the Gallifreyans from conquering time travel during their early history. After a failed attempt, their agent Fenris time-jumped from within a black hole without directional control, resulting in being scattered in living splinters through time, dooming himself "to the eternal agony of the time vortex". He was said to have been banished to the Zone of No Return, where nonetheless he would have been retrieved safe and sound twenty years later. (COMIC: 4-D War ^[+]Loading...["4-D War (comic story)"])

Time Lord pioneer Artron travelled to Kolstarn, the planet home to the Kolstani in the Time Vortex, to study the Kolstani’s manipulation of temporal energy. He encountered the Bruce Master from a later point in Time Lord history, who began manipulating Artron’s work to his benefit. The Eighth Doctor also arrived on the planet, in time to expose the Master’s plan to absorb the Kolstani’s energy. Artron diverted the energy into himself instead, and the drain caused the Kolstani to become the Ravenous. A fleet of Time Lord warships attacked Kolstarn on Rassilon's orders, provoking the Ravenous into attacking them, beginning the war between ancient Time Lords and the Ravenous. (AUDIO: Day of the Master ^[+]Loading...["Day of the Master (audio story)"])

The Great Schism, the civil war between the President who had succeeded Rassilon and Morbius, resulted in significant damage to the Vortex, making travel through it take much longer. This waylaid the return of the Proteus to Gallifrey after the war’s end, resulting in it crashing on an island in the Vortex home to the Temple of Morbius. (AUDIO: Morbius ^[+]Loading...["Morbius (audio story)"])

Usage by those in the distant past and 20th century

The inventors of the Clade were obliterated with such ferocious cruelty that nothing remained of them. The Time Vortex around the history of their civilisation was so polluted with weaponised chroniton particles that any time capsule attempting to venture into their past would be burned from the continuum. (PROSE: Peacemaker ^[+]Loading...["Peacemaker (novel)"])

About 400 million years before the 20th century, due to the explosion of his spaceship while in the warp control cabin, Scaroth of the Jagaroth was scattered through the time vortex across Earth's history in 12 splinters. (TV: City of Death ^[+]Loading...["City of Death (TV story)"])

In 1851, the Tenth Doctor used a dimension vault to send the CyberKing into the Vortex, where it was destroyed. (TV: The Next Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The Next Doctor (TV story)"])

In 1926, the Shadow Proclamation used the Doctor's TARDIS to create a time vortex and take him from Earth to stand trial for saving Emily Winter, a static point in space and time. While he spent days with them, only a few seconds passed in the 1926 timeline. (COMIC: Fugitive ^[+]Loading...["Fugitive (comic story)"])

Lenny Kruger time locked Earth in the 1950s, meaning a wall existed around that section of the Time Vortex. (AUDIO: 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men ^[+]Loading...["1963: Fanfare for the Common Men (audio story)"])

Usage by those in the 2000s

In 2005, the Eighth Doctor used the power of the vortex to destroy a group of Cybermen from the future and set time back on its proper course. (COMIC: The Flood ^[+]Loading...["The Flood (comic story)"])

The Vist built another wall, effectively controlling the entire universe from 2011 to 2019. When the Second Doctor defeated them, the time winds eroded the wall. (AUDIO: The Forbidden Time ^[+]Loading...["The Forbidden Time (audio story)"])

In the 2020s, the Elder God To'Koth died as the Seventh Doctor returned him to the Board so that the energies released wouldn't rip apart space and time. During the journey, the Vortex "turned inside out." (AUDIO: Signs and Wonders ^[+]Loading...["Signs and Wonders (audio story)"])

Usage by those in further future events

Dr. Who's TARDIS takes off into the "unmoving river" of time (COMIC: Daleks, invasión a la Tierra año 2150 ^[+]Loading...["Daleks, invasión a la Tierra año 2150 (comic story)"])

After putting a stop to the 2150s Dalek invasion of Earth, Dr. Who and his companions took off in his TARDIS, entering the "unmoving river that is time". (COMIC: Daleks, invasión a la Tierra año 2150 ^[+]Loading...["Daleks, invasión a la Tierra año 2150 (comic story)"])

The First and Second Doctors' TARDISes collided in the Time Vortex, stranding them both on Urbinia. This resulted in an alternate timeline in which the Daleks successfully developed the Time Destructor, due to the First Doctor failing to arrive on Kembel. After repairing his TARDIS, the Second Doctor used the fast return switch and deactivated the temporal safeguards, to avert the initial collision. (AUDIO: Daughter of the Gods ^[+]Loading...["Daughter of the Gods (audio story)"])

The Bruce Master became trapped in the Vortex aboard a room from the Doctor's TARDIS, which had been ejected with him inside after he passed through the TARDIS' Eye of Harmony. He captured the child of the Vormatoda and tricked it into believing it was his daughter Alison. The Vormatoda began attacking passing time vessels in the Vortex in search of its child, which the Master salvaged in hopes of building a way to escape. After River Song's vortex manipulator stalled midway through transit, he used a tractor beam to save her and she helped him until realising the truth about Alison. River helped Alison realise her true identity, forcing the Master to flee in a life pod as the Vormatoda tore apart his structure. (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat ^[+]Loading...["The Lifeboat and the Deathboat (audio story)"]) The Master was later thrown back into the Vortex by his future selves. (AUDIO: Day of the Master ^[+]Loading...["Day of the Master (audio story)"])

The Bruce Master trapped in the Time Vortex (WC: Listen to the voice of your Master! ^[+]Loading...["Listen to the voice of your Master! (webcast)"])

After being trapped there for a substantial amount of time, he eventually made psychic contact with a human called Lila. (WC: Listen to the voice of your Master! ^[+]Loading...["Listen to the voice of your Master! (webcast)"], The Master wants to be your Santa Claus ^[+]Loading...["The Master wants to be your Santa Claus (webcast)"], Will you be the Master's valentine...? ^[+]Loading...["Will you be the Master's valentine...? (webcast)"]) Under his guidance, Lila helped him escape and reach Earth in 2233, (AUDIO: Faustian ^[+]Loading...["Faustian (audio story)"]) however she later forced him back into the Vortex. (AUDIO: Vengeance ^[+]Loading...["Vengeance (audio story)"]) The Master was reduced to a disembodied essence in a patch of dark time, but was reconstituted by the vortex drive of the Kairos. He fed on the life force of the crew to fully manifest, (AUDIO: Nemesis Express ^[+]Loading...["Nemesis Express (audio story)"]) and then manipulated events to seize control of the ship as he needed to leave the Vortex to fully stabilise. The ship's course was altered by Passion, flying back into the patch of dark time which caused the Master to disintegrate again. (AUDIO: Passion ^[+]Loading...["Passion (audio story)"]) Reduced to an essence wandering the Vortex, the Master was finally rescued by Esterath. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead ^[+]Loading...["The Glorious Dead (comic story)"])

Usage by pre-Time War individuals

The Sirens of Time sabotaging the first TARDIS flight (AUDIO: Collision Course ^[+]Loading...["Collision Course (audio story)"]) caused a slow time explosion in the Vortex, fracturing the timeline of Earth and causing the Apocalypse Deathwatch to collide with the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS. (AUDIO: Relative Time ^[+]Loading...["Relative Time (audio story)"])

The Eighth Doctor tries to stop the Daleks, who took advantage of a time fissure in the Vortex (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Daleks (audio story)"])

The Dalek Emperor led a fleet into the Time Vortex, planning to detonate a temporal extinction device in a time fissure. The detonation swamped the Dalek fleet in temporal energy, destabilising their ships. Their attempt to effect rescue in 2050s Britain caused the fleet to become trapped in time loop. (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Daleks (audio story)"]) The Time Lords eventually released the Dalek fleet from the Vortex. (AUDIO: Neverland ^[+]Loading...["Neverland (audio story)"])

The Eighth Doctor and his companions Liv and Helen were stranded in the Time Vortex aboard a escape shuttle by Padrac. Liv and Helen escaped by jumping out of the vessel and falling through cracks in the Vortex that had been created by Padrac's scheme to destroy the universe. The Doctor remained trapped as he failed to reach a crack (AUDIO: Ship in a Bottle ^[+]Loading...["Ship in a Bottle (audio story)"]) however River Song rescued him using the Matrix, taking his place in the Vortex. (AUDIO: Songs of Love ^[+]Loading...["Songs of Love (audio story)"]) She was later retrieved by the Nine using his TARDIS. (AUDIO: Companion Piece ^[+]Loading...["Companion Piece (audio story)"])

Whilst boarding the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS on Atharna, Brian fell into the Time Vortex when the ship was suddenly pulled away by the Daleks. (AUDIO: He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not ^[+]Loading...["He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not (audio story)"]) The Tenth Doctor's TARDIS noticed him falling through the Vortex and gave him "a little nudge" so that he would arrive in the Dark Times. (PROSE: What the TARDIS thought of "Time Lord Victorious" ^[+]Loading...["What the TARDIS thought of \"Time Lord Victorious\" (short story)"])

A battleground

During the Tenth Dalek Occupation, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords ^[+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) the Daleks retreated from normal space and into the Time Vortex, where they constructed a fleet with which to wage the Last Great Time War against the Time Lords. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe ^[+]Loading...["Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (short story)"]) The Time Vortex, along with the Ultimate Void beyond it, became fronts in the conflict. One source suggested the War was only fought on these fronts, (PROSE: Meet the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["Meet the Doctor (DWAN 2006 short story)"]) but most other accounts agreed the War also had fronts within the known universe, unknown universe, partly known universe, (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"]) and the epochs within them. (PROSE: Engines of War ^[+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"]) Fighting in the Time Vortex during the War caused chrono storms. (AUDIO: The Scaramancer ^[+]Loading...["The Scaramancer (audio story)"])

During the conflict, Dalek stealth ships would hide in the Time Vortex where they would ambush TARDISes. On Gallifrey, as the Time Lords inched closer to defeat, Gallifreyans began sending memory lantern into the Time Vortex in the hope that someone would remember them. The War Doctor noted however that the lanterns weren't strong enough to survive the Time Vortex. (PROSE: Engines of War ^[+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"]) When it was reported that the Doctor had stolen the Moment, the Time Lord High Council chose to enact the Ultimate Sanction, a paradox so severe that the resulting spatial-temporal rupture would rip the Time Vortex apart with the Time Lords ascending to become creatures of pure consciousness. (TV: The End of Time ^[+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"])

Post-Last Great Time War uses

Circa the 2010s, the Twelfth Doctor set a trap for a Skovox Blitzer at Coal Hill School and sent it flying into the Vortex using some chronodyne generators. It later reappeared thanks to Danny Pink's interference with the generators. (TV: The Caretaker ^[+]Loading...["The Caretaker (TV story)"])

In 2021, the Thirteenth Doctor sent a Reconnaissance Scout Signal into the Vortex to lure a Dalek Death Squad to Earth to fight the Defence Drones. (TV: Revolution of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Revolution of the Daleks (TV story)"])

When the Siege of Trenzalore began, the Eleventh Doctor sent Clara Oswald home before summoning his TARDIS back to him. When Clara discovered the deception, she clung to the TARDIS as it began its return trip, the ship extending its force field to protect Clara from the Time Vortex, resulting in it being three centuries late in returning to Trenzalore. (TV: The Time of the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"])

Inhabitants

Though seemingly chaotic, the Vortex was in actuality an ordered environment. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Genesys ^[+]Loading...["Timewyrm: Genesys (novel)"]) Native life in the time vortex included the Reapers, (TV: Father's Day ^[+]Loading...["Father's Day (TV story)"]) the Chronovores, (TV: The Time Monster ^[+]Loading...["The Time Monster (TV story)"]) Pantophagens, (AUDIO: The Foe from the Future ^[+]Loading...["The Foe from the Future (audio story)"]) the Vortisaurs, (AUDIO: Storm Warning ^[+]Loading...["Storm Warning (audio story)"]) the Time Roaches, (AUDIO: Foreshadowing ^[+]Loading...["Foreshadowing (audio story)"]) the Time Vortex leeches, (COMIC: Space in Dimension Relative and Time ^[+]Loading...["Space in Dimension Relative and Time (comic story)"]) the Vormatoda and its child, (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat ^[+]Loading...["The Lifeboat and the Deathboat (audio story)"]) and transcendental beings which included the Great Old Ones, Eternals, and the Guardians of Time. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel ^[+]Loading...["The Quantum Archangel (novel)"]) The Mandragora Helix inhabited the uncharted regions of the Vortex, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora ^[+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora (novelisation)"]) although it was also said to exist as a constellation. (COMIC: The Mark of Mandragora ^[+]Loading...["The Mark of Mandragora (comic story)"]) A planet, Kolstarn, existed inside the Time Vortex which was home to the Kolstani, though it was destroyed by the Time Lords. (AUDIO: Day of the Master ^[+]Loading...["Day of the Master (audio story)"])

The Bad Wolf entity also seemed to be linked to the time vortex. When Rose Tyler looked into the heart of the TARDIS and became the Bad Wolf, she was infused with the time vortex, and the entity spread the Bad Wolf name through time and space, looked at all of space and time, destroyed the Dalek fleet and resurrected Jack Harkness. However, she was unable to control it and almost died. (TV: The Parting of the Ways ^[+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"])

Caleera anchored her stolen TARDIS in the Vortex. She forced her Educator, the Chief Archivist and her psychosurgeon, who she’d kidnapped from Gallifrey, to be her servants whilst she used a neural amplifier to improve her psychic powers. The four Time Lords were residents of the Vortex for years, during which the servants went insane, calling themselves Lord Stormblood, Lady Sepulchra and Swordfish, and the outer shell of the TARDIS was worn away by time winds, exposing its interior. (AUDIO: Scenes From Her Life ^[+]Loading...["Scenes From Her Life (audio story)"])

Several Dalek ships lay in the time vortex, waiting for an opportunity to invade a planet, including the Death Squad Dalek's ship. The Doctor contacted the ship anonymously and told them to come to Earth, as there were what they considered impure Defence Drones on the planet. (TV: Revolution of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Revolution of the Daleks (TV story)"])

Appearance

The Dalek time machine travelling through the Time Vortex. (TV: The Chase ^[+]Loading...["The Chase (TV story)"])

The Vortex had various appearances at different times, possibly because it possessed a myriad of paths. (PROSE: The Chase ^[+]Loading...["The Chase (novelisation)"]) Generally, it had various butterfly patterns, (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang ^[+]Loading...["The Shadow of Weng-Chiang (novel)"]) was grainy and particulate like a photograph, (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark ^[+]Loading...["Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark (novel)"]) and had various colours, for a time appearing as either red or blue. Red generally indicated forward time travel and blue indicated travel to the past. (PROSE: Lungbarrow ^[+]Loading...["Lungbarrow (novel)"], TV: The Parting of the Ways ^[+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"])

Whilst the First Doctor was being chased by the Daleks, both the Doctor's TARDIS and the Dalek time machine travelled through the Vortex, which had a kaleidoscopic appearance. (TV: The Chase ^[+]Loading...["The Chase (TV story)"])

Upon de-materialising the TARDIS with the doors open, Ramon Salamander was sucked out into the Vortex, which had a "flowing glittery" appearance, and floated through time and space. (TV: The Enemy of the World ^[+]Loading...["The Enemy of the World (TV story)"]) From Salamander's point of view, the Vortex was black and empty besides from the distinct bright red lines repeatingly trailing off into the distance, where the lines faded to a yellow colour. When Salamander sent the Electronicon LTD building into the Vortex, it took the same appearance. (COMIC: The Heralds of Destruction ^[+]Loading...["The Heralds of Destruction (comic story)"])

The Third Doctor and the Master flew their TARDISes through a time vortex that was comprised of a blue tunnel, surrounded by black nothingness; their vehicles glowed with a white light whilst travelling. (TV: The Time Monster ^[+]Loading...["The Time Monster (TV story)"])

When the Fourth Doctor attempted to retrieve his TARDIS from Skagra via a TARDIS Transfer, the time vortex took the appearance of a black void with a gaseous mint green "vignette". (TV: Shada ^[+]Loading...["Shada (TV story)"])

During the Sixth Doctor's era, the Time Vortex was shown on the TARDIS console's monitor as a simplistic series of boxes moving recursively. (TV: Vengeance on Varos ^[+]Loading...["Vengeance on Varos (TV story)"])

When Funhouse was sent into the Vortex, it resembled five flat surfaces stretching out into eternity. (COMIC: Funhouse ^[+]Loading...["Funhouse (comic story)"]) When Death's Head entered the Time Vortex on the hunt for the Seventh Doctor, it took the form of a looping tunnel of yellow rings that sharply turned red in the distance. (COMIC: Time Bomb! ^[+]Loading...["Time Bomb! (comic story)"])

By the end of Seventh Doctor's and the start of the Eighth Doctor's life, the vortex changed again. It appeared as a few streams of colourful energy and space debris in the middle of a background of stars. (TV: Doctor Who ^[+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"])

During the War Doctor's era, the vortex resembled a tunnel of bright metallic sparks if going forward in time; as for the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, they exited through a blue vortex, with light from it briefly lagging in real space when the TARDISes exited. (TV: The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"])

During the Ninth and Tenth Doctors' time, the vortex yet again changed appearance. It now appeared as blue and red, fast-moving energy. The TARDIS would move slower in the blue vortex as it was going backwards in time, which was against the natural progression of time itself; as opposed, the TARDIS would spin rapidly in the red vortex as it was "fast-forwarding" through time. (TV: The Parting of the Ways ^[+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"], Utopia ^[+]Loading...["Utopia (TV story)"], The Sound of Drums ^[+]Loading...["The Sound of Drums (TV story)"])

The Eleventh Doctor's time introduced a new vortex. This one was far different from any other, and appeared similar to storm clouds, complete with lightning. It normally was coloured grey-blue or orange. (TV: The Pandorica Opens ^[+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"]) Later on, the vortex changed to resemble a swirling tunnel of a red/orange and purple flame-like energy. (TV: Hide ^[+]Loading...["Hide (TV story)"])

When the Twelfth Doctor travelled through the vortex with the First Doctor, it resembled a clean, swirling spiral of inky blue water crescented by bright rings and flickering white lights. (TV: Twice Upon a Time ^[+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (TV story)"])

By the time the Thirteenth Doctor flew the TARDIS to try and land in Sheffield, the time vortex still retained the spiralling ink visual to it, however this time it was strong purple in colour. However it also had bright red, blue and white lights dotted around. There was also an intersection with varying tunnels which the TARDIS would go through depending on where and when it was heading to; this gave it an additional mine-like appearance as the various tunnels gave off lights resembling crystals. Overall, the vortex had a much more solid appearance, taking the form of a cave with constantly shifting walls in contrast to the usual "energy tunnel" appearance. (TV: Arachnids in the UK ^[+]Loading...["Arachnids in the UK (TV story)"]) This vortex also had a new wall-breaking aspect to it; when the Doctor broke into Gallifrey's time bubble, it resembled that of a bright orange ball of flame with some ruby red in the mix. (TV: Spyfall ^[+]Loading...["Spyfall (TV story)"])

Nowhere and nowhen

The Vortex on the TARDIS scanner. (TV: Colony in Space ^[+]Loading...["Colony in Space (TV story)"])

Just as interstitial time was an envelope of non-space, non-time underlying the "real" universe, (PROSE: Falls the Shadow ^[+]Loading...["Falls the Shadow (novel)"]) the Vortex was composed of "no-time" and "no-space", (AUDIO: The Forbidden Time ^[+]Loading...["The Forbidden Time (audio story)"]) described as "interdimensional non-space". (PROSE: Ten Fathom Pirates ^[+]Loading...["Ten Fathom Pirates (short story)"])

On several occasions the Doctor mentioned that, just as people didn't "exist" in the TARDIS, (TV: The Hand of Fear ^[+]Loading...["The Hand of Fear (TV story)"]) travel through the Vortex took "no time" and was actually "outside" of time and space, (TV: The Time Monster ^[+]Loading...["The Time Monster (TV story)"]) meaning the Vortex itself was "nowhere." (TV: Colony in Space ^[+]Loading...["Colony in Space (TV story)"], The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe ^[+]Loading...["The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (TV story)"], PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang ^[+]Loading...["The Shadow of Weng-Chiang (novel)"]) This was only true in that the Vortex connected all points in time and space, with the Black Void outside the universe also described as being "out of time and space." (TV: Logopolis ^[+]Loading...["Logopolis (TV story)"]) The Seventh Doctor even told Ace there were no Sundays in the vortex, though she proved him wrong when they materialised on a Sunday. (PROSE: Sunday Afternoon, AD 848,988 ^[+]Loading...["Sunday Afternoon, AD 848,988 (short story)"])

The Third Doctor spent ten years in the Time vortex dying of radiation poisoning. (PROSE: Love and War ^[+]Loading...["Love and War (novel)"], TV: Planet of the Spiders ^[+]Loading...["Planet of the Spiders (TV story)"])

While nothing appeared on the TARDIS scanner, the vortex was visible inside the Androzani tree escape pod. (TV: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe ^[+]Loading...["The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (TV story)"])

Some of the Coal Hill defenders once travelled outside of normal space-time, after an explosion in Class B3 caused by the arrival of a prison-like asteroid. (TV: Detained ^[+]Loading...["Detained (TV story)"])

Geography

There were actual "entrances" to the Vortex that could be blocked off, (AUDIO: Neverland ^[+]Loading...["Neverland (audio story)"]) and self-contained pockets of the space-time vortex that were undetectable from the outside. (PROSE: Midnight in the Café of the Black Madonna ^[+]Loading...["Midnight in the Café of the Black Madonna (short story)"]) If a TARDIS drifted too far into the future, going beyond the limits of Time Lord knowledge, it would be stopped by the Vortex, (PROSE: Frontios ^[+]Loading...["Frontios (novelisation)"]) the Time Spiral existing at its perimeter (PROSE: The Well-Mannered War ^[+]Loading...["The Well-Mannered War (novel)"]) while another Spiral was said to exist at the nexus of the Vortex, (PROSE: Spiral Scratch ^[+]Loading...["Spiral Scratch (novel)"]) possibly within the Vortex core. (PROSE: State of Change ^[+]Loading...["State of Change (novel)"])

Along with the Darker Strata where few beings dwelt, (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel ^[+]Loading...["The Quantum Archangel (novel)"]) hyperspace was a subset of the Vortex. The topography of the Vortex included a "surface", "oceans", and "substrate" and was the structure of the space-time continuum. (PROSE: The Crystal Bucephalus ^[+]Loading...["The Crystal Bucephalus (novel)"]) The Grey Man described removing the Doctor's TARDIS from the vortex as "plucking a TARDIS from the time streams" (PROSE: Falls the Shadow ^[+]Loading...["Falls the Shadow (novel)"]) as did the Seventh Doctor when he mentioned coming "out of the time stream." (PROSE: Sunday Afternoon, AD 848,988 ^[+]Loading...["Sunday Afternoon, AD 848,988 (short story)"]) The vortex itself poured into the Glory. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead ^[+]Loading...["The Glorious Dead (comic story)"])

While the Vortex was what a TARDIS travelled through, (PROSE: Frontios ^[+]Loading...["Frontios (novelisation)"]) sometimes it would be referred to as "a" vortex, indicating that there were more than one. The Fourth Doctor mentioned being on the edge of a time-space vortex, describing the difficulty in navigating a vortex in response to Sarah Jane Smith asking why it took so long to get to London, (TV: Planet of Evil ^[+]Loading...["Planet of Evil (TV story)"]) and Romana I later explained that the TARDIS travelled by passing through a space-time vortex. (TV: The Pirate Planet ^[+]Loading...["The Pirate Planet (TV story)"]) After the Fourth Doctor had left Skaro's past, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Genesis of the Daleks (TV story)"]) the timelines altered and an energy filament escaped, forming a loose vortex that followed the artron trail of the Doctor's Time Ring and scattering the Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Harry Sullivan across the Adelphine Cluster. (PROSE: A Device of Death ^[+]Loading...["A Device of Death (novel)"]) The Sixth Doctor mentioned being drawn off course by a time vortex, which the Celestial Toymaker claimed was him. He explained that the vortex fluctuated and that he could intensify it on occasion. (AUDIO: The Nightmare Fair ^[+]Loading...["The Nightmare Fair (audio story)"])

Mechanics

Ramon Salamander in the Vortex. (TV: The Enemy of the World ^[+]Loading...["The Enemy of the World (TV story)"])

The Master explained that E = mc³ in the Time Vortex, as opposed to E = mc² in the main universe. (TV: The Time Monster ^[+]Loading...["The Time Monster (TV story)"]) According to the Captain, materialisation out of the vortex ripped the entire fabric of the space-time continuum apart for ten seconds, putting the whole infrastructure of quantum physics in retreat. (TV: The Pirate Planet ^[+]Loading...["The Pirate Planet (TV story)"]) It was in constant flux, with no stability, and things lost in the Vortex could be deposited into the continuum. (AUDIO: The Butcher of Brisbane ^[+]Loading...["The Butcher of Brisbane (audio story)"]) A TARDIS travelled through the Vortex even if it was just relocating in space while still in the same time zone. (PROSE: Harvest of Time ^[+]Loading...["Harvest of Time (novel)"])

The existence/creation of alternate timelines and parallel universes was held in check by the existence of the Vortex, which was sustained by the existence of the Time Lords. (PROSE: The Domino Effect ^[+]Loading...["The Domino Effect (novel)"]) Both the Six-Fold-Realm and N-Space were inextricably linked by the Vortex, (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel ^[+]Loading...["The Quantum Archangel (novel)"]) and it was also related to shuntspace. (PROSE: The Crystal Bucephalus ^[+]Loading...["The Crystal Bucephalus (novel)"])

Travelling backwards in time in the vortex was akin to travelling "up-hill" and required more energy than travelling to the future, (PROSE: Anachrophobia ^[+]Loading...["Anachrophobia (novel)"]) the vortex being a river and travelling into the past being swimming against the current. (PROSE: Engines of War ^[+]Loading...["Engines of War (novel)"])

The Heart of the TARDIS, a white-gold energy, served as an access to the Vortex, (TV: Boom Town ^[+]Loading...["Boom Town (TV story)"]) meaning staring into the Heart was staring into the Vortex (TV: The Parting of the Ways ^[+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"]) and something placed in or near the Heart would be exposed to the time winds of the Vortex. (TV: The Time of the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"]) Staring into the Heart of the TARDIS has different effects on different people; for example, Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen regressed back into an egg, (TV: Boom Town ^[+]Loading...["Boom Town (TV story)"]) while Rose Tyler turned into the seemingly all-powerful Bad Wolf. (TV: The Parting of the Ways ^[+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"])

The vortex contained time winds which shouldn't exist outside. (PROSE: Omegamorphosis ^[+]Loading...["Omegamorphosis (short story)"]) While the natural forces of the time winds could be chaotic and tear away at anything unprotected, (PROSE: Timewyrm: Genesys ^[+]Loading...["Timewyrm: Genesys (novel)"]) the Eighth Doctor mentioned that there was nothing to hit in the Vortex; any disturbances in travelling through the Vortex would have been external. (AUDIO: The Book of Kells ^[+]Loading...["The Book of Kells (audio story)"]) The particles of the Vortex could sometimes clump together and serve as something for time vessels to anchor themselves against the streaming delta flows. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark ^[+]Loading...["Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark (novel)"]) Theoretically, it was impossible to hit something within the Vortex as nothing existed while it was in the Vortex, while at the same time co-existing at every point. The Second Doctor could not easily explain how his TARDIS still managed to come in contact with other vehicles and objects. (AUDIO: The Forbidden Time ^[+]Loading...["The Forbidden Time (audio story)"])

Energy

Travelling through the vortex without a capsule of some kind could prove harmful to humans and Gallifreyans alike; it killed Jack after he hung onto the outside of the TARDIS all the way to the year 100 trillion. (TV: Blink ^[+]Loading...["Blink (TV story)"], Utopia ^[+]Loading...["Utopia (TV story)"], The Sound of Drums ^[+]Loading...["The Sound of Drums (TV story)"]) The Doctor also advised Billy Shipton not to eat or go swimming for an hour after being sent through the vortex. (TV: Blink ^[+]Loading...["Blink (TV story)"]) The energies in the vortex reduced cirque posters attached to the Doctor's TARDIS to burnt cinders. (TV: Vincent and the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["Vincent and the Doctor (TV story)"])

The Cybermen once trapped a section of the time vortex to power their ship. (COMIC: The Flood ^[+]Loading...["The Flood (comic story)"])

When Rose Tyler became the Bad Wolf, she and the Ninth Doctor absorbed vortex energy into their bodies. Rose looked into the Heart of the TARDIS to obtain it, then the Doctor absorbed it from Rose. In both cases, the energy, which resembled bright white-gold wispy light, threatened to destroy their cellular structure, much like radiation. The Doctor pulled this energy out of Rose before it became fatal to her, but in turn, the Doctor endured its lethal effects and had to regenerate in order to survive. Rose had resurrected Jack Harkness, (TV: The Parting of the Ways ^[+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"]) as it was theoretically possible for living matter to be imbued with the essence of the vortex and become immortal. (PROSE: Omegamorphosis ^[+]Loading...["Omegamorphosis (short story)"])

Mrs Wormwood detected artron energy in a body scan of Sarah Jane Smith and concluded that she had travelled in the Vortex. (TV: Invasion of the Bane ^[+]Loading...["Invasion of the Bane (TV story)"])

Daleks could absorb energy from the touch of a time traveller to repair their damaged casings. (TV: Dalek ^[+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"]) The immune systems of humans that travelled in time and space mutated to fight off diseases better. (TV: Reset ^[+]Loading...["Reset (TV story)"])

Communication

The Time Vortex could carry signals through time and space. Any phone could be upgraded to use the Time Vortex for calls. E-mails could also be sent and received, (PROSE: The Companion's Companion ^[+]Loading...["The Companion's Companion (novel)"]) as well as the Internet. (COMIC: Spam Filtered ^[+]Loading...["Spam Filtered (comic story)"]) If the caller did not specify when the call should connect, it usually defaulted to sometime relevant to the caller's time stream. (TV: The End of the World ^[+]Loading...["The End of the World (TV story)"])

When calling the TARDIS telephone, the TARDIS, due to her ability to see all of time and space, would direct the call to the "correct" point in the Doctor's time stream. The TARDIS could also choose to re-route calls intended for the TARDIS telephone to people she foresaw needing to answer the call more than the Doctor, like River Song. (TV: The Pandorica Opens ^[+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"])

Communications through the Time Vortex could sometimes fail, especially when the sender was inexperienced. Rose Tyler's emails, although intended to arrive on 3 October, were apparently lost in the Vortex, as Jackie Tyler was unaware of her daughter's travels with the Doctor. (PROSE: The Companion's Companion ^[+]Loading...["The Companion's Companion (novel)"], TV: Aliens of London ^[+]Loading...["Aliens of London (TV story)"])

Behind the scenes

First example in "An Unearthly Child" overlaid the title sequence imagery as the TARDIS dematerialised.

• The Time Vortex was first mentioned by name in TV: Day of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Day of the Daleks (TV story)"].
• It has been a convention of several eras of Doctor Who storytelling that, when the time vortex is shown, it resembles the imagery seen in the opening title sequence. This tradition began with the very first episode, "An Unearthly Child", which used the title sequence imagery within the narrative of the episode. Likewise, the season 6 titles were used to illustrate the vortex seen in COMIC: Land of the Blind; the vortex from the opening titles of the 1996 tele-movie was seen at several points in its narrative; the vortex from the first RTD-era titles (2005-2010) was used in-narrative several times; the 2010-2012 vortex was seen in TV: The Pandorica Opens and TV: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe; and the one which was used during Series 7b in TV: Hide. In the script of TV: Time Heist, a sequence is described of footage from the vortex becoming footage from the moving inside of a washing machine, and a part of the title sequence is used to represent said vortex in the episode proper.
• Before the broadcast of The Eleventh Hour, promo pictures and a trailer showed the Doctor and Amy falling through a blue, fluid-like vortex. Some people presumed this was the new vortex. When The Eleventh Hour broadcast, the new opening titles showed another vortex, which was a gaseous version of the old vortex, debunking this rumour.
• In the episodes Bad Wolf and Army of Ghosts, the Vortex was often shown partially faded over flashback footage. This stylistic change did not continue into the series.
• The Time Vortex appears as the setting of the first and last levels of the online game Doctor In A Dash where, as with all levels, the Doctor's TARDIS (the player) races against a Dalek flying saucer, a Judoon rocket, and a Slitheen craft to find a Space-Time Manipulator. Time distortions act as obstacles to the ships.
• In The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, Tom Baker gets stuck "in the sodding time vortex...again!" and so cannot help Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy in getting into the 50th Anniversary Special. This is also a reference to The Five Doctors.
• The two main colours of the Vortex in the RTD era, described above (red and blue), are based on scientific principle: the frequency of light from an object that is accelerating away from the observer shifts towards the "red" end of the visible-light spectrum ("red shift"), while an object accelerating towards the observer will shift towards the "blue" end ("blue shift").

References in other media

Star Trek: Voyager's quantum slipstream drive generated a "quantum slipstream" that looked almost exactly like the Seventh and Eighth Doctor's Time Vortex in the Doctor Who movie.

Several stories from the 1990s onwards established that the Disney comics universe has a Time Vortex of its own, described, much like the Doctor Who one, as "a space outside of space where every moment in History meets". Its appearance varies greatly between stories, but most accounts give its wall a dark, cloudy appearance highly reminiscent of the Who Vortex.