Eye of Harmony: Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox Object
{{merge|Eye of Harmony|it's an artifact known as the Eye, which the Time Lords kept on Gallifrey, and which granted its owners mastery over the Laws of Time; it's described as being like the heart of a TARDIS only more powerful. What's going on is clearly an alternative name for the [[Eye of Harmony]], not an unrelated artifact. ([[User:CzechOut]] already [[Forum:We_need_a_policy_on_videogames|said so]] 10 years ago in the course of another discussion.)}}{{Infobox Object
|image      = Eye of Harmony Deadly Assassin.jpg
|image       = The Eye of Time.jpg
|aliases    = {{il|Rassilon's Star|The Eye of Time}}
|type       = Natural phenomenon
|type        = [[Black hole]] power source
|origin      =  
|origin      = A [[star system]]
|only        = City of the Daleks (video game)
|first       = The Deadly Assassin (TV story)
|mentions    =  
|appearances = [[Eye of Harmony - list of appearances|'''''see list''''']]
}}
|clip       = The Master steals the Doctor's regenerations - Doctor Who the Movie - BBC
The '''Eye of Time''' was a natural phenomenon that was harnessed by the [[Time Lord]]s. It was lost at the [[Fall of Gallifrey]] and eventually fell into the hands of the [[Progenitor]] [[Dalek]]s. According to the [[Eleventh Doctor]], it was believed by some to be the left-over core of the [[Big Bang]]. ([[GAME]]: ''[[City of the Daleks (video game)|City of the Daleks]]'')
|clip2      = Time Zombie Attack! - Doctor Who - Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS - Series 7 - BBC
}}{{you may|Eye of Harmony (audio story)|caldera|n1=the audio story}}
The '''Eye of Harmony''', also known as '''Rassilon's Star''' or the '''Eye of Time''', was a power source for the [[Time Lord]]s from which time travel was possible and was the source of all power on [[Gallifrey]]. It was also asserted to be the centre of the [[Web of Time]].


== Mechanics ==
[[Category:Unique items]]
The Eye was created by suspending time around an exploding [[star]] in the act of becoming a [[black hole]], harnessing the [[potential energy]] of a collapse that would never occur. According to the [[Eleventh Doctor]], one would "rip the star from [[star system|its orbit]], [and] suspend it in a permanent state of decay." ([[TV]]: ''[[Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (TV story)|Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS]]'') The power of the explosion of the black hole, and the [[element]]s thus set free, were channelled into a [[mast]] which was then buried within the [[Capitol]]'s floor and worked into an "endlessly dynamic [[equation]]" via being balanced with the mass of Gallifrey itself: should the Eye be removed from Gallifrey, the whole planet's matter would turn to [[anti-matter]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Legacy of Gallifrey]]'') However, the Doctor once told [[Amy Pond]] that the Eye was instead believed by some to be the leftover "core" of [[Event One|the Big Bang]], whose power of creation over the Universe had been harnessed by the Time Lords. ([[GAME]]: ''[[City of the Daleks (video game)|City of the Daleks]]'')
 
It poured forth raw [[artron energy]] which powered all [[TARDIS]]es and [[Time Scaphe]]s via a link created with morphologically unstable living organic matter. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark (novel)|Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark]]'') This link existed as a beam and acted as a point of reference both temporally and physically for all TARDISes to calibrate from. A TARDIS could not receive energy from the beam outside of the normal [[space-time continuum|continuum]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[State of Change (novel)|State of Change]]'')
 
The [[Seventh Doctor]] once stated that the power to take control of a TARDIS in the [[Time Vortex]], directing its flight and shutting down its systems, would have to be equal to the Eye of Harmony "at least." ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Falls the Shadow (novel)|Falls the Shadow]]'')
 
According to the [[Eighth Doctor]] and [[Romana II|Romana]], the Eye was far more than a simple source of temporal energy. The singularity within served as the "hitching post" of chronology itself, making the Eye the central heart from which the Web of Time was constructed. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Neverland (audio story)|Neverland]]'') Interestingly, however, ''[[The Book of the War]]'' implied that the [[Gallifrey|Homeworld]]'s power source, and "engineered sun," and the [[caldera]], the singularity used as the node point of History, were two separate things. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'')
 
It was possible, though dangerous, for a Time Lord to jettison the Eye of Harmony from their TARDIS, but it was possible to replace the Eye with another power source. [[Missy (Deep Breath)|Missy]] did this after trapping a [[Kalub's creature (Lord and Masters)|creature]] engineered by the [[Kyme Institute]] that radiated time energy in [[The Master's TARDIS|her TARDIS]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Lords and Masters (short story)|Lords and Masters]]'')
 
The Time Lords claimed, according to one story, that prolonged exposure to the Eye of Harmony would grant a being the ability to [[regeneration|regenerate]] a maximum number of [[regeneration cycle|twelve times]] and this is what allowed the [[Gallifreyan]]s to become [[Time Lord]]s. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Legacy of Gallifrey]]'') Another version of the story states the Time Lords gained their regenerations from prolonged exposure to the [[Untempered Schism]] instead. ([[TV]]: ''[[A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)|A Good Man Goes to War]]'') Still another account suggested that these were both ultimately just "noble creation myth[s]" invented by the Time Lord founders to cover the truth; that the power came from reverse-engineering the innate genetic ability of the [[Timeless Child]], a mysterious being who had fallen into the world through a gap in reality. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Timeless Children (TV story)|The Timeless Children]]'')
 
== Legend ==
According to ''[[The Book of the Old Time]]'', [[Rassilon]], "with a great fleet" found the Eye of Harmony in a "black void" and returned it to [[Gallifrey]] at which "the people rejoiced". ([[TV]]: ''[[The Deadly Assassin (TV story)|The Deadly Assassin]]'')
 
Legends stated that the Eye of Harmony watched every [[Time Lord]], wherever they went. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (novel)|The Adventuress of Henrietta Street]]'')
 
== In the Panopticon ==
In the time of the [[Fourth Doctor]], the Eye of Harmony lay secretly under the floor in the centre of the [[Panopticon]], ([[TV]]: ''[[The Deadly Assassin (TV story)|The Deadly Assassin]]'') in the [[Panopticon Vaults]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)|A Brief History of Time Lords]]'') The Time Lords had forgotten its location; some believed it to be mythical or no longer in existence. The Eye was controlled by a [[crystal]]-shaped access system ([[TV]]: ''[[The Deadly Assassin (TV story)|The Deadly Assassin]]'') called the "Obelisk of Rassilon." ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Renaissance (audio story)|Renaissance]]'')
 
=== The Rod and the Sash of Rassilon ===
The ancient artefacts ceremonially given to the Lord Presidents had a practical function to do with the Eye. The [[Rod of Rassilon]] opened the floor of the Panopticon like a key, allowing a black hexagonal obelisk to rise from the floor. This contained the Eye of Harmony. The [[Sash of Rassilon]], also given to the President, supposedly served as means of protecting the wearer against the forces of a [[black hole]]. The practical functions of the Rod and the Sash and the true nature of the Eye of Harmony remained unknown to most on Gallifrey. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Deadly Assassin (TV story)|The Deadly Assassin]]'')
 
=== Attempt to open the Eye ===
The Fourth Doctor [[deduce]]d the true use of the artefacts by interpreting enigmatic passages in ''[[The Book of the Old Time]]''. He also realised that the name, the Eye of Harmony, symbolically described a black hole contained and balanced against the mass of the [[planet]] Gallifrey by Rassilon's engineering. {{Pratt|c}} had also separately come to the same conclusion. He deduced that the Sash of Rassilon would give him immunity to the forces unleashed by the Eye if opened (it didn't, due to being damaged by the time he used it). If it had opened, the Eye of Harmony would have functioned as a normal black hole and destroyed Gallifrey and also the Master, who had hoped it would trigger a new [[regeneration cycle|cycle]] of [[regeneration]]s for him. The Doctor was able to stop the Master before the Eye could be fully opened, but not before a massive earthquake rocked Gallifrey and destroyed entire areas of the Citadel. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Deadly Assassin (TV story)|The Deadly Assassin]]'') This event would later be referred to as "the worldquake" that predated "[[Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey|the goblin infestation]]" by [[Larissa]] and other members of [[House Ixion]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Newtons Sleep (novel)|Newtons Sleep]]'')
 
=== Dalek invasion ===
When the [[Dalek]]s unleashed the [[Apocalypse Element]] on the [[Seriphia Galaxy‎]], the [[Sixth Doctor]] and [[Romana II]] attempted to use the power of the Eye to contain it, but it was insufficient. The Daleks on Gallifrey added their own mental energy to the Eye, which ''did'' contain the Element and created a new galaxy for them to transform into their new empire. During this incident, the Doctor reprogrammed Gallifrey's security systems so that the Eye could only be opened by a [[human]] retina pattern. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Apocalypse Element (audio story)|The Apocalypse Element]]'')
 
=== Anti-Time ===
The Eye of Harmony was used to hold the [[Web of Time]]. The [[Neverpeople]] claimed a casket contained Rassilon's remains so it would be taken to Gallifrey when really it contained Anti-Time. If it had infected the Eye of Harmony the Web of Time would have been destroyed. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Neverland (audio story)|Neverland]]'')
 
=== Fixing the Eye and the transduction barrier ===
After Romana, [[Narvin]] and [[Leela]] returned to [[Gallifrey]] from [[Gallifrey (Forever)|an alternative Gallifrey]], and Lady [[Romana III|Trey]] transplanted a future [[Capitol]] on the destroyed one, Romana had to balance the forces between the Eye and the transduction barrier. Romana had to perform extremely delicate calculations and if these weren't done correctly the imbalance could destroy Gallifrey. Due to extreme fatigue, and mistiming the barrier and eye became misaligned causing the death of [[Kolspen]] of [[Unvoss]] when he was leaving the planet. She went to the Eye to fix this mistake but due to the energies released by the unstable Eye, she started to regenerate. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Renaissance (audio story)|Renaissance]]'')
 
However, this was later revealed to have been an artificial projection created by Lady Trey in [[the Matrix]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Ascension (audio story)|Ascension]]'')
 
=== During the Time War ===
During the [[Last Great Time War]] access to the Eye of Harmony's control system was restricted to the [[War Council]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Eye of Harmony (audio story)|Eye of Harmony]]'') When [[Susan Foreman]] was drafted in the conflict's early days, the [[Battle TARDIS (All Hands on Deck)|TARDIS]] that was sent to collect her was seised by the Daleks who used it to drain power from the Eye of Harmony. After calling on the telepathic powers of the Sensorites, the Time Lords were able to destroy the TARDIS and restore power to the Eye. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Sphere of Influence (audio story)|Sphere of Influence]]'')
 
Later in the war, [[Heleyna]] used [[Vassarian]]'s [[Battle TARDIS]] to bring an injured [[Ollistra]] to the Eye of Harmony chamber's. She planned to destroy the Eye to stop the Time War as revenge for her grandfather's death in the first years of the war. In fact, the [[Dalek Time Strategist]] used this to its advantage and planned to destroy the Eye to completely get rid of the Time Lords. The [[War Doctor]] managed to sever the TARDIS connection with the Eye and prevented its destruction. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Eye of Harmony (audio story)|Eye of Harmony]]'')
 
The Eye was believed to have been "lost" in the [[Fall of Gallifrey]]. It would eventually be located by the [[New Dalek Paradigm]] only for the [[Eleventh Doctor]] to negate the alternate timeline they'd created, with the Eye's location becoming mysterious once more. ([[GAME]]: ''[[City of the Daleks (video game)|City of the Daleks]]'')
 
== Inside the Doctor's TARDIS ==
[[File:Eye of Harmony opens Doctor Who.jpg|thumb|The Eye of Harmony inside [[the Doctor's TARDIS]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Doctor Who (TV story)|Doctor Who]]'')]]
An Eye of the Harmony appeared to have existed in [[the Doctor's TARDIS]] at least seven hundred years before the beginning of the [[Eighth Doctor]]'s life. The Eighth Doctor claimed to {{Roberts}} that "in seven hundred years, no-one has managed to open the Eye." ([[TV]]: ''[[Doctor Who (TV story)|Doctor Who]]'') According to one account, all TARDISes built after a certain point, including the [[Type 40]] the Doctor used, had a mathematically modelled duplicate of the Eye with all its attendant features. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Quantum Archangel (novel)|The Quantum Archangel]]'') [[Narvin]] similarly described all TARDISes as having a "fraction" of the Eye. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Forever (audio story)|Forever]]'') Another account, however, saw {{Roberts}} explaining that the Eye of Harmony inside the Doctor's TARDIS was merely "named after" the Gallifreyan power source. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Novel of the Film (novelisation)|The Novel of the Film]]'')
 
In this form, the Eye was a stone structure shaped like a hemisphere which appeared to open outwards like an eyelid. While inside the Cloister Room of the TARDIS, the Master described the Eye as "the heart of this structure". The Doctor said it was "[t]he power source of the [[heart of the TARDIS]]." Both the Doctor and the Master claimed to [[Chang Lee]] that it belonged to the Doctor; the Doctor referring to it as "my Eye" and the Master saying that "now it belongs to ''him''". The Eye responded to a physical linking device. The particular structure of a [[human]] eye had the effect of opening it. ([[TV]]: ''[[Doctor Who (TV story)|Doctor Who]]'')
 
If opened partially, the Eye gave visions of the past. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Eight Doctors (novel)|The Eight Doctors]]'') Opening the Eye allowed the Master and Lee to see a visual projection of the Doctor's past and present forms and let them see what the Doctor saw so that they could find him. It also assisted in returning the [[amnesia]]c Doctor's memories. The Doctor claimed that if he looked into the Eye, his "[[soul]]" would be destroyed, and the Master would be able to take over his body. Leaving the TARDIS' Eye open for too long would result in space-time distortion, and any nearby planets would be "sucked through it". ([[TV]]: ''[[Doctor Who (TV story)|Doctor Who]]'')
 
[[File:Eye of Harmony JourneyCentreTARDIS.jpg|thumb|The Eye of Harmony within the Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS. ([[TV]]: ''[[Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (TV story)|Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS]]'')]]
While in [[Caliburn House]] in [[1974]], the [[Eleventh Doctor]] was able to utilise a "subset of the Eye of Harmony" to enter a [[pocket universe]] by running cables from the TARDIS. ([[TV]]: ''[[Hide (TV story)|Hide]]'')
 
In [[Alternate timeline (Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS)|an aborted timeline]], the Eleventh Doctor, [[Clara Oswald]], [[Tricky Van Baalen|Tricky]] and [[Gregor Van Baalen]] once came across the Eye of Harmony when trapped inside the TARDIS. At that point, the Eye had the appearance of a [[star]], one that was constantly on the verge of becoming a [[black hole]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (TV story)|Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS]]'')
 
== Dalek Eye of Harmony ==
After accumulating information from the [[Library on Kar-Charrat]] ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Genocide Machine (audio story)|The Genocide Machine]]'') and their previous invasion of Gallifrey, ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Apocalypse Element (audio story)|The Apocalypse Element]]'') the [[Dalek Empire]] developed the use of harmonic energy derived from their own Eye of Harmony, based on that of the Time Lords. Several adjustments were made through the use of temporal barrier technology used on [[Kar-Charrat]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Time of the Daleks (audio story)|The Time of the Daleks]]'')
 
== Alternate timelines ==
In an [[alternate timeline]], [[Rassilon#Alternative timelines|Rassilon]] failed to finish the Eye of Harmony before his death and [[Gallifrey#Alternative timelines|Gallifrey]] never achieved [[time travel]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Forever (audio story)|Forever]]'')
 
In another alternate timeline, Rassilon allied with the [[Cyberman (Mondas)|Cybermen]] and altered the Eye of Harmony to harvest regenerative energy from Time Lords that were trapped in a perpetual state of regeneration inside [[loom]]s. The stored energy was intended to be used at the [[end of the universe]] to create a new one shaped by Rassilon. This timeline was negated by the [[Twelfth Doctor]] and Rassilon, who used the stored energy to restore the universe as if the Cybermen invasion never happened. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Supremacy of the Cybermen (comic story)|Supremacy of the Cybermen]]'')
 
== Behind the scenes ==
* Neither the television story ''[[The Invasion of Time (TV story)|The Invasion of Time]]'' nor its novelisation, ''[[Doctor Who and the Invasion of Time (novelisation)|Doctor Who and the Invasion of Time]]'', names the Eye of Harmony. However, according to the novelisation, the [[Sontaran]] [[Stor]]'s attempted act of setting off a grenade in the [[Panopticon]] chamber when he couldn't conquer Gallifrey would destroy the planet due to there being "the power of a black hole" trapped directly beneath the Panopticon.
* Most TV stories presented the Eye of Harmony as little more than a power source. ''[[The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (novel)|The Adventuress of Henrietta Street]]'' implied the Eye was part of the structure of time itself. The audio story ''[[Neverland (audio story)|Neverland]]'' asserted that the Eye was believed to be the Web of Time's central point and the reason it existed at all. The interpretation of the Eye seen in ''[[Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (TV story)|Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS]]'' seems to contradict this, portraying the Eye merely as a collapsing star and putting more emphasis on its use for energy production. In contrast, ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]''{{'}}s [[caldera]] matches ''[[The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (novel)|The Adventuress of Henrietta Street]]'' and ''[[Neverland (audio story)|Neverland]]''{{'}}s description of the Eye very closely, while also implying that the "engineered sun" used as a power source was a separate creation.
 
 
[[es:Ojo de la Armonía]]
[[Category:Black holes]]
[[Category:Artefacts of Rassilon]]
[[Category:TARDIS components]]
[[Category:Power sources]]
[[Category:Power sources]]
[[Category:Dalek technology]]
[[Category:Gallifreyan technology]]
[[Category:Resurrection]]
[[Category:Artron energy]]
[[Category:Prisons]]
[[Category:Locations visited by the Master]]

Revision as of 08:44, 2 October 2020

This page should be merged.

It should be relocated at Eye of Harmony because it's an artifact known as the Eye, which the Time Lords kept on Gallifrey, and which granted its owners mastery over the Laws of Time; it's described as being like the heart of a TARDIS only more powerful. What's going on is clearly an alternative name for the Eye of Harmony, not an unrelated artifact. (User:CzechOut already said so 10 years ago in the course of another discussion.)
Talk about it here or check the revision history for additional comments.

The Eye of Time was a natural phenomenon that was harnessed by the Time Lords. It was lost at the Fall of Gallifrey and eventually fell into the hands of the Progenitor Daleks. According to the Eleventh Doctor, it was believed by some to be the left-over core of the Big Bang. (GAME: City of the Daleks)