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A time loop, known technically as a chronic hysteresis was a loop in time, in which the individuals are always experiencing the same events in an endless loop.
An accurate time loop took little energy to perpetuate. An incomplete time loop (where each repetition was not the same as the last or the loops were not the same length) this required energy to work, with the energy increasing with each loop. (NSA: The Pirate Loop)
The Third Doctor attempted to explain the concept to the Brigadier and Jo Grant as a "loop in time". (DW: The Claws of Axos)
While there was no known technological method of escaping a time loop, the Doctor and Romana were able to break a time loop by deliberately recreating the events of the loop out of phase with the loop itself. (DW: Meglos)
- Presumably this method could work on any time loop, but, while achievable in a time loop of two people in a small room, would be nearly impossible to do in a time loop on a planetary scale.
Notable uses of time loops
- Several planets were placed into time loops by the Time Lords, including the War Lords' planet, the Vardan homeworld, and the Fifth Planet of the Sol system. (DW: The War Games, NA: Timewyrm: Exodus, DW: The Invasion of Time, DW: Image of the Fendahl, EDA: The Taking of Planet 5)
- Axos was placed into a time loop. (DW: The Claws of Axos)
- While the completed Key to Time would have stopped time altogether, five pieces and a makeshift sixth made of chronodyne was enough to generate a temporary time loop. The Doctor placed the Marshal of Atrios in a time loop to prevent him from destroying Zeos. (DW: The Armageddon Factor)
- Meglos used a time loop to trap the Doctor and Romana in the TARDIS to prevent them reaching Tigella.
- Jack Harkness was trapped in a time loop with his fellow renegade Time Agent John Hart for five years. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)
- When the Brilliant was attacked by space pirates, the engine was engaged and accidentally caused an incomplete time loop. Though things were brought back after destruction, it was inconsistent and mistakes were made. The Doctor was eventually able to fix the time loop, causing less damage. (NSA: The Pirate Loop)
- The Doctor and Charley Pollard got trapped inside a time loop in an Edwardian house. (BFA: The Chimes of Midnight)
- The Trickster placed Sarah Jane Smith and her friends in a time loop. (SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith)