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The Time Fracture was a time anomaly and transdimensional portal which was located and observed at a former UNIT Black Site, located at coordinates 51°30'47.7"N 0°08'51.9"W, (WC: 14681 UNIT Field Log) from 8 June 1980. (WC: 14682 UNIT Field Log)
Creation
The Fracture was created on Davies Street, London (PROSE: What the TARDIS thought of "Time Lord Victorious") in 2059 (TV: The Waters of Mars) when the Tenth Doctor declared himself Time Lord Victorious and changed the fixed point in time of Adelaide Brooke's death. The Doctor's TARDIS watched as "a paradox was born" upon Adelaide Brooke stepping alive onto the street, widening into the Fracture. The Fracture spread through time as Brooke walked to her home after confronting the Doctor, touching past eras of the local area and even breaking through the Dark Times barrier. (PROSE: What the TARDIS thought of "Time Lord Victorious")
Use by the Doctor's TARDIS
Leaving Davies Street after Adelaide Brooke's suicide, the Doctor used the new Time Fracture to access the Dark Times, arriving on the planet Andalia. (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead)
The Tenth Doctor's TARDIS, perceiving time simultaneously, had already formulated a plan to use the Fracture to influence the Tenth Doctor's meddling in the Kotturuh crisis as she watched it form. By the TARDIS' will, the Ninth Doctor was brought through the Time Fracture (PROSE: What the TARDIS thought of "Time Lord Victorious") to the Time Lord-Vampire War, (COMIC: Monstrous Beauty) the Eighth Doctor, already sensing the changes to history caused by the Tenth Doctor's actions, was sent through the Time Fracture along with the Dalek Time Squad he'd allied with, and Brian the Ood was sent through the Fracture to the Dark Times as he fell through the Time Vortex. (PROSE: What the TARDIS thought of "Time Lord Victorious") The Eighth Doctor later said he suspected that the various parties' arrival through the Fracture had been planned by the TARDIS.
Near the end of the Kotturuh crisis, the Dalek Time Commander expressed a belief that a TARDIS would be needed to return to the future through the Time Fracture. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass)
Collapse
Intensification, spread, & time looping
A Temporal Disruptor (PROSE: What the TARDIS thought of "Time Lord Victorious") caused an explosion on Davis Street in 1942 (WC: Tia Kofi Enters the Time Fracture!) which was allegedly caused by a Luftwaffe bomb. The bomb supposedly detonated, but instead of a typical explosion, the entire building went missing, and in its place was simply the Fracture. (PROSE: Welcome to Operation Time Fracture) Doctor Errol Courtney claimed this was the case. (WC: Tia Kofi Enters the Time Fracture!)
The explosion 'opened up' the Time Fracture, (PROSE: What the TARDIS thought of "Time Lord Victorious") connecting various times and places in a precarious situation which had the potential for an "infinite temporal collapse". (PROSE: Hello And Congratulations!) The Doctor's TARDIS viewed this collapse from the moment of the Fracture's creation, but avoided it in her use of the Fracture due to it being at another time. (PROSE: What the TARDIS thought of "Time Lord Victorious")
The opened Time Fracture connected the Black Site in 2021, the alien market place in 2156, Elizabeth I's court in 1590, International Space NR. Zogg in 2206, and a Weeping Angel lair in 2007. (WC: Time Fracture)
The Doctor believed that Anke's collection of impossible items in the Verbier Museum of the Impossible was a result of people manipulating the Time Fracture forming. He pleaded with her to give the items to him as they were dangerous enough separate, but together they would be even worse and allow something to come through, but she refused to yield. (PROSE: Canaries)
UNIT investigation
UNIT began observing one of the transdimensional portals on 8 June 1980, located at Davies Street. This would become the Black Site, which continued to operate into the early 2020s after UNIT's shutdown. (WC: 14682 UNIT Field Log)
Robert Dudley was one of the UNIT workers examining the Fracture and was sent in to find out more, but he went missing. (WC: 14683 UNIT Field Log) He ended up on the planet Khan where he was successfully nursed back to the health and went through another Fracture wherein he ended up in Elizabethan England. (WC: This is Sergeant Robert Dudley.) He continued to report to the UNIT black site, stating that there was a mysterious agent was jumping through the Fracture to collect various parts for something. (WC: Is anyone receiving these transmissions?)
Operation Time Fracture
- Main article: Operation Time Fracture
The Doctor realised that the Fracture could potentially destroy the universe, but reasoned that UNIT were doing a good job of containing it, and that "parking" a complex space-time event like the TARDIS next to the Fracture might make the problem worse rather than better. Between this logic and their own fear of it, they avoided trying to interfere with the Fracture. (PROSE: Hello And Congratulations!) The Doctor nonetheless provided UNIT with a list of names of people who could help in "Operation Time Fracture", and Kate Stewart sent a message to those individuals, informing them. (WC: 14684 UNIT Field Log) UNIT established the Portal Stabilisation Gateway to allow those the Doctor named through it. (WC: Tia Kofi Enters the Time Fracture!)
At this time, sightings of Cybermen and the mysterious Zoria began to occur as a result of the Time Fracture, so UNIT issued a Field Log warning the participants of Operation Time Fracture not to engage with them. (PROSE: Cybermen) The Silence were also involved (WC: There's been a breach...) and UNIT also hoped that if Lord Cardinal Romanadvoratrelundar survived Gallifrey's destruction that'd they would be an ally to Operation Time Fracture. (PROSE: Lord Romanadvoratrelundar)
Known time loops
One group of humans who received Kate Stewart's message arrived at UNIT HQ on 24 December and fought off Daleks, Cybermen, and Weeping Angels, before heading to an alien market. (PROSE: And now for a story...)
Tia Kofi was one of the names provided by the Doctor to assist with the crisis. She appeared the UNIT black site and met up with Errol Courtney. He briefed her on the causation of the Time Fracture. He then guided her into the Portal Stabilisation Gateway and once in she encounters William Shakespeare in Elizabethan England. He tells her that he will be her apprentice and referred to himself as Tia Kofi II. He invites her into his office wherein he explains that Queen Elizabeth I has commissioned a play for him to write called Romeo and Juliet. Tia Kofi volunteered to play Juliet with Shakespeare donning the role of Romeo before the Time Fracture sent her elsewhere. She met a courtier. Mid conversation he expressed confusion as to how there can be multiple queens but Tia explains that where she lives in Clapham there are many queens there. She states she wants to meet Elizabeth I but the courtier believes she wouldn't want to meet her right now. Noticing there is potential gossip, and the courtier conceding that Tia is royalty, he begins to explain before they're interrupted by the sudden appearance of a Cyberman. The two run away before the Time Fracture takes Tia to the Queen. While Elizabeth is initially happy to meet Tia, a series of increasingly offensive questions. Tia is interrupted by a clearing of the throat, reminding her she is supposed to be saving the universe and as she runs off Elizabeth orders for her to be executed as Tia leaves. (WC: Tia Kofi Enters the Time Fracture!)
A human explorer became trapped in a time loop after entering the Time Fracture, remaining trapped for 20000 subjective years reliving the same adventure over and over. During their repeating adventure, the explorer discovered a darkness behind Zaggit Zagoo, found out the secrets of Zoria, and listened to "the wrong ghost" on Gallifrey. On their millionth go-around, the Doctor managed to get a message through to them, congratulating them for their resilience and promising that the final loop might be close in their sights. As "something" had been moving through the Fracture, trying to get out, and was making the Fracture exponentially more dangerous in the process, causing it to suck more and more of the universe into itself, the Doctor was beginning to think the time would soon come when they should enter the fray themself. (PROSE: Hello And Congratulations!)
Final time loop
Behind the scenes
Although appearing in other parts of the Time Lord Victorious storyline, the Time Fracture was primarily featured in the interactive stage play of the same name. The play had been in development before its association with Time Lord Victorious, and according to James Goss its integration into Time Lord Victorious contributed to the overall narrative by explaining how the Doctors reached the Dark Times. (DWM 556)
In the play, they explained that the Time Fracture was actually created by the detonation of a bomb called the Temporal Disruptor. This was part of the Time Lord Zoria's plan to destroy the universe so the Time Lords could rebuild it in their own image and become rulers, as this would ensure her family's survival.
Location information
Though it's possible that a real world location doesn't exist in the same geographic space in the Doctor Who universe, such cases are few and far between. Thus, the map to the right is probably a good indicator of the DWU location of Time Fracture.
Other information
- A newspaper article in The Lonely Assassins reports on the alleged bomb which activated the Time Fracture.