Sacred Flame

The Sacred Flame was located on the planet Karn, and was guarded by the Sisterhood of Karn. It was the heat source that created the life-prolonging Elixir of Life.

The Flame was fuelled by an underground natural gas pocket, that escaped through a fissure in the rock, acting like a natural gas nozzle.

The Elixir was formed as water from underground springs that passed through the rocks heated by the Sacred Flame directly below them. The rocks contained numerous rare minerals and compounds that were released into the water when heated by the Flame.

Over the course of countless millennia, carbon and soot had clogged the nozzle so much that the flame had been reduced to barely more than a inch high, resulting in almost no generation of the Elixir. The Doctor solved the problem by placing a firecracker in the fissure, blasting the soot loose and re-igniting the Flame. (DW: The Brain of Morbius)