Hypercube
Hypercubes, (PROSE: Vampire Science [+]Loading...["Vampire Science (novel)"], The Book of the War [+]Loading...["The Book of the War (novel)"]) also known as tesseracts, (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell) T-mail (PROSE: Shakedown [+]Loading...["Shakedown (novelisation)"]) Time Lord message pods (PROSE: Unnatural History [+]Loading...["Unnatural History (novel)"]) or Psychic Containers, (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot [+]Loading...["The Gunpowder Plot (video game)"]') were a Gallifreyan form of communication, physically resembling white cubes. They were able to store a Time Lord's thoughts or speech and could be sent through time and space, (TV: The War Games [+]Loading...["The War Games (TV story)"], The Doctor's Wife [+]Loading...["The Doctor's Wife (TV story)"]) travelling through the space-time continuum itself. (PROSE: Shakedown [+]Loading...["Shakedown (novelisation)"], Unnatural History [+]Loading...["Unnatural History (novel)"])
Nature[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Second Doctor sent a cube message to the Time Lords by laying down the six flat, featureless faces of the cube in front of him, and using his psychic powers to fill this "very special sort of box" with "all the information about what [had] been going on here, and an appeal for help", with the box seeming to assemble itself of its own accord. (TV: The War Games (part 9) [+]Loading...{"part":"9","1":"The War Games (TV story)"}) The Book of the War alluded to the six disassembled pieces of a hypercube. (PROSE: The Book of the War [+]Loading...["The Book of the War (novel)"])
On another occasion, however, a human user pulled an already-assembled but translucent cube out of their pocket, with it appearing to be made of crystal. It glowed white once it was filled with a message, and then vanished. (PROSE: Shakedown [+]Loading...["Shakedown (novelisation)"])
The various cubes kept by House had a more intricate appearance, with the glowing white cube being mounted inside a largerl, protective metallic structure. The Corsair's was emblazoned with their trademark ouroboros sigil on one of the white faces. (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Loading...["The Doctor's Wife (TV story)"]) Another account documented similar cubes. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot [+]Loading...["The Gunpowder Plot (video game)"])
The Eleventh Doctor referred to the devices as "psychic containers", (TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Loading...["The Doctor's Wife (TV story)"]) which one source treated as their proper name. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot [+]Loading...["The Gunpowder Plot (video game)"])
According to one account, the technology was called "T-mail". After one was filled with a message and vanished, "the information [went] into the space-time continuum and reappear[ed] in the TARDIS databanks" of the intended recipient. (PROSE: Shakedown [+]Loading...["Shakedown (novelisation)"]) Other accounts, however, showed the cube physically reaching the recipient. (PROSE: Vampire Science [+]Loading...["Vampire Science (novel)"], TV: The Doctor's Wife [+]Loading...["The Doctor's Wife (TV story)"]) After sending one to Gallifrey, the Eighth Doctor stated that it might take some hours before he could expect to receive a reply: it could only come through "once the epistopic interfaces of the space-time continuum [we]re properly aligned". (PROSE: Unnatural History [+]Loading...["Unnatural History (novel)"])
They could be used by humans as well as Time Lords. (PROSE: Shakedown [+]Loading...["Shakedown (novelisation)"], Vampire Science [+]Loading...["Vampire Science (novel)"], The Ancestor Cell [+]Loading...["The Ancestor Cell (novel)"])
They were theoretically impossible to intercept, but a member of Faction Paradox intercepted a cube the Eighth Doctor sent to the Time Lords. (PROSE: Unnatural History [+]Loading...["Unnatural History (novel)"])
History of usages[[edit] | [edit source]]
Irving Braxiatel once used a hypercube to contact his people about the developments he had learned about the People. (PROSE: Tears of the Oracle) The First Doctor once accidentally returned Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright to Shoreditch 1963, but before had left. When the Doctor refused to let them stay, Ian and Barbara argued with the Doctor about him having kidnapped them. Not long after, Susan Foreman showed a similar anger at the Doctor having taken her away from Gallifrey without her consent. The Doctor decided that using the Hypercube was the only way to fix all of their problems. Learning about this plan, the three companions rushed back to the TARDIS, where Susan disuaded him, scared of the consequences. (AUDIO: Home Again, Home Again)
Stoyn's beacon on the sentient planet he was situated on used six white squares, the components of a hypercube. After his beacon was disabled, the Second Doctor pocketed the squares. (AUDIO: The Dying Light)
He was later forced to use them to ask the Time Lords to return the soldiers kidnapped by the War Lords to their own time periods, as he could not do so on his own. The Doctor constructed his hypercube from the six white squares by merging them with his mind, assembling them into the shape of a cube. Calling upon his people for help proved to be a personal sacrifice for the Doctor, effectively turning himself in, resulting in his separation from his companions Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot, his exile on Earth, and a forced regeneration into his third incarnation. (TV: The War Games)
The Fifth Doctor used a hypercube to notify the Time Lords that he had found Zero. (AUDIO: Spring)
The Sixth Doctor was prepared to use a hypercube to summon the Time Lords for help in preventing the Cybermen from changing history, even though he was aware he would be punished with no way of defending himself. (AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen)
The Seventh Doctor later slipped Ace a tesseract on the planet Heaven in order to be able to contact her in the future. (PROSE: Love and War) He later used it to do so whilst arranged for the TARDIS to purge the infection it had contracted after their visit to Tír na n-Óg. (PROSE: Deceit) He also had Roz Forrester send him a T-mail message to report on her progress tracking the Rutan Karne. (PROSE: Shakedown [+]Loading...["Shakedown (novelisation)"])
During the War in Heaven, the War King kept the twelve components of a hybercube stacked neatly on his desk as the last remaining link to his past as a renegade. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
During the Last Great Time War, the Eighth Doctor received a hypercube from Susan Foreman. (PROSE: Ghost of Christmas Past) Susan herself was sent several urgent hypercubes from Gallifrey during the Time War. Most of them were removed by the Eighth Doctor, who didn't want her to join the war. (AUDIO: All Hands on Deck) Cardinal Ollistra sent the Time Lord command to collect her when the Doctor's TARDIS crashed. (AUDIO: One Life)
Following the Last Great Time War, a hypercube was on sale at the Fluren Temporal Bazaar. (COMIC: Weapons of Past Destruction)
Hundreds of Time Lords who were stranded in a bubble universe by House attempted to use hypercubes to send distress calls. However, House killed many or all of them for parts to repair Auntie and Uncle, feeding itself on their TARDISes for five thousand years. One Time Lord to arrive on House was the Doctor's good friend the Corsair. He recorded a hypercube, which was sent into the main universe. It eventually found the Doctor's TARDIS, because there were no other Time Lords left in time and space. After the Eleventh Doctor arrived in the bubble universe, he heard the distress calls on Nephew's translation sphere and thought this meant there were other living Time Lords besides Corsair. The Doctor was enraged when he found a cabinet filled with hypercubes which House had stolen from the dead Time Lords. (TV: The Doctor's Wife)
The Doctor kept a hypercube in the TARDIS Drawing Room. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)
The New Dalek Paradigm and the Dalek Time Controller sent a hypercube to the Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS to lead him to the planet Gethria. From there, the Daleks manipulated the Doctor into leading them to the Cradle of the Gods, a monument which they planned to use to transform the Sunlight Worlds into copies of Skaro. Aided by Ollus, Sabel and Jenibeth Blakely, the Doctor set the Cradle to self-destruct and the Daleks abandoned the plan. (PROSE: The Dalek Generation)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
In real-world mathematics, a hypercube is a higher-dimensional analogue of a cube. The hypercube of four dimensions is specifically called a "tesseract".
Some of the voice lines used for the Hypercubes in The Doctor's Wife were included individually in the game files of The Gunpowder Plot - assumedly for application on the Hypercube that can be found in The Drawing Room - but ultimately they went unused. The full lines can be heard here, and include explicit references to Fluid Links, the War Lord home planet, and Minyos: https://youtu.be/gItK0Yz4USs
