Fourth Doctor's Time Ring
A Time Lord messenger gave the Fourth Doctor a Time Ring, or Time Bracelet, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks, Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen) to return to Nerva Beacon after carrying out a mission to prevent the creation of the Daleks. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
By one account, the Time Ring was experimental technology stolen by Deliavatsud from the Temporal Development Center. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem)
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
After landing the TARDIS on Space Station Nerva (TV: The Ark in Space) the Fourth Doctor was temporarily separated from his ship when he, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan used the station transmat to go down to Earth. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment)
Before the trio could return to Nerva, they were intercepted by the Time Lords and taken to Skaro, tasked with the mission of averting the Daleks' creation. The Time Lord messenger issued the Doctor with the Time Ring which he could use to return to Nerva and the TARDIS once his mission was completed. It was his "lifeline" and he was warned not to lose it, but it was confiscated when the Doctor and Harry were captured by the Kaleds, who did not know of its significance. It was eventually recovered from Nyder. Though the Doctor failed to destroy the Daleks at birth, he estimated he had delayed their development and departed Skaro with the Time Ring. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
As time was rewritten following the Doctor's intervention of Skaro, the Time Ring overloaded in flight and its fail-safe came into operation. The Time Lords were able to direct the Doctor, Sarah and Harry to the Adelphine Cluster during a war, but all three were separated from each other. After peace was established in the region, the Doctor recovered the Ring which had been stored away by Director Kambril. The Time Lords attempted to bribe the Doctor with a new TARDIS, more reliable than his old one, but the Doctor refused and instead requested Brastall reactivate the Time Ring. (PROSE: A Device of Death)
The Time Ring briefly transported the trio to the Desolii, "the most haunted ship in the galaxy". They used it to depart once again. (PROSE: The Last Thing You Ever See)
After successfully returning them to Nerva Beacon, the Time Ring vanished, to the astonishment of Harry who had wanted to keep it as a memento. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen)
Other realities[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the Warrior's universe, a Time Ring was used by the Time Lords to send the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan to the creation of the Daleks in an attempt to end the Time War, (AUDIO: Dust Devil) similarly to events in the Doctor's universe. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) When the Doctor destroyed the Dalek incubators, Harry and Sarah found the Time Ring inside Davros' laboratory, but were confronted and exterminated by a prototype Dalek before they could retrieve it. The Doctor also failed to retrieve the Time Ring, and was extracted from Skaro by the Time Lords as the prototype Dalek exterminated him. (AUDIO: Dust Devil) The Kaleds and Thals recovered the Time Ring and reverse-engineered it, resulting in them developing advanced time travel on par with the Time Lords far faster (AUDIO: Aftershocks) than the Daleks did in the original timeline, (AUDIO: Dust Devil) and eventually formed the Unified Skaroan Alliance before declaring war upon the Time Lords, reinstigating the Time War.
In the Carrisent Particum timelines, Commander Esk claimed to the Skaroan generals that the Doctor's Time Ring was ultimately responsible for the Unified Skaroan Alliance successfully conquering time. Although these timelines were eventually averted by the Warrior when he sealed and destroyed them inside multiple Carrisent Particums, the advances in time technology achieved by the Unified Skaroan Alliance from the Time Ring were such that they were able to continue fighting the Time Lords in the Time War even after their ultimate victory was averted. (AUDIO: Aftershocks)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Time Ring is absent from Return of the Cybermen, which was adapted from the original scripts of Revenge of the Cybermen, although the Doctor, Sarah and Harry still materialise on Nerva Beacon without the use of the TARDIS.
- The Time Ring prop looked different in Genesis of the Daleks compared to Revenge of the Cybermen. It is unknown as to whether the prop was modified, or whether it was a different prop altogether.
