Space-time vessel

You may wish to consult time machine (disambiguation) for other, similarly-named pages.

A space-time vessel, space-time machine, timeship, temporal ship, or (colloquially) time machine was a vehicle intended to convey the user(s) through time and space.

Space-time travel did not necessarily require a vehicle for travel. It could be achieved by use of a vortex manipulator (TV: The Sound of Drums) or time ring, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) though "time travel without a capsule" was usually painful. (TV: Blink, The Sound of Drums) Because of their naturally ability to move through time, the Vist could not understand the use of a "time machine" in terms of time technology. (AUDIO: The Forbidden Time)

Characteristics

Whereas a "time machine" moved the user through time and a spaceship moved the user through space, a space-time vessel combined these abilities to enable the user to visit anywhere in the universe at any time.

Often these vehicles had dimensionally transcendental properties and utilised the Time Vortex. The TARDISes of the Time Lords were an example of this. The Daleks copied these properties and integrated them into their Dalek time machines. (TV: The Chase)^{[disputed statement]}

Space-time craft, at least around the 23rd century, were powered by Zeiton-7 mined on the human colony of Varos, (TV: Vengeance on Varos) although humans were not due to develop time travel until the 30th century. (PROSE: Transit) The Daleks' time machines were powered by taranium. (PROSE: Mission to the Unknown)

Theoretically, timeships could be modelled as complex space-time events, (PROSE: The Book of the War) existing either by moving through time (as in most space-time crafts) or by slowly building themselves into the real world through modelling onto the universe. I.M. Foreman's Travelling Show functioned in the latter manner. (PROSE: Interference)

Shortly before the start of the War in Heaven, Faction Paradox set up cults and secret societies like the Order of the Rectangle, the Cult of the Black Sun, and the Luminus to illegally teach members of the lesser species how to build ritual-based TARDISes that ran on pain, blood, or fear. (PROSE: Interference - Book One)

When on the Tick-Tock World, the First Doctor noted that space-time vessels tended to have emergency crash protocols that would eject passengers and possessed information storage systems similar to those found in transmat technology. (AUDIO: Tick-Tock World)

Examples

The War Lords' SIDRATs were a type of timeship. (TV: The War Games)

A timeship built by the Silents crashed on Earth in 2010 and took the form of 79B Aickman Road. (TV: The Lodger, Day of the Moon)

The Cybermen captured a time vessel that landed on Telos. It needed at least three people to pilot it. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)

Jack Harkness used a Chula warship as a space-time vessel. (TV: The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances)

Peter and David's Distant past Uncle created two space-time vessels called Time-Conveyors. (PROSE: Timechase)

Space-time vessels were vulnerable to the unique properties of the Tick-Tock World. Whenever a vessel passed near the planet, it invariably suffered a crash landing, though managing to eject its crew, becoming part of the eclectic collection of refuse that made up the planet's environment. These broken vessels would eventually be consumed by the Xesto. (AUDIO: Tick-Tock World)