Time Vortex (Doctor Who)

Time Vortex (Doctor Who)

In the science fiction television series Doctor Who, the time vortex (sometimes called the space-time vortex) is the entity that the TARDIS and other time machines (such as the vortex manipulators used by River Song and Captain Jack Harkness) travel through. It is mostly used as a... kind of wormhole, used by the TARDIS, to travel in time and space.

In the classic series, the "howlaround" or "slit-scan" tunnel seen in most versions of the series' title sequence is supposed to be a representation of the time vortex (first implied in the pilot episode "An Unearthly Child"), although it is sometimes also shown as nothingness. The original effect was created by video feedback and can be reproduced by pointing a camcorder at a screen displaying the camcorder's output. This is the video equivalent of the whistling noise heard when a microphone 'feeds back' when too close to a speaker.

During the last season of Jon Pertwee's run as the Doctor as well as nearly all of Tom Baker's run afterwards, the vortex was represented as a silver tunnel constantly moving forward, created using a slit-scan photography technique. This version of the vortex was only ever seen during the opening credits.

During Peter Davison's reign as the Doctor, the vortex was only ever seen on the monitor as a series of boxes within boxes supposedly moving forwards.

As for the 9th Christopher Eccleston, 10th, David Tennant, and the 11th(And current) Matt Smith. It has a overall blue, and sometimes red area where there can be different outlines, all of different colors.

In Layman's terms... It is a blue tunnel throughout space with various asteroids running freely through it.

However, during the classic series, exterior shots of the TARDIS travelling usually took place in space or a blank screen. Examples of this include The Mind Robber (with the TARDIS spinning in front of a plain background before exploding) and The Pyramids of Mars (with the TARDIS in space).

In the new series (revived in 2005), the direction of the TARDIS's time travel through the vortex can be discerned from the surrounding colors: blue for traveling into the past and red for traveling into the future, most likely inspired by the Doppler effect. While this high-speed vortex effect is used for the opening titles and TARDIS travel, a less kinetic visualization underlays the credits, and has been used on occasion within the program to represent the vortex without TARDIS travel ("The Sound of Drums").

The new series vortex graphics are produced by The Mill.

The time vortex for the 2010 series has been given a redesign, with a cloud effect and bolts of lighting crossing through the vortex and sometimes hitting the TARDIS, which then falls into a second region where the cloudy look is replaced with fire. In Series 7, as each episode's opening titles are unique, the time vortex is colored accordingly to match. In the second half of Series 7 ("The Snowmen" onwards) The opening titles have changed to show the TARDIS flying through nebulae and other space matter. It is uncertain whether the style of the vortex has changed to reflect this.