Oldharbour Clock

The Oldharbour Clock was an ancient clock in the Capitol on Gallifrey.

It had a vast clock face and an intricate mechanism of beautifully decorated life-sized figures which danced on a ledge when the clock chimed the hour. Unbeknownst to the Time Lords, these figures had sentience and were the most intelligent beings on Gallifrey. They had a complex framework of philosophy and etiquette to explain their world and their complex, perfectly regulated social interactions. Eventually they determined that they were characters on a clock face, and this was followed by schism and war, but they still performed their daily ballet with perfect faithfulness.

The Clock had been created by "analogue Time Lords" of a parallel Gallifrey that was erased in the Time Wars of ancient Gallifreyan history. As a result, no one on the Infinity Doctor's Gallifrey remembered when it had appeared, and few noticed its clockwork figures.

Its clock tower stood in the Old Harbour, from which the Clock's tolling bells could be heard throughout the eastern side of the Citadel and even through the Citadel wall. As no sunlight could penetrate the dome of the Capitol, the tolling of the Clock kept life in the Citadel running like clockwork with the same social interactions day after day. Time Lords counted time in units of "Bells" – for instance, "Nine Bells" or "Four Point Five Bells" – in reference to the bells of the Oldharbour Clock. (PROSE: )