Egen's time machine

Professor Egen's time machine was a unique space-time vessel built by the human scientist Professor Egen in 1959.

It was a one-person vehicle with a large "glass bell" affixed to an opaque, metallic base in which the pilot was seated. In addition to travelling through time, it had the ability to hover in mid-air or even in the void of space. When travelling through time, the machine appeared to speed through a horizontal tunnel of light. Take-off was triggered by pressing the time-accelerator button. The machine could only be steered with accuracy in thousand-years increments at the most: the results of pushing the dial further than one thousand years were unpredictable and dangerous.

After building it in secret, Egen used his machine to travel forwards in time. After witnessing the increasing advances in human civilisation in 2009, 2109 and 2309, he glimpsed, to his horror, humanity's near-extinction in the 34th century. Horrified, he tried to speed forward more than one thousand years, and after a confused blur, ended up back in what appeared to be his home era. He briefly wondered if all of human history was a time loop before a voice rang in his head, telling him that humanity was "not meant to know" its future and that his memories of his trip would be erased; as he staggered out of his ship, the mysterious, invisible force melted it into scrab behind him. The Fourth Doctor later learned of this time tale, which K9 reportedly found amusing. (COMIC: Dr. Who's Time Tales)