The Shopkeeper and a time window. (TV: Lost in Time [+]Rupert Laight, The Sarah Jane Adventures series 4 (CBBC, 2010).)
Time windows were doorways in time that allowed time travel.
Functions[]
Time windows could be created by pushing energy into a warp drive, as was done on the SS Madame de Pompadour. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).)
One type resembled a portal linking two time periods, which had the appearance of shattered glass. The only person known to control these time windows was a mysterious Shopkeeper, who could send other people through them by clicking his fingers several times and pushing the windows towards them. Unlike the time windows created by the SS Madame de Pompadour, these versions could prove dangerous if left open, eventually causing the entire Earth to be sucked into the Time Vortex. (TV: Lost in Time [+]Rupert Laight, The Sarah Jane Adventures series 4 (CBBC, 2010).)
The Doctor's TARDIS was also capable of opening time windows, (TV: Death Is the Only Answer [+]The Children of Oakley Junior School, BBC Three (2011).) as were the six original keys to 107 Baker Street. (AUDIO: The Keys of Baker Street [+]Roy Gill, Stranded 4 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Stranded, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)
Time windows could project stronger images of the past if directly linked to memories. Ruby Sunday's memory of learning about her birth and using a VHS tape of CCTV footage from the night helped amplify the link within the window, creating an image of the past that they could influence and experience as though they were actually there. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).)
History[]
In an alternate version of 1990s London created when Liv Chenka accidentally averted the birth of Robin Bright-Thompson, the Curator had turned the flats of 107 Baker Street into time windows that showed important moments of the residents of 2020. (AUDIO: The Keys of Baker Street [+]Roy Gill, Stranded 4 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Stranded, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)
On 23 November, 2010, the Shopkeeper sent Sarah Jane Smith, Clyde Langer, and Rani Chandra to 1889, 1941, and 1553 respectively to find three objects to save time. The amount of time they could spend in the time zones was dictated by a sand timer which, if it ran out, would leave them trapped. (TV: Lost in Time [+]Rupert Laight, The Sarah Jane Adventures series 4 (CBBC, 2010).)
The Clockwork Droids created time windows placed throughout the life of Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson on board the SS Madame de Pompadour. They were closed when the Tenth Doctor broke the link by shattering one window. A single one remained open due to a loose connection, allowing him to travel back to when he had come from. He then closed it with the TARDIS. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).)
The Eleventh Doctor accidentally opened a time window inside his TARDIS by dropping his fez on the controls, summoning the fez's original owner, Albert Einstein. (TV: Death Is the Only Answer [+]The Children of Oakley Junior School, BBC Three (2011).)
The Eleventh Doctor purpose-created a time window and hid it inside a box as a Christmas present for Madge Arwell and her children, Lily and Cyril, to tour of one of the most peaceful planets he knew. (TV: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2011 (BBC One, 2011).)
The Moment had the power to open time windows wherever and whenever it saw fit, even if a time lock was in place. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).)
UNIT had created its own version of a time window by the year 2024, despite the Third Doctor forbidding them from tempering with Time Lord technology in the 1970s. UNIT also had its own time window security, and its head of security was Colonel Winston Lemuel Chidozie. UNIT's time window was used in an attempt to discover the identity of a mystery woman the Fifteenth Doctor kept meeting and the identity of Ruby Sunday's mother. As Sutekh revealed himself, Ruby reentered the time window and saw figure of her mother approaching her. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).)
With the world being consumed by Sutekh, the Doctor entered the time window where he took the monitor and had Ruby focus on her memories of the TARDIS, bringing to life the remembered TARDIS from 2004. Using the real TARDIS, Sutekh and the Harbinger traveled back in time to 2004 to confront the Doctor who escaped with his companions in the remembered TARDIS along with the time window's monitor.
The time window remained active through the monitor, although the Doctor had to collect a spoon from a kind woman and attach it to the monitor in order to keep it going, needing real metal that wasn't a TARDIS memory. The time window showed the Doctor and Ruby the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith's encounter with Sutekh in 1911. When Ruby wondered why Sutekh suddenly went on the attack, the time window showed her the memory of Ruby's mother on Christmas Eve and responded to her desire to find out who her mother was by showing a video of Roger ap Gwilliam from 2046 discussing his intention to build a DNA database for all UK citizens if he was elected Prime Minister. The Doctor and Ruby attached the monitor to the Department of Health computer in 2046 to run the search, but Ruby smashed it as part of their trap for Sutekh.
Nevertheless, Ruby's attempts to use the time window to find out her mother's identity were successful as, after Sutekh's defeat, the DNA search completed and identified her mother as Louise Miller. (TV: Empire of Death [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).)
Behind the Scenes[]
Time windows have a very similar function to a type of rift in space and time in Doctor Who's rival show from the late 2000's - the early 2010's called Primeval, They also looked identical in the The Sarah Jane Adventures episode Lost in Time. [1]
