The Matrix The Matrix , officially called the Matrix of Time , ( PROSE : " Mindwarp " , PROSE : " The Quantum Archangel " ) was a supercomputer , a micro - universe used by the High Council of the Time Lord s as a storehouse of knowledge to predict future events , maintained by the Keeper of the Matrix . As TARDIS es possessed their own matrix , every Time Lord and TARDIS was connected to the central Matrix on Gallifrey where their experiences were constantly being uploaded . ( COMIC : " Sky Jacks " ) Characteristics . The Matrix , specifically , contained a , once described as a " micro - universe " ( TV : " The Ultimate Foe " ) which stored the personalities of Time Lord s now without physical bodies and even the past incarnations of living Time Lords ( COMIC : " The Forgotten " ) within the APC Net , which cross - checked the data within the Matrix . ( AUDIO : " The Inquiry " ) It functioned both as a " crypt " and a stone circuit board , and used Cloister Wraith s and " filed " Dalek s , Cybermen and Weeping Angel s attached to living " fibre optic cables " to guard the Cloisters as a " firewall " . It could also ring the Cloister Bell s in the event of impending catastrophe . ( TV : " Hell Bent " ) Matrix data slice s served as hard - drives that contained the virtual reality , ( TV : " Dark Water " ) which could also be projected around individuals , described by Coordinator Narvin as immersion in the five - dimensional episodic interface of a Panoptric network . The Eighth Doctor was impressed he didn ' t need to wear " silly plastic glasses . " ( AUDIO : " The Death of Hope " ) Romana II explained that when connected to the Matrix , the user was outside of real spacetime , " alone on the astral plane . " ( AUDIO : " The Inquiry " ) All Time Lords were connected to the Matrix on a basic level , ( AUDIO : " Pandora " ) and the Matrix stored the memories of dead Time Lords in a framework of electrochemical cells . ( TV : " The Deadly Assassin " ) It was not only a record of the past , but could predict the future as well ( TV : " Arc of Infinity " ) by generating prophecies out of algorithms . ( TV : " Hell Bent " ) The amount of knowledge in the Matrix , though vast , was not complete , and could be tampered with , given access . The unauthorised extraction of a Time Lord ' s bio - data from the Matrix was an offence tantamount to treason . ( TV : " Arc of Infinity " ) A particularly skilled person such as the Valeyard could create images of events that never had happened nor ever would . ( TV : " Mindwarp " , " Terror of the Vervoids " , " The Ultimate Foe " ) Whenever anyone used the Matrix to acquire a specific piece of information , a safeguard would cause anything else the user accidentally stumbled across to be wiped from their minds . ( PROSE : " " ) If two or more incarnations of the same Time Lord accessed the Matrix simultaneously , they all gained equal access to all other incarnations ' memories . Because of this , a young , pre - Key to Time version of Romana I instantly understood her future when Lady President Romana II joined her in the Matrix . Additionally , sections of the Matrix could be partitioned , trapping entities in sections cut off from the rest of the Matrix . ( AUDIO : " Lies " ) Following the Last Great Time War , the length of the Matrix ' s database was eclipsed by the Dalek pathweb , leading the Twelfth Doctor to identify a unknown face through the latter . ( TV : " Twice Upon a Time " ) Environment . To living beings , the Matrix could appear like conventional reality , ( TV : " The Deadly Assassin " , " The Ultimate Foe " ) a surreal dream , ( COMIC : " The Tides of Time " ) a dark void with lines of light ( TV : " Arc of Infinity " ) or first one , then another . Physical laws were malleable to the will of the inhabitant . Experience and sheer will gave one control over " reality " . For example , the Fourth Doctor shouted , " I reject it , " and his wounded leg instantly healed ; this was undone by a more skilled Time Lord . ( TV : " The Deadly Assassin " ) Beings known as the Matrix Lords , including Rassilon himself , " lived " there and could direct actions in the universe . They created a physical agent , Shayde , to act for them in the outside world . ( COMIC : " The Tides of Time " ) Physical access . Living beings could access the Matrix through an apparatus connected to the head of the user . ( TV : " The Deadly Assassin " ) The Crown of Rassilon worn by any Time Lord gave them instant access . ( TV : " The Invasion of Time " ) The Keeper of the Matrix held the Key of Rassilon , granting access to the Seventh Door , thought legendary until the Doctor used the Key to access it . The Seventh Door allowed physical access to the Matrix . ( TV : " The Ultimate Foe " ) Knowledge . Information was added to the Matrix , being imprinted on the nexus , as it was discovered by Time Lord s , ( AUDIO : " The Wings of a Butterfly " ) being organised by the recorders living within the Matrix . ( AUDIO : " Neverland " ) Additionally , all events that occurred in the Capitol were recorded in the Matrix , ( AUDIO : " The Inquiry " ) and it also received data from sensors in TARDIS es . ( PROSE : " The Quantum Archangel " ) Many facts , figures , and formulas were contained within the Matrix , including faster - than - light travel , anti - gravity power , dimensional transference , ( TV : " The Mysterious Planet " ) how to build the De - mat Gun , ( TV : " The Invasion of Time " ) the threat posed by the Timewyrm , ( PROSE : " " ) , quantum mnemonics from the pre - universe , ( PROSE : " Millennial Rites " ) the Spinward Corporation and Arcadia in the 25th century , ( PROSE : " Deceit " ) America in the 1950s , ( PROSE : " First Frontier " ) history from the Humanian , Sensorian , Sumaran , and Rassilon Era s , ( AUDIO : " Neverland " ) and the Sanctuary on Bukol . ( PROSE : " The Golden Door " ) Darker knowledge contained within the Matrix included the doomsday weapon on Uxarieus , ( TV : " Colony in Space " ) the Earth ' s sleeping races , ( TV : " The Sea Devils " ) the mechanics of the Source of Traken , ( TV : " The Keeper of Traken " ) the location of the Nestene homeworld , ( TV : " Terror of the Autons " ) the name of the last of the Dæmon s , ( TV : " The Dǣmons " ) the deathworm s , ( TV : " Doctor Who " ) the Crystal of Kronos and its relationship with the Chronovore s , ( TV : " The Time Monster " ) the army of Dalek s on Spiridon , ( TV : " Planet of the Daleks " ) the Martian GodEngine , ( PROSE : " GodEngine " ) the psychic parasite s of Bellerophon , the frozen gods of Volvox , the political machinations of the Amentethys , the Proculus and their offspring the Scerbulus , the forgotten knowledge of the Kirbili , and limited information on the Constructors of Destiny concerning the Midnight Cathedral . ( PROSE : " The Quantum Archangel " ) There was also a section of the Matrix known as the Slaughterhouse , compiled by the Celestial Intervention Agency , which contained a whole armoury of theoretical weapons , including the Profane Virus of Rassilon and , in a parallel universe , the Armageddon Sapphire . ( PROSE : " The Quantum Archangel " ) History . Uses of the Matrix . Returned to Gallifrey by Councillor Goth , used the Matrix , secretly infiltrating it and using Goth as his agent within it . Goth confronted the Fourth Doctor there and attempted to kill him . ( TV : " The Deadly Assassin " ) As Lord President , the Doctor used the Matrix to gain access to the secrets needed to defeat the Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey , specifically the De - mat Gun . ( TV : " The Invasion of Time " ) While connected to the Matrix , he learned of the existence of the Timewyrm ( PROSE : " " ) and Quantum mnemonics . ( PROSE : " Millennial Rites " ) After his supposed execution to stop Rassilon ' s exiled contemporary Omega from returning to the universe of matter , the Fifth Doctor hung suspended in the Matrix . Omega also had access to the Matrix . ( TV : " Arc of Infinity " ) One of the many versions of Clara Oswald created after she entered the Doctor ' s time stream appeared in the Matrix and saw the Fifth Doctor when he was sent there . ( TV : " The Name of the Doctor " ) The Valeyard established a stronghold , the " Fantasy Factory " , in the Matrix as part of his plan to steal the Sixth Doctor ' s remaining regeneration s . During his attempt to stop him , the Doctor , as well as , entered into the " dreamscape " therein , the latter taking his TARDIS ( or an illusory version of it ) there . The Valeyard somehow took over the Keeper of the Matrix . ( TV : " The Ultimate Foe " ) The Seventh Doctor confronted the Dark Matrix , which was trapped inside a TARDIS as it imploded . ( PROSE : " Matrix " ) Fate of the Matrix . An ancient Gallifrey an evil named Pandora also survived and emerged from a special within the Matrix . Lady President Romana was eventually able to destroy the entity by seemingly destroying the Matrix itself . ( AUDIO : " Warfare " ) However , Romana later discovered that it had only been damaged . ( AUDIO : " Ascension " ) After Gallifrey was destroyed by the Eighth Doctor to the War , the Time Lords survived within the Matrix , which had been downloaded into the Doctor ' s mind - although he had to sacrifice much of his memory to make space for it . Their reconstruction was possible , but required a sufficiently advanced computer . ( PROSE : " The Gallifrey Chronicles " ) In the final moment of the Last Great Time War , the deaths of every Time Lord being uploaded to the Matrix allowed it to gain sentience . The Matrix survived the end of the Time War by uploading a copy of itself into the Doctor ' s TARDIS . The Matrix then posed as the Hypothetical Gentleman , and tried to break out into the universe . ( COMIC : " Sky Jacks " ) The Hypothetical Gentleman projected images of a quantum resonator into Emily Fairfax ' s mind , convincing her husband and herself that she was being contacted by an angel . After the pair built the machine , he linked it to the TARDIS to power it . He came out of it , to find a police officer , whom he sucked the time out of , leaving him frozen in time . The Eleventh Doctor called in Emily and Charles Fairfax to determine what the machine was about , and left to find the power source . The Hypothetical Gentleman then sucked out the time from Rory Williams . When the telepathic Emily read the Gentleman ' s mind , it was filled with images of Sontaran s , a peg doll , a Zygon , a Kroton , a Headless Monk , a Silent , a Weeping Angel , and a Krynoid . He subsequently sucked the time out of Charles Fairfax , deeming the meal , " An insufficient morsel . " He disappeared . The Doctor was examining the victims , when he returned , and the Doctor asked who he was , because he could write in High Gallifreyan . The Gentleman didn ' t provide an answer , and instead taunted the Doctor with the unknown knowledge . He then promptly began to steal the Doctor ' s time , which would have given him his own reality , but Amy Pond smashed the quantum resonator , apparently sucking him back into his hypothetical world . All of the victims were freed . As the Doctor , Amy , and Rory tried to leave in the TARDIS , the control panel sparked , surprising the Doctor , and he described it as the TARDIS having an upset tummy , and that it was nothing to worry about . It was shown , however , that the Hypothetical Gentleman was the cause , and that he was hiding on the TARDIS . ( COMIC : " Hypothetical Gentleman " ) The Matrix attempted to fight the Doctor ' s TARDIS for control of its systems , and ultimately won , trapping the Doctor and Clara Oswald inside . The Matrix then created a wormhole to escape from the TARDIS into the wider universe . The Doctor stopped the Matrix by connecting both ends of the wormhole together , trapping the Matrix forever . ( COMIC : " Sky Jacks " ) After Gallifrey returned to the universe , the Matrix was located below the Capitol in the Cloisters . ( TV : " Hell Bent " )