Time track A time track , also called a temporal track or time path , ( PROSE : " A Device of Death " ) was a path through time related to a time vessel or traveller . " Jumping " a time track could place a time travel ler off their intended destination in time , and could even cross their own destiny . According to the Fifth Doctor , time tracks were to time what parallel dimension s were to spacetime , running side by side like grooves on a record . Travel along the groove and time progressed or regressed in a linear fashion , but skipping a groove meant the distance travelled increased or decreased exponentially . ( AUDIO : " Aquitaine " ) Compassion considered the record analogy - and by extension the term " skipping a time track " - to be overly simplistic explanations . ( PROSE : " The Brakespeare Voyage " ) Physics . The Sixth Doctor explained that time tracks could diverge from the causal nexus of a large time fissure , allowing for travel to a parallel universe ( AUDIO : " The Wreck of the Titan " ) or an alternative timeline , ( TV : " The Space Museum , " AUDIO : " The Mutant Phase " ) although the Fifth Doctor stated that travel to a parallel universe was not possible as the time tracks didn ' t meet . Crossing time tracks created recursion s that had unpredictable effects . They behaved differently in different universes . ( AUDIO : " Renaissance of the Daleks " ) The First Doctor and Susan Foreman visited the fourth universe which didn ' t run exactly parallel to N - Space as its time tracks crossed at an angle . ( AUDIO : " Quinnis " ) TARDIS es either possessed or created time tracks as they travelled . An Osiran lodestone picked up the residual vortex energy of the Doctor ' s TARDIS ' s time track , drawing it off course . ( PROSE : " The Sands of Time " ) While looking for a TARDIS to copy for the Rani , Iam found the Sixth Doctor ' s space - time track and copied his TARDIS . ( PROSE : " State of Change " ) Instances . The First Doctor jumped a time track in the TARDIS . The TARDIS seemed to only partially materialise , turning the Doctor and his companion s into ghost - like visitants in an alternative future timeline in which they had becomes exhibits in the Morok s ' Space Museum on Xeros . ( TV : " The Space Museum " ) The Fifth Doctor ' s TARDIS jumped a time track and was thrown through a time corridor , ending up in an alternate timeline in which the Dalek s mutated into insect - like monsters . ( AUDIO : " The Mutant Phase " ) TARDISes possessed a time path indicator , which alerted travellers if something was following them along their same path . ( PROSE : " The Dark Path " ) Time track crossing protection protocol s were pre - set circuits in TARDIS es that were supposed to be engaged all the time . When visiting a place multiple times , this prevented a TARDIS from reaching it by making the TARDIS think it had just been somewhere when it really hadn ' t . The Doctor ' s TARDIS ' s protocol was sometimes engaged and sometimes not . ( AUDIO : " Renaissance of the Daleks " ) The Fifth Doctor believed someone was trying to communicate with him across the astral plane , possibly from his own time track . ( PROSE : " Goth Opera " ) After breaking the Key to Time , ( TV : " The Armageddon Factor " ) the segments were scattered along the Doctor ' s time track . ( COMIC : " Time & Time Again " ) When the TARDIS once landed in between times , in a time where this was no time , the Eighth Doctor believed that he and his companions had jumped a time track . ( AUDIO : " Time Works " ) The Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler chased a Chula ambulance through the Time Vortex . It began jumping time tracks and the Doctor lost it for a while . He managed to find where it landed and believed it to only have landed , at maximum , a month before he and Rose arrived . ( TV : " The Empty Child " ) The Tenth Doctor jumped a time track in the TARDIS that allowed him to visit the Dalek time period before the Last Great Time War . ( PROSE : " Prisoner of the Daleks " ) Mentions . On an Earth - like planet , the Doctor noted that the silence reminded him of Xeros , prompting Vicki to ask if they had jumped the time track again . ( TV : " Galaxy 4 " ) The Eleventh Doctor suspected that the TARDIS had slipped a time track when he , Amy and Rory were having several dreams , before discovering it was the work of psychic pollen which had fallen into the TARDIS ' time rotor . ( TV : " Amy ' s Choice " ) Behind the scenes . In " Dimensions in Time " , a 1993 thirtieth anniversary story , the Seventh Doctor was trapped by the Rani , and was jumping time tracks between the years 1973 , 1993 , and 2013 . During this time , he jumped back and forth between his third , fifth , sixth and seventh incarnations , while Ace , his current present companion , became a number of his past companion s .