Directional Unit
The Directional Unit is part of the Main Time Mechanism. It takes the Space-Time Coordinates for departure and arrival and converts them into Epsilon Coordinates for travel through the Space-Time Vortex. For this reason it is essential to accurately know your current location to ensure a successful flight. The shorter the trip, the simpler it is to calculate the Epsilon Coordinates. Executing a short hop, however, has other difficulties. The resulting Epsilon Coordinates serve as a path through the Space-Time Vortex allowing a TARDIS to avoid any unknown regions or areas of intense time spillage. In practice the Directional Unit is accurate down to about 3 meters or so.
A fully functional Directional Unit is essential for precise navigation and landings. If the Unit's Linear Calculator is not serviced every 500 years it can cause missjumps. A TARDIS that missjumps often finds itself at a Temporal Nexus Points (a time zone where history is easily changed). There are some locations that can only be reached by traveling through dangerous areas of the Vortex. Using Manual Override, a course can be plotted to these locations.
A directional unit from a Mark IV TARDIS Console requires more power then one installed on a Mark I. If a Mark IV Directional Unit is used on a Mark I Console it will burn itself out after one use to prevent the destruction of the central column. Even using the Fast Return Switch, a TARDIS with fused coordinates can only travel back and forth from its current location to its previous landing point. (with a leeway of about 18 months in either direction).
Color Key
The following color code is used:
- Black: For information from the TV Series, including Dimensions in Time, and 1996 TV Movie.
- Blue: For information from the Novels and Audios including Target, Virgin, BCC, and Big Finish.
- Green: For information from 'licensed' reference sources such as the Technical Manual, Doctor Who Magazine, and the Role Playing Games.
- Red: For information from unofficial sources -The Faction Paradox series, behind the scenes interviews, author's speculation, and popular fan belief.
Copyright Will B Swift
Copyright
Doctor Who is both copyrighted and trademarked by the BBC. The rights to various characters and alien races from the series are owned by the writers who created them. In particular, the Daleks are owned by the estate of Terry Nation. No infringement of any copyright is intended by any part of this site. All credited material on this site is copyright © the named author. All other material is copyright © Stephen Gray The Whoniverse site logo was created by Tom Hey. The drop-down menus were created from templates on CSS Play. The site search function uses Sphider. All posts on the forum are the sole legal responsibility (and copyright) of the individual posters. You may not reproduce any material from this site without permission from the relevant author(s).
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Colour Coding
Black: Televised Stories
Blue: Novels and Audios
Green: Licensed Reference Material
Red: Unofficial Sources & Speculation
This colour scheme is different to that used on the rest of the Whoniverse site.