kpmartin@watmath.UUCP (Kevin Martin) (07/12/84)
I am not sure if the question of temporal grace is explained more than
once by the Doctor, but one mention of it was made in the "Hand of Fear"
series. The owner of the fearsome hand (I forget the name) had the power
to read minds, which appeared to have the side effect of causing great
pain. At one point (just after entering the Tardis with the Doctor and
Sarah), he attempted to use this pain as a weapon. His eyes lit up red
but nothing else happened. The Doctor explained that within the Tardis,
things are in a state of temporal grace and that "he can't harm us"
(or something to that effect). I got the distinct impression from his
statement that only living beings were protected.
This would explain the Tom Baker episode ("Earthshock") where the Cybermen
manage to zap the tardis controls.
It also explains why the Tardis manages to fry itself so often.
How can a distinction be draw between harm and normal body chemistry? Can
you get poisoned in the Tardis?5863mp11@sjuvax.UUCP (mccann) (07/16/84)
The temporal grace which the Doctor talked about in 'The Hand of Fear' was based upon the fact that while they were in the Tardis they no longer existed in normal three dimensional space. Thus certain things could not be done to the occupants (such as Eldrad's mind reading trick.) However, in the Invasion of Time episode, the Sontarins were able to use thier weapons in the tardis but the Time Lord guards patrol staser would not function. Apparently, the temporal grace can be circumvented by either very simple means (such as a knife or poison) or by weapons of sufficiently advanced technology (the Sontarins and The cybermen.)