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Recently, on the 52nd anniversary of Doctor Who, I decided to watch "The Day of The Doctor" again...for like...the 10th time or something.

Something that has always bugged me because it's not entirely clear, is how the Doctors entered the "Gallifrey Falls" painting in order to get out of it inside the Black Archive.

According to the episode, the painting is a sample of "Timelord art", a moment in time frozen with a stasis cube or something. We even saw an example of how the Zygons were using that same thing to invade the future from the past.

So, if I understood correctly, the Doctors had to fly to Gallifrey to be present when the "picture", so to say, was taken. But Gallifrey was still time-locked at the time, unless The Moment unlocked it like she did in the climax of the story, but it wasn't explained.

TL;DR: The title. How did the Doctors manage to enter the painting when they couldn't land the TARDIS in the Black Archive?

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  • Just a speculation, but maybe since the War Doctor was part of the events of the Time War, the Time Lock didn't apply to his TARDIS?
    – Hypnosifl
    Nov 26, 2015 at 18:07
  • I'm not really clear what the state of the Time Lock was then, for the reasons you stated, but even with that lock in place, the paintings seem somehow immune to them.
    – KutuluMike
    Nov 26, 2015 at 18:09

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The Doctors didn't have to be present at the time the painting was made to enter one. They were able to use the stasis cube to put themselves into an existing painting.

Note that, when Eleven was looking at the painting at the start of the episode, the Doctors weren't in it. He had it moved to the Black Archives, then added themselves to it using the stasis cube while it was in transit. Once the painting arrived, they pulled themselves out (somehow).

If you notice, the Zygons are doing the same thing in the past when the Doctors find them. They're inserting themselves into existing paintings which will remain in the Undergallery until the Zygons are ready to escape. Whatever technology the Time Lords have to create those paintings, it's clear they can use that technology to alter them later.

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    Guess I'll have to watch for the 11th time xD. I was under the impression that the paintings the Zygons were using were being made at the time.
    – tilley31
    Nov 26, 2015 at 18:17
  • the paintings they were in were of landscapes, like deserts, that wouldn't exist anywhere near the Tower of London, so I doubt they were being captured at the time; I assumed they were being "edited"
    – KutuluMike
    Nov 26, 2015 at 22:10

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