It occured to me that the whole business of time radiation seems a bit… rum. I can forgive the whole business with the Dalek in the first season. The principle that the Dalek’s harnessed temporal technologies to power their regenerative and functional systems – faced with a time travelling enemy – seems to make sense. Technological advancement and war have always walked hand-in-hand, bringing some incredible (and innocuous) new gadgets from the likes of the World Wars of the 20th Century. So, when Rose touched the Dalek in the Van Staten’s museum, the technology embedded within the alien battle armour extrapolated essential energies from the temporal radiation in her touch to trigger regenerative systems.
However, the finale of the 2nd season of ‘the New Doctor Who’ saw the Dalek’s harness temporal energy from a random time traveller to interact with non-Dalek technology. Heck… I can’t be bothered to beat around the bush – Time Lord technology. Now, why would the Time Lords create something that could be activated by the touch of any time traveller? Or did the activation depend on the touch of someone exposed to the unique radiation signature of travel in a TARDIS? (suggesting that a Time Agent, like Captain Jack, pre-Doctor, would not have been able to provide the necessary temporal radiation signature). If the lock possessed a more general acceptance criteria for temporal radiation, then surely the Daleks could have opened it… as they must have travelled through time (and the Void) to get to Earth in 2007. I’m sure I won’t get an answer, but I’ve pondered it and had to set it down somewhere.