Theory:Doctor Who prose discontinuity and plot holes

Index → DW discontinuity → Doctor Who prose discontinuity and plot holes

Spoilers are strongly policed here.
If this thread's title doesn't specify it's spoilery, don't bring any up.

Welcome to the TARDIS wiki discussion forum for discontinuity and plot holes in Doctor Who prose stories. Through this page via the links below you can discuss plot holes and discontinuity (point of continuity in stories that does not make sense with regards to other stories).

This is the main page on this wiki for the discussion of discontinuity in Doctor Who prose stories. Feel free to use this list to create pages that discuss in detail all the continuity errors that you've found — or think you've found — in your favourite prose stories of Doctor Who.

Note that the slash (/) in front of episode names is necessary in order to create a link back to this page, and to prevent a link to the main article itself. The notion of removing discontinuity sections from mainspace article pages was deemed approved by community consensus at Forum:Discontinuity revisited.

Please do not attempt to add discussion of narrative discontinuity on the proper story pages themselves.

Doctor Who Novels

BBC Past Doctor Adventures

• The Devil Goblins from Neptune
• The Murder Game
• The Ultimate Treasure
• Business Unusual
• Illegal Alien
• The Roundheads
• The Face of the Enemy
• Eye of Heaven
• The Witch Hunters
• The Hollow Men
• Catastrophea
• Mission: Impractical
• Zeta Major
• Dreams of Empire
• Last Man Running
• Matrix
• The Infinity Doctors
• Salvation
• The Wages of Sin
• Deep Blue
• Players
• Millennium Shock
• Storm Harvest
• The Final Sanction
• City at World's End
• Divided Loyalties
• Corpse Marker
• Last of the Gaderene
• Tomb of Valdemar
• Verdigris
• Grave Matter
• Heart of TARDIS
• Prime Time
• Imperial Moon
• Festival of Death
• Independence Day
• The King of Terror
• The Quantum Archangel
• Bunker Soldiers
• Rags
• The Shadow in the Glass
• Asylum
• Superior Beings
• Byzantium!
• Bullet Time
• Psi-ence Fiction
• Dying in the Sun
• Instruments of Darkness
• Relative Dementias
• Drift
• Palace of the Red Sun
• Amorality Tale
• Warmonger
• Ten Little Aliens
• Combat Rock
• The Suns of Caresh
• Heritage
• Fear of the Dark
• Blue Box
• Loving the Alien
• The Colony of Lies
• Wolfsbane
• Deadly Reunion
• Empire of Death
• The Eleventh Tiger
• Synthespians
• The Algebra of Ice
• The Indestructible Man
• Match of the Day
• Island of Death
• Spiral Scratch
• Fear Itself
• World Game
• The Time Travellers
• Atom Bomb Blues

Telos Doctor Who novella

• Time and Relative
• Citadel of Dreams
• Nightdreamers
• Ghost Ship
• Foreign Devils
• Rip Tide
• Wonderland
• Shell Shock
• The Cabinet of Light
• Fallen Gods
• Frayed
• The Eye of the Tyger
• Companion Piece
• Blood and Hope
• The Dalek Factor

The Companions of Doctor Who

• Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma
• Harry Sullivan's War

Virgin Decalogs

• Decalog
• Decalog 2: Lost Property
• Decalog 3: Consequences
• Decalog 4: Re:Generations
• Decalog 5: Wonders

Charity Publications

• Drabble Who
• Perfect Timing
• Perfect Timing 2
• Missing Pieces
• Walking in Eternity
• The Cat Who Walked Through Time
• The Cat Who Walked Through Time II
• Tales of the Solar System
• LifeDeath
• Campaign
• Time's Champion
• Shelf Life

Target Missing Episodes

• The Nightmare Fair
• The Ultimate Evil
• Mission to Magnus

Virgin Missing Adventures

• Goth Opera
• Evolution
• Venusian Lullaby
• The Crystal Bucephalus
• State of Change
• The Romance of Crime
• The Ghosts of N-Space/The Ghosts of N-Space
• Time of Your Life
• Dancing the Code
• The Menagerie
• System Shock
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• Invasion of the Cat-People
• Managra
• Millennial Rites
• The Empire of Glass
• Lords of the Storm
• Downtime
• The Man in the Velvet Mask
• The English Way of Death
• The Eye of the Giant
• The Sands of Time
• Killing Ground
• The Scales of Injustice
• The Shadow of Weng-Chiang
• Twilight of the Gods
• Speed of Flight
• The Plotters
• Cold Fusion
• Burning Heart
• A Device of Death
• The Dark Path
• The Well-Mannered War
• Who Killed Kennedy

Virgin New Adventures

• Timewyrm: Genesys
• Timewyrm: Exodus
• Timewyrm: Apocalypse
• Timewyrm: Revelation
• Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible
• Cat's Cradle: Warhead
• Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark
• Nightshade
• Love and War
• Transit
• The Highest Science
• The Pit
• Deceit
• Lucifer Rising
• White Darkness
• Shadowmind
• Birthright
• Iceberg
• Blood Heat
• The Dimension Riders
• The Left-Handed Hummingbird
• Conundrum
• No Future
• Tragedy Day
• Legacy
• Theatre of War
• All-Consuming Fire
• Blood Harvest
• First Frontier
• St Anthony's Fire
• Falls the Shadow
• Parasite
• Warlock
• Set Piece
• Infinite Requiem
• Sanctuary
• Human Nature
• Original Sin
• Sky Pirates!
• Zamper
• Toy Soldiers
• Head Games
• The Also People
• Shakedown
• Just War
• Warchild
• Sleepy
• Death and Diplomacy
• Happy Endings
• GodEngine
• Christmas on a Rational Planet
• Return of the Living Dad
• The Death of Art
• Damaged Goods
• So Vile a Sin
• Bad Therapy
• Eternity Weeps
• The Room With No Doors
• Lungbarrow
• The Dying Days

BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures

• The Eight Doctors
• Vampire Science
• The Bodysnatchers
• Genocide
• War of the Daleks
• Alien Bodies
• Kursaal
• Option Lock
• Longest Day
• Legacy of the Daleks
• Dreamstone Moon
• Seeing I
• Placebo Effect
• Vanderdeken's Children
• The Scarlet Empress
• The Janus Conjunction
• Beltempest
• The Face-Eater
• The Taint
• Demontage
• Revolution Man
• Dominion
• Unnatural History
• Autumn Mist
• /Interference: Book One (Shock Tactic)/
• /Interference: Book Two (The Hour of the Geek)/
• The Blue Angel
• The Taking of Planet 5
• Frontier Worlds
• Parallel 59
• The Shadows of Avalon
• The Fall of Yquatine
• Coldheart
• The Space Age
• The Banquo Legacy
• The Ancestor Cell
• The Burning
• Casualties of War
• The Turing Test
• Endgame
• Father Time
• Escape Velocity
• EarthWorld
• Vanishing Point
• Eater of Wasps
• The Year of Intelligent Tigers
• The Slow Empire
• Dark Progeny
• The City of the Dead
• Grimm Reality
• The Adventuress of Henrietta Street
• Mad Dogs and Englishmen
• Hope
• Anachrophobia
• Trading Futures
• The Book of the Still
• The Crooked World
• History 101
• Camera Obscura
• Time Zero
• The Infinity Race
• The Domino Effect
• Reckless Engineering
• The Last Resort
• Timeless
• Emotional Chemistry
• Sometime Never...
• Halflife
• The Tomorrow Windows
• The Sleep of Reason
• The Deadstone Memorial
• To the Slaughter
• The Gallifrey Chronicles

Short Trips (series)

BBC Short Trips

Short Trips (anthology)

• Model Train Set
• Old Flames
• War Crimes
• The Last Days
• Stop the Pigeon
• Freedom
• Glass
• Mondas Passing
• There are Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden
• Mother's Little Helper
• The Parliament of Rats
• Rights
• Wish You Were Here
• Ace of Hearts
• The People's Temple
• Degrees of Truth

More Short Trips

• Totem
• Scientific Adviser
• Missing, Part One: Business as Usual
• Moon Graffiti
• One Bad Apple
• 64 Carlysle Street
• The Eternity Contract
• The Sow in Rut
• Special Weapons
• Honest Living
• Dead Time
• Romans Cutaway
• Return of the Spiders
• Hot Ice
• uPVC
• Good Companions
• Missing, Part Two: Message in a Bottle
• Femme Fatale

Short Trips and Side Steps

• The Longest Story in the World
• A Town Called Eternity
• Special Occasions: 1. The Not-So-Sinister Sponge
• Nothing at the End of the Lane
• Countdown to TV Action
• The Queen of Eros
• The Android Maker of Calderon IV
• Revenants
• Please Shut the Gate
• Turnabout is Fair Play
• Special Occasions: 2. Do You Love Anyone Enough?
• The House on Oldark Moor
• Gone Too Soon
• Reunion
• Planet of the Bunnoids
• Monsters
• Special Occasions: 3. Better Watch Out, Better Take Care
• Face Value
• Storm in a Tikka
• Special Occasions: 4. Playing with Toys
• Vrs

Big Finish Short Trips

Short Trips: Zodiac

• The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull
• Growing Higher
• Twin Piques
• Still Lives
• Constant Companion
• Virgin Lands
• The Switching
• Jealous, Possessive
• Five Card Draw
• I Was a Monster!!!
• The Invertebrates of Doom
• The Stabber

Short Trips: Companions

• The Tip of the Mind
• The Splintered Gate
• The Man from DOCTO(R)
• Apocrypha Bipedium
• A Boy's Tale
• Kept Safe and Sound
• The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe
• Hearts of Stone
• Distance
• Qualia
• Curriculum Vitae
• Notre Dame du Temps
• The Little Drummer Boy
• Hidden Talent
• The Canvey Angels
• Balloon Debate
• A Long Night

Short Trips: A Universe of Terrors

• The Exiles
• Mire and Clay
• Ash
• Face-Painter
• Losing Track of Time
• The Discourse of Flies
• The Fear
• Mauritz
• The Comet's Tail
• Long Term
• Soul Mate
• Whiskey and Water
• The Death of Me
• This is My Life
• Gazing Void

Short Trips: The Muses

• Teach Yourself Ballroom Dancing
• The Brain of Socrates
• Mordieu
• An Overture Too Early
• Hymn of the City
• Confabula
• The Astronomer's Apprentice
• Katarina in the Underworld
• The Glass Princess

Short Trips: Steel Skies

• Corridors of Power
• A Good Life
• Reversal of Fortune
• Monitor
• Dust
• Light at the End of the Tunnel
• No Exit
• House
• Deep Stretch
• Inmate 280
• Doing Time
• The Ruins of Heaven
• Cold War
• O, Darkness
• Greenaway
• Eternity

Short Trips: Past Tense

• The Immortals
• Far from Home
• All Done with Mirrors
• CHAOS
• Ante Bellum
• The Thief of Sherwood
• Come Friendly Bombs...
• Graham Dilley Saves the World
• Bide-a-Wee
• Mortlake
• White Man's Burden
• Of the Mermaid and Jupiter
• The Man Who Wouldn't Give Up
• One Small Step...
• To Kill a Nandi Bear
• Fixing a Hole
• That Time I Nearly Destroyed the World Whilst Looking for a Dress

Short Trips: Life Science

• Syntax
• Primitives
• The Northern Heights
• Observation
• Mortal Thoughts
• Lant Land
• A Star is Reborn
• The Southwell Park Mermaid
• The Destroyers
• The Reproductive Cycle
• Jonah
• Scribbles in Chalk
• The End
• The Age of Ambition
• Echo
• A Rose by Any Other Name

Short Trips: Repercussions

• The Time Lord's Story
• The Ghost's Story
• The Rag and Bone Man's Story'
• The Seismologist's Story
• The Dead Man's Story
• The Inquisitor's Story
• The Gangster's Story
• The Bushranger's Story
• The Schoolboy's Story
• The Juror's Story
• The Farmer's Story
• The Republican's Story
• The Assassin's Story
• The Diplomat's Story
• The Steward's Story
• The Tramp's Story
• Repercussions...

Short Trips: Monsters

• Best Seller
• From Eternity
• Last Rites
• The Touch of the Nurazh
• Flashpoint
• These Things Take Time
• Categorical Imperative
• Trapped!
• Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life
• Screamager
• The Colour of Monsters

Short Trips: 2040

• The Nuclear Option
• Separation
• Thinking Warrior
• Observer Effect
• Artificial Intelligence
• Daisy Chain
• Sustainable Energy
• Culture War
• The Baron Wastes
• Carpenter/Butterfly/Baronet
• Outsourcing
• Anteus
• The Last Emperor

Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury

• Last Christmas
• UNIT Christmas Parties: First Christmas
• In the TARDIS: Christmas Day
• Water's Edge
• A Yuletide Tail
• Spookasem
• Christmas Special
• Never Seen Cairo
• The Man Who (Nearly) Killed Christmas
• Last Minute Shopping
• Every Day
• The Little Things
• UNIT Christmas Parties: Christmas Truce
• The Clanging Chimes of Doom
• Perfect Present
• Present Tense
• Goodwill Toward Men
• It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow
• All Our Christmases
• Lily
• ...Be Forgot
• UNIT Christmas Parties: Ships That Pass'
• Evergreen

Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins

• The Duke's Folly
• That Which Went Away
• Angel
• Suitors, Inc.
• The 57th
• Telling Tales
• Too Rich for My Blood

Short Trips: A Day in the Life

• Round Trip: After Midnight
• Sold Out
• Undercurrents
• The Five O'Clock Shadow
• The Sooner the Better
• Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast
• The Heroine, the Hero and the Megalomaniac
• Waiting for Jeremy
• A Life in the Day
• Morphology
• Making History
• One Wednesday Afternoon
• How You Get There
• The Last Broadcast
• The Terror of the Darkness
• Visiting Hours
• Before Midnight

Short Trips: The Solar System

• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus
• Neptune
• Pluto
• Sedna

Short Trips: The History of Christmas

• The Lampblack Wars
• Home Fires'
• The Feast
• Rome
• Set in Stone
• The Thousand Years of Christmas
• Presence
• Danse Macabre
• The Church of Saint Sebastian
• The Prodigal Sun
• Be Good for Goodness's Sake
• Ode to Joy
• Nobody's Gift
• The Innocents
• Comforts of Home
• Christmas on the Moon
• The Anchorite's Echo
• The Revolutionaries
• The Gift
• Callahuanca
• Not in My Back Yard
• She Won't Be Home
• Saint Nicholas's Bones
• The Long Midwinter

Short Trips: Farewells

• The Mother Road
• Father Figure
• The Bad Guy
• Separation Day
• The Very Last Picture Show
• Into the Silent Land
• Wake
• The Velvet Dark
• Life After Queth
• Black and White
• Curtain Call
• Utopia
• The Wickerwork Man
• The Three Paths

Short Trips: The Centenarian

• Prologue
• Echoes
• Direct Action
• Dream Devils
• Falling from Xi'an
• Log 384
• The Church of Football
• Incongruous Details
• Ancient Whispers
• First Born
• Dear John
• Checkpoint
• Childhood Living
• The Lost
• Old Boys
• Testament
• Forgotten

Short Trips: Time Signature

• An Overture Too Early
• The Ruins of Time
• Gone Fishing
• The Avant Guardian
• Second Contact
• Resonance
• Walkin' City Blues
• The Hunting of the Slook
• The Earwig Archipelago
• DS Al Fine
• Certificate of Destruction

Short Trips: Dalek Empire

• Kalendorf
• Natalie's Diary
• Alby
• Private Investigations
• Suz
• The Best Joke I Ever Told
• Hide and Seek
• The Eighth Wonder of the World
• Mutually Assured Survival
• Museum Peace

Short Trips: Destination Prague

• Midnight in the Café of the Black Madonna
• Room for Improvement
• Life from Lifelessness
• The Long Step Backward
• Strange Attractor
• Gold and Black Ooze
• The Dogs of War'
• Sunday Afternoon, 848,988 AD
• Nanomorphosis'
• Spoilsport
• War in a Time of Peace
• The End of Now
• Suspension and Disbelief
• Leap Second
• Lady of the Snows
• The Time Eater
• Fable Fusion
• Men of the Earth
• Across Silent Seas
• The Dragons of Prague
• Omegamorphosis

Short Trips: Snapshots

• Golem
• Indian Summer
• All of Beyond
• The Eyes Have It
• The Misadventure of Mark Thorne
• Attachments
• There's Something About Mary
• My Hero
• Plight of the Monkrah
• Remain in Light
• In Case of Emergencies
• Puppeteer
• Osskah
• Piecemeal
• The Report
• You Had Me at Verify User Name and Password
• She Knew
• The Glarn Strategy
• Salva Mea
• The Sorrows of Vienna
• Fanboys

Short Trips: The Ghosts of Christmas

• Faithful Friends: Part 1
• But Once a Year
• For the Man Who Has Everything
• Tell Me You Love Me
• The Cutty Wren
• Do You Dream in Colour
• The Nobility of Faith
• 24 Crawford Street
• The Sommerton Fetch
• Faithful Friends: Part 2
• Dear Great Uncle Peter
• Do You Believe in the Krampus?
• They Fell
• The Christmas Presence
• Snowman in Manhattan
• The Crackers
• Jigsaw
• Dr Cadabra
• Far Away in a Manger
• All Snug in Their Beds
• Decorative Purposes
• The Stars Our Contamination
• Keeping It Real
• Christmas Everyday
• Faithful Friends: Part 3

Short Trips: Defining Patterns

• Machine Time
• The Time and Tide
• Losing the Audience
• One Card for the Curious
• Séance
• The Celestial Harmony Engine
• Mutiny
• Numb
• Closing the Account
• The Great Escapes
• Loose Change
• Lepidoptery for Beginners
• One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
• Homework
• The Devil Like a Bear
• Stanley
• Twilight's End
• The Book of My Life
• Linking Material

Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership

• From Little Acorns
• One Fateful Knight
• The Slave War
• Goths and Robbers
• Good Queen, Bad Queen, I Queen, You Queen
• The Price of Conviction
• God Send Me Well to Keep
• Peaceable Kingdom
• Rock Star
• On a Pedestal
• Clean-up on Aisle Two
• The Spindle of Necessity'
• Epilogue

Short Trips: Transmissions

• Doctor Who and the Adaptation of Death
• Policy to Invade
• Only Connect
• Gudok
• Generation Gap
• Lonely
• Blue Road Dance
• Tweaker
• Link
• Driftwood
• Methuselah
• Nettles
• Larkspur
• See No Evil
• iNtRUsioNs
• Breadcrumbs
• Transmission Ends

Short Trips: How the Doctor Changed My Life

• Change Management
• Curiosity
• Potential
• Second Chances
• Child's Play
• Relativity
• Outstanding Balance
• The Last Thing You Ever See
• The Shopping Trolleys of Doom
• The Final Star
• The Man on the Phone
• The Monster in the Wardrobe
• Suns and Mothers
• Taking the Cure
• Those Left Behind
• Evitability
• £436
• Time Shear
• Running on Empty
• Swamp of Horrors (1957) - Viewing Notes
• Insider Dealing
• The Andrew Invasion
• Stolen Days
• Lares Domestici

Short Trips: Christmas Around the World

• Planet of the Elves
• Exclave
• A Visit from Saint Nicholas
• Instead of You
• Christmas Every Day
• Mirth, or Walking Spirits
• Do You Smell Carrots?
• The Doctor's Cross Word
• Dateline to Deadline
• Autaia Pipipi Pia
• No Room
• Interesting Times
• Revellers of Doom
• Lost and Founded
• The Best of Days
• Conscription
• Christmas in Toronto
• Companion
• Illumination
• White on White

Short Trips: Indefinable Magic

• Phoenix
• The Power Supply
• Favourite Star
• Hiccup in Time
• Shamans
• The Fall of the Druids
• Priceless Junk
• Have You Tried Turning It Off and Then Back On Again?
• The Reign Makers
• Pass It On
• The Science of Magic
• Hello Goodbye
• Trial by Fire
• Death Sentences
• Once upon a Time Machine
• Mardi Gras Massacre
• Blessed Are the Peacemakers

BBC New Series Adventures

Ninth Doctor Adventures

• The Clockwise Man
• The Monsters Inside
• Winner Takes All
• The Deviant Strain
• Only Human
• The Stealers of Dreams

Tenth Doctor Adventures

• The Stone Rose
• The Feast of the Drowned
• The Resurrection Casket
• The Nightmare of Black Island
• The Art of Destruction
• The Price of Paradise
• Sting of the Zygons
• The Last Dodo
• Wooden Heart
• Forever Autumn
• Sick Building
• Wetworld
• Wishing Well
• The Pirate Loop
• Peacemaker
• Martha in the Mirror
• Snowglobe 7
• The Many Hands
• Ghosts of India
• The Doctor Trap
• Shining Darkness
• Beautiful Chaos
• The Eyeless
• The Story of Martha
• Judgement of the Judoon
• The Slitheen Excursion
• Prisoner of the Daleks
• The Taking of Chelsea 426
• The Krillitane Storm
• Autonomy

Decide Your Destiny

• The Spaceship Graveyard
• Alien Arena
• The Time Crocodile
• The Corinthian Project
• The Crystal Snare
• War of the Robots
• Dark Planet
• The Haunted Wagon Train
• Lost Luggage
• Second Skin
• The Dragon King
• The Horror of Howling Hill
• The Coldest War
• Claws of the Macra
• Judoon Monsoon
• Empire of the Wolf

The Darksmith Legacy

• The Dust of Ages
• The Graves of Mordane
• The Colour of Darkness
• The Depths of Despair
• The Vampire of Paris
• The Game of Death
• The Planet of Oblivion
• The Pictures of Emptiness
• The Art of War
• The End of Time

Eleventh Doctor Adventures

• Apollo 23
• Night of the Humans
• The Forgotten Army
• The Glamour Chase
• Nuclear Time
• The King's Dragon
• The Glamour Chase
• The Coming of the Terraphiles
• Dead of Winter
• The Way Through the Woods
• Hunter's Moon
• Touched by an Angel
• Paradox Lost
• Borrowed Time
• The Silent Stars Go By

Quick Reads

• I am a Dalek
• Made of Steel
• Revenge of the Judoon
• The Sontaran Games
• Code of the Krillitanes
• Magic of the Angels

2 in 1 books

• Death Riders
• Heart of Stone
• System Wipe
• The Good, the Bad and the Alien
• Rain of Terror
• The Underwater War
• Web in Space!
• Terminal of Despair