Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Pandorica Opens

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Pandorica Opens doesn't fit well with other DWU narratives. You can also talk about the plot holes that render its own, internal narrative confusing.

Remember, this is a forum, so civil discussion is encouraged. However, please do not sign your posts. Also, keep all posts about the same continuity error under the same bullet point. You can add a new point by typing:

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... and so on. 

• 5145 is not in the 51st century, it is in the 52nd.

River meets Liz 10 in 5145. Liz 10 is clearly older, as Sophie Okonedo's hair was greyed in her appearance, but since The Beast Below was said to take place in the 29th century, the passing of around 2,300 years would make her around 2,600 years old, as she was said to be 300 previously.

• While scanning Stonehenge, how did River Song miss the Cyberman head?

The head was shown to be able to move.

There is an image on the BBC website for this episode that shows River holding up the Cyberman head in front of the Doctor and Amy. This suggests she did find the head, but it was cut from the episode.

• How is the Cyberman able to function without a head inside his "helmet"?

The Doctor explained that it was the robotics taking over to find a new head, it is likely that the cybernetic suits are given some form of self-preserving AI when they are created.

• Where had the Auton-Roman Officer been for a whole week?

It is implied he was some other place, where he gained the knowledge of Cleopatra's death.

• How is a Roman Gladius able to penetrate a Cyberman's armour when 21st century firearms cannot?

It was very rusty and already very damaged.

It was not Roman but Auton in nature, so it had had greater strength, just as shown in Rose (TV Story)Rose.

• If the trap involving Romans, Pandorica and Stonehenge was built from Amy Pond's memories, why are there pieces of Cyberman scattered around?

They were guarding the place from the Cybermen's point of view, the trap was organised by the alliance and the Cybermen were acting as sentry.

But why was the one, rusty and nearly-destroyed Cyberman needed if the place was already guarded by the Auton-Romans?

Trust issues. Cybermen could have been used under Stone Henge because the Romans supposedly wouldn't know about Under Henge and thus would look suspicious to the Doctor if Romans were in the cave on guard duty, also the Romans were not Nestene influence unless 'activated' meaning they wouldn't be reliable and might have ended up fighting the other Romans, again appearing suspicious to the Doctor.

• How can there be a photo of Rory with Amy in the present if he was erased from time?

The Doctor explained that certain things still lived on. He even mentioned a face in a photograph.

• If the trap is made out of Amys memories, how can the Auton-Rory remember his death? If the memories were taken before he was sucked into the Crack, he would not have been dead in her memories. If the memories were taken after Rory hade been sucked into the Crack then Amy would not have remembered him at all.

Psychic residue was mentioned. Perhaps it has a psychic link to Amy, no matter where and when she was.

• Why were the Judoon among the Doctor's enemies?

They all teamed up because they believed that the Doctor was going to destroy the universe, so it doesn't matter if they like him or not, they all want him gone so that they can and everyone else can survive.

But surely not all these species are needed to form an alliance? Some might not even have time travel technology. In fact, why don't the Daleks disintegrate the Doctor instead of imprisoning him. They do not even need such an elaborate trap.

If you watch every Doctor Who story that has ever featured the Daleks, they never just shoot him, and reason is that by this point they must have cottoned on to the fact, if the enemy tries to kill the Doctor, he always wins, it might be from a plan, from a trick or its just luck, but he always wins. The only times that the bad guy gets close to winning is when they don't try and kill, but instead trap him somewhere, of course always gets out, but they get close to winning, and pressumably they have relised this, so thats why lock him in an unescaperble box.

• Can't the species make their own trap instead of using Amy's memories. They have conquered galaxies, they can make their own stupid trap.

Yes, but if you watch previous storys the Doctor always breaks out of their traps, so properly they didn't want to risk it

Either that or perhaps they couldn't decide on one

• Whose love is it "that lasts a thousand years"? If it's talking about Amy and Rory, they're two thousand years away from Rory's "death", and in the wrong direction.

It is not of Rory and Amy's love but the Doctor and River because even though River won't live a thousand years, she time travels along with the Doctor (separately) and they meet up in the wrong order and it could have been hundreds of years since the doctor last saw River but it could be four weeks since she saw the Doctor.

• Despite what she said in DW: The Time of Angels, when River pilots the TARDIS here it does make the dematerialization sound.

River says, "Doctor, there's something wrong with the TARDIS, like something else is controling it." So she may not have caused it to make the dematerialization sound. But in this episode, she also says the Doctor taught her how to fly the TARDIS which directly contradicts her statement in DW: The Time of Angels. So it's also possible she learned the incorrect way from the Doctor and sometime later, she "had lessons from the very best."

In The Time of Angels, it was pretty clear to me that River was just teasing the Doctor, and had in fact learned from him.

The River Song you see in The Pandorica Opens has not yet been to the Byzantium, meaning she has not yet learned to properly pilot the TARDIS.

There was no indication that she has not learned yet, but there is substantial evidence that she has.

• Why are the Weevils, Uvodni and Blowfish against the Doctor, they have never met him so why do they have anything against him?

He probably encountered them in off-screen adventures. Also they may not nescessarily be his enemies, they like the Judoon may merely want to stop him destroying the Universe.

• The Doctor says the cliff-face with Hello Sweetie written on it was made of diamond, however the cliff-face was brown and mud-like.

It could be a different type of diamond.

If you look closely, the part River Song wrote on was Rock, but diamond seemed to be crystallising on the rock's surface above and below the Graffiti. For an image of the cliff face, see This episode's Wiki.

• River Song was imprisoned in Stormcage before the crash of the Byzantium (from her point of view), so if she had killed the Doctor this would of had to occurred before the Pandorica Opens from her point of view, meaning she can't of killed him, because she was already in.

It was never stated that river killed the doctor but even if she did the pandorica opens is not the first time river has met the doctor, infact she seems very familiar with him, so she could have killed an older doctor (later in the doctors timeline, but earlier in her).

• At the very end of the episode, everything in space fades away quickly followed slowly by the Earth. How is the Earth visible if the stars have all gone? There should be no light, so we would not see anything at all.

Artistic/dramatic license?

There is energy stored on Earth, as the stars Supernova-ed on the 26/6/2010, so we will have still had electric lights. When faced with darkness, solar-activated street lanps will have illuminated across the globe, creating a dim light pollutionny haze around our atmosphere. The question you should be asking is why was the Earth not destroyed when every star in the universe (inc. our sun) supernava-ed.

Is it clearly shown that our sun is destroyed? The way the Earth is lit suggests that the sun is behind the camera, and may not have supernova-ed yet. Also, the light from the sun takes about 8 minutes to reach the Earth, so it's correct that it is still visible even if the sun has just been destroyed.