Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Snowmen

You are exploring the Discontinuity Index, a place where any details or rumours about unreleased stories are forbidden.
Please discuss only those whole stories which have already been released, and obey our spoiler policy.

This page is for discussing the ways in which The Snowmen 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:

* This is point one.
::This is a counter-argument to point one.
:::This is a counter-argument to the counter-argument above
* This is point two.
::Explanation of point two.
::Further discussion and query of point two.

... and so on. 

• How does the Doctor recognise the line "Run, you clever boy, and remember" from Asylum of the Daleks? In that episode, the Doctor had already exited Oswin's room and was running by the time she uttered that line, and she uttered it rather quietly instead of yelling it.

She was still a Dalek, so maybe the line was being said through the speakers as she had been doing earlier.

• Who wrote Clara's full name on her tombstone? The Latimers didn't even know her true first name, let alone her middle and last. Does she possibly have a family? Clearly the Doctor had nothing to do with writing her name, as he only saw it for the first time after it was already up. Was the bartender notified and he gave them her name? The Snowmen is probably the episode in the history of Doctor Who with the least amount of plot holes, so that's the only thing that doesn't really make sense to me.

The Name of the Doctor shows that Clara does or did have family. And considering Vastra is "the Great Detective" it's possible she found out (but the Doctor didn't see the name till the tombstone).

• Francesca and Digby Latimer have teddy bears ten years before they were introduced.

And the Doctor invented the Banana daiquiri a few centuries early, too (The Girl in the Fireplace); maybe he's to blame?

• The story implies that the Great Intelligence did not come into being until it fed on Simeon's memories and emotions, which contradicts earlier sources which identify it as one of the Great Old Ones of the previous universe (as well as its first story, which establishes it was around at least by the 1730s).

When the Great Intelligence outlives Simeon, the Doctor realises that he was wrong when saying that it was created by Simeon's emotions. It could have been a Great Old One, but was wandering aimlessly and injured, going from planet to planet looking for someone with enough emotions to feed it, and finally stumbled upon Simeon and gained strength.

The GI says something like "now the puppet has become the puppeteer" and that he's outlived his creator. I think it's made pretty obvious in the episode that it was created as a reflection of Simeon but grew so strong that it outgrew its origins and became its own entity. The episode clearly shows that this is the GI's origins, directly contradicting the other Old Great One account. I guess it's possible that the original snow was Yog-Sothoth seeking form, but I'm inclined to think that one account is incorrect.

So how is that contrasting?; he said the Great intelligence arrives weakened and starts feeding off Simeon, however it ends up becoming to obsessed with his ideals rather than its own. However at the end it breaks free, Simeon didn't create it, simply when it fed off him, it was overtaken with his ideals.

The GI was a Great Old One but, after living off of and reflecting off of Simeon for fifty years, began to develop his ideals and became the evil villain that we all know and love. So the GI probably got stronger and more evil from this event. It was probably very weak until it found Simeon. It was looking for physical form.

The Great Intelligence clearly exists when young Simeon encounters him for the first time, so presumably he existed earlier but for whatever reason chose to move onto Simeon. Also, given the revelations of The Name of the Doctor, we don't know if this wasn't the later version of the Great Intelligence setting things up to mess with the Doctor's history. A Great Old One is clearly capable of playing the long game.

TV canon don't necessarily conforms to prose canon. Possibly a small amount arrives on Earth by the 1730s until more came by the beginning of this story.

• With regards to Simeon wanting the ice-woman because her "ice DNA" will teach the 'snow' how to evolve... the Doctor's plan involves bringing the ice-woman outside into the snow, losing track of her outside in the snow, letting her fall off the cloud, to crash land amongst Simeon and his snowmen... yet Simeon et al., don't take advantage of this and fall for the Doctor's feint lunch box in the hopes of obtaining one of the pieces that moments before landed at their feet?

• There is no way that Clara would still be alive after her fall. Falling from that height would surely mean instant death on impact.

Strax temporarily revived her.