Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Church on Ruby Road

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

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• What was with the weird delay when the timeline shifted to the alternate one where Ruby was swiped by the goblins as a baby? At first, everything in the flat is more or less the same, except Ruby isn't there and Carla doesn't remember her, the Doctor goes out briefly, then goes back in to find a dark and dreary flat occupied by a miserable and apathetic Carla and Cherry.

That's just the timeline catching up to the change. We follow it from the Doctor's perspective with it changing around him gradually over time. Notice how it changes faster as he enters and re-enters rooms. That's not a continuity error. Its happened before in things like Flesh and Stone (TV story) and The Big Bang (TV story).

• Why doesn't the Doctor just take the TARDIS directly onto the goblin ship after they take Ruby? It would probably be more convenient then materializing it a little bit away from the ship.

And risk giving the goblins access to his TARDIS? A form of time travel that would great increase their powers? Nah, far too risky. Plus, the Doctor had the intelligent gloves so him not being on the ship was much safer than being on it and destroying it from the inside, thereby risking his own life.

The Doctor states himself that the gloves were dying and could have easily died before he destroyed the ship and besides he could have easily locked the TARDIS or found some other way to keep the Goblins away from it.