Forum:SJA television discontinuity and plot holes/The Gift

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 the discussion of anti-canonical narrative and simple plot holes that you find (or at the very least, you think you find) in the Doctor Who universe story, The Gift. Remember, this is a forum, so civil discussion is encouraged. However, as this is a slightly different section of the forum, this time please do not sign your answers/questions. Please 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. 

• The fact that K9 is in the back of Sarah Jane's car at the beginning of the story suggest that all four humans plus K9 travelled in the car at once. Sarah Jane's car is a bit small to hold them all.

Not necessarily, The car can hold five, and K9 would take up about a seat. K9 could have moved after the others had left, explaining why he appeared to take up the entire back seat.

• Why did the Blathereen present the Rakweed to Sarah Jane? They could have planted it anywhere at random and it would have still have done its work.

As they indicated more than once, they took pleasure in the irony of using the "famous" Sarah Jane Smith to bring about the destruction of the planet she was known for protecting.

• Why didn't Mr Smith detect that the Rakweed was dangerous at the first analysis?

Mr Smith said that between his first and second analysis, the plant mutated.

• When Chris Slitheen is talking to the other Slitheen, his compression unit lifts up, revealing the edge of where the latex head and fat suit meet.

• Since the Blathereen aren't actually bounty hunters and weren't sending the Slitheen to Raxacoricofallapatorius to be executed, what happened to the Slitheen?

The Blathereen may have simply executed the Slitheen upon returning to their ship: why would they keep their rivals alive once they've served their purpose?.

• Why do the Blathereen still have their compression collars on when they only appear in their Raxacoricofallapatorian form, and why did Sarah Jane not notice the collars on their necks?

The neck braces look different to the Slitheen ones and they are never seen using skinsuits, so most likely the braces have a different or additional functions - like a translator for example.

• One point into Part Two, part of the Rakweed spread is missing.

A computer glitch?

• When the Blathereen are eating Rakweed, they aren't actually eating it.

The Blathereen may like to play with their food.

Rakweed could be a food that is absorbed through the skin?

• When the Bane created Luke and "gave him" perfect health, why did he fall ill due to the Rakweed?

As indicated by Mr Smith, the Rakweed spores were designed to seek out and sap the energy from any potential threat to their spreading.

• At the end of part one the spores from the Rakweed are alarmingly close to Luke and Sarah Jane yet at the beginning of part two they are very far away from them.

It appears closer in part 1 because it is shown from the perspective of being inside the spore cloud.

• When the Blathereen are eating dinner there are countless times where in the reflection of their eyes you can see stage lights or lighting systems.

There are lights in the room in the ship where they are eating.

• Why is Sarah Jane so surprised when Mr Smith vents the Rakweed spores away? Surely she built the computer to house him so she would have built the air vents as well?

She isn't surprised as much as relieved.

• Why did Sarah Jane tell Mr. Smith that Luke was only fifteen? Firstly, he was created by the Bane perhaps two years previous (in-universe) so isn't fifteen. Secondly, Mr. Smith knows full well where and how Luke was created so why did Sarah Jane feel the need to say something like that at all, let alone lie, to Mr. Smith.

He is roughly fifteen physiologically, which is the aging system she has consistently used when referring to Luke's age. She is saying this to Mr. Smith not to inform him of Luke's physiological age, but rather because she is upset and expressing a further emotional aspect of the tragedy of his impending possible death..

• When Sarah Jane is talking to the Blathereen on their ship about the Rakweed's song it can be heard even though they are in Antarctica and the Rakweed is only in London.

The computer possibly had a radio link to London, as it was showing London on the map and could probably show what was happening in London too.

• The Blathereen names sound nothing like any normal Raxacoricofallapatorian name.

The Blathereen are a different family to Slitheen, so they would have different names.

• During Part 2 when Mr. Smith is monitoring Luke he goes from 86% to 87% and then later we see him back at 86% and go on to 87% again.

Luke exhaled the spores for a second and that caused the percentage to decrease temporarily.

• If K9 can activate hover mode to get out of Sarah Jane's car, why couldn't he get up the curb in SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith

K9 was probably messing around. Or Sarah Jane must have found an invention between SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith and this episode which could make K9 hover. Peter Dalton was there at the time and K9 hovering would have likely ruined Luke's story about him being a toy. However K9 does use his hover mode to get down the stairs in Sarah Jane's house in SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, just not in Peter's view.

• Other than the one teacher affected by the spores, where are the other teachers? All we see are kids running away in a panic. One would assume Mr. Chandra, if no one else, would have been around looking after his daughter.