Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/A Christmas Carol: Difference between revisions

 

:: By the the year 4000, it can be assumed that longevity has been extended somewhat. So Abigail's family- who live fairly normal and presumably not-too-stressful lives- wouldn't have appeared to age all the much. Whereas Kazran lives a rather bitter and negative existence, has appeared to age far more greatly.

 

::: Yet, her young nephew is still a child when they meet old Kazran. Even with prolonged longevity, a child would most likely mature into adulthood at roughly the same rate.

 

:::: Obviously a number of years has passed because her sister is shown to be a middle-aged woman when she meets Kazran for the first time.

 

::: Abigail's family does age. The confusion is due to the child actor playing two roles. Look at the credits, Bailey Pepper is credited as playing both "Boy" and "Benjamin." Meanwhile, Steve North is credited as "Old Benjamin." When Abigail's family goes to plead for Abigail's release, it is her sister Isabella, Isabella's son Benjamin, and Ben's two children, one of whom is the boy who throws coal at Kazran. Just as Michael Gambon plays father and son, Bailey Pepper is cast as two generations of the Pettigrew family.

 

:: The long and short is "suspension of disbelief". If we're going to theorize though on how the Doctor gets away with it: The people he is acting to save and manipulating are the "little people" - the ones that really don't count so changing their fate doesn't affect much. Also there is a swing to the changes in Kazran - the Christmas at Sinatra's being the obvious push-back.

 

::: In the ''Doctor Who Confidential'' that accompanies the episode, Moffat says the Doctor changes time and people's lives every time he lands on a planet. He's just being more direct about it. And not that long ago, in ''[[The Waters of Mars]]'', the Doctor showed he could, in theory, even change a fixed point in time, at least briefly, if he set his mind to it.

:: The POV the story follows is for the most part that of Kazran. He is aware his history is being manipulated, and for the story to work, is comparing the changes. Also, the only physical change shown was to the paining. We don't see the stash of photos or the damaged sonic screwdriver "appear" in the present nor do we see them prior to Kazran unearthing them.

 

* Abigail never spent a whole day outside the chamber at a time. So technically she still had time left.

:: Yes, she had a day left. But very little is established as to how long she was out in the Christmases we saw, or that those were the only ones that occurred. Without that, the timer could be counting down the interval between each thaw and refreeze, or it could be ticking off a "day" per opening and closing of the unit.

* Why can't the Doctor cure Abigail of her disease?

:: We don't know what the disease is, or how difficult it is to cure. That being said, even if he could do some research or take her away to a time/place where there might be a cure, he's not really in the business of making every person he meets immortal.  

* The Doctor says that he has changed Kazran so much that the machine won't work for him. Surely the machine would have been altered to fit within the new timeline?

:: The controls "catching up" with Kazran depends on how watching a timeline change actually works. The temporal dynamics could be such that the controls or Kazran hit an end state first. They are out of synch and the Doctor gives the most obvious answer at the time.

:: It's also possible that, due to Kazran's "nicer" temperament after the Doctor's interference in his childhood, his father decided to design the controls such that they only responded to himself; that is, he didn't even trust "new Kazran" enough to let him run the machine.

:: Use your imagination - they are on their honeymoon so a few possibilities immediately present themselves.

 

::: Also, it's an indication that contrary to some fan speculation, they ''do'' remember the events of Series 5 (and maybe the Doctor had a centurion outfit in his wardrobe).

:: It is said at the beginning that the TARDIS cannot lock on to the crashing ship.

 

::: Then he could have made the TARDIS materialize on the ship before he was unable to lock onto it. If the ship was about to crash on the planet he could have told Kazran about that. It would threaten his business, therefore he would let the ship land. Even if it wouldn't have, the Doctor could lie to convince him.

:::: Well its commonly established that one can't go back on there own time track, as that would create a paradox about not needing to go back in the first place. If that were possible then he wouldn't have had any problems ever: like why he couldn't rescue Adric or stop the Dalek invasion. As for your second point the Doctor did tell him, and Kazran didn't care. Evidently one ship crashing isn't going to make that much of a difference to his empire, or else he would have acted. As for your third, not knowing what sort of man he was up against, the Doctor had already told him the truth. So lying's out of the question, unless you're suggesting he tried to memory wipe him.

 

* When the two Kazrans touch, this should result in a paradox due to the [[Blinovitch Limitation Effect]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Mawdryn Undead]]'', ''[[Father's Day (TV story)|Father's Day]]'').

 

 

 

 

 

 

:::: When the two Brigadier's touch the effect is an explosion. When the two sonic screwdrivers touched in the previous episode it created a small spark. Therefore the effect seems to vary so it is possible the discharge is so small it is hard to see.

::::: That only happens because the Brigadier is larger, and time was shrinking so there was less temporal energy. I still don't see the problem, it's already been agreed that the Doctors changing the time line is the reason they can touch. Because like Amy, although they are genetically the same, they are now two different people.

:::::: Tell you what, let's apply a little physics here. The Blinovitch Limitation Effect takes place when matter comes into physical contact with a time-shifted version of itself. But think about it: if something like that were to really happen, then surely it must occur at a molecular level. For instance, the Brigadier's right hand touched the Brigadier's right hand, finger to finger and palm to palm. So the EXACT SAME molecules and cells were coming into contact with themselves. The same for the sonic screwdriver in The Big Bang - it touches its own head. But here, as far as I could see, no part of Kazran's body actually touched its counterpart on his other self. In fact, direct contact was blocked for the most part by their dressing-gowns. So there you go.

* The doctor shows a picture of Santa Claus. But in ''[[The Doctor Dances (TV story)|The Doctor Dances]]'', the Doctor says he is Santa Claus. Was he just joking?

:: I'm sure there's plenty of explanation for Santa's in shopping centres not being the same as the real one. And who's to say he's not joking here?