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

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 Invasion 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. 

• Why does Vaughn continue to delegate tasks to Packer, who is obviously incompetent?

He can't risk him leaving or becoming antagonized with him as he could tell the authorities of the invasion, which he obviously knows about. Alternatively, Packer is the brother of Tobias, so he's keeping him in work because of the only being the Vaughn boys fear - Old Mrs Vaughn.

• What happens to all the Cybermen that come out of the sewers? The Doctor and UNIT only seem to stop the Cybermen deliver their bomb, and the Cybermen who have invaded are unaccounted for.

Attack of the Cybermen would later reveal some returned to the sewers. In episode dialogue reveals that UNIT plans to take care of the remaining after dealing with the Megatron Bomb and the Cyber-Spaceship.

The Cybermen from Attack are time travellers from Telos, so it seems unlikely they are connected to the Cybermen seen here. They were simply making use of their old hiding place and possibly the base left behind after this invasion.

• In addition to the above, what do the Cybermen actually do after they have invaded? They are not really seen after the episode 6 cliffhanger, and characters seem to be able to move about without meeting them. Also, what is the point of seizing control of London in this way when the whole human population is under Cyber-hypnotic control at this point and the main invasion force is en route already?

• Zoe and Isobel wait to be captured in episode 2.

• In episode 4, the Doctor and his companions claim to have seen a ship on the moon - when they didn't.

In the DVD's animated episode 1, a ship was added to cover this up (you never see the moon in the original though).

• How can human weapons harm cyberships?

The missles may have been modified by UNIT or Torchwood.

Why shouldn't they work? A bow and arrow can still kill can't it? In comparasant, why can't what is as ancient (To the cybermen) as a bow and arrow, still furfil its purpose?

Since the Cybermen expected that the entire armed forces of Earth would be conveniently paralysed during their Invasion, and since their current base world is low on resources (hence the invasion, as emotionless logic dictates they would not invade out of mere greed), they have probably not put a lot of effort into constructing such luxuries as armour and force fields.

• Even if UNIT dating is taken from The Web of Fear being 40 years after The Abominable Snowmen (1935) and this 4 years later, that still leaves this in 1979 - 7 years before The Tenth Planet and well before any other Cyberman story (the rest being set well into the future) - so where do these cybermen come from?

Maybe some Cybermen survived the freighter impact in Earthshock and waited around 65 million years?

More seriously, Cybermen history is obviously ridiculously complicated. This wiki seems to accept the David Banks history (in Doctor Who: Cybermen, but there's no way to explain that entire theory on an entry on a page like this, and just saying, 'They're CyberFaction, not CyberMondasian' doesn't mean much on its own.

It's clear that some Cybermen left Mondas before its destruction or there'd be no more Cyberman stories. Silver Nemesis sees a large amount of space-faring Cybermen around only two years after The Tenth Planet. It's even possible, at a stretch, that these Cybermen are still in contact with the ones on Mondas or even came directly from there. (The comic strip The World Shapers identifies the Planet 14 they mention as Mondas, although several other theories abound.)