Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Nightmare in Silver

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 Nightmare in Silver 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. 

• When the Doctor bluffed that he is about to win the game in three or five moves, that would not require the Cybermen to invest a significant effort to verify. A 6-ply (three move pairs) look-forward in chess game does not involve that many different combinations even if they are checked using brute force. In fact, a typical desktop computer of today can do it in a few minutes, and I'd presume the Cyberman is more efficient than a today's computer. (Tested with: http://www.vanheusden.com/DeepBrutePos/ ) Also, they did not negotiate a time limit for the moves... A match with a computer is pretty much meaningless when the computer can spend an eternity thinking a move.

Which means the Cyberplanner probably couldn't figure out what the Doctor was talking about. It knew he couldn't have such a move planned out, but it also knew that he was cleverer than it was. Not wanting to take any chances, of course it pulled in more resources to verify.

• Three million Cybermen hiberating/recuperating completely undetected? An empire that can destroy a galaxy will have routine detection equipment sensitive to detect such things before leasing a planet for commercial development.

Except of course, that the enemy they were fighting was of similar (or even better) technological level, Thus, the Cybermen would've presumably been able to block such detection equipment, if it existed.

• What was comical about Nanny Longshoe's Comical Castle?

I imagine there were a lot of bits we didn't see to the castle. Plus, considering that the theme park has closed down, it could have been cleared out so all comical things would now be gone.Maybe there were no props in the first place and "Nanny Longshoe" was a comical character whom is no longer needed.

• Why did the children sleep in the manniquin room rather than be kept safe in the tardis?

Would you want that annoying girl going to explore the TARDIS?

Yes. No problem. We know, that Tardis can take care of herself. A normal human girl wandering inside Tardis could not do anything harmful to her...

Its simply a case of the doctor underestimating just how much danger they were in, and assuming they would.

• Why did the emperor not evacuate and destroy the planet the first moment he became away of a cyber infestation?

Perhaps because he wanted to have his little vacation and he didn't want to be an emperor anyway...

• Despite upgrading to gain incredible speed, the cybermen never again exploit this significant advantage.
• Mr. Clever criticize the doctor on his emotions, despite being clearly highly emotional himself, as a cyberman shouldn't it be stoic, if the emotions are a side effect of trying to compensate a time lord brain, shouldn't it be worker to shut down these unwanted emotions?
• How many people have the cyber men been taking? If three million life forms disappeared shouldn't the imperium send an army into investigate, rather than a punishment crew? If the majority of them were already there, why go into hibernation in the first place, considering how formidable they make three million cybermen out to be.
  • It was stated that Cybermen were taken there to be repaired one by one, so presumably they've all been waiting to be repaired, and then forced to wait for the Cyber-Planner to manifest. The people missing in the amusement park were probably used to repair the damaged Cyber-Men, rather than make the Cyber-Planner.
• For such logical beings, the cybermen rarely exploit there advantages (detachable parts, enhanced speed etc), how is that logical?

It is never stated that all units have received the same upgrades. The high speed and detachable parts might come with serious disadvantages as well.