Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Inferno

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This page is for discussing the ways in which Inferno 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:

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• On the Nuclear Output Gauge in the Doctor's workshop, Mega-volts is spelled 'Megga Volts'

Probably a rushed sign or the Doctor couldn't be bothered with changing the spelling.

• Bessie travels with the Doctor and the TARDIS console into the parallel universe, despite the fact that it is ten feet away from them

It seems that only those elements that don't already exist on the fascist Earth are transported. Does a police box turn up at the Brigade Leader's HQ at the same time? The Doctor was never exiled to Earth in this world - it would hardly become his favorite planet - or he was killed soon after arriving.

• If the Primords generate such intense heat, enough to scorch the painting off walls and make spanners too hot to touch, then why aren't their clothes burnt off them?

Since they possess the ability to infect others with the same toxin which has infected them simply by touch, it seems evident that they are somehow able to excrete it through their (now green tinged) skin. If so, maybe the toxin is absorbed into the clothes during the initial stages of mutation, like sweat, and hence provides a protective barrier from heat damage.

• Why didn't the Daleks, Robomen, and human slaves have trouble with Stahlman's Ooze when mining the core in TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth?

They did not hit a pocket of Stahlman's Gas.

Or if they did, knowing the Daleks, they probably just sealed off the relevant section of mine, grabbed some popcorn, and gloated over the subsequent carnage...

• If a dimensional paradox would have resulted from the Doctor's bringing anyone from the parallel universe into this universe, why was travel between universes unlimited in TV : Army of Ghosts and TV : Doomsday? And, for that matter, why was the Doctor able to enter the parallel universe in the first place without such repercussions?

The most reasonable explanation is that the Doctor was simply lying to Brigade Leader Lethbridge-Stewart about "dimensional paradoxes" in an attempt to keep him from trying to enter this universe. This theory is substantiated by the fact that the Tenth Doctor told Rose and Mickey that travel between universes was quite easy prior to the destruction of Gallifrey and the Time Lords.

It's possible that he was lying, but doing so did mean leaving all of them there to their deaths - not very "Doctor-like". We're almost certainly meant to believe that the Doctor is telling the truth. What he tells them is that they can't go to his universe because there are already versions of them there. Hence, he can travel between the universes himself without issue, so long as there is no version of the Doctor in that other universe. This obviously wasn't a concern for the later visits involving "Pete's World". That may well have been a different kind of "parallel universe", as we've seen that there are different varieties of them (other time streams, "bubble" universes, E-Space, etc).

Or maybe the Doctor was simply wrong? He hadn't had any prior experience with parallel universes.

• It is stated that the Doctor's help was invaluable to the project and that they wouldn't be as far along as they are without him. So why is the fascist universe, where the Doctor doesn't exist, even further along in the project?

That's Sir Keith's assessment. Stahlman clearly doesn't agree, and the parallel dimension suggests he is right.

The Parallel universe could be ahead of ours in a similar way to how "Pete's world" is ahead of ours in Army of Ghosts (TV story) and Doomsday (TV story)

• In episode 6, while Sutton is attempting to rig the coolant hose so as to keep the Primords at bay, there are several plainly visible Carbon Dioxide fire extinguishers on the walls of Main Control. Why does no one use them? There's even an additional one in clear view on the wall of the Brigade-Leader's office before they start fighting their way in!

They certainly look very similar, but they might be other types of extinguisher.

• In Episode 7, the Doctor refers to Bromley as "that technician, the one who went berserk and started killing people." Unless Bromley claimed any victims since we last saw him, then it seems like the Doctor is confusing him with Harry - who he knows is dead. Considering he dazedly refers to the Brigadier as "Brigade Leader" when asking this, it's possible he's mistaking the original Bromley for his Inferno Earth counterpart, who did kill a guy... except the Doctor saw him get killed. And even if the original Bromley did kill some people, he had to have done it while the Doctor was gone, hence he wouldn't know about it and wouldn't describe Bromley as having killed anyone. Is it a script error, or were they trying to retcon Bromley into the original infectee hoping the audience wouldn't remember Harry?

... except the Doctor also saw the Brigade Leader get killed. If he can make that confusion, he can do the same with regards to Bromley.

• It's hard to imagine any domestic UK fascist regime offing the Royals, who'd make ideal and probably quite pliant figurehead rulers, and carry a lot of the population with them. So it's arguable that the Inferno Earth regime is a communist one, but there's nothing really suggestive of that in the script or the mise-en-scene. It could be a non-denominational military dictatorship, but that brings us back to the 'figurehead' problem. Another option is that, since the evil ruler of the Inferno Earth is the Doctor, maybe he just didn't like the Royals that much.

It's possible that the regime did initially try to work with the Royals but found them uncooperative and decided to dispose of them. (A bit like revolutionary France trying to work with its royal family at first but ending up abolishing the monarchy and guillotining the King and queen).