Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Witch's Familiar

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Witch's Familiar doesn't fit well with other DWU narratives. You can also talk about the plot holes that render its own, internal narrative confusing.

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• how did Davros get the confession dial? how did it end up in a box along with the sunic-glasses (yes, I just coined a phrase)
  • Davros states that Colony Sarff confiscated it.

• How did the Doctor a)get control of Davros' chair? b)manage to fit in Davros' chair?
  • a) probably by force b) why shouldn't he?
    • a)speaking of "force", Davros' chair was surrounded by a forcefield b)Because the chair was specifically made for Davros, who has no legs. Whereas Capaldi has long legs.
      • Good point if Davros has no legs why there be all that empty space where his legs should be unless he had legs in Genesis but had lost them by say Remembrance.
        • In Genisis its stated that Davros can't live for more than 30 seconds with out his life support but how not die then the Doctor takes out the chair? I out of it for way longer than that.
          • It's been a looong time since Genesis! Presumably, the technology has advanced considerably, as has the rest of Dalek technology.

a)Many forcefields work against energy weapons but not against physical force (such as the Doctor grabbing Davros and yanking him out of the chair). b) Although Davros had no legs, it doesn't mean there isn't room underneath for the Doctor to put his legs - especially if he just removed some bits of tech that might have been down there.

• The Daleks understood what "mercy" was in their very first chronological story, Genesis of the Daleks (TV story).
  • Did they? Here's a direct quote from a Dalek in that story: "“Pity? I have no understanding of the word. It is not registered in my vocabulary bank”.
    • Daleks have begged for mercy before. They might not 'understand' a concept, but they know the word and they use it when they think it could help to survive. So I'm also surprised that the Doctor was surprised...
      • Remember that the Doctor realises that in order to teach the Daleks the meaning of mercy, he has to undo what he did and save the boy Davros. So it was, indirectly, the Doctor who taught the Daleks to hate. So now he as to teach them mercy, or at least, sow the seeds of mercy in Davros's mind. So in the timestream in which he didn't save Davros, he is still saved somehow and his Daleks have no concept of mercy, as in Genesis. But in another timestream in which the Doctor did save Davros they do have at least the germ of the concept in their minds. Timey-wimey stuff. Makes for some interesting future stories - good Daleks?
    • What makes you think there even were two different timestreams? No such thing is mentioned in the episoded. Moreover, in DWM column Moffat implied that Davros knew all along that the Doctor'd saved him, while the Doctor didn't know it, because he hasn't saved him yet, and it was tricky to write the dialogues so none of them could mention anything to contradict the other's version.
      • There are a couple of things to suggest different time streams. "Davros remembers" - just what he remembers is never specifically stated, but the strong implication is that he was abandoned to die. Otherwise why would the Doctor be ashamed? Secondly, Clara's cry for mercy translated by the dalek casing as a plea for mercy. The Doctor is surprised and wonders where this comes from. He realises that it is because he put it there by saving the dalek creator eons ago. He then has togo back in time and do exactly that.
• Which begs another question. Why does Davros not remember the Doctor in Genesis? Different faces, sure, but he would remember a time traveller and the Tardis. After all, he extracted all this info from him under torture.
  • It may have originally not happened by the time the Fourth Doctor was sent to Skaro. We learn in The Name of the Doctor that, in one timeline, the Eleventh Doctor died on Trenzalore. He would have to receive a new regeneration cycle and alter the outcome of the Siege of Trenzalore first before the Twelfth Doctor could do any of his travelling, and thus encounter the young Davros. (However, Twelve appeared in The Day of the Doctor - maybe by that point, the Doctor was already taking steps, knowingly or otherwise, to ensure his future, allowing the new timeline to gradually seep through the overlap the old one).

• Was there any explanation as to why pre-Time War series model Daleks were in this (and the prior) episode?
  • Davros likes the classic designs?
    • Rescued from the Asylum?
    • Perhaps the Daleks repaired some of the city's old production lines when they rebuilt the place.

• What caused the explosion in the sewers after Missy attacks the Dalek guard? The casing is perfectly fine afterwards when she stuffs Clara inside.

That doesn't mean that all systems are still intact, however. Certain parts may well have malfunctioned, just not parts that Clara needed and used.

• In Asylum of the Daleks (TV story) Oswin, while inside a Dalek casing, is able to both identify herself as "Oswin", and say that she is "human" and "not a Dalek". Yet in The Witch's Familiar, when Clara is inside a Dalek casing, she is unable to tell the Doctor that she's Clara, because Dalek casings ALWAYS translate that to "I-AM-A-DA-LEK!"
  • Oswin was able to hack into the operational systems of the Asylum and even erase any record of the Doctor in the Daleks' memory banks. If she could do this possibly she could reprogram the speech translators in her own casing. Remember too that all the daleks in the Asylum are irreparably damaged and insane.
  • Perhaps the casing limiting Dalek vocabulary were part of some new safeguards implemented at some point after Asylum of the Daleks - or at least after they got their memories of the Doctor back in The Time of the Doctor - to try and prevent something like that happening again.

• Why would someone pretend for thousands of years that they were blind, but weren't?