Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Into the Dalek

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 Into the Dalek 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 is it never addressed if Clara got back to December 24th of 2013?

• The Doctor comes onto the Aristotle. First they consider killing him. Then, even when they decide he might be useful as a doctor, they still keep him under armed guard "in case he's a spy". But somehow they let him pop off in the Tardis for a few minutes to pick up Clara?!

The Doctor has dealt with soldiery types before with UNIT and all that so he must have found some way to get them to back off - smart-mouth retorts and mind games, and stuff like that that just generally confuses other people. And it wouldn't be the first time he's slipped away without anyone noticing, in this case allowing him to pop off and pick up Clara.

Since the point is never raised again, it's possible the Doctor either talked his way out of it, or Journey interceded on his behalf.

• The Doctor says that there is no such thing as a good Dalek multiple times throughout the episode; has he forgotten Oswin Dalek from Asylum?

Oswin wasn't born a Dalek but was turned into one so her inherent nature wouldn't be the same. Considering that the Daleks that captured and converted her were the insane inmates of the asylum, they may have carried out the conversion process incorrectly and failed to purge Oswin's humanity even if they changed her biology.

Perhaps, but there's also Tasha Lem, a Dalek duplicate that turned good, as well. However, as said, the Doctor here is dealing with natural-born Daleks, not conversions.

Dalek puppets aren't natural-born Daleks and they aren't even proper Daleks, so once again their inherent nature wouldn't be the same. The Doctor also takes a moment in Asylum of the Daleks to speak to Darla von Karlsen to get her to remember who she was in a failed attempt to get her to resist her conditioning. The Time of the Doctor and The Dalek Generation before it later both showed that successfully resisting Dalek puppet conditioning was possible under the right circumstances. When it comes down to it, a human who is able to resist their conditioning isn't exactly the "good Dalek" the Doctor is looking for.

Not every person is born a Dalek. Examples include The Power of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks and more recently The Parting of the Ways

Hasn't the Doctor forgotten all about Alpha, Beta, and Omega from The Evil of the Daleks?

Maybe he has or hasn't. But either way, them three were normal Daleks when the Doctor used the Human Factor on them and made them good (so they weren't naturally good Daleks, just modified ones quite like Rusty).

• How did the resistance group get Rusty? According to Morgan, they take no prisoners. Also, what did the resistance group hope to gain by going inside? And why didn't they have any doctors onboard, even if "Daleks don't leave any wounded"? What if somebody slips and breaks their arm or something?

Multiple questions there, so multiple answers:

• They explain how they got Rusty - they found it, already damaged, and only didn't destroy it because it started talking about destroying the rest of the Daleks.
• They also explain in the episode why they went inside it - to find out why it had turned "good", and to heal it (assuming it actually was good and therefore their ally against the rest of the Daleks).
• Lots of combat units travel without doctors. Even in today's world, most just have medics at best. Of course, most soldiers are also trained in basic first aid, so they could treat a simple injury like a broken arm.

It's also stated that the "take no prisoners" primarily refers to humanoids given the Daleks' ability to create replicants.

• Maybe I missed something, because no one else seems to be commenting on it, but how did the Doctor and the soldiers get out and get re-sized? The machine for miniaturisation is explicitly shown as being destroyed. It looked to me like they just cut back after Rusty killed the other Daleks and the Doctor and the others are just back.

I don't remember seeing the machine destroyed myself but if it was they may have had another one in case of emergency, or the re-sizing process was done by a completely different machine.

Prior to being shrunk, Clara is shown being given bracelets to wear to maintain the miniaturisation. Pressing a button on them was said to return the wearer to normal size.

• Why did Rusty and the other Daleks not recognise neither the Doctor or the TARDIS?

The Doctor had regenerated so they couldn't identify him in his new body - they don't recognise him in Day of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks (the Renegade Daleks at least) or Doomsday for example until they are told or find out for themselves. And I think the Dalek boarding party did recognise the TARDIS (even if we didn't see it happen on-camera), so they knew the Doctor must have been on the station and it only made them fight on harder.

Oswin made the Daleks forget about the Doctor (and presumably the Tardis) in Asylum of the Daleks.

But they regained their memories in The Time of the Doctor so that seems a moot point. I think the Daleks not recognising him because he had regenerated makes more sense.

Considering that the Daleks regained their memories of the Doctor, why is he so surprised when Rusty appears to remember him, being a time traveller, he should be used to people knowing about him because they've met a version of him from the future?

We don't know if these Daleks have met a future Twelfth Doctor before at this stage and it's entirely possible that they haven't. As well as that, some Daleks can also be remarkably ill-informed. Take Planet of the Daleks for example: despite the Daleks having already encountered the Third Doctor in Day of the Daleks and Frontier in Space (which leads directly in to Planet), the Daleks do not become aware that they are dealing with the Doctor until Episode 6. So the Daleks not recognising the Doctor is by no means unprecedented. If the real reason Rusty doesn't recognise the Doctor is because of Oswin erasing their memories in Asylum, then the real continuity question is why doesn't Rusty recognise the Doctor despite the Daleks regaining their memories in The Time of the Doctor?

• The Doctor tells us that a Dalek's emotions are inhibited by an artificial device. Previously the implication has been that the Daleks were genetically engineered without emotions. And on the rare occasions when we have seen a Dalek outside of its metal casing (Genesis of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks) they appear to be merciless creatures just as they were in their machines.

They are genetically engineered to be merciless, yes; however, the artificial device simply prevents them from developing away from that over time.

• How come the Daleks don't have personal shields in this episode?

It wasn't actually brought up anywhere whether or not the Daleks have shields. If they don't, then it's simply a matter of the New Dalek Paradigm not making shields standards issue for all their soldiers - it may have taken up too much time or resources. If they do, then the shields aren't indestructible, hence why the Daleks suffer some casualties to the resistance fighters' concentrated laser fire.

What I meant was that whenever we see them getting hit, it's always on their outer casings, with none of the shield effects indicating the presence of an energy shield.

Daleks don't always shave shields, it depends upon the time period they're in. Additionally, these ones may very well have had shields, and that's what the laser fire is hitting. Bullets appear to hit the Dalek in other episodes, but when we see it slow-mo and close up, we see they are really hitting shields.

• The season finale shows us the true nature of the Nethersphere, but one that doesn't seem compatible with this episode. Why would Missy bother about someone who died 1. in the future 2. not on earth 3. had her body destroyed?

It's a Gallifreyan hard drive -- who's to say that it can't pick random dead people from the future?

Additionally, in that same finale, Missy tells the Doctor she's been taking the dead from all along the Doctor's time stream, presumably because of her obsession with him. The Doctor also hypothesises that she has access to a TARDIS. That seems to supply both the means and the motivation.