Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Space Museum

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Space Museum 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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::This is a counter-argument to point one.
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* This is point two.
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• When they exit the TARDIS, the main characters cast shadows across the mountains in the distance.

Regrettably, DW was filmed in a very small studio. Production errors like this happened alot.

• If during their initial 'arrival' at the Museum, the time travelers are actually walking around in the near future, why are the two Morok guards they pass unseen on their way in, still outside at the end of the episode? If the travelers have now snapped back onto the correct time track again, they shouldn't have gone outside yet.

They make the same patrol regularly. It's just coincidence the two guards who discover the TARDIS and the tracks in the sand at the end of the episode are the same two the travelers pass whilst interloping into the near future.

Its the actions of the Doctor and companions that are out of sync. The Time track jump would not affect the Moroks.

• Why exactly does jumping a time track cause the time travelers clothes to change from their crusading outfits into their usual clothes? If they are not only inhabiting a future world but also future versions of themselves (i.e. versions which have gotten around to changing their clothes and hanging up their old ones in the closet) then why do they not revert back to their crusading gear at the end of episode one? 

Not everything in fifth dimensional space-time physics is easy to explain or understand.

• The Doctor states that their clothes are the same in the exhibit, therefore their arrival is soon. It could be at any point in time.

Thats the point of the conundrum. At some point in the future, they will end up in the museum.

Though that may be true, it's a pretty logical assumption since they are all wearing the same clothes.

• How does Lobos know that Ian, Barbara, and Vicki are humans, especially if he just asked the Doctor where he came from a moment ago while interrogating him? He couldn't have known from the screen because he repeats the question again afterward.

Authority figures often ask questions they know the answer to, to gauge a person based on their response. Anyone who's ever been arrested no doubt knows this.

• Since the travellers aren't really there for most of episode 1:
• How can they press buttons in the Tardis?

The TARDIS interior is outside of normal space-time anyway, so jumping the time track probably wouldn't affect their ability to do anything while inside it.

• How can Vicki hold the glass in the first place

The glass is in the Tardis, so like the tardis it is also outside normal space-time.

• How can they close the tardis door

The TARDIS exists outside normal space-time.

• What makes Vicki sneeze? (she isn't really there, so shouldn't be affected)

Dust or some material that was on her already prior to the jump.

• How are they walking on the ground? - if their hands go through the objects in the museum, then surely their feet should pass through the ground as well.

It's because they are there. But they aren't.

They seem to "actually" be in the museum in another time period or time track- presumably not one in phase with the regular timeline, since they're not accosted by anyone who can see them during this period, but presumably objects with some permanence- solid ground, walls, etc are still in existence on the time track they're on, hence them seeming solid, but exhibits and other objects in the museum, and indeed the dust on top of the ground in which they do not leave footprints, can and have moved or been moved at some point between the time track they're perceiving, and the one in which they're located until the episode's end.

• How does the Doctor get the Time Space Visualiser into the TARDIS?

Through the doors.

• In Episode one, Ian says they are wearing thirteenth century clothes, but the previous story was set in the twelfth century.

Ian is the science teacher, not the history teacher; he's just as likely to mix up the 12th and 13th centuries as, say, a TV writer.

Why can't they have been wearing 12th century clothes in the 13th century?

• The Doctor is uncertain about what course of action to take to avoid ending up in the case in the space museum. But as a Time Lord (and therefore an acute time sensitive) surely he knows that not everything is certain and would therefore know how to avoid the events which shall cause him to end up one of cases.

How exactly does that work? Being time sensitive allows to sense time distortions and understand many other things about time, despite all that, he can't see the future.

• Since Barbara is wearing a cardigan in her case, shouldn't they know they've at least altered the timeline significantly when her cardigan is destroyed by Ian with his Theseus impression?

The only "significant" change they could be sure that caused would be that her exhibit wouldn't be wearing the cardigan. Its not enough to be sure they sufficiently changed their future.