Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Long Game

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Long Game 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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Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

• Why doesn't the TARDIS translate the Jagrafess's screeching into English?

It's possible the TARDIS didn't have any data on the Jagrafess's language and therefore couldn't translate. The comic strip The Woman Who Sold the World suggests that if there is no English for what's being said, then a person hears gibberish. Perhaps the screech was just a screech.

• The Doctor and Rose keep snapping their fingers while in front of the TARDIS, so why doesn't the TARDIS doors close like in Forest Of The Dead?

It doesn't open just for any snapping sound. The doors aren't on a "clapper." The Doctor doesn't know how to open the TARDIS doors by snapping at this point, and in fact doesn't even believe it's possible until the end of Forest of the Dead. It's an ability within himself that he had not developed or realised at this time. Additionally, given the TARDIS' telepathic abilities, it would've ascertained that the Doctor had no intention of operating the doors at this time.

• Why does the Editor talk as if time travel is impossible in the Human Empire? If time travel was possible for humans back in Jack's home era, the 51st century, then why wouldn't it still be possible in the 2001st century?

Not all technological advances are remembered throughout history.