Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Three Doctors

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Three Doctors 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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• The fact that he has been brought into his own future and telepathically linked with the Third Doctor leads to questions of the Second Doctor learning of his eventual capture, trial, and exile by the Time Lords.

Season 6B is an attempt to reconcile the issues arising from this plot hole.

In TV: The Five Doctors and TV: The Two Doctors, the Doctor appears not to remember meeting himself; in TV: Time Crash, however, he does remember--but not immediately. It's unclear what exactly the situations are in which the Doctor can remember such meetings.

This is NOT a plothole. Season 6B was created because of the events in TV: The Two Doctors. And, even then their memories would still be wiped!

Its implied by one of the Chancellors that everything will be put back it is correct place, once the Doctor has dealt with Omega. Hence, the First and Second Doctors would not remember events.

Future multi-Doctor stories (Time Crash, The Day of the Doctor) seem to imply that in a cross-time encounter like this, the earlier Doctor(s) loses his or her memory of what happened soon after returning to their own point in time, while the most recent Doctor involved remembers everything once it's happened. Presumably "Time" wiped the Doctor's memory to maintain the space-time continuum or, more prosaically, the Second Doctor's mind simply forgot what happened as a defence mechanism against possible mental damage caused by trying to remember the events surrounding a paradox. Most likely the Second Doctor, moments after being returned to the point in his timeline that he was taken from, had a brief moment of deja vu where he thought he'd forgotten something, shrugged it off, and continued doing what he was doing before being taken out of time.

He also must likely have always known that capture and punishment was a distinct possibility, throughout all his wanderings, and so it's understandable that he's more resigned to the fact of it being confirmed that eventually, in his personal future, he will get caught.

• How come the Brigadier mentions to the Second Doctor both the Autons and the Nestene Consciousness when the Second doesn't remember these events?

The Brigadier doesn't know that - he's trying to get his head round the sudden reappearance of the old Doctor and is confused about the face changing.

Indeed The Brigadier rationalises that Doctor three has in someway transformed himself back into (from the Brigs point of view) his original form, The Brig is rather thick in this story all told.

In total fairness to the Brigadier, it's not a wholly unreasonable assumption to make; the Brigadier knows that the Doctor can change his appearance, but doesn't know that two different versions of the Doctor can occupy the same point in time, since he's not yet seen them together.

The Brigadier mentions this because he's trying to figure out just what the blazes is going on. He's assuming that the Third Doctor has reverted back into the form of the Second Doctor, not that the Second Doctor has come forward in time. So he first questions whether the Second Doctor is the same Doctor who he met during "the Yeti business" and then "later when the Cybermen invaded" (i.e. "The Web of Fear" and "The Invasion). When the Second Doctor confirms this, then the Brigadier brings up the Autons and the Nestene, the clear purpose of the questioning being "are you the same Doctor I faced those with as well?" He brings up those things because he's trying to confirm his theory that a face-change has happened, and hasn't really grasped that the Second Doctor has arrived from an earlier point in the Doctor's timeline.

• In episode 4, the two Doctors take less time to get to UNIT than the others did in Bessie.

They remember the way better.

Bessie is not an all-terrain vehicle.

This may also have something to do with the nature of the anti-matter realm, in which those with sufficient willpower are able to mould it to their will. Omega, a Time Lord with access to the singularity that generates it, holds the most power, but it is possible that those with sufficiently strong will might be able to affect their environment in small, subtle ways -- such as, for example, bringing an object closer to them. The humans lack the same amount of willpower to do so than the two Doctors, so it takes longer for them.

• If the organism was to find the Doctor why send the monsters as well?

In case he put up a struggle or could somehow defeat the organism.

The organism and the monsters are the same substance (like water and ice); this is expanded upon by Terrance Dicks in the novelisation, which features the original organism split and multiply within the sewer system before launching its attack.

• The explanation of why Ollis is taken doesn't really hold up, and it is painfully obvious that they just needed a good way to start the story.

The explanation was not really an explanation, it was merely the Doctor hypothesising.

It seems reasonable. The organism arrived somewhat disoriented in this universe and was looking for the Doctor. To the organism one humanoid must have looked very much like another. It eventually became better acclimated.

• In the end the Third Doctor says he will need to build a new forcefield circuit before he can travel again, so how does he materialise in Carnival of Monsters?

The forcefield circuit is probably less complex than the materialisation circuit. There is clearly at least a small amount of time that passes and the Doctor obviously rebuilt the forcefield circuit (probably very quickly) in that time.

Or to be put another way: Very simply, he builds one. Then Carnival of Monsters occurs after that.

• There are shots that make it quite obvious that there is no interior to the TARDIS prop.

That's not a plot hole, it's a production error.

The actual functioning of the TARDIS' disguise is still somewhat unclear, and would appear to involve some manipulation of people’s perceptions as much as physically changing the exterior. When viewed from the outside, it presumably is supposed to look like a police box, which could easily extend to when the door is open as well. This isn't always the case (the newer episodes show this), but we know that nothing in the TARDIS works exactly like it's supposed to all the time.

• The Brigadier says UNIT HQ is "a Top Secret establishment". It's therefore a surprise to see a large sign outside informing the world not only of its function, but also the name of the commanding officer.

"Top Secret" usually refers to the work going on inside the facility, not to the location of the facility itself.

Everyone knows where the MI6 building is in London. It’s the building’s contents that are Top Secret.

More specifically, the Brigadier is irritably commenting on the fact that the Doctor appears to have given a civilian outsider free reign to wander around the laboratory of a military installation where everything is supposed to be a closely guarded secret from civilians. If UNIT HQ was so secret that even the location was supposed to be unknown, Dr. Tyler wouldn't have been allowed anywhere near the premises.

• The footsteps of those returning to Earth via the singularity can be heard as they walk down the steps after they've disappeared.

The sound waves from their footsteps can still pass over the bridge of the singularity.

• How does the First Doctor know that the blob is a bridge?

He worked it out for the other incarnations.

Simply by reasoning. (Things touch it and they disappear, it was sent a long way, there's energy being drained into a black hole,...)

Alternatively, he might have been briefed by the Time Lords.

• The view from the TARDIS scanner is from the far side of the lab and includes the TARDIS itself.

The TARDIS scanner can show pretty much any angle from the vicinity around it. (c.f. Logopolis)

As the Doctor was exiled to Earth, yet had his TARDIS, he might have linked the scanner up to UNIT's security camera, like he made modifications to Bessie.

• When the gel creature is chasing Tyler it bumps into a wall right before the cut to the next scene.

Some species have bad sight, especially when they have only a single eye.

Some beings can also be clumsy and lack physical coordination. This commenter has personally been known to bump into doorframes while walking through a door through misjudging distances slightly. It's just a thing that happens.

The Gel Guards only have one eye, set in the middle of their "face". Depth perception is not going to be on their skill set.

• The Chancellor tells the First Doctor that "all three are needed to defeat Omega". But how does he know who the enemy is?

Just as the Time Lords monitored different points in time, they may have been able to see what happened in Omega's universe and the Doctors' confrontation with him.

They could have worked it out independently. The entity in the black hole is attacking the Time Lords, and seems to lose interest in Earth once the nearest Time Lord is sucked into it. Therefore, it's interested in / hostile to Time Lords and is connected to the black hole. Omega is a legendary Time Lord figure who is believed to have died after an incident connected to a black hole. It seems entirely possible to eventually join the dots together.

• Although it is later revealed that Omega has no physical shape, the actor's mouth can be seen on several occasions, notably when he is working out who the Second Doctor is.

A residual effect of Omega willing himself to exist. Think of it as a part of the mask.

• Everyone is supposed to be returned to where they were when they were taken. But the Third Doctor was outside the TARDIS when he was taken and is returned inside it, while the Brigadier and Sgt Benton were inside the TARDIS when they were taken and are returned outside of it.

They were taken back to where they were supposed to be, not from where they were taken.

Omega is not that tediously over-literal. He returns everyone to "where they were when they were taken" in the sense that they are returned to roughly the same place in the matter universe that they were taken from, not necessarily the exact spot down to the molecular level. Besides which, he sends the Brigadier and Benton back before the TARDIS (hence they can't be returned inside the TARDIS), while the Third Doctor is visibly seen scrambling to get back into the TARDIS before the anti-matter reacts to the Second Doctor's still-matter recorder. Hence, the Brigadier and Benton are returned outside the TARDIS because the TARDIS is not there for them to be returned into, while the Third Doctor is returned inside the TARDIS because he is literally inside the TARDIS when it and he are returned.

• Why can't the Third Doctor remember what happened, seeing as (for him) it's already happened twice before?

Maybe when the Time Lords erased his memory at the end of The War Games they also removed his memories his own future. The Second Doctor would have the First Doctor's memories of the episode, but the First Doctor was in the TV the whole time anyway, so he didn't know much of what was going on.

It hasn't happened yet. I see no problem with this situation.

Think of it like The Day of the Doctor, the time lines were out of sync.

Where does it say the Third Doctor can't remember what happened?

It's not directly stated, but heavily implied by the fact that the Third Doctor seems consistently surprised by things happening (his former selves showing up, the entity behind events being revealed to be Omega, etc.) that he would logically remember from the First and Second Doctors going through these events had he retained memories of them.

The Third Doctor can't remember what happened because these events actually hadn't happened to him before. It's a paradox; before the Time Lords intervened, the Second Doctor never travelled to UNIT HQ, the First Doctor never got stuck in a time bubble, and so forth. The Second Doctor is creating any memories of this event that the Third Doctor would have at the exact same time as the Third Doctor, since they are both experiencing them for the first time simultaneously (and ditto for the First Doctor). Confusing, but that's a paradox.

As for why the First and Second Doctors don't continue to remember these events after they have lived through them, future multi-Doctor stories (see: Time Crash, The Day of the Doctor) suggest that the earlier Doctor(s) loses his or her memories of the encounter soon afterwards, while the last Doctor to be involved remembers everything. Presumably this is a function of the time continuum maintaining itself, or the mind simply forgetting everything as a defence mechanism against the paradox.