Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Mawdryn Undead

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This page is for discussing the ways in which Mawdryn Undead 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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• Mawdryn Undead has the unfortunate distinction of contributing to one of the biggest and most widely discussed contradictions in the Doctor Who universe: the "UNIT dating controversy".
• The Brigadier states that he has seen the Doctor regenerate twice. In fact, he has only seen him regenerate once, in DW: Planet of the Spiders The former might refer to ST: The Touch of the Nurazh or his thoughts on that the Third Doctor had changed back to the Second in DW: The Three Doctors.

Alternatively, he might simply have chosen his words poorly and been referring to his knowledge of the Doctor's regeneration from Second to Third, even though he did not physically witness it. Also, his actual words are that he has 'seen it twice' which could just as easily refer to the after effects of regeneration (amnesia, disorientation, etc) and not the process itself.

• With a whole cosmos to choose from, couldn't the Black Guardian have selected a more reliable assassin to deal with the Doctor than Turlough?

He is limited to picking someone who will come in contact with the Doctor, having no power to directly influence what happens within the universe. Turlough is the most likely candidate of who he has to choose from.

• If Mawdryn and his associates really wanted to die, couldn't they simply have rigged the engines of their ship to explode (as we see happen at the end of the story). The explosion would surely have been enough to scatter their molecules across space, making further regeneration impossible. The same would, after all, certainly kill a Time Lord.

Their journey was in part meant to be a punishment. The engines might have been designed to be tamper-resistant.

The Target Novelisation of this story elaborates on their perpetual regeneration rather horribly, and makes it clear that nothing but the Doctor's Artron energy will save them: although subject to constant, agonising mutation, their actual body cells and inherent consciousness are indestructible, and will continue being alive and self-aware even if splattered across the vacuum of space (hence the "undead" tag). With the facilities of the ship, they keep their chance, however remote, of one day encountering a Time Lord to end their plight.