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

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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 Doctor Who 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.
  • How is Grace supposed to know what a Neutron Ram is?
The Doctor often speaks in technical ways that his companions don't understand. Rose Tyler and Sarah Jane Smith pointed this out in School Reunion and Donna Noble throughout the fourth series.
  • How could the Eighth Doctor possibly have got any Jelly Babies?
They could have been in the pocket of the coat he took or one of the lockers he looked through.
Most people don't keep anything in the pockets of costumes they're going to wear later at a party.
This person obviously did.
  • Jelly Babies are not available in America.
They are available in specialized import shops.
  • Why does the police motorcycle drive at full speed into the TARDIS? Surely it would slow down as it was coming up to the wall.
Evidently, the motorcycle was experiencing malfunctioning brakes. The policeman can be heard alluding to his brakes.
We do not know the Time placement in relation to the Daleks, so the execution may have happened before the planet was destroyed.
It has also been suggested in War of the Daleks that another planet, not Skaro, had been destroyed.
Skaro was also "lost" in the Time War, so it was probably brought back some how. Even after the Time war, it still existed, as shown in City of the Daleks.
There could be a New Skaro, similar to New Earth
  • The idea of the Doctor being half-Human on his mother's side is not supported by any other televised episodes.
The Forgotten suggests that it may have been a ruse.
Romana's regeneration in Destiny of the Daleks depicts her "trying on" what appear to be different species.
Immediately prior to his regeneration, the Ninth Doctor jokes to Rose that he might not return with a humanoid shape.
Both versions of Human Nature hinge upon the fact that the Doctor can indeed become Human.
On the other side of the argument, Journey's End suggests that half-Humanity would create a fundamental flaw in the Doctor's makeup, and prevent him from regenerating.
That flaw was part of the human-Time Lord 'meta-crisis', which is a completely different, and largely unexplained biological event.
Regeneration was not a natural biological function for a Time Lord. Their biodata was altered to allow it. It is possible that the same was done for the half-Human Doctor when he was born.
  • The Doctor displays superhuman strength after his regeneration as he is able to pound down a thick steel door. He has never been shown displaying such physical strength before or since.
In The Green Death the Third Doctor showed immense physical strength.
Immediately after regenerating, the Fourth Doctor was able to chop a brick in half in Robot.
The Tenth Doctor was able to fall from an immense height in The End of Time.
The Eleventh Doctor was able to hang on to the TARDIS by little more than his fingertips, whilst it was in flight in The Eleventh Hour.
  • Why would the Master speak with an American accent?
Every body has an individual voice. Voices cannot be chosen.
His previous takeover of a person's body in The Keeper of Traken resulted in him speaking with the man's voice.
  • The Doctor died in his seventh incarnation in the BBC webcast Death Comes to Time. How can he be around to transport the Master's remains?
Death Comes to Time is generally considered non-canonical for this reason, although the events of the story are referenced in a couple of novels from that period.
It is also possible that the seventh Doctor's body was resurrected by the Time Lords in the same way that they resurrected Rassilon, and or the same way the Master was resurrected.
  • The Seventh Doctor holds the sonic screwdriver the wrong way round.
Perhaps it worked both ways.
  • When the Master was executed, the Daleks sounded completely different to Daleks we have seen in the series.
Some Daleks sound different to other Daleks. If you listen closely to past Dalek stories you can hear the variation of the voice pattern.
Daleks have never been portrayed as clones, except perhaps for those seen in The Stolen Earth.
The Daleks are also known to work with other races (such as the Ogrons) so it's possible another group did the actual termination. It might also have been Davros.
It couldn't have been Davros because you hear an echo of many Daleks and plus Davros doesn't sound that high pitched
  • Why would the Daleks be trying the Master in a court of law for anything, crime or not? Why would the Daleks hold a trial of any kind, much less allow the Doctor, their greatest enemy, to come pick up and then transport the remains of the Master?
Russell T Davies writes, in the Doctor Who Annual 2006, that Romana, in her capacity as President of Gallifrey, was in peace negotiations with the Daleks, and that these included The Act of Master Restitution. Though details of this Act are not offered it can be inferred that this involved delivering the Master to the Daleks, on the provision that he be legally tried, rather than executed outright. The Master's demand that the Doctor return his remains to Gallifrey may have been a legal right that the Daleks, however uncharacteristically, chose to honour. Of course, the Time Lords later resurrected the Master, so who knows?
The Daleks have, at times, behaved subserviently, as long as it helped further an ulterior motive. In Power of the Daleks, they are initially docile, and quite happy to help the Humans. Likewise, they begin The Daleks' Master Plan as allies of Mavic Chen, only to betray him later. In Day of the Daleks, as well, they are not simply "evil"; they collude with Humans to achieve their greater ends. It's reasonable to assume that their dealings with the Master might have been part of some greater plan to lure the Time Lords into believing they could be allies.
Some spin-off fiction has suggested the Master was in cahoots with the Daleks and that this was an elaborate trap for the Doctor. Bearing in mind that the Tremas incarnation of the Master when last seen in Survival was suffering from the cat infection the Master may have decided he needed a new body anyway - so why not try to steal the Doctor's remaining lives?
  • At the beginning, the Doctor sets course for the "Rassilon Era". But the Master, at that time, had not been born yet, let alone died.
The Rassilon Era likely denotes the era that the Doctor and the Master are from in much the same way Anno Domini denotes time after the birth of Christ.
  • How did the Master gain the ability to paralyse people with his spit and why did it not affect Grace so badly?
The Master was in the form of the snake. The paralysis spit was an ability of the snake. Bruce's body was simply a vessel for the snake.
We've never been given a full inventory of Time Lord abilities. For all we know the Doctor might possess the same ability and be unable to/unwilling to use it.
The Time vortex, when seen, can be seen as existing in space. Somehow, the Time vortex is a physical existance somewhere in the universe, meteors travelling through space can fly into the vortex, only to be deposited at some period in the past or future.
  • Evidence seems to state that the "Old Master" was the Ainley Master from the TV series, but how did he escape from the Cheetah World?
It is stated in First Frontier that he was able to recover enough to teleport from the planet.
Other "evidence" also suggests this was a different incarnation of the Master altogether, since we do not know how much time has elapsed since Survival.
  • During the "end of the world" montage sequence, it appears as if it's midnight, or a least evening, at different locations around the world at the same time.[1]
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