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

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Invasion 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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• In episode five, the panel concealing the Cyber Director struggles to close.

Probably needs to be oiled.

• The Cyberman falling from the roof of an IE building in episode eight is clearly an empty costume.

• Why does Vaughn continue to delegate tasks to Packer, who is obviously incompetent?

He can't risk him leaving or becoming antagonized with him as he could tell the authorities of the invasion, which he obviously knows about. Alternatively, Packer is the brother of Tobias, so he's keeping him in work because of the only being the Vaughn boys fear - Old Mrs Vaughn.

• What happens to all the Cybermen that come out of the sewers? The Doctor and UNIT only seem to stop the Cybermen deliver their bomb, and the Cybermen who have invaded are unaccounted for.

Attack of the Cybermen would later reveal some returned to the sewers. In episode dialogue reveals that UNIT plans to take care of the remaining after dealing with the Megatron Bomb and the Cyber-Spaceship.

• In addition to the above, what do the Cybermen actually do after they have invaded? They are not really seen after the episode 6 cliffhanger, and characters seem to be able to move about without meeting them. Also, what is the point of seizing control of London in this way when the whole human population is under Cyber-hypnotic control at this point and the main invasion force is en route already?

• Zoe and Isobel wait to be captured in episode 2.

• In episode 4, the Doctor and his companions claim to have seen a ship on the moon - when they didn't.

In the DVD's animated episode 1, a ship was added to cover this up (you never see the moon in the original though).

• How can human weapons harm cyberships?

The missles may have been modified by UNIT or Torchwood.

Why shouldn't they work? A bow and arrow can still kill can't it? In comparasant, why can't what is as ancient (To the cybermen) as a bow and arrow, still furfil its purpose?

Since the Cybermen expected that the entire armed forces of Earth would be conveniently paralysed during their Invasion, and since their current base world is low on resources (hence the invasion, as emotionless logic dictates they would not invade out of mere greed), they have probably not put a lot of effort into constructing such luxuries as armour and force fields.

• Even if UNIT dating is taken from The Web of Fear being 40 years after The Abominable Snowmen (1935) and this 4 years later, that still leaves this in 1979 - 7 years before The Tenth Planet and well before any other Cyberman story (the rest being set well into the future) - so where do these cybermen come from?