Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Aliens of London

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This page is for discussing the ways in which Aliens of London 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.
  • The Doctor states that he is 900 years old, contradicting the last on-screen reference to his age, 953, in Time and the Rani.
He could have been lying about his age, "rounding down" or only counting his years of travelling in the TARDIS.
Voyage of the Damned gives an exact number, 903.
He had spent around three years travelling with Rose and Martha, so had aged three years by that time.
You're missing the point, that this proves he cannot be "rounding" and thus confirms this indeed conflicts with earlier stories. That said, I don't really care about keeping the age of a mythical Time Lord consistent.
The Doctor may be counting time differently than done on Earth, or that for some reason as yet unchronicled, perhaps due to the Time War, he has forgotten some years of his life.
The Ribos Operation, among others, also established that the Doctor was not adverse to lying about his age.
Steven Moffat has said before that he believes that the Doctor simply does not know his age.
Yeah, and it seems like he made a decision that he would start counting at 900 from his 9th regeneration and try to keep it straight from there...
  • It is unlikely that no higher minister than Joseph Green could be found to be acting Prime Minister.
Downing Street was panicking and maybe they just grabbed the first MP they could.
The Slitheen had been planning this for a while so they would have people everywhere who would be pushing for a rushed decision involving Joseph Green.
  • The Doctor is excited about the concept of being on Earth for first contact, and says that he did not know first contact was going to happen that day. The Doctor, whose "history is perfect" would know that this is not first contact. Furthermore, he recognizes first contact in 1986 during The Tenth Planet.
The Doctor states multiple Times in the revival that time and events are constantly in flux, meaning some details about history can change.
The public largely believed that it was a hoax, so history wouldn't necessarily record the event as "first contact".
Surely, ever new encounter with an alien race is a "first contact".
Yes, but typically that's not what the phrase means
What about all the "first contacts" involving his second and third incarnations?
The Tenth Planet is still in continuity with the new series history (and unless stated otherwise, we have no reason to believe every other classic story isn't canon either). There were Cybermen landing everywhere and a giant planet in the sky. It's virtually impossible the entire world would view that as a hoax. Especially since the Cybermen made a prominant invasion only a few years earlier during The Invasion. Not to mention the Autons or the Zygons, and most undeinable of all, the Ambassadors of Death, which had huge media coverage inuniverse. It's absurd to think that these events would have less impact on the public consciousness, than a pig landing in the thames. The only reasonable explanation is that when the episode was produced, they weren't sure yet wether they wanted the classic series to lie within the same continunity.
Remembrance of the Daleks (you know? From the classic series?) already addressed this, at least with regard to the first two.
  • The Slitheen have only three appendages on each hand, yet when they are inside their Human skinsuits, they are able to manipulate all five of the hand's appendages.
This is probably something to do with the compression field, the Slitheen still manage to control their Human eyes, even though their real eyes are much bigger.
  • How did Jackie know that the Doctor's ship was called a TARDIS? It was never said in front of or near her before she rang up the public alien helpline.
It is plausible that Rose told her off-screen.
The subtitles on the DVD and behind the scenes footage clearly shown Jackie saying "She called it a TARDIS" confirming the possibility that she was told by Rose offscreen.
  • Concerning Rose being missing for one year: Why didn't Jackie just call Rose on her Superphone? Roses phone was upgraded in "The End of The World" and it is later established that one could call a Superphone just like a regular one.
There is no evidence to suggest that Jackie didn't try to call Rose on her superphone. It is possible that Rose just chose not to answer the phone when her mother was calling - it is likely she preferred to travel with the Doctor rather than talk to her mother.
Also, who's to say it didn't just come through at the wrong time? After all, it hasn't been a year from Rose's POV. And Jackie explicitly states that she DID call.
The telephone company wouldn't patch Jackie through - there's no way she could afford the bill!
The Superphone article suggests that a Superphone can be called both ways, although the thing about the cost of phoning a Superphone isn't really explained as far as I'm aware.
Jackie's line about "putting a pound in the Lottery syndicate" indicates that the phone call travelled back in time to the day that Rose first met the Doctor.
  • Why would Tosh, from Torchwood 3, investigate the space pig? Presumably Torchwood 1 would take over that, and she is not even a qualified doctor.
The Torchwood episode Exit Wounds established that Owen was supposed to conduct the examination of the space pig, but was hungover, so Tosh covered for him.
As Jack would be head of Torchwood 3 at this point and due to his own personal history with The Doctor, knew he would be here at this time so he wanted to send a member of his team undercover to report back to him, so as to preserve his personal timeline meeting with The Doctor later.
  • At the beginning, how on earth could the Doctor possibly notice from where he is standing at that the poster is about Rose? It would be impossible to tell from his angle, and to make is even more impossible the wind is blowing the part of the poster with Rose's picture away from the Doctor, and the word 'Rose' is not in the poster's title.
Maybe he just saw the Missing poster and went over as he was looking for a mystery.
  • Slitheen have a great sense of smell and can easily smell out Humans, so why is it they couldn't smell the presence of Harriet Jones when she is hiding in the cabinet room and only a few inches away from them?
It is possible that the Slitheen can only smell people that they are hunting. Since they weren’t hunting Harriet at the time, it’s possible they couldn’t smell her then.
  • Rose's mum phones the Alien hotline and tells them all about the Doctor. She says that he's called the Doctor and has a Blue Box, fair enough. But then she says he called it a TARDIS. Except that no one called it a TARDIS in front of her. The closest was Mickey calling it "that box thing"
What is seen on screen does not represent every second of real time, so therefore it is quite possible that the name was mentioned at some moment which was not seen on screen.
  • If the Slitheen were planning to kill the alien experts anyway, why bother having Asquith Slitheen unmask in front of them? Why bother starting the meeting at all?
The Slitheen are rather immature, stupid, and easily amused.
  • In Series 2 episode 6 of Torchwood just before it is revealed that Martha is the VIP guest coming to inspect the body of a murder victim we see a newspaper from season 1 of dr who where Margret Blaine (slitheen in disguise) but then we Martha who is only introduced in season 3 so how can they be in the same episode?/ why would Torchwood have an 2 yr old newspaper stuck on the door which gets used daily surely one of them would say oh this is old and take it off and throw it away.
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