Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Colony in Space

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This page is for discussing the ways in which Colony in Space 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 manner of TARDIS dematerialisation and rematerialisation is quite different to how it had been depicted during the 1960s. Both TARDISes in this story "pop" in and out of frame, rather than fading in and out. Given that TARDISes would return to "fading" after this serial, the depiction here can be seen as an error.

Although the TARDIS typically "fades" in and out, this is not always the case. Sometimes by intent, sometimes due to mechanical/pilot error, the effect can appear different. Two examples of differing materialization/de-materialization effects are The Christmas Invasion and The Runaway Bride.

The discredited 'standard' explanation for this used to be "It's because the Time Lords are operating it by remote control." This explanation can, of course, be easily debunked by pointing out that the Master's ship does the same thing in this (and no other) story. However in this story the Master's TARDIS is homing in on - and later fleeing from- co-ordinates supplied from the Time Lords' files, and, given the Time Lord conversation in episode one, the Doctor's TARDIS is being remote operated using a system reading the same data. We know that Time Lord technology includes recall discs - mentioned in The Two Doctors (TV story) and seen in action in Blink (TV story) which can, in addition to data, actively take control of a TARDIS' navigation and engines to initiate pre-programmed flight. So, all we have to assume is that the author of the original report on the Doomsday Weapon included pre-programmed automated flight data to and from Uxarieus in his file- a logical thing for him to do- and he encoded a particular- and slightly non-standard- dematerialisation sequence, which affected the visual. Note that the TARDIS in-flight sound is also noticeably different to the usual in this story.

• Why the TARDIS doors are now opening with the sound effect of a SIDRAT door/the Dalek city doors is anyone's guess.

Why not? Again, the doors make different sounds at different times. Presumably, the SIDRAT door was developed based on TARDIS doors, so the sound may very well be a standard "default" one for TARDISes.

Thought that still doesn't explain why the Daleks picked the same sound effect for their doors, unless they were ripping off Time Lord technology even earlier than the Celestial Intervention Agency had feared...

The Doctor's been carrying out a lot of repairs on the TARDIS' systems in the months before this story. Possibly those repairs include replacing the servo motors in the doors with some second hand spares he pinched out of a Dalek facility at some time.

• IMC still use tape spools.

In Genesis of the Daleks, the Kaleds use magnetic tapes, so its not beyond possibility that governments have returned to that medium for storage, much like records/vinyls becoming popular again in the 21st Century in our world. Also, it is strongly implied that the future has become a grim, over-populated place in which resources have to be very carefully managed, in which case it is by no means unlikely that obsolete equipment would be returned to service in lieu of more sophisticated but more expensive alternatives (hence also the use of obsolete firearms).

• The Brigadier is fortunate that when he walks to where the TARDIS vanished and tells it to 'come back at once', that it does so in a different corner of the room.

With the exceptions of 'Logopolis' and 'Parting of the Ways', when the TARDIS is being specifically directed to materialize around someone/thing, the TARDIS never materialises around an object or person, or even inside solid matter. It is reasonable to assume that the TARDIS performs some kind of scan of the area it is about to arrive in and thus deflects its exact point of materialization accordingly to avoid causing damage or harm to anyone/thing.

• Jo's scepticism about the TARDIS being mobile is odd as she saw it dematerialise in the last story.

In the short time that she has known him, the Doctor has shown little ability to make it mobile when he wants it to be.

In the previous story, from Jo's perspective, the TARDIS dematerialised...and then rematerialised in the same place. From her viewpoint, it's questionable whether it could move or not.

• If the Master was so ready to kill the Doctor at the end of episode four, why does he use a non-lethal gas when the Doctor goes into his TARDIS? He only learns that the Doctor can guide him into the primitive city after he releases the gas.

The Master has shown that he would rather kill the Doctor with a more personal touch. Remote control from a distance away, without being able to gloat about it, would be unexpected.

• Dent radios Earth referring to his ship as "Survey Ship 43" but the tail is clearly labelled 157.

The label refers to some other designation then, such as the model of ship that it is.

It could also refer to the order the survey ships were sent out. It's not unlikely; after all if you look at our current airplanes, there is a plane number and a flight number, and most of the time they're different.

• When Jo and the Doctor are sneaking into the Master's TARDIS, the Doctor jostles one of the doors that had the alarm beam. This would certainly break the beam. And why does the Master's alarm use a light beam instead of going off when the door is opened? Besides, given the placement of the beam, it would have been broken until the doors were open. The alarm should have gone off the second the Master closed the doors.

He set the system up himself, and somewhat recently (it was not there in Terror of the Autons). He clearly would not set it up so that it went off when he simply closed the door, but only when something breaks the beam from in between the sensors.

Don't forget that he might have keyed to not respond to his genetics. It probably works on the same principle as the main TARDIS systems, that is, able to identify its owner by a genetic scan and therefore allow access.

• When Morgan finds the key to the Master's TARDIS, the "ground" it is on is a flat concrete floor with a little sand thrown on it.

Having never been on an alien planet personally, it's hard to say that none of them would have ground like that. A flat, rock surface with a shallow layer of sand does not seem unreasonable.

• In Episode Three, as Winton, pursued by IMC guards, falls at Caldwell's feet, seagulls can be heard.

It's quite plausible that the planet has some form of life which sounds similar enough to seagulls; Mary Ashe does say in Episode 1 there are birds on Uxarieus.

• One might question the 'compassion' of the leader of the Uxarieans, as the Doctor calls it. He would have his own people slaughtered without even a warning rather than give the Doomsday weapon to the Master.

As indicated, he feels that letting the Master have the weapon would be an unacceptable risk to all life.

Like the Daleks before them, the Uxarieans have evolved into symbiotic dependence around a technology that has become their living hell. By the stage of this story, they are clearly unable even to feed themselves and would be dying off but for the colonists, yet they cannot even survive without the city/weapon that seems to function as some sort of network hub to their telepathic communion: they just seem to wander aimlessly as soon as it is deactivated and set to destruct. Since the city/weapon is also rendering the planet's soil toxic, Ashe's food donations are merely delaying the inevitable. Faced with a choice between saving his people by following the Dalek example and becoming living weapons, or a mass mercy killing/suicide (depending on how telepathically linked the Uxarieans may be), the leader makes an understandable choice.

• In Episode Two, why does the Doctor drive the IMC patrol buggy when he's a prisoner? (Apart from the fact that Jon Pertwee fancied doing so on the day of filming!)

There is no formal declaration that he's a prisoner, but it's likely that the reason the Doctor is driving is so he can be watched. It's easier to have the Doctor drive and have easy access to a weapon than try and drive and hold a weapon at the same time.

• The 23rd of March 2472 will be a Thursday, not a Tuesday.

Its possible that in the future of the Whoniverse, a Calendar changeover similar to the changeover from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar which caused eleven days (2 September through 14 September 1752) to get "lost" will occur.

The 23rd of March 2472 will be a Wednesday, but the date is actually the 3rd of March 2472 at least from what I saw, and that's still a correct problem (3/3/2472 is Thursday). However, remember that time is relative. We don't know what "time" reference they are using. There are different ages on Gallifrey, so it's certainly possible that 2472 in one age is a few millennia away from 2472 in another age.

And really, the above calendar change explanation still holds.

It'll be a Tuesday on Earth. Who knows what day it'll be on Uxarieus?

• Why would the most powerful super-weapon ever devised, capable of destroying stars, and having a huge control room, have a simple self-destruct mechanism triggered by pulling a single lever? For one thing it could easily be accidentally knocked by a passer-by.

Presumably, the self-destruct lever does have other guards preventing it being accidentally engaged- either locking it in place or possibly just isolating its circuit, however, the Guardian can operate them to activate the mechanism, but can't engage it to actually trigger the self-destruct without an external agency pulling the lever- a sensible design decision since the Guardian is part of the machine, so that both Guardian and operator have to agree to operate the self-destruct, reducing the odds of accidental or malicious misuse.