Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

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This page is for discussing the ways in which Dinosaurs on a Spaceship 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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• In Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, how is Rory 31 in 2012 where he should be 23 years old.

I thought it was mentioned or explained somewhere that Series 7 is set in the near-future (late 2010s or early 2020s), meaning there is a jump in time between the Doctor's meetings with Amy and Rory in Series 6 & 7. This explains why Rory is much older.

In "The Power of Three" Amy says that trips they've taken aboard TARDIS amount to several years of their life when added together. So even though Amy and Rory were born in the late 1980s, biologically they're older than they should be in 2012 due to all the time travelling.

• The Silurian ship left Earth 65 million years ago. At some point Solomon reversed course. The ship is very near Earth. For this to make sense, the ship must have reversed course approx. 32.5 million years ago. Solomon can't possibly be over 30 million years old.

Perhaps Solomon is a Time Traveller, or more likely the craft was very far away but was teleported toward Earth via wormhole. The latter theory would only require it to teleport recently.

• At the end Nefertiti stays with Riddell, but doesn't that change history?

Not necessarily - the actual Nefertiti disappeared from the historical record, making this a historical in-joke.

• How does Riddel, who is from early twentieth century Africa, know about anaesthetic?

Anaesthetic was invented long before the twentieth century. Incidentally, it's doubtful he's from Africa, but England instead, where anaesthetic was known from the 1700's.

Well, anaesthesia in the modern sense only begins with Long's discovery of ether in the 1840s (in a looser sense, it goes all the way back to at least the Greeks, and probably earlier). But that doesn't change the fact that it was well known and routinely used by the early twentieth century. (And even if Riddell is from Africa, it's not as if English colonists suddenly lost all their technology as soon as they set sail.)

• If it's just to change a bulb, why ask Brian to come round?

As implied by dialogue in the episode, it wasn't the light bulb that was the problem but the fitting. Rory couldn't work it out initially so he got his Dad round.

Also, you know how Dads are! Sometimes all it takes is a casual mention of having a problem with a lightbulb and Dad will be there in an instant to take care of it.

• In this story Nefertiti hates her husband, but in actual history, the two were quite close.

She was bored by him (after over 14 years of marriage); this doesn't necessarily mean she hated him. He also had other consorts.

Actually, Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV) isn't known to have had consorts. Nefertiti was devoted to him, and there is some evidence to suggest that she was his co-regent at one point. However, as religion and not romance was his main focus, I'm all right with a little licence with history for the purposes of this tale.

Where did you get the idea that Akhenaton isn't known to have consorts? Kiya had the title Lesser Royal Wife, at least two other marriages are recorded (to daughters of foreign kings), and from the recent "Younger Lady" DNA evidence it looks like he fathered Tutankhamun with his sister.

• At one point, one of Solomon's robots comments that they've been on the ark for two thousand years. But they came there with Solomon, and he doesn't seem to have been there very long.

Actually, it states it's been around for two thousand years, presumably they were quite old when Solomon bought them, thus explaining their odd mannerisms and their reported knock down price.

• In Let's Kill Hitler the Doctor mentions that he danced with everyone at the wedding, even the men, and because of this is surprised he doesn't recognise Mels. However, he doesn't recognise Rory's father at all. While Brian doesn't appear (at least in shot) in The Big Bang, surely he was at the wedding.

It's possible Brian left early, since after all the Doctor "only came for the dancing".

• At the end of the episode, The Doctor says that it's time to fly the dinosaurs home. However, Rory wants to go home, and being the kind person he is, The Doctor flies Amy, Rory, and Brian home. If it took Rory and his dad to fly the spaceship earlier in the episode, how did The Doctor get all the dinosaurs to safety?

Perhaps he flew back for the dinos in the TARDIS after dropping the Ponds off home? Or, failing that, as the Silurian ship needed pilots with the same genes, the Doctor would have the same genes as himself, (and he has experience flying multi-pilot ships solo, too) so that could explain it.

An interesting observation... However, with the Doctor being the Doctor, and without the impending time crunch of incoming missiles, he's certainly capable of either towing it with the TARDIS or jury-rigging something in his usual way to make it work.

• The Silurian ship was searching space for about 65 million years before Solomon came aboard. In that time, they didn't find a planet. How did the Doctor find one?

Even though the Doctor is much younger than the time in which the Silurian were searching, his knowledge and the TARDIS have charted many galaxies and probably found a habitable planet for the Dinosaurs. also. It would have taken the Silurians massive chunks of time to get from one galaxy/planet to the other.

• At first the ark's size is described in terms of square units, despite being a three-dimensional object (and it can't be surface area due to its highly irregular shape, besides, surface area is rarely used to talk about the size of objects in space).

• The natural waves of a miniature ocean would not nearly be powerful enough to move a continent-sized mass through space and power its systems.

Isn't it stated there are other engines?

• The ISA woman says the ark is entering the atmosphere at one point, yet quite a while later we see it is still at least a few thousand km from Earth.

I think this would be under a production error as the mill probably did that by mistake.

• Where did the Silurians get the material to build such a large vessel?

It's not as though the ship is larger than the entire Earth, while indeed it is very, very large there are still enough materials on Earth and in the Solar System to build several of them.

• Near the end there is a warning that says "warning targeting in progress." but on the screen it says "warning targeting in process."

It's not uncommon for things like that slightly vary between what is written and what is recorded. It's entirely possible that it's a simple matter of human, or rather Silurian, error.

• When the Doctor is looking for Silurian life-signs, he tells the computer to "Display life-signs for Homo reptilia." However, unless the Doctor was not the first to call them that, it should not have recognised the term, since the ark left Earth millions of years before The Hungry Earth.

First, it was Amy who used the computer. Second, he said in The Hungry Earth that Homo reptilia would be the scientific term.

Could be a side-effect of the TARDIS Universal translator. We hear/see Amy call them Homo Reptilia, but the computer reads it as whatever the Silurians call themselves.

• I thought up an alt scenario on Pete's World of a Silurian ark with extinct life including dinosaurs, Ice Age giants, dodos, and more escaping the Time War. And Clara Oswald of Pete's World coming on board due to curiosity., How do you think Rose and co react to hearing ehr scream, onyl to see her petting animals including babies? Instead of being 'eeek... prehistoric life' she'a awe... and goes gooy on many. And quickly figuring out the Silurians be Earthlings just by their appearances without being told. How'd you thoin they react esepcialyl Rose?

how is that a discontinuity?