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

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This page is for discussing the ways in which Mawdryn Undead 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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• Mawdryn Undead has the unfortunate distinction of contributing to one of the biggest and most widely discussed contradictions in the Doctor Who universe: the "UNIT dating controversy".

Well not really, the web of fear could have taken place in 1964 or 65 and the Invasion in 1969 and the other unit stories set in the year that it aired and Sarah's comment about being from 1980 could be rounded up

Actually, this story makes an attempt to resolve the controversy - with debatable success. The controversy, of course, pre-dated this story, with elements of prior UNIT stories alternatively indicating either the "present day" at the time, or the near future - although the only explicitly given year was Sarah Jane Smith's comment in Pyramids of Mars that she was from "1980". If you assume that she was generalising or rounding up (admittedly, a bit of a stretch), this story is more or less consistent then.

Are you having a laugh? The intention was always for the UNIT stories to be set in the "near future". Exactly how far into the future was not always consistent. There was nothing that indicated the "present day" at the time, with everything from technology to politics to throwaway comments all indicating that it was not the "present day" but rather taking place years in the future. The only controversy was how far in the future. On one side, Professor Travers stated that 1935 was over forty years ago (not 'forty years ago' or 'nearly forty years ago' or 'about forty years ago',over forty years ago), the Brigadier stated that The Invasion was "four years" after that (not 'nearly three years' or 'about four years') and that Spearhead from Space was "several months" after that. This ties in with Derrick Sherwin and Jon Pertwee saying that Season 7 was set "in the 1980's", and the novelisation of The Sea Devils saying that 1978 was "years ago". On the other side, the BBC voiceover for The Invasion said it took place "in 1975", and Sarah Jane says in Pyramids of Mars that she's from 1980. And she would have no reason to "round up". Would you today say that you're from 2020? So, it was always set "in the near future".

This story places the Brigadier's retirement in 1976, which would imply that retirement was the next step after his protracted assignment to Geneva during The Android Invasion (TV story) and The Seeds of Doom (TV story) - the latter made in '76. If from this we assume that Mawdryn Undead is taking the UNIT TV stories as being set in the same year that they're transmitted, more or less. That would put Planet of the Spiders (TV story) and Robot (TV story) in 1974. Those two stories are the last time Sarah was on Earth for a long period prior to Pyramids of Mars (TV story), so it's fair to assume that, in Pyramids of Mars (TV story), when she refers to coming from 1980, she's referring to the year when she was last living on Earth, in those stories. It's only really a brief visit in Terror of the Zygons (TV story).

Coincidentally, that means a gap of six years - the very same gap as the time differential which is "shorted out" in this story.

Is it reasonable then to suppose that the shorting out of a time differential between the Brigadier's two temporal selves had more of an effect upon his timestream, as well as just knocking him over and giving him a headache. Occam's Razor would suggest that we don't look for an extraneous hypothetical change to the timestream when there's one which fits so precisely already available right there on screen.

Potentially, the events of this story effectively deflected the Brigadier's entire timestream by six years- meaning that as soon as the Doctor came into contact with the warp ellipse of the ship, Lethbridge-Stewart's time with UNIT, which had taken place in around 1975-1982, followed by a year's retirement at Brendan, was pushed back in time to 1969-1976, then a year's retirement at Brendan until the Jubilee... followed by the six years amnesia- a common side effect of being taken out of time and being in unsynchronised time zones (Season 23,The Day of the Doctor (TV story)) spent still at Brendan, before he caught up with the other end of the loop, restoring his memories when he touched his younger self.

Of course, we have no idea what happens after that- whether the timeslip was permanent, and the Brigadier always spent seven years at Brendan, or whether once the differential were shorted out, Sarah came from 1980 again. Later remarks by Kate about Terror of the Zygons having taken place in either the seventies or the eighties, "depending on the dating protocol" may suggest that it wasn't a 'clean' fix to the timeline - potentially records stored outside the Black Archive might show one date, whereas those stored inside its shielding may have shown another.

• The Brigadier states that he has seen the Doctor regenerate twice. In fact, he has only seen him regenerate once, in TV: Planet of the Spiders The former might refer to PROSE: The Touch of the Nurazh or his thoughts on that the Third Doctor had changed back to the Second in TV: The Three Doctors.

Alternatively, he might simply have chosen his words poorly and been referring to his knowledge of the Doctor's regeneration from Second to Third, even though he did not physically witness it. Also, his actual words are that he has 'seen it twice' which could just as easily refer to the after effects of regeneration (amnesia, disorientation, etc) and not the process itself.

• With a whole cosmos to choose from, couldn't the Black Guardian have selected a more reliable assassin to deal with the Doctor than Turlough?

He is limited to picking someone who will come in contact with the Doctor, having no power to directly influence what happens within the universe. Turlough is the most likely candidate of who he has to choose from.

A resentful, amoral, exiled military officer from a decidedly ruthless-sounding culture (inclined, as we later learn, to "imprisoning" its political criminals - including babies - on a volcanic hellhole of a planet) is not actually that bad-sounding of a choice, however silly he looks in a school uniform... The Black Guardian could at least depend upon him being bitterly envious of the Doctor's freedom. His biggest mistake in this particular story, characteristically, was completely underestimating the amount of support the Doctor would get from a mere human (Lethbridge-Stewart).

Also, being the embodiment of chaos, he may not want to - or even not be able to - use a plan that's absolutely guaranteed to succeed.

• If Mawdryn and his associates really wanted to die, couldn't they simply have rigged the engines of their ship to explode (as we see happen at the end of the story). The explosion would surely have been enough to scatter their molecules across space, making further regeneration impossible. The same would, after all, certainly kill a Time Lord.

Their journey was in part meant to be a punishment. The engines might have been designed to be tamper-resistant.

The Target Novelisation of this story elaborates on their perpetual regeneration rather horribly, and makes it clear that nothing but the Doctor's Artron energy will save them: although subject to constant, agonising mutation, their actual body cells and inherent consciousness are indestructible, and will continue being alive and self-aware even if splattered across the vacuum of space (hence the "undead" tag). With the facilities of the ship, they keep their chance, however remote, of one day encountering a Time Lord to end their plight.

• Why did the Doctor have to kill Mawdryn and the others, if he only wanted to save Tegan and Nyssa? He could of simply just cured those 2 without killing the others.

The Doctor is a very egalitarian person and probably thought it was wrong to help Tegan and Nyssa, but not the Mawdryn, just because he happened to be friends with the former. Also, since the treatment involves physically restraining the Doctor in the machine, it would probably have been impossible to stop at least some of the Mawdryn from plugging themselves into the machine after the Doctor himself was plugged in.

• A strange new definition of "Time Lord" is repeatedly emphasised by this serial, as "one who is capable of regeneration." This stands in contrast to previous and later serials, in which "Time Lord" is almost (if not completely) synonymous with "indigenous humanoid of Gallifrey," whether or not they are still capable of regeneration (and even if they are in illegal possession of a Trakenite body...).

Have you seen The Invasion of Time?

• When Nyssa and Tegan are regressed to children, why are they in child-sized clothes? Shouldn't their clothes be unaffected? (I'd imagine it's production reasons, but what would be the in-universe reason?)

The TARDIS wardrobe room seems on many occasions to be able to conveniently present a wide variety of people with a choice of clothes which happen to fit them, and even, apparently, make tailoring adjustments as necessary- witness Time and the Rani (TV story), where the diminutive Seventh Doctor finds a frilly shirt and velvet jacket combination which is an obvious match for the Third Doctor and yet which appears to fit him perfectly. The ship seems capable of supplying its crew with some form of 'smart clothes', automatically adjusted to fit- which, taking into account that it's a Gallifreyan vessel, seems a logical thing to do, given regeneration and so forth. Note the changes of clothing which accompany several regenerations, and how at least once, in the immediate aftermath of a particularly traumatic regeneration, the wardrobe's systems seem to have malfunctioned and only offer bizarre and horrible clothes to everyone attempting to make use of them (The Twin Dilemma (TV story). Whilst Tegan, at least, appears to be wearing clothes she brought on to the TARDIS, either the ship may be able to upgrade existing clothes whilst they are being laundered, or else she may simply be wearing an additional set of the same outfit, this one supplied by the ship's systems.

• Why doesn't the Doctor realise that, logically, Tegan and Nyssa will be the same age when the TARDIS lands again, because they would age during the forward travel, then de-age during the backward travel? Therefore, they would be just as old in 1983 at the school as in 1983 on the spaceship.

Very probably, but the ageing does not appear to be directly linear. We know the warp ellipse is not more than six years in length, but Tegan and Nyssa both appear to age considerably more than six years in either direction during their attempted partial journey. The Daleks' Master Plan (TV story) demonstrates vividly that if you go so far as ageing someone to death then just reversing the time distortion itself will not save them- and it is unlikely that the Doctor has forgotten witnessing Sara's fate either, so it's unsurprising that he is unwilling to take the risk. Of course, City of Death (TV story) suggests the contrary, that in a localised time bubble it is possible to reverse death by rewinding someone's personal time in certain circumstances; such as them being a chicken. Without further evidence we should probably accept that the Doctor is a better authority on the effects of different types of time distortion on living flesh than we are, and that if he judges that Tegan and Nyssa would not survive the experience, he is probably qualified to know.

• Why didn't Tegan seem to have an Australian accent as a child?

She has an English grandfather, her aunt lived in England, and Tegan appeared to be living, or at least staying with, her aunt immediately prior to the beginning of her travels. Her own accent varies noticeably in intensity, being significantly less pronounced when under the influence of the Mara, for example. It's quite possible that a substantial portion of her childhood was spent in England.

• I'm shocked the Doctor zero scolded Nyssa for believing Mawdryn's lies. Her actions endangered many. How come? And how come Nyssa zero got angry with Mawdryn for his lies?