Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Nightmare in Silver

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This page is for discussing the ways in which Nightmare in Silver 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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::This is a counter-argument to point one.
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• When the Doctor bluffed that he is about to win the game in three or five moves, that would not require the Cybermen to invest a significant effort to verify. A 6-ply (three move pairs) look-forward in chess game does not involve that many different combinations even if they are checked using brute force. In fact, a typical desktop computer of today can do it in a few minutes, and I'd presume the Cyberman is more efficient than a today's computer. (Tested with: http://www.vanheusden.com/DeepBrutePos/ ) Also, they did not negotiate a time limit for the moves... A match with a computer is pretty much meaningless when the computer can spend an eternity thinking a move.

Which means the Cyber-Planner probably couldn't figure out what the Doctor was talking about. It knew he couldn't have such a move planned out, but it also knew that he was cleverer than it was. Not wanting to take any chances, of course it pulled in more resources to verify.

• Three million Cybermen hibernating/recuperating completely undetected? An empire that can destroy a galaxy will have routine detection equipment sensitive to detect such things before leasing a planet for commercial development.

Except of course, that the enemy they were fighting was of similar (or even better) technological level, Thus, the Cybermen would've presumably been able to block such detection equipment, if it existed.

• What was comical about Nanny Longshoe's Comical Castle?

I imagine there were a lot of bits we didn't see to the castle. Plus, considering that the theme park has closed down, it could have been cleared out so all comical things would now be gone.

Maybe there were no props in the first place and "Nanny Longshoe" was a comical character whom is no longer needed.

• Why did the children sleep in the mannequin room rather than be kept safe in the TARDIS?

Would you want that annoying girl going to explore the TARDIS?

Yes. No problem. We know, that Tardis can take care of herself. A normal human girl wandering inside TARDIS could not do anything harmful to her...

Its simply a case of the doctor underestimating just how much danger they were in, and assuming they would be safe.

• Why did the emperor not evacuate and destroy the planet the first moment he became away of a cyber infestation?

Perhaps because he wanted to have his little vacation and he didn't want to be an emperor anyway...

• Despite upgrading to gain incredible speed, the Cybermen never again exploit this significant advantage.

It's given that the super speed was individual to that Cyberman. Throughout the episode, individual cybermen upgraded to suit the situation.

• Mr. Clever criticises the Doctor on his emotions, despite being clearly highly emotional himself. As a Cyberman shouldn't it be stoic? If the emotions are a side effect of trying to compensate a Time Lord brain, shouldn't it be working to shut down these unwanted emotions?

This is consistent with just about every Cybermen story in every medium. Despite claiming that they have no emotions, they always show them. Either Cybermen have always defined "emotion" much more narrowly than we do, or they've just always been wrong about themselves.

Also, presumably shutting down the Doctor's emotions in the part of the brain it had captured wouldn't be its highest priority. Surely trying to extend its control (or, after making the deal, trying to win the game) would come first.

The Cybermen aren't used to converting beings like the Doctor. His personality means Mr Clever is very emotional.

• How many people have the Cybermen been taking? If three million life forms disappeared shouldn't the imperium send an army into investigate, rather than a punishment crew? If the majority of them were already there, why go into hibernation in the first place, considering how formidable they make three million cybermen out to be.

It was stated that Cybermen were taken there to be repaired one by one, so presumably they've all been waiting to be repaired, and then forced to wait for the Cyber-Planner to manifest. The people missing in the amusement park were probably used to repair the damaged Cybermen, rather than make the Cyber-Planner.

• For such logical beings, the Cybermen rarely exploit their advantages (detachable parts, enhanced speed etc), how is that logical?

It is never stated that all units have received the same upgrades. The high speed and detachable parts might come with serious disadvantages as well.

The exact same reason most of our cars can't go 400 km/h, even though doing so would obviously be an advantage. A Bugatti Veyron costs a lot more to build, fuel and maintain than a Prius. It's also much less durable, spacious, and comfortable—but even if you ignore all of that, humanity is better served by having a few billion cars that can go 100 km/h than by having a few thousand that can go 400. When we need to go that fast, we build a Veyron; when we don't, we build a Prius.

• How can gold affect Mr. Clever? Of course gold can suffocate Cybermen by affecting their breathing apparatus. And cleaning fluid (referring TV: The Moonbase) can kill Cybermen by melting their plastic part. But Mr. Clever has neither breathing apparatus nor plastic part. He can breathe by the Doctor's respirational system, and Cybermen don't use plastic any more. 'Gold and cleaning fluid affect some of the code' is not true. It's their apparatus, not code.

The same thing happened in Silver Nemesis. Gold tipped coins and arrows seemed to affect them through contact, not by blocking their breathing.

• If Artie was good enough to be in a chess club, even a club for beginners, there's no way he would have played into a fool's mate. That is the shortest possible checkmate in chess, and the only way to fall for it is to play into it deliberately, as no one with even the simplest grasp of the game would do so.

Most basic chess clubs don't require any level of skill for entrance.

• We can see the destroyed galaxy in the sky. But if the war was only 1000 years ago, wouldn't the light have not reached the planet yet? A galaxy is a lot larger than 1000 light-years across. And it only took up a small section of the sky, indicating it would be at least hundreds of thousands of light-years away.

Posh! Don't be silly. It was obviously a pocket galaxy, located nearby to the amusement park planet. Rather than a big thing far away it was a little thing, up close. The Imperial fleet clearly lured all the upgraded Cybermen into the pocket galaxy within their domain, and used a slightly larger, shiny-er, and blacker bomb to destroy the galaxy with all the Cybermen in it, creating an ultra-dense singularity that, via gravitational lensing, obscures the stars behind it from the vantage point of the amusement park planet. It certainly wouldn't do to have gobs of Cybermen running around in this galaxy and attempt to end the war by destroying a different galaxy far away. It equally wouldn't also do to go fighting a dust up in a big ol' galaxy far away, and send your damaged units on a long slog over to this galaxy, just to get a touch up.

• The Cyber-Planner says the Doctor's neurons have been re-arranged 10 times (his regenerations), but wouldn't the War Doctor's regeneration also be part of that?

The War Doctor existed only during the Time War, an event that is time-locked.

But the physical evidence would still exist in the Doctor's body and brain.

This is part of the Doctor's bluff. He is in his 13th generation (12th regeneration), and cannot regenerate again; but because knowledge of the War Doctor is completely blocked from the Cyber-Planner (John Hurt is not shown in the images of previous incarnations), the Cyber-Planner believes that he can.

The Cyber-Planner refers to "10 complete re-jigs". The 10th Doctor also underwent a partial re-jig when shot by a Dalek.

• How is a Cyberman capable of upgrading himself physically just from a software patch (i.e. the Cyberman that upgraded himself in the electrocuted water)? It makes as much sense as a new iOS update allowing the device to be waterproof.

Their technology is much more advanced than anything we understand. It could make use of something like nanomachines to restructure its physical components.

• Why did the Doctor wait so long using his sonic screwdriver trick on the Cyber-Planner, playing so much of the chess game and putting people in danger, instead of just doing it immediately?

• Were all the soldiers in the punishment squad just left to die on the planet after the emperor activated the planetary implode? If so, why would the emperor and Doctor allow that and not try and get them transmitted up as well?