Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Ambassadors of Death

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Ambassadors of Death 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 the counter-argument above
* This is point two.
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... and so on. 

• Why would the aliens send information to Earth on how to construct a device that would enable them to take control of their ambassadors when they are supposed to be on a purely diplomatic mission?

The device doesn't control of them: it translates human speech, specifically basic instructions. The enemies threaten to take away their radioactive material - which is vital to their survival - if they don't obey. Such a basic translation was presumably designed for the two parties to work out the basics whilst waiting for the more advanced translator to be built that would allow them to properly communicate.

• In Episode One, when the video screen retracts the CSO image stays for several seconds.

Yes, it does, why shouldn't it? Surely the picture can linger even though the screen is being put into storage.

Production error.

• When the spacecraft rotates, the image from the cockpit camera rotates with it (it should be fixed on one point).

Perhaps it isn't fixed and instead was floating, so either it was bumped and spun, or when the spacecraft rotated, its inertia kept it from rotating with the craft.

• The UNIT soldier who is killed by touching the same barrier as an alien in Episode Four is alive and well and back at work in Episode Six.

It might be a totally different solider. Some people do look the same, like identical twins or close relatives, etc.

Alternatively as unlike the others he didn't directly touch the alien, isn't it possible he survived and was simply knocked out cold by the blast? Thus a few hours later after presumably being cleared by the medic, he's back on duty.

• Radioactivity is depicted as being conductible like electricity.

This is an alien form of radiation.

• From this story onwards no military personnel ever move between 'attention' and 'at ease' properly.

This could be the intentional stamp of the Brig on his troops, a way to differentiate them from the British Army that they were mostly drawn from; deliberate rebelliousness that the Brig lets them get away with, or the subtle influence of the Doctor.

• 'Variant' is spelt 'varient' on location props.

People make spelling mistakes.

And in particular, if TV writers, set dressers, and prop makers can make spelling mistakes, how is it implausible that rocket engineers can as well?

In the Doctor Who universe, 'varient' is spelt correctly.

• Taltalian's accent is French in the studio and English on location.

He might be putting on an accent in certain parts of the story.

Production error. The location work was filmed first, and it was thought the character would be American. It was changed for all studio work.

• Recovery Seven's nose cone changes colour between prop and model shots.

Production error. Or possibly the camera doesn't pick up the colour properly.

• Quinlan's office safe slips about as the alien tries to open the door.

• And how does the Doctor manage to get the TARDIS console through the doors?

He dematerialises it, as demonstrated in Inferno and makes the short, purely spatial jump to re-materialise it outside in the lab. There are doors large enough for the console to go through on the "fourth wall" of the set.

• The screen that the Doctor and Brigadier use to triangulate the signal wobbles when it is touched.

Maybe it's a futuristic flat screen that is designed to do so? Perhaps it's portable and designed to be rolled up or something along those lines.

• When the capsule is landing, it is moving across the map of the Atlantic far faster than the announcements indicate.

• The Ambassadors' touch is established as fatal, yet one assaults Reegan twice and he is unharmed.

The Ambassadors' radiation would be low, so no harm done.

• Why would the UNIT guard at the gate open fire on someone that he has no reason to believe hostile just because they didn't halt the first time he said to?

As demonstrated in Spearhead from Space, UNIT soldiers are very non-tolerant; one of them shot The Doctor just because he didn't speak as he came from the bushes.

He may know what to look out for and have been told to be very wary.

What are UNIT Standard Operating Procedures in these cases? It would depend on the orders given the soldiers (and an individual's choices).

Specifically the soldier actually orders him to halt twice, specifying he'll shoot after he ignores the first instruction (and only does so after he ignores the second order). As he's guarding a critically important space station and its a known fact their are dealing with a dangerous opposition that's armed and willing kill, its possible he was given orders to be extra stringent with security in case of further hostilities.

• The Doctor tells Cornish that the extra G-force from a higher proportion of M3 Variant will not bother him and Cornish suggests that that would blow up the rocket. Then Reegan adds the extra M3. The extra G-force does seem to bother the Doctor but the rocket still does not blow up.

The Doctor doesn't say it wouldn't bother him but that it wouldn't harm him. Plus, we can infer from the dialogue that had Stage 1 not been jettisoned early it would have blown up, taking Recovery 7 and the Doctor with it.

The Doctor was showing off, as Cornish rather neatly calls him out on.

• When Reegan is sabotaging the rocket, M3 Variant is misspelled M3 Varient.

This one is already dealt with above.

• Lennox would not be killed so quickly by a radioactive isotope -- no matter how radioactive it was. And why didn't he scream for help or just chuck the thing out the window? And, who can the unseen person who gives it to him possibly be?

a)As stated above, this is an alien form of radiation.

b)He panicked. Also, as above, the alien radiation weakened him too much too quickly.

c)Possibly Reegan in disguise, or maybe a mook in his employ.

The culprit sounds like Carrington, who would have full authority to clear the area and leave Lennox to endure a slow, painful death. Though it does still stretch plausibility that a common reactor rod would finish him off so quickly (and as assassinations go, it is a strikingly inefficient and haphazard method. Putting a radioactive substance in his food would have been more sensible).

Being fair its made clear by the episode Carrington isn't particularly stable or as smart as he thinks he is. Its possible he opted for an ironic method of disposal for someone he considered a traitor to humanity unaware of how inefficient it actually was, and just got lucky.

• The Doctor suggests to Cornish that he can use pure M3 Variant to send the Ambassadors back to space since they will not be affected by the extra G-force. Neither he nor Cornish seem too concerned that this might blow these friendly aliens up or send them into orbit around the sun. Also, the G-Force would affect our astronauts on their return journey!

We could assume that the problem was caused by the sabotage Reegan did; we do not know the full extent of this and he may have sabotaged some other part of the rocket as well. Also, the aliens might be able to refuel Recovery 7.

Its mentioned pure M3 Variant has been used in the past for sending unmanned probes into space with no issues, so we can assume it was the unstable and unregulated mixture of the two fuels that caused all the issues with that launch.

• Why was UNIT staffed by the least competent soldiers available?

• In the first episode UNIT troops and Carrington's men shoot and kill each other. A few episodes later the Doctor, Brig and Carrington have a good chuckle about it. Rather callous and inhumane?