Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Christmas Invasion

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Christmas Invasion 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. 

• It is left unexplained why Britain's space program has apparently reverted to celebrating unmanned probes arriving at Mars when The Ambassadors of Death established that by this time Britain had already sent manned missions to Mars.

There is actually a real-world example of such reversion occurring. America's NASA program sent manned missions to the Moon in the 1960s and 70s, yet by the 2000s had reverted to again sending unmanned probes to the moon. The secrecy involving restricting public knowledge of alien life might also imply that those earlier missions may not have been public knowledge.

In The Ambassadors of Death the Time Lords were still around. The Doctor could have visited a parallel universe, as it was still possible to do so at that time. (I don't understand)

Time is constantly in flux.

Time can be rewritten, as has happened many times. Also consider the depiction of 2018 in The Enemy of the World (TV story). The British missions to Mars were not fixed points.

• After indicating to Rose how important Harriet Jones becomes to Britain and planet Earth in World War Three, the Doctor proceeds to sabotage her career. What about his many spiels about his being forbidden to change history?

Some events can be changed, as established in The Fires of Pompeii. This must be one of them. In any case, Harriet Jones was to be vital to the world in The Stolen Earth. In that story, her death was not witnessed by the audience or any of the characters. It remains possible then, that she survived and did eventually serve the two more terms and usher in Britain's Golden Age, as predicted by the Ninth Doctor. Alternatively, it was the Doctor deposing Harriet that led to the Saxon Master to be elected in her place.

The Doctor barely even remembered her at the start of World War Three (TV story) and it only took until after the explosion at Downing Street that he remembered her significance. Either this is an example of time being rewritten or simply that the Doctor confused her with another prime minister.

• How is the scarf that the Fourth Doctor wore in the TARDIS wardrobe? The Fifth Doctor took it apart in his first episode, and the Ninth Doctor was noted on Clive's website to throw a scarf into a skip.

It is possible that the Fourth Doctor had multiple scarves, just the Tenth seemed to have multiple blue suits.

The Doctor could have acquired a new scarf, or simply re-sewn the old one if he became nostalgic.

After dumping it in the skip he may have changed his mind and got it back.

Re-watch TV: Castrovalva. The Fourth Doctor was seen to wear at least two distinct scarfs. The Fifth Doctor unravels the Fourth Doctor's burgundy scarf. The one seen in the wardrobe here is multi-colour.

• If the Robot Santas could plant the remote controlled killer Christmas tree into the Tyler's flat why couldn't they simply abduct the Doctor while they were there or if they planted the tree by means of teleportation why not simply teleport themselves inside?

Simple, the disguised roboforms are known for stealth. If they tried to abduct the doctor, they would probably have a difficult situation on their hands considering they wouldn't have any way to properly dispose of him. For the second point, though the roboforms have the ability of teleportation, it may be short-range and/or might not be able to traverse through walls.

• Harriet Jones states that the Royal Family are "on the roof", suggesting that they are under the control of the Sycorax and are blood type A+. However the Royal Family are blood group O-, so would be unaffected by the blood control.

It was implied in Tooth and Claw that the royal family has slight amounts of alien blood from the werewolf, which could easily be A+ blood.

Also, the Whoniverse is separate from the Real World. In this universe, the royal family could have had blood group A+.

• How is it that Harriet Jones and the translator can understand the Sycorax after the TARDIS translator started working again? Neither of them have ridden in the TARDIS, so it wouldn't translate for them as it would Rose and Mickey.

Because they are all so close to the TARDIS, it is possible that they would start translating.

The TARDIS, being sentient, may have made the choice to translate for them given the circumstance.

You don't have to have been in the TARDIS for it to translate. If you did, then almost every story would make infinitely less sense, since the guest crew hasn't been in the TARDIS. For example, Fires of Pompeii has them in Rome. Donna hears the Romans speaking English, but similarly the Romans hear her speaking Latin. In The Eaters of Light, there's even a plot point about how the guest cast can understand each other even though they couldn't before.

• If the people with blood type A+ are being controlled, how are the AB+ blood types unaffected? Since AB+ is basically a "mix" of A+ and B+.

It is never stated outright that only those with A+ blood are being controlled. Rather, it is assumed that they would account for one-third of the population. In the US, approximately 34% of the population is A+ but only 3% are AB+ (source). As blood type varies between racial and ethnic groups, the combination of A+ and AB+ around the world may be closer to 33%. Additionally, there didn't seem to be any formal attempts to count the exact number of people affected so another 3% of the world's population might have gone unnoticed and the figure rounded to "one-third."

• Who is the Doctor to decide who the UK prime minister? I thought Time Lords weren't suppose to be so meddlesome, but here the Doctor thinks he is important enough to decide the prime minister. Do the Time Lords despise democracy that much?

Each incarnation of the Doctor has varying degrees of restraint when it comes to changing the timeline. The Tenth Doctor in particular is very willing, even eager, to change history just the way he wants it, as shown when he revels in the idea of altering a fixed point in time by saving Adelaide Brooke (TV: The Waters of Mars). While the Ninth Doctor showed great remorse when he altered Earth's history in the year 200,000 (TV: Bad Wolf), the Tenth Doctor makes a point of reversing this view multiple times, as seen in this episode. This can be seen not as a discontinuity, but an intentional bit of writing to prove that the Tenth Doctor is a different "sort of man".

It can be argued that it wasn't the Doctor who deposed Harriet Jones but rather the British people. The Doctor merely said she looked tired, the British media were the ones who turned it into a rumour about her health and eventually pressured her to resign.

• Did Harriet Jones see the Sycorax Footage before on air? If so why was it put up when Harriet Jones obviously didn't want it up?

They were live pictures, and a government blocking the pictures from broadcast would easily raise suspicious whereas the "teenagers hijacking the signal" excuse would probably have been easier.

• In an issue of the Doctor Who Figurine Collection Magazine featuring a Sycorax from this story, there were a couple of issues they brought up concerning the people who were affected by the blood control; one of them concerned whether there were people who might have accidently fallen when the Doctor freed everyone. The other was about if any planes that were flying during the ordeal had crew and/or passengers who were also affected by the blood control and did the planes that did so crash as a result? So, here are my questions; did the former situation actually happen after the Doctor broke the control held over them? And were there planes still flying (and crashed) during all this, or did they all get grounded like all the flights were in Aliens of London when the Slitheen's ship crashed into Big Ben?

• The Doctor claims that it is impossible to hypnotize someone into committing an action that would result in their death. However, he had previously stated in Terror of the Autons that this exact belief was "a fallacy".

In this case I believe the Doctor is specifically referring the Blood Control that the Sycorax use, which appears to be rather primitive compared to 'genuine' mind control. So while the Master most certainly could make someone walk off the roof of a tall building to their death, the Sycorax cannot.