Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Mind Robber

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Mind Robber 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.
:::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. 

• Shouldn't 'nowhere' be black (i.e., no photons)?

That reasoning is based on the physics of our universe. Yet the whole point here is that they are outside our universe, and therefore, there is no reason to suppose the same principle(s) applies.

Also, the Land of Fiction is an Earth-based "nowhere", with Earth gravity, light, and air, to allow the Master to survive there.

The Mind Robber Computer presumably provided this environment.

The Doctor is simply speaking poetically or metaphorically rather than strictly literally. They are "nowhere" in that they are in a realm completely outside of the universe that they exist in, and therefore are somewhere where any sense of "place" is, for practical purposes, utterly meaningless.

• If Zoe has a photographic memory, why do they need the thread in the maze?

She's probably trying to recreate how Theseus went into the labyrinth and slew the Minotaur. And, her photographic memory does let her down sometimes - she got lost on the Moonbase.

Plus, having a backup in a dangerous and unpredictable situation never hurts. There is already plenty of evidence to suggest that the world they're in is unreliable and malleable, and a thread is at least a physical reference point.

• The light-maps on the Master's monitors show layouts that are not the same as the actual layouts of the tunnels.

The tunnel layouts could be constantly shifting/revolving in some way, making those traveling in them believe it to be a much different shape than in actually is.

• When the Doctor is first asked to assemble Jamie's face, Frazier Hines features are not among those on the board.

It's a cruel joke on the part of the Master. The Doctor is not meant to be able to construct Jamie's face first time around.

• In the Forest of Words, when Jamie is standing on top of the giant 'S' it is clear that the proportions of the other letters he is supposedly seeing in the distance are completely different from the ones by where they are standing - i.e. the letters Jamie sees in the distance are far shorter in height than they are in the length and width of their surface, however, the height of the 'S' he is standing on is far greater than its length and width.

The letters are not of a uniform font, size or shape. Some are taller than they are wide, others not.

Its a Production error.

• Jamie's voice changes to that of Hamish Wilson (along with his accent) well before the Doctor reassembles his face incorrectly.

The entire situation is being manipulated to provide confusion and frustration to the Doctor.

• Why does Zoe need help to break through the paper top of the jar she's trapped in?

Perhaps it's stronger on the inside? Or maybe it looked like something a lot stronger than paper on the inside? It's probably a joke on The Master's part.

• Near the end of this episode, Jamie is reading the ticker tape upside down.

Which is not difficult to do.

• It's quite obvious that the bookshelves in the library are photographs, not real.

A great deal of what is located in the Land of Fiction is not real. Hence, the clever name.

Also, this is simply a production error/limitation. You are presumably supposed to suspend disbelief and look at them as real bookshelves since the production team likely didn't have the budget for a library's worth of real bookshelves and books to fill them (the budgetary and production issues of this serial have been well-documented).

• Zoe, a supposed mathematical genius, bungles a sum. If the Master wrote 5,000 words a week for 25 years, he would have written 6.5 million words, not half a million.

No, she says it would be well over half a million.

Even geniuses can make the odd fumble now and again, especially if they've been stuck in a mentally-exhausting adventure through a realm inhabited by fictional characters that exists outside of reality as they know it.

• There is also the incredibly poor 'muscle-suit' that the Karkus wears.

The Karkus is a fictional futuristic cartoon character. The unconvincing muscle suit is intentional.

• How did Jamie know who Gulliver was if he wasn't with The Doctor when he identified him?

He's read the book.

• How is the Doctor unable to understand Gulliver speaking Dutch? And if the answer is because the Tardis is destroyed and the translation circuts aren't working, then how is he able to speak English in the first place (is English coincidentally similar to Gallifreyan in the same way humans are similar to Time Lords)?

Maybe his time in 1963 gave him time to actually learn English as its said he and Susan spent a while there possibly not using the TARDIS for much of its uses

He just might not know Dutch, or might be a bit surprised at someone holding him at gunpoint barking at him in a language that he's not used to being spoken to in, thus making it difficult for him to follow what Gulliver is saying without clarification.

Lemuel Gulliver isn't speaking Dutch. Lemuel Gulliver does not exist, and has no electrical impulses in his brain for anyone's telepathic circuits to decode in order to translate his words. The character of Lemuel Gulliver is being written as speaking a foreign language unknown to the "reader", which the character then describes as "high and low Dutch"- the 'double dutch' joke is made explicit in the novelisation, so was probably intentional in the screen play.*