Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Mysterious Planet

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Mysterious Planet 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.
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* This is point two.
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... and so on. 

• The Doctor claims that Earth was moved "a couple" of light years from its original position. Two light years is less than half the distance to the nearest extra-solar star, Alpha Centauri - a tiny distance in cosmological terms. Additionally, the Valeyard claimed Ravolox was in the Stellian galaxy. A move of two light years would still be well within the Milky Way (Mutter's Spiral).

Often, people use terms like "a couple" loosely. It could have been many light years, and the Doctor was simply speaking glibly. He's been known to say things like "a couple of years" when referring to centuries.

• Why conduct the trial on a space station, instead of on Gallifrey?

They were involved in a cover up at this point.

The station may have been more convenient for any number of reasons.

The Valeyard is an incarnation of the Doctor after the 12th, which means that he only exists after the Time War and is unable to reach Gallifrey.

That may or may not be true, but most likely would not have been the reason for the location, given that at least some of the Time Lords were unaware of the Valeyard's true nature. Regardless, there's no reason the trial needed to be on Gallifrey in the first place. The station may have been more convenient for any number of reasons.

It is noted in novels that the trial was initiated by CIA Coordinator Vansell and that the space station is owned by the CIA so they would use it. It may be easier to control any paradoxes, and any other effects of time created from the close proximity of The Valeyard and The Doctor on the space station away from Gallifrey without being detected by other offices and departments on Gallifrey.

• The third cliffhanger and it's reprise makes little sense. The person who is revealed to have been shot instead of the Doctor is in plain view right behind them - but the Doctor and Peri were walking that way just a few seconds before - surely they would have spotted him. Also, wouldn't it be polite for the person to shout "Look out" or "get down" to alert the Doctor and Peri to the danger behind them.

The person who was shot was not their ally, and it is possible that he was following them in an attempt to kill them.

The person following them is hunting them, and intending to kill them in order to please his master. He is actively attempting to make sure that the Doctor and Peri don't see him. He just isn't good enough to make sure Merdeen also doesn't see him.

As for politeness, Merdeen is lulling the sniper into a false sense of security by making him believe that they are on the same side. He doesn't warn the Doctor and Peri because that would give the game away and risk the sniper taking one or both of them out. Merdeen looks like he is targeting the Doctor and Peri, thus giving the sniper pause, but he is actually targeting the sniper.

Also, some of this is simply down to production limitations. The sniper is clearly supposed to be more hidden than he actually is, but the set doesn't really facilitate this, so you're supposed to just act like the Doctor and Peri didn't see him.

• Why didn't Glitz and Dibber blow the door? They instead just ran into Peri, Merdeen and Balazar.

They're trying a more subtle approach this time around. For all they know, blowing the door could set off a complicated alarm system/trap. Best examine all the options.

• Instead of clumsily (and suspiciously) bleeping over Glitz and Dibber's dialogue while they are discussing the Sleepers and the Matrix, why doesn't the Valeyard construct his presentation to omit those scenes altogether?

He could simply switch into a different character's point of view (which seems to be a legal form of editing in Time Lord Matrix-based trials), or - since he obviously has no qualms about fabricating huge chunks of his second presentation - make it appear as if Glitz and Dibber are talking about something else entirely.

Since we don't know how easily the Matrix manipulation was, or how much time was involved in making such edits, it's difficult to fault him too much for not doing a thorough job of it.

Later in the season it is revealed that a significant number of highly prominent Time Lords are in attendance at the trial. Some of them may have varying degrees of knowledge of and involvement in the situation/cover-up surrounding Ravalox. It may have been more prudent to hide the information 'in plain sight' behind legal mumbo-jumbo rather than make the topic conspicuous by its absence.

We don't actually know what the Valeyard's motives were. Remember "The Invasion of Time"? After all, he seems delighted at the end of part fourteen after the Doctor's been exonerated. For all we know "play along with the plan to incriminate his past self while deliberately sabotaging the entire thing and blowing the gaffe" may have been the entire point. The (Sixth) Doctor even wryly admits at one point that the Valeyard's melodramatic villainy seems to be a touch of "grand guignol", a performance, in fact. Maybe he wasn't a villain at all.

If by "delighted" you mean "laughs sinisterly", that seems an odd hook to hang the argument of "The Valeyard isn't actually a villain" on. Considering the lengths he goes to in order to frame and kill him, the Valeyard clearly has some malevolent intentions towards the Doctor.

• The Doctor says that the device changes UV rays into black light. Black light is UV light.

The Doctor also says black light isn't his field.

"Black light" in the Whoniverse seems to refer to something other than what we know of as black light.