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

You are exploring the Discontinuity Index, a place where any details or rumours about unreleased stories are forbidden.
Please discuss only those whole stories which have already been released, and obey our spoiler policy.

This page is for discussing the ways in which The Robots 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:

* 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. 

• In the scene in which it is revealed that SV7 is receiving order from Capel, the robot's eyes are blacked out (in order to allow the reddening effect to be added) before the eyes are supposed to change color. In the same scene, the identity of Dask as Capel is prematurely revealed as the actor's face is clearly recognizable despite the video effects used.

This is an error because in a later scene Capel is shown wearing a hooded robe intended to disguise his identity.

Why is that an error? He wears the hood for his own reasons later, but there is no reason for him to conceal his identity from SV7 at this point. The production team are further allowing the viewer to "guess" that Dask is Capel, without explicitly stating it yet.

• The metal restraint on the Doctor and Leela visibly move with ease.

This is explained clearly in the story. The restraints are "like leather" until they are molecularly bonded, which can then be deactivated again making them easily movable.

• Why does Dask/Capel bother to wear the hood when working on the robots in his secret lab?

It's a pseudo-religious fetish fueled by his robo-messianic complex (i.e. the belief that he is the savior of all robot-kind). Either that or perhaps it's a 'clean suit' that is a good idea to wear when mucking around in the brains of a Robot to avoid dust/moisture getting in there (Let us not forget that Capel sees Robots as his 'Brothers' and therefore is performing 'surgery' on them).

The 'clean suit' hypothesis is consistent with the fact that Capel requires a specialized lab to perform the alterations, but it is inconsistent with the fact that the room itself did not appear to be a 'clean room', and dust could easily enter via the door. The most obvious solution is that it is something that specifically comes from humans which needs to be kept out of robots' brains, and not just run of the mill dust.

• When Leela throws her knife at the attacking robot it makes a cartoonish 'shhhh doinkk!' noise. She also breaks character completely by following it with "Now you're just showing-off".

Leela has been shown to have a sense of humor. This is not breaking character.

• V35 to V40 are said to have searched the ore hoppers, but V35 spends the entire story in the 'morgue'.

Obviously V35 was active long enough to be involved in that search, even if the majority of it may have been carried out by the others in that series.

• The robot listening outside the crew's quarters was presumably meant to be D84, but it's actually a Voc.

There is no reason why this shouldn't be a robot other than D84. The Voc has been programmed (by Capel?) to gather information. When the straight forward approach failed, it simply waited at the door to listen.

• How did the company know to put D84 and Poul on this particular sand-miner? Surely Capel's threats were not so specific as to openly state he was going to carry-out his threats on the sand-miner, which only has a crew of about eight people to begin with.

Capel only mentioned the revolution would begin in a company installation . There are other agents all over the company.

• Why on Earth would Capel choose to start his robot revolution on an isolated sand-miner on an uninhabited planet instead of one of the major cities (like Kaldor) on his home world?

Since he made his threats, the company had tightened up security all over the civilized planet(s). The sand-miner was was a great, out-of-the-way place to work undetected.

It is not stated that the planet the Sand-Miner is on is uninhabited. The Miner could be on an unihabited part of Capel's homeworld, and Kaldor city could be on the other side of the planet (planets are pretty big places after all)

Perhaps Capel saw the use of robots on sandminers as the quintessential symbol of their slavery, and so choose that as the place to begin their revolt. To Capel, the robots were the brute labor force used at the base of the economy.

• Why does Dask sabotage the sandminer just so he can save it again? How does it advance or help his plan?

One possibility: the damage to the engines was caused incidentally during the clearly very violent struggle between Borg (who generally worked as a "mover" within the engine room) and his robot murderer, which resulted in both of them being "irreparably" maimed and could well have entailed collateral damage to the infrastructure. A second possibility: Dask engineered the "accident" in order to give himself time to remove some incriminating evidence from the crime scene.

It's also possible that Borg comitted the sabotage deliberately when he was attacked, so as to destroy all the robots and limit the killings to the sandminer.

Also, misdirection; if Dask contributes to "saving" the Sandminer, then there is less suspicion that he is actually the one sabotaging it.

• Given the real reason Poul has been put aboard the sandminer (i.e. to investigate the specific threats of a 'robot revolution' made to the company by Capel) why does the possibility that a robot has committed the murder a) not occur to him, and b) shock him so much when it is suggested to him by the Doctor?

Because, given the nature of his phobia, the very idea is unbearable for him to even contemplate. One can only assume the Kaldor City police have very bad psychological screening to have appointed him for this mission in the first place (with a robot colleague, to rub salt in the wound).

In total fairness, his phobia seems to have been quite manageable until an actual robot uprising started happening. As mentioned below, no one seriously expected the robots to start turning on humanity until it actually started happening. He appears to have had it sufficiently under control to perform his duties until the stress and realities of the situation overwhelmed him.

Also, no one really believes that the robots are capable of uprising. They're investigating it because some wackadoodle is making threats and they at least have to be seen to be doing something, and want to avoid the possible worst-case scenario, but Poul probably didn't genuinely believe that there would ever be a robot uprising.

• The Dr, D84 and Leelah see that Dask has converted 10 robots (not sure if that includes SV7 and V4 who'd been heavily damaged). So Dask has V6 and SV7 with him, why does he only send V5 to attack Toos, Pool and Uvanov? Why not send more? Where are the other 7 or so robots? What are they doing?Like V45 who strangled Chub what's it doing?

• Why dose Dask not get V6 a new hand if he's using it to assist him? WOuld he not want to heal his brother?

Priorities. He's got a lot on his plate, what with the whole "triggering a robot uprising" and "errant Time Lord interfering in said robot uprising" issues he's currently dealing with, so he might not have the time or resources to perform hand surgery at that particular moment, if V6 could do what he needed with just one hand.