Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Runaway Bride

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Runaway Bride 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. 

• The Empress says the Roboforms are 'such very good shots' but after the TARDIS materialises, they miss it by a considerable amount.

The TARDIS has a shield which protects travellers from bullets etc when outside of it. Given that the TARDIS was only partially materialised, it is likely that it considered the Doctor outside the TARDIS so put the shields up.

• The Doctor is usually very protective of children, independent of race, such as in Partners in Crime where he allows the Adipose to leave earth as they are 'only children' however in this episode he is very quick to kill the Racnoss children for a crime committed by their mother. This is out of character.

It's really more like killing a young Dalek than the Adipose.

In Genesis of the Daleks he refuses to kill baby Daleks. Though TBF he's got completely different reasoning than "They're children". One argument that could be made is that Donna saw him kill all of the Racnoss and told him off, and over the next 2 years or so he thought about it and realised he was wrong. So when he met Donna again and was presented with the chance to genocide children again, he tried making the other choice to make her happy.

They were hungry! He couldn't really let them get out now could he?

When The Doctor spares the Adipose, and says because they are kids, Donna states that The Doctor has had a change of heart due to Martha Jones. This may be what she was referring to.

The Adipose were innocent, harmless creatures. The Racnoss were going to destroy the whole world.

• It takes an amazingly short amount of time for the waters of the Thames to journey to the centre of the earth and drown the children of Racnoss. And why doesn't the heat of the Earth's mantle evaporate it?

The Racnoss children aren't at the centre, they already began their ascent.

The tunnel also probably had some sort of cooling property, since the Racnoss would also have died due to the heat.

• The Doctor says the TARDIS could take a couple of hours to heal itself, but the Doctor and Donna come back inside after their conversation which was nothing close to an hour.

Nothing suggests that they went back to the TARDIS, they could have walked or taken a taxi. We didn't see the TARDIS in between when they went to the reception and when the Doctor summoned it.

• The Queen of the Racnoss is supposed to lay eggs which produce new Racnoss, so why doesn't she just lay some new eggs? She also doesn't seem to have any from the time before the Racnoss were destroyed.

She would need a male Racnoss to do that.

• Sylvia says her phone has run out of battery however later on she was able to see Donna's message she left her.

Many phones can remain on, or be turned back on, with very low battery, but can't make or receive calls in that state. A phone call takes about 5 times as much power as running without a connection even on a high-powered smartphone, and it can be as much as 500 times as much on simpler phones.

Also, she probably charged it. It was a little while after, and she had asked if anyone had a charger.

• At the end why did the TARDIS fly upward instead of just materialising as it did make the usual sound?

The TARDIS can fly when the Doctor wants it to, as shown when it chased the taxi.

• How come, when the baubles on the tree were hovering near the tree, at Donna's wedding reception, everyone near it (save Donna and the Doctor) was immediately fascinated by it, how come they didn't notice anything was awry?

Are you saying you'd be terrified of Christmas baubles just because they're hovering? I for one would certainly be very fascinated... except of course if I were expecting to be attacked by Santa robots.