Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Sea Devils

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Sea Devils doesn't fit well with other DWU narratives. You can also talk about the plot holes that render its own, internal narrative confusing.

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• It is stated that the renovations being carried out on the sea fort are what is responsible for this particular colony of Sea Devils being awakened. However, surely the original construction of the fort would have been just as likely to awake them, if not more so, since laying the structure's foundations underwater would have created an even greater disturbance.

That depends what the renovations were, how they impacted the surrounding area, etc, in relation to the location of the Sea Devils colony.

It was stated as a speculative idea. The hypotheses was neither proved nor refuted.

• The clock in the Master's prison moves backwards.

Perhaps the Master was bored and messed with the clock to amuse himself.

And one could guess this is deliberate, a reflection of the Master's perversity.

Are there any specific examples? I tried to look for some, but didn't notice anything that couldn't easily be explained by "more time has elapsed than you thought". Don't forget that the prison is not that easily accessible. It's on an island, and trips to the mainland would require special arrangements.

• In episode 6, why does the Master wait before turning the Doctor's machine off?

The Master is not known for being particularly considerate to the pain and misfortune of his allies.

And less so of his enemies (even if they do have a temporary alliance).

• Why don't the Sea Devils shoot the escaping submarine?

The Doctor is on board, and the Master has, by this stage, realised that he will need his help to repair the faulty hibernation revival mechanism.

• Considering that the Master has cold-bloodedly killed more people than Hannibal Lecter, intended to kill a good many more, has earned a place on international wanted lists (cf. The Claws of Axos), and is also wanted by the Time Lords for stealing information from the Matrix; the decision to incarcerate him in a luxurious prison facility, run by an idiot, and with no apparent observation or security backup from either UNIT or the Time Lords, would seem to say the least rather peculiar.

The Master's crimes are unprecedented, and thus the fitting punishment is hard to determine. The authorities believed that they had him well-secured, they simply underestimated his cunning and abilities.

Also, UNIT didn't exactly have a connection to the Time Lords to ask for their assistance and were never depicted at this time as an exceptionally large organisation which could offer a lot of support to a prison. Besides, from a practical position the location makes sense. The Master had to be kept somewhere away from other prisoners, otherwise he could hypnotise them and use them to escape. It was actually quite sensible to have him in some small prison, away from people, with a bunch of guards who could be trained to resist his hypnosis.

The book The Doctor: His Life and Times also offers another possible explanation. One of the short stories is a transcript from the Master's trial, in which the Master twists the Doctor's testimony in order to imply that the Master would make a pretty good amoral covert operative for whichever government was willing to pay enough to buy his services, implying that the various human authorities responsible for the trial commuted his sentence to "life-imprisonment" with the specific intention of using him as a kind of 'black-ops' version of the Doctor. The cushy prison he ends up in was thus likely intended as a deal-sweetener; do our bidding and we can make you very comfortable, that sort of thing. Even outside of the whole 'Sea Devil' mess this would almost certainly have backfired disastrously on whichever government was stupid enough to actually try it, since the Master was almost certainly planning on exploiting any such deal for his own self-serving ends, but it wouldn't be the first or last time a human government had acted irresponsibly out of its own short-term self-interest.

• The Doctor attempts to attribute the misnomer Silurian to their discoverer. However in Doctor Who and the Silurians, Quinn, the man who first contacts the 'Silurians' never names them. He refers to them as 'they'. It is the Doctor who asks one of them, 'are you a Silurian'? The Doctor deduces from Quinn's notes that the creatures come from the Silurian Period and so names them such.

Although Quinn never names them on-screen, the Doctor does indeed read Quinn's notes, which make 'particular reference to the Silurian era.' He shortly later asks one of the creatures 'Are you a Silurian?' It is a reasonable conclusion (supported by the explanation given in this story) that Quinn had referred to them as 'Silurians' in the notes which the Doctor read.

• Why in heaven's name would there be a small arsenal of fencing equipment outside a prison cell?

It was an old fort, with corresponding aesthetic choices (likely chosen by Trenchard, who was working for the Master).

Because the prisoner is supposed to be inside the cell. Of course, in hindsight it is a silly place to keep them.

To be fair, those swords look so blunt they'd have difficulty slicing butter ... Knowing the Doctor and the Master, I suspect the pair of them both relished the idea of a quick swashbuckle before asserting themselves in earnest (by re-imprisoning / murdering the other).

• What happens to the prison guard who enters the Master's cell in episode two, only to be knocked out by the Master? The guard subsequently disappears, never to be seen again.

Perhaps the Master dumped the unconscious guard in the cell's adjoining sleeping quarters?