Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The War Games

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The War Games 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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• When Smythe is shot dead, the gun is visibly firing into the floor by accident.

Ricochets and misfires can easily kill someone even if the gun is not pointed directly at the person.

• Given how many resistance groups there are said to be in the zones and how many zones there are, only two other groups and leaders turn up.

This is not true -- if you listen he says they are hiding in the forest, presumably waiting for the moment to strike, they just don't get the chance at that moment, presumably they help the offensive off-screen.

• If the Time Lords have a policy of not interfering in other planets' affairs, why do they exile the Doctor to the planet where he has interfered the most?!

This is explicitly explained by the Time Lords: they have accepted his argument that there is a need to fight the great evils in the universe, and so are putting him where he can still do some good for the planet he has shown to be his favorite.

• When Jamie and Zoe leave to return to their own times, they depart in the dark-colored SIDRAT the War Lord's guards arrived in, not one of the lighter coloured TARDISes.

The SIDRAT is perfectly capable of returning them to their own times, so why not use it?

Alternatively, this could be the War Chief's TARDIS, which was presumably the "master" version from which the SIDRATs were copied.

• Why do the troops shoot Jamie and the others with guns that don't work -- and why don't they kill when they do so on other occasions?

They're deliberately stunning Jamie and the others.

• The War Game leaders repeatedly call their home world "the home planet" instead of using its name.

This is intentional by the production crew. The Time Lord "home planet" is also not referred to by name in this story, nor are individual names given to either the Time Lords or the War Lords other than their titles or pseudonyms. It is meant to leave a degree of mystery around both races.

This is a fairly common dramatic convention. Characters in programmes such as "The Avengers" and "The Prisoner" would often refer to "the home country" (or use some similar phraseology) in order to disguise their true origins from the audience.

Re-enforcing this point, Earth itself was routinely referred to as "Home Planet" in The Space Pirates, the story immediately before this one.

• When the War Chief and the two Time Lord technicians are shot dead, why don't they regenerate?

The series has long established that regeneration is not guaranteed (otherwise maintaining any sort of jeopardy for the Doctor would be impossible). It's possible they regenerated off-screen. Or the weapon caused sufficient damage quickly enough to prevent regeneration.

In fact, we know the War Chief regenerated off-screen (and that it was a delayed, traumatic, and nearly-failed regeneration) from the novel Timewyrm: Exodus.

• A man is shown speaking French in the Doctor's presence, yet no one seems able to understand him; what happened to the Doctor's gift of translation? If it isn't active for some reason, then why are the resistance members along with Jamie and Zoe able to understand the Mexicans and Russians?

The lack of the Doctor's ability to understand French may be explained by the fact that he has, at this point, surrounded the chateau with a time zone barrier, thus isolating himself partially from the TARDIS and its influence. Alternately, it may have had something to do with the side-effects of the soldier's mental conditioning and a head injury.

We hear the Doctor speak languages other than English in stories like The Mind of Evil and Planet of the Spiders and people can't understand him so he can obviously "suspend" the gift if he chooses. He probably didn't think it was worth translating for Du Pont when Carstairs could do a passable job as a translator. Maybe the Mexicans and Russians can speak English.

Too many languages in the room all at once? Perhaps the Time Lord language gift can only take so much strain.

At this point in the story, the Doctor has encountered the War Chief, and is acutely aware that he's stumbled into a situation in which the Time Lords would take a fairly prejudicial interest. Since the 'gift' appears to rely upon his telepathic link with the TARDIS- and thus, the Matrix- he's been forced to perform the telepathic equivalent of turning off his WiFi in order to make certain he's not sending his location data to anyone. Thus, certain languages- notably English- which he already has archived locally in his brain, are still available. Others- apparently including French- are not.

Also, each time zone has a barrier. Those appear to block any "gift".

• The Doctor needed the help of The Time Lords to return everybody to their own time line; however, they all remained in personal jeopardy because they were all taken from actual war zones.

The Time Lords are not intending to set every one of the kidnapped humans up happily ever after in a comfortable life, simply to return them to their proper place and time.

The War Lord himself deems this hypocritical at his trial, at least strongly implying that the only humans abducted were those doomed to die as war casualties, so in his view, he was at least giving them a temporary reprieve from death, and possibly (for the lucky few who excel in the games) the opportunity to serve and prosper in his elite army. But even the callousness of his plan - or the callousness of sending the troops back to their "intended" deaths - is of secondary importance to the Time Lords. Thanks to the interference of one of their own kind, history has been damaged, and it is their duty to set it right (not to mention they were probably less than thrilled about the prospect of Gallifrey one day being invaded by an elite army of time-travelling brainwashed humans ...).

They might still be in danger in their home times, but it is at least danger that they are facing on their home world, for causes that they signed up for or support or at least understand, alongside members of their fellow species rather than being forced to fight by an alien race planning to brainwash and manipulate them for their own inscrutable purposes. It's far from perfect, but it's a bit better than the current situation they're trapped in.

• Zoe had supposedly memorised the names and faces of the resistance leaders in episode 5, but when she met Villar in episode 8, she failed to recognise him.

It is a list of the resistance leaders that the Security Chief knows of, not necessarily all the resistance leaders.

When he told her his name, she did recall him. One possibility is that the Security Chief's picture was of the wrong person. Another is that if the picture wasn't particularly clear, she might not have made the connection until he mentioned his name.

Besides which, she had literally only just woken up. That's bound to have had some effect on the speed of her memory.

• The geographical layout of the map doesn't tally with the one assumed by the narrative.

How so? If true, then presumably the map is simply wrong.

I like to think that although the paper map is in one dimension, the actual layout of the wars are in 3, or maybe 4 dimensions. Think of it like string theory!

• In episode seven the Doctor says that he is sending Zoe and Russell back to the 1917 zone, but they arrive in the American Civil War zone.

The Doctor's not exactly the best pilot ever.

• At the end of episode seven, with all the Resistance at his mercy, the Security Chief merely kidnaps the Doctor.

Yes the resistance members we see are "at his mercy". But we (and more importantly the Security Chief) do not know for certain whether that really is "all the Resistance". Clearly the plan was specifically to kidnap The Doctor. Anyone who attempts to change an on-track plan mid execution just because they think they see an opportunity is bound to lead themselves to failure.

• The Doctor tells the War Chief that it is impossible to use a remote control system on a TARDIS, as the War Chief used for the SIDRATS, because it would greatly reduce the life of the TARDIS, but the Timelords are able to control the Doctor's TARDIS from Gallifrey, and return it to them.

I think it works on a different principle, the SIDRATS are controlled completely by remote control, while the Time lords are using the Mental powers to control the TARDIS. It isn't meant to be controlled its just something they can do if the need arises.

Regularly remote-controlling the TARDIS would greatly reduce its lifespan, but that doesn't mean doing it once is a huge deal. (Regular smoking may take 10-20 years off your life, but smoking one cigarette has no noticeable long-term effects.) That's evidenced by the fact that the Doctor later does it in The Two Doctors, the Rani in Mark of the Rani, and the Master in First Frontier.

Anyway, why would the Time Lords care about greatly reducing the life of a stolen TARDIS that was meant to be decommissioned decades or centuries ago?

• If humans in the War Games are to eventually form an army to conquer the galaxy, why do the aliens make them fight and kill each other? Why not just condition them all for combat straight after capture? That way the aliens would have a bigger army.

They only want the strongest soldiers, the war games are a test of the soldiers' potential. Plus there are millions of humans, why should they care if a few thousand get killed in the process.

All the above, not to mention that the war games also encompass ongoing experiments in brainwashing, which the aliens are seeking to refine, and courses of education for their own would-be commanders, who presumably need to familiarise themselves with the historical periods and battle tactics of the human combat units to which they are assigned. That, and no doubt the games also serve as useful rehearsals for the wars of conquest ahead, offering a relatively safe environment for the alien officers to season their command skills, practice their strategies, and bond with their human "recruits". Not so safe for said humans, obviously, but the aliens seem pretty well able to rationalise that aspect of the plan...

• Why does Carstairs go back to the 1917 Zone to look for Lady Jennifer at the end when she was left in the American Civil War Zone?

Carstairs wasn't there at the time. Even if he knows, travelling with the Doctor is the only faint chance he's got.

• In episode 10, how did the War Lord's Guards manage to navigate their way to Gallifrey using an imitation Tardis they know very little about?

The Time Lords brought the stolen time travel technology back to Gallifrey themselves. These guards, by accident or design, were inside that one at the time.