Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Woman Who Fell to Earth

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Woman Who Fell to Earth 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:

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::This is a counter-argument to point one.
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* This is point two.
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::Further discussion and query of point two.

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• If the TARDIS is in-fact, a living being, then why doesn't it come back to her at the end of the episode like it did in The Eleventh Hour?

The TARDIS may be damaged and unable to return.

Time is relative. Eventually it would repair itself, and then it should have returned to the Doctor.

• When the Doctor speaks to Ryan and Yasmin for the first time, she mentioned that she had been a Scotsman half an hour ago. Which is weird, because she just landed minutes ago and neither her regeneration nor the explosion of the TARDIS or her fall could have possibly taken that long!

We don't see how long her fall was from her perspective. Also, she's just come out of an explosive regeneration, so it makes sense for her to mix up saying 30 seconds with 30 minutes.

When Felix Baumgartner took his stratospheric leap back in 2012 it took him just 10 minutes, the Doctor hadn't fallen nearly from that height. And we are talking about a Time lord here - or maybe a Time lady now? Even if you bring up the regeneration and the explosion of the TARDIS, her species is known for their special relationship with time. So I doubt she'd just mixed up minutes and seconds! The other thing - that also troubled me in "The End of Time pt 2" - was: Why wasn't she harmed at all from that fall? The Fourth Doctor had to regenerate when he fell from the Pharos antenna.

To answer your second question; she just regenerated so she's much more durable and stronger, if only for 15 hours or so. The Tenth Doctor was able to regenerate his severed hand in The Christmas Invasion and River Song survived several bullets to her body in Let's Kill Hitler. Also, your point doesn't disprove how regeneration muddles a Time Lord's brain; many Doctors muddle up things like time, the name of things and even the direction they walk in. Her confusion over time is no different from the Eleventh Doctor's confusion about which way is left in The Eleventh Hour.

She was a white-haired Scotsman 30 days ago as well. It's not at all uncommon to not use the most-recent point a statement was true in such cases.

• The Thirteenth Doctor is still in her predecessors clothes, including his shoes. Given she is a lot smaller, so has smaller feet which won't fit the shoes, how is she able to run, walk and even leap without any difficulty? Further, bar the coat, everything else appears to fit her fine.

She likely retied the shoes tighter and tighten the belt to make the clothes fit her. Stopping Tim Shaw was more important than looking for new clothes that fit her properly.

The most common result of regeneration seems to be exactly what we saw here: the clothes somehow adjust enough to be comfortable, but not enough that it's not noticeable. But all kinds of other things have happened, all the way to Romana II getting a completely new outfit for each of the new bodies she tried on. As far as I know, the details have never been explained, but it's probably something something artron energy mumble mumble.

• Shouldn't have Graham, Ryan and Yaz have passed out immediately from being in the vacuum of space?

Why? Oxygen established that it takes a minimum of 15 seconds to pass out from vacuum asphyxiation. Which is what we see at the start of the next episode. And that's consistent with real-life science, past Doctor Who stories, and typical sci-fi tropes.

• If the Tardis wasn't around, how could they understand "Tim Shaw"?

Tim Shaw may have his own translator device

• At the end of Twice Upon A Time, The Thirteenth Doctor had all of the buttons of the Twelfth Doctor's shirt done up, but during The Woman Who Fell To Earth, the top button isn't done up.

She just fell from x height through a train. If that could kill someone, I'm sure it would undo a button.

She felt a new warmth in her chest

• How can Graham deny aliens existing after 12 years of invasions. Is he the DWU version of a flat Earther?

It doesn't matter how many invasions publicly occur, humanity always ends up ignoring them. The Seventh doctor even lampshaded the number of public invasions Ace had never heard of in "Remembrance of the Daleks". Its presumably easier to ignore as most of them are confided to small areas and never stick for more than a day or two.

Graham denied there being aliens in Sheffield, not at all. The crack in the wall in Series 5 erased most of RTDs invasions of earth, most of Moffat's finales didn't involve the end of the earth more end of the universe! Yes still plenty of other occasions they should remember though.