Doctor Who and possible plot holes (and possible spoilers)

[DocSun]

I did take this into account. That argument seems to be cancelled out as she goes through her journal to try to pinpoint exactly what point in his timeline that they are meeting. She must have met and been on several adventures with the 10th Doctor if she can't tell when he comes from simply by looking at him.

I always believed that she couldn't pinpoint his timeline because she didn't adventure with him and so only knew of his 10th incarnation by word-of-mouth. He probably told her lots of stories, if they were/will be as close as she alluded to.

What's a police box? Is that some newfangled british thing?

Noooooooo. Very old fashioned British thingy. Not been around in a decade or two, and the surviving ones have mostly been converted into coffee shops.

Soooo...... nobody explained what a police box does..... other than time travel of course.

I believe if I remember corectly A police box was a free phoneline direct to a police office. and was usually manned by a single officer in the need of an actual officer immediately. Someone can correct me if I am wrong.

 

[sauerkraus]

I believe if I remember corectly A police box was a free phoneline direct to a police office. and was usually manned by a single officer in the need of an actual officer immediately. Someone can correct me if I am wrong.

Damn, that's some badass police work there. Too bad it's not "cost-effective" in todays world.

 

[Jirlond]

I'd rather see good sci-fi with minor plotholes than one that is boring because they live 100% up to the rules - Thats why old sci-fi movies rock - they focus more on saying this is possible as opposed to this is WHY it is possible.

 

[Plinglebob]

Seeing as most of the questions have been answered, I'll go with my own theory of why the Tardis sometimes appears "Too Late". This is because the Tardis runs on a rare element in the universe called Narrativarium to keep the Time Lords from getting bored. This means it will occasionally dump the Time Lord somewhere in time either too late or just because something big happens so they have to then go fix it.

*gets coat*

 

[Ekonk]

Last time I checked, Doctor Who was one big plot hole.

Still fun though.

 

[WolfThomas]

Soooo...... nobody explained what a police box does..... other than time travel of course.

As mentioned by someone else, it was a direct line to a police station as the police didn't have any other form of communication. However it could also be used as a temporary cell, being of sturdy construction you tossed the criminals you've apprehended in one, call the station, they send someone to pick them up and you go back to work.

It was considered a little old fashioned even when the show initially started.

 

[sauerkraus]

Soooo...... nobody explained what a police box does..... other than time travel of course.

As mentioned by someone else, it was a direct line to a police station as the police didn't have any other form of communication. However it could also be used as a temporary cell, being of sturdy construction you tossed the criminals you've apprehended in one, call the station, they send someone to pick them up and you go back to work.

It was considered a little old fashioned even when the show initially started.

Damn, I always thought Chuck Norris was the most badass thing ever. It seems I was wrong.

 

[AdamG3691]

Seeing as most of the questions have been answered, I'll go with my own theory of why the Tardis sometimes appears "Too Late". This is because the Tardis runs on a rare element in the universe called Narrativarium to keep the Time Lords from getting bored. This means it will occasionally dump the Time Lord somewhere in time either too late or just because something big happens so they have to then go fix it.

*gets coat*

don't be daft, it's called phlebtonium, narrativium is the stuff that allows people to talk to the entire universe at once, how do you expect narrators to be able to say "meanwhile, thousands of miles away" without being omniscient?

don't make me link to tvtropes...
/threat

 

[oktalist]

Donna's grandfather (his name escapes me)

Wilfred Mott

Anagram of:

Spoiler

Time Lord FTW

Can't wait for part two.

 

[Flame Roarg]

By he can't cross his own timeline, he means he can't see himself or the reapers come and eat people who have bricks for phones, and then Rose crosses her timeline by touching a baby which is actually her, then the Doctor is eaten, so that's why he can't. AS for the hospital one, he can't see himself. Just making this point. I might be wrong. Probably.

 

[AfterAscon]

He can't cross his own time line in the sense he can't change anything that will cause him to do something. He can't stop the master in the prison because he doesn't know he is back until after the event has happended. It creates a paradox.

The doctor can however meet himself. As he has done in the very old episodes. As long as he doesn't deviate from what he is ment to do, its all okay.

Conversations from one of the eps

Doctor one: 'how do we do this?'
Doctor two: 'some crazy explanation that doesn't really make sense'.
Docotr one: 'how did you know that?'
Docotr two: 'when I was you I heard me say this answer!'

Its all very confusing.

 

[dragontiers]

Conversations from one of the eps

Doctor one: 'how do we do this?'
Doctor two: 'some crazy explanation that doesn't really make sense'.
Docotr one: 'how did you know that?'
Docotr two: 'when I was you I heard me say this answer!'

Its all very confusing.

That's another thing that irks me, the occasional "I know I'm supposed to do X because future you told me to, even though the only reason future you knew about it was because he saw me do it". For example, my favorite episode is "Don't Blink", but after some serious thought, I realized that the events couldn't unfold like that naturally.

Spoiler

The Doctor gets trapped in the past without his Tardis. Without some way of knowing what's going to happen to Sally Sparrow (unless I'm getting the name mixed up with the other girl in the episode), he would have no reason to write the things on the wall (DUCK) or include the easter eggs on the dvds. Therefore, Sally would have been hit with the rock, and probably sent back in time to another random time period. She would never have been there in her own time period to give the Doctor the transcript. The only way it would work would be if she was sent back to a time and place where the Doctor was, and even then I'd like to think they would have come up with a slightly less complicated way of making sure the Doctor got back to his Tardis and fix Sally's time-line.

Despite all this, it is still my favorite episode.

 

[Spacewolf]

It's that time of year again, when I get to watch new Doctor Who episodes, and I love me some Doctor Who. Well, last night I'm watching "The End Of Time Part One" (I believe is the title). The Doctor is sitting in the Cafe with Donna's grandfather (his name escapes me), and is asked why he can't just go back to when he lost The Master and follow him then. The Doctor replies "I can't cross my own timeline." Meanwhile, I'm going "Huh?" I can think of at least one episode when he has done exactly that, and another where he believes he has. In the episode where he first meets Martha Jones, she sees him on the street where he takes off his tie and talks to her, meanwhile he is also a couple of blocks away in the hospital in a bed, where he's been "all morning" as he tells her when she says she saw him on the street before. In the episode "The Other Doctor" he believes for most of the episode that he has somehow run into one of his future incarnations that has partial amnesia and forgotten about his past.

Anyone out there have any plausible explanations, or even any other examples to discuss? What do you guys think?

The way i understand it in the other doctor he could do it because it wwas a future incarnation and therefore didnt change anything as far as he knew, and for the martha jones one he created a stable paradox therefore averted the problem. However if he went back and stopped the master then he would change his own timeeline as he would have no reason to go back hence either restetting the timeline like when he defeated the master last time or creating a rip in time and the reapers would show up again like with Rose and Pete

 

[Macgyvercas]

Hmm...Root hasn't posted yet? Wierd.

Despite the plot holes and RTD screwing with stuff, I still love the show.

 

[dragontiers]

The way i understand it in the other doctor he could do it because it wwas a future incarnation and therefore didnt change anything as far as he knew, and for the martha jones one he created a stable paradox therefore averted the problem. However if he went back and stopped the master then he would change his own timeeline as he would have no reason to go back hence either restetting the timeline like when he defeated the master last time or creating a rip in time and the reapers would show up again like with Rose and Pete

As I said in post 4), he could have easily gone back to just after he was knocked out and tailed the helicopters. After all, following a couple of helicopters up in the sky from a discrete distance has got to be easier than pulling the Tardis up alongside a moving vehicle on the highway that's being driven by an evil mechan-Claus and trying to rescue someone from said vehicle. At least in theory.

 

[She-Ra 42]

I did take this into account. That argument seems to be cancelled out as she goes through her journal to try to pinpoint exactly what point in his timeline that they are meeting. She must have met and been on several adventures with the 10th Doctor if she can't tell when he comes from simply by looking at him.

I always believed that she couldn't pinpoint his timeline because she didn't adventure with him and so only knew of his 10th incarnation by word-of-mouth. He probably told her lots of stories, if they were/will be as close as she alluded to.

Your answer doesn't account for a few things. It doesn't account for the fact that when she is trying to pinpoint "his timeline" she keeps saying "we" implying that they are adventures that they shared. On top of it she starts off saying "How long has it been? A few days?" Thinking that they'd just left each other. She has the journal to keep their timelines straight so that they know where the other person is relatively. And then in the end when she cannot find any common adventures she says, "Please tell me you know who I am."

If she was dealing with a different version of the doctor -- one she'd never met, never seen -- one she didn't know and who she knew certainly never met her, why would she even hope that he knew her? If she just thought he was the 10th doctor, but that she was really used to running with the 11th or 12th, then wouldn't she be smart enough to know that she never ran across the 10th before and that there'd be NO WAY of him knowing who she was? Nah, this is a huge plot-hole that they put in... and particularly right at the end of the 4th season when they knew Tenant would be leaving... what's up with that? Unless the doctor regenerates as Tenant again? Or something? Yeah, whatever... don't really see a good way to fix that gaffe. It will be a plot retrofit almost as bad as BSG when they picked out their final 5 cylons.

And this is coming from someone who generally loves Doctor Who and a huge Tenant fan. And I love the Library episode, thought it was among the best.... just hate gaping plot holes.

 

[Eisenfaust]

I did take this into account. That argument seems to be cancelled out as she goes through her journal to try to pinpoint exactly what point in his timeline that they are meeting. She must have met and been on several adventures with the 10th Doctor if she can't tell when he comes from simply by looking at him.

I always believed that she couldn't pinpoint his timeline because she didn't adventure with him and so only knew of his 10th incarnation by word-of-mouth. He probably told her lots of stories, if they were/will be as close as she alluded to.

Your answer doesn't account for a few things. It doesn't account for the fact that when she is trying to pinpoint "his timeline" she keeps saying "we" implying that they are adventures that they shared. On top of it she starts off saying "How long has it been? A few days?" Thinking that they'd just left each other. She has the journal to keep their timelines straight so that they know where the other person is relatively. And then in the end when she cannot find any common adventures she says, "Please tell me you know who I am."

If she was dealing with a different version of the doctor -- one she'd never met, never seen -- one she didn't know and who she knew certainly never met her, why would she even hope that he knew her? If she just thought he was the 10th doctor, but that she was really used to running with the 11th or 12th, then wouldn't she be smart enough to know that she never ran across the 10th before and that there'd be NO WAY of him knowing who she was? Nah, this is a huge plot-hole that they put in... and particularly right at the end of the 4th season when they knew Tenant would be leaving... what's up with that? Unless the doctor regenerates as Tenant again? Or something? Yeah, whatever... don't really see a good way to fix that gaffe. It will be a plot retrofit almost as bad as BSG when they picked out their final 5 cylons.

And this is coming from someone who generally loves Doctor Who and a huge Tenant fan. And I love the Library episode, thought it was among the best.... just hate gaping plot holes.

technically isn't she just living her life and the doctor keeps running into her? i mean sure, she may take actions to make the meetings occur, (like with the home box) but she's not actually attempting to keep the timeline straight, or whatever...

but ot... didn't rose basically cross her own timeline when she saved her father/held the past version of herself as a child, and look what happened then... reason enough to avoid it as much as possible...