Doctor Who and possible plot holes (and possible spoilers)

Recommended Videos

TheScarecrow

New member
Jul 27, 2009
688
0
0
It's possible he can't meet the present incarnation of himself which was why he was able to give Martha the tie, also he didn't actually meet himself in that episode. The reason I specified "present incarnation" is because he meets... is it the fourth Doctor? I cant rememeber in "Time Crash" (I think).
 

AndyMacK

New member
May 21, 2008
152
0
0
GoodEyeSniper said:
The biggest plothole I've seen, however, is the fact that in "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead", River Song (who may or may not be The Doctor's future wife) obviously recognises the Tenth Doctor as the person that she spent a significant amount of time with; but we know now that her first meeting with The Doctor will be the Eleventh Doctor. I've thought about it, and I don't really see a way to clean that up.
If I recall correctly, River only knows that he's the Doctor because 1) He acts like... himself, and 2) She summoned him. The rest is confirmed by the Doctor himself in the manner of "Yeah I am, HowDidYouKnow?". She herself even states that "this is the Doctor before I knew him".

Further more, and even on topic, I seem to remember reading somewhere that Time Lords can't (or rather don't) cross their own timelines as both a safety measure and a matter of principle: The safety part being an alteration of the grandfather paradox, and the matter of principle being akin to cloning; "But then there'd be two of me! I'd be devalued! [etc.]"

The Rules of Time were imposed by the Time Lords in order to stop them messing things up so badly that the Universe decided to pack it all in.
 

Mr Wednesday

New member
Jan 22, 2008
412
0
0
Dr Who isn't exactly the most coherent thing in the world.

It's best not to worry too much, considering the show once described time as "wibbly", and just enjoy it.
 

Maze1125

New member
Oct 14, 2008
1,679
0
0
The Doctor can cross his own time line if he wants, but he doesn't because it's very dangerous.

The Father's Day episode in series 1 of the new Doctor Who showed this.
 

GoodEyeSniper

New member
Sep 9, 2008
82
0
0
AndyMacK said:
If I recall correctly, River only knows that he's the Doctor because 1) He acts like... himself, and 2) She summoned him. The rest is confirmed by the Doctor himself in the manner of "Yeah I am, HowDidYouKnow?". She herself even states that "this is the Doctor before I knew him".[etc.]"
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.
 

GoodEyeSniper

New member
Sep 9, 2008
82
0
0
Mr Wednesday said:
Dr Who isn't exactly the most coherent thing in the world.

It's best not to worry too much, considering the show once described time as "wibbly", and just enjoy it.
Heh. Favourite quote from the show. "Wibbly-wobbly, time-wimey bits."
 

Mr Wednesday

New member
Jan 22, 2008
412
0
0
sauerkraus said:
What's a police box? Is that some newfangled british thing?
Actually it's a bit of a relic.

Which I imagine is why the Doctor likes it, being a bit of a relic himself.

Also OMFG TIMELORDDZZ!
 

DragonsAteMyMarbles

You matter in this world. Smile!
Feb 22, 2009
1,206
0
0
I imagine it's a combination of having the Laws of Time beaten into his head and his experiences in both Father's Day and The Waters of Mars - both times someone messed with the timeline, and both times there were serious repercussions.

Pre-Time War, he could (and did) meet with other incarnations of himself (see The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors) - of course, it's implied that his earlier incarnations' memories were erased or altered after the events.
Then you get Time Crash, where the Doctor's TARDIS collides with itself - which threatens to tear a hole in the time vortex the exact size of Belgium.

Of course...
<youtube=vY_Ry8J_jdw>
 

AndyMacK

New member
May 21, 2008
152
0
0
GoodEyeSniper said:
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.

sauerkraus said:
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.
 

aaronmcc

New member
Oct 18, 2008
629
0
0
dragontiers said:
Anyone out there have any plausible explanations, or even any other examples to discuss? What do you guys think?
Russell T Davies wrote this episode. That's all the explanation you need.

Roll on Moffat, the real genius.

Pretty much all of Davies' stories make little to no sense IMHO. Best not driving yourself mad trying to figure it out. I mean SPOILERS 4 End of Time Pt1.....the time lords are supposed to be dead...but surely they are only dead when the time war occurred and exist throughout time and space regardless of this? It's all a bunch of convenient nonsense.

I bet John Simm sacked his agent when he got the script for this episode. What a load of tosh.
 

AndyMacK

New member
May 21, 2008
152
0
0
aaronmcc said:
Russell T Davies wrote this episode. That's all the explanation you need.

Roll on Moffat, the real genius.

Pretty much all of Davies' stories make little to no sense IMHO. Best not driving yourself mad trying to figure it out. I mean SPOILERS 4 End of Time Pt1.....the time lords are supposed to be dead...but surely they are only dead when the time war occurred and exist throughout time and space regardless of this? It's all a bunch of convenient nonsense.

I bet John Simm sacked his agent when he got the script for this episode. What a load of tosh.
I'm going to step out of my comfort zone here and defend Mr. R.T. Davies; I believe that while there have certainly been some less than stellar episodes, the bashing has gone far enough. And I don't find the oft-touted arguement of "his episodes never make any sense" to be as valid so to warrant its overuse.

The postulation that "It's all a bunch of convenient nonsense" - it is. What plot isn't? Infact, I would go so far as to say that "big ball of timey-wimey stuff" is even more thinly veiled convenient nonsense, yet it is accepted.

In order to write my arguement I would find it easier to enter into a debate; Perhaps you could join me in another topic? Tomorrow, since it is far to late (my time) to start this now?
 

Rednog

New member
Nov 3, 2008
3,567
0
0
randomic said:
The Riff said:
What i am wondering is
Why can't he just go back in time before he arrived and stop the prison from blowing up and the master resurrecting? Like go into his box, and go back like a day or two before they resurrect the master and prevent the whole thing from happening? and then fly back to where he left off
Well I'm sure by now you've noticed that the TARDIS simply isn't that reliable. It quite frequently dumps him in the wrong place and time or perhaps the right place and time, depending on how you see it. Either way, a lot of the time it doesn't end up quite where he wants it to. I'm guessing this could be as a result of the same thing which made the TARDIS get stuck looking like a police box.
We don't actually know whether or not that the TARDIS is really reliable or not. The problem is that the ship requires 6 people to effectively pilot the darn thing and you have 1 guy dashing around the place trying to fly it, it would probably be like driving a car with 1 foot and 1 arm, should you might get from point A to point B but you're not going to be doing it with the best accuracy.

OT: Like someone else said he can break timeline as with Jones, for cheap time parlor tricks.
And since the "other" doctor wasn't a real doctor it didn't break the rule.
 

aaronmcc

New member
Oct 18, 2008
629
0
0
AndyMacK said:
aaronmcc said:
Russell T Davies wrote this episode. That's all the explanation you need.

Roll on Moffat, the real genius.

Pretty much all of Davies' stories make little to no sense IMHO. Best not driving yourself mad trying to figure it out. I mean SPOILERS 4 End of Time Pt1.....the time lords are supposed to be dead...but surely they are only dead when the time war occurred and exist throughout time and space regardless of this? It's all a bunch of convenient nonsense.

I bet John Simm sacked his agent when he got the script for this episode. What a load of tosh.
I'm going to step out of my comfort zone here and defend Mr. R.T. Davies; I believe that while there have certainly been some less than stellar episodes, the bashing has gone far enough. And I don't find the oft-touted arguement of "his episodes never make any sense" to be as valid so to warrant its overuse.

The postulation that "It's all a bunch of convenient nonsense" - it is. What plot isn't? Infact, I would go so far as to say that "big ball of timey-wimey stuff" is even more thinly veiled convenient nonsense, yet it is accepted.

In order to write my arguement I would find it easier to enter into a debate; Perhaps you could join me in another topic? Tomorrow, since it is far to late (my time) to start this now?
I would...but you would probably win because as soon as human sized Rhino men turned up I gave up and didn't watch another episode until 'Blink'. At this point I realised that not only did I love this episode that conversely I didn't like Tennant's Doctor either. I know that's def a controversial stance! Either way you have called my bluff as I didn't stick around long enough to gather ammo against Davies further. However, I did watch the episodes were the Master returns which I would have found unbearable if not for Derek Jacobi and John Simm, who are both super awesome :)
 

sauerkraus

New member
Mar 24, 2009
251
0
0
AndyMacK said:
GoodEyeSniper said:
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.

sauerkraus said:
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.
 

Berethond

New member
Nov 8, 2008
6,474
0
0
He explained by saying he had to stay relative to The Master. If he had gone and messed with the time-line, The Master would know The Doctor broke the rules, and we can't have that.