Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Dalek

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This page is for discussing the ways in which Dalek 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:

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

... and so on. 

• The map of the US shown on Van Statten's monitor is missing the upper peninsula of Michigan.

This is 2012. Perhaps in the future the upper peninsula of Michigan had been destroyed or eroded.

...or maybe he had a bad experience there and deleted it from his map. He's shown to be quite cavalier. Also, maybe there was a yoopie (slang for denizen of the Michigan upper peninsula) on his staff that deleted it and he never noticed.

• The Dalek can find no trace of his race on the Internet. Has no one recorded the events involving any Human and Dalek?

The Doctor and the Daleks are Time travellers and Time is constantly in flux. At that point, Time had not been changed to allow the invasions to happen.

Also, the virus the Doctor gives Mickey at the end of World War Three may have erased all mentions of Dalek invasions pre-revival and before 2012.

• How can Van Statten, who seems powerful enough to own the President, not know what a Dalek is, even though they stole and attacked the Earth 3 years earlier in The Stolen Earth and Journey's End?

The Doctor and the Daleks are Time travellers and Time is constantly in flux. At that point, Time had not been changed to allow the invasions to happen.

It is mentioned by the Eleventh Doctor that a Time Crack erased the events of these episodes.

Yes but it is implied that the erased events (at the very least the ones preceding Series 5) were restored to their rightful place in time. Having said that it is likely that, as you say, the constant state of flux that time exists in compensates for this discontinuity and in deed many other across Dr Who's history (e.g. the Loc Ness Monster attacking London)

Actually it's stated later on that some things were not the same. We never saw if the events of The Stolen Earth (TV story) were restored or not.

In "The Waters of Mars" Adelaide Brooks remembers the daleks.

It makes no sense to say the time crack erased the events of the episode. Think about what that means: The crack eating up The Doctor, Rose, the Dalek, Van Statten, everyone. If the crack ate up the events of the episode, The Doctor and Rose would simply cease to exist, including his past and future regenerations. If the cracks took the whole planet, it would also cease to exist. If it spread further, maybe the whole universe, then there would be nothing left. If it's simply a case of time in flux, the events would catch up and Van Statten would know what it is. Then again, he'd still likely want to keep it down there and get it talking, so maybe the events wouldn't be such a paradox after all.

Time cracks don't rewrite history and actually erase things from it. They simply make things disappear from the present (where the contact with the crack was made) and make everyone forget about things, alter people's memories, but all the consequences are kept as they were, that's the only way in can work, otherwise, for instance, Amy could possibly never get aboard the TARDIS if it wasn't for Rory (he was too important in her life, she could become a totally different person and her life would be completely different), or the world would blow apart about 9999 times without the Doctor in the end of 'The Big Bang' like it started to in 'The Name of the Doctor'.

How about this: The Doctor travels in time but he is himself a creature that dwells in a linear timeline. Once events have resolved for him, later changes will not make a paradox unless he attempts to revisit them and invalidates an action of his own or that of another time traveller.

The Loch Ness Monster attack was stated as having been simply covered up. The explanation of the time crack wasn't that it removed this story, but was implied to have removed the Dalek invasions of Stolen Earth and Army of Ghosts. That of course would leave Daleks relatively unknown in 2012.

• The Dalek begs the Doctor for pity. It was established in Genesis of the Daleks and other stories that the Daleks cannot feel pity, having no concept of it.

The Dalek had began to take on Human emotions when Rose touched it, hence why it eventually killed itself.

A Dalek does not need to feel pity or have a concept of pity to beg for it. Only knowing the definition of it is necessary.

• How is the Doctor the absolute last of the Time Lords if many Time Lords fled Gallifrey?

Perhaps they chose to return to help fight the war. Given it was a war fighting the Daleks for the entirety of creation, it would involve them whether they wished it to or not.

Plus he would sense any other Time Lords in his mind.

They established a general recall to Gallifrey to assist in the war effort before the war was time locked.

• Rose states that in 2012 she would be 26. She would have to be 19 in 2005 to be 26. She would actually be 25 in 2012.

Rose may not be that good at maths. She said in Rose that one of the only things she was good at was gymnastics, stating, "I got the bronze".

We do not know how long Rose had been planning on travelling with the Doctor. Perhaps she had decided to travel for a few years until she was 19 or 20, then return to her life in 2006, thus making her 26 in 2012.

Rose was 19 in 2005, before she started travelling with the Doctor.

Remember that Rose returned to Earth in 2006 and stayed in that time afterwards in Aliens of London (?). It is 2006 for her in Dalek, not 2005.

• If the Daleks can hover around the city and even space with ease in The Parting of the Ways, Doomsday and The Stolen Earth, why is this one slowly getting around hovering, especially since it also wants to get past the bulk head as fast as possible?

It is possible that this particular Dalek was of an older model, or that it was not 100% repaired when touched by Rose.

The Dalek hadn't hovered, or even moved in over 40 years, so it would likely been slower than others. It machinery and the electric energy repaired it, so it would be at 100%.

It was also in deep thought as it's DNA was being mutated.

• If the ultimate purpose of the Daleks is to survive, why was the Dalek fitted with a self-destruct system?

The fact that the Dalek could destroy itself does not necessarily mean it had a "self-destruct system."

The Daleks have been shown before and after as resorting to suicide bombing, older models had specific cases of carrying bombs to explode when they reached the enemy, and one Dalek in Asylum was shown to have a self destruct mechanism. The reason for this is because the ultimate purpose of the Daleks is for their RACE to survive, not to personally survive themselves. A Dalek will give up it's life without a moments hesitation if it thinks it will benefit the survival of the Dalek race. The reason for this is that it can actually help. Imagine if a Dalek gets captured, with its weapon destroyed. Not only would it be a big box filled with information on the Daleks that the enemy could use, the enemy may also have their guard down. "That Dalek won't be a problem, the guns broken. Now let's have a poke around inside and see what we can find..." * explodes, taking anything they could learn with it, and a large chunk of the ship too*. I would imagine the version we saw here was a controlled explosion in case a Dalek needed to erase itself to avoid information being found while avoiding harming the environment (there could be many cases where a huge explosion from one Dalek could inconvenience the rest).

• The Doctor had to close the bulkhead quickly due to failing power. Yet power was not an issue in reopening it.

Perhaps Van Statten lied, pressuring the Doctor in order to save his own skin? Or it was only a power flux at that moment, hence the urgency.

• The lock on the Dalek's cell is described by a soldier as having "a billion combinations," but when the Dalek hacks the lock it's shown to use an eight-digit numerical code which would have only one hundred million (100,000,000) possible combinations.

The soldier could have been using the phrase "a billion" figuratively rather than literally.