Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Victory of the Daleks


 * the zeppelins seen in this episode look nothing like those seen in The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.
 * Different type/model? Different area of London?


 * The barrage balloons seemed to be tethered at the wrong height as well - the point was to force aircraft to fly high over them rather than risk knocking a wing off on the supporting wires. Having them flying lower than the tower of Big Ben makes no sense unless they had been reeled in for some reason.


 * How did the Spitfires survive in space? Surely the glass would have smashed.
 * The planes are seen with a bluish field around them, presumably an effect of the "gravity bubble" or some other piece of Dalek technology. It may have something to do with the glowing yellow spheres seen inside the cockpit. Such technology would also help explain how they can still fly, since their engines and propellers would normally be useless without air. At any rate, it's clear a good deal of alien tech has been applied to them, further supported by the presence of some sort of laser weapon system. And don't call me Shirley.
 * Perhaps more to the point, how did they have time to modify three Spitfires in what appears to be mere minutes of in-story time from "It could work in theory" to "pew-pew-pew".
 * They didn't modify the Spitfires in a few minutes, they did it in a month.
 * Is there any on-screen evidence that a month passed, or is this just as speculative as assuming that it was a few minutes just because it only took a few minutes to show it on-screen?


 * If the Daleks led Bracewell to believe he created the Daleks and they planted him in this location, then at what point was he meant to have created the daleks? Did Bracewell apparently come to Churchill with the "ironsides" or did they appear one day and Bracewell claim he had been working on them?
 * The Daleks appeared and Bracewell had the memory of creating them.
 * Ultimately, it doesn't necessarily matter for the story what the exact chronology was.


 * Why did the daleks give Bracewell the idea for anti-gravity technology? did it help them at all?
 * The Daleks were not selective in what ideas they gave him.
 * Or the anti-gravity technology is used for Dalek flight, so it was part-and-parcel of the how to build a Dalek idea.
 * Also, the Daleks wanted Churchill (and Bracewell himself) to believe that Bracewell was chock full of useful ideas that could win the war, to ensure that the UK would embrace the plan wholeheartedly.
 * Also, they may have actually wanted to make sure that the UK beat the Nazis, and beat them easily. The whole point was to attract the Doctor, and a dramatic change to WWII history like that would be a great way to do it.


 * The author took no pains to explain how an android's memories and emotions prevent a bomb from exploding. It was the most severe plot hole in this episode. While I'm sure any number of fans can come up with their own explanations, really, it is the job of the episode writer to make these things clear.
 * The Doctor said, in effect, that humans aren't bombs, so they can't explode, as if this were a matter of obvious common sense. It doesn't sound like obvious common sense to me, and probably even less so to you, but maybe in the Whoniverse it is....


 * We are repeatedly shown a uniformed woman who has "significant moments" in the story line, such as sharing eye contact with Amy and who apparently loses a fighter pilot boyfriend. What was her "narrative" purpose in the story? It felt like the writer created this interesting character but then couldn't think of anything interesting to do with her.
 * She was added to show the human cost of war--even in glorious victory, there is tragedy. Still probably not an important theme for this episode, but it was probably done to counter what Gatiss felt was too much of a "Rah! Rah! Tallyho! War is great fun!" attitude in the rest of the episode he'd written. (Or it could even be a hint that the Daleks' victory will also not be without cost.)


 * When counter-threatening the Doctor about 18.5 minutes in, why (and for that matter, how) do the Daleks go to the bother of turning all the lights in London on? As a means of destroying a city, this is ridiculously elaborate, yet given the limitations of World War II bombers, extremely unreliable. If they want to (threaten to) destroy a city from orbit, all they have to do is (threaten to) drop a decent-sized rock on it, which is surely far easier. Not as big a science fail as "Edwin"'s memories saving the day, but sufficient for a facepalm.
 * The "why" is a little bit tricky, but perhaps they somehow actually don't have any other means of attack, since the ship is stated to be in such disrepair (and big-rock-dropping-hatches probably aren't standard Dalek weaponry anyway. That part's a little sketchy, granted. But it might be a bit of a reach to question "how" the Dalek-lights-on-beam works as a matter of a plot hole, since we don't know how the show's alien technology works. Might as well list the sonic screwdriver's capabilities as a plot hole every time a door's unlocked. As for why the Daleks would have so specific a weapon, it's possible the dish is designed to be used to control electronics in general remotely, which would be a practical weapon to have.


 * Why does the progenitor device only work for pure Daleks. Even if a species that wasn't remotely related to the Daleks found it, and accidently activated it, wouldn't the Daleks still want it to work?
 * Presumably they were afraid that in the wrong hands (such as, say, Time Lords), the technology could be dangerously misused.


 * The Dalek menace is revealed within the first ten minutes of the show.
 * This isn't really discontinuity or plotholes.


 * There is no real exposition of the pretended subservience of the Daleks as in Power of the Daleks.
 * The Daleks were trying to frustrate the Doctor into giving a testimony.


 * There is no build up of tension between the Doctor and the Daleks.
 * This isn't discontinuity or plotholes.


 * The Spitfires, even with anti-gravitational globes, being prepared to attack an alien vessel within minutes is utterly implausible.
 * We don't know enough about this technology to know how long it would take to install.
 * Also, there's no indication in the show that it's only minutes. Screen time is not always real time.


 * The climax, the Daleks escaping, is anything but a climax. And most of the drama seems to occur after the characters central to the plot, the Daleks, have disappeared. A great let down for Who fans.
 * This is criticism of the plot, not actual plot holes.
 * Yes, it is a criticism of the plot. Imo, however, the plot is poor and that produces plot-holes. If the story-line is exposed within the first few minutes, not allowing for plot exposition, then confusion will arise. Such as (as commented on above)
 * Almost every one of the following questions is answered directly in the episode, so I'm going to break them out line by line and give the answers.
 * why do the Daleks choose to enter back into time when they did?
 * "why do the Daleks choose to enter back into time when they did?" They don't. They fell through time, after which they presumably flew straight to Earth.
 * What is the purpose of posing as friends if their purpose is to flush the Doctor out into giving testimony?
 * They weren't just posing as friends, but as subservient robots. Which was critical to Churchill accepting them. While he might have secretly allied with sinister aliens against the Nazis (in fact, his quote about the devil himself makes it seem like he would have), counting on that sounds like a bigger risk than counting on him accepting a product of British ingenuity.
 * Especially as they have no means of attracting the Doctor to them or even knowing when he is in the timestream.
 * Yes, they do. They attracted the Doctor by getting Churchill to call him. And, even if they didn't know that Churchill and the Doctor were friends and that phone call was just a lucky coincidence, they still had the means of attracting the Doctor. Changing 20th century British history is probably the best way in the universe to get the Doctor's attention--short of changing 20th century British history to include a glorious early victory in WWII thank to those familiar-looking Ironsides. If he hadn't gotten the call from Churchill, he would have found out how WWII had been won and been back in a flash.
 * It is never explicitly stated that the Daleks want to conquer Earth.
 * It's never stated because they don't want to conquer Earth.
 * And if they did, they could have done so with the firepower they already possess.
 * No, they didn't have enough energy left to conquer a council flat, much less a planet. The Doctor directly called them on this, and they admitted it.
 * Given these questions the creation of Bracewell seems to be an over-elaborate exercise for an uncertain gain.
 * Given that posing as subservient robots was the entire plan, the only alternative to the creation of Bracewell would be finding some gullible and/or greedy human scientist and tricking or bribing him into pretending to have created the Ironsides. Which might have worked, but that's a Cybermen plot, not a Dalek one.
 * How can an entirely electronic artifice become entirely human without some kind of metaphysical miracle?
 * This one isn't answered in the episode--but how can an entirely bioelectronic device like the human brain become entirely human without some metaphysical miracle? Does the fact that our nerves are powered by ATP rather than by an oblivion continuum make a difference? Are there immaterial souls that can only attach to things that are squishy enough?
 * Also, remember Moffat's obsession with fairy tales and go read Pinocchio.
 * Is Dorabella really expected to fall in love with an android?
 * Why not? If he looks, acts, and feels human in every way, it's no more or less likely than her falling in love with a human.
 * She might get a surprise in the bed!
 * Why? If you were designing an android replica of an alien race, would you try to guess which parts would never be checked and skimp on those, or just copy the whole thing?
 * Besides, how exactly would this be a letdown for fans of a series that has repeatedly had aliens in human suits with spouses? Scaroth is OK, when he has to unzip his skin and reveal the hideous fly-thingy inside just to laugh, but Bracewell, who can't be distinguished from a human unless you sonic him or shoot his hand off, is not?