Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Deadly Assassin


 * If the Time Lords summoned the Doctor back to Gallifrey, why does no one know who he is?
 * They didn't. The Master and Goth did.


 * Why don't the Time Lords who the Master kills regenerate?
 * The Staser weapons used by the Time Lords are designed to inhibit regeneration.


 * Surely the high-ranking Time Lords are already aware of the Master since the high-council have both warned the Doctor regarding (See Terror of the Autons), and sent the Doctor after (See Colony in Space) him in previous stories. In fact Borusa should know him personally since he must have encountered him while teaching the Doctor, with whom he was also at school.
 * The Master's biographical data had been purged, he was in control of the Matrix, and he had the Chancellor working on his side. Removing most official records of his existence would not have been difficult. Some individual members of the High Council may or may not have known of him, but it's doubtful that the Castellan would have questioned all of them in the time allotted.


 * The technology on Gallifrey seems somewhat low-tech for such a powerful race. The capitol has comparable surveillance, security and forensic facilities to Earth in the 1970's.
 * The Time Lord's policy of isolationism has led to some forms of technological stagnation. Even the Doctor remarks, when discussing the APC, that it would be disregarded as "junk" in some parts of the universe.


 * It is not explained how the Master discovered the truth about the real uses of the Rod and Sash of Rassilon, etc. when no-one else seems to know.
 * He did have access to the forgotten depths of the Matrix records when he was stealing the plans for the doomsday weapon. See DW: Colony in Space.


 * How could all the power of the Time Lords devolve from the Eye of Harmony, and none of them be aware of it?
 * When the Doctor said that, he didn't mean that Gallifrey is still powered by the Eye, only that it had been the initial source of power the first Time Lords had used and had since been forgotten.


 * Considering Runcible was only stabbed, and with no extra wound to indicate being stabbed in both hearts, shouldn't he have regenerated?
 * The Master clearly did not want Runcible left alive, so obviously killed him in such a way that regeneration would not have been an option. He may have inhibited regeneration using something like a staser, or Runcible may simply not have been able to regenerate.


 * When the president is assassinated, the time lord who the Doctor swapped robes with is in front of the president but when the Doctor sees the assassination in the Tardis the Time Lord is not present.


 * Having established, through Runcible's newscast, that the livery for the Prydonian chapter is the scarlet / orange combination, the costume department takes the curious move of clothing a major Prydonian character - Cardinal Borusa - in the purple robes (which are supposed to belong to the Patrex chapter).


 * Just before the "train attack" in the APC Net, the Doctor's enemy is seen within three different trains, all of which are of too wide a gauge to even fit on the tracks. Indeed, the train that actually runs the Doctor down turns out to be a far smaller vehicle than any of those three, making their (lack of) purpose in the plot very obscure.
 * The landscape of The Matrix was a percieved reality and thus was subject to a battle of wills. The Doctor and Goth were mentally fighting over the size of the 'train'.


 * Why didn't the Time Lords simply use their time scanning technology to see what really happened at the assassination?


 * The guard the Master kills in episode one is seen alive and well in episode two.