Theory:Doctor Who prose discontinuity and plot holes/The Dark Path


 * How did neither the Doctor not The Master know that Ailla was a Time Lord?
 * Given that she was undercover by order of the Council, it is likely that a disguise of some sort(like a perception filter perhaps) was used to hide the most obviously Gallifreyan parts of her biology. Presumeably then she also had a device/enough skill to dampen/lower her telepathic field to that of a human


 * If the Master suffers at the hands of Chronovores here, why is he so ignorant of the, in The Time Monster(set later)?
 * Given it is unknown how long Koschei was in that black hole, time, or simply a bout of regenerative amnesia could have erased his memory of the Chronovores. Also, I wouldn't say the Master was ignorant of Chronovores in The Time Monster, just that he was arrogant enough to believe he could control them.


 * In Terror of the Autons, the Master is clearly coming to seek revenge on the Doctor, yet the Doctor is not even the one responsible for the Master's problems at the end of The Dark Path.
 * The Doctor is, however indirectly, responsible for the Master's state at the end of the novel. Additionally, the Master may feel that had the Doctor not interfered, the whole thing would have gone smoother.


 * Multiple stories and interviews stress the significance of the Doctor and the Master being the only two offworld Time Lords at this time, yet the Doctor has no idea who this mysterious stranger calling himself 'Koschei' is.
 * This may be known of the Council, but the Doctor has not been in contact with Gallifrey for some time, to say nothing of the fact that Koschei left Gallifrey after the Doctor.
 * From The Glorious Dead(comic) Part 9:

The Master:"You have not seen a fraction of the horror we have sculptured. For all your high-flown 'morality', we are uncannily alike, Doctor. The only difference is that I am now aware of it. We left Gallifrey on the same day by the same means.'''
 * I doubt when you're presumably running for your life one would stop and see if the guards are on alert for one reason or another. That is, even with the Doctor and the Master leaving Gallifrey on the same day, the original counterpoint can still stand for the most part. Either the Doctor left first, or was unaware that the Master had fled as well. And actually, if there were only two offworld Time Lords at this time, what do those sources make of the Monk(or the Rani for that matter)? If the Doctor is aware of the 'two offworld Time Lords' including himself, but unaware that Koschei is offworld, he could simply believe the Monk is the other Time Lord referred to. Though presumably the Monk's TARDIS was obtained legally.
 * The Rani's exile was only some centuries after the Doctor and the Master left Gallifrey. It's like the Monty Python "Coventry City have never won the FA Cup" joke. It was true when they said it, although Coventry City did later win the FA Cup in 1987.


 * The "Monk" is an interesting case, in that the modern viewpoint is contrary to the viewpoint at the time. When the Master arrives in Terror of the Autons (TV story), the Doctor is unfazed and even calls him "a jackanapes" and "an unimaginative plodder". "Jackanapes" derives from Jack Napier a Medieval man who attempted, very badly, to replace the King of England with his preferred choice. Today, it literally means "a mischievous or childlike man". The Master later attempts to interfere in Middle Ages English history(The King's Demons (TV story)), disguises himself as a member of the Church(The Daemons), tries to get Harold Saxon to be ruler of the UK(The Sound of Drums (TV story), and is 'discovered' when the Doctor's companion(Martha in this case) notices his anachronistic watch(Utopia (TV story). Furthermore, DWM #75 had a preview of The King's Demons (TV story) stating that the "Sir Gilles" character was the same character from The Time Meddler (TV story), a 1988 edition of game show Mastermind had a person with specialist category "Doctor Who" asked In which story did the Monk first use the name the Master?(or something very similar, will need to look that up), and the FASA Role Playing Game Source Book and Master module both explicitly state that the Master is a regenerated Monk. This was actually accepted by more than 90% of people(fans and casual viewers) at the time. It wasn't until No Future that someone suggested otherwise. This was heavily criticised for this very reason, which led to The Discontinuity Guide, and a self-contradictory "explanation". In any case this is explained when the First Doctor meets the Master in The Five Doctors (TV story).


 * See first counterpoint/explanation above regarding Koschei. It should be noted that Ailla was not a renegade or exile, but merely operating under instructions from the Time Lords.