Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Curse of Fatal Death


 * As a non-canonical story, there's no way for this story to actually have continuity errors with respect to the main television show. However, the following points were made on the main story page at the time of the creation of this page:


 * Why did the Doctor stay alive for a short while after being exterminated? Long enough even to break wind?
 * There are instances in the classic series where the characters don't die straight away - like in TV: Resurrection of the Daleks. The Third Doctor also apparently lingered for a bit after encountering deadly radiation.  (TV: Planet of the Spiders)  Also, in the new series the Tenth Doctor was able to hold the regeneration for a while TV: The Stolen Earth / Journey's End, and an even longer while in his actual regeneration in The End of Time.  Just as people in real life die at different rates, so too do various incarnations of the Doctor.


 * Shouldn't the Twelfth Doctor become the Valeyard?
 * The Valeyard's the manifestation of all the evil within the Doctor between the Doctor's twelfth and final incarnations, not his final incarnation.
 * The Trial of a Time Lord is so confusing as to what actually happened and what did not, there's no reason to assume that the Valeyard is an actual part of the Doctor's future.


 * How did the TARDIS get into the Dalek ship?
 * The Daleks logically would have brought it aboard.


 * How come the Doctor dies so often in "just a few minutes"? Isn't it put forward that harm cannot come to a Time Lord less than 24 hours after a regeneration? (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
 * That's only for less serious cases, like getting your hand chopped off by a Sycorax. For incidents that would normally cause a regeneration, the regeneration still occurs.
 * Then how did River Song survive getting shot in Let's Kill Hitler
 * I think the answer here is that Let's Kill Hitler hadn't happened (or even been conceived) at the time, and Let's Kill Hitler disregarded this one since it was non-canon, so any kind of discontinuity with it shouldn't matter.
 * This Ninth Doctor has 4 regenerations left, not 3, meaning no War Doctor, because there was no LGTW, because he never restored Gallifrey the first (Ancestor Cell) destruction. So, all of the effects on his physiology (and metaphysical existence) from the later EDAs are still in effect. That's why he doesn't have the 15-hour post-regeneration abilities, or any of the other nifty stuff that Time Lord regeneration has that, e.g., Kastrian regeneration doesn't.


 * If the planet Terserus had been abandoned for 100 years, why were the sewers still stinking? (Not really something that "bothers" me, but a ponderable nonetheless.
 * Because nobody has cleaned those sewers in 100 years.