Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Dinosaurs on a Spaceship


 * At the end Nefertiti stays with Riddell, but doesn't that change history?
 * Not necessarily - The actual Nefertiti disappeared from the historical record, making this an historical in-joke.


 * How does Riddle, who is from early twentieth century Africa, know about anaesthetic?
 * Anaesthetic was invented long before the twentieth century. Incidentally, it's doubtful he's from Africa, but England instead, where anaesthetic was known from the 1700's.
 * Well, anaesthesia in the modern sense only begins with Long's discovery of ether in the 1840s (in a looser sense, it goes all the way back to at least the Greeks, and probably earlier). But that doesn't change the fact that it was well known and routinely used by the early twentieth century. (And even if Riddell is from Africa, it's not as if English colonists suddenly lost all their technology as soon as they set sail.)


 * If it's just to change a bulb, why ask Brian to come round?
 * As implied by dialogue in the episode, it wasn't the light bulb that was the problem but the fitting. Rory couldn't work it out initially so he got his Dad round.
 * Also, you know how Dads are! Sometimes all it takes is a casual mention of having a problem with a lightbulb and Dad will be there in an instant to take care of it.


 * In this story Nefertiti hates her husband, but in actual history, the two were quite close.
 * She was bored by him (after over 14 years of marriage); this doesn't necessarily mean she hated him. He also had other consorts.
 * Actually, Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV) isn't known to have had consorts. Nefertiti was devoted to him, and there is some evidence to suggest that she was his co-regent at one point. However, as religion and not romance was his main focus, I'm all right with a little licence with history for the purposes of this tale.
 * Where did you get the idea that Akhenaton isn't known to have consorts? Kiya had the title Lesser Royal Wife, at least two other marriages are recorded (to daughters of foreign kings), and from the recent "Younger Lady" DNA evidence it looks like he fathered Tutankhamun with his sister.


 * At one point, one of Solomon's robots comments that they've been on the ark for two thousand years. But they came there with Solomon, and he doesn't seem to have been there very long.
 * Actually, it states it's been around for two thousand years, presumably they were quite old when Solomon bought them, thus explaining their odd mannerisms and their reported knock down price.


 * In Let's Kill Hitler the Doctor mentions that he danced with everyone at the wedding, even the men, and because of this is surprised he doesn't recognize Mels. However, he doesn't recognize Rory's father at all. While Brian doesn't appear (at least in shot) in The Big Bang, surely he was at the wedding.
 * It's possible Brian left early, since after all the Doctor "only came for the dancing".


 * At the end of the episode, The Doctor says that it's time to fly the dinosaurs home, however, Rory wants to go home, and being the kind person he is, The Doctor flies Amy, Rory, and Brian home. If it took Rory and his dad to fly the spaceship earlier in the episode, how did The Doctor get all the dinosaurs to safety?
 * Perhaps he flew back for the dinos in the TARDIS after dropping the Ponds off home? Or, failing that, as the Silurian ship needed pilots with the same genes, the Doctor would have the same genes as himself, (and he has experience flying multi-pilot ships solo, too) so that could explain it.
 * An interesting observation... However, with the Doctor being the Doctor, and without the impending time crunch of incoming missiles, he's certainly capable of either towing it with the TARDIS or jury-rigging something in his usual way to make it work.


 * At first the ark's size is described in terms of square units, despite being a three-dimensional object (and it can't be surface area due to its highly irregular shape, besides, surface area is rarely used to talk about the size of objects in space).
 * The natural waves of a miniature ocean would not nearly be powerful enough to move a continent-sized mass through space and power its systems.
 * The ISA woman says the ark is entering the atmosphere at one point, yet quite a while later we see it is still at least a few thousand km from Earth.
 * Where did the Silurians get the material to build such a large vessel?