Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Twice Upon a Time


 * The ruined place where Rusty is is said to be at the centre of the Universe, but shouldn't Terminus be there?
 * Terminus was a time the centre of the KNOWN universe to its creators, while Villengard is Then ACTUAL centre of the universe.
 * Terminus ends up in the hands of the Vanir, a group with a penchant for Norse-sounding names. The similarly named Villengard and its weapon factories may well have been a later commercial enterprise by the same group, and thus located in much the same place.
 * How can either Villengard or Terminus be the centre of the universe? All points in the universe are it's center point since space expands unilaterally.
 * Real World beliefs do not apply to the Whoniverse.


 * The actor playing Ben doesn’t bother with a cockney accent.
 * The framing of the scene suggests we're seeing the Tenth Planet flashbacks subjectively, in the Twelfth Doctor's recollections of the First's final hours, trying to work out how the figure in front of him has just appeared. As the First Doctor was dying at the time, and specifically has difficulty hearing Ben's words in the original, asking him what he said, the Doctor simply doesn't remember Ben's voice accurately for those words.
 * Continuity error!


 * Why does the First Doctor not recognise sonic devices? He invented it (TV: A Christmas Carrol) patented it (Audio: The Unknown) and they were in production on Galifrey when he left (Audio: The Beginning).
 * He is regenerating; maybe he is forgetful. Also, he displays his preference for going hands free; he may just be attempting to prove he and his future self are not the same person; all Doctors do things differently.


 * Why is the First Doctor sexist? He comes from a gender-fluid upbringing, he should be above such stuff and unphased by Bill's sexuality.
 * The Tenth Doctor once told his Fifth incarnation that they were once uptight, old, grumpy, (something like that) "like you do when you're young", implying his original self felt it right to be high profile. Plus, he may have become accustomed to such a style of behavior from having lived in 1960s Britain for a good while.
 * The First Doctor called the criminalisation of homosexuality in the 1960s "society's crime" and didn't care that Oliver Harper was gay. (AUDIO: The Cold Equations)
 * Your question was sexist, as in misogynistic. He also does not berate her sexuality upon learning of it.
 * I fail to see how my question is sexist/misogynistic. You are right he does not berate her, I never said he did, but he does look surprised when she says she is into women and seems to think her job as a companion is to dust the TARDIS. Was that the job of Susan/Barbra/Viki/Dodo/Polly? Also after spending several hundred years living on Galifrey a don't think a few years at most on Earth could effect his judgement to any degree.
 * You miss understand. They were saying the question asks "Why is the First Doctor sexist", hence the question is referring to sexism thus is a question about sexism; therefore "the question is sexist".
 * I thought about this and I think that the delayed regeneration was affecting his brain. His physical appearance had altered slightly so it's possible that some archaic social values the First Doctor was familiar with came to the fore while the delayed regeneration was altering him.
 * I don't really see that biological gender-fluidity on Gallifrey makes sexism culturally impossible; after all, on Earth, homophobic individuals are quite physically capable of homosexual acts; there's no corollary. Its true that gender-fluidity would make sexism nonsensical; but its already nonsensical. The prejudices might be different "oh, people who wear female bodies are obviously better suited to do the dusting" for instance, but it's highly likely that the stuffy, conservative, and very male dominated Gallifrey of the pre-war era could have such prejudice; its the same culture the Doctor rejected and ran away from, but in all respects took a long time to totally shake off.
 * Continuity error!
 * As for why the First Doctor is so much more sexist than usual- he isn't usually working alongside a future version of himself who is evidently hideously embarrassed by such comments.


 * The initial observation about Polly was unfortunate but fairly typical, however, Twelve's reaction shows he struck a nerve, and, being the Doctor, and rather out of his depth, he deliberately plays it up to goad his other self into staying off balance - and quite possibly also to 'test' Bill, who he's aware Twelve can't be objective about, despite his distrust. The 'smacked bottom' comment, right after Twelve has pledged his respect for Bill to her, is One being a deliberate troll, which is the very epitomy of his character.


 * How did the Doctor get his TARDIS back? Both Doctors left the ship to take the First Doctor's TARDIS, but after deciding to put the captain back, both TARDIS' are suddenly back.
 * You answered your own question. By taking the Captain back, they did the company a favour, hence where given their TARDIS back.


 * The way the First Doctor's regeneration scene is edited gives the impression he regenerated alone, but in The Tenth Planet we see Ben and Polly were in the TARDIS with him when he did.
 * As someone said above, those sections appear to be the Doctor remembering the incident. He opened the doors for Ben and Polly but lost consciousness, thus would have no knowledge that they came in and were at his side as he changed.
 * Random thought- perhaps he didn't. In "The Tenth Planet", we cut from Ben and Polly, outside, banging on the doors of the TARDIS and panicking that they're about to be left behind, to the First Doctor, inside, slumped over the console, watching its controls operate themselves, to the First Doctor laying on the floor, with Ben and Polly coming in offscreen. We never see how they get in. Various multi-Doctor stories suggest that the TARDIS herself is not only immune to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, but able to merge, split, and generally communicate and interact across her own timeline at will- it's a dimension she's in control of. Quite possibly the First Doctor, after leaving 1917, did indeed immediately begin to collapse and regenerate. Perhaps the switches and levers we see operating themselves in "The Tenth Planet", are working because Twelve, in his era's console room, is remote operating the First Doctor's TARDIS to fly it back to Snowcap 1986, and either open the doors or possibly even materialise around his human companions from back then, having remembered that Ben and Polly were back on board when he woke up in his Second body and he never knew how they got in.
 * Notably, perhaps, when the Second Doctor is recovering from his regeneration in his next story, he struggles to "Concentrate on one thing..." - focusing on some of the console controls. This seems a little similar to how the Doctor tried- and failed- to help Amy hang on to the memory of Rory in "Cold Blood". Perhaps this was the Doctor, having come through the regeneration, desperately trying to hang on to the memories of his out-of-synch encounter with his future self. Remembering that the Doctor saw evidence of the Time War in this story, and in "Power of the Daleks", he frets of the Daleks "I know the misery they cause... the destruction... but there's something else, more terrible, something I can only half remember..." suggests that he may have managed to retain a few fragments of knowledge, influencing certain of his future life choices- his speech about evil in "The Moonbase", for instance.
 * Highly plausible, the Doctors do go on to say they remember the past only when in the moment themselves. Donna was the same, her subconscious recalling stuff that her active consciousness did not; it kinda acts like a distant dream.


 * The 1st Doctor's TARDIS lacks a directional unit so piloting it is impossible even for someone as experienced as the 12th Doctor, it's like driving a car without a steering wheel.
 * There was never anything wrong with the Tardis. The first three Doctors just sucked at flying it (with the third gradually learning). Blaming it on the tech is just a way to protect their pride. The Time Lords certainly had no problem pioleting it remotely at the end of War Games too.
 * In the Classic series the TARDIS always had a faulty directional unit.
 * Just because the Doctor sys it has a faulty directional unit, doesn't mean it actually does. Rule 1, the Doctor lies. There's many instances of the Tardis being pioleted accurately in the early classic series. As I mentioned, the Time Lords do it remotely in War Games. The Second Doctor also manages it in the Five Doctors.


 * Why isn't this page available on the index page?