Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Mind of Evil


 * The Doctor fears Koquillion and War Machines yet in their featured episodes, he had no or little fear of them.
 * There is a difference between not showing fear, and not feeling it on some level.


 * The destruction of the 'deadly' Thunderbolt missile at the climax of this story seems to do surprisingly little damage to the surrounding area.
 * Destruction of the missile itself doesn't automatically mean detonation of the payload, especially with nuclear missiles. At any rate, Thunderbolt has a poison gas warhead, and a nuclear-powered rocket engine. The explosive contents of the actual warhead / detonator are not mentioned, but presumably they are only sufficient to ensure widespread distribution of the poison gas and not massive ground-level destruction (Indeed, it sounds like a weapon designed to kill people and leave buildings and property mainly unharmed).


 * How does the water get into the drowned man's lungs if he's only killed by his fear of drowning.
 * The fears are physically manifested as well, as explained in the story.


 * During a fight sequence in which water is spilled, the Master twice slips in the puddle.
 * This may have been intentional on the actor's part.


 * How would it be a plot hole that someone would slip on a wet floor? Seems perfectly normal.


 * Its just a mistake during recording that was left in probably because of lack of time.


 * Is it normal military procedure to simultaneously transport a missile, the missile's warhead, and the missile's fuel in the same convoy? That seems like an unnecessary security risk.
 * Budget cuts?


 * Probably not, but it was being transported through their own country, and the risk of anyone stealing it seemed next to nil (as they were unaware of The Master's plans). It's possible it was decided that it would not be worth the extra cost to transport them separately.


 * Some of the dialogue in Episode One implies that the Master has spent almost a year establishing the whole Emil Keller alias by getting his machine used in Switzerland, etc. But as I understand it, The Master's 'master plan' in this story seems to be to orchestrate the prison take-over as a means to hijacking the Thunderbolt so as to destroy the peace conference and plunge the Earth into war. That being the case, why is he bothering with the Emil Keller identity and the whole Mind Parasite angle? Surely not simply as a weapon to take-out a few diplomats at a conference he is planning to blow-up anyway. As a plot-strand it just seems extraneous.