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 War Machine could be taken as symbolic of WOTAN (which highly unnerved the Doctor by knowing more about him than it had any right to) and of the Doctor's general dislike of sentient technology (of the non-dog-shaped variety, at any rate). The Koquillion mask (Didonian ceremonial garb) could possibly be taken as symbolic of the dark past of Dido, which had clearly not always been a peace-loving place (bearing in mind its tiny population, and the sinister traps still remaining in its caverns). Not to mention Bennett did actually come quite close to strangling him, but for the Didonian survivors' timely intervention. Must have been a fairly scary moment ...


 * There is also the fact that Bennet was clearly amongst the most evil people the Doctor has ever met, even amongst the many tyrants and monsters he's encountered in his long life, few would have been willing to commit such a brutal act of genocide with such casualness.


 * 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.


 * It's just a mistake during recording that was left in probably because of lack of time.
 * I recall reading that Pertwee noted the water spill and considered breaking off, but imagined the director wanting it left in. His instincts were right.


 * 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 takeover 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.


 * He has been lying low and using his alias as a means of getting criminal brains for the Mind Parasite to leech, in the hopes of using it as an easily controllable weapon. This turned out to be a bad idea ... He has now changed his plans and aims to seize a less treacherous weapon, albeit while still using the Mind Parasite for a bit of highly risky leverage.


 * I see what you mean. It seems to me none of the Master's behaviour makes sense unless you assume his primary objective is entertainment. He is, in essence, a man who finds himself trapped on what he considers a very boring planet, who decides the best way to pass the time until the next ride home is to find entertaining ways of destroying it. The Master probably concocted the Prison Break/Missile Plan as much because it appealed to his sense of drama as from any more practical considerations.