Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Dragonfire


 * It's not exactly an "error", in the sense that the production team intended it, but the literal cliffhanger at the end of part one is a big, ol' cheat. At the end of part one, the Doctor looks down an almost bottomless cliff of ice. But by the start of the next, the camera shifts to reveal that there's a handy little ledge, onto which Glitz is able to pull the Doctor.
 * It's unclear why the Doctor, went out on the ledge.
 * This occurred because an important scene was removed which would have justified it.


 * Why hide the Dragonfire on the part of the planet that Kane can get to?
 * The "Dragon", which contains the Dragonfire, was Kane's jailer & also the guardian of the treasure, as the Doctor explains at the end of Part 2. Its weapons could easily have killed Kane. Since the arrangement kept Kane confined for 3000 years, it worked reasonably well.


 * Why does Kane kill his mercenaries, having gone to the trouble of collecting them?
 * In a bizarre (and oft-repeated) piece of scripting, the word "mercenaries" is often used completely misleadingly, as Kane's frozen zombie army are most definitely slaves.
 * As shown when he tried to recruit Ace, Kane relied on them being foolish enough to take his money -- as mercenaries -- in order to lure them into becoming (in effect) his slaves.


 * Why does Kracauer stand still and let Kane kill him?
 * Why does Stellar run around an ice planet in a dress?
 * There are 2 possiblities: First, although Stellar is described in this wiki as an Earth human, her species is never referred to on screen, so she may not be human & Iceworld may not seem cold to her species. (Kane looks human, too, but most of Iceworld is uncomfortably hot for him.) Second, even if she is human, individuals vary in their sensitivity to cold. She's also highly active most of the time, which would keep her warm.


 * At the end, why doesn't Stellar's mother behave as if there's been a massacre (which there has)?
 * Stellar's mother had been searching for Stellar & was not present when the massacre occurred. By the end, when she finally finds Stellar, she has still not encountered anything to indicate that there has been a massacre -- no heaps of corpses, only an absence of the usual throng. She doesn't behave as if there's been a massacre because she doesn't know there has been.