Theory:Doctor Who prose discontinuity and plot holes/Conundrum


 * This story effectively decanonises the entire Virgin New Adventures range of books. As the TARDIS leaves near the end of Episode 1 of The Mind Robber, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are knocked down. All sorts of surreal, dreamlike stuff happens(eg. the TARDIS breaking apart, meeting Gulliver, the Doctor rearranging Jamie's face, and lots more). The Master of the land of Fiction and The Land of Fiction itself only exist during this sequence in The Mind Robber. Then, at the start of The Invasion, the TARDIS, Jamie, the Doctor and Zoe are all EXACTLY where they were before the oddities began. More specifically the Doctor is on the floor, asleep. The actual scripts state that everyone and everything must be exactly where it was before the bizarre, dream sequence began. There are other telltale signs, such as Zoe knowing what candles are in The Mind Robber, but failing to know what they are in The Space Pirates. Most Second Doctor stories were given references in the next story, yet neither Jamie ro Zoe ever mentions it. In short, the sequence(and thus the Master of the Land of Fictio, and the Land of Fiction itself) is all just part of a dream the Doctor had.

However, in both Conundrum and Head Games, the Land of Fiction and the Master of the Land of Fiction are real. However, they only ever existed in a dream. Thus, Conundrum and Head Games are both dreams. And since they are both referenced and intertwine with several other Virgin new Adventures, it follows that the New Adventures are nothing more than dreams, and are not part of the main continuity any more than A Fix With Sontarans is.