Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Edge of Destruction


 * The Doctor tells Ian that they only have 5 minutes to survive in episode 2 - yet it takes over 5 minutes before they release the fast return switch. The Doctor even takes time to deliver a long and rather pointless speech when he knows that their end is only a few seconds away.
 * Time has since been shown to pass differently inside the TARDIS. As for the Doctor becoming extremely excited about a scientific phenomenon, that is completely consistent with his character, as we have since seen.


 * William Hartnell, completely throwing the other actors during one scene by saying the same line ("It's not very likely") twice, and fumbling "You knocked both Susan and I unconscious". He also omits the scripted explanation for the melted clocks.
 * The Doctor, like many people, sometimes stumbles over his words.


 * The fast return switch should have sent them back to 100,000 BC as that was the last place it visited prior to Skaro and not 1963 London.
 * The Doctor was shown to have frequent lapses in memory at this point in his life.


 * Although various later (non-television) stories have claimed the Fast Return Switch returns the TARDIS to its previous location, this is pure fan lore. The Doctor's explanation of the switch here is simply that it sends the TARDIS back in time.
 * How do we know that he hasn't pressed the switch twice, as in later stories such as in Seasons of Fear, to return back to a previous destination he tells Charlie to press the fast return switch three times, which takes the TARDIS back from the Time Vortex to Roman Britain.