Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Remembrance of the Daleks


 * The gates to the junkyard bear the label "I.M FORMAN", but An Unearthly Child establishes the surname as "FOREMAN".
 * According to later novels, this is due to a time blip. (PROSE: The Algebra of Ice, PROSE: Interference - Book Two). As the BBC DVD makes clear, however, it was also a genuine production error.


 * It is also explainable in-universe very simply as a mispainted sign for the junkyard. Such things do often happen.


 * Various details, such as the "French Revolution" book in the science lab, match up with The Pilot Episode but not with An Unearthly Child.
 * We never see the book leave the school in An Unearthly Child, so its presence (if it is indeed the same book) there is not inconsistent.
 * It isn't the same book, but as Susan's class was looking at the French Revolution, it is probable there were multiple books on the Revolution.


 * The Doctor says that the Daleks are dependent on rationality and logic, whereas Daleks are actually driven by xenophobia and race hatred (it seems an especially odd statement as one of the story's core themes is racial purity).
 * The Doctor is most likely referring to their battle strategies, not to their psychology.


 * This is consistent with Destiny of the Daleks (TV story) wherein the Daleks are dependent on battle computers. It is also consistent within Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story), in that the Daleks require the little girl's creativity.


 * While xenophobia and race hatred are based on irrational foundations, it could be argued that those who subscribe to race hatred and xenophobia tend to construct their own forms of logic and reason, albeit flawed and based on fallacious premises when looked at from the outside. This arguably makes their need for the child stronger; their logic is flawed due to their overadherence to their racial ideology, but they are too bound to it and thus lack the creativity to think outside of it. In any case, the Doctor presumably means that they are over-governed by logic with the obvious exception of their racial ideology.


 * It is strongly suggested that the events of this story take place on or about 23 November, 1963, to coincide with the first broadcast of Doctor Who in real life, yet no reference occurs to the assassination of John F. Kennedy the day prior, or the subsequent death of Lee Harvey Oswald, both of which would have been dominant topics of conversation even in London.
 * Although strongly suggested, it's not definitively stated that this takes place on 23 November 1963; all is known is it takes place soon after the events of An Unearthly Child which could have taken place at an earlier or later date. According to the DVD production notes commentary, however, a calendar is visible in one scene establishing November 1963 as the setting. The killing of Oswald didn't occur until the 24th, in any event.
 * Additionally, displaying a calendar doesn't firmly establish that the month displayed is the current month. For example, some people display the upcoming month before it begins, others are slow to change it once a month has passed.
 * If it is November, it would be dark by 5:15.


 * Just to add to this, the only on-screen references to a date for the events of An Unearthly Child occur in several early episodes in which Ian mentions having come from 1963. No specific dates, and also remember that the first episode of Doctor Who was originally intended to have been broadcast as early as August or September. We only say November for An Unearthly Child based upon its broadcast, but the actual script may have still been intended to take place late summer/early fall.


 * Also left unmentioned is the absence of teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright and student Susan Foreman; if this story takes place within a few days of the events of An Unearthly Child (as suggested by the presence of the "French Revolution" book), their absence should be noted by the police and the school undertaking investigations and news reports of a missing teenager and her teachers.
 * This could all still be occurring "off screen", or once again the story might take place at a later point in time after things had "died down".


 * Bearing in mind that the head teacher of their school has been under Dalek remote control for an indeterminate period of time, it is possible he is not performing his duties as well as he might.


 * Their absence would indeed be noted by the police and the school and the media -- except none of the main characters we meet are with the police, the only character related to the school we encounter is under mind-control, and none of the characters really have much time to spend catching up with the news. So it doesn't come up because, as noted, it's not really a priority to the characters we meet if even they're aware of it.


 * Alternatively: although unspoken, the disappearance of Ian, Barbara and Susan could very well be the reason a top secret unexplained-events black ops military unit is investigating Shoreditch in the first place. Something had to get them interested in that school in that area at that particular point in time. It just doesn't come up because by the time the Doctor and Ace show up, Group Captain Gilmore has found out that he has much bigger fish on his plate to fry than two teachers and a student going walkabout.


 * The Doctor implies that he took the Hand of Omega to 1963 to hide it from the Daleks, but during the events of TV: The Daleks, the First Doctor seemed unfamiliar with them.
 * There are two solutions: the Doctor was apparently feigning ignorance of the Daleks during his first visit to Skaro (possibly providing a rationale for why he sabotaged the TARDIS in order to stay there in the first story), or he hid it for other reasons and factored it into his plan to destroy the Daleks. It's also possible he hid the Hand of Omega at a later time in his personal timeline.


 * He may also have been following orders from the Celestial Intervention Agency when he concealed the Hand of Omega, not yet knowing their full Time War-ish agenda. This could have been revealed to him later.


 * The Doctor does imply that he took the Hand of Omega to 1963 Shoreditch to hide it. He does not indicate that it was the Daleks he was hiding it from. The plan to use it against the Daleks could easily have been devised far later in the Doctor's timeline.


 * The Doctor proclaiming himself as "President Elect of the High Council" contradicts TV: The Five Doctors in which he was named full president and The Trial of a Time Lord in which it was stated that he was deposed.
 * He was named President again at the end of Trial of a Time Lord by The Inquisitor.
 * The Inquisitor suggested he become president again, she didn't give it to him.


 * Regardless, it is unlikely that Davros is going to contact Gallifrey to check the authenticity of the Doctor's statement. He is giving himself an impressive-sounding title as part of his posturing during the exchange with Davros.


 * Rachel Jensen uses the name Dalek without having heard it.
 * The Doctor shouts at the Dalek in the junkyard yelling among other things "Oi, Dalek..." it is possible Jensen heard him along with the other characters.


 * Ace is wearing a patch on her jacket of the Soviet sickle and hammer, and yet no one says anything, despite 1963 being the height of the Cold War.
 * They have quite a lot of other pressing matters to worry about. In any case, socialist sympathies have rarely attracted as much disapproval in Britain as they have in America.


 * Although the fashion for large numbers of badges didn't arise until much later, the sheer quantity of them on Ace's jacket would be enough to show almost anyone that they were decorations, not declarations of allegiance. And, in Britain, in 1963, she'd be much more likely to be criticised by a genuine Communist (if she met one) for wearing the thing only as a decoration than be criticised by anyone else, even a very right-wing Tory.


 * Ace is a rebellious teenager. It wasn't entirely uncommon for rebellious teenagers in the 1960s to latch onto the symbolism of Communism either out of genuine revolutionary zeal or to simply annoy their more conservative elders. The contemporary characters simply assume that she's being edgy.


 * On Earth, the Doctor tells the Supreme Dalek that its home is a trillion miles away. The Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100 quadrillion miles in diameter and over 5 trillion miles thick, and it seems likely from TV: The Daleks' Master Plan (in which the Daleks enlist the aid of civilisations in the Fifth Galaxy in order to invade the Sol system) that Skaro is not in the Milky Way. Therefore, either the Doctor is wrong, or Skaro is in the Milky Way.
 * It is possible that the Doctor is not exactly wrong, but is being poetic - "a trillion miles away", while untrue, flows better than "a hundred quadrillion miles away". If the Doctor is in the business of being economical with the truth, it is possible that his placing of Skaro's destruction 1000 years in the past or future (i.e. around 963 or 2963) is also inaccurate. This would mean that Skaro could still exist by the time of The Daleks' Master Plan in the year 4000, as well as during any stories set after Master Plan. Of course, things change if you believe the Dalek Prime in War of the Daleks that it was in fact Antalin which was destroyed in Remembrance, as Antalin could have been destroyed in 2963 (or 963, but that date seems less likely) with Skaro surviving beyond 4000. However, it could also be an expression of a large amount of time, like if someone says "it has been like a thousand years since I saw you" they are just using it as a vast measurement of time.


 * There is a simple explanation for this, there are two systems for numbers the long and the short, in the long a trillion is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000, in the short system a 100 quadrillion is 100,000,000,000,000,000, which are almost similar, just a factor of 10 out, so The Doctor saying a trillion miles away is a good approximation, especially since in the 1960s the long system was more common.


 * The whole point of the Doctor's speech to the Dalek is to cause it so much despondency that it self-destructs. So why not throw in a little fib to put the idea in its mind that it's not even stranded where it thinks it is?


 * One of Radcliffe's work-crew is black and clearly a member of an ethnic minority group — just the sort of person you would imagine Radcliffe would not want to employ, given his political views.
 * There could easily be some back story why they employed this particular individual, even if they generally speaking were racist. They may have felt that he had some usefulness which they could take advantage of to advance their cause.
 * He might just be a man Radcliffe hired who happened to be black.


 * Radcliffe's organization could have been anti-immigrant, but not necessarily opposed to other races that have assimilated into British culture. The black man in the work-crew may well have been born in Britain, perhaps even have gone to school with Radcliffe.  Perhaps Radcliffe was trying to reach out the black and British crowd to bolster their numbers.


 * Racists are quite capable of hypocrisy as well (sometimes without even realising it).


 * There are still various people like this today. Essentially, a Black man born in a former British colony that is still part of the Commonwealth, speaks English, likes cricket, tea etc. is "acceptable". But a man(even a White man) born somewhere outside the former Empire who speaks a non-English language, likes "Strange" foods etc. is "unacceptable". It is not about skin colour. It is about people speaking the same language, having the same culture, similar-sounding names, values etc. Radcliffe and co. are not so much racists as they are nationalists, and believers in the superiority of the British way of life.


 * In the Dalek fight on the streets, they keep missing each other - why don't they aim properly?
 * Since it is Daleks fighting Daleks, they know where each other is likely to fire and have developed some defences against the weaponry of the other side. They may predict where one will shoot and try to fire in a manner that will stop that.
 * Or perhaps they are broadcasting scrambling signals to each other's weapon systems.


 * Since when were Daleks so cowardly that they retreated when one Dalek gets killed?
 * Firstly, two Imperial Daleks were killed. Second, as one said, their firepower was too great. Greater than theirs maybe.


 * Retreating against obviously superior firepower is a rational move.


 * Especially if you know you have more powerful reinforcements (the Special Weapons Dalek) available to back you up at short notice.


 * Note that the Special Weapons Dalek was in fact seen as an abomination by the core dalek ranks. Obviously not enough to be considered useless but given the dalek's own views on their superiority, they may have seen fit to prove their superiority without a definite need for the SWD. The SWD only had a single, but massive, energy cannon and while its said to have spoke in the new series, we never saw it speak in remembrance. Its lack of speech, rank and manipulator arms may indicate that it was seen as an abomination due to lesser intelligence and may have been a semi-reject mutation but still retained the ability to follow orders and destroy.


 * Also with low Dalek numbers the Daleks may not be so inclined to self-sacrifice.


 * Why don't the other group of Daleks follow them instead of waiting in the streets for them to return?
 * They probably think they will not return.


 * Why didn't the Imperial Daleks just take the Special Weapons Dalek with them in the first place?
 * The novelisation states that the Special Weapons Dalek is only used in extreme situations, presumably the Imperials thought it was an "extreme situation" when they were losing against the renegades.


 * It is also good tactical sense not to let the enemy know too soon just what they're up against.


 * The Doctor deplores violence, commenting that weapons are 'useless in the end'. Yet he has no compunction about destroying an entire planet, especially considering that Skaro is not only the Dalek homeworld, but home to the Thals as well.
 * He himself does not fire the weapon, the Daleks do. He has simply set it to be used defensively so that if they do indeed fire it, it will essentially backfire and destroy their own homeworld instead of the intended target.
 * At any rate, it's blatantly false to say he has "no compunction" about this; he spends half the story fretting about it, and explicitly says he's unsure if he did the right thing at the end (also powerfully symbolised by his declining to enter the church).
 * Also, it's worth noting the concept promoted in recent seasons of the series: "The Doctor lies". Given how manipulative the Seventh Doctor was, this certainly would hold true for this incarnation.
 * We don't even know if there are still Thals on Skaro.
 * As stated, it's not entirely fair to accuse the Doctor of having "no compunction" about doing this; he clearly does display some unease about what he's doing. But even before this point the Doctor tended to be what TV Tropes calls a "Technical Pacifist" rather than an actual pacifist, especially when it comes to Daleks. The Doctor genuinely does deplore violence and genuinely does regret its necessity -- but has also consistently demonstrated that if the situation calls for a violent solution, then he is willing to use it. And sadly, when it comes to Daleks, a violent solution is almost always called for. He's blown up entire armies of them by this point, really, destroying their homeworld is a comparatively slight escalation.


 * If Skaro was destroyed, how come they put the Master on trial there in the TV Movie?
 * It is never specified when these two events take place relative to each other, the destruction of Skaro could have happened after the Master's trial.
 * Or the Daleks just built another Skaro. Silly though it may sound when phrased so candidly, it does make sense that a race advanced enough to be capable of time travel could do something as comparitively simple as building a planet.
 * And that's backed up by later stories. Skaro was later destroyed in the Last Great Time War, so it must have been rebuilt. And then it was around again the City of the Daleks, after having been destroyed twice. Apparently the Daleks aren't sentimental enough to care that it's not the 'real' Skaro.


 * According to the Dalek Prime in War of the Daleks, it was a fake Skaro that was destroyed.
 * But that still means they had to build a fake Skaro for this story, and the real one was destroyed in the LGTW and yet existed in City, which implies that the Daleks are in the habit of building new Skaros when necessary.
 * Nope. They found another planet that strongly resembles Skaro. They built a replica of the Kaled bunker, and transported Davros, in suspended animation, there. In Destiny, the Doctor was using the Randomiser. Both the Doctor and Davros believed this planet to be Skaro, and the Doctor kept the co-ordinates from Destiny as the co-ordinates for Skaro.
 * More simply, the Daleks could just call whatever planet happens to be their primary base "Skaro". It just just be the native Dalek word for "homeworld" just as "Earth" has become this for humanity (or at least the English-speaking component of it), and they're parochial and unimaginative enough to just keep using it.


 * If Skaro was destroyed in the Earth year 1963, shouldn't that prevent the Doctor's future landings on Skaro?
 * This may not be not true as when the Imperial Daleks were sending the Hand of Omega to Skaro, one of the lines stated is "Entering Skaro time zone." this seems to imply that the Imperials sent the Hand of Omega to a different time period.
 * Reinforcing this point, the Doctor tells the Black Dalek that is trapped "a trillian miles and a thousand years from a disintegrated home". So Skaro was destroyed in 2963 (or perhaps later, given that the Doctor probably wasn't being precise).
 * But there was definitely still a Skaro in the year 4000(The Daleks' Master Plan (TV story)). Remembrance is an enormous continuity error and blunder either way. Which is one reason why War of the Daleks had to be written.
 * The Doctor's imprecision could easily be by several magnitudes. After all, if Skaro is "A trillion miles" from Earth, then it's barely outside the solar system. It's really not hard to conclude that the Doctor was more interested in giving a good speech than he was in any kind of accuracy. Which means that "War of the Daleks" can be safely ignored.


 * Also, history can change in the Whoniverse, so it's not a continuity problem if it does. In the Doctor's timeline, those landings still happened, but from a linear outside viewpoint, they no longer have. So what?
 * As the above have said, the Doctor could still land on Skaro as long as it's before whenever Skaro was destroyed. One of the Daleks says "Hand of Omega entering Skaro timezone" which suggests that the Hand travelled through time as well as space to get to Skaro.
 * Additionally see War of the Daleks which suggests it might not have been Skaro anyway.
 * To repeat another response above, it could be a lot simpler than all this: the Daleks could just designate whatever planet happens to be their primary base "Skaro". The Doctor destroys the original Skaro in this story, but eventually the Daleks regroup, conquer and "cleanse" another world and rename it Skaro.


 * The soldier on guard outside the school doesn't seem to be that alarmed when the Doctor (who he does not know) runs out of a locked-down school which should be empty. Also, when the Doctor asks for a heavy-weapon he just gives him an RPG from the truck with no questions asked.
 * The Doctor's hypnotic skills?
 * The area had by this point already been cordoned off by Gilmore, with the Doctor working with him. So anyone within the area would have permission to be there.


 * As noted in the Production Notes on the DVD, the destruction of Skaro opens the question as to the fate of the peace-loving Thals the Doctor had helped in the past. In Destiny of the Daleks the Doctor says the Daleks left Skaro 'for dead', implying that at some time the Thals were either exterminated or they escaped Skaro.The audio plays suggest that the Thals survive as a minor thorn in the Daleks' side. But if Skaro was destroyed in Remembrance it must have been inhabited again at some time. This of course sheds no light on the fate of the Thals.
 * We know that this story occurs long after Destiny in the timeline of Davros/the Daleks. The line "Entering Skaro time zone" indicates that the Hand travels to a different time before destroying Skaro, presumably the relative timezone to these Daleks. There's no reason to assume any Thals would be on Skaro at this point.


 * The novel War of the Daleks has the Thals heading out into space and fighting against the Dalek Empire, but having long ago abandoned their homeworld to the Daleks. Unlike most of that novel, this is plausible, doesn't contradict anything from any earlier stories, and doesn't come from a propaganda speech by the Dalek Prime, so it seems reasonable to take it as the answer here. But that still raises the question of how the Doctor _knew_ the Thals had abandoned Skaro…
 * The Doctor may simply be assuming that any Dalek empire based from Skaro which is powerful enough to seek out a Time Lord superweapon to make war on the Time Lords is also powerful enough to have completely wiped out any Thals who happened to remain on the planet.


 * When asked if the device he built on Spiridon to disorientate the Daleks worked, the Doctor says it did 'absolutely nothing'. But in Planet of the Daleks it did work, though it was smashed in the process.
 * The "absolutely nothing" comment is just his answer to what the worst case scenario is. He merely mentions that he built something similar on Spiridon (without saying whether or not it worked).


 * If Skaro is very conservatively "a trillion miles away" according to the Doctor, then it would take the Hand of Omega approximately one light year to reach, yet it takes only seconds for it to obliterate its target after being launched from Earth orbit and just seconds for it to boomerang back and destroy the Dalek ship from which it was launched.
 * The Hand of Omega was developed by the most advance race in the Universe. We can safely assume that they had mastered travelling faster than light...... Additionally, as has been stated numerous times on this various page, the device was aid to be "entering Skaro time zone", indicating strongly that it was travelling in time during its trip.


 * Also, "one light year" is a measure of distance, not time. It's like saying, "If that table is 12 inches away, then it would take approximately one foot to reach, yet it takes only seconds." Which is nonsense. (On top of that, a light year is about 6 trillion miles, not 1.)


 * If the Daleks have a vast empire, how can the destruction of Skaro and the Mothership mean their destruction?
 * Quite probably, the "Imperial Daleks" have been optimistically named by Davros in expectation of one day having a vast empire, but the fact that Davros is so keen to capture a new super-weapon could imply that their own forces are, at present, limited.
 * It's actually the Renegade Dalek battle computer (the little girl) who says "Imperial Dalek shuttle craft on entry..." so it's likely the Renegades who named them Imperials, I don't think the Imperials refer to themselves as Imperial.
 * It should perhaps be noted that the Doctor never outright says that the Daleks are now extinct as a result of his plan; while he heavily implies as much to the Black Dalek during his monologue, he never outright comes out and says that every single Dalek except for the Black Dalek is now dead, and is very likely aware that he cannot actually know that for certain. However, pretty much every single "Renegade" Dalek actually is now dead, and while the "Imperial" Daleks might not be fully wiped out, what units remain are likely scattered across the galaxy, lacking central leadership and a primary base, and lacking any kind of meaningful ability to regroup for quite a while. (And also are almost certainly unwilling and unlikely to come to the Black Dalek's aid, which further suits the Doctor's purposes at that moment.)


 * The students at Coal Hill appear to be wearing uniforms in this episode, but they did not wear uniforms in An Unearthly Child
 * There could easily have been a special reason they were not wearing them on the one previous day that we saw them. Or conversely, a special reason they * were* wearing them when we see them in this story.
 * In some schools, only certain grades wear uniforms and older grades do not. It's also possible - bearing in mind we don't know how long ago the first episode actually took place - that Coal Hill might have introduced uniforms afterwards, or was in the process of phasing them in. Uniform schools also are known to have "casual days" from time to time.
 * Note sure if casual days existed in the 1960s.
 * Doctor Who has a very small budget. If all the students in 1963 had uniforms it would have cost a small fortune, but the time 1989 comes alone, they would have stock costumes available.


 * How can Davros have gained the upper hand over the Renegade Daleks so easily? His forces seem to be the stronger, but when we last saw him at the end of "Revelation of the Daleks", he had no support and was about to be tried (and most likely executed) by the Daleks.
 * No-one ever said it was done easily. We previously saw in "Resurrection" that Davros had the ability to turn Daleks to his cause. All it would take would be turning a few to allow him to infiltrate the remaining Daleks, and then it's just down to how well he plays his hand. An unknown amount of time has passed since "Revelation", so apparently he and his Daleks eventually became the superior force.
 * See Up Above the Gods and Emperor of the Daleks for an explanation as to how Davros gained an army of Daleks – short story he got them from Spiridon.
 * We have no clue how much relative time has passed between "Revelation" and "Remembrance". For all we know, it has been many years if not centuries of hard fighting for Davros and his new army.


 * Why is the destruction of Skaro such a major event? The Daleks had abandoned the planet long ago, as seen in "Destiny of the Daleks."
 * Again, it's been a long time since then. They may very well have - and apparently did - returned to using Skaro as a power base. We know that they had previously returned there various times over their very, very long history.
 * The destruction also has strong symbolic meaning. If humans abandon Earth, and the planet is later destroyed (especially through the actions of a third party), the loss of the homeworld would still be a major event.


 * The Dalek mothership is in a geostationary orbit above London. Geostationary orbits must be at latitude 0 (above the Equator), or they would require substantial amounts of constant thrust to maintain their location.
 * Would it matter that Davros' mothership needed to use constant thrust to maintain a geostationary orbit?


 * Also, Rachel did explicitly state that the mothership was "in a powered geostationary orbit."


 * Also, the Dalek Mothership is clearly far beyond any kind of contemporary human space technology, and has the ability to "monitor a sparrow fall". Maintaining the constant thrust required to be in a geostationary orbit is almost certainly child's play.


 * Why does the Doctor's speech to the last Dalek cause the Dalek to die? If a human were to visit an alien planet, and then discover that earth and the entire human race was suddenly dead, they may weep and wail, but they would not spontaneously combust.
 * The Dalek has full control over all of the functions of both its own body and its metal casing. When the Dalek was convinced by the Doctor that it had no hope, and no purpose, it was so despondent it decided to commit suicide, and it choose to do so by blowing up its casing's power source.


 * Refer to Dalek (TV story) for another example of a Dalek self-destructing. Albeit a little more spectacular and partially influenced by Rose's touch.
 * And another Dalek is seen to self-destruct in Death to the Daleks (TV story) as a self-punishment for failure, which is pretty much the same thing as the Black Dalek does here.
 * Alternatively, I have theory, is it not possible that that the Black Dalek just appeared to self destruct and actually "temporial-shifted" to another time to escape, something the Doctor don't know daleks could do at the time...?
 * A human learning it was the last human being in the universe and also that Earth had gone might not have the ability to spontaneously combust, but he or she would have the ability to throw themselves off a high point, walk into the ocean, slit their own wrists, shoot themselves or engage in any other method of suicide. Presumably the Dalek is doing the cyborg-death-tank equivalent thereof.


 * I remember seeing it reported that Ben Aaronovitch decided the story was set around 30th November 1963 (leaving aside the massive, *massive* problems with timing continuity in later episodes where it should be the middle of a winter night but everything is in broad spring daylight). He supposedly remarked that no one mentions the JFK assassination by the time of the story because it happened a week ago. The modern equivalent would be a Who story set on 18th September 2001, where the writer hasn't bothered mentioning the recent hideous mass murders on the grounds that "everyone had forgotten about it by then".
 * No. It’s just that everyone would know about it by then, plus there were more pressing matters at hand, ie. not being shot by aliens.


 * He's not saying they would have forgotten it. He's just saying that a sufficient amount of time would have passed for people to start coming to terms with the matter and not feeling the need to discuss it every second of every minute of every hour of every day. Especially if they were in a completely different country and not directly affected by it and, as mentioned, they were also having to deal with an invasion of evil cyborg Nazi death-robots at the time which for them would have become the much more significant priority. Kennedy's death was shocking news, but (unlike September 11) he was just one man, and the world didn't stop turning.