Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The War Machines


 * In the opening shot of the London skyline in Episode 1, when the camera zooms in to where the TARDIS lands, watch the man climbing out of the VW Beetle just to the left. He disappears as the TARDIS appears.
 * This is caused by the visual effect used to make the TARDIS land. Two pieces of film are faded together. Even so, this is a mistake.


 * This is the story in which the Doctor is infamously referred to as "Doctor Who" by WOTAN. This is the only time on television that the Doctor is directly called this in dialogue.
 * WOTAN perhaps refers to the Doctor in this way due to not knowing who he is. The Doctor may have given a false name at some point.


 * Why does WOTAN stamp a big "W" on the boxes containing the bits of War Machine? Isn't it a bit of a giveaway?
 * Perhaps so the otherwise anonymous looking boxes can be identified as belonging to WOTAN.


 * In Episode 3, the War Machine that is ordered to kill the worker misses him completely, but he obligingly drops dead anyway.
 * This depends on how the guns work. He could have copped a lethal backwash of radiation (in the same way a Dalek's gun in this period is rather diffuse but lethal).


 * Why do Ben and Polly go into the TARDIS at the end? If they think it's just a police box then surely they would wonder how they were going to fit inside.
 * One pushed or pulled the other.


 * It seems strange that WOTAN can divine the meaning of "TARDIS".


 * Possibly he didn't work it out using his intellect. He might have already known somehow. Though that "explanation" would just answer one mystery with another. Or: WOTAN can read minds as part of the process of influencing them. Dodo is shown to be influenced by WOTAN almost immediately she sees it, so it could have read the definition in her mind. Also, WOTAN can sense the Doctor's "special" mind (hence WOTAN's determination to recruit him), so WOTAN might have got the definition from the Doctor. Perhaps WOTAN had access to some sort of records or notes made by Ian Chesterton or Barbara Wright about their time with the Doctor.


 * The man giving the presentation contradicts himself, saying WOTAN is controlled by no one, but going on to say the Professor and his team have it well under control.


 * In Episode 4, the Doctor knocks off the end of a War Machine's gun arm with his cloak. Later, examining the machine, the Doctor stands up and whacks his head against it.
 * The First Doctor was often clumsy; there's nothing out of character (much less against continuity) in him whacking his head on something.


 * How does the War Machine get up to the top floor of the Post Office Tower?


 * It presumably uses the large elevators or perhaps WOTAN even has a short range teleport concealed in the tower.
 * Sir Charles talks of Monday 16th July, which would set the story in 1962 or 1973!
 * It's possible at some point before this episode a calender change, similar to the loss of 11 days in 1752, occurred.
 * Or he could also have got his days muddled up.


 * Why would the guard let the Doctor go up to see WOTAN?


 * Psychic paper? Bluff? The guard was asleep?
 * He called Sir Charles and convinced him to listen to him fairly quickly; the Doctor has some pull in the scientific community even now.
 * Either that, or Torchwood was watching and knew not to get in his way.