Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Mark of the Rani


 * No Luddites ever attacked pit machinery, which didn't threaten their livelihoods.
 * But as the Doctor realises in Episode 1, the true Luddites are merely a historical convenience that the Rani is using to cover her tracks. Lord Ravensworth and Luke Ward, who have not had their reason warped by the Rani's experiments and know full well that the pit machinery will not affect anyone's jobs, are bemused by the rage and stupidity of her victims.


 * Between being knocked out by the gas and leaving the bath house, the Rani's human victims are cleaned. Why would she go to this trouble? If it is somehow important to her plan, to avoid detection, or to the extraction process, wouldn't it be more practical to let the men clean themselves and then knock them out?
 * The Rani's way may be less practical, but it is controlled. First rule of science: know everything that goes on regarding your experiments. If she lets them clean themselves the margin for error shoots way up.


 * Why is the Master masquerading as scarecrow and what's significance of the missing birds?
 * No good reason, other than the fact that he's a warped and petty psycho who enjoys dressing up in zany outfits and shooting innocent lifeforms (Possibly a field test for the new and improved TCE).


 * Lord Ravensworth's amateur botany is the source of the drugs required - is there no local medic?
 * Medic might have been away during this story, Ravensworth could have been taking over until a replacement could arrive.


 * Kew Gardens was not open in the 1820s.
 * They didn't land in Kew Gardens; they were just hoping to land there.


 * Thomas Edison was not born until 1847 (well after the Luddite riots).
 * Are you certain you heard Thomas Edison and not Thomas Telford


 * Would the booby-trapped screen really require the whole of the Rani's TARDIS to power it? Surely she could have found an easier way. She clearly has enough technical know-how. Indeed, why not use a bomb instead?
 * She said her TARDIS was serving a more important job. The "job" no doubt was bait for the trap. (I don't recall any mention of it powering anything.)


 * How does the Doctor's key open the Rani's TARDIS?
 * TARDIS keys may be universal, or it might have something to do with the Doctor's TARDIS having 23 or 24 tumblers, where you have to get the right one or the lock melts.
 * TARDIS keys are explicitly not universal. During his brief tenures as Lord President, he could well have pocketed a cipher ident key, used by the Chancellery Guard to open any TARDIS.  (The Deadly Assassin, The Invasion of Time).


 * A roomful of mustard gas would be a horrendously dangerous place to linger whether one was breathing it in or not, and gasmasks would do nothing to stop it causing chemical burns.