Theory:Doctor Who prose discontinuity and plot holes/War of the Daleks


 * War of the Daleks is considered by many to be non-canonical, or at least on the outskirts of established canon as it makes numerous revisions to 'established' Dalek history.
 * In short, every TV Dalek story from Destiny of the Daleks to Remembrance of the Daleks is revised to fit War of the Daleks' plot.
 * The only 'question' this book seems to answer is where the Dalek Factory Ship seen in The Power of the Daleks came from.
 * However throughout the various discussions the events of Resurrection of the Daleks don't appear to gel with the story given to the Doctor by the Dalek Prime (its motivations do not make sense given what is said in this novel with regard to that story).
 * If the Movellans were created by the Daleks then who were the humanoid robots causing the Daleks grief in MA: A Device of Death.
 * Additionally if the Movellans were a ruse to trick Davros, why was there a Movellan virus created, why was it on Earth and why have all the Dalek shock troops (all from DW: Resurrection of the Daleks) The virus may have been created by the Daleks themselves. Likewise, the Dalek Troopers may have been part of the Dalek Prime's ruse.


 * The Dalek Prime claims that the Daleks recovered Davros on Skaro, relocated him to Antalin, and altered his memories so that he would believe Antalin to be Skaro. However, if the Daleks did indeed find Davros before the events in Destiny of the Daleks, why did they not simply finish him off there? Davros had to apparently destroy Skaro. Perhaps the Daleks were afraid that if they killed Davros and created a paradox then the universe would end, or something.


 * In one of the Interludes in the book (page 81 - Interlude Human Space), it's set on a planet covered entirely by water, called Antalin. (This planet has the same name as the planet which was made to look like Skaro). Perhaps it simply shared Antalin's name, like there can be two places on Earth with the same name.


 * If during the events of The Dalek Invasion of Earth the Daleks discovered records of Skaro's destruction and set about preventing it, why would they not also find out about the cataclysmic (for the Daleks) events of Doomsday and Journey's End?
 * The events of the Last Great Time War distorted the events of the timeline, so that it no longer follows the Laws of Time in a linear sense; wibbley wobbley, timey wimey...


 * The Daleks moved Davros from Skaro to Antalin. They buried him in a replica of the Kaled bunker. Once they had finished doing that, they presumably immediately set about digging him up again, all to fool him into thinking he was on Skaro. Did the Daleks use the slaves to bury Davros as well? If so, why didn't the slaves mention that in Destiny of the Daleks? If not, why did the Daleks need the slaves to dig Davros up?
 * Maybe they used a different group of slaves.


 * If the renegade Daleks in Remembrance of the Daleks were taking orders from the Dalek Prime, and presumably were in on the plot, then why did the Black Dalek at the end of Remembrance blow itself up when told of its race's defeat by the Doctor, when it should know full well that everything is going according to plan? The novelization of "Remembrance of the Daleks" states that the Black Dalek's telepathic link to the Girl/Battle Computer caused it to experience human emotions such as grief, loneliness and despair - and thus it may have forgotten the "big picture". Alternatively, the Renegade Dalek Faction may have been a special group of Daleks programmed to believe the Dalek Prime's "cover story".  The same can be said about the Daleks in Destiny and Resurrection which would actually explain why they make no reference to the Dalek Prime's plan.


 * The Antalin scheme requires either extreme carelessness on the part of the Doctor and Davros, or very careful alteration of maps by the Dalek Prime. In Remembrance, the Doctor sees a star chart of what is allegedly Antalin, and believes it to be Skaro; it also seems that at no point between being revived on Antalin in Destiny of the Daleks and leading his Imperial faction in Remembrance did Davros ever bother to look at his home planet on a map, which surely would have shown clearly that the planet he was ruling from was NOT the planet he had been born on.
 * The Doctor had only been to Skaro four times before Remembrance. The first time, in The Daleks, the TARDIS was not working properly. The next two times, in The Evil of the Daleks and Genesis of the Daleks, he went there without the TARDIS (although he did leave in the TARDIS in Evil). The fourth time was in Destiny of the Daleks, and that was actually Antalin. If the Doctor had used his knowledge of Skaro's location gained in Destiny, then he would have false coordinates as that planet was Antalin.
 * The Daleks also have the ability to move planets - as the Doctor even points out in this book. They may have swapped Skaro and Antalin's positions.

A lot of this supports the theory put forward by some fans that the Dalek Prime's story about Antalin is actually untrue and is a fabrication for propaganda purposes, and that Skaro was destroyed in Remembrance (during Davros' trial, the Dalek Prime contradicts the explanation it gave the Doctor by claiming that the world Davros destroyed was an "artificial world" not Antalin). If this is true, it is possible that the "Skaro" featured in War of the Daleks is actually Antalin, as this novel reveals that "Skaro" simply means "home", and so presumably could be used to refer to whatever the current Dalek base of operations is. Evidence for this includes the fact that in War, "Skaro" is not radioactive.