Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Shakespeare Code


 * The Doctor acts like he has never met Shakespeare before yet he has met him several times before.
 * This is the first time the Doctor meets Shakespeare from his perspective so the Doctor may simply be trying to avoid confusing Shakespeare and he is also making this more exciting for Martha.
 * It is also the first time he has seen Shakespeare in his tenth incarnation.


 * Love Labour's Won in the real world was finished before 1599 when in this story it is finished in 1599.
 * No one knows the exact dates of Shakespeare's works.
 * The Whoniverse time line does not always coincide exactly with that of the real world.
 * There is debate on whether the play even existed in the real world, let alone when it was finished.
 * There are only two references in history to Love Labour's Won. It is only placed chronologically after Love Labour's Lost as it may be a sequel.


 * PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles suggests that (in the Whoniverse) there were 11 Harry Potter novels, not seven.
 * At no point does the episode actually identify the seventh book (The Deathly Hallows) as the final novel, nor is its title mentioned. In the real world, JK Rowling has not dismissed the possibility of writing more novels in the future.


 * This episode calls into question the long held fan belief that Time Lords only grow a second heart during their first regeneration, as when Lilith stops one of his hearts the Doctor wonders how humans are able to function with just one.
 * Assuming that the rumour is true, it would have been a long time, about 400 "years", since the Doctor last had only one heart.
 * William Hartnell's serials went a lot slower than those of today, never really speeding up the heartbeat, whereas the Tenth Doctor's remark was spoken in rather more critical circumstances.
 * The Eleventh Doctor mentions it, too. Of course, on the contrary side, the Tenth Doctor didn't realize it was not working until he stood up.


 * When Lynley drowns, the Doctor claims he has never seen a death like it. However, he saw an almost identical death in The Mind of Evil.
 * In that story, Kettering died in the deluded belief he was drowning, whereas Lynley dies of actual internal drowning.


 * The revelation in The Kingmaker that the original Shakespeare stowed away aboard the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS in 1597, died in 1485, and was replaced in 1597 by King Richard III looking for a second chance at history is not addressed. Assuming the earlier adventure still exists in continuity, the Shakespeare in this story is actually Richard III posing as Shakespeare.
 * A unnamed later time change event could have taken this out of continuity, but even if it had, ponder this: they establish in this episode that the man they are talking to was the genius, the man with the magic of words, the man with the son who died, the unique man who came up with such words. Whether he was originally supposed to be Shakespeare is moot; this is the man who lived as him.


 * If the Doctor and Martha never travelled to this point in time, would Martha (and the rest of humanity) still disappear from existence because of the Carrionites' actions either way?
 * Maybe, as would every other story that takes place in the current companion or companions' past. Good thing the TARDIS was able to sense the danger then.