Theory:SJA television discontinuity and plot holes/The Day of the Clown


 * Luke says that they have saved the world 12 times, but this is incorrect as this is the number of overall episodes (not counting Invasion of the Bane) rather than stories, which is 6 (TV: Revenge of the Slitheen - TV: The Last Sontaran).
 * He may have been referring to off-screen adventures, or the events of TV: The Stolen Earth / Journey's End and in some times they have save it more than once in a single episode TV: The Last Sontaran and Invasion of the Bane does add to the count for Luke.


 * Why is Rani so surprised when Sarah Jane mentions aliens, after everything that has happened in Doctor Who - Autons, the Slitheen spaceship, the battle of Canary Wharf, the Adipose spaceship, ATMOS, Dalek spaceships, planets in the sky and all the things that have happened in Torchwood.
 * Government cover-ups making the public believe otherwise, such as terrorists, chemical hallucinations, etc. Even if she believed aliens existed, it is likely that she would still be skeptical that the woman across the street fights them all the time. Also it has often been remarked throughout the various Whoniverse series that humans will believe anything except for what's right in front of them.


 * In the frame, Luke hangs two fingers over Maria's head to look like she has 'bunny ears'. How can Luke do this if he doesn't understand the concept of jokes?
 * Luke probably got this off someone, seeing as some people were helping him get used to the world plus it has been over a year and a half since his 'birth'.
 * If you look at his face in the picture, it does have a "puzzled" look, as if he's not really sure what it is - so perhaps he did just see it being done.


 * The Chandra's house has changed from being 12 Bannerman Road (TV: Invasion of the Bane) to 36 Bannerman Road. Furthermore, why is number 36 Bannerman Road opposite number 13?
 * If you read the plot holes in one of the episodes in series 1, you'll find out that the Bannerman Road was filmed on another road, which also caused some plot holes like where SJS house said no. 21 not 13.


 * Why didn't Sarah Jane see a hallucination of the marionette while subjected to TV: The Sontaran Experiment?
 * Who says she didn't? Correct me if I'm wrong, but no flashbacks were shown in that story.
 * In the story in question, we saw, at least a portion of the fears and no clowns were seen.
 * Its unlikely that even Sontarans have machines capable of reading minds, or at least that one lone soldier would in his ship, as such the machine was meant to expose them to basic fears, things everyone fears, I mean who isn't afraid of monsters, being submerged alive or having the sky falling on you?


 * Sarah Jane states that the clowns are being mentally manipulated by the Piper, yet when she uses her sonic lipstick on them sparks fly, like they are robots, so are they robots or telekinetically-controlled dummies?
 * They're telekinetic dummies. The sparks could have been caused by some sort of friction from when the joints are locked/fused. Admittedly, this would be a bit of an exaggerated response, but the nature of the sonic lipstick and the telekinetic control could also factor into the sparks.

Maybe this happened before The Stolen Earth, just because it aired first doesn't always mean the actual story happened first.
 * Luke says he has never seen his mother scared before, even though he saw her terrified by the arrival of the Daleks in TV: The Stolen Earth.
 * Maria is in America in this story whereas in TSE she (and Alan) were in Cornwall and no mention of Rani is made in TSE.
 * Even apart from TSE, Luke had seen Sarah Jane visibly afraid in The Last Sontaran, when they discovered the Sontaran space pod. That was definitely before The Day of the Clown.
 * He could mean really scared, as her fear of clowns seems to be greater than her fear for Daleks and Sontarans. Plus, in both those cases, it was second-hand fear for Luke, whereas her fear of clowns is purely her own fear. Luke could probably tell this from looking at her.