Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/World Enough and Time


 * Mr. Razor mentions "an expedition to floor 507, the largest of the solar farms." A solar farm generates electricity from sunlight.  Light inside a ship would take power to generate in the first place.  Collecting it to generate power does not make sense.
 * He was revealed to be the Master, perhaps he was lying for a good story.
 * The episode opening reveals that there are levels that appear to have artificial sunlight. Plus there are windows to the outside shown.


 * Why is Bill not just instantly converted like the rest of the patients are? Why is she spared that fate for years?
 * The episode makes clear that Bill needed to be strong before undergoing the procedure, which took time. It's also made clear that the Master waited until the Doctor and Missy were in the elevator before arranging for her to be converted.


 * What exactly does Missy's umbrella do? No way she threatens people with it for show.
 * This will probably be revealed later. This being Missy it could be a ray gun.


 * Why didn't the original crew just return straight up after they adjusted the thrusters? Why stay down there and let themselves devolve to the way their descendants are generations on?
 * Maybe they did. The thrusters could be on an even lower level, so the time dilation would be much greater (it's exponential). Besides, with a gravity pull much stronger on the "bottom" of the ship, I'm surprised they ever got the elevators working. Perhaps that feat by itself needed a few years of R&D to achieve. That's just my theory, since we're ignoring the "elephant in the room". It could all be a part of Master's (Missy's) plan, so I wouldn't delve too much into this until the next episode.


 * When Bill gets up after her operation, the time-lapse clock shows 2 days, 10 hours, 45 minutes + 17 seconds on the top floor and 365 034 d, 12 h, 31 m + 3 s having elapsed on the bottom floor. Halfway through, as she's mopping the hospital floor, the clock reads 365 433 days at her level (she'd been there little over a year by that point), but the time for the top floor has actually gone backwards. It shows as 2 d, 10 h, 45 m + 0 s, so they've gone back 17 seconds in that time. Is this significant or just a continuity error? (Times on iPlayer are 18:23 and 28:59 respectively).
 * Brilliantly spotted!
 * Looks like a continuity error, unless the clock malfunctioned so reset the 17 seconds? May have been faulty that particular day.
 * Perhaps the minute counter is faulty and stuck on 45?


 * How is Bill able to walk with no problem, when her spine was replaced?
 * It was her heart, not her spine. Also, it takes her months to be able to walk freely. It is sci-fi: their healing methods are beyond our comprehension.
 * The big blast whole in her body destroyed her heart, and took out a chunk of her chest and spine. Sci fi or not, she wouldn't be able to walk straight away! She's be in a wheelchair!
 * She has been recovering for months though, plenty of time to heal.
 * And, yet she got up and walked straight away. No physio at all. She would have had to learn to walk again!


 * Brilliant episode! One observation though. If the Mondassians are months ahead of what is happening on the top deck why do they immediately sense a human presence and why do the elevators reach the top so quickly in real time?
 * They immediately sense the human presence because they have years to do so. Think how they view the Doctor via the camera. From their perspective the human life signs have been there quite awhile. And also since the lifts move away from the Black Hole their relative time grows or decreases exponentially. Going from the bottom to the top the lifts should actually be getting there faster than normal since relative to someone on the top they'd fly through the lower floors quicker. They still take some time to get to the bottom of the ship relative to the Mondassians but because the lift is moving towards the black hole it gets there a lot quicker than the 1 minute = 1 year (hence why the Master had Bill converted as soon as he was aware the Doctor was in the lift). There is no "real time" so to speak. All of the time is real, it's just relatively different.