Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/A Good Man Goes to War


 * If River is Amy and Rory's daughter, why wasn't she erased along with Rory when he died in Cold Blood?
 * Simple. When Amy's parents were erased from time, Amy continued to exist. Therefore, when Rory was erased from time, River continued to exist.

ANSWER:

In The Big Bang episode, Amelia Pond child has just been erased from time:

Amy: "How can i be here if she's not?"

Doctor: " You're just an anomaly, we all are. Hanging onto the eye of the storm which is closing."

I think these qoutes in DW: The Big Bang should answer your plot hole!


 * Why would the Cybermen have safety signs on their ship? There's clearly a "Fire Escape" sign and another denoting the contents of the tanks in the background while the Cyber Leader calls out intruders.


 * Perhaps they stole the ships? They were clearly the same Cyber Ships portrayed in the Series 5 Finale So, that doesn't mean they didn't steal them. They are also similar to the ships in The Invasion. Also, Cybermen aren't indestructible, they would likely need safety guidelines as well.


 * Why hasn't the Doctor ever assembled an army before now and why didn't he bring more of his assistants to help instead of old enemies like a Sontaran.
 * Clearly he never saw the need before, and they are all people who owe him favours, he probably doesn't want to interrupt his old friends new lives.
 * For all we know the Doctor may have done something similar to this before, but off-screen.
 * Although Sontarans are normally his enemy, Strax wasn't. Same can be said for the Silurians recruited to help.
 * The Doctor clearly chose his army for specific abilities. Martha Jones would have offered little to this mission, for example. Nor would, say, Sarah Jane. In addition, the Doctor has stated several times, most recently in SJA: Death of the Doctor his reluctance to revisit former companions. So instead of past companions he chose individuals to whom a debt was clearly owed.


 * Vastra compliments the Doctor on taking over the station without a drop of blood spilt. However, she is wrong as at least two soldiers and one monk die during an altercation explicitly orchestrated by the Doctor.
 * Vastra did not witness the brief fight with the soldiers and the monks, she likely didn't know that had occured.
 * Perhaps she meant it literaly, based on what her experiences have been like.


 * When the Silurians and Judoon and the Sontaran appear and take control of the base, why don't the monks attack then? And why are they left on the station when everyone else is taken away?
 * It's strongly implied at Kovarian arranged the whole thing as a trap, so the monks were likely acting under orders.


 * If Melody is a flesh avatar, why doesn't she "melt" when Rory uses the sonic screwdriver while holding her to open the door to Amy?
 * Perhaps since doc found out amy was flesh previously, madame kovarian must have improved the flesh to withstand sonic waves. Also how did Melody turn flesh? what caused her to melt?


 * See the "Best Answer" below. As for why Melody's ganger turned back to Flesh, the people controlling who had the real Melody just disconnected her.

BEST ANSWER:

Not all functions of the screwdriver are in use when the screwdriver is activated. The 'open locks' function is different from the 'Flesh discorporation' function.


 * Yes but how does the doctor change the setting/function as there is only a buttion on the screwdriver, i am talking about the previous screwdrivers too.


 * There have been several references in the past to the screwdriver having various settings. One button, for example, can beheld down with different pressure, at different angles, for different duration, etc, to produce various settings. Part of the reason for the Doctor going in search of the Flesh in The Rebel Flesh was so that he could determine the right frequency to interrupt the connection between the real Amy and her ganger.


 * Curnal Manton suggests that the strategic advantage of the Headless Monks having no heads is that the Doctor would not be able to convince them not to kill him, as the Doctor has proven so able to do with his enemies in the past. However, once the appearance of the Doctor (in the guise of a Headless Monk) causes the marines/clerics and Monks to attack each other, Manton removes the ammo from his weapon in order to convince the Monks that the marines/clerics are not a threat to them. How could that be an effective way to diffuse the situation if the Monks have to heads with which to reason? And why would Colonal Manton beleive that such a strategy would work in the first place, given that he was the one to explain the inexorable nature of the Monks?
 * the monks and clerics are working together. The monks clearly have some form of sentience and so would not kill their allies.


 * At one point, you see Toby and Henry Avery, (the son and captain from The Curse of the Black Spot.) I thought that Toby couldn't be disconnected from the life support or he would die, because he was extremely sick...so how is he able to be up and fighting?
 * The life support system continues to heal the crew while they are walking about the ship, and possibly nearby the ship. The child is seen walking to the flight deck at the end of that episode so it is reasonable to say that he could walk around quite freely. As for fighting, they don't get involved that much in the episode, they capture the escape pod, with an apparent crew of 12, although only 1 is seen, (either a bluff, or that they are tied up inside the ship) and besides capturing a neighbouring ship is something one would assume pirates would do


 * Yes but in Black Spot, rory 'redrowned' as soon as he was disconnected from the 'bed', so the 'near-the-ship' theory doesn't 'really' work, does it? sorry for the 'excessive' use of apostrophies, i 'wanted' to 'try' to 'use' as 'little' as i 'could'.


 * The Doctor had said Toby had typhoid fever. The Automated Sickbay presumably cured him of it; however, typhoid is only a bacterial condition, and Toby was seen functioning relatively normally prior to being put in sickbay. Rory, on the other hand, was presumably in a state of suspended animation (for lack of a better term) keeping him from dying of drowning.


 * How are the Headless Monks able to chant there attack prayer if they don't have heads?
 * Probably because they produce a signal, or since theyre aliens. they maybe able to use 'head functions' somewhere else!


 * How are the Headless Monks alive? Don't decapitation generally kill most species?
 * Maybe they were 'born'/live headless. we might find out about more of these creatures later on.


 * Could be related to scarecrows in 'The Family Of Blood'?


 * Decapitation does usually kill most things, but we are also talking about thousands of years in the future. Presumably there is some component, whether technique or technology, which keeps them alive and able to function (and even chant).


 * Why is sontaran a nurse? i swear i saw him in 'the poison sky'? why he want to help doctor? have they met? when did they meet? why does m. vestra look alot like alaya and the leader of the silurian army in 'cold blood'? vestra uses terms such as 'old friend' when they havent met? why are silurian teams attacking the human 'doctor' rebellion? why has humans teamed up with kovarian? is she human? more questions on identity and purpose of kovarian? any other so called 'obvious' plot holes could be answered here please?
 * Strax was made a nurse as a penance. You saw him in The Poison Sky, because the Sontarans are a clone race- Linx and Styre were also played by the same actor. He wanted to help the Doctor because he owed him a debt. The Doctor met him offscreen in an untelevised adventure. Alaya and Vastra are identical because they were played by the same actress-is it an error that King Peladon is identical to Private Moore and Professor Hobbes. Vastra and the Doctor did meet in the 19th century London underground in an untelevised story. The Church teamed up wiith Kovarian because they are scared of the Doctor. Kovarian is either Human or near-human. As this is only the middle of a season-long plot arc, we will presumably learn more about Kovarian later. All of the plot holes you listed were either answered in the episode, or will probably be answered in future episodes.


 * How did the TARDIS' translation matrix translate the prayer leaf for Amy and Rory, when they did not attempt to read it until after the TARDIS had already departed?
 * The TARDIS gets inside your head, and gives you the ability to translate alien languages, so it does not actually have to be present for the ability to work, as long as you have been inside the TARDIS before.