Theory:Doctor Who prose discontinuity and plot holes/Divided Loyalties


 * This story is supposedly set between The Visitation (TV story) and Black Orchid (TV story). However those two stories are consecutive.
 * Since I don't believe they spent any time actually on Earth in this book, Nyssa's comment in Black Orchid (TV story) about "what [they'd] just done to London" and all three companions' attitudes toward interfering in Earth history can be still be chalked up to the recent events of that adventure, despite the no longer consecutive nature of the two adventures.
 * Notice the word 'just'. The Visitation has just happened. No space for another adventure.
 * There's only one thing for it, then. Clearly between this story and Black Orchid, the TARDIS crew do something rather unsavoury to London. Haven't they caused enough damage?


 * The Fifth Doctor learns about the true nature of the Celestial Toymaker. However, the Sixth Doctor had learned about the true nature of the Toymaker for the first time in The Nightmare Fair (novelisation). Even more awkward as this book tries to lead into that one from the Toymaker's POV.
 * Given the amount of times Five is knocked unconscious during his life, it's possible he suffered a bit of memory loss too. His regeneration into Six was particularly troublesome as well.
 * So his memory loss coincides exactly with new stories? Unlikely.
 * Given the whole Matrix-Omega situation in Arc of Infinity, it's possible the memory was removed by the Time Lords via the Doctor's mind connecting with the Matrix (No Place Like Home (audio story) establishes they altered his TARDIS, so why not his memory as well?). The CIA certainly would have reason to cover up such 'forbidden' knowledge.


 * Why didn't the Doctor mention anything about the Toymaker having stolen his friend's body in The Celestial Toymaker (TV story)?
 * He had no reason to. Putting aside the fact that it was probably taking all his concentration to fight against the Toymaker, it's reasonable to assume he just didn't want to drag up painful memories that had no relevance to his survival and that of his companions.


 * 'IF' stands for 'Information File'. In Castrovalva (TV story) it stood for 'index File'.
 * Given that the Toymaker is eventually revealed to have been messing with the TARDIS crew's heads, this could perhaps be the first indication that all is not as it seems, albeit taking the form of Tegan's internal monologue rather than a useful, character-aware, slip up.


 * The Observer projects thirteen future shaydes. However, Time Lords can only regenerate twelve times.
 * The Doctor says the Observer projects thirteen shaydes. He could simply have misspoke in an attempt to get everyone to hurry along.


 * In the Doctor's dream, the person who would become the Master is known as Koschei. However, as both The Dark Path (novel) and subsequent discontinuity discussions on its corresponding theory page have made clear, Koschei is an alias the Master had only recently adopted, proven by the Second Doctor's failure to recognise it.
 * The key word here is, I believe, dream. Dreams are frequently inaccurate hodgepodges of the subconscious mind. Presumeably the Doctor's subconcious was thinking back to his fateful encounter with his friend 'Koschei' in The Dark Path, and as such that alias was chosen for the representation of a pre-Time Lord Master.


 * Jelpax is named as the Time Lord messenger from Genesis of the Daleks (TV story), which conflicts with both the claim of Lungbarrow (novel) that the messenger was Ferain and the more recent claim of Ascension (audio story) that the messenger's identity is a disguised Valyes.
 * Technically, the novel names Jelpax as a member of a team of Gallifreyans who discover a reality/future in which the Daleks could conquer all. Clearly, this group either has ties with the CIA, resulting in Ferain's involvement, or were fed such information by a disguised Valyes, who then did the deed under such dubiously legal procedures before returning to his own present.