Forum:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Major inconsistencies and retcons


 * ''For the drug retcon used by Torchwood 3, see separate entry."

Doctor Who Universe stories have had a number of inconsistencies as well as deliberate retcons.

Overview
In the course of a history lasting more than forty years, hundreds of stories set in the Doctor Who Universe stories have been created in many different media. Inevitably been occasions where the programme has contradicted itself. This was sometimes due to one production team simply not being aware (and often not really caring) of what had previously been shown on screen, but also occasionally the result of a deliberate attempt to rewrite or "retcon" away old continuity.

As an example, Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke believed that a previous mention of "Time Lords" had appeared when they set about writing The War Games, when the series had never done so before. By mistake, they ended up creating the concept.

A major and concerted attempt to retcon happened when the writing team assembled by Andrew Cartmel (Script Editor from 23 to 26) and writers Marc Platt and Ben Aaronovitch, attempted to make the Doctor more mysterious and powerful again, and came up with a secret backstory for him known as the "Cartmel Masterplan", first hinted at in Remembrance of the Daleks and even more so in its novelisation. Doctor Who's cancellation in 1989 meant that this did not go very far.

In the 1990s many of the official Doctor Who stories that were released were written by fans of the programme who often attempted to address some of these 'inconsistencies' themselves, providing retcons where necessary.

Retcons are more common in material other than the television series proper, but these stories also contain some of the most blatant inconsistencies. Ace, for example, has been given numerous different fates in different media which fail to match up with each other.

The Doctor
Later: The Doctor stole his TARDIS. (DW: The War Games) The First Doctor often boasted and this might of been him just trying to impress his human companions.
 * Originally: The Doctor built his TARDIS.

Later: The Doctor has two hearts. (DW: Spearhead from Space) While MA: The Man in the Velvet Mask claims Time Lords acquire their second heart only after their first regeneration, the onscreen explanation for the apparent inconsistency in the revived series is that serious injury or trauma can cause one of a Time Lord's hearts to stop beating.''
 * Originally: The Doctor has one heart. (DW: The Edge of Destruction)

Later: The Eighth Doctor describes himself as half-human. (DW: Doctor Who (1996)) ''Every Doctor has been unstable and more eccentric than usual after regeneration. His claim to be half-human on his mother's side might of been one way of manifesting itself or it might of been just a joke.''
 * Originally: The Doctor has a fully alien (or as later explained, Gallifreyan) ancestry.

The Time Lords
Later: Time Lords have a set number of regenerations, which heavily implies that Time Lords have a finite lifespan. (DW: The Deadly Assassin) ''Time Lords don't die of old age or natural causes; a Time Lord could still live forever if he or she didn't have an accident in their final incarnation. Also the Doctor has never died from anything other than 'an accident.' His first regeneration may have been due to his body aging rapidly, or his life force drain, so his body was biologically unstable.''
 * Originally: The Time Lords can, as the Second Doctor said, "live forever, barring accidents". (DW: The War Games)

The Daleks
Later: The Daleks were the result of a thousand-year war and the genetic manipulation of the scientist Davros. (DW: Genesis of the Daleks)
 * Originally: The Daleks were the mutated survivors of a war fought using a neutron bomb.

UNIT

 * See the UNIT dating controversy.

The Doctor

 * The Sixth Doctor regenerated after his TARDIS was struck by the Rani's tractor beam. (DW: Time and the Rani)

Retcon: The (unborn) Seventh Doctor 'kills' the Sixth Doctor to bring himself into being. (NA: Timewyrm: Revelation, NA: Head Games)

Further retcon: The Doctor was already dying when the TARDIS came under attack. (PDA: Spiral Scratch)

The Daleks
Retcon: The Doctor had destroyed the planet Antalin, rather than the real Skaro. (EDA: War of the Daleks) ''The apparent contradiction of Skaro appearing in Doctor Who (1996) after it was destroyed in Remembrance of the Daleks is easily explained if The Master's trial took place before that destruction.
 * The Seventh Doctor destroyed Skaro.