Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Day of the Daleks


 * The Doctor speaks of Napoleon Bonaparte, as though he were a good friend, or at the least, a friendly acquaintance. Would he be friends with a tyrannical dictator?
 * He is only joking around to cheer Jo up and lighten the mood.
 * In any case, the fact that the Doctor was on first-name terms with Chairman Mao (mentioned in "The Mind of Evil") suggests a former lack of principle concerning the ruthless politics of his social circle. One could easily imagine the adventurous and superior-minded First Doctor, prior to his better acquaintance with human beings (through his relationships with Ian and Barbara), having been quite content to socialise with the most notable (and cruel) figures of Earth history.
 * In Revolution Man, the Doctor talks about how Mao has changed since his idealistic youth, and says something like, 'I could try talking to him, but he probably wouldn't listen to me now'.


 * There are only three Dalek props, not an issue...until it comes to the main action scenes.
 * The Daleks likely have a small garrison on Earth with the bulk of the Dalek force concentrating on conquering the rest of the universe, so the Daleks need the help of Ogrons to fight their battles.
 * At any rate, there's no plot discontinuity here. The TV episodes are a representation of what actually happened, not a documentary. Otherwise, the fact that they were Dalek props rather than actual Daleks would be a discontinuity.


 * During the scene at UNIT HQ, when the Brigadier is speaking to his female subordinate about the canteen being closed, the plainly audible sound of the alert going off can be heard for several seconds before anyone acknowledges it.
 * The Brigadier either didn't notice for a few seconds or was simply finishing his train of thought before acknowledging it.


 * The alarm was a radio notice, not a local alert, and the brig did only take about 3 steps before turning back to the radio room. Judgeing by the condition of his uniform and his need for coffee it has been a long night and his reaction is naturally a couple seconds slower than normal. The radio operater also looked like she was half asleep at the begining of the sceen, slowing her reaction time as well.


 * How can it be so easy for the future guerillas to, a) approach the house unseen, and b) remain in the house undetected with hostages? Surely in preparation for a summit meeting of so many important international delegates, more stringent security and more thorough searches would have been implimented.
 * They proceed stealthily.


 * Why have the Daleks not re-instigated 'Operation Degravitate' (See The Dalek Invasion of Earth) during this alternate occupation of the Earth?
 * They either had no need of it in this timeline, or they did implement it and it simply does not come up in the story.


 * At the start of the interrogation scene, the yellow-screen CSO is not only being projected onto the Dalek's video screen: the Gold Dalek's dome and the Doctor's reflective restraints are also flaring.
 * That's a production errors, not a plot discontinuity.


 * The Doctor's success in preventing the global war which would pave the way for a Dalek invasion of the Earth seems something of an empty victory, since we have already seen in the series that the Daleks are destined to invade the Earth anyway in the 22nd century (See The Dalek Invasion of Earth).
 * In this story's alternate future timeline, the Daleks have already been occupying the planet for some time; probably since the late 20th/early 21st century. If the war had happened, the Daleks would have invaded Earth much earlier. So the Doctor is sparing the human race from decades of additional subjugation, which unlike the sequence of events portrayed in The Dalek Invasion of Earth may not have ended with the Daleks being defeated.

The events in The Dalek Invasion of Earth took place around 2174, ten years after the Dalek's 2164 invasion. The Day of the Daleks starts in then contemporary 1972. The Doctor says to Jo that they were transported into the future by "200 years to be precise" meaning the year 2172, two years before the First Doctor meets the Daleks. THEORY: Having being driven off Earth by the First Doctor and crew, and after encountering the Second Doctor, the Daleks decide to create an alternet timeline making their invasion of Earth more successful. By changing the events of the past the Daleks were able to invade sooner and exploit more of the Earth's resources. Also with the knowlege of their defeat in 2174 they could avoid it. Thus, instead of using Robomen wich the Doctor and crew could reprogram to turn against the Daleks, they used Ogrons which, as the Controller noted, are known for their loyalty.
 * How can the Daleks in this story have any knowledge of the First and Second Doctors? They come from an alternate timeline in which Earth was devastated by global wars in the late 20th century, meaning that all the past stories in which the Doctor encountered the Daleks could not have happened. Remember, "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" took place in the year 2164, and the Daleks then did not know who the Doctor was.