Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Keys of Marinus


 * Given that the keys were deliberately hidden, how can it be that Arbitan doesn't know where they are?
 * He probably ordered them hidden, their location kept a secret from him, so he couldn't be interrogated about them.


 * What gives the impression he doesn't know where the keys are? He might not know their exact locations, but he knows enough to set the travel dials accordingly.


 * The radiation counter is on the opposite side of the console to its location in The Daleks
 * However the TARDIS does seem to move controls around, adding new ones and taking others away.


 * In episode 1, who stabs the Voord who is lying in wait for Susan in the pyramid?
 * Arbitan? Or mabye a hidden boobytrap, like the robot warrior Darrius uses


 * Wasn't it rather callous of Arbitan to arrange for the soldiers to give up their lives and be frozen solid in the ice, just in case someone came to steal the key?
 * Yes, however he obviously considered it a necessary sacrifice. As mentioned above, it may be that it wasn't Arbitan who hid the key, and that the soldiers themselves sacrificed themselves for the good of the planet.


 * Whilst Arbitan is certainly the lesser evil compared to Yartek, and is somewhat humanised by his love of his daughter, where was the impression given that he was a particularly kind or soft-hearted individual? He's responsible for the upkeep of a brainwashing machine that severely compromises free will- admittedly, the situation on Marinus without it is clearly dire, between the tyranny of the Morpho brains, the lawlessness of Vasor's country, or the corrupt and vicious legal system of Millennius, but the Conscience is still a drastic and rather callous solution. He routinely murders and imprisons visitors, sent his daughter off on a dangerous and largely hopeless errand from which none of his other friends and followers had ever returned, and lastly shamelessly dragoons the TARDIS crew into helping him. Although his motives are good, he's nevertheless consistently portrayed as someone who will routinely go to extremes and behave utterly ruthlessly if necessary to meet his goals.


 * In episode 5, why does Ian arrive in a different place to the others (i.e. the room with the final key in its display case), given that they were standing together when they left their last location?
 * The story does not make it clear that Ian actually arrived in the room, nor that Ian had just arrived. It is possible that some time has elapsed between Ian's arrival and his entrance into the room. It is quite possible that Ian and the others did arrive in the same place.


 * While walking around the TARDIS's force field, Susan can be seen walking in front of Ian and into the barrier with no ill effects.
 * The force field is an hallucination. They are both hallucinating it to be in different positions and are oblivious to the inconsistency they generate between them.
 * When is it even implied that the force field is just an hallucination? We don't need to resort to wild unfounded speculation to make excuses for poor production values.
 * We also don't need to critique the production values in use fifty years ago. As explained below, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation which it appears the production team may have intended.
 * Ian can be seen to be stepping back slightly before Susan walks in front of him. As a result, there is enough room for Susan between the force field and Ian.
 * The force field may simply be slightly pliable, with enough 'give' in it that although they can't get through it, they can push the field in slightly to walk closer to it.


 * In Episode 6, does Ian not notice that "Arbitan"'s head is about twice as big as last time they met?
 * Judging from Ian's careful answers to Yartek's questions, I would say that Ian has surmised that "Arbitan" isn't who he says he is, which is why he gives Yartek the false key.


 * What creates the impression Ian didn't notice? He was clearly suspicious and later specifically told Barbara that he knew it was an impostor because he didn't know who Altos was.


 * Despite arriving in Morphoton only seconds before the others Barbara is able to change clothes, meet the city leader, learn the cities history and be generally treated as an honoured guest.
 * Given that the Morpho Brains have telepathic powers, it is entirely possible that information has been "planted" in Barbara's mind about the city and its leader. And it doesn't take that long to change clothes...
 * The ability to plant information or alter memories seemed to require a more elaborate process (sleep, disc on forehead) which itself could not have been achieved in such a short time. No, rather it seems part 2 The Velvet Web suffered an affliction far too common to most of the parts in this serial: poorly thought-out, hard to swallow plot elements.


 * Given that even common recreational drugs can cause severe discontinuities in the user's brain, it is plausible that the Morpho brainwashing can equally screw up the users' senses (and, given the subjective nature of the Morphoton sequences, who is to say that the Doctor, Ian, and Susan do not actually spend more time having their preliminary "induction" than seems to be the case?). The later "treatments" seem intended initially to reinforce the sense of illusion (without requiring any more regular "doses") and eventually to sap the will completely.


 * Barbara didn't need to actually change clothes. The psionic abilities of the brains clearly includes being very adept at making things appear different to reality.


 * How did Arbitan get a force field round the TARDIS?
 * The force field is only in the time travellers' heads. Using the power of the Conscience and his one remaining key, over a short distance, Arbitan is capable of creating the crude illusion of a force field within their minds. This explains the otherwise puzzling fact of how we, the audience, are able to observe Susan walking in front of where Ian clearly believes the boundary of the barrier to be - i.e. they are both hallucinating it to be in different positions and are oblivious to the inconsistency they generate between them.
 * This is not even implied in the story, so is wild unfounded speculation.


 * This world is evidently very technologically advanced, so why would it be unreasonable to accept that Arbitan has the means to create a force field?


 * As DWM's Time Team asked when they saw this story, why didn't Arbitan tell Sabetha about the traps in the jungle building in Episode 3?
 * Arbitan might not have been aware of the traps. He knew the general location of the keys, but other people were tasked with actually hiding and protecting them. It is quite plausible that other people took the initiative to set the traps. (The same applies for placing frozen guards.)
 * This explanation is no good as Arbitan must have known about the traps. Darrius clearly states in this episode that only Arbitan's warnings would enable people to avoid the traps.


 * Watching the story again, I begin to feel that Arbitan's long vigil has started to drive him ever so slightly round the bend ... It seems also to have had that effect on Darrius, who obviously got so bored of his watch that he decided to pass the time by fatally screwing around with nature. At any rate, the dialog hints that it has been 1,300 years since Yartek first attempted his coup, and even if Voords are longer-lived than Arbitan's race, that still leaves the depressing conclusion that Arbitan must have dedicated his entire life to the wretched purpose of guarding the Conscience, and very probably only has patchy and second-hand knowledge of the defences that earlier generations will have set to protect the keys. I also find it hard to believe that he would send his own daughter to Morphoton if he had been aware of the shocking extent to which that particular civilisation had declined since the Conscience went offline. The final moralising dialog from the Doctor does seem to suggest that part of the story's theme was genuinely how a good and idealistic man can, through over-dedication to one purpose, become careless, callous, and dangerously ignorant of the real world. A theme that both "Doctor Who" and Terry Nation would revisit fairly frequently ...


 * Why is Ian so ready to barter his travel dial - his only life-line back to the TARDIS - for a piece of fur from Vasor?
 * Vasor had indicated that his concern about "lending furs to Ian" was that if Ian fell down a crevice, he'd have no way to recover the furs. So Ian probably intended the trade to be more like a form of surety. If Ian died, he wouldn't need the travel dial in any case.


 * When Ian and Altos rescued Barbara from Vasor and force him to guide them to the caves, why didn't they also take back their travel dials? Then they wouldn't have had to bother with repairing the bridge but could have left as soon as they found the key. Surely they didn't let him keep the dials simply as security for the furs after he had tied up Altos, tried to kill Ian and attempted to rape Barbara?
 * Ian was not aware that the key was in the cave and so perhaps thought it best to leave the travel dials so that Vasor was more co-operative in finding Susan and Barbara.


 * Several of the cliffhangers do not match up with the reprise.
 * None of them are materially different. And why should the teaser be identical to the start of the next episode?


 * The first Doctor is known for his little desire to help. That's shown in many episodes, like The Aztecs or the Daleks, and this one, when he can't get back to the TARDIS until they finished their adventure. In this one, there's a forcefield. Arbitan says he'll deactivate it as soon as the travellers go to the search for the keys. So, why doesn't the Doctor just teleport with his companions until he's back again at the island.
 * Maybe because the Doctor knew they wouldn't accept betraying Arbitan.
 * Well, he could try and tell them. It wouldn't be the first time.
 * Maybe he didn't even realised he could do that. The firsts two or three Doctors are not as clever as their succesors.
 * It's because he would be killed before the arrival of the travellers. This is behind the scenes, obviously.
 * Arbatan was obviously going to wait until he actually had the keys before deactivating the force field. Deactivating it before he got what he wanted would just be plain stupid. Unfortunately he got killed before they returned but the pyramid exploding probably solved the issue of the force field.
 * No, the Doctor visits the Tardis before going to the pyramid. Arbatan definitely deactivated the force field before he died.


 * If Arbatan can project a force field, why doesn't he use one to protect the pyramid? Or, if that's too large, just the centre room that he's in.