Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The End of the World


 * Why would Cassandra call herself a little boy while it is easy to notify her as female?
 * Perhaps she got a sex change and became Cassandra. Also, Cassandra had already made several false statements about the past, such as mistaking a jukebox for an iPod, and stating that an ostrich could breathe fire and had a wingspan of fifty feet.


 * In the companion book Doctor Who: Monsters and Villains, an extract from a book by Vox B. Macmillan heavily implies that Cassandra was once known as Mr B. E. Cobbs.


 * Seriously? That is not an anatomically correct female! A bit of make-up does not a female make. Clearly over the course of 708 operations, the boy bits were removed. (Rose had obviously been much closer to the mark than expected when she quipped about chatting to Michael Jackson.)


 * Or possibly she is using substandard translation software or she's not as fluent in the current language as she thinks she is.


 * What happened to the mega-cities and patches of fire seen in The Long Game, Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways?
 * This is the year 5 billion. A lot of time has passed since 200,100. Furthermore, Earth was preserved in a classic state. This probably does not include mega-cities.


 * Why does the air conditioning system return to normal once the Earth is destroyed? Surely the heat is still there?
 * The Earth could easily be absorbing and, in turn, radiating heat from the Sun.


 * Simply put: the platform's systems had just been restored.


 * How would tiny robotic spiders have the physical strength to drag a humanoid into a ventilation shaft
 * We don't know how much the person weighed and plus there were lot of robotic spiders.


 * Why put the system restore switch in such an inaccessible location? Having to dodge giant fans in order to get to such an important control beggars belief.
 * Actually system restore switches are seldom easily accessible precisely because it's hoped/expected that they'll never be needed. Think of electronic devices which waste half an hour of your time hunting for a paper-clip. Or consider a PC: some people struggle with 2-key combos, but if something goes seriously wrong - you need a 3 finger salute.


 * Why exactly does Jabe have to sacrifice herself? Why couldn't she or the Doctor jam the lever thingy with its cover, or a shoe, or snap a bit off Jabe's head and wedge it in? Or use the sonic screwdriver to fuse the thing in place? Even if Jabe was so determined to sacrifice herself for the greater good, rather than just lean on the lever, why didn't she sit on it? (Keeping it pressed down even after she burned to a crisp)
 * All these options probably just didn't occur to them in the HEAT of the moment (pun present).


 * Cassandra's back-up plan seems a little strange. How will she explain her survival without being punished for using a teleportation device?
 * "She didn't plan on using it, but was forced to in desperation to save her life. She terribly regrets that she was unable to save anyone else. And she's very traumatised by the whole incident".
 * The banning of teleport devices sounds like a private corporate regulation rather than a facet of potential breach of interstellar law. Also, considering Earth has no inhabitants, I'm sure it's a nightmare to establish proper legal structure. The planet where the trust was incorporated? The Shadow Proclaimation? Galactic legal systems seem very ad hoc in the series, with much intention of cowboy justice and very little legitimate aw.


 * Why did the 'National Trust' move the continents back to their configuration from Rose's time? Why would this period be considered 'classic' Earth as opposed to any other era out of billions of years of Earth's history?
 * There could be any number of reasons for the National Trust choosing that time period: perhaps it was around that time that humans embarked on space exploration. But more to the point: Why should they not choose this time, how does this create a discontinuity?