Theory:Doctor Who prose discontinuity and plot holes/No Future


 * There is nothing in either The Time Meddler or The Daleks' Master Plan to suggest that 'The Monk' actually ever was a monk. it was just a disguise he used. Yet here there's a lengthy backhistory about his actually being a monk.
 * A coincidence to be sure, but not necessarily a continuity error. If anything it somewhat explains why the Monk keeps that alias after what was supposedly a one-off disguise.
 * Doesn't work. He's discarded the disguise by #-Dimensional Vistas, wearing a far more appropriate fur coat, and is known as "The Time Meddler", without the "Monk" word ever being used. And from Episode 3(A Battle of Wits) of The Time Meddler:

MONK: Oh, a man of violence. I'm surprised at you. DOCTOR: Never mind about all that. What is it you're doing here? What are you up to? (Banging at the door.) MONK: The door. I must go. DOCTOR: Just leave that, shall we? MONK: But if I don't go, they'll get suspicious. DOCTOR: Then we'll both go. I'll open the door, then I can keep an eye on you. MONK: You open the door? No, Doctor, that's not a very good idea. DOCTOR: Oh, isn't it? Why not? MONK: Because you're not wearing the right sort of clothes. DOCTOR: Oh, yes, I see, I see. First, you want to open the door, then you want the chance to reverse the position with the help of whoever it is outside? Secondly, you want to get me into a monk's habit so that whoever that is, would recognise me as an imposter. MONK: Dear me, dear me, what an untrusting nature you have, my son. DOCTOR: Yes, and you can drop the monk's act. MONK: I'm only trying to help. Whoever it is, it's probably as traveller knocking for shelter. Who else could it be? Doctor, I must remind you this is a monastery, a place of refuge, sanctuary. DOCTOR: Yes, very well, if you have another cloak with the same type of cowl? Proceed. MONK: Of course. DOCTOR: And remember, no more monkery!

So, it's an act, a disguise, he is an imposter. He's only wearing the monk's cowl to suit his plan in 1066. He never was a monk, he never will be a monk.

DOCTOR: So that's it! You're a time meddler!


 * There is nothing in The Daleks Master Plan to suggest that The Monk was ever stranded on the ice planet. All that happened was that his directional control was ruined. He even states that he's now destined to wander the universe.
 * Perhaps the Monk stayed on the ice planet to try to fix his directional control unit and ended up blowing something more important. Or perhaps there was another adventure that coincidentally involved Ancient Egypt and ended with the Monk left on an ice planet. That is a really annoying error, though. It means the entire "Alternate Universe" cycle, and this book in particular, is based on a false/flawed concept.


 * 4-Dimensional Vistas and Follow That TARDIS! see the Monk meeting the Fifth and Seventh Doctors respectively, yet here, he states that this is the first time he's seen the Doctor since Ancient Egypt (in The Daleks Master Plan).
 * Perhaps those meetings were out-of-order, and as such, the Monk has yet to experience them.
 * But if you look at the DWM comics, it's clearly the Peter Butterworth incarnation. And in No Future he's regenerated into the "Robert Beltram" incarnation from the Peter Butterworth incarnation, saying this is the first time he's seen the Doctor since The Daleks' Master Plan(when he was supposedly "stranded on the ice planet").
 * I would say the incarnation is questionable in Follow That TARDIS!, but moving on: Maybe the Monk lost those memories through a case of post-regenerative amnesia. Though let's face it, this is the guy that thought becoming Death's Champion was a good idea.
 * Moving on? You never answered how 4-Dimensional Vistas fits in. Answer:it doesn't, this book is discontinuous.
 * The Night of the Doctor (TV story) established that there are ways for Time Lords to control regeneration. The existence of both Maxil and the Sixth Doctor implies that faces can be re-used. That presents us with two options. Option A) the Time Lord from 4-Dimensional Vistas (comic story) is not the same Time Lord that appears here. Option B) The Monk regenerates some time after this story into an incarnation with a similar or identical appearance to his "first" incarnation, meaning the comic happens after this story.


 * Benny states that she's been there two weeks. Later, without ever having left, it's only one week.
 * This is Bernice Summerfield we're talking about; she's practically the definition of an unreliable narrator. She had a lapse in judgement and said two weeks when she meant one. Or thought one week when she meant two. I can't remember how that part went exactly.
 * I have a vague recollection that the days of the week don't work either... practically everything takes place on a succession of Saturdays
 * The Monk's manipulation of time has messed with its linear flow for some reason.


 * The Minyan has a thirteen-life(twelve regeneration) limit, yet it is explicitly stated in Underworld that the Minyans have no regeneration limit, and go on regenerating.
 * Perhaps this Minyan is of a group that have yet to evolve to that state/have evolved to a natural limit due to the possibility of overpopulation.
 * Actually, the Minyans were in those little regenerative boxes in Underworld, weren't they? Maybe they can only regenerate thirteen times outside of those boxes.


 * No Future's main purpose seems to be to promote the new UNIT dating. However, Virgin UNIT Dating places the stories in 1969-1973, while No Future explicitly states that The Invasion took place in 1970, which is wrong by both dating systems.
 * I think the first book to give a 1969 date was "Who Killed Kennedy", whcih wasn't published till later. And other authors have penned books waving the flag for other UNIT dating theories


 * 'Mortimus' has some stupid "backstory" about how he was a monk on Gallifrey. This fails on two counts. First, The Time Meddler makes it clear beyond any shadow of a doubt that he was simply disguising himself as a monk in 1066, he has never actually been a monk. And 4-Dimensional Vistas (which this book completely ignores) further confirms(as if it was ever actually needed) that he was never an actual monk.
 * At that point in the story he was attempting to gain Ace's trust; it's quite possible that he was lying through his teeth, with bits of truth added in to make the lie more believable.


 * 'Mortimus' has some stupid "backstory" about how he was a monk on Gallifrey. This fails on two counts. Second, it is made explicitly clear in different media that the Gallifreyan monasteries were shut down long before the time he was supposedly a monk. In fact the elderly K'anpo Rimpoche was explicitly stated to be one of the very last surviving monks from the time of the Gallifreyan monasteries. And this was a man who was already elderly and had regenerated when the Doctor was still a small boy. Therefore the claim of 'Mortimus' to have been an actual monk cannot be accurate.
 * I seem to remember something in another book about Mortimus being from a sect of the Celestial Intervention Agency. Assuming that he is telling Ace the truth, perhaps he thinks that calling his tenure with the CIA 'time as a monk' adds credibility to his newly-adopted moniker.
 * But how is the CIA like spending "time as a monk"? And surely Ace would know about Gallifrey? And why would the Time Lord from The Time Meddler suddenly decide that he wanted to "adopt a new moniker" of a one-off disguise that ended in failure and humiliation?
 * It's not, that's where the whole "lying through his teeth" part comes in, if I'm reading the posts correctly. It's unlikely Ace knows about the existence or nonexistence of an ancient religious order within the stuffy bureaucracy that is Gallifrey. It all depends on how seriously he's taking things. Monks are known for being pious/righteous, so maybe its a proclamation of the righteous nature of his revenge scheme. Retcons don't work perfectly, that's why they still exist.