Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Next Doctor


 * The Cybermen are too weak to kill a single Dalek with an army. So how did they steal their technology?
 * It was never said that it was taken through combat. The Cybermen are known to use infiltration, as when they set up a base in Torchwood 1 without detection. Considering it was the events in Journey's End that allowed them to escape the void. Its possible the same reverse of machinery that killed the Dalek's in the Crucible expanded into other universes including the void. So the Cybermen simply salvaged the machinery from destroyed Daleks


 * In Doomsday there were no Daleks seen with any devices or machines, (except the Cult of Skaro with the Genesis Ark) so where did the technology come from?
 * Deconstructed Daleks and Cybermen, or more likely from the Genesis Ark which was sucked into the Void as well.


 * How did the infostamps have images from times when the Daleks were not present?
 * The Daleks may have used methods as yet unrevealed; there is precedent for "time scanners" to view people without their knowledge from afar, such as seen in DW: The Chase.


 * Subsequently, it is shown that info stamps are connected to the dimention vault, implying that it is gathering the information throught time and space.


 * Everyone in London saw a giant CyberKing walking through the city. Would this not have re-written history?
 * Time is in Flux, and some events are able to change - nothing major was changed as the attack didn't last long.
 * RTD offers the possibility in the podcast that after Torchwood was established, it cleaned up all references.
 * This fact is brought up by the Doctor in DW: Flesh and Stone, so might better be considered an element of foreshadowing rather than a continuity error.
 * The 'crack' mentioned throughout the fifth series, seems like it may have something to do with it.


 * In Age of Steel, behind the Cybus badge was the heart of steel, not an infostamp port.
 * They could have had them added after Canary Wharf.


 * How could a Cybershade, a part Cyberman-part animal drag two men up the side of a building?
 * It's likely that the Cybershades are cybernetically enhanced; the cloak they wear could conceal a lighter and more agile exoskeleton than that of the Cybermen.


 * Surely it would have made sense to use the Cyber King during the battle of Canary Wharf?
 * It was far less likely for the development of a CyberKing to go unnoticed in the 21st century.


 * Why are people having a Christmas feast in the middle of the night on Christmas morning, especially considering the city is still recovering from the CyberKing's assault?
 * Because it's Christmas and because they're celebrating the CyberKing's defeat.


 * Why would the Cybermen want to convert the brain of an animal to make a Cybershade when the thought process behind a Cyberman is to make everything exactly the same as them?
 * The Cybermen do not want to make everything exactly the same as them. They want to upgrade humanity to Cybermen, but perhaps found a need to diversify with a different type of lifeform.


 * What did Jackson Lake's Doctor think he could do to the Cybershade at the beginning of the episode, with his 'Sonic screwdriver'?
 * He thought he was the Doctor. So he thought his 'Sonic Screwdriver' would be able to do something. Evidently not, but Lake was very confused.


 * In Doomsday the Cybermen were shown to have updated themselves with wrist-mounted lasers, yet they only resort to electrocuting the participants of the funeral with their hands.
 * The lasers may take a lot more energy than the electricity needed to kill a human, and the Cybermen are low on energy


 * If there was no CyberKing in The Age of Steel, Doomsday and Made of Steel how does the Doctor know about it.
 * The Doctor states that CyberKings were the front line of Cybermen (Mondasian) invasions, so the Doctor connected the dots and made an assumption


 * Why do the Cybermen want to delete the workforce after they have done their work when they are not hostile and can be sent to be upgraded.
 * They may have viewed children as weak and incompatible for upgrading. The upgrading equipment may only have been designed for adults.


 * How did the CyberKing rise up from/get built in the Thames? It is enormous, far higher than any of the buildings anywhere nearby, and the river isn't even close to being that deep. Somehow the Cybermen and their children slaves dug a CyberKing sized hole and built a massive lift for it too? Wouldn't that have taken a really long time and been very hard to hide?
 * The hole may have been bigger on the inside. If the Daleks stole Time Lord technology, then who says the Cybermen didn't find the Genesis Ark in the void and adapt it?


 * Or the CyberKing could have been folded up, its knees flexed at 180°, etc. much like the Zygon ship in the Thames in one of the novels. (In fact, given the time periods of the two stories, they might have even gotten the idea from the Zygons…)


 * Before the opening credits the Jackson Lake Doctor says of the Cybershade "that's new" suggesting he has never seen one before but straight after them he says he has been hunting it for two weeks.
 * Lake might have meant its strength as it managed to break through a strong metal door.


 * Why is there a Cyber Leader with part-black face, and yet the Cyber Leader from the Battle of Canary Wharf only had black handle bars?
 * That wasn't a Cyber-Leader, it was a "Cyber-Lord", so it's probably a different rank of leader.