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

- How did the Zygons know when to leave the paintings again? It is to assume they all entered the paintings and broke out before the doctor was called, how did they know when to do it? - On the same level: How did the doctors know when to leave "Gallifrey falls no more" again? They were standing in midst of the picture with their backs to the glass, and shatter it almost immediatly after. Why did they arrive exactly where they needed to? - If the pictures have a concept of time, did the Zygons really feel the hundreds of years they spent in it? Or are they frozen in time - which leads me back to the question on how to know when to leave the pictures again? - I understand why Elizabeth did write the letter to the doctor and leave her credentials: she could not expose the Zygons in her time, knew of their plan and arranged the letter. But when the doctor is brought to U.N.I.T, the Zygons had already escaped and one had taken over the commander. Even if the Zygons knew of the doctors cell carving, they could not have known about the time travel device in the vault and therefore had no reason to call the doctor in in the first place, despite the letter. - So the Zygons crash the paintings, hide beneath the cloth after smashing statues and one takes over the commander. Nicely elaborated but while the undergallery is surely no place visited by lots of people, someone before the doctor must have wondered where the dust came from. Also, if they just had smashed the statues there would be broken limbs and pieces lying around - or the Zygons cleaned up in which case the could have cleaned the dust aswell? The only explanation would be that this literally happened hours before the doctor came in and that brings back the question why they would call him in at all instead of just taking over. - where is the body of the horse the Zygon took over in Elizabeth's time? :P
 * Hey guys, I have been thinking about the episode for days now and I think it leaves us with some poorly explained and / or illogical events on which I hope to get some opinions and insight. It is not about the bigger picture but about the Zygon plot:
 * 1. The Zygons didn't "know" when to leave the paintings. Earth at the time was primitive, either they allowed an amount of time to allow Earth to develop to what they estimated would be a useful technological level or they were displaced in time and had a fair idea from their former knowledge when that would be.
 * 2. The Doctors presumambly had some means of identifying the historical moment they were in discussion with. They then set5 the painting to release them from stasis just after that moment.
 * 3. The painting suspend beings in time, they have no concept but the suggest is that the painting can be pre-programmed to release them.
 * 4. I'm not sure I entirely know what you're saying but the Doctor was primarily called in response to the painting being broken, it was set up like a chain of events that would summon the Doctor. The Zygons had nothing to do with it execept that leaving their frames was set up as the trigger. Remember as the Doctors were there when they went in they probably helped set it up.
 * 5. One had not taken over Kate, this happened when she was down there showing the Doctor what had happened. Kate called the Doctor as it was her brief to do so.
 * 6. I'm sure you're being silly but there doesn't need to be a body, it's a horse. Zygons need to sedate humans because humans are distinguishable to other humans and the original might give them away. This wouldn't likely happen with an equine.


 * Doesn't this contradict the appearance of the Time Lords in The End of Time? Rassilon and his council knew that the Doctor possessed the Moment so attempted his crazy plan to become beings of pure consciousness - this didn't happen in The Day of the Doctor. In The Day of the Doctor, the General was in charge and there was no mention of  Rassilon's plan. Gallifrey did not move next to the Earth. But both these events were on the last day of the Time War.
 * The general just headed the war council he was only in charge of the military and strategic planning, the High Council was mentioned to have there own crazy plan, and it was later mentioned it failed. So nothings been contradicted, just reset. Basically this is how it always went.
 * But Gallifrey got moved next to the Earth in The End of Time. This never happened in The Day of the Doctor.
 * And then it was sent back, presumably this bit was offscreen, we don't exactly see the whole event. Alternatively destroying the process may have meant this bit was actually erased and never occurred in the time line.


 * Did all his previous incarnations forget that they had helped to save Gallifrey too?
 * Yes, why should they be immune?


 * How did the Doctors contact all their previous incarnations to get them to come and help?
 * It shouldn't be that hard considering he has a time machine and knows exactly when they would be available.


 * How comes all of the Doctors were there on the cloud at the end? They were all looking up at Gallifrey, but surely if they remembered that they had all saved it then it wouldn't make sense because they didn't remember.
 * It's a dream of Eleventh.


 * Why were there two different versions of the Seventh Doctor shown on the screens at the War Council? - a version of him looking as he did between 1987-89 in his question marked jumper and a version of him from the TV Movie. Is this a production error? There couldn't have been two versions of him there as it is stated there is only thirteen of them there.
 * I'd chalk it up to a production error. IIUC, all of the footage of Eccleston, McGann, and the earlier actors was archival. It's possible that McCoy is the only case where clips of the same actor from multiple sources is noticeable given 1) the clips were shown in black & white and 2) most of the other Doctors had either just 1 costume or costumes that were extremely similar.


 * Where are the Skaro Degradations, the Nightmare Child, and the Would-be King?
 * Presumably they were destroyed by the Dalek bombardment.


 * Now hang on, are we really meant to believe that every (well almost every) Dalek in existence was destroyed when Gallifrey vanished? I mean I know they "upped their firepower", but were there no Daleks ANYWHERE else in time and space that would have escaped that initial blast. If it's true that "A Dalek is a genius", then any genius knows not to put all their eggs in one basket, anyone got any ideas?
 * The Daleks were very intent on winning the Time War. I can imagine that once they broke through the sky trenches of Arcadia, they wanted every single Dalek present in order to assure victory. Not to mention the fact that they frequently let their personal hatred of Time Lords and especially the Doctor get the best of them.
 * No this is actually a huge problem. Clearly Steven Moffat decided to dedicate his 50th Anniversary to this because being "Mr. Everybody Lives" he, quite understandably, wasn't best pleased with what Russell T. Davies had the Doctor do and opted to undo it.
 * The problem is that Russell T. Davies supported the idea but, recognizing it was difficult, went to great lengths to justify the necessity. 9th confessed it to Rose, 10th defended it to the Master, 11th practically bragged about it to House. Which first invites the question, and I may have blinked and missed it, what was so "secret" about the "secret Doctor?"
 * But that's just it, when it comes down to it, this episode showed regardless of how justified it was, it still wasn't right. To stop the war the doctor had to murder countless innocent men, women and children. Nothing can make that right.
 * In RTD's era the Doctor's ending of the Time War was jusified by how involved it was and what horrors it unleased. It was much more than just Time Lords Vs. Daleks many races were involved and ended up in the Time Lock. The idea that it could be ended simply by Gallifry vanishing seems highly implausible.
 * It was never stated over races were involved in the fighting, all those terrible things the doctor talked about such as the nightmare child could have been the weapons they were using, it was stated the war was having a horrible affect on the universe. The Time was always described as a war between the Daleks and the Time lords, one which had a devastating affect on the universe that doesn't mean that other races were involved in the fighting.