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


 * Episodes one and two have the world's quietest gunshots, and in episode four's climactic gunfight Earp and Masterson apparently walk through a withering barrage of fire unscathed.(it helped that nobody was aiming at them).
 * This is part of Johnny Ringo's plan to distract the Earps while he attacks from behind: he orders the Clanton's to open fire while still out of range. When the Earps get close enough, however, they take cover.
 * It's perhaps worth noting that one of the reasons the real Wyatt Earp entered into the myth of the Old West was because, despite getting embroiled in a large number of gunfights, he apparently never got shot once. He somehow managed to escape injury every time, even when it was improbable. The fact that Earp, at least, manages to get through a barrage of gunfire without being hit once is simply a nod to his legend.


 * The Clanton gang have amazing accents, Billy obviously having been to finishing school, and Johnny Ringo to the RSC.
 * It's possible that their actual accents were so incomprehensible to the Doctor that the TARDIS translated them for him.
 * Truthfully, this would be more of a production error/choice than a "plot hole".


 * Johnny Ringo, Kate and Steven arrive back in Tombstone before Doc Holliday and Dodo, yet they departed first.
 * They didn't arrive at Tombstone, they arrived at the Clanton farm.


 * At the end of the first episode, the Doctor is seen outside the Saloon yet Kate gets there before the Doctor and she left the dentist after the Doctor.
 * The Doctor had been quite obviously walking very slowly due to the distress of having his tooth pulled. So it is quite understandable he took longer than her.


 * There are several historical errors. Johnny Ringo did not take part in the gunfight, and was not killed at this time; Pa Clanton died weeks before; there is no Reuben Clanton or Warren Earp; Ike Clanton survived; and Phineas Clanton did not take part.
 * Some events in the Whoniverse are different than in the real world and the events of the Gunfight are likely not a fixed point in time and can be altered.
 * Additionally, actual historical events are not always recorded 100% accurately by historians.


 * In the ballad, 'earning your gunfighter's wings' is anachronistic, the phrase being coined in WWI.
 * Incorrect. It might be anachronistic if that were the phrase they used, but the lyrics are "earning your gunfighter's fee". (See The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon.)


 * Why is it that when somebody gets shot, their are no wounds?
 * Because, every episode from now on is set in the Celestial Toymakers world - the Doctor never escaped!
 * This is just a production choice/error/limitation and isn't really fairly discussed as a plot hole. The show was largely made for and intended to be watched by children, limiting exactly how graphic and gory the production team could make the gunshot injuries depicted in the story. Basically, you are supposed to watch the show while politely keeping this in mind and mentally "insert" any such blood/injury that you think should be there yourself.