Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/In the Forest of the Night


 * Was Maedh's sister taken by the trees, so she would become open to their voices? That part about the missing sister really didn't make sense. Was part of the story dropped?
 * Not a continuity error, but does this episode hint (Like Rose, Amy and Rory's present day was set in the future to the airdate) that 'Clara's time' is in the future compared to the airdate of the episode? While the Doctor is giving the 'time machine/tree' speech, he lists 1795 ( a random year) and then 2016. It seems arbitrary to pick a year 2 years form the supposed present day/air date, therefor I would suggest (given the jump in time between Name, and Day of the Doctor. That Clara's time is set in the future from our point of view.


 * The Doctor's theory and supposition that the trees don't burn due to them collectively acting to withhold Oxygen is dubious at best. Trees don't consume oxygen, they produce it. Simply arranging for the trees in a given area to not produce oxygen once a fire is lit would not extinguish the fire, as there is still oxygen already present. Failing to add more wouldn't extinguish it. Think fires in office buildings, apartment complexes and the like. No trees around to continually produce oxygen, yet fires still burn.
 * Just like most of the living things, trees consume carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. They just SEEM to produce oxygen because they produce oxygen by photosynthesis and quantity of produced oxygen is greater than consumed oxygen. If trees can somehow control their photosynthesis and respiration (as the Doctor suggested), they would rapidly consume oxygen and emit carbon dioxide, extinguishing fire. (Of course, this doesn't make sense in real life, but in whoniverse...who knows?)
 * Whether or not trees can withhold their oxygen is irrelevant when you realise a solar flare is composed of plasma, not fire.
 * Even so, the ozone does provide protection against solar flare.


 * Once they realize what they are up against and the disaster that has befallen them, Clara says "If you can't save them all, save who you can. The Tardis. It's a lifeboat, isn't it? Not everybody has to die." They make their way back to the Tardis, and inexplicably Clara says that the Doctor has to leave without the kids, and without her and Danny. Who exactly was she anticipating that the TARDIS would be a lifeboat for?
 * The Doctor. Clara believed that the kids should be with their families at the end, and she and Danny would bring them home since Clara didn't want to leave Danny behind. She had hoped she could convince the Doctor to save himself.


 * Why are Clara and Danny suddenly teaching little kids instead of the teenagers from previous episodes? (And terrible teachers to boot, so busy chatting a flirting, they're not even paying attention to the kids, starting with losing Maebh in the first place.)
 * They weren't little kids - they were Year 8 students (12-13), which is secondary school age. Clara and Danny teach specific subjects, not ages of students; we just only saw one or two of their classes as and when necessary.


 * Why doesn't Maebh's mother call her phone? Why don't any of the parents call their kids? Why does Maebh's mom think she can find her by randomly biking around London?
 * 1. Maebh lost her phone. 2. Not all 8th graders has phones, believe me. 3. She hopes she finds Maebh, after all she is her mother, she has to do something.


 * The Doctor says the Tunguska blast "should have knocked the planet off its axis?" It was just a comet. Not even the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction impact did that. Speaking of which, where were the planet-rescuing trees then?
 * The Doctor was just exaggerating tree's influences on Tunguska incident. Also, meteorite that caused K-T extinction was actually a freighter controlled by Cybermen. (TV: Earthshock) Even planet-rescuing trees can't foresee time-traveling robot's attempt to destroy the Earth.


 * The solar-flare seems to have magically skirted right past the Van Allen belt that would have taken the brunt of such an event.


 * The trees just disappear at the end and apparently everything is back to normal. What about the damage done by the roots? What about the animals loosed from the zoo, the toppled statues, and other incidental damage that would certainly be world-wide?
 * Why should be explained on-screen? They've clearly dealt with it off-screen.


 * The notion that humanity would forget such an event in the 21st century is absurd -- this very episode shows wide-spread news coverage. There would be YouTube videos and Twitter comments, and more. None of that will just disappear.
 * He meant that people will forget in years and years, and yeah the future in the whoniverse sees the human colonisation, more alien invasion and stuff like this, it will become normal and people will eventually "forget" or simply just don't care.


 * Why is the Doctor referencing multiple modern messaging systems in the right century when this Doctor especially is known for having his thoughts all over the place and not even once mentions another messaging system?
 * Sometimes he gets it right, given his hatred for Twitter as 11th previously.


 * Why is Ruby suddenly an expert about trees when five minutes earlier she didn't even know that the rings are indications for the age?
 * Guess she got interested and learn about it from her phone in a short while.


 * In the flashback of Mr. Pink teaching, the problem can't be solved with the information on the board and the methods of solving this problem (at least with the right amount of information) are taught in elementary school while these children are year 8 students.
 * The information must be in their notebooks or books and he could have only just draw the triangle and wait for someone to apply the info from their notebooks in the drawing and after that to solve x, or he could have forgotten to write the problem's info, don't forget that he is new in his job.