Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Power of Three


 * Brian stays in the TARDIS for four days watching the cubes, without noticing that it has been four days. Does he not feel hungry or tired during that period of time? Furthermore, it's implied that he's just been sitting there for four days without realising how much time has passed, humans can only survive for three days without water, and even the most patient of people would realise the time they've been sitting somewhere staring at cubes.
 * It has been previously stated in many episodes that time doesn't pass the same way in the TARDIS than outside of the TARDIS, so for him it could have been only a few hours.
 * Plus anyone who has been immersed in videogames or other activities can relate how easy it can be for time to pass without realizing.
 * The novels and short stories had people who got lost in the TARDIS for decades or centuries without realizing how long they'd been there.


 * If the Doctor, Rory and Amy were able to jump through the portal as it exploded, surely parts of the explosion itself would also travel through?
 * Not necessarily, it depends how the portal works (for example, may be keyed only to work on living beings).
 * In that case, how do the strechers and there clothes also make it through?
 * The moment the explosion went of, the portal's power source would have been destroyed, so the portal would have closed,thus nothing could have got through


 * If the cubes could scan all information on people, then what was the point of kidnapping the humans?
 * Remove key witnesses? But doesn't stack with old man's removal.
 * Learning more about people for the eventual purpouse of destroying them.


 * Who were the aliens with large mouths and what happened to them?
 * Servo-droids to keep the little girl safe? They were on patrol back on earth probably when Doctor and Amy T-ed.


 * In this story electricity effects the doctor like a human, but in several other stories (Terror of the Zygons, World War Three, A Christmas Invasion, The Pandorica Opens etc) he's shown an incredible resilience to electricity.
 * That's never been very consistent. For example, we've seen him be afraid of, or at least wary of, electric bolts from Rutans (Fang Rock, Gunpowder Plot) and the Master (The End of Time).
 * There are a great many different types of energy; some of them affect him very little, some of them affect him a lot. For example, the Master in EoT was using the raw energy of his life force. That's got to be more potent to a Time Lord than a lot of other energy!
 * I dont' remember if it was ever said on screen, but in Confidential they called the Master's energy "electric bolts" over and over again. And Rutans are definitely electric. And there aren't different types of electricity.
 * Tell that to Terry Nation, Kit Pedler, and various other early writers, who clearly seemed to think static electricity was some kind of magic… :)


 * When removing the cubes from the hospital, no one seems to notice the little girl still has one.
 * Presumably people are cooperating with the staff, and they're in a big hurry, so they may not have noticed if she did anything at all to hide it.


 * Surely someone would have noticed the fact that the same girl was in the hospital for a year.
 * Most likely she hides and/or comes &goes.
 * It could also be that she has some sort of perception filter.


 * Why does no one notice the disappearing patients?
 * They very well may have noticed some of the disappearances. They still wouldn't have found them.


 * In this story having only one heart is impossible for a timelord to manage, but in the past he's survived with only one heart.
 * He survives this time too. It's not impossible to manage, it just leaves him weaker than usual. The last time he was down to one heart, in The Shakespeare Code, he was weakened, and couldn't chase after the Carrionites until Martha helped him restart the other one. And, unless you believe that the First Doctor had only one heart, this has been consistent throughout the series (and the novels—see the whole Sabbath storyline). Even non-Gallifreyans with two hearts explain that people with one heart are much weaker (e.g., The Dominators).


 * How does the visual aid recognise the doctor?
 * Why wouldn't it?
 * This might be a reference to the background arc of the Doctor erasing himself from history. Perhaps he missed a spot.


 * After the spaceship exploded, only Amy, Rory and the Doctor escaped. What happened to the people inside?
 * They may have gotten some or all of the people out before the confrontation with the hologram. Anyone they didn't get out died. That's not a discontinuity; people die in Doctor Who.


 * It is stated that the boxes only affect 'human' hearts, yet one of The Doctors hearts is damaged by them. Are we to question whether The Doctor does, in fact, have a human heart, thereby giving credence to the idea that he may be half human? Any ideas?
 * Maybe it only affects human-ish hearts, excluding the non-humanlike second heart of the Timelord? This being the 21st century and before humanity's official first contact with aliens, it might have been safe for the Shakri to assume that their device would only be used on humans.
 * Given that another revelation of the TV movie - the presence of the Eye of Harmony within the TARDIS instead of on Gallifrey - is affirmed in TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, it is possible that this is a subtle affirmation of the "Doctor is half-human" revelation from the movie.
 * It could even be a subtle nod to the Sabbath heart storyline from the novels. (Or just Moffat once again reusing a plot line from a Miles novel in a totally different context.)


 * How could the Doctor bounce a football 5 million times in one hour?
 * I don't think he did. I'm sure I heard him skip some numbers.
 * 5 millions of seconds are around 1388 hours, they are not going to put how the doctor go from 1 to 5 millions in the chapter, he did not skip numbers, is only that they cut the scenes. Not to say the time he was painting and cleaning the house

It was actually made very clear that he did skip large amounts of numbers to impress Amy and Rory, the scenes weren't cut.


 * This seems to be the Doctor's first meeting with Kate Stewart, but a poster on Gallifrey Base makes a good case that it must be set in 2015 at the earliest: "Amy says in The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe that it has been over two years since they last saw The Doctor, which was in 2011. Therefore it is Christmas 2013. Then you have Pond Life, which takes place over July to August of one undetermined year after Widow ... At the earliest August 2014. Asylum of the Daleks presumably takes place soon after the end of Pond Life, possibly a couple of weeks or months later. Then Amy says in Dinosaurs in a Spaceship, that another 10 months has passed since they last saw the Doctor again, meaning we are in June 2015 here at the earliest." It's possible that Kate Stewart's subsequent appearances in Day of the Doctor and Dark Water/Death in Heaven, where she seemed to already know the Doctor, were set in 2015 or 2016 though. Note that in the episode In the Forest of the Night, the Doctor said "A tree is a time machine. You plant a little acorn in 1795, and in the year 2016, there's an oak tree, there, in the same spot, with a tiny little bit of 1795 still alive inside of it." This would be an odd year to choose if 2016 wasn't meant to be the actual date the episode took place, in Clara and Danny's "present".
 * The events from The Power of Three are not taking place in 2016. When Amy talked with The Doctor she stated that she and Rory have been travelling for 10 years with him, meaning that the events from this episode occurs in 2020 and 2021... About the Kate problem, The Doctor is a time traveler and he travels a lot in time, he did first met Kate in 2020-2021 but the time was in flux, so when he met Kate in his future (in 2013, in The Day Of The Doctor) that was also the first time for Kate's point of view, is the same thing as the Dalek invasion in 2007 (Doomsday) and 2009 (The Stolen Earth/Journey's End) and Van Staalen not knowing of Daleks in 2012. This is not a plot hole as The Doctor said that time is not linear and is wibbly wobbly.
 * No, Amy specifically says that it has been ten years from only hers and Rory's perspective. It's been 293 years for the doctor and an unspecified amount of time for earth.
 * I think it starts in 2014 actually. The Doctor drops Amy and Rory off in series 6 in God Complex BEFORE April 2011, as Closing Time is set in April 2011 and they've clearly been there a while. Therefore when Amy says it's been 2 years in Widow, it's more likely that she means 1 year and 8+ months rather than 2 years and 8+ months. Therefore.... Widow is set in Xmas 2012. Pond Life is set April to August 2013. At some point Asylum happens, 10 months later, Dinosaurs happens, and there's plenty of time for Power of Three to start in July 2014, and ends July 2015. Of course there could have been extra years in that time anyway, it could well have been 2020 or whenever but it seems "current" with social networking and Apprentice references so the closer to present the best. And Kate Stewarts meeting with the Doctor makes no sense in any timeline, it's just another UNIT dating controversy again! Another issue is that in "June", Amy states its been 9 months, so it started last October? But later in July, Brian mentions its been "361" days which means it most likely started in July. Agh!

And finally, there are now NEW issues with these dates. If it takes place in 2014-2015, that means series 8 Earth should have been filled with cubes the whole time. Unless series 8 just takes place earlier on in the year. Same issue if its 2015/16 but with series 9. UNLESS! It's actually set during 2016 and as Doctor Who is on a break this year it won't interfere with televised stories! This has been an exhausting evening.