Theory:Doctor Who audio discontinuity and plot holes/Colditz


 * Ace decides to start calling herself by her surname, "McShane". However, that was only Ace's name in the Virgin New Adventures. According to the original television series and the BBC Books, Ace's name is 'Dorothy Gale'. And Shadow of the Scourge was deliberately stated as taking place in an alternate universe, meaning that the Big Finish Audios and Virgin New Adventures do not co-exist in one reality.
 * Her last name is not given on TV. And Big Finish never stated that "Shadow of the Scourge" is an alternate universe, merely that the "side steps" were in continuity with the novels/comics so required more knowledge of media other than the TV and audio themselves. Later audios have established more continuity links with New Adventures, and Big Finish has stated recently that all of its DW and spin-off audios, except for "Unbound" range and stageplay adaptations form one continuity.
 * The stories set in the VNA continuity(and also the DWM continuity) were explicitly stated as being 'Side Steps' and separate to the Main Range. This is stated explicitly in The New Audio Adventures: The Inside Story, and explicitly stated in-universe in Zagreus (audio story). And it was stated many times in documentation, promotional material etc. that Ace's surname was indeed "Gale". "McShane" is one of Paul Cornell's deliberate attempts from the VNA days to screw with established continuity. The BBC's Past Doctor Adventures and BBC Short Trips books use the correct name "Gale".
 * It's been since retconned as being "Dorothy Gale McShane" in Relative Dementias, a BBC book. She's also called "McShane" in e.g. Doctor Who: Legacy. And the BBC uses the "Dorothy Gale McShane" full name e.g. in the Ace Adventures Box Se official description.
 * And I know that it was how it used to be, but the Big Finish policy has changed since then, they accept all of their stories as being in one continuity, as directly stated quite recently in their forum (which doesn't mean they necessarily accept all the VNAs as part of their continuity, but they do for ones that they have adapted). The policy under Briggs is different from the one under Russell.