Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Waters of Mars

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Waters of Mars doesn't fit well with other DWU narratives. You can also talk about the plot holes that render its own, internal narrative confusing.

Remember, this is a forum, so civil discussion is encouraged. However, please do not sign your posts. Also, keep all posts about the same continuity error under the same bullet point. You can add a new point by typing:

* This is point one.
::This is a counter-argument to point one.
:::This is a counter-argument to the counter-argument above
* This is point two.
::Explanation of point two.
::Further discussion and query of point two.

... and so on. 

• It has been well established, that in 2008-2010 the Doctor is (or was) already well-known, or rather a legend, among UNIT personnel, the Torchwood staff and probably among other government agencies. Therefore it seems very unlikely that members of the 2050's space program (i.e. the crew of Bowie Base One) have never heard of him before.

Not everyone listens to fairy stories and gossip from government agencies. Some of us prefer to stick to our jobs.

• How did 4 people get in the TARDIS if it had only just materialised with 3 seconds left and when some people were lying on the floor?

The countdown and timing of the TARDIS materialisation are presented for dramatic effect, and are not necessarily in-sync. As well, the Doctor may have programmed the TARDIS to materialize around them, as it did around Rose in DW: The Parting of the Ways, which is also the reverse of how it left Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale behind in DW: Blink). I don't think that is true because in (TV:The Parting of the Ways) you actually see the TARDIS appearing around Rose.

• After the explosion of the shuttle, several fires are burning all around the site. Taking into account the initial explosion was fueled by the base's oxygen, and given that Mars has no appreciable atmosphere, how can these smaller fires burn in the vacuum?

Mars does have an atmosphere, albeit one with a pressure roughly equivalent to one hundredth that of Earth's atmosphere. There is a lot we don't know about Bowie Base One. We don't know what sort of fuel they're using, and we don't know how the self-destruct mechanism on the rocket works.

• In TV Father's Day The Reapers turned up due to Rose Tyler saving her father when somebody who was dead is now alive - surely this should be the case now for Yuri and Mia as they should have died but are now alive.

The Reapers only showed up in Fathers Day due to Rose saving her father's life, as then, that altered the timeline meaning that in the future Rose wouldn't have travelled to the past to save her father, causing a paradox, the Doctor only changed the future when he saved Adelaide's life. Had Adelaide's granddaughter travelled back in time to save her grandmother, for instance, that would more likely have caught the Reapers' attention. The Doctor explicitly stated in "Father's Day" that Pete's death was made a more vulnerable point in time by the presence of two sets of the Doctor and Rose, as they had gone back on their own timeline to allow Rose a second chance at speaking with her father after she ran away the first time. Also, as Adelaide almost immediately kills herself, thereby maintaining the timeline save for relatively minor alterations, there was no need for the Reapers to appear.

• The news article on Adelaide claims that she was born in 1999 and yet was also 10 when her parents died in 2008.

Newspapers, or family's writing obituaries, often blur the specific ages - e.g., 9 years, 9 months is rounded up to 10 years. Additionally, as it can be reasonably firmly established that the Dalek moving of the Earth had to have taken place in 2009, she could very well have actually been 10. This would mean that the year in the news article was a simple typo

• The news article on the mission refers to "Dr Tarak Ital MD." It would be correct to write either the "Dr" or the "MD," but both at once is redundant and grammatically incorrect. Ital's obituary also misspells "Havana".

It is correct if the person has both an MD and a PhD.

No it isn't. I know multiple people who have both, and they are either "Dr John Smith" or "John Smith, MD, PhD", not "Dr John Smith, MD" or "Dr John Smith, PhD". However, journalists aren't always perfect; this was probably a mistake by whoever wrote the article.

• The article on Susie Fontana Brooke's first "Faster then Light" flight lists Adelaide's team at the end as hers.

That part of the article is talking about Susie's grandmother, so the team listing is correct.

• Why would the Doctor comment on Mia's age when Roman is two years younger than her?

He may have simply forgotten that Roman was younger than Mia at this point, since he was clearly overwhelmed to meet them in this situation.

• Why didn't the Doctor simply take the crew into the distant future or the distant past? History would have been preserved as the records would show the crew were killed in the nuclear explosion.

At this point the Doctor wasn't just concerned with saving the crew - he was, as he said, fighting the very laws of time themselves. In that state of mind, delivering the crew to another point in time would not have been as great a victory for him. He wanted to break the laws of time. Additionally, stranding the crew in a different time or place for the rest of their lives would not have been much of a rescue.

• Didn't the Doctor's helmet break already in DW: The Satan Pit?

There was more than enough time for the Doctor to have fixed or replaced it. Also, it is possible that that was Ida Scott's helmet

• Despite the Doctor's warning to let not even one drop of water escape, GADGET runs through an entire stream of water on its way to the TARDIS, possibly getting some on the inside, and is then seen standing in the snow in London.

It's highly unlikely that the water would infect GADGET as he is a machine, not organic. Additionally, given the Martian atmosphere and his high rate of speed, it is doubtful that any water remained on him by the time he reached the TARDIS. Not to mention, right after running through the water, GADGET entered a room with a number of fires in it. The heat could easily have evaporated the water.

• If the Daleks planned to destroy the universe with the reality bomb they wouldn't have had to worry about killing Adelaide and altering history.

Destroying someone whose death it perceived was a fixed point could have disturbed the web of time, maybe even leading to the Daleks' ultimate plan being compromised. The Dalek would have felt no need in this situation to take such a risk.

It is possible that The Doctor's theory about why the Dalek left is wrong.

Dalek Caan states in Journey's End that the reality bomb would always be stopped.

• If The Flood can scream to a point that it cracks ice several feet thick, then why would Maggie have needed to break down the door to escape the medical centre?

The scream doesn't crack the ice sonically, it is to call the other members/parts of the Flood. They respond by emerging, and cracking the ice is a part of that. Maggie uses the same scream earlier to communicate with the other Flood-infected crew members.

• In the original version of events on Bowie Base One, Adelaide survived long enough to activate the self-destruct. But the only reason she managed to escape from the infected Andy and Tarak in the new timeline was due to the Doctor souping up GADGET. So how did she escape them in the original timeline?

There was no "original timeline, the doctor became part of events.

There was an original timeline. The Doctor changed history, the BTTF-esque changing news stories clearly showed that. In the original timeline, however, the events occurred subtly differently without the Doctor, and perhaps that difference was enough for Adelaide to get into the position in which she could initiate self-destruction.

It's entirely possible that the Doctor was always supposed to be a part of the events on Bowie Base One, given that it's a fixed point. Therefore, up until he decided to save them, history played out as it was supposed to. Remember Pompeii, it only happened because the Doctor intervened.

• Andy and Mia both speak with English accents, despite their character's obituaries stating they were American.

They were both born in America. Their parents were likely British people who moved to America and became American citizens.

Or perhaps they were born in America, were American Citizens but lived in the UK long enough to get accents.

Technically possible, but certainly seems unlikely when reading their bios closely (especially Andy's). This probably comes down more as a production error.

• It seems odd that no one recognises the Doctor even though in 2012 he was on international TV running with the Olympic torch

Most of the crew probably wouldn't have been born until after 2012, Adelaide probably didn't watch it or didn't remember. Also many other more important events have happened since then, such as Climate Change, Oil shortage, the Great Cataclysm and the Department taking over.

2012 - 2059 - that would make it 47 years difference even if they did see it. Do you remember everyone you saw on TV in 1963? (assuming you were alive then) 188.221.79.22

• Bowie Base One is written in a number of places in the room the Doctor is questioned in yet he needs someone to tell him that it is Bowie Base One

It wouldn't be the first time the Doctor over-looked something obvious. That being said, it's also not all that obvious if you don't happen to read the logos.

• So if this episode takes place in 2059, The Seeds of Death takes place in the 21st Century, and the Peladon episodes take place in the far future, shouldn't there be Ice Warriors on Mars?

Yes, but not on every square inch of Mars. They may have spotted the human base and decided not to interfere with it. Or they may have been avoiding that whole area because of the Waters. Or they may have been plotting to invade the base and it got blown up before they could.

• If the Doctor brought back Adelaide, Yuri and Mia on the same day, wouldn't the latter two's survival have raised questions about how they completed a 9-month journey in a few hours?

That's where the 'mysterious circumstances' from Adelaide's obituary comes in. Doubtless they were questioned, but there's only so much you can say about a time traveler and a blue box before UNIT/Torchwood takes over to sort things out.