Doctor Who

Nightmare of Eden - S17-E4

Plot hole: When the Doctor goes into the CET projection of Eden, to fight the Mandrells, he disappears into the bushes on the left-hand side of the screen. Cue much shaking of foliage, and Tom Baker's cries of 'ooh', 'aargh' and 'ouch'. The Doctor then reappears with his clothes all tattered and torn, due to his 'fight' with the Mandrells...but the the fact that there is not a mark (not even a scratch) on Tom Baker is something of a giveaway that all Tom Baker did was disappear behind some bushes and do a quick change into a tattered version of his costume.

City of Death - S17-E2

Plot hole: In episode 4, watch what Romana does to Professor Kerensky's time machine in order to make it work. It is surprising that the time machine works at all, considering she is supposed to be in Paris at the time. Romana wires up the time machine to a British (i.e. 3-pin 240 volts) electric plug instead of a "continental" 3-pin 110 volt plug.

City of Death - S17-E2

Plot hole: The sketch of Romana is different when it's seen outside the café from the one seen inside the café (and just who's doing the sketch, and why?).

City of Death - S17-E2

Plot hole: The Atlantic Ocean didn't exist in Early Devonian times (c.400 million years ago), so Scaroth's ship could not have been where the Doctor claimed. The Atlantic was formed when Europe and Africa separated from North America around 160 million years ago and is still growing. What is now the sea-bed was once covered up by several miles of Continental Shelf. The Early Devonian landscape would have been far from barren as plantlife was well established by then. So, either the Doctor's theory that Scaroth's exploding ship caused the creation of life on Earth is wrong, or it was much earlier than he said.

Nightmare of Eden - S17-E4

Plot hole: When Della gets shot in the face in episode four, she clutches her stomach. (What is even more remarkable about this error is that this keeps happening over and over again: someone gets shot and falls to the ground, clutching their stomachs, regardless of where they have actually been shot. See the error in Season 14's 'The Deadly Assassin' for an example of the SAME error occurring).

The Creature from the Pit - S17-E3

Plot hole: In part 2 it's brought up in conversation several times that all metal is rare on that planet. Handy exposition for the viewers, but it's in fact a really odd thing for the characters to say. The inhabitants aren't giving a tour of their planet (certainly not deliberately at any rate), so why would they state facts that have been well known to them all of their lives? It's a bit like meeting strangers and informing them that two thirds of the Earth are covered by oceans.

Spiny Norman

Planet of the Spiders - S11-E5

Plot hole: At the climax of episode 2, the Doctor is about to catch Lupton when the latter simply teleports to safety. So why didn't he do that in the first place, before engaging in a 15-minute chase?

More mistakes in Doctor Who

The Doctor: This is a situation that requires tact and finesse. Fortunately, I am blessed with both.

More quotes from Doctor Who

The Chase - S2-E8

Trivia: Such was the popularity of Doctor Who in Britain in the mid-1960s that even the Beatles wanted to make an appearance in the show. So a scene was written into "The Chase" to allow them to appear. The idea had been devised of including a scene on the Time and Space Visualiser depicting a Beatles fiftieth-anniversary concert in 2015, with the Fab Four dressed up as old men. John, Paul, George, and Ringo themselves were interested in the proposition, but it was vetoed by their manager, Brian Epstein. It was then thought that an appearance by the Beatles on Top of the Pops might be used instead, but no such footage was available. Fortunately, the Beatles were scheduled to perform "Ticket to Ride" at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith on April 10th, 1965, and that footage was used instead.

More trivia for Doctor Who

Show generally

Question: In which season and episode is Gallifrey destroyed, or is it just a shocking new plot development for the new series?

Answer: It was never destroyed on-screen; it was intact at the end of the TV movie, and destroyed by the start of the 2005 series. It was destroyed in the novel "The Ancestor Cell," but in a completely different manner to what happened in the series.

DaveJB

More questions & answers from Doctor Who

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.