Doctor Who: Continuity errors (and why I love them)

The Earth was destroyed in Ninth Doctor story The End of the World…but not for the first time.(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.Image obtained from: BBC Press.) /

For a show that’s lasted as long as Doctor Who, continuity errors are inevitable. But can they also be fun?

When it comes to Doctor Who, canon is very debatable. A lot of us agree that the TV series is certainly canon (well, mostly). But with the expanded media, it’s definitely more debatable. And with so much of it out there, particularly with books, audios and comics, they’re bound to contradict each other, right? So we could automatically rule out much of it as non-canon, surely?

Well, not necessarily. Particularly when you consider just how often the TV series contradicts itself.

Take the First Doctor classic The Ark, for example. Set a long time into the future – over ten million years, at least – the TARDIS crew arrive on a large spaceship that’s leaving Earth. The planet is about to be destroyed due to solar flares, something that we actually begin to see towards the end of the second episode.

Wait, what?

Because I think many of us remember the Ninth Doctor episode The End of the World, set billions of years afterwards. Even if the First Doctor had grossly underestimated when they had arrived (which actually wouldn’t be that surprising, considering he couldn’t even control the TARDIS back then), it still wouldn’t fit with The Ark‘s story. Especially since most humans seemed to have left the Earth a long time before the Ninth Doctor and Rose arrived on Platform One.

The destruction(s) of Atlantis

But it’s not just a case of New Series ignoring established Classic Series mythology. Classic Series mythology often contradicted itself, especially with Atlantis.

In fact, there are at least three different explanations for why the city was destroyed in Doctor Who! That’s right, three! These include The Underwater Menace, The Daemons, and The Time Monster. The last two were only a year apart!

But the best example is when even the writers ignore their own mythology. When Terry Nation first created one of the greatest ever monsters in First Doctor story The Daleks, he gave a quick origin on who, or rather what, they used to be.

Before they became the pepper pot monsters that we all know and love, there’s a very quick explanation that they had mutated from a race called the Dals. And it’s an explanation that really fits, especially considering their enemy had been called the Thals. It established that the two races were very similar, at least initially.

However, when their origins were explored in far greater detail in Genesis of the Daleks, arguably one of the greatest stories of all time, there were a few key things that were different. Particularly the original race that the Daleks had mutated from. While the Thals were the same, the “Dals” had been renamed to “Kaleds”. It’s quite a significant change, and especially surprising considering that Genesis was written by Nation himself!

The Time War provides a neat explanation for tackling continuity errors.(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.) /

Why errors are fun

But honestly, errors like that are just great for fans. Particularly for fan speculation or theories. We all want everything to tie neatly together. When it doesn’t, that just gives us the fun task of doing the tying ourselves. Working out why continuity doesn’t fit.

In many ways, both Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat have really helped to contribute major mythology that helps to explain such errors. The former gave us the Time War, where history would’ve surely been re-written at a moment’s notice. The latter gave us the big universal reset in The Big Bang. While we believe the universe is the exactly the same as it should be, were there also differences as a result of the reset?

But of course, that’s just way too easy for us. Sometimes, it’s more fun to think of alternative explanations. For example, I, Davros gave the simple and neat explanation that the Dals did exist, but were a separate race to both the Kaleds and the Thals.

As for The Ark, the Doctor Who Wiki page on the story gives the rather simple explanation that Earth was simply very heavily damaged in the story, and not destroyed, after all. It’s a simple explanation that makes a lot of sense.

Tying up the history

More from Winter is Coming

The other fun part is that with so many errors in the show’s history, it just makes it so much easier to explain all the inconsistencies in the expanded media. In fact, Steven Moffat himself directly did this in The Doctor Falls – across the TV series, comics and audios, the Cybermen have been given several very different origins.

The Doctor directly addressed this, and casually explained that “the Cybermen are always getting started”. This presents the brilliant idea that they’re not one singular race, even with just this universe’s Cybermen, but a core idea across several worlds.

With these little imperfections, it just helps to make Doctor Who that much more enjoyable for fans, whether they only follow the New Series, the Classic, or even all media. Even if a new episode completely contradicts something else, if you put your mind to it, virtually anything can work within the show.

Except the weird thirtieth anniversary special Dimensions in Time, where Doctor Who crossed over with British soap EastEnders. Seriously, how did that even get made?

Next. Series Six’s strengths and weaknesses. dark

Do you agree that anything can work within Doctor Who? Do you have any fan theories of your own for explaining away inconsistencies? Let us know in the comments below.

Home/Doctor Who