Doctor Who Season 12 Cliffhanger Creates A Major TARDIS Plot Hole

Chris Chibnall’s Doctor Who isn’t exactly reputable for having any and all care for the show’s continuity, which has led many fans to bash Jodie Whittaker’s latest run as the Last of the Time Lords for its numerous plot holes.

Season 12’s finale, “The Timeless Children,” had many surprising revelations for both the Doctor and her legions of fans across the world. Through this jaw-droppingly intense episode, we learned that the Master destroyed Gallifrey and killed all the Time Lords to avenge the mystery of the Timeless Child, who was, in fact, the Doctor. As it came to pass, viewers realized that there’ve been many more incarnations of the Lonely God in the past, though the character herself only has knowledge of 13 of them, starting all the way back with William Hartnell’s First Doctor.

But this mind-boggling finale also introduced several plot holes that could potentially tear apart the show’s 50+ year continuity. Namely, these new revelations retcon Matt Smith’s time as the Eleventh Doctor, not to mention previously established rules of time travel and regeneration. This obviously infuriated a lot of fans, leading the BBC to release an official statement to address the complaints.

It would appear, though, that the chain of plot holes and continuity errors don’t stop there. In the episode’s concluding moments, we saw the Doctor and the TARDIS sharing an intimate moment with each other before the Judoon suddenly appeared inside the time machine and apprehended the titular character. This retcons yet another one of the lore’s established elements though, which dictates that the TARDIS is all but impregnable to invasive forces.

In fact, the Ninth Doctor once boasted that even Genghis Khan’s hordes couldn’t make their way inside and they had, in fact, attempted to do so once. In addition, we’ve seen the TARDIS thwart these attempts many a time, even against technologically superior races such as the Daleks or the Cybermen. The time machine also has an Internal Weapons Deactivation System (IWDS) and Hostile Action Displacement System (HADS), making it literally impossible for any force to push their way inside, let alone a platoon of mercenary police officers.

Of course, Chibnall may yet try to fix this plot hole in the upcoming Doctor Who special episode, though with the assumption that this was done to merely present viewers with a cliffhanger, we wouldn’t hold our breaths for an explanation.