Doctor Who fans will know that the popular sci-fi series isn’t particularly known for its adherence to the in-universe continuity. And there’ve been many, many instances where a new plot development undermined what had already been established.
This is mostly due to the fact that a lot of people have worked on the property over the years. In fact, as most Whovians would tell you, the transition from one showrunner to the next isn’t always smooth sailing. On that note, an eagle-eyed fan has now discovered that “The Eleventh Hour,” Steven Moffat’s first episode as executive producer, contains a huge plot hole relating to the Atraxi invasion.
Of course, it’s worth noting that the episode in question is one of the most acclaimed and well-known stories in the series. After all, it featured the debut of Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. The young actor had a lot to live up to, taking over from David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor whom everyone loved. But thanks to Moffat’s sharp and compelling narrative, Smith got the opportunity to prove his doubters wrong.
Apparently, though, “The Eleventh Hour” is not as flawless as we thought it was. As the viewer notes, when The Doctor exposes Prisoner Zero and hands him to the Atraxi, the 900-year-old Time Lord recalls the aliens to warn them about coming back to Earth. In an epic montage, we see all the alien incursions that have happened before. But chronologically speaking, the Ood, one of the monsters shown, shouldn’t have been there.
As the fan revealed on MovieMistakes.com:
“The Doctor has had no encounters with them (the Ood) on Earth and he knows them to be peaceful, so why would they be amongst the aliens who have threatened the planet? The only Ood who has been to Earth at this point is Ood Sigma, and he didn’t come to attack,” He wrote.
Additionally, it seems that the debut episode made another continuity error. The Hath are one of the other aliens shown in the montage, but they’ve never been to Earth at all. One possible explanation would be that the Atraxi were reviewing footage from every enemy The Doctor has faced, but the sequence made it perfectly clear that the alien ship was only going through Earth’s history.
As far as plot holes in Doctor Who go, though, this is hardly the worst blunder. Even the latest season of Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth included a twist that undermined years of continuity, something that fans hope will be addressed properly in future stories.
