From: ira2p@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Iain Robert Asplin)
Subject: Continuity Catalog, feel free to add to it!
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 17:01:39 GMT



I'm game.  Let's begin, shall we?

1.  "The Daleks" vs. "Genesis of the Daleks"  
	Problem: differing versions of the Daleks' creation/mutation
	and the Thal war.  
	Possible Solution: one or both sides' history became distorted
	down the years (more likely for the Thals), and the Daleks
	may not want to have admitted that they were created by an inferior
	life form (Davros and the Kaleds).  
	Hardware differences in the Daleks can be explained as a
	cost-saving measure for each casing, i.e. the static system
	is more efficient.
	Also a problem of a neutron bomb vs. the more conventional styles
	of warfare seen in "Genesis."  Solution, we are on a different
	region of Skaro in each story, where the war took a different
	turn in each case (weapons-wise.  I think this HIGHLY likely,
	since I think it extremely unlikely in all science-fiction that
	an entire planet can be represented accurately by one area where
	the story takes place.)

2.    Some people say "The Edge of Destruction" conflicts with either
	"Terminus" or "Castrovalva" in their versions of the Big Bang.
	TThere really is no conflict, since in Edge they were not at
	the creation point of the Universe, but rather of a single
	galaxy.

3.    "The Dalek Invasion of Earth"
	Problem:  Dating.  The Doctor in this story says, to explain how
	they're meeting the Daleks on Earth after they had destroyed 
	them on Skaro, that the Skjaro story took place at least a
	thousand years ahead of them in the future.
	This would contradict the dating scheme most people think of
	nowadays for the Daleks.
	Solution: simple.  the Doctor is wrong.  How does he have a basis
	for that dating anyway?  The TARDIS was at its worst in even
	simple navigation in these days, so how can he possibly rely on
	its instruments for accurate calculations?   Or perhaps he knew
	he didn't know, and just didn't want to give Ian the doubt that
	perhaps they hadn't been as successful on Skaro as they had
	thought.

4.    "Mission to the Unknown" and "the Daleks' Masterplan"
	Problem:  Stories are dated by dialog in the stories themselves
	as the year 4000 AD.  conflicts with "Remembrance of the 
	Daleks" where the Doctor destroys Skaro one thousand years after
	1963 AD, and possibly with "The Evil of the Daleks."
	I am not sure if Evil was officially dated in the story, but
	I think the date was about the same time as "Remembrance" 
	Dalek-wise.  
	Solution:  The Evil stuff is vague and I haven't heard if it's
	official, and that may not conflict in any case.
	Remembrance is trickier.  The only possibility I can see is
	that the Dalek time-line has become unstable thanks to the Doctor's
	intervention in "Genesis," and also I would certainly count his
	actions in "Remembrance" as intervention (on one heaping massive
	scale too.)_  So I would guess that by his actions in
	"Remembrance," the time-stream shifts and thus "Mission" and
	"Masterplan" moved into an alternate time-line.  (or the other
	way around, depending how you look at it)
	You may say, how do we know all the Daleks were destroyed when
	Skaro went up, and I have to answer back even if they weren't,
	there is still a conflict since in both Mission and Masterplan,
	Skaro is referred to by Earth people and it most definitely
	is still existing.  I think the Daleks mention it in several
	places too.

5.   "The Gunfighters"
	Problem:  Events portrayed in this story did not happen in the
	way they are presented.  The real gunfight at the Ok Corral
	was much less melodramatic, and much more savage.
	Solution:  The Doctor, Stevem, and Dodo's presence and influence
	in the story changed history slightly to make it happen this way.
	The effects of their intervention are no different from the orginal
	ones.
	The same could be said of any of the historical stories.
	
6.   "the Power of the Daleks"
	Problem:  Most people think this story is dated at 2020 AD,
	a date far too soon for an Earth colony on another planet.
	Solution: Date is unofficial and not referred to anywhere in	
	the story itself.  Date's origin is from BBC promotional
	material of the time.
	Sub-problem: When the Doctor regenerates, his clothes change
	at the same time without a visit to the wardrobe....
	sub-solution: well...it's a family show.....

7.   "The Underwater Menace"
	Problem:  people cite this as one of the three conflicting 
	versions of the destruction of Atlantis in Who history.
	Solution:  In the novel at least (which I think follows along
	very closely with the original), there is no mention made
	of waht originally caused Atlantis to sink.  This story takes
	place after it has already sunk, so it is compatible with
	either of the two subsequent destruction versions.

8.   "The Moonbase"
	Problem: The Cybermen were supposedly all destroyed when Mondas
	was destroyed.
	Solution: some of them got away!

9.   "The Evil of the Daleks"
	Problem and Solution of possible conflict with Mission to the
	Unknown and The Daleks' Masterplan already talked about above.

10.  "The Tomb of the Cybermen"
	Problem: Someone in the story says the Tomb has been inoperation
	for 500 years, a possible conflict with later Cyber-time-lines.
	Solution: Perhaps not all the Cybermen were inside the Tombs,
	or whoever did the dating got it wrong.
	I can't be more specific until I see the story next month.

11.  "The Abominable Snowmen"
	problem: Story is set in 1921, yet Travers recognizes the word
	"robot" when the Doctor pronounces the captured Yeti to be one.
	The word was not invented until 1926 in a Czechoslovokian play.
	Solution: Good question, but I think we can forgive this minor
	slip.

12.  "The Ice Warriors"
	problem:  Story set in 3000 AD and a Second Ice Age.  Conflicts
	with Terror of the Vervoids which takes plave a mere 15 years 
	earlier and there no one mentions that Earth is in an Ice Age,
	even though they're on their way and if the Vervoids are to be
	used as slave labour, they will need decent temperatures to do it.
	Also possible conflicts with later Earth time-lines.  full
	discussion of the Earth time-line when we get to The Ark in Space.
	Solution:  The Ice Age is mentioned in Warriors to have hit a 
	little suddenly.

13.  "The Invasion"
	problem:  This is Earth's frst encounter with the Cybermen
	sometime in the mid-70s (circa 73 or 74), yet when Mondas turns
	up in "The Tenth Planet," no one recognizes  them.
	Solution:  UNIT hushes up this first invasion attempt, helped along
	by the hypnotic effects of the Cyber-signal.

14.  "Doctor Who and the Silurians"
	Problem:  Silurian era is too early for any sapient life forms.
	Solution: solves later in "the Sea Devils" where the Doctor
	says they should have been called the Iocines.
	Sub-Problem:  No one has ever detected any fossil remains of
	the Silurian civilization.
	Sub-Solution:  They may have taken most everything with them
	when they went into hibernation, and the underwater colonies
	are unlikely to have been found even yet given human limitations
	underwater.

15.  "The Ambassadors of Death"
	Problem:  The aliens on Mars and the Ice Warrior legacy appear
	to conflict.
	Solution:  Mars Probe 7 just didn't meet any ice Warriors
	(the radiation aliens were mentioned to have not been Martian
	natives) or perhaps the Warriors were all living underground
	by now since surface conditions are not very good.

16.  "The Daemons"
	Problem: Azal hints it was the Daemons who destroyed Atlantis
	as one of their failures.
	Solution:  It was only a hint, and perhaps the Master, the 
	Doctor, and Kronos' later visit to Atlantis qualifies as
	intervention that changed this history.

More on this later,......


Xref: sparky rec.arts.drwho:5915 rec.arts.sf.tv:3088 rec.arts.startrek.current:12770