Did Doctor Who make a major continuity error?
BBCIt’s probably a question many fans have already asked, but did Doctor Who make a major continuity error without even realizing it?
As a show that has been going since the 1960s, it’s almost inevitable that Doctor Who would create storyline issues for itself along the way. Alongside a string of Doctors, the show has also changed hands creatively many times, with Russell T Davies returning to Doctor Who for its fourteenth — or first — season.
Recent celebrations for the show’s 60th anniversary brought back a number of fan-favorite faces, with tenth doctor David Tennant and companion Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate, among them. However, it’s now Donna who is at the center of a continuity controversy, with her backstory now being called into question.
In two side-by-side scenes, Donna seemingly contradicts herself, stating in one that she was born in Chiswick and Southampton in the other. But is this actually a continuity error to begin with?
Doctor Who error: Where is Donna Noble from?
Before her time on Doctor Who, Donna Noble was born in Southampton, but had a family home in Chiswick.
On two separate occasions — episode ‘Planet of the Ood’ and the Doctor Who encyclopedia — Donna claims she was born in Chiswick.
The answer is actually cleared up in Wild Blue Yonder, possibly causing both answers to be correct. It’s later clarified that Donna always believed that she was born in Chiswick, but learned in her adult years that she moved there after being born in Southampton. By this logic, the continuity error isn’t actually an error at all.
Donna’s Mother Sylvia had initially refused to come back to the family home, possibly becoming the cause of issues concerning where Donna is actually from. Thanks to this, fans also learn in Wild Blue Yonder that Donna had been considered by Grandmother Iris as “a problem since the day she was born.”
“This is literally a plot point of the episode. The Doctor literally challenges them on this,” one fan agreed on X/Twitter.
A second weighed in: “She literally says she found out ‘LATER’ she was born in Southampton. Later 10 years have passed since, she found out during that 10 years.”
David Tennant’s Doctor can also be seen backing this clarification up, replying to the second screenshot of Donna with: “Yeah, but I didn’t know that, cos I never did!”
For more, check out our ranking of the best Doctor Who Christmas specials, and see why the best Doctor Who episode doesn’t star David Tennant.
