10 Times Doctor Who Broke Its Own Canon

1. The Doctor Leaves The TARDIS Brakes On...?

Doctor Who Tenth Doctor Eleventh Doctor
BBC Studios

In The Time of Angels, River Song states that the iconic wheezing, groaning sound that the TARDIS makes while landing and departing only happens because the Doctor leaves the brakes on. 

It's a fairly funny joke by Steven Moffat, but it doesn't hold up to any scrutiny whatsoever.

Sure, the Doctor isn't the universe's best TARDIS pilot, often landing on the wrong planet, in the wrong timezone, or even the wrong galaxy. But that doesn't really explain why every other Time Lord also seems to leave the brakes on too. The Master's TARDIS makes a similar wheezing, groaning sound, as do those of the Rani and the Meddling Monk!

Even the Time Lord agent from Terror of the Autons makes a wheezing groaning sound as he pops into existence in front of the Third Doctor. So does everyone on Gallifrey leave the handbrake on? And if so, how is River Song the first person to realise this?! It's probably just River winding the Doctor up, but then again, how does she turn that sound off?

One amusing possibility is that, if the Doctor, the Master, the Monk, and the Rani were all in the same class at the Academy, perhaps they all just had the same terrible TARDIS flight instructor.

But if we're being honest with ourselves, it's really just that Moffat didn't think this one through.

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Citizen of the Universe, Film Programmer, Writer, Podcaster, Doctor Who fan and a gentleman to boot. As passionate about Chinese social-realist epics as I am about dumb popcorn movies.