Good answer to the recent nit-pick about the seasonal continuity error in Stargate SG-1 [Stargate SG (strange growth)]. A similar problem occurs between Tom Baker's final Doctor Who story, Logopolis, and Peter Davison's first one, Castrovalva, which cannot be explained so easily.

The closing scenes set on Earth in Logopolis clearly take place in winter - the trees are completely bare of leaves. However, the opening scenes of Castrovalva are clearly set during summer, even though only a few minutes are supposed to have passed in the meantime. Get out of that one!

Trevor James

Johnny Fanboy replies:

This is indeed a tricky one.

It is possible to argue that those final scenes of Logopolis are set during summer, if we assume that the advanced effects of the entropy field that is in the process of destroying the entire universe brings on the appearance of an early onset of winter. Once the entropy field has been halted (by opening a Charged Vacuum Emboitment), the Earth's climate and vegetation quickly returns to normal.

The problem with this theory is that the opening scenes of Logopolis have to take place in winter. You can see the breath of the Doctor and the police officer misting up, long before the entropy field has even been unleashed. Also, the subsequent story Four to Doomsday establishes 28 February 1981 as the date that Tegan first boarded the TARDIS. It's possible that the Doctor travelled a few months through time when he journeyed to the planet Logopolis, but there doesn't seem to be any reason for him to do so, unless of course it was by accident.

A better solution might be to suggest that the restorative powers of the Doctor's regeneration extended some considerable way beyond the confines of his body. I have already discussed how the Watcher managed to "regenerate" the Doctor's footwear [Doctor puts his foot in it], so perhaps the effects of the regeneration spread out even farther, to encompass the surrounding foliage. Come to think of it, it even appears to make Adric's and Tegan's hair grow!

Maybe the unfocused nature of this regeneration is the very reason why the Fifth Doctor's recovery from the process was so troubled.

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