Talk:Music of the Spheres (TV story)

Special or Cutaway?

RTD seems to be moving towards calling it Proms Cutaway - he indicates this in DWM and Outpost Gallifrey's news page is also using this title. Should this article also be retitled accordingly? 23skidoo 01:37, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

I think Move it to Cutaway Dark Lord Xander 02:25, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

I selected this title baed on Children in Need Special, but I don't mind either way Jack's the man - 14:28, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Ok If no one minds I'll Move It (I can always be moved back if theres a problem) Dark Lord Xander 00:32, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

TV Broadcast

According to the Proms site, the Doctor Who Prom is being recorded for BBC one. As such, I would expect it to air on BBC one, not BBC four. Taras

Yes, I think someone just assummed that the BBC4 programme (which is showing the proms) would also show the doctor who scene. Jack's the man - 11:10, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Rationale removal

I know it's bad form to remove rationales from the Discontinuity section, but the one that was there regarding the canonicity of the story didn't make sense and was incorrect. The fact the Graske appeared in an SJA episode has no relevance over whether this mini-episode is canonical. And yes of course Daleks Master Plan is canon even though the Doctor wished the viewers a Merry Christmas halfway through. However just as Attack of the Graske is not considered canon because it involved interaction with viewers, so too does Music of the Spheres fall into the same category. Ask yourself this: does it stand on its own without the audience interaction? It does not because if you watch the YouTube version you don't hear the audience replying to him. 23skidoo 18:25, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't know where you're getting that Attack of the Graske isn't canon just because it involved interaction with viewers. You can say that there are several canonical versions, depending on the choices the audience makes, but there's no real reason to suppose it's entirely out of canon. The Doctor's in character, the Graske is in character, the universe behaves as it's supposed to. Dimensions in Time is clearly not canonical. Attack of the Graske is merely a choose-your-own-adventure.

Anyway, this brings up the whole question of the following statement, pulled not from the Discontinuity but the Continuity section:

"* The Doctor breaks the fourth wall and directly addresses the audience, and also interacts with them as well. This renders it unlikely that the episode takes place within established continuity. "

Really, this isn't actually true. As with Attack of the Graske, I don't particularly accept that a character's direct address of the audience necessarily renders something completely moot to canon. But more than that, I don't think this is an actual example of breaking the fourth wall, because it is given a narrative rationale. In DMP, the Doctor's Christmas salutation is completely fourth wall. There's no rationale for it; he just turns to the camera and tears down the fourth wall with complete abandon. Here, though, we have this portal-thingie. We have profile shots of him approaching it. Then the camera simply changes direction so that it's filming through the back of the portal. The audience knows that the Doctor is talking through a portal the whole time. That we don't hear what the Doctor is hearing is irrelevant to the question of breaking the Fourth Wall. A character doesn't break the fourth wall by having a phone conversation if we are only privy to his half. In the same way that you can kinda tell by his reactions whom he's talking to, Music of the Spheres gives those of us not in the Proms a one-sided phone conversation. Sure, the episode played differently to that tiny fraction of the entire, worldwide audience of Spheres that was in attendance at the Royal Albert, but you can totally watch this episode without knowing what the hell the intended audience was and not think, "Well, that's not canon." For instance, I think it's completely acceptable to believe that a) the "music of the spheres" itself is a valid concept, b) the Doctor tends to think of Graske more as pests than a full-on threat to humanity, and c) the Tenth Doctor has fairly profound musical abilities. Moreover, the audio version of the episode does indeed include the Royal Albert audience reaction. When listened to in its full context, the fourth wall isn't even touched. The Royal Albert audience merely forms a part of the story to the listeners at home. For the vast majority of the audience of this work, It's a metafictional story, not one in which the fourth wall is broken. CzechOut ☎ | ✍ 22:36, 27 July 2008 (UTC)