Forum:Validity: Consider Yourself One of Us…

Index → Inclusion debates → Validity: Consider Yourself One of Us…

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Opening

I'm gonna try my hand at arguing for validity on something that really has no strong evidence one way or the other, but that I think should be valid anyway because, well, I don't see why it can't be.

Consider Yourself One Of Us... ^[+]Loading...["Consider Yourself One Of Us... (TV story)"] was BBC One's big Christmas promo for 2011. It featured a host of BBC stars getting together for a festive knees-up - seemingly hosted by national treasures, David Jason and Graham Norton - in which they all belt out the titular song (from Oliver Twist, of course).

The promo takes a dip into meta-fictional territory: Brendan O'Carroll appears in full get-up as the titular matriarch of Mrs. Brown's Boys, and the Graffalo, in all his animated glory, even gets a brief look-in.

And of course, we get a Cyberman playing Twister with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan - or the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond, depending on your interpretation. The latter is my interpretation because, well, the freakin' Cyberman!

It was decided a while back that not all BBC idents should necessarily be invalid by default. Previously invalid idents like The Doctor and the Reindeer ^[+]Loading...["The Doctor and the Reindeer (TV story)"] and Sprout Boy meets a Galaxy of Stars ^[+]Loading...["Sprout Boy meets a Galaxy of Stars (TV story)"] were welcomed into the validity club. Consider Yourself was not one of them, because… I dunno. Why not?

To use one of the above mentioned idents as an example - 2015's Sprout Boy has a similar premise to this one: the Twelfth Doctor (who we've unanimously decided to see as the Doctor here, as opposed to Peter Capaldi) throws a Christmas get-together with BBC stars, of both the real and fictional variety. The 2011 ident has a different ratio of real people to fictional characters, but the distinction is still there.

How, in the 2011 ident, can we tell this is Eleven and Amy rather than Matt and Karen? Well, I believe context clues are factor here.

With the majority of the BBC stars here, there's no definitive way of telling if they're playing themselves, or characters that they're known for. A number of the stars are just known for their presenter roles (Anne Robinson, Gary Lineker, etc.)

Several EastEnders cast members are in the ident. Are they playing themselves or their characters? I have no doubt that its the former because of June Brown, who is wearing her real life hairstyle as opposed to Dot Cotton's trademark curls that she is never seen without.

The kids from Outnumbered, now they could be appearing as their characters, but there's really no definitive way to tell (unlike the following year's ident, due to the context clues in that one).

Brendan O'Carroll… well, duh.

With all that said, what is the status of the DW cast members? In my opinion, the Cyberman is what makes all the difference here. There's no reason for us to assume this is anything but an actual, literal Cyberman, ergo, why wouldn't this be Eleven and Amy as well?

Hell, even if this wasn't Eleven and Amy - again, literal Cyberman.

Anyway, that's my view on the matter. It's not often I go into long-winded analysis, so I hope I was able to make my points coherently, and that you all followed my line of reasoning just fine.

Happy 22-Days-to-Christmas! WaltK ☎ 16:43, 3 December 2024 (UTC)