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{{real world}}{{cleanup|This article needs so much work, it almost would be better to torch it and start again.  I don't agree with it in any way.  It's like it started to be about the concept of canon in DW, then, after the lead, decided it was just going to reiterate our canon policy.  There's a big, big, big, HUGE difference between the TARDIS Index File canon policy and the word "canon" as it applies to the DWU.  Worse, I see no citations at all in this article.  And there are plenty of people important to the production of DW who have opined on this subject.  Seriously, this article is simply not factually accurate.}}
{{real world}}
'''Canon''' is the body of works which any given Doctor Who fan considers to have "really happened" within [[Doctor Who Universe]], and differs from fan to fan.
{{you may|T:CANON|n1=this wiki's canon policy|Canonicity|n2=the in-universe concept}}
'''Canon''' is a fan-based idea that exists in a unique way within the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' fandom. The degree to which the concept can be defined meaningfully for ''Doctor Who'' media is a subject of long-standing debate, but it is most commonly summarised as what a fan considers, or "ought" to consider, to form part of the [[Doctor Who universe|''Doctor Who'' universe]] — which sources describe events that "really happened" in this imaginary construct, and which do not. Despite this being a personal choice, it has been discussed and argued about in practically every ''Doctor Who''-related forum or message board that has existed on the internet.


The BBC and the various production teams have never attempted to define an official canon, unlike with some other television shows -- most notably the [[Star Trek]] franchise -- which has left fans free to hold their own opinions over what constitutes the canon of Doctor Who.
== A literary canon of ''Doctor Who'' ==
:''See also [[Tardis:Canon policy]] for information relating specifically to this wiki.''
In academic theory, "canon" refers to a body of work in an established body of literature that can be drawn upon by future instalments in the same broader tradition. In this sense, ''Doctor Who'' objectively has a canon, in the sense of later stories drawing upon the concepts and imagery of earlier works.<ref name="Eruditorum">{{cite web|url=http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/you-were-expecting-someone-else-ii-1966-annual-the-dalek-book-dalek-world/|title=You Were Expecting Someone Else II (1966 Annual, The Dalek Book, Dalek World)|author=Elizabeth Sandifer|date of source=2011-03-16|website name=Eruditorum Press|accessdate=17 July 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240302205155/http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/you-were-expecting-someone-else-ii-1966-annual-the-dalek-book-dalek-world/|archivedate=2024-03-02}}</ref>


==Specific media==
A good demonstration of this principle may be the mythos of [[Peter Cushing]]'s [[Dr. Who (Dr. Who and the Daleks)|Dr. Who]]; ''[[Dr. Who and the Daleks (theatrical film)|Dr. Who and the Daleks]]'' and ''[[Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (theatrical film)|Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.]]'', due to being retellings of the TV stories ''[[The Daleks (TV story)|The Daleks]]'' and ''[[The Dalek Invasion of Earth (TV story)|The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]'' which brazenly contradicted the televised version of events, are often considered "extra-canonical" in the continuity sense of the term. However, these stories still "exist" and have not been ignored by even the BBC; a short story starring this Dr. Who notably appeared in the [[BBC Books]] short story anthology ''[[Short Trips and Side Steps]]'' featuring Dr Who,<ref name="Short Trips">{{cite web|url=http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/tsv61/rev-shorttrips.html|title=Short Trips and Side Steps: A Collection of Short Stories - Book review|author=Jon Preddle|date of source=December 2000|website name=NZDWFC|accessdate=2011-10-22|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414224628/http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/tsv61/rev-shorttrips.html|archivedate=2016-14-14}}</ref> and critics have noted clear influences by the movies on the imagery of the [[Steven Moffat]] era of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', from the vibrant [[TARDIS blue|colour]] of [[the Doctor's TARDIS]] to the fairy-tale atmosphere to even the details of [[Matt Smith]]'s physical performance as [[the Doctor]] owing something to Cushing's.<ref name="Eruditorum" /><ref name="Looking for Telos">{{cite web|url=https://downtime2017.wordpress.com/2020/05/15/looking-for-telos-dr-who-and-the-daleks/|title=LOOKING FOR TELOS – “Dr. Who and the Daleks”|date of source=2020-05-15|website name=Downtime|accessdate=2020-12-15|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714054803/https://downtime2017.wordpress.com/2020/05/15/looking-for-telos-dr-who-and-the-daleks/|archivedate=2024-07-14}}</ref>
:''The following statements are based on assumptions based on fan community.''
===Television===
*Fans almost universally regard both the original and new television series and the 1996 TV Movie in their entirety, as canonical, despite many continuity contradictions both between and within different eras of the programme. Most would accept ''[[K9 and Company]]'', ''[[Torchwood]]'', ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'', ''[[The Infinite Quest]]'' and [[Dreamland (TV story)|''Dreamland'']]&nbsp;as occurring in the same universe. The two Children in Need Appeal mini-episodes from 2005 and 2007, ''[[Children in Need Special]]'' and ''[[Time Crash]]'', are also considered canonical (with writer [[Steven Moffat]] confirming the canonicity of the latter in ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]''). When the series returned in 2005, many fans debated whether it should be considered canonical, given uncertainty as to whether it would maintain links to the original series; this debate dissolved following the advent of episodes such as [[DW]]: ''[[School Reunion]]'' which made explicit links to the original series. Similarly, the canonicity of the 1996 TV movie was finally confirmed with an on-screen flashback appearance of the [[Eighth Doctor]] in [[DW]]: ''[[The Next Doctor]]''.


*The majority of fans regard ''[[Shada (TV story)|Shada]]'' as canonical, even though it never reached completion, let alone aired on television. Exactly which version of the story is canonical is not well settled as two versions exist: [[Shada (TV story)]], which was the incomplete version, and a later adaptation featuring another Doctor produced for webcast and audio release (see [[Shada (webcast)]]/[[Shada (audio release)]] which are basically the same productions). Confusing matters even more is the fact that [[DW]]: ''[[The Five Doctors]]'' incorporated footage from ''Shada'' into its narrative (and which footage differs between the original broadcast version of ''The Five Doctors'', and the later remastered version created for home video.
As a narrative history, the fact that it exists is enough to consider it "part of the canon", in the sense that elements might make their way into future productions. The Dalek spacecraft of ''[[The Daleks (series)|The Daleks]]'' were worked into CGI replacement shots on the DVD of ''[[The Dalek Invasion of Earth (TV story)|The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]'', and then further into television stories such as ''[[The Parting of the Ways (TV story)|The Parting of the Ways]]''. Again, this in an example of [[narrative continuity]] within the show rather than as an established canon.


*[[The Pilot Episode]] is not usually considered to be part of the canon because it is an alternative version of [[An Unearthly Child]] and contradicts the broadcast version in several areas.
== In-universe canonicity ==
=== Acknowledgement by the BBC — or lack thereof ===
Unlike the principal rights-holders of other popular science-fiction and fantasy universes, such as ''[[Star Trek (franchise)|Star Trek]]'', ''[[Star Wars (franchise)|Star Wars]]'' or ''[[The Lord of the Rings (franchise)|Lord of the Rings]]'' universes, the [[British Broadcasting Corporation]] has never made a pronouncement about what is or is not canon for ''Doctor Who''.<ref name="PC Canon in DW">{{cite web|url=http://www.paulcornell.com/2007/02/canonicity-in-doctor-who/|title=Canonicity in Doctor Who|author=Paul Cornell|date of source=2007-02-10|website name=PaulCornell.com|accessdate=2018-07-17|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240609204608/http://www.paulcornell.com/2007/02/canonicity-in-doctor-who/|archivedate=2024-06-09}}</ref>


*Extended and remade versions of episodes released on video and DVD, such as the [[The Five Doctors (Special Edition)]], the movie-format version of [[The Curse of Fenric]], and various other alternate versions, are considered canonical by some fans, while other fans accept only the original broadcast version. The exception is the four-part version of [[Resurrection of the Daleks]], which is widely accepted as the "canonical version", even though a slightly cut-down two-part version was the broadcast original. Most of the extensions are tiny and do not make significant changes in continuity, but there are some controversial changes in the [[The Five Doctors (Special Edition)]].
In [[1999 (production)|1999]], [[Big Finish Productions]] secured the licence to produced ''Doctor Who'' audio dramas. [[Stephen Cole]] was appointed as executive producer for the BBC to oversee Big Finish's content. In ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' issue 275, Cole said of Big Finish:
{{Quote|As far as the BBC is concerned, these new stories are seen as part of the official Doctor Who canon. A great deal of responsibility comes with that status, and Worldwide did not assign this licence without careful thought.|[[Stephen Cole]]|DWM 275}}


*Several DVD releases in recent years have given viewers the option of watching the original broadcast version of an episode, or a version with some effects replaced by modern CGI (example, ''[[The Ark in Space]]''). There has been no definitive word as to whether one version should be considered canon over the other. (A similar debate currently exists in ''[[Star Trek]]'' fandom over whether the original broadcast episodes should still be considered canon now that they are being replaced by high-definition versions with new special effects that often include changes to characters and objects.)
Shortly after he brought ''Doctor Who'' back to television in [[2005 (releases)|2005]], [[Russell T Davies]] said that "canon" was a word not used in his production office. He also stated that making the purchase of non-televised stories required to understand the TV series would break the guidelines of the BBC Charter:


*Deleted scenes exist for many episodes of both the original and revived series and have been released to DVD. The canonicity of these scenes is a matter of debate, though some deleted scenes contribute to the storyline or to character backstory. For example, a deleted scene from ''[[The Lazarus Experiment]]'' established that the Doctor assisted in writing the US Declaration of Independence and possesses the first draft. Other deleted scenes cannot be considered canonical due to their narrative being replaced by others: for example, scenes involving [[Howard Attfield]] as [[Geoff Noble]] in [[DW]]: ''[[Partners in Crime]]'' were refilmed with [[Bernard Cribbins]] as [[Wilfred Mott]] when Attfield became too ill to continue filming. Both scenes contain virtually identical dialogue and situations, but the Cribbins version is continued canonical.
{{Quote|Maybe old fans will be puzzled, wondering if [[BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures|the Novels]]' [[War in Heaven|War]] has now become part of the Doctor's televised adventures. ('Is it canon?' they will ask, using a word which has never been used in the production office, not once, not ever.) <br>[...] this War, the [[Last Great Time War|Time War]], is brand new and belongs to you, the viewer. This actually highlights something unique about ''Doctor Who'' in the world of sci-fi and fantasy: the fact that it's made by a Public Service Broadcaster, and is paid for by you, the licence-fee payer. As a consequence of this status, the BBC has to be very careful with its merchandising. We're happy for you to enjoy the Doctor off-screen, and read the new Novels, and play with a toy or two, if you want, but we must never, ever make that purchase necessary. That would crack the BBC's Charter in half. We cannot, ''must'' not, demand that you buy a product. [...] To spell it out: if you had to buy a BBC Novel in order to understand the plot, as transmitted on BBC One, then we would be breaking the BBC's guidelines.|[[Russell T Davies]]|DWM 356}}


*The mini-episodes, ''[[A Fix with Sontarans]]'' and ''[[Dimensions in Time]]'', produced by one of the series' original producers, [[John Nathan-Turner]], are nevertheless generally not considered a part of the original series or as canon by most fans, even though the latter featured all the (at that time) surviving Doctors and a number of returning companions. John Nathan-Turner apparently considered ''Dimensions in Time'' a "real" episode and believed it should have its own official production code. Likewise, ''[[The Curse of Fatal Death]]'' is also not generally considered to be canon, as it was a parody of the series.
Even when specifying that the television show was going to contradict certain revelations about [[Time Lord]] history and biology from the [[Virgin New Adventures]], [[Steven Moffat]] declared that those novels were "a separate" but "''equally valid'' continuity".<ref name="DWM 482">[[DWM 482]]</ref>


*There are also some additional televised appearances by the Doctor in educational programs that are generally not considered canon either, such as ''[[Search Out Space]]''.
A rare exception to this is in regards to video games: in August 2010, a BBC press release stated that, in ''[[The Adventure Games|Doctor Who: The Adventure Games]]'', "Players will encounter new and original monsters, in stories which form part of the overall Doctor Who canon".<ref name="Adventure Games">{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/04_april/08/doctor_who.shtml|title=BBC unveils Doctor Who – The Adventure Games|date of source=2010-08-04|website name=BBC - Press Office|accessdate=2011-10-22|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221115165122/http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/04_april/08/doctor_who.shtml|archivedate=2022-11-15}}</ref> Similarly, in July 2018, BBC Studios announced that, with games like ''[[Infinity (video game)|Doctor Who Infinity]]'', they would be "taking content from our major brands and delivering gaming experiences that actually form part of the canon. It's not led from TV series it comes to the game first."<ref name="mcvuk">{{Cite web|url=https://www.mcvuk.com/business/bbc-new-gaming-first-initiative-to-turn-game-ips-into-bigger-franchises|author=Marie Dealessandri|title=BBC new ‘Gaming First’ initiative to turn game IPs into ‘bigger franchises’|year of source=2018|month of source=July|website name=mcvuk.com|publisher = Future Publishing|accessdate=2018-07-17|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221225111944/https://www.mcvuk.com/business/bbc-new-gaming-first-initiative-to-turn-game-ips-into-bigger-franchises|archivedate=2022-12-25}}</ref>


*Two recent mini-episodes have sparked debates over canonicity: ''[[Attack of the Graske]]'', which was an interactive game in which the Doctor engaged the viewer, and ''[[Music of the Spheres]]'', in which the Doctor interacted with the real-life audience of the 2008 Doctor Who Proms concert. Another 2009 mini-episode, dubbed ''[[Tonight's the Night]]'', was a fourth wall-breaking skit produced for a BBC talent show competition and makes no attempt to fit within continuity.
Another factor regarding the BBC's lack of an "official canon" for ''[[Doctor Who]]'' is that the BBC would simply not have the proper authority to declare one, as they do not, strictly speaking, own the [[Doctor Who universe|''Doctor Who'' universe]]; while they control the trademark "''Doctor Who''" and the copyright of a handful of key concepts and characters (such as [[the Doctor]], [[the Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] or the [[Time Lord]]s), a [[List of DWU concepts not owned by the BBC|staggering amount]] of essential building blocks of the DWU are (or once were) in the control of individual rights-holders, including such elements as [[K9]], the [[Dalek]]s or the [[War in Heaven]] mythos.<ref name="Downtime">''[[Downtime – The Lost Years of Doctor Who]]''</ref> As [[Paul Cornell]] noted<ref name="PC Canon in DW" />
{{quote|[The modern fandom notion of "canon"] works fine if you’re dealing with works by one author. It works not at all in any other frame of reference. Doctor Who was created by many people, over a long period of time, and they did not cooperate. There is no authorial authority, and […] no council of Bishops.|[[Paul Cornell]]}}


*The status of the Australian-made spin-off series ''[[K-9 (TV series)|K-9]]'', which debuted in 2010, is unclear. Unlike one-off productions such as ''Search Out Space'', ''K-9'' is a full series, with a 26-episode first season completed and now being broadcast. However, the fact it is not a BBC production leaves its canonical status unclear. Points in its favour as canon include backstory elements that connect the series to the aftermath of [[DW]]: ''[[The Invasion of Time]]'', and the use of K-9's original voice actor, [[John Leeson]], as well as a setting that places the series some decades into the future and thus unlikely to interfere with the "present-day" events of the three BBC series.
As close to executive ''non-canonisation'' as the BBC ever came was the effective "disowning" of the animated serial ''[[Scream of the Shalka (webcast)|Scream of the Shalka]]'' over the course of its production.{{disputed}} 2003's ''[[Scream of the Shalka (webcast)|Scream of the Shalka]]'' ''was'' to have been the continuation of ''Doctor Who'', with [[Richard E Grant]] promoted as the "new" Ninth Doctor, and was written in that spirit.<ref name="Ninth Doctor">{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2003/07/09/5660.shtml|title=BBCi's Ninth Doctor|accessdate=2011-10-22|date of source=2003-07-09|website name=BBC - News|publisher=bbc.co.uk|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20060815015720/http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2003/07/09/5660.shtml|archivedate=2006-08-15}}</ref> The BBC's first edition of ''[[The Legend|Doctor Who: The Legend]]'' even has several pages which details the "Ninth Doctor".<ref name="Legend">''[[The Legend]]''</ref> However, some time before release, plans for [[Russell T Davies]]'s live-action revival of the series kicked into gear and prompted the BBC to cease all advertising of the "Shalka Doctor" soon after, due to the understanding that Russell T Davies intended to cast his own [[Ninth Doctor]].


===Movies===
=== Discussion among authors ===
Fans almost universally do not consider the two films starring [[Peter Cushing]], ''[[Dr. Who and the Daleks]]'' or ''[[Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD]]'' as taking place in the mainstream Doctor Who Universe. These have their own canon and their own continuity. These portray established characters in different ways, envisioning for example, the [[First Doctor]] as a [[human]] scientist actually named Dr. Who and re-tell the television stories ''[[The Daleks]]'' and ''[[The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]'', respectively, in a different way.
In the [[1996 (releases)|1996]] book ''[[The Completely Useless Encyclopedia]]'', a parodical and tongue-in-cheek encyclopaedia of ''Doctor Who'', stated that "hordes of fans procured [''[[Shada (TV story)|Shada]]''] from the BBC archives and practically treated it as canonical".


Beginning in 1988 and the release of ''[[Wartime]]'' independent companies such as [[Reeltime Pictures]] and [[BBV Productions]] have produced a number of made-for-video productions featuring characters and races from ''Doctor Who'' licensed from their creators (but not the Doctor himself). Productions such as ''[[Shakedown]]'', ''[[Downtime]]'', ''[[P.R.O.B.E.]]'' and the Auton series (to name a few) exist in a similar grey area of canon as other spin-offs, with some fans accepting them as canon and others dismissing them as they aren't BBC productions. Some independent productions, such as the [[The Stranger|Stranger]] series by BBV and the parody ''[[Do You Have a Licence to Save this Planet?]]'' in which [[Sylvester McCoy]] lampoons the [[Seventh Doctor]], are not generally considered canonical, even though it includes appearances from alien races from the TV series featured in the spin-offs such as the [[Sontaran]]s and [[Auton]]s.
In the foreword for ''[[The Nth Doctor]]'', [[Jean-Marc Lofficier]] argued for the "canonicity" of even the unproduced [[1990 (production)|1990s]] script for a ''Doctor Who'' movie, although granting that the concept was "subjective". According to him, their occasional contradictions, albeit radical, to earlier stories, should not overshadow their clear intent to serve as continuations to the TV series, and, coupled with their having been approved by the BBC, this should allow them to stand as "canonical" to the same extent as other continuations like the ''[[Virgin New Adventures]]''.
{{quote|Argument about each 'Nth Doctor' script's degree of 'canonicity' will ultimately depend on each reader's own evaluation. (...) Since these scripts were [[List of unproduced stories|not produced]], their status as regards their 'canonicity' is highly subjective. However, one should bear in mind that these scripts wee fully licensed and approved by the BBC. The new elements that they proposed to introduce in the [[Doctor Who universe|''Doctor Who'' universe]] may often seem fairly radical, but (...) change, often radical change, has always been a respected tradition of ''Doctor Who''. For these reasons I feel justified in treating the 'Nth Doctor' scripts as, at the very least, something closely related to main ''Doctor Who'' contnuity, not unlike the ''[[Virgin New Adventures|New Adventures]]''.|[[The Nth Doctor]]}}


===Books===
[[Paul Magrs]] argued that a large issue when attempting to construct a definition of canon for ''Doctor Who'' is that it is never finished; between its many stories across practically every medium, ''Doctor Who'' has been in more or less constant production in one way or another since [[1963 (production)|1963]]. Some fans may want a complete narrative, but ''Doctor Who'' can never be complete; therefore "canon" is a non-starter.<ref name="Afterword">[[Paul Magrs|Magrs, Paul]], (2007), "Afterword - My Adventures", ''[[Time and Relative Dissertations in Space]]'', Manchester University Press, Manchester, UK, &, Room 400, New York, USA, p.302</ref>
There is endless debate among fans over the canonicity of the various series of original novels. Some accept the [[Virgin New Adventures]] and [[Virgin Missing Adventures]], some accept the [[BBC Books]] ([[Eighth Doctor Adventures]], [[Past Doctor Adventures]] etc), some accept both, and some accept neither.


Russell T. Davies has written in DWM ([[Doctor Who Magazine]]), clarifying that the destruction of Gallifrey in the TV series was not related to the BBC Books ([[EDA]]: ''[[The Ancestor Cell]]''), that he cannot put in the TV series any reference to a licensed product which might be taken as requiring BBC viewers to purchase something in order to know the whole story. But in the same article went out of his way to say that there could have been multiple destructions of Gallifrey. He has been consistently careful to make it clear that he wants to make it possible for fans to consider the books canonical, or not, as they prefer; the same attitude has been taken by most of the current series writers.
At a 2008 [[San Diego Comic-Con]] panel, [[Steven Moffat]] remarked, "It is impossible for a show about a dimension-hopping time traveller to have a canon", laying the foundation for one way for "all stories to be true": rampant [[time travel]] and [[Alternate timeline|dimension-jumping]] combined to allow seemingly-contradictory stories to make up a single reality.<ref name="Teatime Brutality">{{cite web|url=http://teatimebrutality.blogspot.com/2009/07/canon-and-sheep-shit-why-we-fight.html|title=Canon and Sheep Shit: Why We Fight.|author=Teatime Brutality|date of source=2009-07-23|website name=Teatime Brutality|accessdate=2018-07-18|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240418111942/http://teatimebrutality.blogspot.com/2009/07/canon-and-sheep-shit-why-we-fight.html|archivedate=2024-04-18}}</ref> [[Paul Cornell]] later wrote an essay on his blog in which he accused "canon" of being a reductive concept which primarily boils down to an excuse for fandom quarrels, highlighting how "‘non-canonical’ is a term of abuse in Who circles. A threat. It’s the worst thing someone can say about a televised ''Who'' story, that they regard it as not having ‘happened’." <ref name="PC Canon in DW" />


The potential canoncity of the novels has been made more complex by the fact one novel, ''[[Human Nature (novel)|Human Nature]]'', featuring the [[Seventh Doctor]], was later adapted as a television episode [[Human Nature (TV story)|of the same title]], featuring the [[Tenth Doctor]], and that another novel, ''[[The Monsters Inside]]'', is referenced on screen in ''[[Boom Town]]''.
Echoing a similar sentiment, [[Nate Bumber]] released a short essay in which he compared the conception of canonicity in ''Doctor Who'' to the original context of terms such as "canonicity": the history of the Abrahamic religions.<ref name="Nate Bumber">{{cite web|url=https://doctornolonger.tumblr.com/post/183453390594/every-time-i-meet-someone-in-academic-biblical|title=Untitled essay|author=Nate Bumber|date of source=2019-03-14|website name=On the Fringes of War|accessdate=2020-12-15|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230608040318/https://doctornolonger.tumblr.com/post/183453390594/every-time-i-meet-someone-in-academic-biblical|archivedate=2023-06-08}}</ref> Bumber's fellow ''[[Faction Paradox (series)|Faction Paradox]]'' writer [[Jayce Black]] pioneered systematic use of the more positive term "canon-welding" in online ''Doctor Who'' circles, treating "canon" not as quantifiable data, but as raw material to be "welded" into new patterns of continuity.<ref name="PCW1">{{cite web|url=https://rassilon-imprimatur.tumblr.com/post/183640439394/ive-gone-on-before-about-how-much-i-enjoy-mags-l|title=''The Book of the Ceasefire''|author=Jayce Black|date of source=December 2019|website name=Professional Canon Welder|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230222220013/https://rassilon-imprimatur.tumblr.com/post/183640439394/ive-gone-on-before-about-how-much-i-enjoy-mags-l|archivedate=2023-02-22}}</ref><ref name="PCW2">{{cite web|url=https://rassilon-imprimatur.tumblr.com/post/613863124612890625/i-keep-seeing-awesome-posts-in-the-archive|title=What is "The Book of the Ceasefire"?|author=Jayce Black|date of source=April 2020|website name=Professional Canon Welder|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714055617/https://rassilon-imprimatur.tumblr.com/post/613863124612890625/i-keep-seeing-awesome-posts-in-the-archive|archivedate=2024-07-14}}</ref>


Some of the novels have made profound expansions to the backstories of the Doctor and other characters, little of which has been related in the TV series (which may or may not contradict the information). Examples include [[the Master]]'s origins (including revealing his "real name"), the [[Cartmel Masterplan]] which attempted to establish an origin for the Doctor and his family (most notably in the novel ''[[Lungbarrow]]''). Some novels have directly contradicted the TV series, such as several Cartmel Masterplan-related novels that established that [[Susan Foreman]] was not the Doctor's real granddaughter. In some cases continuity established in the novels has carried over into other media, such as having [[Romana II]] returning from [[E-Space]] and becoming Lord President of Gallifrey, which is also featured in various [[Big Finish Productions]] audio dramas and the ''Shada'' webcast.
[[File:Big Finish Canon online joke (2021).jpg|thumb|Via a meme, the official Big Finish account acknowledged in 2021 that canon tended to be good for causing arguments and little else.]]
[[Ian Winterton]] suggested in [[2021 (releases)|2021]] that if there were a definition of "Canon", it should boil down to "whatever can be accessed via the BBC Licence Fee" — but that this did not devalue spin-offs, "tangential" as their connection to the BBC's ''Doctor Who'' might be. Winterton, however, admitted in the same interview that his definition did not seem to be foolproof, considering [[List of references to other DWU media in live-action BBC stories|references to non-TV media on television]] such as [[Abslom Daak]]'s cameo in ''[[Time Heist (TV story)|Time Heist]]'' or the [[Eighth Doctor]]'s "regeneration speech" in ''[[The Night of the Doctor (TV story)|The Night of the Doctor]]'' which mentioned a few of his [[Big Finish Productions|Big Finish]] companions.<ref name="Cutaway AMA">{{cite web|url=https://old.reddit.com/r/doctorwho/comments/lnf59m/were_cutaway_comics_ama/go16hmx/|title=We're Cutaway Comics - AMA!|author=Ian Winterton|date of source=2021-02-19|website name=/r/doctorwho|accessdate=2021-02-19|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210219182511/https://old.reddit.com/r/doctorwho/comments/lnf59m/were_cutaway_comics_ama/go16hmx/|archivedate=2021-02-19}}</ref>


Still other novels have attempted to chronicle the ultimate fates of companions, such as [[Peri Brown]] in [[Bad Therapy|''Bad Therapy'']]. [[Romana]] has regenerated into a less-friendly [[Romana III|third incarnation]] in the [[BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures]] line. Most boldly, several novels have killed off companions: such as [[Liz Shaw]] (''[[Eternity Weeps]]'') and [[Dodo Chaplet]] (''[[Who Killed Kennedy]]'').
In a [[2013 (releases)|2013]] interview, Eighth Doctor actor [[Paul McGann]] acknowledged the reference to Big Finish companions in ''The Night of the Doctor'', claiming that it made them "''now'' canon" while admitting that he had only just heard the term being used in the context of ''Doctor Who''.<ref name="McGann Interview">{{Cite_web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUq1L1Q4Pfg|title=Paul McGann Doctor Who Night of the Doctor Interview|website name=YouTube|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205225650/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUq1L1Q4Pfg|archivedate=2024-02-05}}</ref> Big Finish themselves put out a joking tweet in March 2021, parodying the UK National Census with a question "Is it canon?" which was answered as "Other" rather than "Yes" or "No", and appended with a "helpful note" stating, "This question is '''going to cause an argument'''".<ref name="Other">{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/bigfinish/status/1373960145886093316|title=tweet!|author=Big Finish|date of source=2021-03-22|website name=the Big Finish Twitter account|accessdate=2021-03-22|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322113029/https://twitter.com/bigfinish/status/1373960145886093316|archivedate=2021-03-22}}</ref>


All but a half-dozen of the original series episodes, plus the TV movie, have been adapted as novels. These novelisations often diverge considerably from their source material, sometimes contradicting what is shown on screen (in one case, the novelisation of ''[[The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve]]'' told almost a completely different story than the TV original), and as such are generally considered non-canonical.
[[John Dorney]] drew a distinction between "canon" and "continuity", in that each audience member is free to choose which stories to accept in their personal continuity, whereas canon simply means "the recognised ‘official’ body of work. That ‘generally regarded as true’."<ref name="Dorney">{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/MrJohnDorney/status/1104333732515901440|title=tweet!|author=John Dorney|date of source=2019-03-09|webside name=John Dorney's Twitter account|accessdate=2021-03-22|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924101406/https://twitter.com/MrJohnDorney/status/1104333732515901440|archivedate=2022-09-24}}</ref> "I don’t have a ‘personal canon’. I think the canon exists and it’s basically all the TV episodes, as they’re basically what everyone agrees on. I have a ‘personal continuity’, which includes the audios, the books, the DWM strips. No idea how they fit, but they’re in there."<ref name="Dorney2">{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/MrJohnDorney/status/1104334679287709696|title=tweet!|author=John Dorney|date of source=2019-03-09|webside name=John Dorney's Twitter account|accessdate=2021-03-22|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924101402/https://twitter.com/MrJohnDorney/status/1104334679287709696|archivedate=2022-09-24}}</ref>


===Comics===
In April 2021, [[Nicholas Briggs]] responded to a fan who about whether the Big Finish audio stories were canon, with Nicholas stating outright, albeit in a unserious way, that the stories were canon.<ref name="Briggs">{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/BriggsNicholas/status/1386684660932096003|title=tweet|author=Nicholas Briggs|date of source=2021-04-26|website name=Nicholas Briggs' Twitter account|accessdate=2021-12-01|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426141340/https://twitter.com/BriggsNicholas/status/1386684660932096003|archivedate=2021-04-26}}</ref>
Most fans consider the early comics stories printed by ''[[TV Comic]]'', ''[[Countdown]]'' ''[[TV Action]]'', created for a juvenile audience and featuring many differences from the TV series including radically different characterisation of the Doctor, as not taking place in "real continuity".


The comics printed in ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' have varied wildly in their approach to continuity, depending on editorial policy. During one period, it was policy to tie them into Marvel Universe continuity, which is very difficult to reconcile with Doctor Who television continuity (example: '[[The Crossroads of Time]]'). During another period, it was policy to closely tie them to [[Virgin New Adventures]] continuity, and some of the [[Virgin New Adventures]] refer to these. During another period they deliberately contradicted the [[Virgin New Adventures]] (in ''[[Ground Zero]]''). Because of this, almost no fan accepts all of them as canon, but many fans accept '''some''' of them as canon, depending on their tastes. On at least one occasion a concept from the comic strips has appeared in a canonical episode: [[kronkburger]]s, introduced in the comic strip ''[[The Iron Legion]]'', are referenced in the 2005 episodes ''[[The Long Game]]''.
Writer [[Scott Gray]] later stated on his Twitter account that "all [of] Doctor Who is canon. Even the TV show."<ref name="Gray">{{cite_web|url=https://twitter.com/Scott1Gray/status/1392388733886926850|title=All Doctor Who is canon. Even the TV show.|author=[[Scott Gray|@Scott1Gray]]|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924101433/https://twitter.com/Scott1Gray/status/1392388733886926850|archivedate=2022-09-24}}</ref>


As with the novels, on rare occasions the comics have chronicled the fates of TV companions, most significantly the death of [[Jamie McCrimmon]] in [[DWM]]: ''[[The World Shapers]]''.
In October 2021, [[Chris Farnell]] made comments on Twitter referring to his two ''Doctor Who'' tie-in books, ''[[Knock! Knock! Who's There? (novel)|Knock! Knock! Who's There?]]'' and ''[[Time Traveller's Diary (novel)|Time Traveller's Diary]]'', as "canon".<ref name="Farnell 1">{{Cite_web|url=https://twitter.com/thebrainofchris/status/1446491351697268759|title=By paying stringent attention to the letter of the law, I wrote the Doctor Who jokebook to be canon according to TARDIS wiki, without fully thinking through how far reaching the consequences of my actions would be...<br />https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Question …<br />#MyDrWhoLegacy|author=[[Chris Farnell|@thebrainofchris]]|date of source=2021-10-08|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008150322/https://twitter.com/thebrainofchris/status/1446491351697268759|archivedate=2021-10-08}}</ref><ref name="Farnell 2">{{Cite_web|url=https://twitter.com/thebrainofchris/status/1446491875918163970|title=In a separate incident, I also made Billie Eilish canon.<br />https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Billie_Eilish …<br />#MyDrWhoLegacy|author=[[Chris Farnell|@thebrainofchris]]|date of source=2021-10-08|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008150524/https://twitter.com/thebrainofchris/status/1446491875918163970|archivedate=2021-10-08}}</ref>


Since the return of Doctor Who to television in 2005, the publishers of ''Doctor Who'' comic strips (primarily ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'', ''[[Doctor Who Adventures]]'', the various storybooks and annuals, and full-length comics published in the US by [[IDW Publishing]], have made a concerted effort to tie their stories into televised continuity, making them (usually) easier to roll into one continuity.
In October of 2022, ''[[Faction Paradox (series)|Faction Paradox]]'' and ''[[Iris Wildthyme (series)|Iris Wildthyme]]'' writer [[Blair Bidmead]] stated that there was "no canon".<ref name="Bidmead">[https://twitter.com/blairbidmead/status/1581938738258530306 Blair Bidmead on Twitter]</ref>


===Audio and radio===
In November of 2022, prolific ''Doctor Who'' writer [[Cavan Scott]] replied to concerns about whether the novel ''[[At Childhood's End (novel)|At Childhood's End]]'' was still canonical in the wake of its contradiction by ''[[The Power of the Doctor (TV story)|The Power of the Doctor]]'' with "Ah it’s still canon. Everything is canon and nothing is canon in ''Doctor Who''!"<ref name="Cavan Scott">{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/cavanscott/status/1590088175304970242|title=Everything is canon and nothing is canon|author=[[Cavan Scott]]|website name=Cavan Scott on Twitter|date of source=8 November 2021|archiveurl=https://archive.ph/UaroX|archivedate=8 November 2022}}</ref>
Dozens of professionally made audio dramas have been produced since [[1976]] when ''[[Doctor Who and the Pescatons]]'' was first issued. Several adventures have been produced by and broadcast by [[BBC Radio]], while [[Big Finish Productions]] has produced an extensive series of audio dramas featuring the [[Fifth Doctor|Fifth]], [[Sixth Doctor|Sixth]], [[Seventh Doctor|Seventh]] and [[Eighth Doctor]]s since [[1999]], along with numerous spin-off audio series focusing on races such as the [[Dalek]]s and individual characters such as [[Sarah Jane Smith]]. As with the novels, acceptance in canon depends upon the fan, although there is at least one example of a Big Finish audio drama (''[[Jubilee]]'') being adapted as a television episode (''[[Dalek (TV story)|Dalek]]''). One spin-off Big Finish series, [[Doctor Who Unbound]] is not considered canonical as it focuses on "what if?"-style stories featuring alternate interpretations of the Doctor and his (or her) companions.


Generally, the BBC Radio-produced dramas featuring Colin Baker (''[[Slipback]]'') and [[Jon Pertwee]] (''[[The Paradise of Death]]'' and ''[[The Ghosts of N-Space]]'') are considered canon as they were produced by the BBC, along with the [[Tom Baker]] recording, ''The Pescatons''. Unconfirmed is the canonicity of a series of Big Finish-produced ''but'' [[BBC 7]]-commissioned and broadcast adventures featuring [[Paul McGann]] that debuted in [[2007]].
In [[DWM 585]], released on [[8 December]] 2022, in a review of the late 2022 [[Character Options]] [[Character Options classic series action figures|5" action figure]] sets, reviewer Greg Martin stated that "[David] [[David Bradley|Bradley's]] [[First Doctor|Doctor]] was granted canonical status in [[2017 (releases)|2017]]'s ''[[Twice Upon a Time (TV story)|Twice Upon a Time]]''."<ref name="DWM 585">[[DWM 585]]</ref>


===Webcasts===
By [[2023 (releases)|2023]], Davies acknowledged that fans often wrote their own "personal canon";<ref name="DWM 597">[[DWM 597]] - ''[[Letter from the Showrunner]]'', Page 13</ref> in response to ''[[SFX]]'' magazine asking Davies if ''[[Tales of the TARDIS]]'' was canonical, he responded that it "absolutely" was, although stating that some fans would be justified in deeming it non-canonical as it wasn't broadcast on [[BBC One]].<ref name="History Repeating">[[SFX 372]] - ''History Repeating'', Page 44</ref> In the same issue, Davies addressed his unwillingness to ignore [[Chris Chibnall]]'s {{cs|The Timeless Children (TV story)}}, stating that, among other things, it was canonical.<ref name="Spilling the T">[[SFX 372]] - ''Spilling the T'', Page 28</ref> In early [[2024 (production)|2024]], [[Jane Tranter]] said that one of Davies' motivations for the creation of the [[Whoniverse (BBC iPlayer)|Whoniverse]] was to present new fans of the show a way to see what the canon of the show happened to be.<ref name="Tranter">{{Cite_web|url=https://www.c21media.net/c21tv/the-doctor-will-see-you-now-jane-tranter-on-bbc-timelord’s-future/22126/|title=The Doctor will see you now: Jane Tranter on BBC Timelord's future|date of source=2024-02-23|website name=C21Media|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512092542/https://www.c21media.net/c21tv/the-doctor-will-see-you-now-jane-tranter-on-bbc-timelord%E2%80%99s-future/22126/|archivedate=2024-05-12}}</ref>
Prior to the return of ''Doctor Who'' to television, the BBC commissioned several original webcast productions for its official Doctor Who website. Of these only one, 2003's ''[[Scream of the Shalka]]'', has been definitively removed from canon by the BBC due to the Ninth Doctor as played by [[Richard E. Grant]] being supplanted by the [[Ninth Doctor]] of [[Christopher Eccleston]] (even so, there have been attempts to reconcile this story with canon in some of the spin-off works). Another webcast, ''[[Death Comes to Time]]'' is also problematic to reconcile with canon as it features the death of a major ongoing character. ''[[Real Time]]'' is related to the [[Big Finish Productions]] audio series and as such is subject to the same canon considerations. The fourth webcast, ''Shada'', is discussed under "Television", above.


During the 2006 season, the BBC produced "webisodes" for each episode of the season. These were short prologues that helped set the scene or introduce a concept featured in an upcoming episode. It is unclear whether these short scenes are considered canonical; none were included in the later DVD release of Series 2.
== Footnotes ==
{{reflist}}


Since the series revival in 2005, the BBC has also made extensive use of viral marketing online, creating real websites based upon fictional concepts such as [[UNIT]] and the [[Torchwood Institute]]. Many of these websites feature pieces of information that have been treated as official by some fans, but like everything else the BBC hasn't definitively stated whether any of the websites are canonical. (However, some of the background information seen on UNIT's website did later make it on screen during an episode of ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'', confirming it as canon, at least in part.)
[[Category:Fan terminology]]
 
===Stage plays===
Two stage plays have been produced based upon the series: ''[[Doctor Who and the Daleks in The Seven Keys to Doomsday]]'' and ''[[Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure]]''. Despite both plays being written by [[Terrance Dicks]], and the latter featuring (at various times) [[Jon Pertwee]] and [[Colin Baker]] as their respective Doctors, neither play is considered canon.
 
==Fanon==
: ''Main article: [[Fanon]]''
 
A combination of the words "fan" and "canon", these are facts that have been made up by fans over the years to fill gaps in existing continuity/canon, and which become accepted as canon by the fanbase, despite not being supported in on-screen continuity.
 
==External links==
*[http://paulcornell.blogspot.com/2007/02/canonicity-in-doctor-who.html#links Paul Cornell blog post about canonicity in the Doctor Who Universe]
*[http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.drwho/browse_thread/thread/da90438e52602afc/14af5f8a005dc5b8?lnk=st&q=canon&rnum=81#14af5f8a005dc5b8 Kate Orman's 1996 observations as to what people mean by canon]
*[http://www.whoniverse.net/wiki/Canon Canon as defined by the WhoniverseWiki]
 
{{wikipediainfo|Canon (fiction)}}
[[Category:Canon and continuity]]

Latest revision as of 18:07, 14 July 2024

RealWorld.png
You may be looking for this wiki's canon policy or the in-universe concept.

Canon is a fan-based idea that exists in a unique way within the Doctor Who fandom. The degree to which the concept can be defined meaningfully for Doctor Who media is a subject of long-standing debate, but it is most commonly summarised as what a fan considers, or "ought" to consider, to form part of the Doctor Who universe — which sources describe events that "really happened" in this imaginary construct, and which do not. Despite this being a personal choice, it has been discussed and argued about in practically every Doctor Who-related forum or message board that has existed on the internet.

A literary canon of Doctor Who[[edit] | [edit source]]

In academic theory, "canon" refers to a body of work in an established body of literature that can be drawn upon by future instalments in the same broader tradition. In this sense, Doctor Who objectively has a canon, in the sense of later stories drawing upon the concepts and imagery of earlier works.[1]

A good demonstration of this principle may be the mythos of Peter Cushing's Dr. Who; Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., due to being retellings of the TV stories The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth which brazenly contradicted the televised version of events, are often considered "extra-canonical" in the continuity sense of the term. However, these stories still "exist" and have not been ignored by even the BBC; a short story starring this Dr. Who notably appeared in the BBC Books short story anthology Short Trips and Side Steps featuring Dr Who,[2] and critics have noted clear influences by the movies on the imagery of the Steven Moffat era of Doctor Who, from the vibrant colour of the Doctor's TARDIS to the fairy-tale atmosphere to even the details of Matt Smith's physical performance as the Doctor owing something to Cushing's.[1][3]

As a narrative history, the fact that it exists is enough to consider it "part of the canon", in the sense that elements might make their way into future productions. The Dalek spacecraft of The Daleks were worked into CGI replacement shots on the DVD of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and then further into television stories such as The Parting of the Ways. Again, this in an example of narrative continuity within the show rather than as an established canon.

In-universe canonicity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Acknowledgement by the BBC — or lack thereof[[edit] | [edit source]]

Unlike the principal rights-holders of other popular science-fiction and fantasy universes, such as Star Trek, Star Wars or Lord of the Rings universes, the British Broadcasting Corporation has never made a pronouncement about what is or is not canon for Doctor Who.[4]

In 1999, Big Finish Productions secured the licence to produced Doctor Who audio dramas. Stephen Cole was appointed as executive producer for the BBC to oversee Big Finish's content. In Doctor Who Magazine issue 275, Cole said of Big Finish:

As far as the BBC is concerned, these new stories are seen as part of the official Doctor Who canon. A great deal of responsibility comes with that status, and Worldwide did not assign this licence without careful thought.Stephen Cole [DWM 275 [src]]

Shortly after he brought Doctor Who back to television in 2005, Russell T Davies said that "canon" was a word not used in his production office. He also stated that making the purchase of non-televised stories required to understand the TV series would break the guidelines of the BBC Charter:

Maybe old fans will be puzzled, wondering if the Novels' War has now become part of the Doctor's televised adventures. ('Is it canon?' they will ask, using a word which has never been used in the production office, not once, not ever.)
[...] this War, the Time War, is brand new and belongs to you, the viewer. This actually highlights something unique about Doctor Who in the world of sci-fi and fantasy: the fact that it's made by a Public Service Broadcaster, and is paid for by you, the licence-fee payer. As a consequence of this status, the BBC has to be very careful with its merchandising. We're happy for you to enjoy the Doctor off-screen, and read the new Novels, and play with a toy or two, if you want, but we must never, ever make that purchase necessary. That would crack the BBC's Charter in half. We cannot, must not, demand that you buy a product. [...] To spell it out: if you had to buy a BBC Novel in order to understand the plot, as transmitted on BBC One, then we would be breaking the BBC's guidelines.Russell T Davies [DWM 356 [src]]

Even when specifying that the television show was going to contradict certain revelations about Time Lord history and biology from the Virgin New Adventures, Steven Moffat declared that those novels were "a separate" but "equally valid continuity".[5]

A rare exception to this is in regards to video games: in August 2010, a BBC press release stated that, in Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, "Players will encounter new and original monsters, in stories which form part of the overall Doctor Who canon".[6] Similarly, in July 2018, BBC Studios announced that, with games like Doctor Who Infinity, they would be "taking content from our major brands and delivering gaming experiences that actually form part of the canon. It's not led from TV series it comes to the game first."[7]

Another factor regarding the BBC's lack of an "official canon" for Doctor Who is that the BBC would simply not have the proper authority to declare one, as they do not, strictly speaking, own the Doctor Who universe; while they control the trademark "Doctor Who" and the copyright of a handful of key concepts and characters (such as the Doctor, the TARDIS or the Time Lords), a staggering amount of essential building blocks of the DWU are (or once were) in the control of individual rights-holders, including such elements as K9, the Daleks or the War in Heaven mythos.[8] As Paul Cornell noted[4]

[The modern fandom notion of "canon"] works fine if you’re dealing with works by one author. It works not at all in any other frame of reference. Doctor Who was created by many people, over a long period of time, and they did not cooperate. There is no authorial authority, and […] no council of Bishops.Paul Cornell

As close to executive non-canonisation as the BBC ever came was the effective "disowning" of the animated serial Scream of the Shalka over the course of its production.[disputed statement] 2003's Scream of the Shalka was to have been the continuation of Doctor Who, with Richard E Grant promoted as the "new" Ninth Doctor, and was written in that spirit.[9] The BBC's first edition of Doctor Who: The Legend even has several pages which details the "Ninth Doctor".[10] However, some time before release, plans for Russell T Davies's live-action revival of the series kicked into gear and prompted the BBC to cease all advertising of the "Shalka Doctor" soon after, due to the understanding that Russell T Davies intended to cast his own Ninth Doctor.

Discussion among authors[[edit] | [edit source]]

In the 1996 book The Completely Useless Encyclopedia, a parodical and tongue-in-cheek encyclopaedia of Doctor Who, stated that "hordes of fans procured [Shada] from the BBC archives and practically treated it as canonical".

In the foreword for The Nth Doctor, Jean-Marc Lofficier argued for the "canonicity" of even the unproduced 1990s script for a Doctor Who movie, although granting that the concept was "subjective". According to him, their occasional contradictions, albeit radical, to earlier stories, should not overshadow their clear intent to serve as continuations to the TV series, and, coupled with their having been approved by the BBC, this should allow them to stand as "canonical" to the same extent as other continuations like the Virgin New Adventures.

Argument about each 'Nth Doctor' script's degree of 'canonicity' will ultimately depend on each reader's own evaluation. (...) Since these scripts were not produced, their status as regards their 'canonicity' is highly subjective. However, one should bear in mind that these scripts wee fully licensed and approved by the BBC. The new elements that they proposed to introduce in the Doctor Who universe may often seem fairly radical, but (...) change, often radical change, has always been a respected tradition of Doctor Who. For these reasons I feel justified in treating the 'Nth Doctor' scripts as, at the very least, something closely related to main Doctor Who contnuity, not unlike the New Adventures.The Nth Doctor

Paul Magrs argued that a large issue when attempting to construct a definition of canon for Doctor Who is that it is never finished; between its many stories across practically every medium, Doctor Who has been in more or less constant production in one way or another since 1963. Some fans may want a complete narrative, but Doctor Who can never be complete; therefore "canon" is a non-starter.[11]

At a 2008 San Diego Comic-Con panel, Steven Moffat remarked, "It is impossible for a show about a dimension-hopping time traveller to have a canon", laying the foundation for one way for "all stories to be true": rampant time travel and dimension-jumping combined to allow seemingly-contradictory stories to make up a single reality.[12] Paul Cornell later wrote an essay on his blog in which he accused "canon" of being a reductive concept which primarily boils down to an excuse for fandom quarrels, highlighting how "‘non-canonical’ is a term of abuse in Who circles. A threat. It’s the worst thing someone can say about a televised Who story, that they regard it as not having ‘happened’." [4]

Echoing a similar sentiment, Nate Bumber released a short essay in which he compared the conception of canonicity in Doctor Who to the original context of terms such as "canonicity": the history of the Abrahamic religions.[13] Bumber's fellow Faction Paradox writer Jayce Black pioneered systematic use of the more positive term "canon-welding" in online Doctor Who circles, treating "canon" not as quantifiable data, but as raw material to be "welded" into new patterns of continuity.[14][15]

Via a meme, the official Big Finish account acknowledged in 2021 that canon tended to be good for causing arguments and little else.

Ian Winterton suggested in 2021 that if there were a definition of "Canon", it should boil down to "whatever can be accessed via the BBC Licence Fee" — but that this did not devalue spin-offs, "tangential" as their connection to the BBC's Doctor Who might be. Winterton, however, admitted in the same interview that his definition did not seem to be foolproof, considering references to non-TV media on television such as Abslom Daak's cameo in Time Heist or the Eighth Doctor's "regeneration speech" in The Night of the Doctor which mentioned a few of his Big Finish companions.[16]

In a 2013 interview, Eighth Doctor actor Paul McGann acknowledged the reference to Big Finish companions in The Night of the Doctor, claiming that it made them "now canon" while admitting that he had only just heard the term being used in the context of Doctor Who.[17] Big Finish themselves put out a joking tweet in March 2021, parodying the UK National Census with a question "Is it canon?" which was answered as "Other" rather than "Yes" or "No", and appended with a "helpful note" stating, "This question is going to cause an argument".[18]

John Dorney drew a distinction between "canon" and "continuity", in that each audience member is free to choose which stories to accept in their personal continuity, whereas canon simply means "the recognised ‘official’ body of work. That ‘generally regarded as true’."[19] "I don’t have a ‘personal canon’. I think the canon exists and it’s basically all the TV episodes, as they’re basically what everyone agrees on. I have a ‘personal continuity’, which includes the audios, the books, the DWM strips. No idea how they fit, but they’re in there."[20]

In April 2021, Nicholas Briggs responded to a fan who about whether the Big Finish audio stories were canon, with Nicholas stating outright, albeit in a unserious way, that the stories were canon.[21]

Writer Scott Gray later stated on his Twitter account that "all [of] Doctor Who is canon. Even the TV show."[22]

In October 2021, Chris Farnell made comments on Twitter referring to his two Doctor Who tie-in books, Knock! Knock! Who's There? and Time Traveller's Diary, as "canon".[23][24]

In October of 2022, Faction Paradox and Iris Wildthyme writer Blair Bidmead stated that there was "no canon".[25]

In November of 2022, prolific Doctor Who writer Cavan Scott replied to concerns about whether the novel At Childhood's End was still canonical in the wake of its contradiction by The Power of the Doctor with "Ah it’s still canon. Everything is canon and nothing is canon in Doctor Who!"[26]

In DWM 585, released on 8 December 2022, in a review of the late 2022 Character Options 5" action figure sets, reviewer Greg Martin stated that "[David] Bradley's Doctor was granted canonical status in 2017's Twice Upon a Time."[27]

By 2023, Davies acknowledged that fans often wrote their own "personal canon";[28] in response to SFX magazine asking Davies if Tales of the TARDIS was canonical, he responded that it "absolutely" was, although stating that some fans would be justified in deeming it non-canonical as it wasn't broadcast on BBC One.[29] In the same issue, Davies addressed his unwillingness to ignore Chris Chibnall's The Timeless Children [+]Loading...["The Timeless Children (TV story)"], stating that, among other things, it was canonical.[30] In early 2024, Jane Tranter said that one of Davies' motivations for the creation of the Whoniverse was to present new fans of the show a way to see what the canon of the show happened to be.[31]

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Elizabeth Sandifer (2011-03-16). You Were Expecting Someone Else II (1966 Annual, The Dalek Book, Dalek World). Eruditorum Press. Archived from the original on 2024-03-02. Retrieved on 17 July 2018.
  2. ↑ Jon Preddle (December 2000). Short Trips and Side Steps: A Collection of Short Stories - Book review. NZDWFC. Archived from the original on 2016-14-14. Retrieved on 2011-10-22.
  3. ↑ LOOKING FOR TELOS – “Dr. Who and the Daleks”. Downtime (2020-05-15). Archived from the original on 2024-07-14. Retrieved on 2020-12-15.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Paul Cornell (2007-02-10). Canonicity in Doctor Who. PaulCornell.com. Archived from the original on 2024-06-09. Retrieved on 2018-07-17.
  5. ↑ DWM 482
  6. ↑ BBC unveils Doctor Who – The Adventure Games. BBC - Press Office (2010-08-04). Archived from the original on 2022-11-15. Retrieved on 2011-10-22.
  7. ↑ Marie Dealessandri (July 2018). BBC new ‘Gaming First’ initiative to turn game IPs into ‘bigger franchises’. mcvuk.com. Future Publishing. Archived from the original on 2022-12-25. Retrieved on 2018-07-17.
  8. ↑ Downtime – The Lost Years of Doctor Who
  9. ↑ BBCi's Ninth Doctor. BBC - News. bbc.co.uk (2003-07-09). Archived from the original on 2006-08-15. Retrieved on 2011-10-22.
  10. ↑ The Legend
  11. ↑ Magrs, Paul, (2007), "Afterword - My Adventures", Time and Relative Dissertations in Space, Manchester University Press, Manchester, UK, &, Room 400, New York, USA, p.302
  12. ↑ Teatime Brutality (2009-07-23). Canon and Sheep Shit: Why We Fight.. Teatime Brutality. Archived from the original on 2024-04-18. Retrieved on 2018-07-18.
  13. ↑ Nate Bumber (2019-03-14). Untitled essay. On the Fringes of War. Archived from the original on 2023-06-08. Retrieved on 2020-12-15.
  14. ↑ Jayce Black (December 2019). The Book of the Ceasefire. Professional Canon Welder. Archived from the original on 2023-02-22.
  15. ↑ Jayce Black (April 2020). What is "The Book of the Ceasefire"?. Professional Canon Welder. Archived from the original on 2024-07-14.
  16. ↑ Ian Winterton (2021-02-19). We're Cutaway Comics - AMA!. /r/doctorwho. Archived from the original on 2021-02-19. Retrieved on 2021-02-19.
  17. ↑ Paul McGann Doctor Who Night of the Doctor Interview. YouTube. Archived from the original on 2024-02-05.
  18. ↑ Big Finish (2021-03-22). tweet!. the Big Finish Twitter account. Archived from the original on 2021-03-22. Retrieved on 2021-03-22.
  19. ↑ John Dorney (2019-03-09). tweet!. Archived from the original on 2022-09-24. Retrieved on 2021-03-22.
  20. ↑ John Dorney (2019-03-09). tweet!. Archived from the original on 2022-09-24. Retrieved on 2021-03-22.
  21. ↑ Nicholas Briggs (2021-04-26). tweet. Nicholas Briggs' Twitter account. Archived from the original on 2021-04-26. Retrieved on 2021-12-01.
  22. ↑ @Scott1Gray. All Doctor Who is canon. Even the TV show.. Archived from the original on 2022-09-24.
  23. ↑ @thebrainofchris (2021-10-08). By paying stringent attention to the letter of the law, I wrote the Doctor Who jokebook to be canon according to TARDIS wiki, without fully thinking through how far reaching the consequences of my actions would be...
    https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Question …
    #MyDrWhoLegacy    . Archived from the original on 2021-10-08.
  24. ↑ @thebrainofchris (2021-10-08). In a separate incident, I also made Billie Eilish canon.
    https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Billie_Eilish …
    #MyDrWhoLegacy    . Archived from the original on 2021-10-08.
  25. ↑ Blair Bidmead on Twitter
  26. ↑ Cavan Scott (8 November 2021). Everything is canon and nothing is canon. Cavan Scott on Twitter. Archived from the original on 8 November 2022.
  27. ↑ DWM 585
  28. ↑ DWM 597 - Letter from the Showrunner, Page 13
  29. ↑ SFX 372 - History Repeating, Page 44
  30. ↑ SFX 372 - Spilling the T, Page 28
  31. ↑ The Doctor will see you now: Jane Tranter on BBC Timelord's future. C21Media (2024-02-23). Archived from the original on 2024-05-12.
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