Talk:You Are the Doctor (audio story)

Valid or not?

I'm not real clear on how this can be a "choose your own adventure" story and yet still have only one narrative? Shambala108 ☎ 23:04, June 25, 2016 (UTC)

The Doctor is made to replay the same sequence of events with changes in a "choose your own adventure" style within the story. JagoAndLitefoot ☎ 23:41, June 25, 2016 (UTC)

Here's a chart that outlines the basic structure of this story:

Track	Details
1	Ends with Chimbly giving the listener a choice of going to track 2 or track 3
2	This is the bad choice. Ends with the Doc and Ace dying. Chimbly then tells the listener to start from the beginning
3	This is the good choice. Ends with another choice, this time between 4 and 5
4	This is the bad choice. Ends with the Doc and Ace dying. Chimbly then tells the listener to start from the beginning
5	This is the good choice. Ends with another choice, this time between 6 and 7

The entire story is told in this pattern. This was made to be listened to in order. Near the end of the story it is stated that the Doctor and Ace actually died multiple times. So in short, there is no choice. C o T ☎ 23:47, June 25, 2016 (UTC)

Found this on random search and I still don't get it. You have a choice between 2 and 3? And later a choice between 4 and 5? And still later a choice between 6 and 7? What if you choose 1,3,5,6, isn't that different from 1,3,4? Shambala108 ☎ 00:13, December 12, 2019 (UTC)

Agreed. All that's been demonstrated here is that this story has an in-universe justification for its own "choose your own adventure" nature. That's cool and all, but it doesn't change the actual fact that everyone's path will be at least slightly different. This sounds somewhat similar to "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" to me, and I wouldn't call that something with "only one narrative" and "no real choices". NightmareofEden ☎ 22:09, 23 September 2021 (UTC)

That said, this certainly doesn't appear to be a particularly GOOD "Choose Your Own Adventure" story if it really is that predictable, but there are still technically multiple paths even if the multiple deals are justified in story. Unless it's ONLY ever intended to be listened to in order and NOT designed to actually be "played"? Which seems like a bit of cheat to me but at least I can see it being VALID if so. NightmareofEden ☎ 22:13, 23 September 2021 (UTC)

The explanation T:VS, regarding why stories with multiple possible paths are normally not valid, is as follows:

Any story with multiple conflicting endings, or otherwise "branching" storylines that vary with every reader's experience, clearly can't be counted as a valid source, insofar as we have no mechanism — unlike Star Wars fandom — by which we can determine which of the endings is the "correct" one.
(This rule should not be considered to apply to the likes of AUDIO: Flip-Flop, where the "choose your own adventure" format is pastiched to depict "timey-wimey" phenomena, and the authorial intent is clearly that all the paths are equally and simultaneously real.)T:VS

In other words, stories with multiple possible paths/versions, like stage plays and some video games, are invalid because only one of the versions can logically be "true", and we, the Wiki, can't take it upon ourselves to decide which one is true.

This problem can be negated in one of two ways:

1. If the CYOA format represents the fact that, due to time-travel stuff, all the versions happen in the DWU. In such a case we don't have to choose a single valid paths: all the paths take place in the DWU with no actual contradiction. (This is, I believe, why Flip-Flop is valid.)

2. If there is in fact one, linear "correct" version pointed out as such in-story. (For examples, in many video games with a linear narrative, you can lose all your health points and "die", having to start over. But no special cutscene plays; your dying isn't "a possible part of the story", it's you failing the game and having the story interrupted; in fact there is only one "correct" story.)

From User:TheChampionOfTime's explanation, it looks like You Are the Doctor may qualify for #2: there are a lot of "bad choices" that just lead to the CD telling you to start the story over again; it sounds like these are failures, not equally valid endings we'd have to choose between. There are no branching choices leading to different parallel narratives, in the way of a real CYOA novel: there are a lot of opportunities to fail, but only one way to get through the whole story.

It's also possible that on top of this, it qualifies for #1, though; what I'd like to know is, is there some technobabble reason for the gimmick? If, for example, we are told that all the options where the Doctor and Ace die are alternate timelines, then in fact the complete story is one which includes all possible paths, each being a valid alternate timeline. The version of the narrative that happens in the "main universe" would be the one that carries you all the way to the good ending.

Bottom line, I don't think we will be invalidating this any time soon, but I'd like more information before making a final ruling on how precisely to cover this. Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 22:52, 23 September 2021 (UTC)

The notes section of this page states that the multiple paths are due to The Resurrectionist, although not many details are offered on the exact nature of how this works. Bongo50 (aka Bongolium500) ☎ 06:19, 24 September 2021 (UTC)