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{{user:CzechOut/Sig}} <span style="{{User:CzechOut/TimeFormat}}">16:12: Sat 19 May 2012 </span></div> | {{user:CzechOut/Sig}} <span style="{{User:CzechOut/TimeFormat}}">16:12: Sat 19 May 2012 </span></div> | ||
::::For the record, I don't think I've stated a position on the question of whether the proposed boilerplate should apply only to ''TID'', or also to other ambiguous cases. CzechOut is right that my questioning was rhetorical, framing the discussion for clarity — but Tangerineduel is right that my preference would be for simple inclusion, with a boilerplate as an acceptable fallback position. | |||
::::My asides about ''Death Comes to Time'' were partly requests for information. I wasn't certain that there had not been a discussion that I failed to find using the (currently wonky) search tool. I wasn't trying to "detract from" anything. | |||
::::I think that CzechOut is slightly misrepresenting Parkin when he interprets "not the Eighth Doctor of mainstream continuity" as equivalent to "'''definitively not''' the Eighth Doctor", full stop. As I've mentioned before, "of mainstream continuity" could mean any of a number of things. One might, for example, say that the appearances of the Second Doctor in ''The Five Doctors'' and ''The Two Doctors'' are not the Second Doctor of mainstream continuity, since in the former he knows about the Time Lords wiping Jamie and Zoe's memories, and in the latter he's working for the Time Lords — neither of which fit with the "mainstream continuity" of the Second Doctor, which ends in ''The War Games''. As I've said before, Parkin has always been '''deliberately ambiguous''' about the canonicity and placement of ''TID'', and this remark is no different. | |||
::::And that leads us to the question of whether we must treat ''TID'' as an individual case, or if there are other works which should be treated the same way. I think that depends on what decision we make about ''TID''. There are other works whose canonicity may be ''disputed'', but I don't think that there are any which were consciously '''created''' with an ambiguous relationship to the ongoing narrative of ''Doctor Who''. Of the works we already exclude, they were either not intended as a link in the narrative chain (e.g. the Unbounds, ''Curse of Fatal Death'') or were superseded by other developments (''Shalka''). The former in a sense cut themselves off from the canon upon their creation; the latter was cut off by diktat. ''Death Comes to Time'' chooses to ignore a major strand of the ongoing narrative (the Eighth Doctor) and attempts to strike off on its own, but such an attempt is by its nature not going to be part of the strand which it denies. ''TID'' is different from any of these. ''TID'' sticks its tongue out at continuity and says, "You don't know if I'm in or out." | |||
::::Because of this, the ''continuity'' problems presented by ''TID'' are slightly different from those presented by, say, the multiple fates of Ace. Other continuity conundrums are usually caused by the interaction between two canonical texts. ''TID'' says "I may or may not be canonical". (As previously expressed, I think that its interaction with other novels suggests that it is, but I acknowledge that the text itself is ambiguous on the question.) So I think that if we do decide to use a template for ''TID'', it should be a unique one. '''However''', that doesn't mean that we shouldn't '''also''' have some sort of template — perhaps a similar one — for other cases of unclear continuity. The two might even be able to be combined, something like this: | |||
<div id=ss style="border-bottom:3px solid #2f2cb8"><div style="background-color:#2f2cb8;color:white;font-size:80%">Accounts of the Doctor's parentage are unclear. All accounts covered by our [[T:CAN|<span style="color:gold">canon policy</span>]] are presented below.</div><div id=sf style="background-color:#ddd"> | |||
According to ''[[Lungbarrow (novel)|Lungbarrow]]'', the Doctor was one of forty-five Cousins in the [[House of Lungbarrow]], and had no parents. | |||
<div id=ss style="border-bottom:3px solid #2f2cb8"><div style="background-color:#2f2cb8;color:white;font-size:80%">The following information comes from ''The Infinity Doctors'', a story which may or may not be set in the DWU.</div><div id=sf style="background-color:#ddd"> | |||
The Doctor's father was a prominent Time Lord with a close-cropped white beard, and his mother was a human woman with grey eyes.</div></div> | |||
</div></div> | |||
::::I don't know whether this will satisfy anyone: using the "may or may not" language is probably too uncertain for Bob, who will probably find it neither fish nor fowl nor good red herring. I'm just trying to find some middle ground here. —[[User:Josiah Rowe|Josiah Rowe]] <sup>[[User talk:Josiah Rowe|talk to me]]</sup> 04:36, May 20, 2012 (UTC) | |||