Talk:One Born Every Minute (TV story)

Validity

Just decided to watch this story, and I'm unsure as to why it's invalid. T:VALID#What doesn't count states that only parodies of Doctor Who can't be considered valid - while this is a parody of Call the Midwife, it certainly isn't a parody of Doctor Who - I personally felt that it was more similar to Closing Time than something like Doctor Who and Crayola.

Epsilon 📯 📂

02:10, November 12, 2020 (UTC)

When in doubt we can always go "Charity special", though why Space (TV story) and Time (TV story) are valid and Looking for Pudsey (TV story) is not might be hard to argue over, unless we appeal to the DVD inclusion. Najawin ☎ 02:19, November 12, 2020 (UTC)

Oh, and Time Crash. (Although that's not a parody of anything, it is a charity special.)

Epsilon 📯 📂

02:28, November 12, 2020 (UTC)

Yeah, no, the charity aspect doesn't enter into it. To make something very clear, if all these were "charity stories" as we define the term, we flat-out wouldn't have pages about them. Per T:VS a charity work is held to fail Rule 2, and therefore barring the very special one-of-a-kind exception of Dimensions in Time, we do not give it coverage of any kind.

But none of those things are "charity stories" in the sense of being non-commercially-licensed.

As discussed at Thread:240280 (and perhaps elsewhere), the idea is that when, say, Paul Magrs writes an Iris story in what is already one of these copyright-dodging charity books that are printed on the express condition that the publisher not give a profit, he is not making commercial use of the Iris Wildthyme copyright. :With Space/Time, Time Crash and (for that matter) The Curse of Fatal Death, those stories' original broadcast promoted a charity event, but they were commercial products that the BBC had no qualms monetising later. So they're not "charity works" the way Perfect Timing is.

As to the invalidity or lack thereof of One Born Every Minute… it's an edge case of the kind that would require a proper thread to adjudicate, IMO. No, it's not a parody of Doctor Who, but there are still Rule 4 concerns in the form of that "meta-gag" about the voiceover from the narrator-nurse, that the Call the Midwife characters are suddenly aware of. This is, at first glance, a story that's playing fast-and-loose with its very reality; it's not clear that it's set in the DWU for the simple reason that it doesn't quite seem too sure it takes place in any coherent fictional universe at all.

Because those elements are limited to the non-DW characters, you could argue that (for example) perhaps the Eleventh Doctor is meant to have brought them from the Land of Fiction or something, which would justify the gag while not otherwise infringing on the "solidness" of the DWU. Or you could simply track down a quote from whoever wrote/directed/produced this thing, confirming that it's meant to "happen-"happen to "our" Doctor, even if it likely din't "happen"-happen to the midwives as far as their show's "canon" is concerned.

But this is all pretty darn esoteric, and not a debate to be had over a talk page. --Scrooge MacDuck ☎ 02:40, November 12, 2020 (UTC)

Yet another thread to open when the forums are viable again. I really need to make a list...

Epsilon 📯 📂

02:54, November 12, 2020 (UTC)

I'll open a sandbox that anyone can edit if you want? Najawin ☎ 02:59, November 12, 2020 (UTC)

Sure!