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Valid resources for "in-universe" articles[[edit] | [edit source]]
The following list is merely a different, simplified way of looking at out canon policy. Whereas out canon policy generally speaks in terms of things that we don't consider canon, this list examines the policy from the perspective of those things that are considered canon. Because this is the reduction of policy to list form, few explanations are given here as to why certain items are on the list. For that detail, please return to the main policy page. In the event of any discrepancies between this list and the main policy page, the policy page shall be judged correct.
Fully licensed narrative[[edit] | [edit source]]
A "fully licensed narrative" is a story which is released with the blessing of the British Broadcasting Corporation. They are fully licensed in that every detail within the narrative may be safely assumed to be what it appears to be. If it seems to be the character of the Doctor or Romana, or the TARDIS or Gallifrey, then that's what it is. This can be contrasted with semi-licensed stories, like The Choice, where the identity of some characters is obscured to avoid copyright problems, or the totally unlicensed Time Travellers series, where the characters are only approximations of Doctor Who characters.
Acceptable fully-licensed narratives are listed below, by medium.
Television[[edit] | [edit source]]
- All televised stories of Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood, K9 and Company, and K9 EXCEPT FOR:
- Dimensions in Time
- The Curse of Fatal Death
- the Tonight's the Night sketch
- the 2011 National Television Awards sketch
- any obviously parodic sketches in the future
- anything listed on the page, Doctor Who parodies.
Novels[[edit] | [edit source]]
- BBC Books
- BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures
- BBC Past Doctor Adventures
- BBC New Series Adventures
- The Darksmith Legacy
- The Sarah Jane Adventures novelisations
- Quick Reads
- Doctor Who Chapter Books
- BBC Torchwood novels
- Any other future ranges of fiction published by the BBC
- Sparrow Books
- Target Books
- Companions of Doctor Who
- Target Missing Episodes - only to the extent that they do not contradict The Lost Stories series by Big Finish Productions
- Target Novelisations — only to the extent that they do not contradict televised episodes.
- Virgin Books
- Telos Publishing
- BBC Books
Short stories[[edit] | [edit source]]
Often, short stories appear in books that have other, non-narrative elements to them. Therefore, the following resources are valid on this wiki only inasmuch as narrative elements are concerned.
- Big Finish Productions
- Virgin Books
- World Distributors (Manchester), Ltd
- Polystyle Publications, Ltd.
- Doctor Who material in TV Comic Annuals
- Doctor Who material in Countdown/TV Action Annuals
- Doctor Who Holiday Special 1973
- Doctor Who Holiday Special 1974
- Doctor Who Winter Special 1977
- Marvel Comics
- Panini Comics
- Doctor Who Annual 2006
- Doctor Who Storybook 2007 - present
- Stories found in Doctor Who Magazine and special issues, including, the Brief Encounter range and any "one-shot" short stories.
- Between the Wars: A Slow Night in Paradise in Abslom Daak - Dalek Killer'
- Titan Books
- short stories appearing in Torchwood Magazine
- Torchwood The Official Magazine Yearbook (2008)
- Torchwood The Official Magazine Yearbook (2009)
- BBC Books
- Souvenir Press Ltd/Panther Books Ltd
Comics[[edit] | [edit source]]
Only the original printing of a comic is viewed as fully canonical. Reprints can lose frames, or suddenly lose or add color.
- Comics published in or by:
- Doctor Who Magazine EXCEPT the Tales from the TARDIS series of strips, Daleks Versus the Martians, and any parodic/humour strips, such as work by Dicky Howett and Tim Quinn
- Doctor Who Adventures
- Doctor Who: Battles in Time
- TV Comic
- Countdown / TV Action
- Radio Times
- TV Century 21 (specifically, those strips later reprinted as The Dalek Chronicles)
- Torchwood Magazine
- Torchwood: The Official Comic
- Any narrative material original to Doctor Who Classic Comics, be it prose or comic strip
- any IDW Doctor Who publication
- any annual, yearbook, storybook, holiday special or seasonal publication — based upon any show in the Doctor Who universe — published by BBC Magazines, BBC Books, Panini Comics, IDW Publishing, Polystyle Publications, Ltd., Marvel Comics, or World Distributors (Manchester), Ltd
- any official BBC website, or the official K9 website.
- Original graphic novels, including Rift War, The Only Good Dalek, and The Age of Chaos
- Comic strip stories contained in Stories with unknown or disputed Doctors are primarily deemed to have happened with the Second or Third Doctors, depending on whichever was present in the original printing. However, mention may be made of the story as experienced by the Fourth Doctor if the editor is drawing attention to the differences between the original printing and the redrawn Fourth Doctor versions.
- Comics published in or by:
Audio[[edit] | [edit source]]
- BBC Radio Dramas
- AudioGo/BBC Audio audio stories initially released on home audio
- Torchwood direct-to-CD releases
- Doctor Who and the Pescatons
- Hornets' Nest
- Demon Quest
- Any future original Fourth Doctor AudioGo series.
- AUDIO: The Stones of Blood, to the extent that it does not contradict the televised story. Any contradictions with PROSE: Doctor Who and the Stones of Blood shall be treated as equally possible interpretations, neither being "more correct" than the other.
- Any future original AudioGo dramatisations of televised stories that differ with the Target Books novelisation of the same story.
- Original audios in the BBC New Series Adventures range. This does not include readings of books which originally debuted in print. In such cases, the print version is deemed to be the version we prefer. For example, if there are differences between the version of The Story of Martha as read by Freema Agyeman, and the original, printed book, the book is considered superior information by this wiki. Audiobooks, because they can be abridged, are the only type of performed Doctor Who which is judged inferior to print.
- Original audios in the SJA audiobooks range
- Big Finish Productions
- Stories with the Doctor
- Stories without the Doctor
Webcasts[[edit] | [edit source]]
- without proviso, Real Time
- The Shada webcast, featuring the Eighth Doctor, is the only other webcast we deem canonical, but in a more nuanced way. It is not apocryphal, and should never be described as such. However, it must be described as a version of events, since the home video release of Shada, featuring the Fourth Doctor, is equally valid. [In truth, however, I believe we would be better off making the arbitrary decision to deem all versions of Shada non-canonical, and just restrict info to story pages. Trying to describe the in-universe events in a way that equally handles all three versions of Shada is a long-winded affair. I think it's better just to not try. It never made it to television. Just let it go.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ <span style="">09:08:16 Fri 11 Mar 2011 ]
Video games[[edit] | [edit source]]
Yet to be resolved[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Everything at Doctor Who Make Your Own Adventure Books. Since the reader has some control over how the story unfolds, it's unclear which version of events might be "canonically correct". Thus, a general description of the characters, places, and objects in the books is indisputably canon, but going deeper may be problematic. For instance, if one of the books had a planet Zul, it would be acceptable to given a general description of Zul, but it might not be appropriate to say "the Tenth Doctor's actions ensured that the planet Zul was destroyed" — because that might not be true of every reading of the book. [Note: I'm really not comfortable with these "Find Your Destiny" type books, because their point is to offer a whole range of possible options. I'd just as soon declare them non-canon on the grounds that it simply can't be determined what their definite plot is.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ <span style="">08:56:09 Fri 11 Mar 2011 ] - Most videogames pose a problem, largely because of the same reason as these "Make Your Own Adventure Books". There's a not-yet-closed- discussion at Forum:We need a policy on videogames.
- Everything at Doctor Who Make Your Own Adventure Books. Since the reader has some control over how the story unfolds, it's unclear which version of events might be "canonically correct". Thus, a general description of the characters, places, and objects in the books is indisputably canon, but going deeper may be problematic. For instance, if one of the books had a planet Zul, it would be acceptable to given a general description of Zul, but it might not be appropriate to say "the Tenth Doctor's actions ensured that the planet Zul was destroyed" — because that might not be true of every reading of the book. [Note: I'm really not comfortable with these "Find Your Destiny" type books, because their point is to offer a whole range of possible options. I'd just as soon declare them non-canon on the grounds that it simply can't be determined what their definite plot is.
Semi-licensed narrative[[edit] | [edit source]]
A "semi-licensed narrative" is one in which the producers have obtained the permission of the copyright-holder of a character, but not the British Broadcasting Corporation.
- Bernice Summerfield stories, published by Big Finish and Virgin Books
- Kaldor City audio series, as licensed by Chris Boucher, writer of The Robots of Death
- The Time Hunter series which resulted from the BBC-licensed, PROSE: The Cabinet of Light
- The Miranda comic book, which arose from Lance Parkin's work on the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures
- Faction Paradox
- The Eleven Day Empire
- The Shadow Play
- Sabbath Dei
- In the Year of the Cat
- Movers
- A Labyrinth of Histories
- AUDIO: Coming to Dust
- The Ship of a Billion Years
- Body Politic
- Words from Nine Divinities
- Ozymandias
- The Judgment of Sutekh
- Novels: The Book of the War
- This Town Will Never Let Us Go
- Of the City of the Saved...
- Warlords of Utopia
- Warring States
- Erasing Sherlock
- Newtons Sleep
- Comics: Political Animals
- Bêtes Noires & Dark Horses
- . . . and anything else which might be published with the consent of Lawrence Miles, unless it directly uses elements copyrighted by the BBC, and is published without the BBC's permission.
- Selected parts of the BBV Productions/Reeltime Pictures back-catalogue, strictly limited to that which had the assent of the character copyright holders. Thus the following are allowed:
- P.R.O.B.E.
- Guy de Carnac, a character who appeared in Sanctuary, a BBC-licensed product
- The "Auton Trilogy"
- Rutans
- The Shakedown duology
- The Krynoid duology
- The I
- The Rani
- Wirrn
- Adventures in a Pocket Universe - these are complicated to assess, because the producers had the assent of the K9 copyright holders, but not the BBC, who own Romana II. Thus, although Lalla Ward was the co-star of the series, she cannot be judged to be playing Romana II. She is herein referred to only as "The Mistress". The K9 herein is not K9 Mark II, who went with Romana II into E-Space, but another model of K9 altogether. Therefore, we allow coverage of these stories, but in a careful way that never refers back to either the characters of K9 Mark II or Romana II.