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The List of multi-Doctor stories page is an incredibly valuable page of this wiki, but it is one of the more controversial ones as there are never ending debates about what truly “counts” as a multi-Doctor story. Does it require the Doctors meet in person? What about stories where they don’t meet? What about flashbacks? Regenerations? Retro-regenerations?
With 117 (and counting) stories listed on the page, it has become increasingly more cumbersome (I mean, I can barely keep track of which column is which Doctor...) and less justifiable to treat all the different types of multi-Doctor stories as if they are all the same by listing them in one single table.
Say someone wanted to find out how many times 10 and 11 have met each other. They could simply check the list and see 18 stories with 10 and 11: To Sleep, Perchance to Scream; Endgame; The Name of the Doctor; Dead Man's Hand; Death's Deal; The Day of the Doctor; Legacy (invalid source btw); Four Doctors; Open Mic Night; The Doctors Do... Classic Comedy; Pull to Open; Outrun; Running to Stay Still; Supremacy of the Cybermen; The Long Con; The Jago & Litefoot Revival; The Promise; and The Lost Dimension
However, only 4 of those actually feature them meeting each other directly (in-arguably multi-Doctor stories}: Endgame, The Day of the Doctor, Four Doctors, and The Lost Dimension
The others fall into other categories that could be expansions of what a multi-Doctor story is:
- Close proximity to each other, but do not meet: The Jago & Litefoot Revival
- Separate narratives in the same story, but do not meet: The Name of the Doctor, Death's Deal, Supremacy of the Cybermen, The Long Con, The Promise
- Manifestation of past/future incarnation: To Sleep, Perchance to Scream; Dead Man's Hand; Pull to Open
- Retro-regeneration into a past incarnation: Outrun, Running to Stay Still
- Other???: Legacy (Invalid source), Open Mic Night; The Doctors Do... Classic Comedy (are these two joke strips seriously considered valid?)
Also, you can see that there are currently 13 footnotes on the page, mostly on recent stories, explaining some context on the event if the Doctors didn’t encounter each other. Many other past stories could use similar footnotes if we want to maintain consistency. But in order to prevent half of the stories being given incredibly similar footnotes for similar scenarios, here’s my proposal: We split the table into 5 tables for the different categories of multi-Doctor story.
My category suggestions:
Direct Encounters: The Doctors encounter each other either in person and/or through some form of direct communication (TV screen, telephone, psychic link, etc.)
- Examples: The Three/Five/Two Doctors, Time Crash, The Day of the Doctor, Deep Breath, The Doctor Falls, etc.
Separate Narratives: Multiple Doctors are involved in the same story, but do not encounter each other as they are in different times and/or place.
- Examples: The Name of the Doctor, Supremacy of the Cybermen, The Promise, The Bidding War, etc.
F̶l̶a̶s̶h̶b̶a̶c̶k̶:̶ T̶h̶e̶ ̶D̶o̶c̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶r̶a̶c̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶D̶o̶c̶t̶o̶r̶(̶s̶)̶. ̶(Gonna merge this with Separate Narrative.)
- ̶ E̶x̶a̶m̶p̶l̶e̶s̶:̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶S̶w̶o̶r̶d̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶K̶a̶l̶i̶,̶ ̶S̶t̶r̶a̶n̶g̶e̶ ̶L̶o̶o̶p̶s̶,̶ ̶e̶t̶c̶.
Close Proximity: Multiple Doctors are in the same time and place, but do not encounter each other.
- Examples: Listen, A Matter of Life and Death, The Jago & Litefoot Revival, etc.
Manifestation: Some of the Doctor’s incarnations are manifestations of some sort (dream, inside the Doctor’s mind, Matrix projections), not physical incarnations meeting.
- Examples: Timewyrm: Revelation, To Sleep, Perchance to Scream, Dead Man's Hand, Pull to Open, etc.
Retro-regeneration: The Doctor temporarily regenerates backwards / is de-aged into previous incarnation(s).
- Examples: Timeslip, The Funhouse, The Fountains of Forever, The Then and the Now, Outrun, Running to Stay Still, etc.
I’m willing to consider other categories, as well as change the names to be descriptive as possible. And should Flashback and Separate Narrative be merged? They are a bit similar. And if retro-regenerations get a category, maybe regular regenerations also deserve one. Also, what about video/audio recordings one Doctor finds of another?
However, I will admit problems can occur if the story fits into multiple categories, in other words not all the incarnations fall in the same criteria. For example: Four Doctors. Doctors 10, 11, and 12 (and 12 from an alternate timeline) all meet in person. But the War Doctor appears in the opening pages in a Separate Narrative and does not encounter any other Doctors. Also, the 9th Doctor appears at the end in a cafe 10, 11, and 12 nearby, but 9 does not see them.
The simplest solution would be to list Four Doctor in Direct, Separate Narrative, and Proximity, and to italicise (or maybe bold?) the x’s to denote Doctors that do not fit the criteria.
This would be a massive change to the page, and would require much cooperation from wiki members knowledgeable on these stories to categorize dozens of stories as accurately as possible, but I think the increased clarity of what “counts” as a multi-doctor story by acknowledging the different definitions it really has.
It could also help dig up some obscure stories people realize are missing from the list, as well as correcting mistakes. (I just keep finding them!)
In the event my proposal is supported, I will need help categorising all the stories, as many non-tv stories to not have detailed plot summaries. I have created a Google Sheet with all the current stories listed (hopefully, I keep adding ones I see missing), feel contribute on which stories belong in which category.
UPDATE: This is the basic idea: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/User:LegoK9/Sandbox