Canon

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Canon is the body of works which any given Doctor Who fan considers to have "really happened" within Doctor Who Universe, and differs from fan to fan.

The BBC and the various production teams have never attempted to define an official canon, unlike with some other television shows -- most notably the Star Trek franchise -- which has left fans free to hold their own opinions over what constitutes the canon of Doctor Who.

See also Tardis:Canon policy for information relating specifically to this wiki.

Specific media

Television

  • Fans almost universally regard both the original and new television series and the 1996 TV Movie in their entirety, as canonical, despite many continuity contradictions both between and within different eras of the programme. Most would accept K-9 and Company, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, The Infinite Quest and Dreamland as occurring in the same universe. The two Children in Need Appeal mini-episodes from 2005 and 2007, Children in Need Special and Time Crash, are also considered canonical (with writer Steven Moffat confirming the canonicity of the latter in Doctor Who Magazine). When the series returned in 2005, many fans debated whether it should be considered canonical, given uncertainty as to whether it would maintain links to the original series; this debate dissolved following the advent of episodes such as DW: School Reunion which made explicit links to the original series. Similarly, the canonicity of the 1996 TV movie was finally confirmed with an on-screen flashback appearance of the Eighth Doctor in DW: The Next Doctor.
  • The majority of fans regard Shada as canonical, even though it never reached completion, let alone aired on television. Exactly which version of the story is canonical is not well settled as two versions exist: Shada (TV story), which was the incomplete version, and a later adaptation featuring another Doctor produced for webcast and audio release (see Shada (webcast)/Shada (audio release) which are basically the same productions). Confusing matters even more is the fact that DW: The Five Doctors incorporated footage from Shada into its narrative (and which footage differs between the original broadcast version of The Five Doctors, and the later remastered version created for home video.
  • The Pilot Episode is not usually considered to be part of the canon because it is an alternative version of An Unearthly Child and contradicts the broadcast version in several areas.
  • Extended and remade versions of episodes released on video and DVD, such as the The Five Doctors (Special Edition), the movie-format version of The Curse of Fenric, and various other alternate versions, are considered canonical by some fans, while other fans accept only the original broadcast version. The exception is the four-part version of Resurrection of the Daleks, which is widely accepted as the "canonical version", even though a slightly cut-down two-part version was the broadcast original. Most of the extensions are tiny and do not make significant changes in continuity, but there are some controversial changes in the The Five Doctors (Special Edition).
  • Several DVD releases in recent years have given viewers the option of watching the original broadcast version of an episode, or a version with some effects replaced by modern CGI (example, The Ark in Space). There has been no definitive word as to whether one version should be considered canon over the other. (A similar debate currently exists in Star Trek fandom over whether the original broadcast episodes should still be considered canon now that they are being replaced by high-definition versions with new special effects that often include changes to characters and objects.)
  • Deleted scenes exist for many episodes of both the original and revived series and have been released to DVD. The canonicity of these scenes is a matter of debate, though some deleted scenes contribute to the storyline or to character backstory. For example, a deleted scene from The Lazarus Experiment established that the Doctor assisted in writing the US Declaration of Independence and possesses the first draft. Other deleted scenes cannot be considered canonical due to their narrative being replaced by others: for example, scenes involving Howard Attfield as Geoff Noble in DW: Partners in Crime were refilmed with Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott when Attfield became too ill to continue filming. Both scenes contain virtually identical dialogue and situations, but the Cribbins version is continued canonical.
  • The mini-episodes, A Fix with Sontarans and Dimensions in Time, produced by one of the series' original producers, John Nathan-Turner, are nevertheless generally not considered a part of the original series or as canon by most fans, even though the latter featured all the (at that time) surviving Doctors and a number of returning companions. John Nathan-Turner apparently considered Dimensions in Time a "real" episode and believed it should have its own official production code. Likewise, The Curse of Fatal Death is also not generally considered to be canon, as it was a parody of the series.
  • There are also some additional televised appearances by the Doctor in educational programs that are generally not considered canon either, such as Search Out Space.
  • Two recent mini-episodes have sparked debates over canonicity: Attack of the Graske, which was an interactive game in which the Doctor engaged the viewer, and Music of the Spheres, in which the Doctor interacted with the real-life audience of the 2008 Doctor Who Proms concert. Another 2009 mini-episode, dubbed Tonight's the Night, was a fourth wall-breaking skit produced for a BBC talent show competition and makes no attempt to fit within continuity.

Movies

Fans almost universally do not consider the two films starring Peter Cushing, Dr. Who and the Daleks or Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD as taking place in the mainstream Doctor Who Universe. These have their own canon and their own continuity. These portray established characters in different ways, envisioning for example, the First Doctor as a human scientist actually named Dr. Who and re-tell the television stories The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth, respectively, in a different way.

Beginning in 1988 and the release of Wartime independent companies such as Reeltime Pictures and BBV Productions have produced a number of made-for-video productions featuring characters and races from Doctor Who licensed from their creators (but not the Doctor himself). Productions such as Shakedown, Downtime, P.R.O.B.E. and the Auton series (to name a few) exist in a similar grey area of canon as other spin-offs, with some fans accepting them as canon and others dismissing them as they aren't BBC productions. Some independent productions, such as the Stranger series by BBV and the parody Do You Have a License to Save This Planet? in which Sylvester McCoy lampoons the Seventh Doctor, are not generally considered canonical, even though it includes appearances from alien races from the TV series featured in the spin-offs such as the Sontarans and Autons.

Books

There is endless debate among fans over the canonicity of the various series of original novels. Some accept the Virgin New Adventures and Virgin Missing Adventures, some accept the BBC Books (Eighth Doctor Adventures, Past Doctor Adventures etc), some accept both, and some accept neither.

Russell T. Davies has written in DWM (Doctor Who Magazine), clarifying that the destruction of Gallifrey in the TV series was not related to the BBC Books (EDA: The Ancestor Cell), that he cannot put in the TV series any reference to a licensed product which might be taken as requiring BBC viewers to purchase something in order to know the whole story. But in the same article went out of his way to say that there could have been multiple destructions of Gallifrey. He has been consistently careful to make it clear that he wants to make it possible for fans to consider the books canonical, or not, as they prefer; the same attitude has been taken by most of the current series writers.

The potential canoncity of the novels has been made more complex by the fact one novel, Human Nature, featuring the Seventh Doctor, was later adapted as a television episode of the same title, featuring the Tenth Doctor, and that another novel, The Monsters Inside, is referenced on screen in Boom Town.

Some of the novels have made profound expansions to the backstories of the Doctor and other characters, little of which has been related in the TV series (which may or may not contradict the information). Examples include the Master's origins (including revealing his "real name"), the Cartmel Masterplan which attempted to establish an origin for the Doctor and his family (most notably in the novel Lungbarrow). Some novels have directly contradicted the TV series, such as several Cartmel Masterplan-related novels that established that Susan Foreman was not the Doctor's real granddaughter. In some cases continuity established in the novels has carried over into other media, such as having Romana II returning from E-Space and becoming Lord President of Gallifrey, which is also featured in various Big Finish audio dramas and the Shada webcast.

Still other novels have attemped to chronicle the ultimate fates of some companions, such as Peri Brown and Romana (who in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures line regenerates into a less-friendly third incarnation. Most boldly, several novels have killed off companions, such as Liz Shaw (Eternity Weeps) and Dodo Chaplet (Who Killed Kennedy).

All but a half-dozen of the original series episodes, plus the TV movie, have been adapted as novels. These novelisations often diverge considerably from their source material, sometimes contradicting what is shown on screen (in one case, the novelisation of The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve told almost a completely different story than the TV original), and as such are generally considered non-canonical.

Comics

Most fans consider the early comics stories printed by TV Comic, Countdown TV Action, created for a juvenile audience and featuring many differences from the TV series including radically different characterisation of the Doctor, as not taking place in "real continuity".

The comics printed in Doctor Who Magazine have varied wildly in their approach to continuity, depending on editorial policy. During one period, it was policy to tie them into Marvel Universe continuity, which is very difficult to reconcile with Doctor Who television continuity (example: 'The Crossroads of Time'). During another period, it was policy to closely tie them to Virgin New Adventures continuity, and some of the Virgin New Adventures refer to these. During another period they deliberately contradicted the Virgin New Adventures (in Ground Zero). Because of this, almost no fan accepts all of them as canon, but many fans accept some of them as canon, depending on their tastes. On at least one occasion a concept from the comic strips has appeared in a canonical episode: kronkburgers, introduced in the comic strip The Iron Legion, are referenced in the 2005 episodes The Long Game.

As with the novels, on rare occasions the comics have chronicled the fates of TV companions, most significantly the death of Jamie McCrimmon in DWM: The World Shapers.

Since the return of Doctor Who to television in 2005, the publishers of Doctor Who comic strips (primarily Doctor Who Magazine, Doctor Who Adventures, the various storybooks and annuals, and full-length comics published in the US by IDW Publishing, have made a concerted effort to tie their stories into televised continuity, making them (usually) easier to roll into one continuity.

Audio and radio

Dozens of professionally made audio dramas have been produced since 1976 when Doctor Who and the Pescatons was first issued. Several adventures have been produced by and broadcast by BBC Radio, while Big Finish has produced an extensive series of audio dramas featuring the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors since 1999, along with numerous spin-off audio series focusing on races such as the Daleks and individual characters such as Sarah Jane Smith. As with the novels, acceptance in canon depends upon the fan, although there is at least one example of a Big Finish audio drama (Jubilee) being adapted as a television episode (Dalek). One spin-off Big Finish series, Doctor Who Unbound is not considered canonical as it focuses on "what if?"-style stories featuring alternate interpretations of the Doctor and his (or her) companions.

Generally, the BBC Radio-produced dramas featuring Colin Baker (Slipback) and Jon Pertwee (The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space) are considered canon as they were produced by the BBC, along with the Tom Baker recording, The Pescatons. Not yet confirmed is the canonicity of a series of Big Finish-produced but BBC 7-commissioned and broadcast adventures featuring Paul McGann that debuted in 2007.

Webcasts

Prior to the return of Doctor Who to television, the BBC commissioned several original webcast productions for its official Doctor Who website. Of these only one, 2003's Scream of the Shalka, has been definitively removed from canon by the BBC due to the Ninth Doctor as played by Richard E. Grant being supplanted by the Ninth Doctor of Christopher Eccleston (even so, there have been attempts to reconcile this story with canon in some of the spin-off works). Another webcast, Death Comes to Time is also problematic to reconcile with canon as it features the death of a major ongoing character. Real Time is related to the Big Finish audio series and as such is subject to the same canon considerations. The fourth webcast, Shada, is discussed under "Television", above.

During the 2006 season, the BBC produced "webisodes" for each episode of the season. These were short prologues that helped set the scene or introduce a concept featured in an upcoming episode. It is unclear whether these short scenes are considered canonical; none were included in the later DVD release of Series 2.

Since the series revival in 2005, the BBC has also made extensive use of viral marketing online, creating real websites based upon fictional concepts such as UNIT and the Torchwood Institute. Many of these websites feature pieces of information that have been treated as official by some fans, but like everything else the BBC hasn't definitively stated whether any of the websites are canonical. (However, some of the background information seen on UNIT's website did later make it on screen during an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, confirming it as canon, at least in part.)

Stage plays

Two stage plays have been produced based upon the series: Doctor Who and the Daleks in The Seven Keys to Doomsday and Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure. Despite both plays being written by Terrance Dicks, and the latter featuring (at various times) Jon Pertwee and Colin Baker as their respective Doctors, neither play is considered canon.

Fanon

Main article: Fanon

A combination of the words "fan" and "canon", these are facts that have been made up by fans over the years to fill gaps in existing continuity/canon, and which become accepted as canon by the fanbase, despite not being supported in on-screen continuity.

External links

Canon
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