Talk:Policeman (An Unearthly Child)

==Merger with Reg Cranfield==

The information on Reg Cranfield might suggest that this page and that page should be merged. But reading Reg Cranfield's page there's nothing exactly that links him to the policeman seen at the start of An Unearthly Child, and as this page notes Fred Rawlings is also a contender for the role of the policeman.

I don't think that he's named for the actor who played the policeman is enough of a reason to merge. Continuity references are rife in the DWU especially around the 50th anniversary when Shroud of Sorrow (novel) was published. --Tangerineduel / talk 14:11, September 28, 2017 (UTC)

Although I agree that by the Wiki's policy the in-universe evidence isn't tangible enough to make the link, I don't think I understand the point of that last sentence. How does "there were a lot of continuity references being made at the time" invalidate the idea that the name would be a link to the TV character?

Again, I agree that this link shouldn't be drawn for now, but because of a variation of T:NO RL (within the DWU the name has no significance, it's only with real-world knowledge that we understand its relevance), not some nebulous judgement regarding the amount of continuity references that were going on. --Scrooge MacDuck ☎ 20:06, December 8, 2019 (UTC)

Surely, if we can't say that Reg Cranfield is this character, the same applies to Fred Rawlings, who is also mentioned on this page. Both are mentioned in the novel Shroud of Sorrow, which I've read, and indeed I got the impression that Reg Cranfield, and not Fred Rawlings, was supposed to be this character. And in either case there's no definitive evidence for either character being this one. Same with Bernard Whittam from The Last Day at Work, actually, who, I must not already has his own page. This page is in a very odd state at the moment and I think most of the parts not specially about An Unearthly Child should probably be removed. 86.170.183.51^{talk to me} 21:51, 27 August 2021 (UTC)

I made that last post. Forgot to sign in. Again. I do apologise for how this is becoming rather a habit now. NightmareofEden ☎ 21:52, 27 August 2021 (UTC)

I think Whittham is different. For one thing, we have an illustration of him and he clearly looks just like the policeman in An Unearthly Child. Secondly, while Cranfield and Rawlings are wink-wink easter eggs, it is literally the premise and selling point of The Last Day at Work that it explains who the Unearthly Child Policeman really was. If we cannot acknowledge that on this Wiki, then something has gone disastrously wrong. Scrooge MacDuck ☎ 22:04, 27 August 2021 (UTC)

There's nothing "disastrously wrong" about requiring sources for info. We don't do assumptions. If something is intended, it can't be that hard to find a source for it. Shambala108 ☎ 22:48, 27 August 2021 (UTC)

Of course. But I didn't say something had "gone disastrously wrong". I say it would if we couldn't; but in fact, it is my contention that we can. When a story is advertised as featuring the Third Doctor, and the man on the cover looks like Jon Pertwee, then even if in-story he's not called "the Third Doctor," we know the "white-haired time-traveller" is Pertwee, not Hartnell or Capaldi.

By the same token, I was telling our anonymous friend over there that if a story is advertised as the story that reveals who the Unearthly Child policeman was, and the guy on the cover looks like the man in An Unearthly Child, then we can in fact consider that this is an appearance of that character even if he doesn't break the fourth wall in-story to lean at you and whisper in your ear "by the way that was me at timestap 00:00:03 of An Unearthly Child, Episode One.

User:CzechOut's comments and conclusions at Talk:Totem (short story) are I think the precedent we need if we want a specific word of policy on the subject — finding that yes, if it's clear from the out-of-universe intent that the character was meant to be the Eighth Doctor, and there are actual narrative clues in-story that point towards the Eighth Doctor (even though they could theoretically point towards the Third Doctor as well), then we can acknowledge that it's an Eighth Doctor story. Scrooge MacDuck ☎ 23:35, 27 August 2021 (UTC)