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Forum:A Fix with Sontarans: Fixing Fix's Validity: Difference between revisions
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Forum:A Fix with Sontarans: Fixing Fix's Validity (edit)
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In fact, it is truly the elephant in the room. It is messy. Undeniably so. It has Jimmy Savile inexplicably enter the TARDIS and then the episode just kinda melts into non-fiction where Savile gives Gareth a medal and a [[meson gun]]. Arguably, this isn't even a fourth wall break, as at no point does any character turn to the camera and say "you're watching ''A Fix with Sontarans''!", it's in-universe-ness fades, which is the issue. Six and Tegan don't really break character however, although they also don't really question the inexplicable appearance of Savile either. However, I think it should be said that all of this plausibly ''could'' take place in-universe? It would be very ''strange'', but not ''impossible''. | In fact, it is truly the elephant in the room. It is messy. Undeniably so. It has Jimmy Savile inexplicably enter the TARDIS and then the episode just kinda melts into non-fiction where Savile gives Gareth a medal and a [[meson gun]]. Arguably, this isn't even a fourth wall break, as at no point does any character turn to the camera and say "you're watching ''A Fix with Sontarans''!", it's in-universe-ness fades, which is the issue. Six and Tegan don't really break character however, although they also don't really question the inexplicable appearance of Savile either. However, I think it should be said that all of this plausibly ''could'' take place in-universe? It would be very ''strange'', but not ''impossible''. | ||
So what we're faced with is a very messy ending that dissolved from otherwise a pretty conventional minisode. It doesn't break [[T:VS]], so even by its own merits it should be valid. (And for the record, [[Jimmy Savile]] being in it is not ''remotely'' | So what we're faced with is a very messy ending that dissolved from otherwise a pretty conventional minisode. It doesn't break [[T:VS]], so even by its own merits it should be valid. (And for the record, [[Jimmy Savile]] being in it is not a ''remotely'' justifiable reason for its invalidity. We're not gonna invalidate ''[[The Mind of Evil (TV story)|The Mind of Evil]]'' for having the [[Third Doctor]] being friends with [[Mao Tse-Tung]] or invalidate the entirety of [[Series 1 (Doctor Who)|Series 1]] and [[Series 2 (Doctor Who)|2]] because of [[John Barrowman]] and [[Noel Clarke]]!) It wouldn't even be impossible to just say "according to one account, the Sixth Doctor presented Gareth Jenkins with the ''[[Jim'll Fix It]]'' medal after [[Jimmy Savile (in-universe)|Jimmy Savile]] presented it to him to be placed on Gareth's bonce." | ||
Furthermore, if this isn't good enough reason to validate ''A Fix with Sontarans'', then there is the rule-four-by-proxy angle to validate the minisode from. ''[[Fixing a Hole (short story)|Fixing a Hole]]'' was a short story printed in ''[[Short Trips (series)|Short Trips]]'': ''[[Past Tense]]'', which serves as a direct sequel to ''AFwS''. Heck, even the title of this story is pun about fixing ''A Fix with Sontarans''{{'}}s plot holes; quite ingenius if I say so myself. In this short story — which is mostly a character piece — it follows Tegan and Six after Gareth has been returned to Earth. Interestingly, unlike other cases of stories like ''[[First Frontier (novel)|First Frontier]]'' bringing more infamous stories like ''[[Dimensions in Time (TV story)|Dimensions in Time]]'' "into recontexualising | Furthermore, if this isn't good enough reason to validate ''A Fix with Sontarans'', then there is the rule-four-by-proxy angle to validate the minisode from. ''[[Fixing a Hole (short story)|Fixing a Hole]]'' was a short story printed in ''[[Short Trips (series)|Short Trips]]'': ''[[Past Tense]]'', which serves as a direct sequel to ''AFwS''. Heck, even the title of this story is pun about fixing ''A Fix with Sontarans''{{'}}s plot holes; quite ingenius if I say so myself. In this short story — which is mostly a character piece — it follows Tegan and Six after Gareth has been returned to Earth. Interestingly, unlike other cases of stories like ''[[First Frontier (novel)|First Frontier]]'' bringing more infamous stories like ''[[Dimensions in Time (TV story)|Dimensions in Time]]'' "into continuity" by recontexualising the latter's events (e.g. "it was all a dream"), ''Fixing a Hole'' just seems to... ignore the ending of ''A Fix with Sontarans''. No mention of Savile or ''Jim'll Fix It'' is ever made, which is contrasted by the rest of ''AFwS'' being recapped. Is this enough evidence for rule-four-by-proxy? I'd say so, even if it doesn't provide a satisfying way for us to Wikify the ending of ''AFwS'', which is something I don't believe is necessary for the rule-four-by-proxy approach. | ||
As a minor tangent, the name "[[meson gun]]" seemed to have originated from ''AFwS'' despite the prop being seen in ''[[The Two Doctors (TV story)|The Two Doctors]]'', and the novel ''[[Lords of the Storm (novel)|Lords of the Storm]]'' has the Sontarans use a [[Meson cannon|meson ''cannon'']], so this may be a very minor reference to ''AFwS'' by showing Sontarans use different types of meson | As a minor tangent, the name "[[meson gun]]" seemed to have originated from ''AFwS'' despite the prop being seen in ''[[The Two Doctors (TV story)|The Two Doctors]]'', and the novel ''[[Lords of the Storm (novel)|Lords of the Storm]]'' has the Sontarans use a [[Meson cannon|meson ''cannon'']], so this may be a very minor reference to ''AFwS'' by showing Sontarans use different types of meson weaponry. Although, it wouldn't be unprecedent for the name "meson gun" to have originated in an early draft of ''TTD''{{'}}s script. | ||
The final reason for ''AFwS''{{'}}s validity is the pressing one, and also more of a technical one. When ''[[Doctor Who (TV series)|Doctor Who]]'': ''[[The Collection]]'' — ''[[Season 22]]'' was released not too long ago, a ''new'' version of ''A Fix with Sontarans'' was released, with all of the bits with Savile removed for obvious reasons. (Incidentally, this actually is more in continuity with ''Fixing a Hole'' than the original...) Now, I created [[A Fix with Sontarans (home video)|a new, separate page]] for this recut given that it, in its new form, has absolutely zero reason to be invalid. In passes [[T:VS]] with ''flying'' colours. To justify this, I treated it like everything in [[:Category:DVD adaptations of television stories]], but since then I seem to recall that there have been talk pages (can't remember which) that cite a forum thread that sought to merge these pages into their original broadcast cuts? I dunno the specifics, although I can see the rationale. With the 2022 ''AFwS'', a lot of new OOU info is exclusive to the new page when it would be better served to be covered on one page, and as for in-universe info, the only difference is the ending which can be covered in subsections of the plot summary. It is not even unprecedented for there to exist multiple versions of the same story, such as many of the comics in [[:Category:Stories with unknown or disputed Doctors]], e.g. ''[[Doomcloud (comic story)|Doomcloud]]'', which much more substantially has either the [[Third Doctor|Third]] or [[Fourth Doctor]] depending on the reprint. Now, it would be simple to just put {{tlx|merge}} on [[A Fix with Sontarans (home video)]] and have it quickly merged into [[A Fix with Sontarans (TV story)]]... if it wasn't for the original cut continuing to be invalid. I don't think it is possible under our current rules to have a source page be both invalid and valid, depending on the version, but at ''the same time'' the two pages only exist so one can be valid and is not good for actual coverage of the sources. | The final reason for ''AFwS''{{'}}s validity is the pressing one, and also more of a technical one. When ''[[Doctor Who (TV series)|Doctor Who]]'': ''[[The Collection]]'' — ''[[Season 22]]'' was released not too long ago, a ''new'' version of ''A Fix with Sontarans'' was released, with all of the bits with Savile removed for obvious reasons. (Incidentally, this actually is more in continuity with ''Fixing a Hole'' than the original...) Now, I created [[A Fix with Sontarans (home video)|a new, separate page]] for this recut given that it, in its new form, has absolutely zero reason to be invalid. In passes [[T:VS]] with ''flying'' colours. To justify this, I treated it like everything in [[:Category:DVD adaptations of television stories]], but since then I seem to recall that there have been talk pages (can't remember which) that cite a forum thread that sought to merge these pages into their original broadcast cuts? I dunno the specifics, although I can see the rationale. With the 2022 ''AFwS'', a lot of new OOU info is exclusive to the new page when it would be better served to be covered on one page, and as for in-universe info, the only difference is the ending which can be covered in subsections of the plot summary. It is not even unprecedented for there to exist multiple versions of the same story, such as many of the comics in [[:Category:Stories with unknown or disputed Doctors]], e.g. ''[[Doomcloud (comic story)|Doomcloud]]'', which much more substantially has either the [[Third Doctor|Third]] or [[Fourth Doctor]] depending on the reprint. Now, it would be simple to just put {{tlx|merge}} on [[A Fix with Sontarans (home video)]] and have it quickly merged into [[A Fix with Sontarans (TV story)]]... if it wasn't for the original cut continuing to be invalid. I don't think it is possible under our current rules to have a source page be both invalid and valid, depending on the version, but at ''the same time'' the two pages only exist so one can be valid and is not good for actual coverage of the sources. | ||
