Talk:The Message of Mystery (comic story)

Is The Message of Mystery a valid source?

I'm probably overthinking this, but it seems to me that there's so many narrative disparities that exist within the story, and the fact that it essentially only exists as a setup for a puzzle (which is something that, as I recall, several later Doctor Who annuals do, and as far as I'm aware those narratives aren't covered by this wiki), then is it really worth considering as a valid source? Admittedly, there's no information I know of as to whether the story was written with the intent of being a part of the wider canon of the time, which makes it difficult for me to judge which way the pendulum would swing with regard to Rule 4.

At a push, maybe the case could be made that this takes place prior to the First Doctor and Susan's fleeing Gallifrey and Susan either lost her memory of the encounter or chose not to mention it when the TARDIS crew encountered them, and maybe there's a solid explanation for why these Daleks are behaving so differently, for example a mutation or a transient shift in Dalek doctrine. But that's just speculation on my part.

Can anyone else weigh in on this? 88.211.77.22^{talk to me} 12:51, 8 November 2021 (UTC)

I'm quite sure there was already an inclusion debate about this story in the Old Forums, looong ago.

Stories which have multiple different endings, or require "reader participation", are invalid, which is why many annual "game-stories" are invalid. However, in this case, there is no variability of narrative or fourth-wall-breaking: it is simply up to the reader to decode Susan's message, but the reader is not placed within the narrative, and the narrative does not depend on whether "you" successfully decode the message.

As for alleged continuity issues, continuity isn't how we decide validity on this Wiki, but regardless there are no actual real continuity issues. This story explicitly takes place long before The Daleks from the perspective of the Daleks, which is why they aren't quite so warmongering yet. And if we had to throw out every 1960s comic story whose placement in the TV timeline is unclear… I mean, any serious attempt to reconcile the John & Gillian comics with the First Doctor's televised timeline relies on a lot of retcons or guesswork. Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 13:01, 8 November 2021 (UTC)