User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Inclusion debates/@comment-2.26.183.189-20170416191252/@comment-5918438-20170416230557

Though I hadn't yet seen that Aftershow thing when I made my comments, I did base what I said not just on what we saw in the 'trailer' and in the episode, but on comments made by Moffat before the airing of The Pilot. I'd have to dig for exact quotes, but one was essentially to the effect of:

I'm not sure if we're going to work it in to the show. [Something about being obsessed with continuity, and essentially "does it really matter in a show about time travel, with alternate timelines, etc."]

The other quote that came to mind was from the Space channel's InnerSpace segment from last December, where the interaction went basically like this:

One of the interviewers: So we saw Daleks in that trailer scene with Bill. So we can assume the Daleks...

Moffat: You can assume all you want, man.

Anyway, all of that is really a side note. I would dig for sources if it was truly important. The main point is that it doesn't seem to me at all, from other interviews I've seen, that it was always the intention to incorporate this scene into the show itself. Moffat saw it as a possibility, and perhaps expressed a personal wish to fit it in somehow...He did use some of that dialogue, so it's not gone to waste, and those who saw the original promo can enjoy the connection. But let's be real. The Friends from the Future dialogue was intended to be broad on the plot, and it still fails to actually make much sense within the context of The Pilot itself. "2017 needs us" was really way to advertise that series 10 is coming out in 2017. The whole thing reeks of the hypothetical, and it simply does not fit in to the real story, if you take FftF in its entirety. We already know what Bill's first encounter with the Daleks looked like, as we saw it in The Pilot, and it was not quite Friend from the Future.

That said, I'll revisit the statements made by Moffat in the Aftershow and give these arguments some consideration. This thing was made before the episode began filming, and, to be frank, it's literally just the audition script performed in costume and on a minimal set, with Daleks. It's a preview to the character and the new actor playing her; I'm not sure that it holds as a story on its own, and I don't think it was ever intended to be that. "Generic scene from an episode of Doctor Who done to showcase new companion" does not sound to me like a story intended to be valid.

On a side note, you're not truly suggesting Friend from the Future be the first appearance listed in Bill's infobox? That would be a logical result of this suddenly being made valid.