Doctor Who: Canon Fodder?

 

"THE TIMEY-WIMEY CHARM OF DOCTOR WHO CANON MAKES

IT THE BEST IN SCI-FI

Whovians are given more freedom to explore than Star Trek

and Star Wars fans, and [the show's] contradictions should

be celebrated"

Thomas Ling, Radio Times

To Whovians, the immense body of work that is more than fifty-five years

worth of Doctor Who is open to interpretation. What exactly do we as fans

consider to be part of the resultant 'Whoniverse'? Frankly, this is a personal

choice, one which will be continually debated in every forum open to fans.

Unlike the makers of Star Wars and Star Trek, the BBC has never made an

official announcement on the subject of Doctor Who lore - why should it,

 the franchise keeps developing, and is too vast to easily quantify.

Whovians will always want a complete narrative, but this ever-evolving

series makes that virtually impossible, but everything within the

Whoniverse can co-exist, or be made to fit anyway.

The consensus amongst fans is that true canonicity in the Whoniverse is

defined purely by those adventures broadcast on TV by the BBC - which

must now encompass the tie-in stories of The Sarah Jane Adventures,

Torchwood, Class, K9, Prequels and Tardisodes.

Everything outside the medium of television is therefore NOT canon. Yet

 the list of officially sanctioned Doctor Who spin-offs is almost endless,

and continues to grow. Since 1964, there has been all manner of story-

telling that endeavours to contribute to the original programme's mythos.

We've witnessed features films, plays, radio, audio, novelisations, comic

-strips, books, magazines, collector-cards, charity specials, RPG, computer

games, webcasts, exhibitions, DVD extras, even a live arena tour, and a 

musical, alongside the ever-expanding Big Finish ranges, and the fan-

fiction seen via convention stages, fanzines, websites, and independent

 films (et al, etc, ad nauseum!).

In the so-called wilderness years of the 1990s, between the original and 

revived runs, fans welcomed any form of fresh Doctor Who, so let us

embrace our show in all it's incarnations in that same spirit.