The goal of the Doctor Who Concordance is to be a reliable, concise guide to all readers in its description of the Doctor Who universe and associated material. To this end, it is necessary for us to restrict to some extent the type of information we accept.
Summary of policy
Articles need to cite each resource used as the basis for their information. Generally, everything seen or heard in any episode or special of the franchise can be used as a resource for an article.
Canonicity and its usage
The term "canon", although widely used by followers of materials set within the Doctor Who universe, is a misnomer. No evidence exists to suggest any Doctor Who production team, past or present, has laid down a comprehensive set of guidelines for what would be accepted nor provided a list of materials set within the fictional universe. In fact, two showrunners - Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat - have firmly stated that the program does not and has never had a canon, with Davies content to allow individual fans to form their own ideas on what "exists" in the fictional universe, while Moffat cites the program's unique premise as not allowing the idea of a canon.
The basis for the Doctor Who Concordance is the idea that the Doctor Who franchise's televised material should be treated as independent from its expanded universe material and left unburdened by the divergent outcomes shown in said material that are often irreconcilable. It does not go without saying that, as would be expected in a franchise consisting of four different series and spanning almost fifty years, universal consistency is definitely not a given. However, this does not preclude the existence of an overall intent that may allow certain aberrations to be ignored in favour of more well-established material. It is not the Doctor Who Concordance's intention to create a canon where there was none before, but to provide a navigable guide to Doctor Who and its spin-offs that does not strain to fit in information that was never intended to form a cohesive whole across numerous media.
Beyond its usage on this page, which is named for convenience due to its familiarity to Wikia users, the concept of a canon for the Doctor Who franchise should not be used for the Doctor Who Concordance due to the inaccuracy of the term when applied to the franchise.
Resources
Episodes and specials
- All Doctor Who episodes (including 1996's "Doctor Who")
- All Torchwood episodes
- All The Sarah Jane Adventures episodes
- All SJA: Alien Files episodes
- All Class episodes
- K-9 and Company
- All original radio broadcasts and audio productions for the BBC
- "The Crusade"
- "Real Time"
- "Shada"
- "Global Conspiracy!"
- All Children in Need specials with specifically produced in-universe material
- All Tardisodes
- "The Infinite Quest"
- "The Davros Mission"
- "From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love"
- "Liberty Hall"
- "Dreamland"
- "A Ghost Story for Christmas"
- All "Monster Files" presented by Alex Kingston as River Song
- The narrative aspects of The Adventure Games
- All Meanwhile in the TARDIS scenes
- "Space" and "Time"
- All Prequels (except for "She Said, He Said: A Prequel")
- "Web of Lies"
- "Death Is the Only Answer"
- All Night and the Doctor scenes
- "Good as Gold"
- All Pond Life scenes
- "P.S."
- "The Battle of Demons Run: Two Days Later"
- "Clarence and the Whispermen"
- "Clara and the TARDIS"
- "Rain Gods"
- "The Inforarium"
- "The Night of the Doctor"
- "The Last Day"
- "Series 9 Prologue"
- "The Doctor's Meditation"
- "Friend from the Future"
- "Jo Grant Returns"
- "Ace Returns!"
- "Farewell, Sarah Jane"
- "Return of the Autons"
- "The Defence Drones"
- "Welcome to the TARDIS..."
- "Risen"
- "The Flux is Coming..."
Articles should not be created for subjects that are not seen or heard of in an episode or special.
Production and reference materials
- Reference works created by production staff
- Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale
- The Making of Doctor Who
- Torchwood: The Encyclopedia
- Portions of Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia
- Material used day-to-day by production staff
- Any writer/director's guide for a series (aka "Writer's Bible")
- Any scripts of an episode; provided that spelling can be used as valid resources, but will not take precedence over spelling seen on-screen in an episode.
- Other information derived from production staff
- Information from BBC One - Doctor Who, BBC - Doctor Who - The Classic Series, BBC One - Torchwood or CBBC - BBC - The Sarah Jane Adventures
- Supplementary DVD materials (for example, interviews, commentary, documentaries – anything that is not the episode itself)
- Background information from the production staff (from interviews with Robert Holmes, John Nathan-Turner, etc.)
- Subtitled dialogue; provided that spelling can be used as valid resources, but will not take precedence over spelling seen in a script or on-screen in an episode.
- Reference works created by non-production staff
- AHistory
- Doctor Who: Companions and Allies
- Doctor Who: The Dalek Handbook
- Doctor Who: The Time Traveller's Almanac
- Portions of The Doctor Who Technical Manual
- Any "making of" publication (for example, Doctor Who: The Making of a Television Series)
- Television teasers, trailers, or other promotional material.
- Cut or alternative scenes from episodes as compared to those originally broadcast (for television) or released (for movies); provided that the stories on "Special Edition" DVDs can be used as valid resources and will take precedence over the broadcast versions where different and conflicting.
- Portions of sets, props, makeup, and costumes to the extent not seen on-screen in an episode, even if they existed in real life.
- Scripts, series, and other material contemplated but not produced and released (for example, Rose Tyler: Earth Defence)
- Any other behind-the-scenes or production material
The only exception to the exclusion of production or reference material not seen on-screen from the main body of an article is for naming or titling items or people that were seen on-screen but not referred to by name or title. For example, names such as Green and Sellick were not mentioned on-screen, but are derived from production sources. The primary reason for this is to avoid creating a large number of "unnamed" subject pages when an official name already exists. In the event that any of this information contradicts on-screen information, however, then the information stated on-screen will take precedence. Also, dates for certain events in the Doctor Who universe (such as 2875 for "Revenge of the Cybermen") that were derived from reference materials may be used. This is to prevent labelling a number of serials or episodes as being set in the 20th century, 26th century, etc. A background note explaining where the source was derived from should be provided and, as with the naming rule above, are to be ignored should they be contradicted on screen.