ABSOLUTE PROOF that ALL Big Finish media IS canon!

[shada pavlova]

An ambitious title, you may think, but one that is totally justified.

And the proof is...Time Crash.

In Time Crash, two versions of the TARDIS merge, so that the 5th & 10th doctors meet. BUT the 5th doctor is alone! (NB: if he had any companions with him, they would have appeared in the merged TARDIS like the 5th doctor himself did.)

Now, the ONLY chronicled period in which the 5th Doctor travels alone is whilst returning to Frontios after dropping off the Gravis on Kolkokron. AND since the BF audio Excelis Decays is set during that period, since Time Crash is canon, they both must be!

Therefore, if Excelis Decays sets the precedent, then ALL Big Finish Media can now be seen as canon! Q.E.D.!

[Rob McCow]

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellll.....

Possibly! I can't think of a single occasion where the fifth Doctor flies the TARDIS on his own on TV. Although Tegan flies it solo!

Of course, it doesn't make Big Finish 'official'. It actually makes the comic strips of DWM canon, because he flies around on his own for the most part, aside from his companions Gus, Justin and Shayde.

I'm probably not alone in thinking that Shayde should appear in the new series, but it's likely that there are only two other people!

[Andrew Curnow]

Sorry, but when the Doctor nips off to plonk the Gravis on Kolkakron Tegan goes with him. Anyway, there's no particular reason for the fifth Doctor's companions to appear in Time Crash is there? They might have been in another part of the TARDIS at the time perhaps - Tegan's bedroom for example (I'd certainly far rather be in there than stood around the control console).

[Antony Cox]

Tegan's bedroom for example (I'd certainly far rather be in there than stood around the control console).

With your big central column going up and down?

[Si Hunt]

You're entire premise is false. And that is this:

If Story X is canon, and Story X features something explained by Story Y, then Story Y must be canon.

It does not follow. In the same way, people use to say that "K9 and Company" was made canon by the fact that Sarah has K9 in "The Five Doctors". But something is not made official by the fact that it's obliging enough to fit in. Or I may as well sit down and pen my story that explains how Romana had cause to regenerate and claim that it's official on those grounds.

Si.

[Andrew Curnow]

I realise it's just an example, but is there really any debate about K9 & company's status?

[Pip Madeley]

Not here. Shada on the other hand, the TV version is canon, the BF story is not.

[Andrew Curnow]

Ooh, controversial.

[Logo Polish]

The Fifth Doctor does travel alone in the TARDIS in Enlightenment when arriving on Wrack's ship. That's the only solo journey of his on screen that I can think of.

[Si Hunt]

I realise it's just an example, but is there really any debate about K9 & company's status?

No, but that wasn't my point, which was regarding peoples JUSTIFICATION for it being canon.

That said, there's a case for saying that it's considered canon precisely BECAUSE since 1983 people have been insisting it must be because it explains away how K9 got to South Croydon in Season Twenty. Which again, is just bonkers logic when you really think about it.

Si.

[Paul Monk]

Who came up with all this 'canon' stuff anyway?

[Andrew Curnow]

[Q]That said, there's a case for saying that it's considered canon precisely BECAUSE since 1983 people have been insisting it must be because it explains away how K9 got to South Croydon in Season Twenty. Which again, is just bonkers logic when you really think about it.[/Q]

Hmm, not sure about that - it certainly shows that the TV Production Team of the time considered K9 & co to be canon, and I think that's probably a pretty weighty argument in its favour isn't it?

[Antony Cox]

Who came up with all this 'canon' stuff anyway?

I don't know, but whoever it was needs shooting...

[shada pavlova]

Sorry, but when the Doctor nips off to plonk the Gravis on Kolkakron Tegan goes with him. Anyway, there's no particular reason for the fifth Doctor's companions to appear in Time Crash is there? They might have been in another part of the TARDIS at the time perhaps - Tegan's bedroom for example (I'd certainly far rather be in there than stood around the control console).

Well actually, common sense suggests that, when the TARDISes were drawing together, there was plenty of turbulence, so the most likely reaction vto that from any female companion would be to rush into the console room, out of breath, gasping "What's happening Doctor?" So if they were in the TARDIS, they would be in the console room, so they would have appeared in the 10th Doctor's TARDIS. But they didn't. Q. E. D. again.

[Dirk Gently]

I'm sorry but that's pure speculation on your part being used to fit your theory.

[Andrew Curnow]

Logic, my dear Shada, merely allows one to be wrong with authority.

[shada pavlova]

Partick Troughton, my dear Andrew, merely allows one to come up with cheap shots at yours truly.

[SiHart]

But the point still still stands that there is no absolute proof in your theory.

Si xxx

[Logo Polish]

Not that there's anything wrong with having it as a theory of your own, of course. Just that no-one else necessarily has to see it as being anything more than that.

[Rob McCow]

so the most likely reaction vto that from any female companion would be to rush into the console room, out of breath, gasping "What's happening Doctor?"

Not necessarily, they might not have noticed the turbulence. Tegan would have shrugged it off as bad piloting and Adric would have been wrapped up in a maths problem. Nyssa could have been thoroughly occupied in her room testing her vibrating device from The Visitation.

On second thoughts, what you described might be exactly what Nyssa would have done.

[Dave Lewis]

Nyssa... vibrating device... gasping... out of breath...

Good lord.

[shada pavlova]

Yes. Similar thoughts entered my head as well.

indeed.

[Pip Madeley]

Hope you wiped up afterwards.

(that's a classic PS catchphrase )

[Dave Lewis]

I just thought that the poor girl was suffering from asthma...

[Paul Monk]

Given her TARDIS companions she was hardly likely to form a Traken Union was she?