Whoniverse

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Contents 1 Original usage 2 Current usage 3 Features 4 Inclusion and canonicity 5 References

The Whoniverse is the fictional universe in which Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures and other related stories take place.^[1] The term is used most widely to link characters, ideas or items which are seen across multiple productions, such as Sarah Jane Smith from Doctor Who, K-9 and Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures, or Jack Harkness from Doctor Who and Torchwood. The word "Whoniverse" is a portmanteau of "Doctor Who" and "universe". It is similar to the popular term "Buffyverse" used to describe the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

Before the expansion of the Doctor Who fictional universe, the term "Whoniverse" referred to everything connected with the programme, both in-universe and behind-the-scenes.^[2] In this original meaning, standing exhibitions, discussions about the filming of episodes and even fandom itself were considered part of the "Whoniverse".

Though the term is essentially an example of fanspeak, it has recently begun to appear in mainstream press coverage following the popular success of the 2005 Doctor Who revival.^[3][4]

[edit] Original usage

It is not known precisely when the term "Whoniverse" came into common fan parlance. However, an early and important usage can be found in the 1983 book, Doctor Who: A Celebration; Two Decades Through Time and Space by frequent Doctor Who non-fiction writer, Peter Haining. In this overview, Haining called his final chapter, "The Whoniverse".^[2] The section assembled factual information about all the episodes to date, but also gave information about fan clubs and ancillary entertainments related to the programme. Thus, the author enjoined his readers to believe that their own efforts were connected to those of the show-runners. Fans, in other words, were a part of the Whoniverse as much as the plot details of specific episodes. Though this meaning is rare today, the "Whoniverse" originally described both narrative intent and viewer reaction, plot and production, studio floor and convention hall.^[2]

[edit] Current usage

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Whereas the original series of Doctor Who kept development of its fictional universe to a minimum, over time a number of recurring elements became established and further embellished over the years. In the revived television series, the universe has expanded further through introductions such as the "Time War" and the Torchwood Institute.

The current television series consists of individual stories that comprise broader story arcs, in which apparently incidental details may later be unveiled as significant and events gradually build toward long term consequences for the characters and universe. Prior stories — such as "Aliens of London", "The Christmas Invasion", and "Doomsday" — are frequently referenced later, for instance in the episode "Love & Monsters" and the spin-off series Torchwood.

Despite this recent expansion of the Whoniverse, it should not be assumed that usage of this term started with the 2005 revival. The foreword to 1992's The Universal Databank makes it clear that frequent non-fiction commentator Jean-Marc Lofficier believed the Whoniverse to be a wholly fictional place, where facts such as production details do not belong.^[5]

[edit] Features

Typical features of the Whoniverse are planets inhabited by humanoid species (e.g. Mondas, Skaro, Gallifrey etc.) and other bipedal aliens. Time travel is possible, as was interdimensional travel; since the fall of the Time Lords, however, it has become significantly more difficult.^[6] Alien technology is often far more advanced than Earth technology, often creating seemingly magical feats such as resurrecting the dead. In its early days - the "Dark Times", the universe was smaller,^[7] a chaotic place of "blood and magic",^[8] with relics still remaining from this period.^[7] But since these times, there since seems to be a degree of order to the universe, with rules regulating time travel, and the Celestial Intervention Agency occasionally intervening. A political code of conduct exists between many alien races, with mentions of the "Shadow Proclamation",^[9] and also evidenced when the Daleks and Time Lords cooperated in the execution of the Master.^[10] The universe itself seems to have some natural agents to clean up problems such as Reapers who appear to clean up time paradoxes.^[11]

Doctor Who is set in a rational universe,^[12] where everything is explained through applications of different sorts of science, the Carrionites just one example of aliens using complex science to seemingly magical ends.^[8] Concepts of faith, deities and magic are not absent in the universe, however (and the Third Doctor story The Daemons suggests that magic and psychic powers are two ways of looking at the same thing). The series had established that there is a "Black Guardian" and "White Guardian" who serve as personifications of chaos and order, respectively, balancing the forces of the universe. There appears to be at least some indication of a monotheistic deity and adversary^[13] with some place in the universe. The Beast and Abaddon^[14] are demons revealed to have been sealed away in planets "before the dawn of time", with the suggestion that there are more demons sealed away in a similar fashion.^[15] This seems to indicate some sort of dualistic higher power (also evidenced by the Guardians) with at least some control over creation. Simultaneously, Torchwood presents existentialist themes throughout its entire first series.

People on Earth are to varying extents aware of alien life. Aliens have invaded Earth many times, most notably in recent years as part of "The Christmas Invasion" and "Doomsday", and the Unified Intelligence Taskforce and Torchwood Institute are examples of government responses to the knowledge of extraterrestrial life. However, most members of the public remain ignorant of aliens as they have (as put by the Doctor) "an amazing capacity for self-deception" (see Sunnydale Syndrome). Some people explain the events of these invasions as "mass hallucinations" caused by psychotropic drugs planted by terrorists in the water supply. ^[16][17] Others form conspiracy groups, having become aware of the presence of The Doctor and alien life.^[9][18] In late 2008, Prime Minister Harry Saxon finally confirms the presence of alien life forms to the universe when in the presence of the US President he establishes "first contact" with alien life.^[19] Saxon's actions also allowed the press within the Doctor Who's fictional universe to confirm to the world that many previously suspected alien encounters in the 2000s were all in fact true. In later years however, wide alien skepticism may have returned.^[17] The constant flux between widespread extraterrestrial knowledge and self-deception is shown in some episodes to continue throughout contemporary Earth.

The Earth occupies much of the past and future of the setting's history. It is explained that supernatural entities have always inhabited Earth^[20] as had prehistoric reptilian humanoids and extraterrestrial visitors long before humans ever came to be. The planet Earth was formed with a passing Racnoss spaceship at its planetesimal core^[21] and was also once one of twin planets, with its sister Mondas.^[22] Earth is also home to a spacetime Rift, partially serving to imprison a demon known as Abaddon.^[14] As portrayed, contemporary Earth is somewhat more technologically advanced than its real-world analogue, with certain areas in the 60s, 70s and 80s in places ahead of their time,^[23] although the majority of this technology has been evidenced by specialized groups, such as UNIT and the Torchwood Institute. In "The Christmas Invasion", the planet even is described as "armed", possessing weaponry sufficient to obliterate a Sycorax mothership^[24] or take down a Racnoss Webstar with tank shells.^[21] The future of Earth has been portrayed in various ways; sometimes with little difference to the present, at others ranging from abandoned to overpopulated and hyper-industrialised, from a Utopia to a dying planet.

[edit] Inclusion and canonicity

One of the term's early adopters, Jean-Marc Lofficier, wrote that defining the Whoniverse was "like taking photographs of shadows. Not only is it a matter of point of view, but shadows also change. So the best advice to be given to those readers who brook little disagreement with their own views of how the fictional Whoniverse should be arranged, is: read no further, go write your own book."^[5] Attempting to precisely define the limits of the Whoniverse is thus essentially a personal struggle. This emphasis on the subjective view derives from the absence of any BBC position on the Doctor Who canon, and results in a wide range of ideas about what is or is not a part of the Whoniverse.

With a series that contradicts itself as much as Doctor Who does in all its many formats, attempts to define a rigid idea of what is Doctor Who canon with lists of what does and does not count are by some considered to be a bit silly and pointless.^[25]

Some fans contend that the classic Doctor Who television series (Doctors One to Seven), the television movie (Eighth Doctor), the new Doctor Who television series (Doctors Nine and Ten) and the program's three spin-off television series Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and K-9 and Company count, but there is some debate over the status of Doctor Who stories in other media. There are more original novels and original audio adventures than television stories, representing a substantial (and mostly consistent) body of work. There are also a number of spin-offs from Doctor Who in other media. The attitude in fandom ranges from those who insist only the television stories (and not always all of those) count, to those who count everything.

"Boom Town" seems to call a purist viewpoint into question^[26] through a dialogue reference to the Ninth Doctor novel The Monsters Inside — suggesting the inclusion of at least some novels to the basic continuity.^[27] Most of the Doctor Who novels and audios were written in the 1989-2005 gap in production of the television series, and few contradict what was established on television, or have been subsequently contradicted. Furthermore, as is part of the nature of a fictional universe in which time travel is possible, alternate timelines become possible, which gives the possibility of retconning events by writing over them within the universe's fictional history.

The Gallifrey Chronicles has the Doctor stating "one of the things you'll learn is that it's all real. Every word of every novel is real, every frame of every movie, every panel of every comic strip", and also suggesting that the Eighth Doctor's adventures in three media would lead to three separate incarnations of the Ninth Doctor: (presumably the Ninth Doctors seen in BBC productions portrayed by Rowan Atkinson (Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death), Richard E. Grant (Scream of the Shalka) and Christopher Eccleston respectively).^[28] The Tenth Doctor stated in "Doomsday" that every decision we make creates a fractured alternate universe, which would comply with this theory.^[29]

While non-televised stories may be considered by some part of a fictional multiverse, and the core canon only describing the fictional universe, some Doctor Who media seem to contradict both canon and the basic laws established in the fictional universe, more of a work based on the original Doctor Who, most notably Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD which therefore cannot exist in the Whoniverse. Also the fourth spin-off series K-9 is not produced by the BBC but by Jetix Europe with no BBC involvement, it remains to be seen if this series will fit into series canon, or be only loosely based upon its titular character, K-9.

On another level, Russell T Davies himself contributed a New Adventures novel, Damaged Goods, during Doctor Who's absence, and the show does make occasional references to this grey area. Oblique references to the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip ("kronkburgers" in "The Long Game") and the Virgin New Adventures (the planets Lucifer and Arcadia, mentioned in "Bad Wolf" and "Doomsday" respectively, and the Doctor's title "The Oncoming Storm", mentioned in "The Parting of the Ways"). Articles by Davies in the book Monsters and Villains and the 2006 Doctor Who Annual incorporate information from the books, audios and comic strips to detail character and story backgrounds. Going by Davies' remarks on canonicity and fandom, these all appear more likely to be playful tributes, rather than deliberate attempts to dictate canon. Overall, Davies has said that he is "usually happy for old and new fans to invent the Complete History of the Doctor in their heads, completely free of the production team's hot and heavy hands."^[30]

The BBC licensed and approved every Doctor Who story in other media; indeed, the contract for Virgin's New Adventures stated that the books were 'the official continuation' of Doctor Who now the TV show was off the air. Over the last ten years, the BBC published well over a hundred of the novels itself, republished a number of the Virgin New Adventures in online e-book form, commissioned original Doctor Who dramas as webcasts, and BBC Radio has broadcast both existing and original audio adventures made by Big Finish. As of late 2006, Gary Russell, the long-time head of Big Finish, was added to the Cardiff production team ostensibly to keep official track of TV series continuity. The BBC-produced/broadcast productions (including a 1985 BBC Radio serial, Slipback, a pair of serials produced in the 1990s starring Jon Pertwee entitled The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space, and most recently a "season" of audio dramas starring Paul McGann broadcast on BBC7 in 2007) remain in the same grey area of continuity as most spin-offs, despite the pedigree.

The debate over whether the novels are canonical or exist in a parallel continuity is complicated by the fact that the 2005 episode "Dalek" cannibalises elements of the audio drama Jubilee ^[31] and the 2007 two-part story "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" was adapted from Paul Cornell's 1995 New Adventures novel Human Nature. While the original book featured the Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield, the televised version features the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones.^[32] Following the "Human Nature" adaptation, Steven Moffat's Ninth Doctor short story from the Doctor Who Annual 2006, "What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow" was adapted into a Tenth Doctor episode "Blink".^[33] One interpretation of these adaptations is that while some novels, short stories and audio dramas may be canon, others are not strictly canonical but could perhaps be explained by the notion of parallel continuities, as hinted by The Gallifrey Chronicles.^[28]

The placing of the 30th Anniversary Special Dimensions in Time - a crossover with the soap EastEnders which had its first episode broadcast as part of Children in Need's 1993 telethon and its second as part of Noel's House Party - and the animated serial The Infinite Quest originally broadcast as part of Totally Doctor Who and later in its entirety as a stand-alone episode, in canon are also divisive.

[edit] References

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