Whoniverse
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The Whoniverse is the fictional universe in which Doctor Who, Torchwood and other related stories take place.[1] The term is used most widely to categorise characters or other items which are involved in multiple media, such as Sarah Jane Smith from Doctor Who, K-9 and Company and Sarah Jane Adventures, or Captain 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 and the term "Xenaverse" used to describe the setting of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.
[edit] Overview
Whereas the original series of Doctor Who kept development of its fictional universe to a minimum, over time a number of recurring elements within the mythos had become established, and further embellished over the years. In the revived television series, Russell T Davies has generated a new set of recurring features adding to the universe's backstory. Recent introductions to continuity, such as the Time War have created an opening for the universe to expand further.
The current television series, like the Virgin New Adventures novels, consists of individual stories that comprise a broader story arc, whereby apparently incidental details may later unveiled as significant and events gradually build toward long term consequences for the characters and the world they inhabit. Prior stories — such as Aliens of London, The Christmas Invasion, and Doomsday — are frequently referenced down the road, for instance in the episode Love & Monsters and the spin-off Torchwood.
[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.[2] Alien technology is often far more advanced than Earth technology, often creating seemingly magical feats such as resurrecting the dead and retrocognition. There seems to be - or have at a time been, some 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",[3] and also evidenced when the Daleks and Time Lords cooperated in the execution of the Master.[4] The universe itself seems to have some natural agents to clean up problems such as Reapers who appear to clean up time paradoxes.[5]
Doctor Who 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[6] with some place in the universe. The Beast and Abaddon[7] 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.[8] 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 United Nations Intelligence Taskforce and Torchwood Institute are examples of federal 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. [9] Others form conspiracy groups, having become aware of the presence of The Doctor and alien life.[3] [10]
The Earth occupies much of the past and future of the setting's history. It is explained that supernatural entities have always inhabited Earth[11] 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 core[12] and was also once one of twin planets, with its sister Mondas.[13] Earth is also home to a spacetime Rift, partially serving to imprison a demon known as Abaddon.[7] As portrayed, contemporary Earth is somewhat more technologically advanced than its real-world analogue — although this technology is mostly 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[14] or take down a Racnoss Webstar with tank shells.[12] 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
In the absence of any BBC position on the Doctor Who canon, most fans consider 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 seemed to suggest that at least some novels are part of the basic continuity, referencing The Monsters Inside[15] and thereby making a purist viewpoint untenable.[16] 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).[17] The Tenth Doctor stated in Doomsday that every decision we make creates a fractured alternate universe, which would comply with this theory.[18]
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 Adventures 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."[19]
The BBC licenced 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, 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 announcement that the 2007 two-part episode Human Nature and The Family of Blood has been 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 is to feature the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones.[20]
[edit] References
- ^ Stephen Gray. The Whoniverse Guide to Canon. Whoniverse.org. Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
- ^ "Rise of the Cybermen". Russell T. Davies, Tom MacRae, Graeme Harper. Doctor Who. BBC. 2006-05-13.
- The Doctor: Used to be easy [to travel between alternate universes]. When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could hop between realities, home in time for tea. Then they died, took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind.
- ^ a b "Rose". Russell T. Davies, Keith Boak. Doctor Who. BBC. 2005-03-26.
- ^ "Doctor Who". Peter T. Ware, Matthew Jacobs, Geoffrey Sax. Doctor Who. Fox Network. 1996-05-14.
- ^ "Father's Day". Russell T. Davies, Paul Cornell, Joe Ahearne. Doctor Who. BBC. 2005-05-14.
- ^ "The Satan Pit". Russell T. Davies, Matt Jones, James Strong. Doctor Who. BBC. 2006-06-10.
- ^ a b "End of Days". Russell T. Davies, Chris Chibnall, Ashley Way. Torchwood. BBC. 2007-01-01.
- ^ Notes on Abaddon. Torchwood Institute External Hub Interface. Retrieved on 2007-01-02.
- ^ "Everything Changes". Russell T. Davies, Brian Kelly. Torchwood. BBC Three. 2006-08-22.
- ^ "Love & Monsters". Russell T. Davies, Dan Zeff. Doctor Who. BBC. 2006-07-17.
- ^ "Small Worlds". Russell T. Davies, Peter J. Hammond, Alice Troughton. Torchwood. BBC Three. 2006-11-12.
- ^ a b "The Runaway Bride". Russell T. Davies, Euros Lyn. Doctor Who. BBC. 2006-12-25.
- ^ "The Tenth Planet". Kit Pedler, Derek Martinus. Doctor Who. BBC. 1966-10-08.
- ^ "The Christmas Invasion". Russel T. Davies, James Hawes. Doctor Who. BBC. 2005-25-12.
- ^ "Boom Town". Russell T. Davies, Joe Ahearne. Doctor Who. BBC. 2005-06-04.
- ^ Stephen Gray. The Canon Debate. Discontinuity Guide article on Boom Town. Retrieved on 2006-12-20.
- ^ Parkin, Lance (2005). The Gallifrey Chronicles. BBC Books. ISBN 0563486244.
- ^ "Doomsday". Russell T. Davies, Graeme Harper. Doctor Who. BBC. 2005-07-08.
- ^ Davies, Russell T. (25 May 2005). "The Evasion of Time". Doctor Who Magazine (356): 66–67.
- ^ Paul Cornell adapts Who novel for TV. Dreamwatch SciFi. Retrieved on 2007-03-01.
