The Annuals

[rassilon953]

Hi folks, I'm a compplete newbie to this forum but I've been using the reference guide for years. I've checked out what help has been requested but can't offer anything on that list, I'm afraid. But I can offer to write up the stories in the annuals, for whatever that's worth.

I had a quick look at the Annuals sections for each Doctor and can certainly fill in a fair few blanks. Does anybody think that would be useful?

"And while we're about it," (said Peri), am I right in assuming that the annuals aren't slotted into the main synopses section? Is there a reason for that, when so many other short stories are?

Oh, and my name is Linus, so hello everyone!

[Mark Senior]

Well, until recently I would have said yes, do it but I'm not sure what's going on with the synopses at the moment. Things I sent in months ago haven't appeared (or claim to be on the site but aren't). I don't know if this is just a hiatus or if Dominique hasn't got the time to run all this by himself anymore, I know I couldn't do it, but if you've got the time to do them and are prepared to wait to see if they show up, then go ahead.

[suteki31392]

Jan 17, 2009 19:36:55 GMT -5 Mark Senior said:

I don't know if this is just a hiatus or if Dominique hasn't got the time to run all this by himself anymore.

Eek! Sidrat, please, for the sake of my health don't use the h-word! ;D

Anyway, I'm sure Dominique will be back to updating sooner or later. Considering that Christmas and the New Year are still fairly recent, the current break seems fair to me.

I'd certainly love some synopses of the annual stories, btw!

[rassilon953]

OK, well, I'll submit a couple and see how they fare. Does anybody know if there's a reason why the annual stories aren't slipped into the continuity listing? It can't surely be their length - other short stories make it - or their quality - Snakedance makes it - so why not, say, Scorched Earth, 1975 (in which Dr Who and Sarah Smith must find a cure for a land plague or face execution at the hands of Marshal Zona) ?

[Mark Senior]

They are (or were) being placed in the Guide listing , but I guess it's a long process, not a priority considering the dubious quality and the tenuous continuity. The first couple of Doctors were done, I think.

[Mark Senior]

If you want to see where the annual stories fit into continuity there are a number of sites that place them. My favourite is Andrew Kearley's Eyespider website which has a refreshingly inclusive approach to canonicity. No synopses however.

[rassilon953]

Thanks, SIDRAT, sounds interesting. By "refreshingly inclusive approach to canonicity," do you mean that the site suggests - say - that the Doctor's interference in Dalek history in Genesis also affect his own personal history in regressive temporal form, such that their abandoned involvement in the Game of Rassilon causes the Doctor to transform into a fully-human scientist who invents Tardis and experiences "Doctor Who and The Daleks" and "Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD" (and many more, besides) before (thankfully) a Day of the Daleks equivalent restores the timeline to (semi-) normal, leaving the way clear for Ian Chesterton to meet Barbara for the first time in the fog on Barnes Common, until a Target equivalent of The Chase, where, at the Empire State Building, the temporal collision between the DARDIS and the Cult of Skaro's emergency temporal shift creates a temporal tsunami, which washes over the history of the Ogrons such that "The Space War" becomes Frontier In Space. , the net consequence of which is that the Doctor becomes half-Minyan, until he goes to Skaro to collect the Master's remains, at which point a temporal riptide takes him to Totter's Lane, half-human and with an elfin, vaguely telepathic grand-daughter.

This would mean - to get back on-topic, at last - that all the stories in the annuals which feature Dr Who would, presumably, be the adventures of future regenerations of the Peter Cushing incarnation, and would therefore be subject to a different continuity (like the whole 8th Doctor one but MUCH BIGGER!).

This would explain why (a) the Daleks never appear in the annual stories (Dr Who killed them all in D:IE-2150AD) and (b) little things like that, in one of the illustrations for "Scorched Earth" mentioned above, 'Sarah Smith' looks exactly like Jo Grant.


OR

Did you just mean that Mr Kearley includes many stories that other webmasters would deem to be 'non-canonical'?

[Mark Senior]

Hahaha. That's brilliant. Obviously I meant the latter, but I wish I'd meant the former. Now can you fit the BBV stories into a unified canon for me?