Picking up from where we left off last time, this episode of the Fast Return Switch podcast addresses the issue of contradictions within a given canon of Doctor Who. How are we to keep them sorted in our heads? Should we bother to harmonize them in our heads, and if so, how might we go about it? Listen in for a bit of mulling, brainstorming, and philosophizing.

 

Transcript

Putting a Monocle on the Canonical

Last time I talked about what canon is in Doctor Who. I’d like to take some time now to discuss interpretation of canon. Remember, there are many canons, and only the makers have control over what those canons are. We don’t. Whatever canon we happen to find ourselves in, we must accept. But although the fan doesn’t determine the canon, the fan can interpret the canon. And I do mean the fan—certainly the casual viewer couldn’t care less about the minute details of Doctor Who. But the fan is interested in that, and for the fan, I would say, canon interpretation is a worthy endeavor, because through it we not only get to know Doctor Who better and get a view of the larger story, but we also through canon interpretation are able to discover new things organically. But we can’t come at it willy nilly (or should I say wibbly wobbly?) Let’s talk about principles of interpretation, and specifically how we are to look at contradictions—is that too strong a word? How about “inconsistencies”—how we are to look at inconsistencies in a given canon.

The television canon of Doctor Who is immense. I mean, positively immense, developed over 50 years, and it continues to grow, like a Krynoid pod. As might be expected, then, we find all kinds of inconsistencies within it. There are not, however, as many as some claim there are. It’s rather impressive, actually, how much the whole television canon coheres. But if we are to consider it canon, those inconsistencies need ironing out. That is what they do with the Bible canon—numerous books written over centuries by dozens of different writers—and yet theologians make an effort to harmonize them into a unity.

Harmonization is the effort to provide scenarios by which two apparently contradictory statements can both be considered accurate. It’s an adjustment of differences to make them mutually compatible.

I’d like to hammer out a working system for the harmonization of the stories in a Doctor Who canon.

Let’s start with the three basic principles of canon:

* The Canon and the Canon Only (Sola Scriptura, as they say in the religious world). What I mean is that the canon (whichever one you are in) needs to be strictly defined and there should be no accretions to it. If we are talking about the TV canon, then that means that only the television episodes are to be considered canonical. We are not to borrow understandings from other canons. So, for example, if we are in the Big Finish canon, we could assume that an audio story would help explain the meaning of a television episode, because Big Finish accepts both audio and television as canon, but if we were in the television canon, we cannot assume that an audio story helps explain the meaning of a TV episode, because the audio story is not part of the TV canon.

* The Totality of the Canon (Tota Scriptura). This means that the entire canon must be considered, and no one part of it can be removed in order to resolve an inconsistency. We cannot, for example, disregard Mawdryn Undead in order to resolve the UNIT dating controversy or set aside the fact that the Doctor is called “Doctor Who” in The War Machines or eliminate the entire Steven Moffat era for whatever reason.

* The Harmony of the Canon (Analogia Scriptura). As a rule of thumb, we assume the canon’s coherence. When we have found what appears to be a contradiction, we should always explore possible ways in which the contradiction can be resolved. This is not to say that we disregard the indisputable fact that the ...