User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Inclusion debates/@comment-5253713-20150518174430/@comment-5253713-20150519063032

Benny's Story is a Doctor Who story that features Bernice Summerfield. It is irrelevant to this topic.

But the point remains the same. The original Virgin Novels(1997-199) as well as the early Big Finish Bernice Summerfield audios/books did not have the rights to use characters and concepts like Time Lords, TARDISes etc., yet did so anyway, unable to refer to them by what they are.

The Plague Herd of Excelis may very well be the fourth part of the Excelis saga, but so what? In parts 1-3 the time machine can be referred to as a "TARDIS". In part 4 it can not. The Doctor can identify himself as being a Time Lord from Gallifrey in parts 1-3. In part 4 Braxatiel can not be referred to as such. And Iris can't identify where she comes from, what she is or what her bus is either!

Remember that:

a)Virgin chose to carry on after the BBC removed their licence. Legally they could use eg. Bernice Summerfield and Chris Cwej. They lost the rights to use Time Lords etc. yet kept using them anywya, just not referring to them by name.

b)Big Finish tried to get a licence to do Doctor Who Audios, and the BBC refused. So they started doing Bernice Summerfield audios and books instead(as Bernice was owned by Paul Cornell, not the BBC). However, they likewise used many familiar "building blocks of the DWU", which they didn't have the legal rights to, and thus referred to them by other names. Even after Big Finish got the rights to do audios with the Doctor(and later Daleks, Sarah Jane Smith etc.), the Bernice range remained separate to the DW audios, and the Bernice range continued to use characters and concepts that that specific range had no rights to, using other names for those characters and concepts. It is true that in more recent years the Bernice range has been able to legally use certain characters and concepts, but that was not true in the early years, and those early novels and audios undoubtedly break Rule 2 of Tardis:Valid sources.