User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Inclusion debates/@comment-188432-20130514042227/@comment-26975268-20130531221420

You're completely misunderstanding. SS, HS is nothing like a magazine or a game or a puzzle or a playing card. It is quite clearly a story just as much as every other.

The reason I am bringing up points that are not "relevant to this discussion" is because they're not relevant. Almost all of your arguments are about points "not relevant to this discussion". Your main argument that you've repeated again and again is that we don't know where it takes place, who they're talking to, etc. If Name answered some of those questions, you'd have reconsidered. Do we disallow TV stories just because they have massive plot holes, or because they contradict others? Once again, no.

While you claim that you don't complain about its unusual format, you use that as a basis to claim that it's an advertisement. Of course, it is in a sense an advertisement. In the same way that The Bells of Saint John: A Prequel is advertising the upcoming episode. And this prequel is just the same, and has not been treated different by anyone — not even its creators — other than you. While there are many non-story advertisements out there, Doctor Who has used a lot of stories as advertisements. Every "prequel", while a story, is really a marketing ploy. Cliffhangers at the end of finales (like "Doctor Who?" in TWORS and Hurt in Name), while part of the overall story, are really only there to spark interest in the next series. Doctor Who often uses itself to market itself, and this is one of those cases.

As far as the precedent, I've answered that question multiple times already. It all rests on how it's marketed, what it's meant to be. Strax Field Reports are parodic, and unlikely intended to be in-universe. If the BBC or anyone else call something an "advertisement", it should generally be thrown out the window. Immediately. I'm sure that all the examples you've given and will give are classed as advertisements.

Anyway, I'm going to stay away from this discussion for a short while to get new faces to voice their opinions, and hopefully get some new arguments. At the moment, we seem not to understand each other, and we're just repeating the same ones over and over again.