User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Inclusion debates/@comment-4028641-20151201203643

I figure we should have a page on the 'Sprout Boy' short, and it's obligatory that we debate it's validity. So let's mark down the four little rules...

1. Is it a story? Clearly has a narrative.

2. It is licensed by the copyright holders of all characters included? Uh, yeah I think so. Also, this is the closest we're gonna get to that Sherlock crossover everyone keeps asking for.

3. Was it officially released? ... Yes.

4. Was is intended to be set inside the Doctor Who universe? This one is obviously why we're having the debate. One one hand, it is a bit vague whether our narrator is Peter Capaldi or the Doctor himself. However, he is dressed as the Doctor so I think that it's safe to say that he is intended to be the Twelfth Doctor indeed. The obvious issue after that is if the short is a bit off to be DWU material. We've seen silly on this site be valid, but is this too silly? It does feature a sprout that grows sentience and a snowman briefly moving, but one could argue that those two elements could be thrown away as not disallowing it from being valid on the site or set within the Doctor Who universe. It's clear from the response to the video that people are taking it to be inside the DWU, and so I'm sure that's how it was meant to be taken.

One argument would be that it's along the lines of Red Nose Day crossovers and comic spoofs, which often crossover shows as seen here and are rarely meant to be taken seriously. Another argument, which I'm leaning towards, is that the special doesn't go nearly as far into a delusional state as those and (as a one minute story) is fairly harmless to including on the site. But it's a debate that's pretty easy to see either side of so I guess we should just start chatting about it.