User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Inclusion debates/@comment-188432-20130514042227/@comment-188432-20130515182049

The following comment by DCT was rescued:
 * Yeah, the main problem with this seems to be that it's taken to break the forth wall and the main problem with that criteria for rejection is that it's not true, not at all.


 * Obviously the idea that this story might break the forth wall is a biggie, if it did it would utterly change the relationship of the programme to its audience. It's thus taboo. And for this reason I think it seems pertinent to argue that unless it can be shown that the story can't possibly be understood unless it is accepted, by the exclusion of all other legitimate arguments, that the forth wall has been broken then we should conclude it hasn't. Afterall, if the story can be understood without recourse to a forth wall breach it hasn't been breached very effectively. And it certainly hasn't been breach effectively either.


 * You argue that they look at the camera? Almost never, Matt perhaps slightly more so, and the glances that they do give don't translate into addressing the camera in a way that could be interpreted as addressing the home audience; which would be required to prove a breach of the forth wall. The information is for our benefit but they aren't addressing us, they'd need to be a lot more direct to show that.


 * What we have in this prequel is a pair of soliloquies. A soliloquy is a legitimate dramatic technique for conveying a characters thoughts to the audience and should not be dismissed so lightly. Certainly they are rare on television but that doesn't mean they constitute a forth wall breach.


 * At the moment, what we seem to have is two journeys into the minds of Clara and the Doctor. In the prequel the main addressee is the mannequin of their opposite number - the main focus of their thoughts.


 * They are surrounded by artifact representing various memories of the journey with with other, because it's plausible and likely they would think of one with the other - and it makes it more interesting for the audience.


 * It may not be a dream but as it can currently be understood it definitely takes place in their heads and definitely does not break the forth wall.