Forum:Just how do we cover that time when Katy Manning, in character as Iris Wildthyme, showed up at the Utopia convention and was interviewed by Paul Magrs?

More or less what it says on the tin. At the 2012 Utopia convention, Katy Manning, in-character as Iris Wildthyme, was interviewed by Paul Magrs, and, well, I'll just quote Magrs' description of the procedings:

"The freewheeling, improvised, slightly crazy and surreal afternoon consisted of my beginning a talk about writing Iris... and then the fictional character herself gatecrashing the function room, which ended up in a bizarre, double-entendre-stuffed and fourth-wall-smashing interview - which then turned into Iris and Panda (who appeared from seemingly nowhere) hi-jacking the entire audience, parading them through the stately home hotel, out onto the main driveway (stealing a golf buggy on the way) and ending up with everyone piling aboard the bright red double decker that was waiting for us. Where more hi-jinks ensued and I gave a reading from 'Enter Wildthyme.'"

- Paul Magrs

But how on Earth do we cover it? And, for that matter, do we cover it?

Do we cover it?
A very complicated question. It feels exactly like the sort of thing which we ought to cover, but let's look through the four little rules.

Rule 1: Is it fiction?
Well, I think we're going to have to look at some definitions of fiction to decide that.


 * literature in the form of prose that describes imaginary events and people.

Not terribly relevant, considering that we're a wiki about a television show.


 * something that is invented or untrue.

Well, it's certainly invented/untrue that Iris Wildthyme visited the Utopia convention in 2012.


 * the type of book or story that is written about imaginary characters and events and not based on real people and facts

Well, it's based on the fact that Katy Manning, dressed as Iris Wildthyme, was interviewed by Paul Magrs, but if we go down that route we'll be invalidating. (sorry about this, I'm just going through the list of fiction definitions that I can find)


 * something invented by the imagination or feigned

Well, the fact that Iris Wildthyme led Paul Magrs, Panda and the like across the lawn of wherever it was and into the Celestial Omnibus is definitely feigned/invented by the imagination.

As a further note, as Paul Magrs says that he acknowledges the possibility that it might have actually been the actual Iris who turned up (he says it in a way that makes him sound a lot less mad than that, but that's more or less the gist of it), that sort of muddies the waters a bit.

Sorry about that, I find it hard to work with anything that I haven't a dictionary definition for.

Rule 2: Is it licensed?
Yes. Moving swiftly on.

Rule 3: Was it officially released?
Ah. The contentious one.

I'm leaning towards saying "yes", because it's an event that happened in a public place, and honestly I see no difference between this and other stage plays. (Although I think stage plays might be invalid due to possibly failing rule 3? Heaven knows.)

If you want to disagree, go ahead.

Rule 4: Was it intended to be set in the DWU
Or rather, was it not intended to not be set in the DWU?

I'm fairly sure this passes rule 4, in the ordinary sense, and there's no evidence to suggest that anybody considers this something that didn't happen in the DWU. I think the onus here is probably on anybody who wants to argue that this isn't set in the DWU.

How do we cover it?
Personally, I'm inclined to create Utopia convention 2012 (stage play) and be done with it. Arguably that's not the best fit, but I can't really think of anything else to do.

Or alternatively we could use the name that Magrs uses to describe the incident, or possibly he uses it to describe the article he wrote about it on his blog, "Wildthyme in Person!".

As another note, unless we decide to call it something that isn't a stage play, it probably ought to be invalid until such a time where we have a forum thread that validates stage plays, because T:BOUND.

To be honest, I could've probably created it without a forum thread, but thought it was a strange enough example that it probably ought to have one.

What are people's thoughts on this?

Thanks for reading, Aquanafrahudy   📢   🖊️  14:16, 28 October 2023 (UTC)

Discussion
I think we should cover it, but probably as invalid until stageplays are validated. Cousin Ettolrahc ☎  14:25, 28 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Okay, so it's certainly fiction. But I think there's some questions to be asked about whether it's a complete work of fiction, though on the whole I'm leaning towards "yes". To fulfill the "complete work of fiction" clause it's important to know when something began and ended (see, for example, the ultimately-dismissed but theoretically-valid concerns in Forum:Temporary forums/Inclusion debates speedround regarding Dermot and the Doctor). The beginning is easy enough, but Magrs's quote summary just sort of trails off after people get in the bus. I think there's two ways to read his comment. One is that "ending up" means that the performance ended at the doors of the bus — that after everybody got in, kayfabe was over even if the party wasn't finished. Another though would be that "where more hi-jinks ensued" implies further metafiction with Manning still in character; and if that was what happened, then I don't think Rule 1 is really fulfilled. It could still get coverage, of course, like many partial-Rule-1 breakers e.g. various sketches in The Fan Show that bleed into the real-world documentary stuff instead of ending at a specific point. But validity would be off the table even if we ever validated stage plays.


 * On which topic, yes, I would agree that "stage play" is probably the best dab term we're going to get at present for a thing like this — that is, aside from something I'm going to bring up in the next paragraph. It's not technically a stage play in the conventional sense, but neither's Time Fracture, really. Free-range/open-air theatrical performances are generally lumped in with "theatre", and this is clearly one of those. Now this does mean that — unless there was an official recording, which doesn't look to be the case — this can't be valid, because currently, stage plays aren't valid in general. It's something which I think has some traction to change to one degree or another in the future, though I'm not sure it's a degree that would extend to a thing like this, as the prevailing theory-of-coverage would trend towards "validating the script", which this doesn't have — but that whole thing is a discussion for another time. In the meantime coverage as an invalid stage play sounds reasonable (whether it be due to default stage-play invalidity or the Rule 1 concerns). Except…


 * Except, well, I do want to raise an eyebrow about Rule 2 here before we do anything rash. "Moving swiftly on" seems less than reasonable. Oh, there's no Earthly doubt that this was licensed to use Iris and Panda, but… we don't have the detailed contents of the dialogue, here. It seems plausible given the context that Iris might ramble on about her relationship to the Doctor or something at some stage in the interview. A couple of mentions could be excused, but if it were at the level of summarising whole off-screen encounters/adventures, I do think that would downgrade this to a partially-licensed-fan-work situation. As per the conclusions of Forum:Relaxing our fan works policy (within reason) this would mean that it would get a less detailed real-world page at, I guess, Utopia convention 2012 (fan work).


 * (Actually, I wonder if Untitled (Utopia convention 2012 stage play)/Untitled (Utopia convention 2012 fan work) might not be wiser as a title, though I could swing either way.) --Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 14:30, 28 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Short of asking Paul Magrs, there's no earthly way of knowing whether it touched on her relationship with the Doctor, and even then, there's no guarantee that he'll remember something that happened over ten years ago. How, then are we supposed to know whether it featured any unlicensed elements?


 * Ooh, hang on, I've found another reference to the 2012 Utopia convention (should probably have looked a little harder earlier):

"On the Saturday, Katy was a hoot, dolled up as her Big Finish alter ego Iris Wildthyme and sailed off on a double decker bus."

- Patrick Mulkern, recounting the 2012 Utopia convention in a recent Radio Times article


 * I agree with you that Untitled may be a better name, but not quite sure.


 * On rule 1, why would having further semi-fictional adventures in the bus be an argument against? Aquanafrahudy   📢   🖊️  14:49, 28 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Well hold on! Stage plays arent invalid because they're stage plays, they're invalid because:

"Stage plays are deemed to be invalid because they are ephemeral. You may see something in the evening performance that wasn't there during the matinée. Or by the time it comes to your town, an entire section might have been removed from the performance. An actor that was at the Glasgow run may have given a line-reading that was meaningfully different to the guy playing the same part in London."

- T:VS


 * So a "stage play" with a single showing does result in the problem as to why stage plays are invalid. So it surely would be valid, and the lack of a copy of the performance is just like lost media, which ain't a reason for ... 15:12, 28 October 2023 (UTC)


 * @Aquanafrahudy: Because it would mean we wouldn't have a record of a specific ending for the performance. Did Manning just sort of slowly drift out of character on the ride home, or was there a specific point when The Show Was Over? That's the question we must ask. If you can draw a line of "this far it's part of the story, after this point it's just real-world stuff", Rule 1 is fulfilled; if you can't, it's not. Based on Magrs's quote we can read it as "the show began with Iris showing up and ended when everyone got to the bus", which is nice and bounded; if the "ending up" doesn't mean it ended at the bus, then we don't know if there was a clear ending or not. Maybe there was anyway and he just doesn't mention it, but we need to know for sure.


 * @Epsilon: A thought-provoking view, but not one, I think, supported by precedent; I think the prevailing understanding of the policy has been "Because most stage plays have this problem stage plays as a whole are invalid", as opposed to "stage plays which have this problem are invalid". --Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 15:16, 28 October 2023 (UTC)


 * "Because most stage plays have this problem stage plays as a whole are invalid" is not a sensible or logical reason at all. Aquanafrahudy   📢   🖊️  15:18, 28 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Oh, I don't think so, no. It's why a thread to reform this is one of the things on my docket. But plenty of things over the years have been live policy while being based on dumb rationales! --Scrooge MacDuck ⊕ 15:22, 28 October 2023 (UTC)


 * What makes you think that the correct reading of the policy is "Because most stage plays have this problem stage plays as a whole are invalid"? Aquanafrahudy   📢   🖊️  15:24, 28 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Yet we have valid stage plays because we have an officially released recording of them!
 * If the ephemeral, multi-showing "problem" can be "fixed" by a recording, then it can be fixed by the fact that there was only ever a single performance.
 * Granted, stage plays being invalid in genral should be addressed in another thread, but I see no current justification to invalidate this based on it being a "stage play" (and in the loosest damn definition of one too; I wouldn't call an actor appearing in-character at an event as a stage play).
 * There may be issues about if this is a complete narrative or not, but I want to specifically address the "stage play" point. 15:34, 28 October 2023 (UTC)