User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Inclusion debates/@comment-4028641-20180417160500/@comment-28349479-20180417165513

When I first heard this suggestion, I wasn't too sure about this idea, but as the weeks have passed it's grown on me more and more. I think the proposal would kill a lot of birds with one stone:


 * Overall, it's a nice middle ground on a lot of the subjects that caused so much tension early last year: Shalka and Death Comes to Time would no longer be completely discarded as invalid, but they'd still be unmistakably separated from the rest of the content on the wiki.


 * As you've pointed out, the parallel universe dynamic has already been tested in this exact scenario with great success in the cases of the Infinity Doctors universe and Big Finish's Unbound series: this wouldn't be some crazy experiment; we already know it works.


 * Treating these stories as parallel universes would also mean we wouldn't have to pretend anymore that, eg, Ace is completely unrelated to Ace (Death Comes to Time): the latter page could be linked to with a proper explanation and a short summary in Ace.
 * Also, these stories would finally be able to be listed in the "Continuity" sections of valid stories that reference them, of which there are surprisingly many -- cf the Doctor (The Tomorrow Windows) or the Slarvians. That's always seemed to me like a strange blind spot on our wiki.


 * Frankly, it just makes sense: we could argue for years about whether or not those stories were intended to take place in the Doctor Who universe, but we can all agree in a heartbeat that each story takes place in a Doctor Who universe.


 * This would also help a lot with clarifying how this wiki treats invalid material. The reason we have in-universe pages based on content like Mind My Minions, Introduction to the Night, and Truth or Consequences is because those are classified under the same category as Shalka etc. Implementing this plan would go a long, long way toward un-muddying the waters and fixing that problem.

The more I think about this idea, the more it seems to me like a no-brainer. I look forward to reading other peoples' thoughts.