User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-31010985-20180428165444/@comment-31010985-20191214115122

To try and imagine how this might work in practice I try to think of a character from a currently invalid story. If Big Finish were to release a story with them in it (perhaps explicitly set in an alternate universe) that referenced the invalid story to the point it was undeniable that's what was happening would we make that story valid or would it remain invalid because it failed one of the other three rules.

Let's try some:
 * The Master (The Curse of Fatal Death), valid. Passes the first three rules and could be considered an official continuation.
 * Cyrian, not withstanding the current debate on sequels to invalid stories, Rescue would be passed as valid but Dimensions fails rule 2 and would remain invalid.
 * Guard (The Last Dalek), not valid as The Last Dalek has multiple endings.
 * Lallapalanges, not valid as The Dalek Dictionary is non-narrative and fails rule 1.
 * Ninth Doctor (Scream of the Shalka), valid. Passes the first three rules and at one point in its development was considered an official continuation.
 * Anyone from any fanfiction, not valid. Obvious fail of rule 2.

I'm not sure what to do about parodies like Doctor Why. I guess that's a whole thing about whether parodies are written with the intention of fitting into any DWU.