User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Inclusion debates/@comment-4028641-20171124185300/@comment-1789834-20180105022405

I'm so glad I've stumbled across this thread. I actually watched the DVD not so long ago and I wholeheartedly agree with this release being valid. The only possibly conflicting scene that I haven't seen raised - admittedly, I may have missed it - is the final scene where the Fourth Doctor rises from under the console and is played by Tom Baker as he is NOW, in his old age.

How does that play into this? Lalla Ward gives her line from the TARDIS corridor so that we do not see her changed state. With the initial DVD release of The Five Doctors suggesting that Borusa attempted the Time Scoop during this adventure, and the Eighth Doctor audio story Shada stating that the event of The Five Doctors meant that he had to return to the story in his eighth incarnation (if I've understood that correctly), this could be treated as time catching up with itself.

Also, I've read about the different Shadas conflicting with one-another and the Wiki possibly going down the route of "one account suggests" and "another account suggests". While this is fine and common practice, it's quite clear that if the 2017 DVD Shada is deemed valid, it actually doesn't conflict with the audio version. In fact, it is deemed in exactly the same way as Series 5. At the end of Series 5, the Eleventh Doctor "reboots" the universe. He closes the cracks running through his previous adventures. When Kovarian blew up the TARDIS, the entirety of Series 5 took place in an alternate timeline that was corrected later on. My point being, the 2017 Shada would just be the Shada before Borusa interrupted and messed up the timeline.

But that's bordering on head-canon, something which is in no way allowed here. Just my wild thoughts. I'm fully backing any way to make this DVD release valid. Let's just tackle that last scene please. Do we treat it as "Tom Baker just playing the Doctor" or do we treat it as "he looks older and this causes some problems"?