Board Thread:The Reference Desk/@comment-188432-20130310185635/@comment-4028641-20130312164343

What you don't seem to grasp is that it doesn't really matter what they call themselves.

The evidence isn't just "They call themselves the Tribe of Gum". They very precisely quote the events of An Unearthly Child, citing thing Ian did to their tribe. I doubt you realize this, as you haven't read the comic. Furthermore, not only do they have the same names as the members of the tribe in Child, they also have the exact same appearances. Look at ol' beardy at the top there, exactly like the original Hug or whatever his name was. I doesn't really member what they called themselves, they could've just as well went up to the Doctor and said "we represent the lolly-pop-guild" and it wouldn't have made any difference. There's still enough evidence to show that they are trying to be the Tribe.

Granted, I completely support your theory of "we can't difinativley say that this is them." Your point of "Robots and clones all exist in the DWU" is very strong and sound; as well as correct.

It is not correct, however, to say "we can not acknowledge that they are in anyway connected." Especially not in an out-of-universe context. Want to say that they may not be the tribe and we should wait before we state that it's difinativly them? Fine. Want to wipe all info suggesting that it may be them? Not fine. There is a strong difference.

Furthermore, on an out-of-universe page, like Hunters of the Burning Stone, it's perfectly fine to say that the two are meant to be the same. "The Tribe of Gum" is a well known nickname for the tribe outside of the show, so it's clear that they were defiantly meant to be the tribe in some fashion.

Thus, as I suggested above, there is no need to hold back this information. (Also note that there are these all-powerful floating gold-alien things that make the idea of moving the tribe entirely feesable. It makes more sense in the story than you would think.)