Board Thread:Tales from the Tardis/@comment-188432-20130325173913/@comment-188432-20131111194333

That's not "links to Doctor Who". That's links to the stuff for which they have copyright, links to Big Finish characters and concepts. Show me Vienna fighting a Dalek and you'll have established a "connection to Doctor Who". Show me Vienna in an adventure with K9, and you might have something.

But a story that mentions Kylo? You con't even know they're the same thing. At very best, you'd have to say that this is an alternate universe to the normal DWU, so all you really have in these mentions is a commonality of name. You absolutely can't prove they're really the same characters.

Look, here's what's going on. As a key creative for the Vienna, when interviewed about it and it alone,, Richardson's saying it's not linked to Doctor Who. Because it isn't. There is no copyright link between Doctor Who and Vienna.

As a part of Big Finish marketing on TLATE special features — where he knows he's got a chance to reach more people than ever — he's saying that it's a Doctor Who spin-off.

When a person makes two contradictory statements, truth lies in the context.

And there is absolutely no doubt as to the context in which Richardson was speaking in the podcast. There, he's preaching to the choir, talking to the really hard-core Big Finish fan where the fine distinction between "spin-off" and "reusing a character we own" makes a difference. And to that audience, he disclaimed it as a DW spin-off. Repeatedly. And with some insistence. The context is,
 * "So, David, people are calling this a spin-off of DW. Is it?"
 * "No, I know people have said that, but it really isn't." And then he goes on a couple more times to deny it spin-off status.

It is a flat denial that we just can't ignore on this wiki if T:VS is to have any meaning.

His later statement on TLATE isn't a recanting. It's situationally different. The fine distinction simply doesn't matter to the casual fan who they hoped would buy TLATE. So to that audience, sure, it's a spin-off of DW.