User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-25566332-20140115180525/@comment-1827503-20140119220628

We cannot definitively state that the programme Doctor Who does not exist in the Whoniverse. It is suggested to exist in some form in TV: Remembrance of the Daleks.

Doctor Who also exists, under a different name, in AUDIO: Jubilee. However, this incarnation of the programme is significantly different from the Doctor Who of our universe, and in any case Jubilee is in an alternate timeline that is incompatible with the in-character appearances at the Proms.

In order for the Proms to be within the DWU, the referenced stories would have to exist within the in-universe Doctor Who as well, and furthermore the canonical characters would have to refer to the events by their associated story titles. This is far too implausible a theory, given that it is highly unlikely that, say, Daleks would agree to participate in the making of such stories.

Alternatively, the Proms could take place in an alternate universe (i.e. our universe). Matt Smith/the Eleventh Doctor does make one comment in the 2013 proms that supports this theory, but again there is no confirmation that this was intended to be canon within the DWU. This is a grey area within Rule 4 of our canon policy: do we take it as canon because it hasn't been stated as non-DWU, or do we take it as non-DWU because of the narrative issues that making it canon would present?

The Science of Doctor Who is not a story and cannot be conceivably presented as one, so it cannot be covered as canonical under the four little rules.

While we're on the topic, An Adventure in Time and Space is non-DWU, except that Matt Smith's appearance at the end could conceivably be the Eleventh Doctor. As AAITAS is effectively a story set in our universe, it should be considered to be Matt Smith (and as such non-DWU) unless proven otherwise.