Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-43908-20150311013943/@comment-188432-20150829205800

Yeah, not so fast.

You guys are proceeding from the false presumption that there's a way for the two not-televised Romanas to be rectified versus one another. You forget that BF delights in just ignoring book continuity and writing stories that are fundamentally incompatible with each other.

I think it's more likely that they're both intended as Romana III.

This is because The Ancestor Cell does, I think, make it plain that the Romana there is III. Indeed, we at Tardis didn't invent the term "Romana III"; that's been around since, IIRC, the introduction of the Cornell version in the 90s. And this what seems to be confirmed by the character of Kristeva, who tells the Doctor: ‘You left your friend Romana once,’ continued Kristeva. ‘She thinks she learned from you how to distinguish what to fight for and what to fight against. Directly from that, she started on her path to becoming President. She even invoked the right of challenge against the incumbent President, Flavia, for the first time in two hundred generations... '

Importantly, the occasion of this quote is the run-up to Romana's Reaffirmation Ceremony, where she reconfirms her oath of office. The implication is pretty obvious — Romana II came to power after Warriors' Gate and has been in power so long and so continuously that she's regenerated, become the Cornell version of III, and now has to reaffirm her oath of office. This is the successor of Romana II.

Indeed, this isn't just speculation. The Doctor explicitly says the Reaffirmation Ceremony is necessary because she's been in office for 150 years.

So in contrast to AdricLovesNyssa, I think there is strong narrative proof that the post-Ward Romana in the books is the third incarnation.

Thus, there are two ways to handle the situation that I can see.

We could do it like Rob has suggested and go with Romana (story name) and Romana (story name).

Or, and I think I prefer this, do it like we do where there are other contradictions between (comic) books and Big Finish: put it on the same page. After all, there are irresolvable differences in so many things:
 * the way Six regenerated to seven
 * the way Six encountered Mel for the first time,
 * the way that Mel and Evelyn met for the first time
 * the way that Ace was clearly and indisputably killed in the comic books, but alive elsewhere
 * and tons of other stuff, both subtle and gross

By putting both characters on a page called Romana III, we're better able to reflect authorial intent, and explain the situation in a single behind-the-scenes section. And it's more truthful: BF and BBC Books are writing the same character, as far as I can tell: the direct successor to Lalla Ward.