Are the Doctor Who novels considered canon or are they not part of the same continuity as the show?
Are the Doctor Who novels considered canon or are they not part of the same continuity as the show?
There is no official canon policy. The show generally doesn’t worry about the continuity of the novels, but there have been occasional references to them.
All of that (^) is true, but I'd say there is a difference between the different book series. For the VNAs, for example, I tend to pay no attention to those anyway because I haven't read any—but the madness that is what I've heard about Lungbarrow I tend to ignore even more. That being said, when it was first published there was no reason at all not to think it was part of the same continuity as the TV series.
The NSAs I do tend to view as part of the same continuity as the TV series. The books quite often reference episodes of the show as having already happened and they never contradict anything, so there's no reason really to discount them as far as I can see.
But yes, ultimately there is no official canon. You can include and not include whatever you wish.
Nothing is canon, Unnatural History makes this work by saying that the Doctor’s past, present and future (and by extension all of reality) is being constantly hacked up be various time active powers such as the Time Lords, the Faction Paradox, the Enemy, their former TARDIS, their current TARDIS, themselves, and many many other people.
I was just curious to see if Star Wars and Doctor Who were similar in regards to novels being canon.
In any case, I like to think they are.
If I had a penny for every time…
People assume cannon is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective, viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff.
Everything is canon and nothing is.
My personal view is that there is a hierarchy of canon but this is merely how I view it and I am NOT claiming this to be the correct way in the least.
TV Show (obviously if the main show established it, it’s canon)
Big Finish (NOTD confirmed at least the eighth doctor adventures to be canon by listing off his companions)
Novels (VNA and EDA were considered canon during the wilderness years)
Comics (barring “Liberation of the daleks” as RTD confirmed that one for sure is “canon”)
The tv show obviously dealt with the “canon” issue with the toymakers “jigsaw out of your history” line,
But also with the seventh doctors line in tales of the TARDIS about there being many timelines going on at once, some where he regenerates, Amie where he doesn’t.
But again, EVERYTHING is canon, and NOTHING is😂
What do you think?