Line #12 Franchise/Whoniverse


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2	%% [[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]
3
4	The ''Whoniverse'' is TheVerse inhabited by the Doctor, central character of ''Series/DoctorWho''. It is a large and unwieldy beast full of internal contradictions. Fortunately, it's a really, ''really'' big universe encompassing all of space and a history stretching from the Big Bang to 100 trillion years in the future (plus an alternate universe or five). And fact that time travel is central to the franchise, history is - [[TimeyWimeyBall sometimes]] - mutable, and branching timelines can be created provides a handy explanation for contradictions.
5
6	Due to the nature of the show, any timeline described here can be overwritten, split, or contradicted -- both by its own canon and by the countless spin-off media of the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse, while still being capable of fitting in anyway. In turn, the core canon can contradict or overwrite the expanded universe or even the main series itself, but can also canonise or restore bits of it at times. This flexibility is thanks (per various different WordOfGod sources such as series writer Paul Cornell) to the fact that other than a general rule that says no one should be expected to have purchased expanded universe content to understand any episode in the TV series itself, Creator/TheBBC has never put in a hard and fast rule as to what is "canon", which contrasts with the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise where its owners (Creator/{{Paramount}}) and creator (Creator/GeneRoddenberry) put in a longstanding rule that only what appeared on the screen counted. Indeed, while the TV series has contradicted the expanded universe, it has also directly referenced events and characters from it as well.
7
8	The Whoniverse tends to be a soft science fiction, though it started off generally harder. Sometimes it's [[GenreBusting another genre entirely]], just with aliens and monsters.
9	----
10	!!!Television series set in the Whoniverse:
11
12	[[index]]
13	* ''Series/DoctorWho'' (1963-1989; 1996; 2005-)
14	* ''Series/K9AndCompany'' (1981): A sixty minute pilot which the BBC declined to pick up as a series, aired as a one-off Christmas special. In it, Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 Mark III investigate mysteries in the English countryside.
15	* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' (2006-2011)
16	** ''Series/TorchwoodChildrenOfEarth'' (a serial making up the third series of ''Torchwood'', 2009)
17	** ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay'' (a serial making up the fourth series of ''Torchwood'', 2011)
18	* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' (2007-2011)
19	* ''Series/{{K9}}'' (2009-2010)[[note]]A non-BBC production with rights to the character of K9 but not to the Doctor; as such its canonicity with regards to the rest of the Whoniverse is questionable. To date only one season has aired; as of 2014 a second season remains officially in pre-production mode.[[/note]]
20	* ''Series/{{Class\|2016}}'' (2016)
21
22	!!!Behind-the-scenes TV series (unless noted, obviously they do not take place within the Whoniverse itself):
23
24	* ''Series/DoctorWhoConfidential'' (2005-2011): A behind the scenes look at the revived series of ''Doctor Who''.
25	** "[[Recap/DoctorWho2011StSSDeathIsTheOnlyAnswer Death is the Only Answer]]": A mini-episode, included in the final episode in 2011.
26	** ''WebVideo/DoctorWhoExtra'': An online-only revival in 2014.
27	** ''Series/DoctorWhoUnleashed'': a SpiritualSuccessor, which began airing in 2023.
28	* ''Series/TotallyDoctorWho'' (2006-2007): Another behind the scenes series, but geared to younger viewers.
29	** ''[[Recap/DoctorWho2007TDWASTheInfiniteQuest The Infinite Quest]]'': An animated ''Doctor Who'' serial included in the final season.
30	* ''Series/TorchwoodDeclassified'' (2006-2011)[[note]]As with the parent series, its future is currently in limbo pending whether any future ''Torchwood'' seasons are produced.[[/note]]: The equivalent to ''Confidential'' for ''Torchwood''. Moved to a DVD feature after series 2.
31
32	!!!The Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse
33
34	A full listing with accompanying tropes, release dates and background information of these stories can be found on the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse page. Works and media with their own pages on this website include:
35
36	* ''ComicStrip/TheDalekChronicles''
37	* ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' (including a comic strip that has run since 1979)
38	** ''Magazine/DoctorWhoAdventures'' (the LighterAndSofter spinoff with its own comic)
39	* AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho
40	** Numerous spin-offs and related works. Some Big Finish stories were based on ''AudioPlay/DoctorWhoAudioVisuals''
41	* ComicBook/BBCBooksDoctorWhoGraphicNovels
42	* Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations
43	* ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures''
44	** ''Literature/BerniceSummerfield''
45	* ''Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures''
46	* "Literature/ContinuityErrors"
47	* ''Series/BBVProbe''
48	* ''Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures ''
49	** ''Literature/FactionParadox''
50	* ''Literature/PastDoctorAdventures''
51	* ''Literature/TimeHunter''
52	* ''Literature/NewSeriesAdventures''
53	* ''Literature/TimeLordFairyTales''
54	* ''Literature/ABriefHistoryOfTimeLords''
55	* ''Literature/DoctorWho11Doctors11Stories''
56	** "Literature/NothingOClock"
57	* ''Literature/{{Torchwood}}''
58	* ''Script/DoctorWhoMeetsScratchman''
59	* ''Radio/ThirdDoctorRadioDramas''
60	* ''WebAnimation/DeathComesToTime''
61	* ''WebAnimation/ScreamOfTheShalka''
62	* ''Recap/DoctorWhoTheCurseOfFatalDeath''
63	* ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoIDW''
64	** ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoTheForgotten''
65	** ''ComicBook/StarTrekTheNextGenerationDoctorWhoAssimilation2''
66	** ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoPrisonersOfTime''
67	* ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoTitan''
68	** ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoTitanTenthDoctor''
69	** ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoTitanEleventhDoctor''
70	** ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoTitanTwelfthDoctor''
71	** ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoTitanThirteenthDoctor''
72	** ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoFourDoctors''
73	** ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoSupremacyOfTheCybermen''
74	** ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoTheLostDimension''
75	** ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoTimeLordVictorious''
76	** ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoEmpireOfTheWolf''
77	* ''Film/DrWhoAndTheDaleks''
78	** ''Film/DaleksInvasionEarth2150AD''
79	* ''Radio/TorchwoodTheLostFiles''
80	* ''Franchise/IrisWildthyme''
81	* ''VideoGame/DoctorWhoWorldsInTime''
82	* ''Pinball/DoctorWho Pinball''
83	* ''TabletopGame/TimeLord''
84	* ''VideoGame/DoctorWhoLegacy''
85	[[/index]]
86	----
87	!!Common tropes:
88
89	%%* AliensInCardiff
90	%%* AlienInvasion: A signature trope.
91	%%* AliensOfLondon
92	* AliensSpeakingEnglish: It was only in the revival series that it was explained that the TARDIS translated what everyone was speaking, though in the original series the Doctor once explained that a companion could understand Italian because it was a Time Lord gift he allowed her to share, so presumably that applied to alien languages as well.
93	* AllMythsAreTrue: Vampires, werewolves, fairies, Satan and minotaurs have all appeared, more or less as described by mythology. Other variants of the above have also appeared, including minotaurs... again. And let's not forget two different explanations for the Loch Ness Monster!
94	%%* AncientAstronauts
95	%%* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy
96	* BroadStrokes: Continuity tends to operate on this basis in regards to the universe itself, less so for the characters.
97	* CanonWelding: From least complicated example to most:
98	** Creator/ChrisBoucher's Fourth Doctor novel ''Corpse Marker'' and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath The Robots of Death]]" spinoff audio series ''Kaldor City'' weld together ''Doctor Who'' and ''Series/BlakesSeven'', through the presence of a ''Blake's 7'' supporting character [[spoiler: and quite possibly [[SignificantMonogram a series lead too.]]]]
99	** There have been many sneaky references to [[Franchise/{{Quatermass}} Bernard Quatermass and his British Rocket Group]] over the years. Outside the TV series, they were even more explicit - Liz Shaw eventually worked for the BRG. (Though this would probably have annoyed Creator/NigelKneale if he found out - he didn't much like ''Doctor Who''.)
100	** Literature/SherlockHolmes is either a real historical figure (who met the Seventh Doctor and Benny), or a fictional character (that Henry Gordon Jago thinks is based on himself and Litefoot, and the Great Intelligence thinks is based on Vastra and Jenny), DependingOnTheWriter. A ''Franchise/FactionParadox'' story (which is fairly separate from the mainstream narrative) even implied he ''used'' to be a real person, but a change of history made him fictional instead.
101	** During the period when ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' was owned by Marvel UK, there were some variously subtle hints dropped about links between the Whoniverse and the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, and one unusual incident where ComicBook/DeathsHead was taken from the Franchise/{{Transformers}} universe to the Marvel one via the TARDIS.
102	** Creator/MichaelMoorcock's Eleventh Doctor spin-off novel ''The Coming of the Terraphiles'' is a full-on IntercontinuityCrossover with Moorcock's "Second Ether" novels, which means that the Whoniverse is also linked to Moorcock's multiverse, and the Doctor is an incarnation of his Eternal Champion.
103	** Creator/DouglasAdams (and the occasional later writer) made some contradictory references that imply that at least some aspects of Creator/DouglasAdams' ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' and ''[[Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency Dirk Gently]]'' intersect with the Whoniverse, but usually only [[RuleOfFunny when it makes for a good joke.]]
104	* ContinuitySnarl: The continuity for the Whoniverse is probably the most complicated time-wimey mess ever created. It eventually became unofficially canon that outside of a few exceptions, nearly every piece of Doctor Who media is canon with the explanation being that the constant time travelling and alterations to reality from things like the Time War means that history is in a constant state of flux.
105	%%* DoingInTheWizard: Though ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' and ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' in particular allow the wizard to live.
106	* EarthIsTheCentreOfTheUniverse: Not literally but a ridiculous amount of events take place on Earth while other planets tend to only have one major catastrophe the Doctor needs to save them from. Though it is somewhat justified during events where the Earth is in danger because of the Doctor or villains being aware that he cares about the planet.
107	* EldritchAbomination: Has its own page.
108	* FantasticallyChallengingPatient:
109	** In the TV movie, the Doctor is shot as soon as he lands in San Fransico. He's rushed to hospital, where the human doctors successfully remove the bullet, but then they accidentally kill him with a heart probe while trying to figure out why his heart rate is so high. The Doctor tries to warn them that he's not human, but they think he's delirious.
110	** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace Spearhead from Space]]", the Doctor is taken into a hospital after being found unconscious in a field nearby (having just been [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames forced to regenerate]] by the Time Lords) and is given a routine series of examinations revealing his BizarreAlienBiology for the first time in the show, most significantly an x-ray showing his two hearts. The hospital calls the Brigadier over to investigate these oddities, thus revealing to him that the Doctor (who he last saw during [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion a Cyberman invasion]]) is back on Earth.
111	** Comes into play a couple of times with medical student Martha Jones as companion in Series 3:
112	*** In "Smith and Jones", Martha is asked to listen for the Doctor's heartbeat (in disguise as a human patient). When Martha hears two heartbeats, she gets lambasted by her teacher for putting the stethoscope in the wrong place. She later successfully gives the Doctor CPR by pumping both hearts.
113	*** In "The Shakespeare Code", when the Carrionites stop one of the Doctor's hearts, the Doctor has to guide Martha through restarting it again.
114	** In "The Tsuranga Conundrum", Graham and Ryan become the doulas for a [[MisterSeahorse humanoid alien man]]. Downplayed since [[DeliveryGuy neither are doctors]], though Graham tries to use his knowledge of ''Series/CallTheMidwife'' as substitute.
115	* FantasyKitchenSink (especially so in the [[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]])
116	** The show drifted this way over the course of its very long run, starting out as ''relatively'' hard science fiction, with some lapses, such as the Celestial Toymaker and the Land of Fiction. The turning point was possibly the Key to Time StoryArc, which featured two god-like Anthropomorphic Personification of Order and Chaos, respectively, and then did [[HandWave not try too hard]] to call them anything else. Even so, fans complained when ''Silver Nemesis'' depicted Lady Peinforte using magic and ''naming'' it as such, though this was {{handwave}}d the next season as not literal magic, as such, but really the work of a CosmicHorror called Fenric.
117	* TheFuture: Mostly a dystopian picture, although the new ''Who'' series in particular paints it in an exotic light. Mankind colonizes Mars in the 2050s amid a climate apocalypse on Earth, Earth is evacuated due to devastating solar flares, mankind goes through a number of interstellar "Great and Bountiful Human Empires", mankind fully assimilates into alien species, and mankind is one of the last surviving species at the natural end of the universe.
118	%%* HeroesRUs: UNIT, Torchwood, Sarah Jane's bunch...
119	%%* InvisibleAliens: (The Whoniverse also has several species of literally ''invisible'' aliens.)
120	%%* MagicFromTechnology
121	* {{Masquerade}}: Some modern stories set in the Whoniverse have suggested that [[TheUnmasquedWorld ordinary humans have now gotten to accept that aliens exist...]] Took them long enough.
122	* TheMultiverse: The are a few examples of this:
123	** The show has featured a few alternate universes like Inferno Earth from the episode ''Inferno'' and Pete's World from ''Rise of the Cybermen''/''The Age of Steel'', while also showing pocket dimensions like E-Space and alternate timelines. ''The Timeless Children'' reveals that [[spoiler:the Doctor originated from an unknown universe]] while ''Survivors of the Flux'' [[spoiler:showed an organization called the Division had a main base located between the universes in the multiverse, with the same episode identifying the main reality being Universe-1 while they were travelling to what they presume is the Doctor's original universe]].
124	** For a while there was an attempt to divide canon by suggesting that the books, comics and ''Big Finish'' audios (particularly those with the Eighth Doctor) took place in separate realities to each other. The ''Side Step'' audio series and the audio story ''Zagreus'' supported this idea before it fell out of favour.
125	** The ''Unbound'' audios showed WhatIf alternate universes, some being specific such as ''What if...the Doctor had not been UNIT's scientific advisor?'' while others were more vague such as ''What if...the Doctor believed the ends justified the means?''. The former eventually crossed over into the main universe, with that reality's Doctor and Master interacting with characters from the main reality.
126	** The Whoniverse canonically exists in the multiverse established by ''Creator/MarvelComics'' with the designation Earth-5556, as Marvel had the licensing rights to publish Doctor Who stories between 1979 and 1999 as mentioned by CanonWelding above.
127	** As the Twelfth Doctor also appeared in ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions'' this makes the Whoniverse part of a multiverse that includes many different franchises, some associated with ''Franchise/{{LEGO}}'' such as ''VideoGame/LegoBatman'' and ''VideoGame/LegoHarryPotter'' while others being unrelated like ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' and ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo''.
128	** As stated above, with the Doctor being an incarnation of the Eternal Champion the Whoniverse is part of Moorcock's multiverse.
129	** The Doctor also travelled to the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe in ''ComicBook/StarTrekTheNextGenerationDoctorWhoAssimilation2'', therefore connecting it to it's own multiverse.
130	%%* MrExposition: The Doctor, Captain Jack, Sarah Jane, K-9, Mr Smith...
131	* OmniscientDatabase: Torchwood and Sarah Jane have the literal kind. The Doctor's (and Captain Jack's) wealth of knowledge and experience serves as the equivalent.
132	* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: More commonly, setting things right before they go wrong, often by means of a StableTimeLoop.
133	%%* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien
134	%%* SpaceIsMagic
135	* {{Technobabble}}: The Technobabble phrase ReverseThePolarity, while not originated in it, is widely credited with becoming popular with ''Series/DoctorWho''.
136	%%* ThereAreNoGlobalConsequences: Played straight in earlier years, but mostly averted on ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' and Creator/RussellTDavies' run of ''Series/DoctorWho''.
137	* ThinDimensionalBarrier: There are various places where the Doctor popping in and out too much has led to weak spots, which are then used as an excuse for spin-offs stuck in one place. In particular, the Cardiff Rift in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'', and the rift at Coal Hill School in ''Series/Class2016''.
138	%%* TimeTravel: (as you may have gathered already)
139	* TimeyWimeyBall: With a universe this large and unwieldy, the time-line is so knotted that nobody could ever untangle it.
140	%%* WeirdScience
141	* WorldOfHam: You absolutely ''have'' to be a LargeHam in order to exist in the Whoniverse. Even Creator/BrianBlessed [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E2Mindwarp got in on it.]]
142	--> Tenth Doctor: [[PunctuatedForEmphasis I! DON'T! KNOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!]]
143	----
144	For tropes associated with ''Series/DoctorWho'', specifically, see that article.
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146	Debate on the content of the Whoniverse is the stuff of legends. Countless works of the UniverseConcordance kind (some official, some not) try to keep them straight. Good luck, folks!

Context Franchise / Whoniverse