All There In The Manual / Doctor Who

• Between 1964 and 1994, all but a half-dozen storylines were adapted in novelisation form. In the pre-VHS era, and at a time when reruns were rare (especially in the UK) and a large number of stories had been deleted from the archives, the novelisations were the only way fans could experience past storylines and learn aspects of continuity (although all lost episodes still exist in audio form, this still applies to a degree today). Some writers (especially those who were allowed to adapt their own scripts) also were able to provide additional backstory and other information not seen on screen. Most famously, the term "regeneration" was introduced in a novelisation several years before it was actually uttered on screen. Those of "Remembrance of the Daleks" and "The Curse of Fenric" are especially good examples.
  • The 2018 run of revival series novelizations followed suit with Paul Cornell's novelization of "Twice Upon a Time", the Twelfth Doctor's Grand Finale. It revealed the final fates of his companions Bill Potts and Nardole, both of which were Surprisingly Happy Endings (especially his) after the traumas of "The Doctor Falls". It also cleared up why Bill couldn't answer the Doctor's questions about it (as an avatar of the Testimony used to test the Doctor's trustworthiness, this Bill's memories were temporarily edited so she would interact with him as she did in life), and confirmed that the Testimony only captures humans to take their memories (and made a mistake with Nardole, a Human Alien cyborg), explaining why, say, Susan Foreman did not make an appearance. It also noted that the Twelfth Doctor's ring represented his marriage to River Song. The novelization of "The Witchfinders" is also notable for this; it explains what happens to Willa as an adult, and has her eventually end up on another world with Clara Oswald and Ashildr/Me.
• In recent years, writers for the revived series have taken to expanding on backstory and explaining story points away from the series itself in ancillary works such as The Brilliant Book and The Doctor: His Lives and Times, leading to fan debate over whether the information should be counted as canon; Word of God vs. Death of the Author.
• The BBC occasionally uploads shooting scripts from episodes to its "Writers Room" website. Several Series 9 (2015) scripts were made available, with several serving to fill plot holes as they featured scenes edited from the final episodes.
• The notorious old school story "Ghost Light" had almost all its exposition cut for time, making it almost incomprehensible without the lengthy DVD special features explaining the plot. Oh, and the DVD came out fifteen years after the TV broadcast...
• "Rose": Clive Finch's website whoisdoctorwho.co.uk stands to this day and was updated throughout the first two series of the revival; with Mickey Smith taking over the website for Series 2.
  • Early in Series 1, viewers could post their "sightings" of the Doctor online, with the reports still accessible, numbering in the dozens with notable examples with former companions Sarah Jane Smith and Peri Brown expressing a new interest in the Doctor while a "Mr. Yates"^note Former Captain Mike Yates of UNIT. warns against pursuing the Doctor.
  • Following "Rose", the website hosted a reaction to the Auton invasion in that episode, with users posting their experiences.
• "The End of the World": Supplementary material written by Russell T Davies for a 2005 guidebook expands on Lady Cassandra, the Forests of Cheem and the Face of Boe.
  • Cassandra's claim about having grown up as a boy are expanded upon. She repeatedly had sex changes throughout her life, usually to avoid getting into trouble when her lovers died "mysterious" deaths (like falling on a rake five times). Her birth name was Brian Cobb, and her title of "lady" was bought at auction.
  • The Trees were the result of mankind selling off Brazil to pay off debt. The rainforest was acquired by the Brotherhood of Hame, and its evolution was accelerated. Within two hundred years, the Forests of Cheem demanded autonomy, and the Brotherhood (having dealt with this situation before) acquiesced. Shortly thereafter, the Trees disappeared as one, for five thousand years, during which time they learnt of or witnessed the Time War.
  • The Face of Boe's entry is largely filled with Foreshadowing. Mention is made of his having children during the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire, of him being impossibly old, with no one knowing how he's still alive, and that when he dies, the sky will "crack asunder".
• "The Unquiet Dead": Turns out Nine and Rose's encounter with Charles Dickens was captured in a photograph which made its way back to whoisdoctorwho.co.uk.
• The backstory of planet Raxacoricofallapatorius' criminal Slitheen family is given across numerous sources.
  • The Visual Dictionary states that the Slitheen are one of the oldest families on their planet and descendants of the original Huspick Degenerate, one of the earliest criminal Raxacoricofallapatorian families who were involved in illegal spice-smuggling operations. Monsters and Villains establishes that the Slitheen, after leaving their planet, were hunted down by the Judoon and the Wrarth Warriors.
  • In addition to the Blathereen, established in the novel "The Monsters Inside" as criminal rivals of the Slitheen by the year 2501, Doctor Who Files 3: The Slitheen notes the Rackateen as another rival family, establishing that both the Blathereen and the Rackateen had been involved in criminal dealings in the past, but they kept this a secret from their people, as they knew that if they found out they would be exiled and hunted down like the Slitheen.
  • As well as marking the first (and so far only) on-screen mention of the Huspick Degenerate, Captain Jack's Monster Files provides a family tree for the Slitheen connecting them to numerous other families whose names mostly ended in "een": In addition to the Rackateen and the Hostrozeen, there are the Slavereen, Caizeen, Lilieen, Chippeen, Fittereen, Hanazeen^note Later appearing in the form of the Hanazeen-Blathereen in the short story "A Comedy of Terror"., Pittereen, Glizeen, Hostrozeen, Changleen, Abzorbalovian Rebels^note Referencing the Abzorbaloff, the term would later be used in "The Genuine Article"., Clom^note Twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius and home of the Abzorbaloff. colonists, and the Plom family.
• "The Age of Steel": A deleted scene reveals that Jake is gay. There's still subtext implying this in other scenes that remained in the episode, however.
• "Gridlock": Wondering how the Macra got into the motorway to start with? They were in the New New York zoo, and got free when the power went down after most everyone was killed by the Bliss plague.
• The series 2 website for the Spin-Off Torchwood hosted a report by Owen Harper detailing the circumstances of the "wild goose chase" to the Himalayas which the Master sent Jack's teammates on during "The Sound of Drums".
• "Journey's End": The Doctor Who Adventures magazine, in one of its amusing side-pictures, implies that the Doctor left Rose and his human counterpart with a TARDIS root (presumably so they can go off and have their own adventures), a detail which has a huge impact on the ending shown in the episode. The scene was shot and was boxed with the DVD set. Russell T Davies has stated that whether we acknowledge it is our own choice. Of course, considering that it raises more questions about TARDISes it may be for the best it was cut.
• The Dalek Handbook goes over the history of the Dalek race up to the establishment of the New Dalek Paradigm.
• "The Pandorica Opens": Steven Moffat confirmed by Word of God that the Cybermen in the episode, despite sporting Cybus logos, are in fact the Mondasian version of the Cybermen, with the costumes remaining unchanged due to lack of budget.
• "The Angels Take Manhattan": There is no closure for Rory's father Brian; whether or not the Doctor ever goes back and tells him what happened is never said, despite him being introduced just three episodes earlier and thus being very fresh in viewers' memories. A scene was written, storyboarded and given a voiceover by Arthur Darvill, but not filmed, that gives him some closure; an animatic would ultimately be made available on the BBC's website as "P.S."

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