for oncoming_storms prompt 138.2 Mun
Is there anything in your character's canon that you disagree with, think is unlikely or are ignoring for any reason? If so, why?
I know the canon-ness of the new Doctor Who audio dramas by Big Finish are always up for debate, but I love the Fifth Doctor ones to death, mostly because they're so much better written than a lot of the original televised serials. And frankly, I think Erimem was a fantastic companion in her own right, even if she'd never showed up on the TV episodes. I strive to accept most everything that happens in the Big Finish audios as canon for my Five muse, except for one.
There's an audio called The Boy that Time Forgot, and it's basically a retcon of what happened to Adric after the space freighter he was in crashed on Earth, which sparked the killing off of the dinosaurs. Now, because the crash was such a pivotal moment in Earth history, it was impossible for Five to try and go back and rescue Adric from the ship. That final scene in Earthshock was the first time in a very long time that a companion died, and I've always taken the event as a pivotal point in the Doctor's development. That his actions have consequences and sometimes those consequences are deadly. It's not like he was flippant about death before, but Five always tended to be a worrier and a stickler for the Laws of Time, so losing Adric and not being able to rescue him always weighed heavily on the character, at least in my mind.
Cut to The Boy that Time Forgot, which attempts to "fix" all of that by having Adric be able to create an entirely new world to escape into right before his crash. Adric apparently used Block Transfer Mathematics (the same type of system used by the Logopolitans to help stabilize the integrity of the universe) in order to have a world where he ruled as king. The Doctor and Nyssa accidentally stumble into this dimensional bubble while trying to recover the TARDIS. The world is filled with sentient scorpions, who serve a king, who turns out to be a very aged Adric. He forced the scorpion aliens to become his subjects, naming a few chosen ones with variations on the Doctor's companions.
And to me, this sounded all very silly. Yes, Adric was a boy when separated from the Doctor, but he didn't seem the type to create an entire world where he would rule as king? The whole thing is wildly out of character, and then Adric manages to redeem himself before the stress of the adventure causes his heart to give out and he dies, again.
The audio completely undermined this pivotal point, the Doctor's realization that he's taken all these people's lives in his hands again and again, and they completely and utterly trust him. They'd all be willing to die for him if need be. But Boy That Time Forgot sort of takes that moment and laughs at it and gives Adric this ridiculous redemption story. He didn't need redeeming in the first place. He'd already sacrificed himself once. And losing Adric a second time doesn't really do much for Five's character. They do make peace with each other before Adric dies, which I guess is something.
Clearly the loss of Adric affected the Doctor, and he was bothered by it until the very end. His last word before regenerating into Six was "Adric" so I'd thought that The Boy that Time Forgot did a disservice to the Doctor's memory of the boy and how he lost him. It's something that doesn't make sense, doesn't fit, and it's the only piece of canon for Five that I actively ignore.
Character: The Fifth Doctor
Word Count: 605
I know the canon-ness of the new Doctor Who audio dramas by Big Finish are always up for debate, but I love the Fifth Doctor ones to death, mostly because they're so much better written than a lot of the original televised serials. And frankly, I think Erimem was a fantastic companion in her own right, even if she'd never showed up on the TV episodes. I strive to accept most everything that happens in the Big Finish audios as canon for my Five muse, except for one.
There's an audio called The Boy that Time Forgot, and it's basically a retcon of what happened to Adric after the space freighter he was in crashed on Earth, which sparked the killing off of the dinosaurs. Now, because the crash was such a pivotal moment in Earth history, it was impossible for Five to try and go back and rescue Adric from the ship. That final scene in Earthshock was the first time in a very long time that a companion died, and I've always taken the event as a pivotal point in the Doctor's development. That his actions have consequences and sometimes those consequences are deadly. It's not like he was flippant about death before, but Five always tended to be a worrier and a stickler for the Laws of Time, so losing Adric and not being able to rescue him always weighed heavily on the character, at least in my mind.
Cut to The Boy that Time Forgot, which attempts to "fix" all of that by having Adric be able to create an entirely new world to escape into right before his crash. Adric apparently used Block Transfer Mathematics (the same type of system used by the Logopolitans to help stabilize the integrity of the universe) in order to have a world where he ruled as king. The Doctor and Nyssa accidentally stumble into this dimensional bubble while trying to recover the TARDIS. The world is filled with sentient scorpions, who serve a king, who turns out to be a very aged Adric. He forced the scorpion aliens to become his subjects, naming a few chosen ones with variations on the Doctor's companions.
And to me, this sounded all very silly. Yes, Adric was a boy when separated from the Doctor, but he didn't seem the type to create an entire world where he would rule as king? The whole thing is wildly out of character, and then Adric manages to redeem himself before the stress of the adventure causes his heart to give out and he dies, again.
The audio completely undermined this pivotal point, the Doctor's realization that he's taken all these people's lives in his hands again and again, and they completely and utterly trust him. They'd all be willing to die for him if need be. But Boy That Time Forgot sort of takes that moment and laughs at it and gives Adric this ridiculous redemption story. He didn't need redeeming in the first place. He'd already sacrificed himself once. And losing Adric a second time doesn't really do much for Five's character. They do make peace with each other before Adric dies, which I guess is something.
Clearly the loss of Adric affected the Doctor, and he was bothered by it until the very end. His last word before regenerating into Six was "Adric" so I'd thought that The Boy that Time Forgot did a disservice to the Doctor's memory of the boy and how he lost him. It's something that doesn't make sense, doesn't fit, and it's the only piece of canon for Five that I actively ignore.
Character: The Fifth Doctor
Word Count: 605