Doin' It With Style...

What a "punny" guy I am!  A posting entitled: "Doin' It With Style" because it will explain the styles of writing that I will be using on this blogsite. Man, do the laughs never end?!

I was hoping I could just have different categories of entries listed on the blog site so you can just click on the style of entry you wanted to read and all articles of that nature would be lumped together in one group. But there seems to be no way to arrange things that way. So, instead, I will list what style of article I'll be writing at the top of each entry. If any of you technocrats out there know how to re-jig this site so that I can divide my topics into their own special subsections - feel free to let me know how to do it. Otherwise, this is how it will go.

I would like to take a moment, however, to itemize those various styles here and explain them in  better detail. Just so you understand a bit better what I'm up to when I write this category of entry.

So, here goes:

ANALYTICAL:
This will probably be the type of entry only the most hardcore of fans will appreciate. I will be looking at specific themes or premises that the show has presented throughout both the Classic and New Series. Attempts will be made to note consistencies in the way they've been handled (attempts will probably also be made to reconcile the inconsistencies, too!). For instance, I may look at the way Doctor Who has presented pocket universes. Quite obviously, episodes like The Doctor's Wife or the E-Space Trilogy would then be sited. I would then analyze how such stories agree or contradict each other in the rules they've set up regarding pocket universes (ie: why was there no mention of CVEs in Doctor's Wife?). I'll be the first to admit - this will probably be some pretty dry stuff! But I will do my best to keep it interesting and entertaining.

CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES:
Because it's about time travel, Doctor Who works in a non-linear fashion in all kinds of fun ways. Not only do we have stories like Mawdryn Undead or Blink where the action of the story is happening out of order, but we have entire multi-story arcs that are not happening chronologically. And I'm not just talking about the Doctor and River Song. Most of the recurring monsters and/or villains in Who are not meeting the Doctor in a proper linear sequence. The object of this particular category will be to re-arrange stories in a way that makes proper chronological sense.

FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES
A favorite pastime of any true geek is to get continuity to gel throughout the entire history of a show they love. Which can be a gigantic task for a Who fan. The show flatly contradicts itself all over the place. This is the sort of problem a long-running series with ever-changing production teams runs into. Each new production team tends to chuck out the last team's vision of how the show should be and creates a vision of its own. This particular style of entry will try to come up with ideas and pet theories on how to get contradictions to, somehow, agree.

THE BOOK OF LISTS
Another thing geeks love to do: listing things in order of preference. Again, something that exists in great abundance for Who fans. There's so many things we can itemize from favorite to least favorite. But the Book of Lists will be more than just listings. Explanations will also be given as to why these things have been arranged in such an order. If I were to list my Doctors in order of preference, for instance, then there would be an explanation for why each Doctor ends up in the ranking he's been given.

So, there you go: our four basic categories. More may come up as I start blogging away. If they do, I will do my best to explain them as they appear.




Oh wait! While I have you here, I would like to mention one more important rule:

All theories that I present  will be based on things that have been explicitly stated in transmitted episodes of the show. I may reference stuff that has been stated in spin-off material but I will only accept information that was stated right on the show as "proper canon". If there's a Big Finish story, for instance, that contradicts something that was said in Episode 3 of Colony In Space. What Malcolm Hulke put into the mouths of his characters in the television story will be what is accepted as "truth".

This applies to everything except the Time Crash and Night of the Doctor webisodes. I accept them as proper canon, too. Mainly because they're so cool!




All right, now I really have properly introduced everything. Let the over-contrived geekery begin!