Does Doctor Who have a canon?

There's too much media--and no central narrative organizing authority--for it ever to be held together consistently. So no, not really.

Doctor Who is the ultimate 'head canon' franchise: like what you like, ignore what you don't, carry on with your life.

Only when the writers/fans feel like it. 😉

Yes, but it's fuzzy. If it's not on tv, or in a comic, or book or something, it's not canon; if it is in one of those things, it usually is canon, but not always, and even if it is, it may not be correct.

Yes. Except when it has more than one. 

This was never supposed to be a "thing" that had thousands of story in every media. Things are contradicted. Things don't add up. Showrunners don't always do their homework (or think it matters - usually rightly). We've had Ace's death quite a few ways (except for the canons where she's still alive. Atlantis has had multiple explanations. Sarah and UNIT's dating controversy is a thing.


My advice? It doesn't matter. Remember the Eleventh Doctor's words.... "We're all just stories in the end. Try and make it a good one". 

Yes and no.

In Dalek, it was 2012 and nobody knew what a Dalek was. Three seasons later, the Daleks invaded and everyone knew what they were, just a year or two before the episode was supposed to have happened. Then, in his next incarnation, he met Amy, who didn’t know what a Dalek was. The Doctor met Yaz, Ryan and Graham in a 2018 that wasn't dominated by news of Salamander from Enemy of the World. The Doctor changes everything by their actions in subsequent stories. Canon counts, until it doesn’t. It’s all a bit wibbly wobbly, really.

I'm another who takes the takes the personal "Head-Cannon" approach.

Regards

mark687

Yes, but said canon tends to be relative to each person travelling in Time. What's true for one isn't necessarily true for the other. It's holistic, like... Oh, how did that Dirk Gently fellow put it?

The example I always find handy to explain it is Shada.  A story featuring the [TBA] Doctor, K9 and Romana as they visit St. Cedd's College. From the "beginning", from the Doctor's perspective, he arrived there to visit Professor Chronotis in his fourth incarnation. He went punting down the canal in Cambridge, discovered the lost Ancient and Worshipful Law of Gallifrey, and uncovered the secret that led to Shada. That's true for him in every story leading up to The Five Doctors. Things start to get a bit muddled from there.

In that story, the Player in charge of the Death Zone pulls the Doctor's former selves out of Time and Space. In a way that causes him to essentially vanish from existence (all of them). The Player succeeds with every incarnation, barring the Fourth, who is trapped in the Time Vortex with Romana during their quiet relaxation in the boat. Unlike the others, he's taken from a story we recognise and because of that Shada -- as it was recognised -- is rendered non-canonical¹. That small change prompted the Doctor and Romana to abandon St. Cedd's and instead made plans for Brighton Beach instead. For the later Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors, they never visited Shada.

Then, the Eighth Doctor comes along. Breaching the transduction barriers of Gallifrey and sneaking in to visit the President. His old friend Romana. Accompanied by her K9. After all the hubbub of his regeneration, his amnesia, an old memory has floated back to the surface. Something about Cambridge in 1979. He convinces them both to investigate the anomaly and their long-delayed visit to Professor Chronotis occurs. By the end of it, the events of Shada are rendered canon again. Only, this time, with the Eighth Doctor leading the charge. Incarnations following him would remember discovering Shada in their eighth incarnation or, if Time's less kind, a muddled mix of the two.

The Doctor ultimately gets both. Which one depends on who you ask. As the audience we get to experience both, so you get to decide which has the greater preference as you're watching/reading/listening.

¹ - Possibly why the Fifth Doctor is affected so badly by the loss of his other selves. The Doctor isn't just abducted, but their timeline is rewritten out from under them.

Classic Who did sort of build its own canon - which was only really recognised once the show finished. The follow on book series tried to build on that and move it forward.
Then the movie tried to mess with it by having the Doctor half human. (rolls eyes, bangs head on table)
Then Nu-Who totally c****d it up - in my very personal cranky old woman's opinion - way before Jodie turned up. As for that Tardis interior redesign? I don't like it.

Honestly the easiest way of Reconciling canon with The Show/ The Audios and The Books are Multiple Universe Approach