When does Doctor Who fan fiction become canon?

What actually counts as Doctor Who canon—and who gets to decide? Christian Cawley, James McLean and Brian Terranova head down the rabbit hole of Doctor Who fan productions, unofficial spin-offs and alternative continuities, beginning with Brian's experiences developing his own Orville fan production. That leads us to Doctor Who projects such as Downtime, and The Stranger, where familiar actors and characters could appear in productions that existed somewhere between fan fiction and the television programme they were inspired by. An additional "aftershow" section for subscribers: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kasterborous/membershipBut things become even more complicated once officially licensed Doctor Who enters the equation. Does Big Finish "count?" What happens when established continuity contradicts something that was previously accepted? And is our obsession with arranging television, audio, comics and other media into a hierarchy of "canon" itself part of the problem? We also discuss different approaches to shared fictional universes, why people create fan films and fiction in the first place, and how working within an established universe can help develop creative skills. Finally, there's the curious case of Richard E. Grant: announced as the official Ninth Doctor for Scream of the Shalka—only for the return of Doctor Who to television to rewrite his place in the programme's history. So perhaps the real question isn't simply what counts as Doctor Who canon, but whether canon matters as much as we think it does. ShownotesDowntime on Amazon Prime: https://amzn.to/4xoikps