Hi there I'm Tim and I'm a new to all this!

I'm just a random fan who's done nothing of interest for who. I'm
a Digital Artist by trade with an interest in Desktop Publishing
and Continuity but absolutely no knowledge about programming
or web discussion groups like this. I don't know what the rules of
engagement are here, so sorry if I speak out of turn at any point.
I'm also a bad speller so sorry for that too! My Dr Who
Knowledge is TV, Virgin, Big Finish and I Who for everything else.

Now, this concordance….

I've been fantasising about creating something very similar to
the concordance / database for some years now, but it's only
ever been a fantasy. Nevertheless I`ve had some thoughts over
that time that I thought I'd share in case you find any of them of
interest.

First off, of the groupings / themes that have been mentioned, I
wonder if it mught be possible (or practical) to be more specific
and have sub-groupings available to those people inputting
data. My reasoning is that a hell of a lot of useful data can fall
outside or be seen to fall outside of your categories. There are
certain areas of info that could create some wonderful essays,
examinations and extrapolations and I wonder if these might
warrant being more specifically sought.

Below are some additional groupings / sub-groupings that I
personally would have people look for.

Books: fictional books within the whoniverse & relevant real
books.

Culture: Religion / Mythologies

The Sciences: Spacio - Temporal Physics; Exotic Elements,
Artificial Elements & Alloys; Psy, Omniversal & Universal
Topology; Planetary Classification; Universal Physics:
Dimensions, Transcendental Beings (in relation to Hierarchical
Universal Structure) & Biomorphology.

Scientists: fictional scientist biographies from the whoniverse &
relevant real scientists.

Technology.

TARDIS.

Design: Spacecraft / Ship design, Architectural Design & Design
evolution.

Galactic / Intergalactic Geography, Habitation & Migration,
Relations, Co-ordinate Systems.

General Historical Contexts: Politics, Technology / Science,
Religion, Migration.

Also, there may well be additional sub-groupings that may only
become obvious to researchers. As such there could also
perhaps be a quick way for sub-groupings to be created at the
user end as the project evolves.

I know some of these may seem a little specific however as
specified sub-groupings they could provide some exciting data.


Specifically in terms of publications I've had a few thoughts:

I wonder if the TARDIS should have a volume of it's own akin to a
TARDIS manual, or perhaps be connecyed to a Sciences
volume.

I wonder If it's worth inviting the 3D / Illustrative Doctor Who
community to work alongside this project to create realisations
of the worlds, spaceships, creatures, objects, star charts. This
would begin to make the worlds of the novels and audios so
much more stimulating. I for one would love to see the Rutan
spaceships in Lords of the Storm, the Venucian Clock &
Venucians in Venusian Lullaby, the late Empire's spherical /
lattice space ships or Martions underneath their armour. 3D
Graphics would also enhance temporal physics explanations or
talk of the Doctors 3 stranded TNA / DNA. In fact this is just the
sort of project to get the 3D community excited and make these
tomes sailable to a much wider audience. A visual infantry of
TARDIS components is, I suspect, already partially done out
there!

Given a large visual component I can imagine volumes such as
Earth Past, or Sol System Prehistory, covering the Silurian /
Mondosian / Early Martian societies. Visual renderings of the
vast crystalline Silurian cities and dirigibles as well as the
underground Martian cities could create stunning
accompaniments to the wealth of knowledge relayed in such
tomes.

In this manner, we could end up relaying an expanded universe
that even managed to drag people in who weren't directly
interested in continuity.

Also, especially in terms of character Biog.'s, I know this is
obvious but have you approached Lars Pearson, Lawrence Miles
& Tat Wood? Their I Who & About Time volumes strike me as
being incredibly useful. Might they be interested in editing a
volume or two or even publishing the concordance at Mad
Norwegian Press?

Finally, I have to ask about your safeguards with regards to
research. In one of the posts I read there was a worry about
opening the project up in case you got any old Joe typing in
rubbish. But I had a thought (which admittedly may prove too
hard to administer)…

To remove that possibility of rubbish being entered, and the
possibilities of typos, misassumptions and bias while
increasing the delivery speed of your data, could you not open it
up and request the same research from perhaps 3 individuals
who would each send their findings to a fourth – an invigilator.
That way any disparities could be checked with the others until
consensus was reached. The invigilator would then pass on or
enter the agreed info into it's relevant groupings / sub-groupings.
That way anyone in the Dr Who community could contribute and
a research hierarchy would be in place to ensure that all
information was complete. You could have many volunteers who
were just happy invigilating and (or) entering data and many who
were happy researching.

You could even put a request in the letters page of DWM, or
failing that, a small ad. That would get your contributors up.

I expect some of these thoughts may have come over as being a
little naïve, but this is the first time I've been able to air them!.

In my Fantasy world, where I've won the lottery, this project is of
course all very easy as I'm paying researchers, invigilators, data
inputers, 3D artists, Graphic Designers & Web people. I have a
multi volume output, each one in colour with a CD inside, also
containing the data. I have a cross referenced database being
continually updated and I have this expanded database being
turned into a huge interactive computer game with hundreds of
who fans building worlds and gaming in said worlds as we
speak.

Still perhaps it's possible anyway, even without a million!

What do you think?

Tim

PS. Are the Dalek Chronicles considered canon?