Tardis:Tardis Manual

Spoiler policy → Disambiguation → Format for television stories → Point of view → Prefixes → Format for novels → Format for audio stories → Plagiarism → User pages → Format for short stories → Format for comic stories → Disambiguation → Edit wars are good for absolutely nothing → Preloadable formats → Spelling → What SpellBot actually corrects → Spell checking → Spelling cheat card → Interlanguage links → Disambiguation term → Spell checking with a Mac → Spell checking with Firefox → Spell checking with Chrome → Spell checking with Opera → Wikify wisely → Don't over-wikify → Redlinks → Wikification → Character names → Naming conventions → Naming conventions → Serials → Cast and crew lists → Cast and crew lists → Crew lists → Cast lists → Characters with one name → Honourifics → Magazine issues → Astronomical objects → Years → Eras → Dates → Human → Self links → Avoid HTML → Section headings → Section linking → Use sentence case → Use British English → British English → SpellBot → Quotation marks → Typography and punctuation → Italics → Capital letters → Bold text → Vertical spacing → Sentence spacing → Page layout → Page layout → Leads → Quotes → Lists → Typography and punctuation → Apostrophe → Comma → Period → Semi-colon → In-universe perspective → Point of view → Out-of-universe perspective → Neutral point of view → We're Wikipedia's evil twin → Citation in articles about living people → Citation → Changing policy → Parts of a series without clear individual titles → Using wikitext → Humanoid → Categorisation → Categorisation → Category page descriptions → What categories are not → Category naming conventions → "Real world" versus "from the real world" → Category tree → Beware recursion → Don't over-categorise → Speedy renames → Lists of appearances → K9 credits → Universe → Citation → Full sentences → Grammar → What does a citation mean? → Format for articles about real world people → Date links → Disambiguating other realities → Disambiguating story titles → Spelling we've agreed by discussion → User pages automatically created → User categories → Safely using user pages → Good uses for user pages → Bad uses for user pages → Userboxes → Fan fiction on user pages → Other people's user pages → Linking to Tardis → Integers → Rule of three → Infoboxes → Infobox coding → Don't let a pretty face ignite a war → Infobox images → Names of actors → Even good categories can be removed → Official releases → Where spoilers are allowed → Comics and spoilers → Ways you can avoid spoilers → What is not a spoiler → Disambiguating in-universe counterparts → User talk pages → Username policy → Signature policy → On using multiple accounts → User rename policy → Why create an account? → Stub → Assuming species → In-universe counterparts of minors → Colour spectrum policy → Tardis Manual

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T:MOS

The Manual of Style will be undergoing a radical transformation for at least the next week. The substance won't change too much — the same rules will still apply — but we're breaking it up into smaller, easier-to-digest chunks. Thanks for your patience while we complete this task.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  <span style="">02:51: Wed 22 Aug 2012 

A manual of style is a document created by a publishing entity to ensure that all of its writers are working to a common standard. They are particularly necessary when working in the English language, as there are many different types of written English used throughout the world. A manual of style typically strives to settle matters of debate amongst writers by, in many cases, arbitrarily deciding questions like

• When shall we italicise words?
• How shall we name articles?
• Shall we generally use British, American, Canadian, or Australian English?

Note that a manual of style can answer any question like this in a way that might contradict one's own sense of "proper" English usage. Therefore, you should not assume, even if you are an extremely advanced English writer, than you understand the rules that we have chosen to use. Please make sure that you read this document thoroughly if you intend to edit with us. Also, be aware that the rules laid down here do occasionally come up for community review at the Panopticon, a forum dedicated to discussing the way the wiki is run. Indeed, this manual is certainly a living document. It has been locked only to prevent vandalism — not to discourage change. Please post your suggestions for how to improve it at the Panopticon, so that a wide range of users can discuss your proposal.

Except where a more detailed policy page exists, the manual of style should be considered the final word on any matter it addresses. If you don't agree with what it says, please don't blatantly disregard it. Instead, please start a discussion in the forum to change it.

For information on the most basic writing techniques and styles, which are used here, see Wikipedia's Manual of Style.

Self links forbidden

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T:SELF LINK

One type of link — the self link — should never be made. A self link is a link on the page of which the link is the object. For instance a self link on this page would be [[Tardis:Manual of Style]]. This kind of link is forbidden because it gets in the way of bot maintenance and it adds nothing of value to the page. Moreover, because it automatically creates bold text, it makes for an inconsistent appearance of that word or phrase on the page. If you want to embolden something, only use the wiki markup, '''Bold text'''.

Linking to a heading within the same article

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T:SELF HEAD LINK
T:SELF SEC LINK

A specialised type of self link is the "self heading link". These are allowed. Indeed, a self heading link can be very useful in some longer articles. They are formed by typing a pound/hash sign (#), followed by the section heading to which you want to link. For instance, the self heading link for this section is [[#Linking to a heading within the same article]].

Ordinary section links — those you make from another article — are made with a different, though related, syntax, which is explained below.

Layout guide

Leads

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T:LEADS

All articles must have an introductory section, called a lead, which gives context to the article. The lead should attempt to summarize the notability of the topic of the article, or to at least give a summary of what the article is about. Leads should usually begin with the name of the article in bold, although some leeway is allowed for exact positioning of the bolded topic name, depending on sentence structure. If the article is about a subject which should be italicized, such as a book or episode title, then the topic name should be bolded and italicized, as confirmed by a recent forum discussion.

It might help at this point to look at a couple of lead beginnings.

'''''Happy Endings''''' was the 50th novel in the [[Virgin New Adventures]] series . . . 

yields:

Happy Endings was the 50th novel in the Virgin New Adventures series . . .

while

'''Tom Baker''' portrayed the [[Fourth Doctor]], amassing more episodes than any other actor who played [[the Doctor]].

produces:

Tom Baker portrayed the Fourth Doctor, amassing more episodes than any other actor who played the Doctor

Leads are vital parts of articles. Good, interesting leads draw the reader into an article. Leads also save readers' time, by allowing them to quickly decide whether they're reading about the topic for which they were searching. Articles lacking leads can be easily identified, since they usually have no body text above the automatically generated table of contents.

Leads can be of highly varying lengths, as some topics are simply more notable than others. In some cases, as at DWA 205, the lead is very short indeed, but it's entirely adequate to the ordinary issue that #205 was. In other cases, as at companion or Planet of Giants, there are many points that make the subject notable, and so the leads are longer. An interesting case study is that described by leads on story pages, in which our wiki community discussed the pros and cons of lead length.

Whatever one's views are on the "perfect" length of a lead, no matter whether the article is in- or out-of-universe, every article must have a lead.

Lists

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T:LISTS

If you need help creating lists, see T:LIST MARK.

Lists, both ordered and unordered, are easily created using wiki markup. However, ease of creation does not mean that they should be over used. Especially within in-universe articles, it's often better to find a way to present the material in normal paragraphs. This isn't, of course, to say that lists are forbidden, but most truly good are comprised of ordinary prose, not bullet points.

If you do find that the best way to present a particular bit of information is with a list, however, there is one rule you must observe:

Pictures can't go to the left of lists.

See how this is crowding the bullets? They're all inside the margin of thumbnail border.

A picture visually breaks up the straight left margin of the list. Since the whole reason for making a list is that straight edge, there's no padding to the left of the bullets (or numbers) that create lists. Thus a picture put to the left of a list will crowd itself over the top of the bullets.

• Item 1
• Item 2

1. The picture crashes into numbers, too.

• Item 4
• Item 5
• It gets really ugly if you have a long list
• See how the list is now going back to the left margin?

In-universe

All in-universe articles should be structured as follows:

1. Main body of article
2. See also
3. Behind the scenes
4. External links
5. Category

For more details as to what each section of an article should contain, see the Layout guide.

Out-of-Universe articles on reference works

For more information, see the individual format guides, below:

• Format for Television stories
• Format for Novels
• Format for Short stories
• Format for Audio stories
• Format for Comic stories

Out-of-Universe articles about real people

Write an encyclopaedic biography of the person, centred mainly on his or her contributions to Doctor Who, but also include other notable work if known. Do not place items of trivia, such as date of birth, under their own headings or sub-headings, especially if such headings only contain the single word, "unknown." This makes the article hard to read and is actually somewhat annoying. Please also see "Articles on living people", below, for important information regarding content.

Perspective

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T:PERSPECTIVE

In-universe

If something is in-universe, or is described as such, it belongs to the Doctor Who universe exclusively and not in the real world. Characters are for example in-universe, but the actors who play them are not in-universe. Exceptions are persons, places, and organisations which appear or are referred to in the Doctor Who universe which also exist(ed) in the real world, i.e., William Shakespeare, The Beatles, the United Kingdom. Pseudohistory is an integral part of in-universe treatment of canon material. Information given from a "real world" perspective (i.e. notes about the creation of a character, or actors, or other real-world trivia) should appear under a Behind the scenes subheading.

In case an entry might detail a subject of importance both to the real world and to the Doctor Who universe, you may create a Real world section in the article, such as the one on Glasgow. The second section could have such articles as cast and crew born in Glasgow and location shooting for various stories shot there. Another example is years, months and specific days which are divided into 'Doctor Who Universe' events and 'Real world' events, see 1963 for an example.

Out-of-universe

Out-of-Universe refers to the perspective in which an article is written; it is the opposite of in-universe. Something written from an out-of-universe (OOU) perspective is written from a real life point of view. It will refer, for example, to real life publications, actors, authors, events, and so on, acknowledging that its subject is fictional. In contrast, an in-universe perspective will strive for verisimilitude; that is, it will be written as though the author existed within the Doctor Who universe. Articles about any in-universe things, such as characters, vehicles, terminology, or species, should always be written from an in universe perspective. If a section in the article is not, such as the listing of a character's published appearances or behind the scenes details, it should be tagged as such. In contrast, articles about books, movies, games, or other real life Doctor Who material should obviously be written from an out-of-universe perspective, but should still be noted as such. Basically, in-universe articles should never refer to Doctor Who by name, or any other real life things such as publications, actors, or the like.

Headings

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T:HEADINGS
T:HEAD

An article's sectional headings are best created through the wiki code markup involving the use of the equal symbol (=). Use of proper wiki syntax for headings is preferred over trying to create headings manually through the use of emboldened text. "Proper" wiki syntax follows this format:

=== This is a heading ===

The results of this are hard to show here without actually creating a subhead for this article. Because of this, we direct your attention to our headline test page for a more thorough overview of the coding. For now, suffice to say that there are six levels of sectioning available, each denoted by an increasing number of "equal" symbols (=). Note that immediately surrounding the text of your section header with spaces is extremely helpful to wiki maintenance. Thus:

=== Hello ===

is preferred over

===Hello===

The first level, using just one equal symbol

= This is NOT a good heading =

should never be used. It actually represents the level of the article title itself. It produces a header which is as big as the article title, it does not produce a sectional "edit" button, and it cannot be linked to.

Benefits of using proper headings

By using proper wiki coding for sections, we gain a number of benefits over "creating" false subheads through text bolding:

• If your article has a minimum of four section headings, a table of contents is automatically generated.
• Sections can be automatically numbered for users with that preference set in "My preferences".
• Most properly created section headlines produce an "edit section" button, allowing for just that section to be edited.
• Words within properly marked headings are given greater weight in searches.
• Sub-sections of the article get progressively smaller headings. This visual consistency allows the reader to "know where they are" within the article just by the size of the font. It also allows the reader to know how the section they're reading relates to other sections.

Linking by heading

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T:SEC LINK
T:HEAD LINK

This section describes how to link to a specific section of an article from another article. You may be interested in how to link to a section of the same article.

Section headings allow for linkage directly to a specific part of an article.

For example, this syntax will allow you to link directly to this section of this article:[[Tardis:Manual of Style#Linking by heading]] Note, however, that this is not the same as: [[Tardis:Manual of Style#headings]]. However, both will produce blue-links, and therefore appear to be valid links.

It's vital to capitalise the subhead precisely as it is in the article.

Additionally, the article in question must be the root article name. In other words, linking to sections through a redirect won't work. For example, if you wanted to link to the synopsis on the page The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, you have to type [[The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve#Synopsis]]. Even though The Massacre is by far the more common name of the story, and a valid redirect exists there, the following just won't work: [[The Massacre#Synopsis]].

Best practices with headings

Sentence case

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T:HEAD SC

Capitalise the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading, and leave all of the other letters in lower case. This style is called "sentence case" and it is the stylistic preference of this wiki. You may, however, wonder why it matters to use sentence case if the headers are in uppercase.

Well, there are many reasons. The main reason is because the uppercase headers that now appear on the site are the result of a single command in the CSS code. In other words, the headers aren't actually in upper case; they're merely styled in uppercase. Should we wish to "re-style" the wiki, it'll be important that the headers be typed by you in proper sentence case.

Another good reason is because of the sectional linking discussed above. Sectional linking is case-sensitive, so editors should be able to count upon the fact that headers are in sentence case so that they can reliably link to sections.

Therefore the following examples should be kept in mind:

Correct	Incorrect
The quick brown fox jumped over a lazy dog	The Quick Brown Fox Jumped Over A Lazy Dog
A Noble encounter [correct because the "Noble" here is Donna Noble]	A Noble Encounter
Will the real Dodo Chaplet please stand up?	Will the Real Dodo Chaplet Please Stand Up?
Behind the scenes	Behind the Scenes

Other matters

• Avoid links within headings.
• Avoid overuse of sub-headings.
• Section headings should be succinct
• Section headings should simply describe the contents of the section. Imaginative wording or puns aren't disallowed, but they might be edited to something less "creative" unless their meaning is very clear.

Usage and spelling

Specific spelling guidelines are noted in our spelling policy. A quick summary of the most common spelling mistakes can be found at our spelling cheat card.

Type of English

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T:TOE

Though the readers and editors of this wiki speak many varieties of English, several forum discussions have confirmed that we will use British English spelling, punctuation, and word usage whilst editing articles. Contributors who are native users of or otherwise fluent in British English standards reserve the right to edit articles to conform to those standards.

Nevertheless, if you appear to be making no effort whatsoever to edit in British English, after having been asked not to do so, your editing privileges may be revoked.

Exceptions

Though British English is preferred, there are some instances where American English may predominate.

Quotation marks/inverted commas

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T:QUOTATION MARKS
T:QM

The use of quotation marks shall favour the American usage, as it's less ambiguous for the MediaWiki software underpinning the wiki. Use double quotation marks (") surrounding single ones ('), even though most Doctor Who fiction uses the precise opposite format.

Correct	Incorrect
The Doctor said, "Oh, I know he said he was 'important', but, trust me, that's just the Dalek id talking."	The Doctor said, 'Oh, I know he said he was "important", but, trust me, that's just the Dalek id talking.'

The reason for this ruling is simple. Since the single inverted comma has an actual meaning in everyday wiki markup, it's all too easy for it to throw off the formatting of a sentence. Indeed, we even have to have a special template, {{'}}, to counteract the problem. Thus, even though it goes against years of schooling for some of us, it's best to use double-quotations on the outside, then follow with single-quotations only as needed.

Products

In the case of products aimed at a foreign market, their spellings and word choices should predominate. IDW Publishing titles should always reflect American spellings, as should anything to do with the new Doctor Who Insider magazine. Similarly, things in the DWU which take place in other countries, should not be "converted" to a British spelling or word choice just to satisfy the above general policy. If, for instance, a future episode of Torchwood should be called "Analyzing Miss Cooper", or IDW were to publish a story called, "A Few of my Favorite Things", there should be no effort to Anglicise the spellings of "Favorite" or "Analyzing".

This can also apply to British-made products that nevertheless refer to foreign items or settings. Don't, for instance, try to Anglicise "Pearl Harbor" or the film, The Color of Money, or the like, should they be mentioned in a Doctor Who story.

Full sentences

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T:FULL SENT

Complete sentences — that is, sentences containing at least a subject and a verb — are required. A full sentence is not something that starts with a capital letter and ends with a period or full stop. The following are examples of incomplete sentences that have been found, at one time or another, on the wiki:

Correct	Incorrect
An Unearthly Child was first broadcast on 23 November 1963.	An Unearthly Child first broadcast.
David Tennant's future father-in-law, Peter Davison, co-starred alongside Tennant in DW: Time Crash.	David Tennant's future father-in-law, Peter Davison.
The 34th issue of Doctor Who Adventures was current in the fortnight beginning 19 July 2007. ["34th issue of Doctor Who Adventures" is bolded in this case as it's the lead to DWA 34.]	The 34th issue of the BBC's fortnightly Doctor Who Adventures.

Exceptions to this rule are few.

• If you are directly quoting, and the original quotation is a sentence fragment, and you indicate that you are quoting, you may reproduce it.
• If you are making a simple list of words or titles, a complete sentence is not necessary on each line, because the list is likely to be a part of a preceding full sentence. For instance, if you said,

William Hartnell appeared in the following serials:

and then proceeded to give a list of those serials, the list is effectively a dependent clause of prepositional phrase "in the following serials". You therefore don't need a full sentence on each line of the list.

Tenses

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T:TENSES

With the exception of story article pages, articles tagged with the current event tag and ongoing concerns (such as real world articles about cast and crew) the past tense is preferred in the main article text (this includes on all Timeline pages). All in-universe articles should be in past tense.

The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, the articles on the TARDIS wiki are presented as historical recordings that have been pieced together from scraps of information left over from the early Universe, and various eras of history. As such, all details pertaining to this history have not yet been uncovered, and more information may be added at a later date. Keeping articles written in past tense provides consistency and flavour. Secondly, the Doctor may travel into the past, the present, or the future, but from his personal perspective, any events which have been previously recorded are now in his own personal past, regardless of where in the universal timeline they may fall. Writing in-universe articles in past tense relates the timeline of the Doctor Who universe with both our and his own perspective.

• Example: Martha Jones was an inhabitant of Earth. Rather than Martha Jones is an inhabitant of Earth.

Avoid phrases like "His ultimate fate is unknown" or "what happened to the ship after that is a mystery" unless it is an actual plot point in a story. Any information that is not known is simply the extent of knowledge, it does not need to be stated.

Do not jump back and forth between tenses; this is confusing.

Do not include theories, speculation or hypothesis in any articles. You can do so in The Howling a forum specifically for the community to do this.

See also Citation - Articles on living people

Capital letters

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T:CAPS

The article "the" in names like "the Doctor" and "the Master" should not be capitalised (unless, of course, they begin a sentence). The articles "a", "an", and "the" only should be capitalised in titles and proper nouns. "The first broadcast of an Unearthly Child" should be written: "The first broadcast of An Unearthly Child."

Bold text

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T:BOLD TEXT
T:BOLD

The article name, when first mentioned, should be in bold text. If a story title, it should additionally be italicised, as with An Unearthly Child. Alternate names for the topic should also be bolded. In most cases, any alternate name which is emboldened should also get a redirect.

Because emboldened text carries a meaning — namely, "this is the topic of the page" — bold text should be used sparingly in the rest of the article.

Bold text which appears within publisher's summaries, for instance, should be stripped — even though it may have appeared in the original printing of the text — because it causes visual confusion at the top of the page. Consider indenting — with the use of a preceding colon (:) — long passages of emboldened text found on back covers of books.

Similarly, working titles of stories should not be emboldened at any point in the text of the page, unless the titles are significant enough to warrant a redirect, and unless those titles are in the lead of the article. For instance, 100,000 BC is indeed emboldened at An Unearthly Child, because several sources consider it the correct name of the serial.

Italics

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T:ITALICS
T:ITAL

Pursuant to vigorous forum debate, we have decided that all story names shall be rendered in italics. This goes contrary to standard English rules, which generally hold that shorter works of fiction would be enclosed in quotation marks. Nevertheless, it was felt easier for our editors to consistently italicise all stories, regardless of medium or length, and all BBC Wales episodes.

There are also other things which may be italicised, a list of which is given below.

The biggest exception to the "always italicise" rule is that Hartnell-era episode titles, like "The Cave of Skulls" should be enclosed in quotation marks to clearly indicate when a Hartnell episode, rather than a full serial, is being referenced. This is particularly important because some Hartnell serials, like An Unearthly Child, have episodes of the same name.

Story names

Names of stories should be:

• Capitalised
• Italicised

e.g.

Tooth and Claw

Everything Changes

This means that they should be italicised everywhere, infoboxen, source citations — even page titles. To change a page title into italics, please use {{title}}. Generally, the easiest way to italicise a page title would be to place the following on a page:

{{title|''{{PAGENAME}}''}}

However, in the case of disambiguated page names, you'll have to use the appropriate title template. For instance, to properly italicise TV titles, just use:

{{TitleTV}}

Here's a list of all the title templates:

• Wrongname
• Title dab away
• StoryTitle
• THWRt
• THWRn
• THWRnth
• Title dab ital
• Quotetransform

Other cases

Aside from story titles, there are a number of other instances where one must make a choice between italicising and enclosing in "double quotations". This chart sorts out these other cases.

Type	Quotes or italics	Example
Reference book	Italics	The Writer's Tale
Song	Quotation marks	"Song for Ten"
Album	Italics	30 Years at the Radiophonic Workshop
Poetry	Quotation marks (epic length poems italicized)	"All Things Will Die", The Odyssey
Hartnell-era episode	Quotation marks	"Bell of Doom", "The Death of Doctor Who"
Games	Italics	The Gunpowder Plot, Destiny of the Doctors
Plays	Italics	Hamlet, Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure
Non-English words	Italics	deus ex machina, Allons-y!
Works of art (paintings, sculptures, etc.)	Italics	The Church at Auvers
Most major religious texts	Neither	The Bible
Commercial products	Neither	iPod
Legal documents	Neither	Magna Carta, Constitution of the United States
Periodical	Italics	TV Action, Doctor Who Magazine, The New York Record
Vehicle name	Italicize only the name	HMS Teazer

Spacing

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T:SPACING

As formally adopted in a forum discussion, there should be no more than one blank space between paragraphs, sections, etc. Put another way, a single blank carriage return between paragraphs or sections is sufficient. Paragraphs should not be indented, and the tab key should realy never be pressed while editing any article.

Although there has been some sporadic discussion about adopting a standard, the community has never actually ruled on the number of spaces which should follow a period or other full stop. Until a definitive ruling comes from forum discussion, editors are at liberty to use either one space after a period — which is the current standard on most online style sheets — or two, which was the prevailing rule in business until about the year 2000.

That said, a code cleaning bot does actually ensure that only one space exists between a full stop and the next character. However, this bot is not in continuous operation, which means that you will occasionally find instances of double-spacing around the wiki.

HTML use

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T:NO HTML

HTML should be avoided in the main namespace. HTML should be confined to the template namespace as much as is possible. Of especial importance: please do not build tables — such as infoboxes and navigation templates — with HTML directly on regular article pages. When you do this, you make it impossible to update the look of the table except by directly editing that particular page. The advantage of templates is that they allow you to make edits to the single template page which are then seen on all the pages that share the template.

Please don't use HTML, even within a template, to subvert the general styling of the main article space (namespace:0).

Only Wiki coding should be used on normal article pages. Even seemingly minimal usage of HTML, such as with tags like

<b> and <i>

makes it very difficult for bots to maintain the wiki, because raw HTML is simply not expected. Likewise, the use of

<ul> and <li>

can interfere with the coding of some templates.

You should also avoid underlining text, as this will confuse users with browsers configured to signify hotlinks with underlining. Coloured text should be similarly avoided.

Another good reason to avoid using even minor HTML on regular pages is because some of these commands have actually been deprecated, and they will not be supported in upcoming, HTML 4.0-based browsers. Amongst the tags you should definitely avoid are:

<applet>, <basefont>, <center>, <dir>, <font>, <isindex>, <menu>, <s>, <strike>, <u>

Although some of these are obscure, some, like <center>, <u> and <s> can be found throughout the wiki. These references should be gradually phased out, to ensure full compatibility with post-2011 browsers. Here's a site that explains this issue in greater detail.

Image use

You may be interested in seeing this information presented in an easy-to-read chart.

Use of images is encouraged on articles. As has been made clear by the community, articles with images are preferred to those without.

Markup

Please use the following base nomenclature when putting images into articles:

[[file:ImageName.extension]]

as in

[[file:Tensa.jpg]]

Do not use [[image:Tensa.jpg]] — even though it will work. Using "file:" instead of "image:" makes it much easier to maintain the site, and it reduces server load, as "image:" simply redirects to "file:"

Disallowed images

Images that should not be used in any articles include; amateur 'spoiler photos' and images that have been highly image-edited or had an overlay of text or colour placed over them. Colourised images from episodes originally filmed in black-and-white are specifically disallowed.

DWU articles

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T:DWUP

For in-universe articles, images must come from an in-universe source, such as a screenshot of a televised episode, or a scan of a comic strip. Novel or audio covers may also be potential sources for in-universe imagery, but only when no other source has an image to offer.

Promotional images — such as when actors pose in costume for a picture — are specifically disallowed. A good rule of thumb is that if the character is looking directly into the camera, the picture cannot be used on in-universe articles. Such pictures may be used on real world articles about the actor pictured, but out-of-costume pictures are preferred on such pages.

This ruling specifically means that most wallpapers available from the BBC's official website are not allowed on in-universe pages here. In fact, the best use for promotional images on this site is in maintenance images, such as are found on stub templates and the site's background images.

Out-of-universe and story articles

For story articles, promotional images also should not be used. Instead screenshots that capture iconic scenes from the story should be used.

Real world articles may use practically any other relevant images that have been properly sourced and tagged with the appropriate copyright tag.

Quotations

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T:QUOTES

Quotations are not encyclopedic in and of themselves and therefore should not be used as headers to articles or at the top of sub-headings within articles. Quotations can be used within the text body of an article to emphasis a certain point or highlight a certain issue of the article's focus, often a quote can explain things better than we can ourselves.

For example:

• Vicki described Time as "like space, although a dimension of itself, also has dimensions of its own." (DW: The Space Museum)

Real world articles and Behind the scenes sections

The Quote template and quotes may be used within Real world articles or behind the scenes sections (including on occasion as headers), as quotes from the real world often are sourced from a wide variety of sources, that are often handled better by the template.

For example see the quote template used within this Doctor Who (2009)#Setting for the Tenth Doctor article.

Links

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T:LINKS

• There is no need to link a keyword every time it occurs in an article; this is redundant. The one exception is if the keyword occurs under two or more different headings, as some readers may only read one section of an article rather than the entire page. Avoid overlinking: mundane, everyday terms do not need to be linked (even though this is commonplace in Wikipedia), unless there is a specific TARDIS Index File article. For example, restaurant generates a redlink because there's no need at present for a Doctor Who-related article on the subject, and thus a wikilink is unnecessary. However as there is an article on DVD, wikilinking that word is OK.

• In some cases, however, it may be desirable to link to a specific Wikipedia article. This is primarily for topics such as TV shows, movies, individuals, and technical terms that otherwise do not have their own TARDIS wiki articles. In this case, the link should be formed this way: [[wikipedia:Angelina Jolie|Angelina Jolie]]. However always check to make sure there isn't actually an article on the subject on this wiki, for example Star Trek. As noted above, however, mundane terms do not need links, so there is no need to link to the Wikipedia article on, once again, "restaurant" as most readers will not need an explanation of the term.

• Using links to redirect readers to another page is only necessary if a related topic cannot be covered in the original article without digressing too far from the article's main topic. There is no need, for example, to place the synopsis, viewer ratings, or uncredited cast for a television story on separate pages and redirect readers to those pages. This can contribute to too many red links in an article if those pages do not yet exist, and can be annoying.

Citation

Shortcut:

T:CITE

In-universe articles

Telling readers where a statement can be verified is important. It helps to focus articles and keeps the details in an article to only that which actually appeared in the various Doctor Who narratives. Don't assume that your readers have the same level of knowledge about the Whoniverse as you do. Cite often, cite accurately. Format your citations according to these guidelines:

• When citing an episode, novel, book, audio drama, webcast, comic or any other story use brackets, the proper prefix for the series and then the name of the episode, in italics and linked, e.g:

• (DW: An Unearthly Child)
• (NA: Timewyrm: Revelation)
• (TW: Everything Changes)

• When citing an in-universe website, use the WEB prefix, the name of the website in italics and the website address shown using a piped link, e.g:

• ([[WEB]]: ''[[Torchwood website|torchwood.org.uk]]''), which appears as: (WEB: torchwood.org.uk)

• If you encounter a statement that obviously needs a citation, but you don't have the time or knowledge to correct it, type {{fact}}, which produces:
• On this wiki, it is difficult to avoid using "weasel words" like "many", "often" and "sometimes". The nature of an internally inconsistent universe like Doctor Who's usually makes concise, absolute statements untrue. For instance, there are many occasions when the Doctor appears have a binary vascular system, but there are a few where he does not. Weasel words can be made more accurate by remembering to balance them with an appropriate number of citations. In general, if a sentence implies that something occurred multiple times, then there should multiple citations given. For instance, if you write, "The Doctor often thwarted the plans of the Master", then you should give several story names to give a sense that "often" is an accurate term. Some other words which trigger the need for multiple citations are "frequently", "various", and "regularly" — as well as the simple use of numerals ("the Doctor was known to have gone there three times").
• Should you come across a sentence that seems to need more citations, but you don't have the time or the knowledge to correct it, type {{facts}}, which produces:

Behind the scenes

"Behind the scenes" or "real world" subsections within in-universe articles should be cited using the same method as out of universe articles. See below for more information.

What a citation indicates to our readers

Shortcut:

T:WHAT'S A CITATION
T:CITE DEF

The above sections tell you when, where and how to insert a citation, but it's important to understand what a citation means. A citation says to our readers, "If you go back to the story cited, you will find that the work substantively includes the statement just prior to the citation.

For instance, let's look at the following statement:

Dr Henderson once puzzled over the Doctor's TARDIS key. (DW: Spearhead from Space)

By putting (DW: Spearhead from Space) at the end of that sentence, what we're saying is that, within the body of the serial known as Spearhead from Space, you will find a scene where a guy named "Dr Henderson" puzzles over a TARDIS key. Since that actually happens in Spearhead, this sentence is allowed to remain in our database.

The problem is that sometimes we kind of remember scenes being in one serial, but in fact they're in another. Or sometimes we use fan sites comprised of badly-researched statements incorrectly ascribed to a particular story. Worse, some fan sites give a citation for a particular story, but fail to make obvious that this assertion is based on speculation involving another story. (This, incidentally, is why we don't think fan sites are valid sources.)

It's absolutely vital that you check every statement you make against the story you're citing. Some good questions to ask yourself include:

• Am I going off my own research into the story?
• If asked — and given a few minutes, cause me memory's goin' — could I definitely point to a page, episode or time code when the event I'm citing happened within the story?
• Could I insert a direct quotation from the story into my sentence?

If the answer to any of these questions is "no", you're probably not on terribly solid ground.

Remember: the goal of our project is to write an original reference work. If you're copying someone else's work, rather than going back to the original narrative, you're not really creating anything new. You're just participating in a game of Chinese whispers.

If information is discovered which includes false citations, it is subject to immediate deletion.

Out of universe articles

Telling readers a statement that can be verified is important. For out of universe articles (those about the Real World or Behind the scenes) we use the same system as Wikipedia; Footnotes. The sources must have reference tags around the <ref> source</ref> (see also Wikipedia:Citing sources for more info). Or The Dark Dimension and Gothic stories for examples of correct citation within articles. A section at the base of the article entitled 'Footnotes' must also be placed with {{reflist}} (this will collect the cited sources at the base of the article).

Please use 'Footnotes' rather than 'References' as this term is associated with the in-universe References section.

If while editing you come across a cited piece of information which has no source you can place the {{fact}} tag beside it which will display the Fact tag like this; , which states a source needs to be cited.

Rumours

Rumours may be added to articles concerning yet to be broadcast stories/series', these should only be placed within the 'Rumours' section of the article. Users must ensure the rumours are cited with a source so that they may be verified by other readers and editors.

Unsourced rumours should be removed.

Articles on living people

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T:LIVING PEOPLE

Although all articles should be as accurate as possible, special care must be taken with regards to articles on people that are currently alive, as issues such as libel may arise if claims are made without sources being given, or unnecessary rumours sparked. If you choose to include information of a potentially controversial nature, a source must be given, and preferably a "reliable source" such as an interview, newspaper or magazine article, etc. Wikipedia and the Internet Movie Database, not being peer reviewed, are not considered reliable sources. Nor are online (and, occasionally, print) sources that site Wikipedia and IMDb as their main sources.

Although this Wikia site is not considered part of Wikipedia, it is nonetheless helpful to review the Wikipedia Biographies of Living Persons policy. If you see an unsourced claim or comment regarding a living person, if a source cannot be located, it is best to play it safe and remove that material from the article.

Bot enforcement

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T:MOS BOT

Because of the size of this wiki, global maintenance can only be done through the use of a bot. Enforcement of any of the provisions of this document are subject to automatic enforcement by bot, without prior notice. It is therefore possible that you might occasionally get it into an edit conflict with a bot. Please don't take it personally; the bot has no ability to sense you're editing an article.

It is important to note, however, that you should not rely upon the bot to clean up your mistakes. It is always better to try to do things according to the MOS. Remember two key rules:

• Bots are stupid. They absolutely cannot predict the precise way in which you will have violated this manual of style.
• Bots can't be everywhere at once. It might be months until the next time that the spelling bot hits the page you've just edited. So spell things correctly now, or else your mistake might persist for an unexpectedly long time.

Shortcut:

T:CLEAN CODE

From time to time, a bot shall execute a script whose sole function is to clean up the code. It shall run on every page in the main namespace, as well as several other namespaces. This script will in no way change the way that a page appears. But it will perform a number of menial tasks on pages, such as:

• the removal of extraneous spaces, per T:SPACING
• the insertion of leading and trailing spaces in section headers, per T:HEAD
• the placement of exactly one space following a full stop, which isn't required, but is allowed by T:SPACING
• the placement of exactly one space between a symbol which creates a list (i.e., * and #) and the following text
• consistent capitalisation of namespaces, such that — for instance — file: becomes File:
• the elimination of some redundant pipe tricks — [[Human|human]] would become simply [[human]], for instance