Tardis:Italics

Typography and punctuation Tables → Section headings → Use sentence case → Quotation marks → Capital letters → Bold text → Vertical spacing → Sentence spacing → Apostrophe → Comma → Period → Semi-colon → Movable type → Italics

We've decided to render all story titles with italics. Yes, this isn't what your English teacher will tell you to do, but it was felt easier for our editors to consistently italicise all story titles, regardless of medium or length.

We also consider each BBC Wales episode a story, and so italicise them. However, Hartnell-era episodes are parts of a larger serial, and therefore enclosed in double quotation marks.

Only italicise titles; do not also enclose them in quotation marks.

Shortcut:

T:ITALICS
T:ITAL

We render all story names 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, infoboxes, source citations — even page titles.

Note that infoboxes about stories will automatically italicise titles properly.

To change a page title into italics, please use:

• {{title dab away}}, if the page is about a story, like The Doctor Falls (TV story)
• {{retitle}} if the PAGENAME should be only partially italicised, like SS Bernice. This partial italicisation is achieved by typing:

{{retitle|SS ''Bernice''}}

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

Don't use quotation marks

Some people get confused and put italicised title within quotation marks. Please don't do this.

Do	Don't
''The Snowmen''	"''The Snowmen''", ''"The Snowmen"''