Talk:The Eighth Doctor Adventures (audio series)

Rename

The rename suggestions is well-reasoned. Only one point seemed weak to me: the BF website rarely uses "the" in front of the name. The provided link is to an obscure thumbnail collection and is not corroborated by the navigation links, page names, etc. However, upon checking both Big Finish Companion volumes, the article is confirmed. There the range name is resolutely with "the". Given that the two volumes were written at different times by different people and that all printed materials (for other Doctors) indeed carry the article, I agree with this rename. Are there objections? Amorkuz ☎ 21:22, June 28, 2018 (UTC)

I've axed the rename tag at Talk:Fourth Doctor Adventures (audio series) to concentrate the discussion in just one place. It's the same issue here as there.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  18:34: Sat 30 Jun 2018

I don't think the range names actually have changed.

The perceived need to add a prepending "The" is very much a recent thing, arising from the introduction of the series-branded bundles. Indeed, I think it's fairer to say that "The Fourth/Eighth Doctor Adventures" is a name reserved for only the as-a-series bundles — such as The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 7 Volume 2 — but the range as a whole is still called "Fourth Doctor Adventures" and "Eighth Doctor Adventures".

There is no corresponding title for other Doctors, because McGann and Baker have largely had their own series outside the main range. That is, there is no such thing as "Fifth Doctor Adventures". So consistency can only be reasonably expected between Four and Eight, since only they have had similar experiences. Even Ten is unlike Four or Eight, because his adventures have, to date, always been released as a boxed set.

So I think that's why the website still, as of today, maintains that the range names are "Eighth Doctor Adventures" and "Fourth Doctor Adventures" — even in the range dropdown.

And even if BF actually do change the names on the website, it's the convention for real world pages that we prefer original names to be the actual {{PAGENAME}} — and then add names that come later as redirects. (For that matter, we generally apply that principle to in-universe pages — which is why Jo Grant is not Jo Jones — although there are one or two exceptions.)

I notice, too, that our categories have gotten inconsistent because of all this. Sometimes, they're Category:Fourth Doctor Adventures audio stories and sometimes they're The Eighth Doctor Adventures voice actors. A bot will be required either way, so let's clean up all this in favour of the way Big Finish market the ranges themselves — not one or two collections within those ranges.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  18:34: Sat 30 Jun 2018

Big Finish's naming convention is... messy, at least. Using a link of Wayback Machine that User:Amorkuz added today, I was able to find and old version of Big Finish's "Ranges" page. There alone we have two ways to refer to the range: "The Eighth Doctor Adventures" and (a down a bit), we have it as "NEW 8TH DOCTOR ADVENTURES". Also on an old version of the "News" page we can see it being referred as "The Eighth Doctor Adventures". So there is evidence, or, at the very least, suggestion, that all of these names have, at one point, been used as the names for the range as a whole, and not just series-branded bundles. OncomingStorm12th ☎ 23:57, June 30, 2018 (UTC)

Furthermore, taking advantage of the fact that Vortex always lists upcoming releases, we can check VOR 35, for example. It was released the same month that Fourth Doctor Adventures (audio series) started. On the "Forthcoming releases" section, all stories are preceded by "Doctor Who - The Fourth Doctor Adventures:". OncomingStorm12th ☎ 00:28, July 1, 2018 (UTC)