Talk:Dateline (series)

One page

I created one page for Dateline 2066 and Dateline 2088/89 because, despite the separate publishers, in my opinion they're clearly extensions of the same idea and not different enough to merit separate pages. But I could be persuaded otherwise, if someone has strong feelings. – n8 (☎) 20:32, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

While the two Engale iterations of Dateline are obviously one and the same, I'd probably seperate them from their TV21 counterpart (although both should be mentioned on each other's pages). Engale's Dateline was much more comparable to TV21's cover stories in that there was one longer article, usually one or two smaller articles as well, which tied-in to the events of the comic strips within the issue. They were also illustrated with colour screenshots or promotional images of well-known characters from the Anderson supermarionation series.

2066 was predominantly black-and-white with a focus on smaller but shorter articles, as many as ten on one page. Crucially and the main reason why I think the split should occur, is that it was unconcerned with happenings elsewhere in TV21. It was uncommon for a recurring character original to the magazine (e.g. Bandranaik) to make appearances and when he did it was in just one of these many articles. As far as I can remember, there was never any appearances from well-known characters from television such as Tempest or the Tracy brothers never mind news which tied in to the strips on an issue-to-issue basis.

The purposes of the Engale's and TV21's Dateline were similar in that they offered reports from each magazine's futuristic setting but they were otherwise completely distinct. Adding in the difference in publisher and the gap of over twenty years justifies seperate pages in my view. Borisashton ☎ 21:32, 3 April 2021 (UTC)