User:Mini-mitch/Sandbox Three/Cast and crew lists
When writing television story pages, cast and crew lists should make an effort to replicate the cast and crew lists as they appear on episodes as first transmitted. They should never contain information which only appears on IMDb or any other secondary reference material, as the accuracy of such information is often disputable. In the case of 21st century television, we preference the credits as broadcast over the credits as seen on home video, because we don't want to burden our editors with the responsibility of having to buy home video versions of the stories. We need to choose a standard that all editors will use, and choosing the one that is free means that more editors will be able to comply to the standard.
Crew lists should also not contain information which is widely known to be true but isn't in the credits — such as the fact that Mervyn Pinfield was the associate producer of Planet of Giants, or that Terrance Dicks effectively wrote most of The Seeds of Death.
Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]
As confirmed by forum discussion, cast lists shall give the name of the character, as listed in the credits seen on first transmission of an episode. The character name shall be displayed exactly as in those credits, and in the order seen on original transmission. Thus, if characters are credited with only a first name, only that name should appear in the credits, linked by pipe trick to the full article name. For example, in the credits for The Hungry Earth, the character of Mo Northover shall be rendered thus:
[[Mo Northover|Mo]]
- Any actors credited on subsequent transmission, or in home video releases, that were not originally credited shall be placed in a special subsection which alerts viewers to that fact.
Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]
Crew lists should equally use the names precisely as they are credited in the episode in question. This may, in some cases, necessitate the creation of multiple redirects to a single person, such as is the case with Heddi-Joy Taylor-Welch, who has been credited a variety of different ways during her tenure on Doctor Who. Below the line crew members often are victims of typos, or are more inclined to change their names upon marriage, than above the line personnel. Thus we need to make an effort to include their names exactly as credited, and sort out the discrepancies with redirects.
Likewise, some individuals have professional qualifications after their name. These qualifications, whether they be CDG, MD, BSC, ASC or whatever, should follow their name. It's perfectly acceptable to make a redirect to the un-qualified name so as to make linking easier. For instance, Andy Pryor CDG links to Andy Pryor. The acronym should be punctuated precisely as it is in the credits. For instance, on Escape to LA, John Frank Levey, CSA, but Hunter M. Via, A.C.E.. Meanwhile, Ernie Vincze was regularly credited as Ernie Vincze BSC, no commas, no full stops.
