Forum:The Destroyers and other Lost Stories

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I realise that it's included as part of a Second Doctor boxset, but the The Destroyers doesn't feature the Doctor (specified on BFA as a requirement for that prefix), nor is the cover on the page advertised as Doctor Who. In fact, the original script's a pilot for an outright spin-off.

Should this be reworked to a one-off prefix, as with the KAC pilot? Or should The Lost Stories as a whole be given a prefix instead to differentiate from the regular series? -- Tybort (talk page) 18:20, June 28, 2012 (UTC)

Hmmm. Really good question. I tend to favor giving all the Lost Stories their own prefix. It's a pretty easy bot fix, so the work time isn't an issue in this case. The reason I like this approach is because the guys at Big Finish have been specifically asked about how the Seventh Doctor stuff is supposed to marry up, and Richardson said that the Lost Stories and the regular monthlies are "separate continuities". And there really is a tonal difference between the Sixth Doctor Lost Stories stuff and his regular BFA stuff.

Actually the more I think about it, the more I think we should change BFA to BFM — for monthly — just so it's clear what Big Finish audios we actually mean. Again, it's not a hard bot fix.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  <span style="">03:42: Tue 10 Jul 2012 

Would, in essence, anything not in the "monthly releases" segment of Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories page require a new prefix if we went throigh with that? -- Tybort (talk page) 10:15, July 10, 2012 (UTC)

There's also the whole BFA/BBCR, which were originally radio broadcasts rather than CD and download releases. -- Tybort (talk page) 13:46, July 10, 2012 (UTC)

To rephrase what I said, if we're making an entire prefix for the Lost Stories (rather than JUST The Destroyers), then we need to look at each "Doctor Who subseries" that the BFA prefix currently encompasses, not just stories with a "different tone". I LIKE the early seasons of Torchwood, but I'll freely admit the tone isn't all too consistent. Doesn't mean we make a, say, TWCE or TWMD prefix.

Looking at the history of both BFA and Help:Prefixes, it looks like it started off as "every BF audio" and gradually expanded out. Any older admins want to confirm that? -- Tybort (talk page) 01:56, August 5, 2012 (UTC)

In fairness, the prefix BFA was more "catch all" in the past, because there simply weren't other lines around. It was the monthly release only for a very long time. The diversification into different ranges is relatively recent and therefore past decisions don't quite hold as much weight. BFA used to work well, but I'd argue that it really makes no sense to new users to have BFA, when we really mean just the monthlies. The more specific our prefixes, the more understandable — and therefore useful — they'll be.

So I think you're right: we do need to look at all of the sub-series to make sure they're prefixed as clearly as they can be. I wouldn't be opposed to BFEX, for instance, for the Excelis series.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  <span style="">20:16: Sun 05 Aug 2012 

You're right. Apart from the special case of ST, it looks like a lot of these subseries were introduced in or after 2007, the year T:PREFIX was made.

My only certainty is "give each of the subpages here its own prefix", not what specifically to name them or which needs "BF" in front or not. Naturally, we already have CC, BFDWU and ST and I'm sure that "BFM" is fine for the monthly series (especially as DWM's taken). -- Tybort (talk page) 20:46, August 5, 2012 (UTC)

To hell with it. These are my suggestions for the sub-series. They can always be tweaked if they're rubbish.

• BFM: Monthlies
• BFE: Excelis
• BFLS or LS: The Lost Stories
• BFEDA: Non-monthlies Eighth Doctor Adventures. Might need to be something else considering the stuff co-produced with BBC Radio.
• FDA: Fourth Doctor Adventures
• WCA: Webcast audios (I was initially going to say BFWC or even make this the same as BFS; but then I noticed that the audio version of Death Comes to Time is part of the BBC Radio Collection)
• BFS: Subscription exclusives that aren't WCA (or former subscription exclusives; everything before The Four Doctors seems to be available to anyone, going by the Big Finish website)
• BFSP: Stage plays

How do these sound? -- Tybort (talk page) 21:33, August 5, 2012 (UTC)

This sounds like a good idea.

I have a recollection of discussing something like it in the past. (See Forum:Why do prefixes link as they do?#BFA for a previous discussion of this sort of thing)

Perhaps for Doctor specific prefixes go with numerals. So BF8DA, 4DA. Or does that make them awkward to type? --Tangerineduel / talk 15:07, August 6, 2012 (UTC)