Tardis:Format for television stories

This is a tutorial for writing entries for television stories. If you have any comments or suggestions, please put them on the discussion page. Please do not make changes to this page! Instead, tell us what changes you think should be made on the discussion page. Thank you.

This is a general outline and tutorial on the style for adding entries to the wiki on stories in both the original and current series of Doctor Who. Note that this is only a guideline, and you should only attempt to enter information that you know, and not feel obligated to fill in every section.

Basic Requirements

At the very least, an article should have a basic behind-the-scenes description of the story and basic synopsis (see below), the correct templates (see below), an image from the story and a cast list. Please do not attempt to do a television story article if you are unable to provide these. Please also, if you do not have the necessary information or time to complete any of the other headings or sub-headings listed below, it is far better to simply leave them out all together than to leave them empty or place such phrases as, "To be added" underneath. Just do the basics mentioned above if you can, then make a note on the discussion page of what other things need to be added. By the very nature of a wiki, someone will eventually come along to complete those parts. No one here is expected to go it alone.

A good example of how a television story article should look can be found here. Yet another can be found here.

Article Intro

• First comes the infobox. The infobox summarizes the most basic information on each story for quick and easy reference. Simply insert the template for this item in the page, then fill in the information.

• The infobox is followed by a basic behind-the-scenes description of the story, i.e. it was the nth story of Season N. This is the first item of actual text in the article, and will appear to the left of the infobox:

The Tenth Planet was the second story in the fourth season of Doctor Who. It was the first story to feature the Cybermen and the last to star William Hartnell as the Doctor. The adventure would conclude with the the Doctor transforming in to a new, younger body.

Note:There is no need for section headers for either the infobox or the opening description.

Synopsis

• The Synopsis should be a one or two paragraph summation of the story, the sort one might find in a television guide or catalog listing. An example can be found here.

Plot

• The Plot is a more detailed summary of the story, ideally illustrated with images from the story, if available. (Please review our copyright and image policies before uploading and inserting images.) For stories in the original 1963-1989 series, these should be divided up into the individual episodes, with sub-headings for each. Stories from the new 2005- series do not need this division. For two-part stories in the new series, i.e. "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" each part has its own page and so should be summarized separately. For an example of how a completed plot should look, click here."

Cast

• The Cast is a list of the actors who appeared in the story. Preferrably these should be listed in the format of "Character - Actor," as this is the way the credits in the actual television programme list them. They should be listed in two columns for easier reading. The actor playing the Doctor should always be listed first, followed by the actor(s) playing the Doctor's companion(s), the actor(s) playing the Doctor's formally named or titled enemy(ies), and finally the supporting characters.

Characters should be listed according to the credits in the transmitted version of the story. However, if a character is referred to by name in the dialogue of the story, but is given no name in the credits, or they are referred to with a first name when only a surname is given in the credits, they may still be listed according to the originally transmitted credits, but the article the character role links to will have the name given in dialogue. For example, the character played by Beatrix Lehmann in "The Stones of Blood" would be listed in the credits as "Professor Rumford," but clicking on "Professor Rumford" would direct you to the article titled, "Amelia Rumford," as this was the character's full name given in the story's dialogue. This is in keeping with naming principles.

Uncredited performers, if known, should be listed last, with "uncredited" placed in parathenses next to the part they played. If several actors played the same unnamed role, such as "Dalek," "Cyberman," or "Thal," it is enough to simply list that part once and list all the performers who played that role beside it, separated by commas. Again, this makes for easier reading.

Note: The above contains the basic information which every article about a television story should contain. The additional sections below require more research to complete. If you do not have the time or resources to complete these, please leave them out. You may leave a notice on the article's discussion page requesting that these items be added by someone else.

Production Crew

• The Production Crew should be listed in the format of "Crew Position - Name." They should also be listed in two columns for easier reading. Traditionally, the script editor, director, and series producer have been listed last in the series' credits and ideally this convention should be followed in the articles. As with the cast, uncredited persons should be listed with "uncredited" in parentheses next to the role they played, and if several persons filled the same role, that role should be listed only once, with the persons' names listed beside it, separated by commas.

References

• The References section lists characters, organisations, planets, races and species and other items which are referred to in a story for which specific articles exist or may be added to the database. They either were seen in previous stories and are referred to in dialogue or are seen in the current story but, for the sake of brevity, can't be described in too much detail in the story article's summary or plot sections. They may also be real persons, literary works, historical events, culinary items, or items of Western pop culture in general or British pop culture in particular that are referred to in the story but with which not all viewers may be familiar. Such listings should separated into categories, with article links for each item.

Story Notes

• The Story Notes section contains general behind-the-scenes items of interest about the story, such as production problems and cast or script changes. or ways in which the story was a major landmark in the history of the series. Other, more specific information falls under the following sub-sections:

Influences

• Previous stories as well as real events, films, literary works, and episodes of other television programmes which inspired or influenced the story. "The Daemons," for example, is generally seen as being heavily influenced by Quartermass and the Pit.

Ratings

• A listing of ratings, per episode, for the original transmission of the story. This can be found at the History of Time (Travel)website, a link to which should be included in the External Links section (see below).

Myths

• Behind-the-scenes reports and stories which have developed about certain stories but which have been proven to be untrue. An example would be the claim that Jacqueline Hill was working as a model in Paris when she was cast as Barbara Wright for "The Pilot Episode" and "An Unearthly Child."

Location Filming

• Towns, villages, buildings, estates, and all those wonderful quarries and sandpits where the stories were filmed. This information can also be found at the Brief History of Time (Travel) site.

Continuity

• Tie-ins between this story and other stories, whether previous or later.

Discontinuity

• Plot holes, continuity conflicts with other stories, and bloopers which got past the editing process all go here.

DVD, Video, Audio Releases

• If a story has been commercially released in VHS, DVD, LP record, audio cassette, or CD format, the information will go here, with date(s) of release and notes on any special features, such as commentary or behind-the-scenes narration. Releases by the Reconstruction Team would also go here. This information can be found at the Brief History of Time (Travel) site, and at a few other sites.

See Also

• Links to related articles within the wiki, or to articles on similar stories, go here.

External Links

• Here you should place outside links to any sites you used in researching the article, or to sites which may have more information. If you used any of the articles on Doctor Who television stories at Wikipedia, you should also insert here the Wikipedia Citation Template, which notes that information from an article on that site was used here. This gives credit to the original author(s) of that article and is in keeping with the tenets of the GNU Documentation License, which covers articles both on Wikipedia and this wiki.

• Next, insert the navigational footer template for television story articles. This allows visitors to jump to the previous or next story if they wish.

• Finally, insert category links for the article. generally, the categories used for story articles are "Doctor Who stories" and "Television stories."

Remember to preview your work and correct any errors you find before clicking "Save Page." And there, you're done!