Forum:How to best cover exhibits
If this thread's title doesn't specify it's spoilery, don't bring any up.
Right, so, we've already validated non-narratives such as illustrations and features... So what about exhibits?
Although some exhibits appear to be out-of-universe, some others - such as Travel Through Time and Space [+]Loading...["Travel Through Time and Space (exhibit)"], are evidently fiction in-and-of-themselves. As evidenced by that page and the "EXHIBIT" prefix already existing, this seems to have been experimented with prior to this thread, but nethertheless I feel this thread is fairly necessary, even if the result will probably be the same as how it's been done now.
"Come on TARDIS, let's go party"
"Come on TARDIS, let's go party" was the social media caption applied to a photograph of a pink TARDIS which was placed in London as cross-promotion between Doctor Who and the upcoming Barbie film. Although in and of itself, this wouldn't be sufficient reason for coverage, a Mr "Russell T Davies" (heard of him?) stated explicitly that the exhibit is "in-universe", which means it should proooobably be a source on this site. A page was made under the false belief that this statement regarded the photograph itself, but this doesn't seem to be the case. (Also if we alter coverage to not be of the photograph, I'm not entirely sure what the page should be called... "Untitled (Barbie exhibit)"?)
Presenting... The Lady Cassandra!
Presenting... The Lady Cassandra! was an exhibit which was featured at the Worlds of Wonder exhibitions. Now, unlike the other exhibits featured there, this one featured original audio of Lady Cassandra talking about the various augmentations her body had gone through (additionally, the brief summary of who she is seems to be fairly in-universe). This should probably be a source, but if it wasn't, it wouldn't be the end of the world (we're probably better off covering it, though).
Unknown object—RHCTDM-OEI-OLOAW/0209
Unknown object—RHCTDM-OEI-OLOAW/0209 was an exhibit which was featured at the Science Museum, London, as part of the #FindTheDoctor ARG. Now, I've heard some people wanting #FindTheDoctor to be a single source, but as it stands, it's its own page, currently covered as a "feature". I feel that covering it as an exhibit would be far more accurate than how it's currently covered.
Madame Tussauds waxwork exhibits
The main thing I feel will the site will benefit from via this thread is coverage of the various DWU-related waxworks at Madame Tussauds, such as Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (MTB exhibit)"] and Travel Through Time and Space [+]Loading...["Travel Through Time and Space (exhibit)"]. I feel that those pages get across what they are and how they'd be covered well enough though, so won't go into detail here.
Untitled exhibits
I'm unsure if we should require threads for "Untitled" exhibits, in the same way as we don't automatically cover untitled illustrations. An example of an untitled one (notwithstanding the Barbie TARDIS) would be "Untitled (SDCC 2024 exhibit)", an interactive TARDIS exhibit thingy from San Diego Comic-Con 2024 which AFAIK didn't get its own name (I especially feel it warrants coverage as Kastarion 3 can be seen through the doors, making this a bit more than just the inside of the Ship).
Friendship is Universal
At the Friendship is Universal event (same event as the above), a set of props and costumes from Doctor Who and Star Trek were featured alongside each other with prose thingies describing characters and the like. This is linked at Mavity (term)/Appearances, but I'm not entirely sure we should be covering it, or at least it should be debated as it features ST elements with no clear link between them and the DWU. I feel that we could perhaps only cover the DW-related parts, similar to our coverage of Hedz and Dead Ringers episodes.
How to cover them
In terms of dab terms and prefixes, I already have an idea for them: "(exhibit)" and "EXHIBIT: " - thus, "The TARDIS was once painted pink. (EXHIBIT: Come on TARDIS, let's go party)" (or "(EXHIBIT: Untitled)", depending on people's opinions). And indeed, these are what the person who jumped the gun a bit went with. Now that prefixes and dab terms are out of the way, we have the question of how much to cover - i.e. should we cover the background of the Barbie TARDIS? What about the other side of it, where (for example) Dave's Kebab Shop can be seen? Should that get a page, if we edit Tower Bridge for the other view? With Lady Cassandra, where do we say she was? Can we allow fan photographs of the exhibits?
My opinions are that with regards to the Barbie TARDIS, I'm unsure on background information such as Tower Bridge, but I think if we do cover such things, we'd have to stick with only official imagery (I do think we should probably be able to say where it landed, though (London)). Additionally, with regards to Lady Cassandra, I personally feel that we should just say the objective facts of what she says, and no more, as intent would seem to be that her location is non-diegetic (unless there's dialogue that I'm missing). Finally, with regards to fan photography, I feel that it may be warranted to allow fan photographs of the exhibits (such as closeup shots/photos of exhibits with no official images) as part of the source, naturally categorised under "Category:(source title) exhibit images". I'm curious what other people think, though. (And after this, we only have a few things left to validate, such as stage plays and merchandise...) Cookieboy 2005 ☎ 12:00, 20 October 2024 (UTC)
Discussion
I like this proposal. I think having an EXHIBIT prefix would be really solid, even when it comes to OOU behind-the-scenes coverage. Expanding our documentation of historical exhibits would also be a really good idea, since these sorts of things go back to the Hartnell era. There's a lovely book I have about this, it's called Doctor Who Exhibitions. OttselSpy25 ☎ 14:38, 20 October 2024 (UTC)
