Forum:Cast lists

In the cast lists for various TV stories, I have noticed that the characters have the names of the articles they are under as their names. Although it may be secretly written in the Manual of Style and I just haven't picked it up, I believe that this is against the whole purpose of a Cast list. From what I believe that you may not believe, the Cast lists are intended to be what the credits displayed at theend of the TV story. In the credits, David Tennant is credited as The Doctor, yet in quite a lot of the Cast lists, it calls him Tenth Doctor, unlike in the credits. Of course this whole ordeal maybe be stupid and pointless because there probably is some reason for this, but if there isn't and the Manual of Style doesn't say so, I think we should stick to what the credits say. Bigredrabbit 05:19, October 4, 2009 (UTC)


 * Are you sure you arent confused between the infobox and cast list Bigshowbower 05:29, October 4, 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm with Bigshowbower. The cast lists do do as you say. I just randomly checked Tooth and Claw, The Lazarus Experiment add The Fires of Pompeii. The all have the cast list as listed as is in the credits (or in some cases as listed on the BBC's site list of credits). Unless what you're talking about is how they're linked? The wikilinks display as 'The Doctor' but in the above examples (and in fact every TV, novel, novella and audio drama) link through to the specific Doctor to which it relates to. --Tangerineduel 15:05, October 4, 2009 (UTC)
 * Ok, well in Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? Luke Smith is credited as Luke, but in the Cast lists on the page, he's credited as Luke Smith. Bigredrabbit 05:26, October 5, 2009 (UTC)

Resurrected
I'm snatching this discussion from the archives and returning it to active debate because it was never really answered. Bigredrabbit is correct. I think it's common sense that cast lists should reflect the credits upon transmission, but we need to establish in policy that this is so. Since 2009 there's been a good deal of slippage in this area, especially with Matt Smith-era episodes. People are fond of putting down the full names of characters in cast lists, when the actor was only credited by the first name of the character. Obviously, the link should be to the full name, as in the case of the Northover family from Cold Blood, but the displayed name should be as in the credits. Thus, it should display as "Mo" but link to "Mo Northover".

Is there a good argument for cast lists displaying names other than that which are given in the credits?

Put more simply, shouldn't the manual of style be amended to say:


 * 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
 * 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.

16:58:03 Fri 27 May 2011


 * Thank you, CzechOut. Bigredrabbit 11:09, July 25, 2011 (UTC)


 * Are we actually doing? Or are we still discussing it. If we're discussing it, then I think that we should go ahead with it, but if we decided to do it, then we need to start doing and fix what not already like it should be. MM/ Want to talk? 21:34, August 27, 2011 (UTC)


 * Well it really shouldn't be a new concept at all. I don't know why deviation from the cast list would have ever started, given that wiki markup allows us to easily display one name but link to another.  So yeah, we should be doing this, and should have always been done. So, yes, we are doing this.  I guess it should be written into policy, but it seemed pretty common sense to me. 19:21:10 Mon 29 Aug 2011

Closing discussion
Okay, this stuff has now been written up in the manual of style, along with some picky little things about crew lists. This thread will remain in the forums for the next little while before being archived. 21:14:30 Mon 29 Aug 2011