Talk:The Doctor

Archived
The page was simply getting too long to allow for clarity of thought. Thus, the pre-September 2012 version of the page now sits at Archive 3. The discussion that was active as of earlier today — but criss-crossed with references to the earlier discussion — now sits at Archive 4. 18:32: Mon 03 Sep 2012

Infobox image
There is discontent about the image used in the infobox. As we search for a new solution, it's important to remember what's already been ruled out.

Things to avoid in the design
The following proposed solutions have, as is reflected both in archives of this page, and at talk:The Master, already been ruled out by the community:
 * Collages which contain all 11 Doctors
 * Collages which grossly violate T:ICC
 * Collages which don't clearly show their smallest images at 250px width. (This is mostly why an 11-up design doesn't work; no matter how you design it, some of the images are going to be miniscule when viewed in situ in the infobox.)

Symbolism or rotation?
Given that a redesign of the latest collage image (again, seen at top right), would simply be an exercise in moving the squares around, there's no point in offering a new collage. It won't be demonstrably better than that which already exists. It'll just be a variation on the same. Thus, as Archive 4 makes clear, we've moved on to a new question: do we have a symbolic representation of the Doctor, or do we rotate the images in some way? Tangerineduel has suggested symbolism might be the way to go. He's advanced the notion of using the Doctor's calling card seen briefly in Remembrance of the Daleks. There may be other images which equally represent the Doctor; I've only half-jokingly suggested that better symbolism might be a closeup on a question mark collar.

Another thought is that we can just rotate the images. At present, the incarnation shown is chosen randomly, which means that you get a different Doctor on (most) every page load. (Reload this page to try it out.) I'm looking into a javascript trick to simply rotate through different pics, so that you don't have to reload the page to get a different image.

Note, too, that it doesn't have to be these eleven images. It doesn't even have to be just 11 images. It could be 121 images, so we see a lot of "moods" of the Doctor. But it should be an equal number of images for each incarnation.

The choice
Our choice now is between:
 * 1) Keeping the collage
 * 2) Going to something that symbolises the Doctor, but doesn't actually show any incarnation's face
 * 3) Rotating between full-sized images of each incarnation

Discussion
Discuss the choice, below. 19:00: Mon 03 Sep 2012


 * Would a specific dislike of one option go under that header as well? d ● • ·  19:07, September 3, 2012 (UTC)

I like the collage

 * A collage could work, but not that one. For one, even if the specific Doctors we'd want to represent are One, Four, Eight, Nine, and Eleven, the actual image really needs cleaning up.  Note the black borders being visibly uneven, even without seeing the enlarged image.  Aside from that, I think the one big question with the Five Doctor setup is whether Nine (who, like One, was the progenitor of his series' Doctors) or Ten (who, like Four, is the most well-known of his series' Doctors, Eleven notwithstanding) belongs in the image.  Food for thought. d ● • ·  19:13, September 3, 2012 (UTC)
 * Alternatively, Nine and Ten, since the new series has been continuous since 2005, but that skirts dangerously close to the "but what about this Doctor?" argument again. d ● • ·  19:16, September 3, 2012 (UTC)


 * I support the idea of a collage consisting of Hartnell, Smith, plus a Doctor representing 1966-1989, 1989-2005 and 2005-2010 respectively, but I'm not sure whether to keep Eccleston or change it to Tennant. -- Tybort (talk page) 19:43, September 3, 2012 (UTC)

I like the rotation

 * I support rotation. d ● • ·  19:07, September 3, 2012 (UTC)
 * The Doctor is not a symbol, but a man. And as a character, like any other character on this wiki, he is best depicted by seeing his actual face.  The rotation solves the issue of leaving any Doctors out unnecessarily, while allowing the image to be large enough (obviously) to tell who you're looking at.  If possible, a rotating caption reading "[actor] as the [nth] Doctor" would be ideal. <font color=#609000>d <font color=#609000>● <font color=#FF6090>• <font color=#6090FF>·  19:07, September 3, 2012 (UTC)