Forum:What is a cameo?

There are several disputes on a character's appearance list on what counts as a cameo. At one point we had the Judoon down as appearing as a cameo in The Stolen Earth and we also once had, some for daft reason, Rose Tyler being down as cameo with lines for The End of Time. The same is true for people like Martha and Jack.

So should we decide on 'What is a cameo' and how long their appearance in an episode is? To me a cameo is a background, quick appearance, that lasts not even two seconds. Rose Tyler's appearance in Partners in Crime in not a cameo, it's a full on, proper appearance. As is her appearance in The End of Time.

We have a whole range of words to describes an appearance, such as; cameo, brief, guest, extended cameo, minor, flashback, dream etc. I'm all for having a meaning to these, rather unnecessary words, but, I'm actually wanting them to be completely removed from an appearance list. MM/ Want to talk? 18:44, March 22, 2012 (UTC)
 * Doesn't matter what the meaning to cameo is. All of these little parentheticals need to be removed.  A bot run is happening today to get rid of them all in one fell swoop. They're an absolute menace in infoboxes. It's not an infobox's job to mark the comings and goings of characters from the series.   15:08: Fri 23 Mar 2012


 * I think all all the parentheticals should be removed from the list of appearances, and as CzechOut has noted on the Template:Il/doc they should also be removed from the infoboxes.
 * If they're significant enough to have been listed on the list of appearances page then there doesn't need to be any more explanation than that. Unless it's something like archival footage. If the actor hasn't recorded new scenes to appear in the story then the use of archival footage can be noted.
 * To the question of what exactly is a cameo, the best working definition I've found is from TVTrops.org's page on the subject, and it defines it as "A brief appearance by a well-known star or other famous person in a role that would otherwise be an extra or walk-on. Most often used today as a surprise or punchline of sorts."
 * I'd go further and say that a cameo is an exclamation mark, or visual punctuation, and lasts for about as long as it takes to read punctuation. And as you say MM anything longer is an actual appearance. --Tangerineduel / talk 15:18, March 23, 2012 (UTC)