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)

The function of a cameo role -- the use of the word dates from Mike Todd's production of Around the World in Eighty Days in the 1950s -- is basically a bit role, typically uncredited, played by a major star. Doctor Who has a long history of cameos and offhand I can easily think of two: John Cleese talking about the TARDIS as a work of art in City of Death and the radio guy who can be spotted by the eagle-eyed in the background of the shop in Closing Time. While we can agree these are clearly cameos, functionally there is nothing to clearly label them as such -- it's an odd confluence of in-universe and out-of-universe factors that renders role a cameo and to a certain extent it plays hob with the suspension of disbelief necessary for any role. What is the level of celebrity needed to render a role a cameo? What is the maximum length for a cameo role and is a credit or a false name a plus mark or minus mark?

As a result of the inanity of such questions, I am against any formal recognition of a cameo role, including categories. although I see nothing wrong in stating in the text of the article on Mr. Cleese that he played a cameo role. That is a description. But writing is not chemistry. The rules are vague and we should avoid classifications that on their face are likely to cause dispute. We have enough trouble with the word 'companion.' Boblipton talk to me 22:55, March 23, 2012 (UTC)
 * The construction (cameo) — and about a dozen other terms like (intro), (introduction), (leaves), (dies), (joins), (departs), (trial sequences), (evidence sequences) — have all been stripped from infoboxes. If you're still seeing anything like this, please let me know what term you've encountered. 03:06: Sat 24 Mar 2012
 * Sorry about removing a couple manually last night, but the ones I saw seemed really specific (somehow, I doubt "dies, erased from time", "resurrected", "expelled", "left behind", "joins; burned alive" or "guest, dies, resurrected as freely floating atoms" would be much of an occurence).


 * I saw "redeem themselves" and "re-introduced" in a couple of places, so maybe those were missed elsewhere. And is a reference to archival footage (on appearance pages and individual infoboxes) bad form? Or should that be deleted completely? -- Tybort (talk page) 12:48, March 24, 2012 (UTC)


 * Should we be removing them for a character's list of appearances as well? Or can they stay? MM/ Want to talk? 20:35, March 28, 2012 (UTC)


 * They should go. (cameo), (whatever) should go wherever they're found.  20:13: Wed 02 May 2012