Talk:Reconnaissance scout

Rename, or, rather, lack thereof
I've just removed a rename tag on this page, which said: "Given that the Doctor uses "Reconnaissance Scout" and "recon scout Daleks" both in the same epsiode, shouldn't we use "Reconnaissance scout Dalek"? Furthermore, DWFC figurines will use this name for issue #157"

- User: RingoRoadagain

and had originally been added on 2 January 2019. There is leaving enough time for discussion to occur, and there is letting a dusty rename tag celebrate its second anniversary — two whole years without generating any talk page discussion, at that.

The thing is, this rename tag, absent other evidence/viewpoints that no one has bothered to bring here, is kind of misguided. We don't want to have to make up a longer name from context clues if we've already got a perfectly good, speculation-free name (Reconnaissance scout) that is presented verbatim in valid sources and does not create any disambiguation issue with other pages.

Additionally, the Doctor in TV: Resolution is the only one to talk about "recon scout Daleks"; not only does she also use "reconnaissance scout" and "recon scout" as well, but in TV: Revolution of the Daleks, the Reconnaissance Dalek identifies itself, speaking to other Daleks, as "a reconnaissance scout". Self-identification trumps nicknames; by all accounts what the Daleks themselves call these is "Reconnaissance scouts," not "Reconnaissance scout Daleks".

And when the Doctor said "recon scout Daleks", it's not clear she was even using it as a genuine name for an actual rank in the Dalek hierarchy, as opposed to using "recon scout" as a qualifier for the noun "Dalek". I think the capital letters just aren't there.

Again though, however you slice it, just plain "reconnaissance scout" is the term most often used in valid sources, and the term the scout used when describing itself. The page name stays. I suppose there is no harm in creating a few redirects at the suggested alternatives Recon scout Dalek and Reconnaissance Scout Dalek, however, purely for search-bar purposes. Scrooge MacDuck ☎  04:11, 4 January 2021 (UTC)