|
Neutral point of view → We're Wikipedia's evil twin → Out-of-universe perspective → In-universe perspective |
When writing the in-universe portion of an article, imagine that you know everything about your topic, but that it no longer exists. Write in the past tense only.
It's important that our articles be consistently written from the same point of view. Otherwise, we'd end up with one article written in past tense, another in future tense, and yet another in present tense. Or maybe, some of the articles would be written from a character's perspective rather than the audience's.
We've therefore decided on a few simple rules:
- Use past tense for in-universe portions of articles
- Write from the perspective of a neutral observer who has access to all known facts about your topic. You, the writer of the article, are omniscient, even though the subject of your article is not.
- Use only valid sources — which is to say works of fiction — to write your article. Material from behind-the-scenes reference works, deleted scenes, or documentaries can only go in "behind the scenes" sections.
- All works of valid fiction, regardless of medium, have equal weight. Whether it's a comic strip, audio, novel or television story, it's all equally valid here.
Here are some common situations:
| Correct | Incorrect |
|---|---|
| Liz Shaw was a companion of the Doctor's third incarnation during the early part of his exile on Earth... | Liz Shaw is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who... |
| The universe was a vast region of uncertain proportions, comprised of, amongst other things, planets, satellites, asteroids and stars. | The universe is that place where most of the lifeforms in the Doctor Who universe live. |
| Barack Obama was President of the United States on 19 April 2024. | Barack Obama is President of the United States on 19 April 2024. |