Talk:B5 Episode Guide

From The Great Machine

[edit] Current Template

• Episode Title: (name of episode)
• Episode Number: S#E##
• Original Air Date: MMMM DD, YYYY
• DVD Release Date: MMMM DD, YYYY
• Writer: {{writer}}
• Director: {{director}}
• Guest Stars: (check Lurkers for best list, remove Guest Stars if none, link only major reoccuring actors)

==Preview==

• Non-spoiler Teaser

==Synopsis==
{{spoiler}}

• Highlightes, including spoiler information.

===Main Plot===

• Detailed episode breakdown

===Backstory===

• The "B-Plot"

==See Also==

• Categories as appropriate including: Ships, species, related, relevant, etc.
• See also section.

==Characters==

• People: (list from Lurkers, make sure you keep to existing name methods when possible link only unique names. If name isn't unique don't link for now until we decide how to handle them.)

{{S#Cast}}

• Link to template with appropriate season's main cast.

==Notes==

• Quotes, FAQs, Trivia

{|
|-
| Previous episode:<br />[[episode]]
| [[B5 Episode Guide]]
| Next episode:<br />[[episode]]
|}

• Direction box to go to the previous episode, the Babylon 5 Episode Guide, and the next episode.

---

• Updates: -- StarChild, 07:03, 22 May 2004 CDT
• Approved: --Randomchaos 22:43, 24 Apr 2005 (CDT)
• Updated: --Randomchaos 09:16, 28 Apr 2005 (CDT)
• Notes: This is a general layout. There may be exceptions.

[edit] Episode Template

Umm... I was under the impression that "Episode Number" on the episode pages as well as in any reference to an episode was the number of the episode in the correct airing sequence (as on the DVDs), not the production number of the episode (referring to "Eyes" as season 1, episode 22, just doesn't look right to me). I changed a few of those numbers thinking they were simply mistakes, but I realize now it's like that for every episode... so now I'm asking for a clarification on which is correct so I can avoid making such "corrections" in the future. -- MikhailM

---

Whailp... Speaking of a more sturdy episode template: I hope you don't think I'm too audacious or presumptive. I wasn't aware of this template when I set off to standardize all the episode pages. Since they got some pretty good reviews, and since I was pointed to this template, I took the liberty of back-modifying to template to match the standard in the ep pages. Is this something we can live with, or is more necessary? Your thoughts? -- StarChild 07:12am 22 May 2005 (CDT)

Should be fine. Only thing is does the spoiler tag look better before the "Synopsis" line or after it the way it is? --RC

I feel better with it inside the "Synopsis" splitter, and preferably [not] the spoiler2 (possibly save that for external references) but can live with the majority vote... Cheers! -- StarChild 23:53 22 May 2005 (CDT)

We should probably get a more sturdy episode template in place, rather than the rather loose episode articles currently in place. Something like guest actors, original airdate, director, and other interesting stuff that would be consistent from episode to episode. There should also probably be a number of sections: short 'spoiler-free' synopsis (a la a teaser ad); full synopsis; and a section for events and details which don't fall into the normal synopsis, but are important for the story-arc. I'll plan to put up something in the next few days.--Patton1138 07:51, 22 Feb 2005 (CST)

Yeah - for episodes I think we should break it down as follows:

• • Teaser + Guest Actors + Director + Air Date + B5 Year + maybe a few other minor things of importance. Links to following pages:
    • Lurkers Guide overview (if Sanfam can get permission to reprint it)
    • Spoiler version

That would keep all this info seperate like Patton mentioned - and for episodes that is important since they should not be spolierfied by default. --Randomchaos 13:24, 22 Feb 2005 (CST)

I would slightly modify that by keeping the spoiler and non-spoiler stuff all on one page. I'm really not a fan of separate pages. We should instead have a break part way down the page with a spoiler warning. Anything after that break would be spoilered. If we try to keep a spoiler version and a non-spoiler version of every page, it's gonna be completely insane --Patton1138 08:59, 23 Feb 2005 (CST)

Well, the problem is the episode pages might be looked at by people that haven't seen the series at all. Usually simple spoilers are on the same page, but major spoilers I've been putting on subpages. The first season is mostly done with the current method - including guest actors and writer info. There is a lot involved in getting the details of the episode done.

What would be nice is to get permission of Lurker's Guide to repost their material. Then we could have a Lurker's Guide page for every episode combined with a spoiler page for every episode. I understand your comment about putting spoilers on the same page...though I hope that the details of the episode on the spoiler page get VERY detailed evenaully. This would preclude placing it on a simple overview of the same page as the basic description.

I am trying to make the only type of description on the main episode page a combination of the (1) DVD episode description and (2) the preview video for the episode. Therefore nothing is spoiled that the person wouldn't already have spoiled just looking at the preview.

HOWEVER, I am completely willing to restructure the pages to incorporate the spoilers. It is really a question of style. Should we experiment with one page and work on this? (Probably one of the better episodes like Babylon Squared) --Randomchaos 17:27, 9 Mar 2005 (CST)