Talk:List of Life on Mars characters

I've removed a picture of Test Card Girl. It's non-free, so putting it on this article must be justified by a fair use case on the image page, otherwise the only effect of putting it here will be to get it automatically tagged for deletion. --Tony Sidaway 23:15, 16 February 2008 (UTC)Reply

I am proposing to merge all LoM character articles are merged to this article, with the exception of Gene Hunt. I am also suggesting merging Alex Drake (Ashes to Ashes), Shaz Granger, and Jim Keats to List of Ashes to Ashes characters, along with relevant parts of Ray Carling and Chris Skelton – to streamline discussion I am centralising it here due to the substantial overlap.

Although I don't necessarily believe most of the merges to be particularly controversial, because there are multiple articles involved, some of which are in both series, it is likely to be a fairly complicated move and the how in particular could use some discussion.

My reasoning for the suggested merges is that all listed articles are of poor quality and I do not believe meet notability guidelines. Articles are largely unreferenced, with a maximum of 5, and an average of less than 3 references; most of these are from primary sources. Sam Tyler could possibly be improved upon, but I'm still unconvinced that it would warrant a full article. I haven't listed Gene Hunt because this article is much better referenced.

As for how to merge them, I can see two main routes to take:

1. For characters only in one show, eg. Sam Tyler and Alex Drake, merge to the relevant articles. For characters appearing in both, eg. Ray Carling and Chris Skelton, move general information to both pages and discuss information solely relevant to Life on Mars here, and information solely relevant to Ashes to Ashes at List of Ashes to Ashes characters, with links to each other.

2. My preferred option. Create a new list article for the main characters, and have the current lists for minor/recurring characters (possibly with a move, eg. List of Life on Mars recurring characters. This would avoid having overly long articles and having information on some characters split between articles. I'm less sure on the name for the new article – is List of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes main characters too long/convoluted? Maybe something along the lines of List of main characters in the Life on Mars franchise?

Either way, some of the character articles may need shortening (although I believe this to be necessary anyway to remove unsourced and unnotable content). I think the lists of characters could use a trim too, but that's perhaps for another discussion.

The full list of pages suggested to be merged is:

Irltoad (talk) 20:25, 16 June 2024 (UTC)Reply

• Comment: I actually think a third way to merge might be better than either two I suggested above; merging all characters (except Hunt) and both lists into one page, which I have created a rough bare-bones draft for: Draft:List of characters in the Life on Mars franchise. I don't see the need for two individual lists. I took some inspiration from List of characters in the Breaking Bad franchise due to its very similar scope. Irltoad (talk) 15:41, 18 June 2024 (UTC)Reply

  Seconded - the entire Ashes To Ashes characters page is absurdly detailed and needs some trimming anyway, each 80s reference does not need a paragraph to itself (for example, it is the only place where I have ever seen Morph’s surname referenced) Joeldelusional (talk) 23:28, 1 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Irltoad: sounds fine; support. Klbrain (talk) 10:31, 21 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

I was surprised this find this page, definitely support a merge. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested «@» °∆t° 23:37, 22 October 2024 (UTC)Reply