Talk:Frontier in Space

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Actually we will, if Babylon 5 is listed as something influenced by Doctor Who, it would be nice to have something that actually states that, rather that someone's opinion that it surely must. — Preceding unsigned comment added by WikiuserNI (talk • contribs) 20:15, 20 May 2008‎

J. Michael Straczynski has said that Babylon 5 was influenced by Doctor Who, but I don't think he's ever specifically mentioned this serial. That said, the note in the article text (which was removed a year or so ago, and which I've just restored — more on that in a moment) doesn't claim that Frontier in Space actually influenced Babylon 5, just that some reviewers have noted the similarities. One such reviewer suggested that it was an inspiration, but we can't go that far without a more definite citation.

That said, I do think that since the similarity has been observed by noteworthy reviewers, we can note it here. MarnetteD removed the note with the edit summary "(rmv fan style trainspotting-Open is misleading as LMiles is an author not a TV critic and the 2nd link goes to an amazon.com review-these are written by customers not TV critics)". I've just restored it, as I don't think it's really "trainspotting" if it's been mentioned by multiple reliable sources. I concede the point about the phrase "television critics" (though one could say that Miles' About Time books are works of criticism, the phrase does make one think of TV critics in newspapers and the like), so I've changed the term to "reviewers". However, the amazon.com citation is to the "Editorial reviews" section, not the "Customer reviews" section. My understanding is that editorial reviews are sourced by Amazon staff or the publisher of the item in question. If you look at the page for any bestselling book, you'll see that this is where reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, The New York Times Book Review and so forth go. I'm not sure exactly where they got the review by Gary S. Dalkin from, but Dalkin appears to have been a major contributor to, and possibly an editor of, Vector, the critical magazine of the British Science Fiction Association, so he's a noteworthy reviewer. And I've just added the mention from Adventures with the Wife in Space, which is admittedly just a blog but which has been recommended by Doctor Who Magazine and by Steven Moffat, so I think it's a worthy source. Taken together, I think we've got enough reliable sources to justify the two sentences. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 06:39, 10 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

First let me say that it is great to see your name again - I am glad that you are still editing here. I am perfectly fine with the reinsertion based on all of your research and thanks for taking the time to do it. Having said that these "this story is like this story" are always dodgy for an encyclopedia. A lot of them are just the coincidences - I think they say there are only seven (or some number like that) stories that one can tell. A number of comparisons come from editors who are leading with their hearts - I remember someone insisting that there were all sorts of connections between Buffy TVS and "School Reunion" based solely on Anthony Head's guest appearance as Mr Finch. On a side note I always note how The Seeds of Doom is almost exactly like The Avengers Story "Man-Eater of Surrey Green" yet I remember reading somebody who worked on the Dr Who serial claiming they had never seen The Avengers episode. Thanks again for all your research and for taking the time to explain things here. MarnetteD | Talk 16:36, 10 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that "this is like that" is generally something to be avoided, especially when it's unsourced. The difference here, I think, is that the similarity has been noted by reliable sources. And yeah, I'm still around occasionally, but not as much as I used to be — real life gets in the way. And besides, it looks like the WikiProject is in good hands. :) —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 17:16, 10 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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