tomsalin...@googlemail.com wrote:
> This is the fifth Doctor Who Rare Entries contest. There a few minor
> rule changes from last time and these have been highlighted below. By
> popular demand, this contest once again spans 1963-2006.

> SHORT RULES

> The purpose of this game is as follows: for each of the questions, your
> objective is to give an answer that
> (1) is correct, and
> (2) will be duplicated by as FEW other people as possible.

> ** Answers must be submitted by email only. DO NOT POST ANSWERS HERE **

> THE QUESTIONS

> 0. Name two companions who met each other in exactly one story

> 1. Give a word associated with "Doctor Who" which returns 250,000
> or more hits from an uncustomised Google search, according to the
> approximate count given at the top of the first results page.

> 2. Name a three-word story title which amounts to a concrete
> noun-phrase describing a person or thing seen in the story.
> (Definitions: a noun-phrase is one or more words which together
> function as a noun, such as "long scarf". A concrete noun is one
> referring to a physical object, such as a scarf, rather than something
> intangible like an idea.)

> 3. Give a nickname that one Doctor Who character has used for another.

> 4. Name an alien race played (at least at times) by performers in
> costumes where those costumes have always been designed to completely
> conceal the performer within.

> 5. Name an actor who has appeared in speaking, credited roles (and not
> just as a voice) in four or more separate stories and who has played
> two or more different characters.

> 6. Name a character who appeared in exactly one episode of a
> multi-episode Doctor Who story, and who did not die in that episode.

> 7. Name anything belonging to or associated with the Time Lords whose
> name follows the pattern "The [BLANK] of [BLANK]".

> 8. Name a woman who has written or directed an episode of "Doctor
> Who"

> 9. Name a story which featured the return appearance of a character not
> seen during the present or previous season.

> ---

> In order to participate in the contest, send your answers to me by
> email (tomsalin...@googlemail.com) before noon on Friday 4 August 2006.
> It is of course essential that nobody sees the answers given by other
> entrants before the deadline, so please do NOT post your answers here!

> If there are fewer than 10 entrants, I may not bother working out who's
> won, so if this sounds like fun, do encourage others to play.

> Make sure you have read the rules before submitting your answers.

> YOUR ATTENTION IS SPECIFICALLY DRAWN TO RULE 3. Please supply the
> information asked for and only the information asked for. If you supply
> two answers, I will take the first one. By way of example, in DWRE2 one
> question read: "Some regular or recurring characters have met their
> identical doubles. Name one of these doubles". Those who submitted
> "Romana / Princess Strella" were deemed to have answered
> "Romana" (the first of two answers given) and this was marked
> wrong, since I asked for the name of the double, not the name of the
> regular character. You have been warned.

> 1. Answers
> For each of the questions above, your objective is to give an answer
> that (1) is correct, and (2) will be duplicated by as FEW other people
> as possible. Feel free to use any reference material you like to
> RESEARCH your answers; but when you have found enough possible answers
> for your liking, you are expected to choose on your own which one to
> submit, WITHOUT mechanical or computer assistance: this is meant to be
> a game of wits.

> 2. Scoring
> The scores on the different questions are MULTIPLIED to produce a final
> score for each entrant. Low score wins; a perfect score is 1. If your
> answer to a question is correct, then your score is the number of
> people who gave that answer, or an answer I consider equivalent. A
> wrong answer, or a skipped question, gets a high score as a penalty.
> This is the median of:
> - the number of entrants
> - the square root of that number, rounded up to an integer
> - double the largest number of entrants giving the same answer (right
> or wrong) as each other on the question

> 2.1 More Specific Variants
> On some questions it's possible that one entrant will give an answer
> that is a more specific variant of an answer given by someone else. In
> that case the more specific variant will usually be scored as if the
> two answers are different, but the other, less specific variant will be
> scored as if they are the same.

> 2.2 Scoring Example
> Say I ask for someone the Doctor has kissed. There are 27 entrants: 19
> say "Rose" or "Rose Tyler", 2 say "Cassandra in the body of Rose
> Tyler", 4 say "Captain Jack", 1 says "Daphne Ashbrook" and 1 says
> "Lynda Moss". The 4 people who answered "Captain Jack" get 4 points
> each. Since "Cassandra in the body of Rose Tyler" is a more specific
> variant of "Rose Tyler", those who said "Rose Tyler" get 21 points
> each, and those who said "Cassandra in the body of Rose Tyler" get 2
> points each. The Doctor never kissed actress Daphne Ashbrook (although
> he may have kissed Grace Holloway) nor Lynda Moss, so those answers are
> both wrong. The persons who gave them both get the penalty score, which
> is the median of:
> - number of entrants = 27:
> - sqrt(27) = 5.196+, rounded up = 6:
> - double the most popular answer's count = 21 x 2 = 42:
> or in this case, 27.

> 3. Entries
> Entries must be emailed to me personally by email:
> tomsalin...@googlemail.com. Do NOT post your answers on the the forum!
> In general there is no penalty for errors of spelling, capitalization,
> English usage, or other such matters of form. Sometimes a specific
> question may imply stricter rules, though. And if you give an answer
> that properly refers to a different thing related to the one you
> intended, I will normally take it as written. Once you intentionally
> submit an answer, no changes will be allowed, unless I decide there was
> a problem with the question. Similarly, alternate answers within an
> entry will not be accepted. Only the first answer that you
> intentionally submit counts. You can expect an acknowledgement when I
> read your entry. If this bounces, it won't be sent again.

> 3.1 Clarifications
> Questions are not intended to be hard to understand, but I may fail in
> this intent. (For one thing, in many cases clarity could only be
> provided by an example which would suggest one or another specific
> answer, and I mustn't do that.) In order to be fair to all entrants, I
> must insist that requests for clarification must be emailed to me, NOT
> POSTED in any mailing list. But if you do ask for clarification, I'll
> probably say that the question is clear enough as posted. If I do
> decide to clarify or change a question, all entrants will be informed.

> 3.2 Supporting Information
> It is your option whether or not to provide supporting information to
> justify your answers. If you don't, I'll email you to ask for it if I
> need to. If you provide any explanatory remarks along with your
> answers, you are responsible for making it sufficiently clear that they
> are not part of the answers. The particular format doesn't matter as
> long as you're clear.

> 4. Scope
> Unless a question indicates otherwise, all questions refer to the
> transmitted episodes of the BBC television series "Doctor Who" in its
> original run from 1963 to 1989, the TV Movie of 1996 and the current
> series which began in 2005. Only episodes transmitted at the time of
> posting (in this case 26 July 2006) are included, and all other Doctor
> Who related works are excluded. This excludes audio plays, comic
> strips, spin-offs, TARDISodes, novelisations and probably more.

> 4.1 "Story" refers to one or more episodes, generally with the same
> production code, writer and director, which tell a complete tale. For
> the avoidance of doubt, the list of stories with their correct names is
> taken to be the list presented on the Outpost Gallifrey Episode Guide
> (http://www.gallifreyone.com/epguide.php), with the exceptions that
> "Children in Need Special" and any stories listed under "Other
> Stories" are excluded. "The Trial of a Time Lord" is considered
> to be an honorary story title, as are the individual episode titles for
> modern two-parters (which are generally referred to by both episode
> titles, thus: "The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances").

> Anything which is seen only in the "Previously on..." or "Next
> week on..." segments of the 2005- series is not deemed to be part of
> that episode. Any other flashbacks, recaps or the like are deemed to be
> part of that episode.

> 4.2 "Companion" refers to anyone who travelled with the Doctor for two
> or more consecutive stories. For the avoidance of doubt, the following
> all have companion status: Katarina, Sara Kingdom, Brigadier
> Lethbridge-Stewart, Adam, Captain Jack, Mickey. No other UNIT soldiers
> have companion status (Harry Sullivan, Liz Shaw and Jo Grant obviously
> are companions).

> 4.3 "Appears" or "Seen" mean seen on-screen, as opposed to merely
> referred to in dialogue or implied. If a character is clearly heard to
> speak, then they, and the actor who played them, are deemed to have
> "appeared" regardless of whether we see them or not.

> RULE CHANGE 4.4 "Alien" means not originating from the planet Earth. In
> the absence of other clear evidence, a character is considered a member
> of an alien race if they do not look entirely human, or if despite
> looking human, their planet of birth is not Earth and they are not
> referred to as human (or it can be shown that they are not accurately
> referred to as human).

> 4.5 "Actor" includes both male and female performers, but excludes
> stunt-people, stand-ins doubling for a credited actor etc. unless the
> question indicates otherwise. Generally a performer who does not
> receive a credit is not regarded as an actor.

> RULE CHANGE 4.6 Unless otherwise specified, different incarnations of
> the same character are the same character and will be treated as
> equivalent answers, and equivalent to specifying that character without
> reference to incarnation. In other words, "Romana", "Romana I"
> and "Romana II" are all the same answer.

> 5. Judging
> As moderator, I will be the sole judge of what answers are correct, and
> whether two answers with similar meaning are considered the same,
> different, or more/less specific variants. I will do my best to be fair
> on all such issues, but sometimes it is necessary to be arbitrary. I
> may rescore the contest if I agree that I made a serious error and it
> affects the high finishers.

> 6. Results
> Results will normally be posted within a few days of the contest
> closing. They may be delayed if I'm unexpectedly busy or for technical
> reasons.

> Cheers

> Tom
> tomsalin...@googlemail.com