The Doctor Who Thread

[iank]

I don't see what Americans have to do with it. British fandom has always referred to them as "seasons" since as long as I've been a fan (over 30 years), and that distinction has become even more pronounced (and arguably important) with the advent of the new series using "series".

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by iank

I don't see what Americans have to do with it. British fandom has always referred to them as "seasons" since as long as I've been a fan (over 30 years), and that distinction has become even more pronounced (and arguably important) with the advent of the new series using "series".

Agreed.

See this pic i've just taken from the contents page of Doctor Who The Television Companion from 1998.

[Gothmogxx]

Originally Posted by iank

I don't see what Americans have to do with it. British fandom has always referred to them as "seasons" since as long as I've been a fan (over 30 years), and that distinction has become even more pronounced (and arguably important) with the advent of the new series using "series".

I even call the new Series "Seasons" as well. Seasons 27-37 (soon to be 38).

[iank]

Yeah, but that's just weird.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

See this pic i've just taken from the contents page of Doctor Who The Television Companion from 1998.

But by 1998 we had already been infiltrated by American television shows - 'The X-Files', 'Buffy', 'Friends', 'The Simpsons' to name a few!

"TV shows, other than ones that have new episodes year-round (e.g. news, soaps), typically group episodes in batches — most often per year, although not necessarily calendar years, and sometimes there will be multiple batches in a single year.

The term I am familiar with for these batches is "season", and the term to refer to the entire set of episodes that have ever been made of the show is "series". For example, there are 24 episodes of the TV show 24 each season, but there are 192 episodes in the entire series.

I've been told that in the UK the correct (perhaps "most commonly used"?) term for a batch of episodes is "series"."
English Language And Usage: Season Vs. Series | Stack Exchange

"Nowadays, season and series have become more or less synonymous in the Anglo-speaking culture. However, this irks me as there is a VERY big difference between the two. The United States, Canada and, if my memory serves, Australia have television seasons which, generally, consist of between 22 and 30 episodes stretched out from September to May with an innumerable amount of breaks along the way. The system is quite sophisticated, starting with a pilot season, between January - March, when new shows are pitched and ordered by a network. The whole machine runs like clock-work, year in, year out (except the year of that Writers strike). Thus, each television series in the States has several seasons, each set over about a year (except 24 obviously).

Over here, however, we stay true to our old habit of doing everything completely back-to-front and have much smaller seasons, simply called a series. A series is much, MUCH shorter than a North American show (between 6 - 12 episodes a run) and doesn't really bother to distinguish itself from the overall series. Yeah, that's right! We can't even be bothered thinking of a separate word. But, hey, anything's better than using another Americanism, right? Come to think of it, I never really understood how a season could describe, basically, a whole year."
TV Debate: The British Series vs The American Season | What Culture

Look at how IMBD does it:
Doctor Who (TV Series 1963-1989)
Doctor Who (TV Series 2005-)
Bates Motel (TV Series 2013-2017
Scream: The TV Series (TV Series 2015-)

[Susan Foreman]

May 24th: Today in WHO-story

Births
1924 - Freddie Earlle (Aldo in Warriors' Gate)
1936 - Robert Russell (Guard in The Power of the Daleks and the Caber in Terror of the Zygons)
1944 - Fiona Walker (Kala in The Keys of Marinus and Lady Peinforte & Nemesis Statue in Silver Nemesis)
1945 - Graham Williams (Producer [1977-1980]; writer of The Invasion of Time and City of Death [both under the pseudonym David Agnew] and director of Nightmare of Eden [uncredited])

1949 - Jim Broadbent (Alternative Eleventh Doctor in the Comic Relief special The Curse of Fatal Death); Rob Edwards (Xoanon in The Face of Evil and Chub in The Robots of Death)

1973 - Rachel Redhead (writer of the Faction Paradox short story Judy's War)
1975 - Will Sasso (Pete in the TV Movie)
1977 - Jo Joyner (Lynda Moss in Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Way); Naomi Ryan (Cassandra in Asylum of the Daleks)

Deaths
1986 - Robert Holmes (Script Editor [1974-1977]; writer of The Krotons, The Space Pirates, Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons, Carnival of Monsters, The Time Warrior, The Ark in Space, Pyramids of Mars [under the pseudonym Stephen Harris], The Brain of Morbius [under the pseudonym Robin Bland], The Deadly Assassin, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Sun Makers, The Ribos Operation, The Power of Kroll, The Caves of Androzani, The Two Doctors and episodes 1-4 & 13 of The Trial of a Time Lord) aged 60

2016 - Burt Kwouk (Lin Futu in Four to Doomsday and Doctor Hayashi in the Big Finish audio Loups-Garoux) aged 85; Lewis Fiander (Tryst in Nightmare of Eden) aged 78

Episodes
1969 - The War Games, Episode Six: 4.2 million viewers
2013 - Strax Field Report: The Doctor's Greatest Secret

Releases
2007 - Issue 30 of Doctor Who Adventures (BBC Magazines); Pocket Essentials: Doctor Who [First Hardback Edition] (Pocket Essentials)

2012 - Issue 270 of Doctor Who Adventures (Immediate Media Co.)
2016 - Gallifrey: Enemy Lines (Big Finish Productions); The Endless Song (Titan Comics); Travels in Time Colouring Book (BBC Books)
2017 - Official Secrets (Titan Comics)


Behind-the-Scenes
2004 - Billie Piper was officially confirmed to play new companion Rose Tyler
2016 - Recording of Big Finish's audio adaptation of the novel Cold Fusion took place

[iank]

IMDB is wrong, Susan. Once again, British fandom has been calling the classic who seasons seasons since at least the early 80s. I've almost never heard anyone ever call them anything else.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by iank

IMDB is wrong, Susan. Once again, British fandom has been calling the classic who seasons seasons since at least the early 80s. I've almost never heard anyone ever call them anything else.

I must admit back then i didn't even know of seasons or series. We used to call them by their individual story titles ie - The Power of Kroll.

Seasons and or series weren't really mentioned as such aside from the Key to Time which of course was a season with it's own title.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

One of the Cheetah People from Survival (1989)

[Gothmogxx]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

One of the Cheetah People from Survival (1989)

Have had it for years. The temptation to watch has always been there. However, I decided, when the time finally came for me to do a marathon of the whole lot, that it might be a good idea to leave it so I finish the Classic Series i'll be seeing it for the first time. I mean I know what happens in it but seeing it for the first time as part of this marathon should be something. I'm glad I kept it aside now, hard as it was to do.