User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-24894325-20151119211902

What is the difference between the two? Why is Sword of Orion a story consisting of 4 parts while Extinction is an anthology consisting of 4 "separate" stories? The reason I am asking is because it suddenly does not make sense to me anymore. To me, an anthology is a collection of stories that are only loosely related, e.g., The Company of Friends or The First Doctor: Volume One, and may have largely non-overlapping cast. If, on the other hand, it is a continuous narrative, shouldn't it be a story consisting of several parts? I mean, we do not call The Daleks' Master Plan an anthology even though it is long, distributed over time, space and cast, and was released in 12 separate episodes rather than in one box set?

Upon listening to Extinction I tend to think of it as one story in 4 parts, which are longer than usual. If I were to contribute to references/continuity, I would have trouble remembering which "story" things should be attributed to. The cast is common throughout. The enemy is the same. The main protagonists are the same. There is one resolution at the end. The first three stories end... I wanted to say on a cliffhanger, but the truth is: I don't remember for sure because it's all one big story to me. Each disc has a title, but there are also titles for the discs of ''Zagreus, which is only 1 disc shorter than this UNIT box set.

So what makes Extinction an anthology?