User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-24894325-20151119211902/@comment-24894325-20151226231141

I actually do not like the term "anthology" in principle. I just consulted with a PhD in English who told me that "anthology" means a collection of selected previously published stories with a common topic. But even if we must keep the term (I'll explain why in a moment) for collections of newly released stories (see also this), it just does not apply to serialized storytelling. You won't call Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne a musketeer anthology, will you? Or Terminator 1 through Terminator 4 a terminator anthology?

Now for the first part of fact-finding. It might come as a surprise, but Big Finish itself barely uses the term "anthology". I could only find 1 (one) release with this word mentioned in the release data: (and even then its use seems to follow after a quote taken from somewhere else).
 * Breaking Bubbles and Other Stories

The word "anthology" was used in promotional materials (news announcements and Vortex) all of 5 times. Here is, to the best of my knowledge, the complete list (I omit all book references):
 * You Are the Doctor and Other Stories
 * The Company of Friends
 * 1001 Nights
 * The Worlds of Big Finish
 * Tales from the Vault, which is not currently classified as an anthology on the Wikia (this mention is the only one from the Vortex)

Also Matt Fitton, while describing his work, says that he wrote for the anthology
 * Recorded Time and Other Stories

This amounts to only seven designation of releases as anthologies, of which three has "and Other Stories" in the title. All releases but two are from the Main Range (the remaining ones are a 1-disc release from Companion Chronicles and the 3-disc Worlds, which are pretty unique indeed). No box set with stories following each other in an arc similar to a two-parter from the new Who is designated an anthology by Big Finish.

Moreover, BF supports the notion of an anthology consisting of disconnected stories in statements like "An anthology release, but not quite like those we've done before, Doctor Who: 1001 Nights features an overall story, but it contains three other tales, about a mysterious prisoner, a place which runs on stories and a dangerous possession." or "Doctor Who: 1001 Nights is a full-cast audiobook anthology release with a difference; featuring four tales, they all form part of a larger narrative as Nyssa is forced to tell a series of stories in order to keep the Doctor alive..." Essentially, they apologize for calling it an anthology by explaining that the general thread is not too strong.

Disclaimer: I do not have access to CDs so cannot vouch that the word "anthology" is not used on the printed materials coming with CDs.