Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-1293767-20151029072618/@comment-1827503-20161211121515

A potential "TBC is automatic if it does not end a series" rule would turn A Good Man Goes to War into the finale of a three-parter. It continues narratively from The Almost People, but most certainly isn't part of the same story.

This thread was spun off from the original AGMGTW + Let's Kill Hitler thread because we needed to define "two-parter" for numbering purposes. Because we have so many proposals here, we now need to finalise this discussion. My own proposal (limited to Doctor Who; the spinoffs are a different matter) is as follows:


 * The original series is numbered by serial: #1 An Unearthly Child to #157 Doctor Who (1996). (Shada and The Trial of a Time Lord are each numbered as one serial. Trial is considered to be a single serial consisting of four stories.)
 * The BBC Wales series is numbered by episode: #1 Rose and onward. (The End of Time is numbered as two episodes, despite both episodes having the same title.)
 * This wiki will not officially attempt to define what serials/episodes are part of a multi-part story, except in the cases provided above. (Discussion among members of the wiki on this matter is expressly allowed, provided no TV story article is edited in such a manner that it would violate T:BOUND.)
 * Two or more serials/episodes, aired consecutively as part of the same series run, may be cited together on in-universe pages when recapping a continuous narrative of events taking place across all cited episodes. (This rule states what is allowed, not what isn't allowed. Nothing in this rule is intended to take precedence over T:CITE.)

As an example of this last rule, take this passage from The Master's article. This is a valid citation under both the existing rules and my proposal, because both episodes are part of the same continuous narrative:


 * Travelling back to the end of the universe, the Master contacted the Toclafane, the childlike, vicious cyborg remnants of the humans who had never found Utopia. He made an agreement to allow the Toclafane to escape extinction and live anew in the past, with the paradox machine preventing them from changing their own history. (TV: The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords)