717 Messages
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15.2K Points
Episode numbering for BBC "Casualty" - we need an executive decision from IMDB admins
The episode numbering of the BBC hospital-based "continuing drama" (ie soap!) Casualty tt0096555 is becoming a mess! That's the fault of BBC, not IMDB's listings.
In the past, they have made seasons of up to 40 episodes, usually shown as a block with a long gap before the next season. Recently the seasons have been shown a bit sporadically, sometimes with a gap, then the last few episodes of one season followed immediately by the first few of the next season, then a gap. I'm using BBC's own episode numbering as the definition of seasons.
A few months ago, after episode 38.6 was show, they retrospectively renumbered episodes of seasons 37 and 38 into shorter 13-episode seasons, each of which had a title. The most recent of those included the last few episodes of what they had previously called S37 and the first few of S38. I've created a trivia entry which explains all this.
Now they are starting a new block of episodes and on the BBC's own "Casualty" mini-site it is flagged as "New Series" ("series" tends to be used in the UK as a synonym of "season"): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m8wd - it looks as if episode Tinderbox will be episode 1 of a mini-season called A History of Violence.
So... how do we represent this in IMDB? I think at the very least it needs to be S39 E01. I'm in two minds as to whether to retrospectively alter S37 and S38 into separate mini-seasons, each with its own season number, or to leave the numbering as it was at the original broadcast.
I want to check: does this accord with other people's thoughts as to how the episodes should be numbered in IMDB? BBC really have made a mess of things by rewriting history after the event!
I've added Tinderbox as 38.7, because at the time of adding, the new episodes were not listed on the BBC Casualty site, but in view of the "New Series" flag, that numbering needs to change. Radio Times lists it as 38.7 but the over-the-air EPG listings call it episode 1 (of an unspecified season).
Bethanny
Employee
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5.6K Messages
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58.9K Points
2 years ago
Hi @martin_695862 -
We will confirm with our policy team so they can make the decision, we will let you know.
Cheers!
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martin_695862
717 Messages
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15.2K Points
2 years ago
Thanks. Happy New Year!
I've submitted yesterday's episode and the forthcoming ones for Sat 6 Jan 2024 and Sat 13 Jan 2024 as 38.7, 38.8 and 38.9 for the present, but they can easily be renumbered to 39.1,2,3.
BBC iPlayer now lists the 30 Dec episode and it also uses the notation Episode 1 of mini-season A History of Violence.
If the decision is to start Season 39, I'll add another series-level trivia entry saying "Season 39 was referred to as A History of Violence in programmer-maker BBC's listings and websites, and did not have an official season number" - or words to that effect. And no doubt there will need to be another entry for the next mini-season in 13 or so weeks' time!
I think Season 38 will need to remain as a very short season of just 6 episodes, given that in the new style of seasons, those episodes are bundled with some from the end of Season 37. Unless it is decided to adopt the retrospective season numbering that the BBC started doing, rewriting history after transmission - and I realise that this is a more contentious decision since it goes against IMDB's policy of "list things as they were at first transmission".
Trust BBC to throw a spanner/wrench in the works ;-)
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