Doctor Who - Discussions on Season 5 onwards

It's not that unusual as its been used in all three series when the story is a two parter. Normally the tease of the new story is before the credits but in a two parter they are always shown after the credits - also the middle eight of the theme is moved from the credits to the tease.

No, the theme is played out as it normally is, dubbed straight over the credits. It's just that as the arrangement of the visuals is different the trailer is played over the bridge/B-part/middle-8/whatever.

I think in this case its technical name is the middle 8, as it's the eight bars in the middle of the theme. I doubt it could be called the bridge, which is something that "bridges" the gap between verse and chorus (or first and second phrase).

that part is often referred to as the bridge. it's like a break in the theme before it returns to it's normal melody.

It was Andy Millan, obviously

Andy Millman?

Thats a clever cross filming if it was.

Everyone talks about "Series 3" but isn't the reality that this is actually Series 29? I say this because the final 1989 series is referred to as Series 26.

No, they rebooted the numbering given the 16 year gap (given that it was a one-off TV movie produced by the americans, the 1996 Eighth Doctor one-shot hardly counts as a series). The DVDs say "Series 1" and "Series 2", as does the official site, etc.

Plus, in a rather strange thing, apparently the documentation for the "Classic Series" used "Season", ala the American fashion, rather than "Series". So, the 1989 series was "Season 26". Don't ask me why.

The Ricky Gervais lookalike, as posted by someone on Outpost Gallifrey http://i11.tinypic.com/2ppy3xc.png

Am I right in thinking that the reason why Dr Who uses "Season" is because in the classic series of Doctor Who the episodes were spread out (amounting to over 20 eps per series/season) due to it being 30 minutes long?

Could be. though, all of Sylvester McCoy's seasons were MUCH shorter than the rest. and for the record, the episodes were more like 20-25 minutes long, except for Colin Baker's first series, in which each episode was 45 minutes long, and I think they were all 2-part. In the Hartnell era, each serial could be anything between 4-8 parts (they once did a 12 parter!), and there were a lot more serials. Strange how they had a lot less money and still got more done. Gradually, they toned it down and each serial was usually 4 parts.

and the likeness to Ricky Gervais in that picture is uncanny!

Why can't they do a three-parter?

What do you mean? You mean the current or classic series? there were the odd 3 parters in the classic series. and a 3 parter in the current series would be stupid, 3 45 minute episodes make it the equivilent of a 6 parter. you shouldn't drag on a story too long.