h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've just returned to h2g2 after 7 years but I'm new to Dr Who group.
I found it so interesting glued to the monitor I forgot I was steaming the vegetables!

I've been a fan of Dr. Who since the William Hartnell era.
I've not done any research and I'm sure someone here can answer a question I've got.

What is the longest Dr. Who story?

I have 2 candidates in mind:
1. The war games which if I remember started in the trenches of World War 1 and moved to various other space-time locations.

2. The Marco Polo saga which seemed to go one for an incredibly long time, travelling to China.

The longest serial was The Daleks' Master Plan at 12 episodes.

I think the Key To Time is still the longest story arc.

Trial of a Time Lord is 14 episodes, but does it count as 1 serial or 3 1/2?

But yes, I'd say Key to Time wins.

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I'd call Trial of a Time Lord a story arc rather than a story in itself.

I don't recall the titles 'Key To Time' or 'Trial of a Time Lord'

which Doctors and what storylines?

The Key To Time story arc (or umbrella plot as the Beeb used to call it) was Tom Baker and dealt with the retreival of the fragmented Key to Time across six(?) linked serials.

The Trial of a Time Lord was Colin Baker and, frankly, it's probably best that you don't recall it. But it's still better than Timelash.

Trial Of A Time Lord has some good bits. Such as the opening space station shot. They liked it so much, they showed it again and again and again...

Oh, and the classic Peri 'death' was shocking.

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It had some very good bits (the final two parts being among the creepiest episodes of Doctor Who.)

The Trial Of A Timelord is the longest Doctor Who story. All 14 parts were broadcast under this title but each segment/adventure of the story was given a working title. Fans thus refer to The Mysterious Planet (eps 1-4)/Mindwarp(5-8)/Terror of the Vervoids(9-12)/The Ultimate Foe(13&14) as if they were separate stories but, technically, they are episodes 1-14 of The Trial Of A Timelord.

"technically, they are episodes 1-14 of The Trial Of A Timelord."

Going by onscreen titles, yes, but each section had a different production code and different authors. If you think that doesn't count for anything, bear in mind that for the first few years, and in the new series, every episode has a different onscreen title, but we still count them as serials.

It's a convention more than anything, which is why I said technically. I mean, Shada has a production code but what does that mean? The DVDs were released as The Trial Of A Timelord so...

Production codes are used to easiy differenciate between different stories, a hangover from the days where the serials were unnamed but the individual episodes were.

Thus The Daleks' Master Plan is the longest individual story at 12 episodes. The Trial Of A Timelord is separate stories linked by a story arc.

I know "what" production codes are but, like I said, Shada has a production code and was never broadcast. Moreover, production codes do not follow transmission order (eg Four to Doomsday, 5W; Castrovalva 5Z.)

The Trial Of A Timelord has three production codes but how many adventures are there in season twenty-three? You may say four so how do you explain just three production codes? The answer is that The Trial Of A Timelord is a fourteen part story and, as such, is the longest in the history of the show.

The Trial of a Timelord is several linked stories. There is not a single unbroken narrative therefore it can't be regarded as a single story. Do you regard a book of linked short stories as one novel? Of course not.

Is 'The Old Curiosity Shop' ? No. ? No, it can. Is it ? Essentially, yes. Would I regard it as one novel? Yes.

Is 'The Penguin Book of Welsh Short Stories' ? No. ? It can if you don't read it. Is it ? Only inasmuch that the stories are written by Welshmen. Would I regard it as one novel? No.

Is 'Cannery Row' ? No. ? No, it can. Is it ? Essentially, yes. Would I regard it as one novel? Yes.

"Shall we continue?
Can't we just have the edited highlights?"

Each "adventure" in The Trial Of A Timelord is the evidence from the matrix shown in the courtroom. In episode one, the court is shown Ravolox on the courtroom screen and, albeit badly edited, the viewer is zoomed into the same image. From that point onward, the viewer is as much in the courtroom watching the evidence as the Timelords are.

Hence the interruptions by the opposing counsels; hence the division of "adventures"; hence some "cliffhangers" being without the "adventures" (ie ends of episodes 1,4,7,8 & 12) and hence the possibility (and I use that word to prevent accusation of spoilering) that some of the "adventures" didn't occur as were seen on our, or the courtroom's, screens!

I hope that what I have said has gone some way to disprove the false syllogisms that, from an artistic perspective, The Trial Of A Timelord is not the longest Doctor Who story. But perhaps I should've been clearer in my first post thus:

Technically, on-screen-caption-wise, Doctor-Who-the-official-BBC-guide-to-every-story(1998)-wise, vhs-release-wise, dvd-release-wise, wikipedia-list-of-Doctor-Who-serials-wise and BBC-Doctor-Who-the-official-site-wise:

At fourteen episodes, The Trial Of A Timelord is the longest Doctor Who story to have been broadcast on television.

As for the "Longest Dr Who story?" well, talk amongst yourselves

Are you getting enough fresh air?

The Infinite Quest was 12 episodes - and according to its title it is Infinite.

<BB<

Hallo folks - ooh, it's nice to be posting here again.

And hello to Kul_Tegin!

As many have already said, going purely on on-screen titles, Trial of a Time Lord is the longest story, with 14 episodes all broadcast under one title. That the episodes within can be split into sub-stories is immaterial, really, as the nearest contender, "The Daleks' Master Plan", is 12 episodes, but the episodes don't tell one story either. You have the overarching story of the Daleks building a "time destructor", but the first four episodes are set on the planet Kembel, then there's a trip to Mira, a sidestep to 1960s Liverpool, ancient Egypt and finally a return to Kembel for the climax.

In 1973, as part of the show's 10th anniversary, we saw two stories loosely joined by the presence of the Daleks, so "Frontier in Space" and "Planet of the Daleks might also be thought of as one 12-part story. As has been pointed out before, the first 12-parter was "The Daleks' Master Plan", while the second 12-parter was effectively "The Master's Dalek Plan". Hoho.

The War Games comes in at ten episodes and is a favourite of mine: every two episodes, the villain is replaced by his boss, until we face the top villain, the War Lord.

Marco Polo was a mere seven episodes, the same as the first Dalek story and three early Jon Pertwee adventures.

But as others have pointed out, you also have story arcs that span multiple stories: Season 16 in 1978-9 saw all six stories intertwined with the search for the Key to Time; two years later, we had three stories set in another universe - "E-space" - followed by three stories starring the return of the Master.

But we should also remember that the original run of stories didn't have titles - each episode was an installment in an on-going adventure, and the end of each episode ran into the next one. So we *could* argue that the longest story is the one that spans from "An Unearthly Child" to part four of "The Savages". But that would be mad.

Bluebottle- that's probably why there's no record of anyone having seen the final part

Smij- thank you for being more eloquent than I could wish to be and getting to the nub of the thread

For what it's worth, I've always considered 'An Unearthly Child' to be a one-episode story

Mr. Dreadful- no, I've been smoking far too many roll-ups recently but I'm hoping that the current bout of high winds in my part of England will go some way towards achieving my fresh air quota