Doctor Who gets 2nd Guinness Book Record

[shivkala]

Doctor Who is now the most successful Science Fiction TV Series of all time according to the Guinness Book of World Records!

They were awarded the record at Comic-Con this past weekend, along with Detective Comics the latter for being the longest running comic book series.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Sweet! Take that Star Trek!

 

[Timofnine]

What's the other world record it's got? Longest running series?

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

What's the other world record it's got? Longest running series?

Longest running sci-fi series, yeah. Although there was a huge row about that a few years ago when somehow in the same edition of the book, Stargate also got named as the longest running sci-fi series (consecutive). Which is:
a) meaningless
b) untrue.

Guinness Records went through several hoops trying to justify this, but never produced a satisfactory answer. I suspect the real answer is some dolt of a Stargate fan working for Guinness Records snuck this in. It was fun watching the indignation of Who fans at the time protesting it though, and just as much fun watching the Stargate fans trying to explain it in equally unconvincing and ludicrous ways.

 

[23skidoo]

I've been entertained by some of the griping over this award (probably from frustrated Trekkies). Some of the gripes are from people who simply have no clue what Doctor Who is, or who think the show is only 4 years old. My favorite was a guy who said "No human I know watches Doctor Who." Good for him, but obviously a lot of other people do!

A case could be made for Trek in the most successful SF FRANCHISE category, once you factor in the movies if nothing else. But as a singular series, viewed from a global perspective, I think the award for DW is perfectly justified.

Cheers!

Alex

 

[Aurian]

Well deserved!

 

[Dac]

What's the other world record it's got? Longest running series?

Longest running sci-fi series, yeah. Although there was a huge row about that a few years ago when somehow in the same edition of the book, Stargate also got named as the longest running sci-fi series (consecutive). Which is:
a) meaningless
b) untrue.

Guinness Records went through several hoops trying to justify this, but never produced a satisfactory answer. I suspect the real answer is some dolt of a Stargate fan working for Guinness Records snuck this in. It was fun watching the indignation of Who fans at the time protesting it though, and just as much fun watching the Stargate fans trying to explain it in equally unconvincing and ludicrous ways.

Wouldnt Stargate SG-1 qualify for the longest running US Domestic TV series? Or is there a longer one I dont know about?

 

[Hermiod]

Wouldnt Stargate SG-1 qualify for the longest running US Domestic TV series? Or is there a longer one I dont know about?

There are a lot of shows that beat it. Not counting soaps and news shows, WWE Monday Night Raw beats it for starters, and they beat Gunsmoke's long standing record.

 

[flux_29]

cool.

 

[Chris3123]

What's the other world record it's got? Longest running series?

Longest running sci-fi series, yeah. Although there was a huge row about that a few years ago when somehow in the same edition of the book, Stargate also got named as the longest running sci-fi series (consecutive). Which is:
a) meaningless
b) untrue.

Guinness Records went through several hoops trying to justify this, but never produced a satisfactory answer. I suspect the real answer is some dolt of a Stargate fan working for Guinness Records snuck this in. It was fun watching the indignation of Who fans at the time protesting it though, and just as much fun watching the Stargate fans trying to explain it in equally unconvincing and ludicrous ways.

Wouldnt Stargate SG-1 qualify for the longest running US Domestic TV series? Or is there a longer one I dont know about?

SG-1 is the longest running North American sci-fi TV series, if that's what you meant.

 

[diankra]

What's the other world record it's got? Longest running series?

Longest running sci-fi series, yeah. Although there was a huge row about that a few years ago when somehow in the same edition of the book, Stargate also got named as the longest running sci-fi series (consecutive). Which is:
a) meaningless
b) untrue.

Guinness Records went through several hoops trying to justify this, but never produced a satisfactory answer. I suspect the real answer is some dolt of a Stargate fan working for Guinness Records snuck this in. It was fun watching the indignation of Who fans at the time protesting it though, and just as much fun watching the Stargate fans trying to explain it in equally unconvincing and ludicrous ways.

Wouldnt Stargate SG-1 qualify for the longest running US Domestic TV series? Or is there a longer one I dont know about?

That's almost certainly the origin of the fuss: the Stargate PR team sent out a press release about 'longest running series' when SG1 surpassed The X-Files, someone at Guinness got it and didn't check properly whether anything non-US had a better claim on the title.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

It would never have happened in Norris McWhirter's day, that's all I can say. Right wing reactionary crypto-fascist he may have been, but he knew his facts...

 

[Dac]

Longest running sci-fi series, yeah. Although there was a huge row about that a few years ago when somehow in the same edition of the book, Stargate also got named as the longest running sci-fi series (consecutive). Which is:
a) meaningless
b) untrue.

Guinness Records went through several hoops trying to justify this, but never produced a satisfactory answer. I suspect the real answer is some dolt of a Stargate fan working for Guinness Records snuck this in. It was fun watching the indignation of Who fans at the time protesting it though, and just as much fun watching the Stargate fans trying to explain it in equally unconvincing and ludicrous ways.

Wouldnt Stargate SG-1 qualify for the longest running US Domestic TV series? Or is there a longer one I dont know about?

SG-1 is the longest running North American sci-fi TV series, if that's what you meant.

Yes, that is what I meant, thanks for correcting me

 

[Rarewolf]

What's the other world record it's got? Longest running series?

Longest running sci-fi series, yeah.

Doctor Who probably has loads of others if they bothered working them out -

longest running magazine based on a TV show (30 years)
Longest running comic strips based on a TV show (46 years!)
There's over 150 original audio dramas as well.

I dare say it even chalenges Star Trek and Star Wars for licenced tie in / spin off books.

 

[Andy S]

Although I love the idea of Doctor Who being the most successful TV Science Fiction series, and I'm quite happy to agree, I can't quite understand how the Guinness Book of Records justifies it because 'successful' to me sounds like quite a subjective concept unless backed up by financial or other quantitative figures.

Has the quantification of 'successful' actually been defined in this instance or is the whole award "just for fun"?

 

[23skidoo]

Although I love the idea of Doctor Who being the most successful TV Science Fiction series, and I'm quite happy to agree, I can't quite understand how the Guinness Book of Records justifies it because 'successful' to me sounds like quite a subjective concept unless backed up by financial or other quantitative figures.

Has the quantification of 'successful' actually been defined in this instance or is the whole award "just for fun"?

I don't have the original news report at hand, but yes I believe the Guinness rep explained the rationale, as they factored in everything from number of episodes produced (and remember we're talking a single series so TOS = 79, DW = 750+ . No contest) to even the number of illegal downloads apparently.

I dare say it even chalenges Star Trek and Star Wars for licenced tie in / spin off books.

Certainly Star Wars (there aren't that many, really). As for Trek, you need to once again separate TOS out from the rest, since we need to compare apples to apples here - single series, not spinoffs. In that regard, I think DW probably outstrips TOS pretty handily in the original novels category, if you add up the Virgin and BBC series, and leaves TOS in the dust if you factor in the 154 Target novelisations (compared to the 12 volumes or so of short-story-style adapatations done by Blish and Lawrence for TOS).

I think Trek as a franchise might have published more novels, though, once you factor in the spinoff shows as well as the numerous non-TV-based lines of fiction out there.

Cheers!

Alex

 

[Spiderpope]

Personally as a Stargate fan and a Doctor Who fan, i have no difficulty accepting SG-1 as the longest running consecutive science fiction show, and Doctor Who as the Longest Running full stop.

As for the Most Successful Record, do you think they factored in Cancellations and Resurections as well? Because Doctor Who surely must come close to holding the record for that as well.

 

[Rarewolf]

Personally as a Stargate fan and a Doctor Who fan, i have no difficulty accepting SG-1 as the longest running consecutive science fiction show, and Doctor Who as the Longest Running full stop.

How do you define consecutive? Doctor Who was on twenty two seasons with a minimum of 20 episodes a year, then 18 months off and then four more seasons of 14 a year.

 

[Iamnotspock]

Personally as a Stargate fan and a Doctor Who fan, i have no difficulty accepting SG-1 as the longest running consecutive science fiction show, and Doctor Who as the Longest Running full stop.

Doctor Who is still the longest running consecutive Sci-Fi show, running for twenty-six years straight from 1963 to 1989 before taking its 15-year break (barring the TV movie).

 

[wamdue]

Personally as a Stargate fan and a Doctor Who fan, i have no difficulty accepting SG-1 as the longest running consecutive science fiction show, and Doctor Who as the Longest Running full stop.

Doctor Who is still the longest running consecutive Sci-Fi show, running for twenty-six years straight from 1963 to 1989 before taking its 15-year break (barring the TV movie).

but Doctor Who cheats, no other show can get away with the idea of regeneration, sure ratings helped but the ability to change the lead actor, but keep the lead character, in a way that keeps him the same & writes him for a new generation, its a real luxury the show has.