Earlier in the week I commented on an article on the Doctor Who web site about the latest Guinness Book of Records, and the fact that Stargate SG-1 had been awarded the longest running (consecutive) record.

The website article implied that it would be updated, which it has been, but not quite in the way fans were expecting, indeed in some ways it is still the same story. Whilst we have a picture of David Tennant with the award, and even an equivalent article on the main BBC News site, the book is still maintaining that Stargate SG-1 has been running without a break since 1997, without actually explaining how the ten series of Stargate SG-1 – which incidentally included a complete change of channel at season six – differs from the 26 series of Doctor Who which from 1963 to 1989 were produced every year by the BBC. The only argument I could possibly come up with is that they are taking account of the way that series are shown in the US where a series is spread over the entire year by showing blocks of new episodes, then repeats. Of course when the same series are shown in the UK and many other countries they would get shown in one run, with a gap. Also like any series in the US they aren’t continuously producing episodes either, they will get filmed in one block, much as with Doctor Who, and then the production team will be preparing the new series during the rest of the year again as was the case with Doctor Who, giving the actors a chance to go and do other work. Indeed if the award is for having episodes shown every week, surely the award should go to one of the Star Trek series which have been continuously repeated for years.

Anyway, I doubt that the Guinness Book of Records are going to give any ground over this – the 2007 version will be around until this time next year – however some more explanation about how they actually calculate the consecutive record really needs to be given – unless of course they can’t actually come up with a reasonable justification, in which case I guess they’re probably keeping their fingers crossed that the BBC and the fans stop making a fuss…