Doctor who Christmas special - not displaying as next episode

drbits wrote:
The "Xmas Special" on Doctor Who is often referred to as episode 0 of the new series (season in the US).

Who often refers to them that way?

I've seen people "often" refer to them as Episode 14. It mostly depends on when they air. If Season 13 wraps up its last episode a day or a week or a month before the Xmas special, people tend to lump it in with Season 13. If.Season 14 starts a day or week or month later, then they think of it a as Episode 0 of Season 14. If it's somewhere in the middle, they usually just call it a special.

Whether the Xmas special is a direct lead-off of the season finale, or a direct lead-in to the next season's premiere, also makes a difference.

And then you have stuff like last year's Sherlock special. It was so far in-between seasons 3 and 4, and tied into both, that no one seems to decisively consider it either.

Gadfly wrote:
Who often refers to them that way?
I've seen people "often" refer to them as Episode 14. It mostly depends on when they air. If Season 13 wraps up its last episode a day or a week or a month before the Xmas special, people tend to lump it in with Season 13. If.Season 14 starts a day or week or month later, then they think of it a as Episode 0 of Season 14. If it's somewhere in the middle, they usually just call it a special.
Whether the Xmas special is a direct lead-off of the season finale, or a direct lead-in to the next season's premiere, also makes a difference.
And then you have stuff like last year's Sherlock special. It was so far in-between seasons 3 and 4, and tied into both, that no one seems to decisively consider it either.

This is not necessarily a direct reply to Gadflys statement above but does involve things he has said in other responses. One thing that can be done if a special that is aired directly after a 'Official' episode and is very important to the continuing upcoming story line is for us to put "recommended that the special", "name of special" be watched next at the end of the regular episodes description. This way a viewer and tvmaze user will know that he/she should watch that next and everything stays in it's proper category where it belongs. No program changes to tvmaze then needs to be done and since the recomendation would pertain to the shows viewing order it should not be out of place for Doctor Who or any other program. However this should only be done when what happens in the special affects the continuity of the program.