User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-1293767-20151029072618/@comment-24894325-20161214231800

Fan4Life wrote: RTD said Utopia was separate prior to broadcast, but after broadcast, people started to call Utopia, TSOD and LOTL a three-parter and RTD did the same.

Your own description shows that the issue has been disputed from the get-go between two experts in the matter: Russell T. Davies and Russell T. Davies. That's hardly "indisputable" in my book.

In fact, this is a perfect example of why production team's intent cannot be the only determining factor. If we are to believe RTD, then he intended Utopia to be a stand-alone story. But, upon seeing the finished product, he apparently decided that his intent was not realised. Personally I have hard time deciding which RTD was right.

That is why we need well-argued objective criteria rather than sources, no matter how well placed and officially licensed they might be.