I'd assume that officially, they have some kind of boring number like ME:1:6598213 or whatever.

Most televisions shows are officially numbered "Season.Episode" -- I guess I can't see why you'd need anything more complicated than that for the database. I don't see the value of knowing that ep 7.2 is also ep 120 (or whatever).

I don't see the value of knowing that ep 7.2 is also ep 120

Well the example I gave was probably an pretty unusual example, episode 100 being special, but anyway, even if you don't see it, we should still put it in the DB, because somebody will someday want to know it.

I know ita will just store all of the data in seperate fields anyway, so we can grab the two numbers and put them back together with a full stop between them if that's the official way.

My assumption that the official official title was something less obvious and boring was based on seeing episode guides for the Simpsons like this:

Some Enchanted Evening (#7G01) 13 May 1990

When Marge calls a radio shrink and tells that their marriage is failing, Homer takes Marge out to a nice dinner and a night at the Offramp Inn. However, the sitter they hired was featured that night on America's Most Armed and Dangerous. Guest starring Penny Marshall.

Bart the Genius (#7G02) 14 Jan 1990

Bart swaps IQ tests with the class brain, and ends up the butt of everyone's jokes at a school for gifted kids.

Homer's Odyssey (#7G03) 21 Jan 1990

Homer gets fired for causing another accident at the nuclear plant, and almost commits suicide. He see the light, and becomes a safety activist, and soon goes after the plant he was fired from.

where the #7G03 thing is some more obscure numbering scheme.

There are official codes for each Buffy episode that run in the credits. I'm not sure of the Angel episodes, but I would guess they have them, too.

I'll have to look at my tapes/DVDs when I get home to get actual samples and see if the code makes any sense.

I don't see the value of knowing that ep 7.2 is also ep 120

I'd like to know. I don't know why, but it seems like an interesting thing to know.

I'd like to know. I don't know why, but it seems like an interesting thing to know.

That's exactly the point of any good database. Never leave out anything, because someone will want to do some research sometime which uses that data.

I studied the Poems of Thomas Hardy in sixth form, and I can tell you that one in sixteen of his poems are directly about death, and one in thirty-two are set in graveyards. I'm not sure what it means, apart from, you know, gloomy bastard, but that's exactly the kind of thing you don't know you want to know until you know it, and then it's cool.

Also, all databases should have a primary, and arbitrary, key. I've been having this discussion with the guy at work -- should we have a database of all people, and list the software they have, but people move, so maybe a database of computers and all the software on them? But computers get replaced, so maybe a database of IT-Assigned Workstation Numbers, but we just moved buildings and they all changed -- you have a key which is nothing but a key, and hang all other data off it.

Who's to say that, for instance, they didn't intend to show episode "1.3" of the Simpsons before episode "1.2", but ran into production problems and swapped them around? "1.3" is a record of when it was shown, but "(#7G02)" will always be its true number...

Who's to say that, for instance, they didn't intend to show episode "1.3" of the Simpsons before episode "1.2", but ran into production problems and swapped them around? "1.3" is a record of when it was shown, but "(#7G02)" will always be its true number...

That's actually often the case with TV shows, isn't it? Production order can be different from airing order.

But Buffy is so arc-y, they'd never do that.

Except those times they did do it, for "Earshot" and "Graduation Day". Only they didn't do it in Canada, so what is the first broadcast date of "Earshot"?

I think Jessica should volunteer to be the collector of the special ME ID numbers for all the eps she has on tape/disk.

Actually, they did show Earshot out of order in Canada. We got GDII on time, I think, but Earshot aired the following September, though I believe it was still before the States got it. Or I could be entirely wrong.

Jon, ita, I can log in if I fill in the 2 fiields and then click on "email an admin," I don't have to actually send a message to one of you. Yay.

Actually, they did show Earshot out of order in Canada.

Oops, my mistake.

We got it in the correct order in Australia, for the record.