Some people have complained that there are only thirteen episodes per season in the new series of Doctor Who. Howver, given what the series has tended to do in the past, it is not too far off the mark. The original series of Doctor Who was shown as multi-part serials with 22.5 minute segments. If you edit together all the episodes of a typical four-part serial, you get a fairly consistent 1:30 run length. At any rate… after the Troughton era, seasons were usually 26 episodes long. As Season 22 amply demonstrated, a season of the equivalent 45 minute episodes is only 13 episodes long. Of course, nothing comes close to the black-and-white era of the series, which ran the show almost every week. Here is a history of the series, and the number of episodes per season. (For purposes of illustration, I've listed "The Five Doctors" as four episodes, and listed the numbers for Season 22 as if it had 22.5-minute episodes. Equivalent number of 45-minute episodes shown in parenthesis.)

Season 1 – 42 (21) Season 2 – 39 (19.5) Season 3 – 45 (22.5) Season 4 – 43 (21.5) Season 5 – 40 (20) Season 6 – 44 (22) Season 7 – 25 (12.5) Season 8 – 25 (12.5) Season 9 – 26 (13) Season 10 – 26 (13) Season 11 – 26 (13) Season 12 – 20 (10) Season 13 – 26 (13) Season 14 – 26 (13) Season 15 – 26 (13) Season 16 – 26 (13) Season 17 – 26 (13) (20/10 aired) Season 18 – 28 (14) Season 19 – 26 (13) Season 20 – 26 (13) Season 21 – 26 (13) Season 22 – 26 (13) Season 23 – 14 (7) Season 24 – 14 (7) Season 25 – 14 (7) Season 26 – 14 (7)

New Series: Season 1: 13 45-minute episodes Season 2: 13 45-minute episodes, plus a 45-minute Christmas special (14 eps total)