Fixing Doctor Who Specials Metadata on Jellyfin with TheMovieDB

If you’re using Jellyfin to manage your media library and find your Doctor Who Specials are incorrectly categorized, you’re not alone. By default, Jellyfin often relies on TheMovieDB for metadata, which can lead to confusion with the latest Doctor Who specials featuring Ncuti Gatwa. This is because TheMovieDB has created a separate entry for the new series, starting in 2023, to differentiate it from the long-running series that began in 2005.

To correct this and ensure your Jellyfin library accurately reflects the new Doctor Who specials, you’ll need to manually guide Jellyfin to the right series on TheMovieDB. Here’s how to do it:

1. Manual Identification: Navigate to your Doctor Who series in Jellyfin. Access the series’ options, usually found via a “3-dots” menu or similar. Look for an “Identify” or “Match” option.
2. Choose TheMovieDB: Jellyfin will likely present you with a search interface connected to your configured metadata sources. Ensure TheMovieDB is selected.
3. Search for “Doctor Who”: In the search bar, type “Doctor Who”.
4. Select the Correct Series: Carefully review the search results. You’re looking for the series with Ncuti Gatwa prominently featured on the poster, rather than the TARDIS or previous Doctors. TheMovieDB link for this new series is https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/239770-doctor-who.
5. Identify Specials: The new series on TheMovieDB lists the specials as s00e01, s00e02, and so on. This is crucial for Jellyfin to correctly identify these episodes.

Filename and Directory Considerations:

You might be wondering about filename and directory naming conventions to automate this identification process in the future. Experimenting with directory names like “Doctor Who (2023)” or “Doctor Who 2023” and filenames such as “Doctor.Who.2023.s00e01” might seem logical. However, as testing shows, Jellyfin might still default to the older 1963 or 2005 series if not manually directed.

Alternative Metadata Sources:

While TheMovieDB is a popular choice, other sources handle Doctor Who metadata differently.

• TheTVDB: This database lists the specials within the 2005 series but uses a different episode numbering system (e.g., s00e162). You can see this at https://thetvdb.com/series/doctor-who-2005/seasons/official/0.
• OMDB API: Jellyfin also offers omdbapi.com as a source. It’s possible they categorize the specials as s14e01 within the 2005 series. However, investigating this would require an API key, which might not be necessary given the straightforward TheMovieDB solution.

Conclusion:

For accurate metadata for the latest Doctor Who specials in Jellyfin, manually identifying the new “Doctor Who” series on TheMovieDB (featuring Ncuti Gatwa) is the most effective solution. Be mindful of the s00eXX episode numbering for specials in this new series. While filename conventions and alternative databases exist, manually guiding Jellyfin to the correct TheMovieDB entry ensures your library is correctly organized and up-to-date with the newest adventures in time and space.