Yeah, I realized the key word I left out of those other two comments was "ongoing." Neil's miniseries was, as you say, self-contained; about 3 years later, the actual ongoing series started.
I remember reading something Neil had said/written in regards to Tim Hunter and Harry Potter — he was very gracious, basically saying that certain ideas get repeated unknowingly, the collective unconscious and all of that. He's a classy dude.