Monday, January 17, 2005

THE ZONK TREK DIALOGUES

When two of the leading theorists of Toobworld discuss great matters of import, the cohesion of the TV Universe only becomes that much stronger.

Here's an email conversation I had with Hugh D regarding 'Star Trek' fandom within the "reality" of Toobworld:

Toby:
Lost didn't zonk this time. In the very Friends episode you are thinking of, you'll remember that the reason they knew you had to pee on someone was because Chandler and Joey had seen a special on the Discovery Channel (as had Ross, who realized where the anecdote was going and exclaimed the ever intellectual "ewwww") which revealed this fact. I'm sure Joey Tribbiani and Hurley saw the same special.

And speaking of Joey, Brent Spiner was on last night's episode playing himself (which did prompt Star Trek references, of course).
Hugh

Thanks for the input, can you tell me who got stung and who did the peeing?
Toby

Monica got stung. Joey was going to pee on her, but he was nervous and couldn't perform under pressure. Chandler stepped up. Part of the ongoing punchline for that episode was that Chandler kept asking Monica if she'd ever date him. She told him "you'll always be the guy who peed on me."

Do you remember the Night Court in which some Trekkies were taken to court after starting a fight at a convention over which was better, classic or Next Generation? They left the courtroom by energizing out of there on the transporter. I've tried to figure a way that could be used to cover the Trek zonks. They've got transporter technology, so perhaps they've travelled back in time and sold the stories of the 23rd/24th century to producers, so contemporary people know (of) it, but it also will occur in the future? Okay, just rambling.
Hugh

I do remember the episode of "Nurses" in which a passel of Trekkies (they must have their own grouping name!) got food poisoning and ended up creating havoc around the nurses' station.

The Wonder Years dream, etc.

It could be those Trekkies on Night Court were fellow Saturnians, like the two old men (one of them the legendary Phil Leeds!) who took Bull with them back to their home planet.....
Toby

Little known fact, but Judge Stone's courtroom is one of the "nexus" points for crossovers. Back when DC Comics had their multiverse, there were certain points in the multiverse which seemed more fertile for interactions among different series, such as the Rock of Eternity. Some cities seemed to be strong for these interactions as well. In the televerse, one finds certain places are stronger than others, such as the corridors of St. Eligius Hospital, the alleyways of Sesame Street, or the world of the Electric Company. The halls of night justice are like this too. Even though only one legitimate crossover comes from Night Court (the pseudo-spinoff with My Two Dads), there are lots of small connections that can be made. Wile E. Coyote was once a defendant in a blackout, opening up a myriad of animated links, and another blackout gag featured Eugene Greytak as the Pope, a role he's also played in Naked Gun 33 1/3 (the cineverse take on Police Squad!), and on The Wayans Bros., Picket Fences, Golden Girls, Murphy Brown, and Just the Ten of Us, and I have a memory of an ad for Father Dowling Mysteries with him in it as well.
Hugh

Final thought:
For the 'Trek' zonk/transporter conundrum, those particular 'Night Court' Trekkies might have had access to the matter transmitter technology which Dr. Westin was working on before it transformed him into 'The Invisible Man'.
Toby

And what do YOU think?

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