CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK!

'Doctor Who' is back on Earth!

Fifteen years after the last regular episode, six years after the one TV movie for the Eighth Doctor, we've had a full series of thirteen episodes featuring Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Incarnation.

The final episode for this year has aired, signaling the end of Eccleston's tenure and marking the debut of David Tennant in the role.

And so to celebrate, most of my essays and all of the Crossovers will be dedicated to the Doctor for the rest of the summer.

Be forewarned: In my essays during this summer salute to 'Doctor Who', there will be spoilers for each of the episodes, especially in regard to summaries.....

First off, here's a recap of the episode:

Location: Beneath the Utah Desert
Date: 2012
Enemy: Dalek soldier

The Doctor and Rose find themselves in an underground museum in Utah in the year 2012. The museum houses all kinds of extraterrestrial artifacts; the only living exhibit being one of the Doctor's oldest enemies - a Dalek!
[Thanks to TV.com]

Beneath the Salt Plains of Utah, the billionaire collector Henry Van Statten holds the last relic of an alien race. When the Doctor and Rose investigate, they discover that the Doctor’s oldest and most deadly enemy is about to break free. It’s a fight to the death, with Rose caught in the middle.
[Thanks to The Doctor Who Reference Guide]

CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK
'DOCTOR WHO' - "DALEK"
&
'ROSWELL', 'DARK SKIES', '7 DAYS' & 'THE X-FILES'

We owe the quartet of connections to this week's episode to the fact that the "Owner of the Internet", Henry Van Statten, is a collector of alien artifacts and relics.

In his collection there was the mileometer from the alien spacecraft that crashed at Roswell back in 1947. And these four shows touched on that crash without risking being banished to an alternate TV dimension for mucking about with an established timeline.

This is why 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' is not included for its episode that touched on the Roswell incident. By sending three Ferengi back in Time to alter the original chain of events, a new timeline was created. With the other four series, a bit of finagling and dancing with logic can keep them tied together to the same event, in the same TV Land.

Because it was the crustacean Dr. Zoidberg who was the alien back in time, 'Futurama' also creates an alternate timeline. But then again, that series could be set in the Tooniverse.....

Anyway, the ship that contained the three alien pods (who would grow up to become Max, Michael, and Isabel) crashed in Roswell in 1947. The cover-up was instigated by the clandestine group known as Majestic 12, many of whose members would one day become famous in the world of politics.

Probably among the later staff members (quickly to become one of the most powerful) was known as the Cigarette Smoking Man. He would have been brought into the cabal during the 1960s, and probably after the death of Major Frank Bach.

The aliens that were known about initially from the crash were probably just guards-for-hire for the three alien embryo pods. Those guards probably served as meta-McGuffins, whose deaths and alien autopsies drew attention away while the embryos were secreted away to a hidden cave to develop in secrecy.

Luckily they were removed before they could be discovered, as the wreckage was combed over for any technological advances that might have helped Mankind. Van Statten mentions in "Dalek" that broadband was one of the benefits which derived from the Roswell debris.

But another marvel retrieved from Roswell was the ability to go back in Time seven days, which Operation Backstep used for a covert government project to rewrite History (but of course for only the most dire of emergencies).

Van Statten also made mention of the medical find his researchers recovered from the mysterious crater that had been created by some sort of seismic blast in 1908 Russia - the cure for the common cold. (Of course, his corporation decided to keep that a secret for fear of ruining the cold & flu medicinal industry.)

Scientists are still baffled as to what may have caused that crater, but some sort of extraterrestrial blast has always been a popular theory. And according to FBI Agent Fox Mulder's personal experiences, the alien black oil could be traced back to the site.

(It's also one of the Toobworld hypotheticals that another alien involved in that blast {and survived} had been a Conehead from Remulac. This Conehead, whether it was a male or a female somehow fit into the human society during the early stages of Soviet Russia and even fathered a half-human hybrid child who grew up to become an arch-villain in Gotham City.... Egghead.)

So that's where we find the links for this episode of 'Doctor Who'. It was set in Utah, but we had to travel to Roswell, New Mexico.

Shows cited:
'Doctor Who'
'Roswell'
'Dark Skies'
'7 Days'
'The X-Files'
'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'
'Futurama'
'Saturday Night Live'
'Batman'

BCnU!
Tele-Toby