CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK!

"Why do we hurtle ourselves through every inch of time and space?"
The Indigo Girls

'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: Satellite 5
Date: 200,000 AD
Enemy: The Editor and The Jagrafess

The Doctor, Rose and Adam arrive in the year 200,000 on a broadcasting station that transmits programming to the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire on Earth.

They soon discover trouble is afoot when they learn that any worker promoted to a position on level 500 never returns.

As the three travelers attempt to find out what is happening they discover they may have trouble escaping from the
ever watchful eye of the Editor.

CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK
'DOCTOR WHO' - "THE LONG GAME"
&
'MURPHY BROWN'

Yeah. You read that right. This episode of 'Doctor Who' can be tied into the Candice Bergen sitcom 'Murphy Brown'.

For those of you with short-term memories, Murphy worked as an anchorwoman for the tele-version of CBS on their news magazine 'FYI'. But when the network began taking her for granted, Murph decided to seriously entertain the efforts by the WOLF network to woo her away.

This happened in the 63rd episode, "Contractions", which was broadcast back in 1991.

It's my contention that by the year 200,000 AD, the WOLF network still existed. Although by that time there were a lot of corporate mergers along the way, in much the same way Time-Life mutated to become AOL-Time-Warner at one point.

But where did the "Bad" in "BadWolf TV" come from?

It's more than likely that it's an acronym for the other entities in the corporate structure of BadWolf TV. Keeping it close to home, it could also be something "archaic", like "British-American Digital".

Or it could be named after individuals in the news and entertainment field.

"B" for Bracken for example. John Bracken was the movie studio owner of the old TV series 'Bracken's World'.

(Being on vacation, I'm far too lazy and logy to go looking for examples for "A" and "D". And I'd much rather see what some of my readers might suggest.)

Since the Fourth Great And Bountiful Human Empire has spread out to other planets, (and our own world will have another four moons by then), it could be that "BAD" might stand for something off-world. A conglomerate of Television interests from the Bajorans, Andorans, and Deltans, perhaps? (All alien races to be found in various parts of the 'Star Trek' franchise.)

At any rate, at its heart, BadWolf TV evolved from the WOLF Television network. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

By the way, for those of you who are familiar with how this season of 'Doctor Who' is resolved might be ready to argue about the genesis of the term "Bad Wolf" itself. Let me just say in my defense that many stories revolving around Time being altered depend on the item being changed in the past to already exist in the present. This creates its own time loop.

That might not make much sense right now, but even though my 'Doctor Who' crossovers have been laden with spoilers, I don't want to jump the gun just yet on a full splainin.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby