CRYSTAL MYTH

Every so often, something - or someone, - comes along which I could use to connect so many TV shows together by a common theme, or at the very least provides some sort of splainin for an aspect of life in Toobworld.

For instance - 'The 4400'. There's no way that we'll ever meet all 4400 of the abductees during the run of the series. So it could serve as a dumping ground for all of those characters who just disappeared from TV shows with no mention as to where they had gone. The oldest son on 'Davis Rules'; the youngest son on 'Grounded For Life'.

But not the classic MIA - Chuck Cunningham of 'Happy Days'. I know what happened to him - his crazy-eyed younger sister Joanie killed him!

'Between Time And Timbuktu' gave the name for the passageway between dimensions which has been utilized on such shows as 'Sliders' and the 'Star Trek' franchise - the Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum. It's that same wormhole through which the Doctor travels in his TARDIS.

As for characters who serve as a nexus of connectivity, there's Sweet the Demon from the musical episode of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer'. Thanks to his appearance, I now have a reason for the existence of 'Hull High', 'Cop Rock', 'That's Life', and now 'High School Musical', among others.

Fabian Lavendor, the undertaker played by Carroll O'Connor in an episode of 'The Wild Wild West', splains away all those cowboy bad guys who kept showing up in all of the TV shows with the same faces. (In the real world, the reason is casting - actors like Jack Elam, Morgan Woodward, and Victor French just kept getting used over and over again.) Lavendor was just giving new aliases to villains everyone believed to have been gunned down.

And then there's Red the Squirrel from 'My Favorite Martian --# Well, I'll just hold off on that one for now, as he figures into Monday's posting of the Crossover Of The Week.....

So now I have a new one. I've been catching up on old 'Doctor Who' stories I've missed over the decades (which is most of them). And I just finished watching "The Visitation" featuring the Fifth Doctor.

While they were exploring a crashed escape pod in the woods of 17th Century England, actor and highwayman Richard Mace wanted to know what was providing the lighting inside the wreck.

"Vintarac Crystals are a common source of illumination," splained the Doctor.

First off, "vintarac crystals" are a great sci-fi idea on its own merits. Crystals that were able to supply illumination would help save on the power generated by the ship's engines for other functions like speed or life support.

As to how they work, my best guess would be that they absorb ambient radiation and then transform that into the safe release of light. As such, they would also serve a beneficial life-saving purpose as well.

For Toobworld's purposes, if vintarac crystals are a common source of illumination, then ships of other alien races must use them.

Since they're probably bio/eco-friendly, I would imagine most Vulcan ships are equipped with them in the 'Star Trek' franchise.

Moya, the living spaceship on 'Farscape', might have these crystals as body piercings; her outer hide studded with them to draw in the radiation of outer space which would then be released as harmless luminance.

The 'Babylon 5' space station might use the vintarac crystals. And so would the Minbari, the Narn, the Centaurians, the Drazzi, the Gaim and the pa'k ma'ra; probably the Vorlons as well.

Maybe the Vogon Constructor Fleet uses these crystals as well, although from what we saw of them in 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy', the Vogons don't seem the types to care much for proficiency.

'Firefly' and the new version of 'Battlestar Galactica' may take place in an alternate dimension, but there's no reason to think they wouldn't have access to the vintarac crystals on their side of the chrono-synclastic infundibulum.

When it comes to TV trivia like this, Toobworld brings good things to light!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby