WISH-CRAFT: 'STAR TREK' & 'DOCTOR WHO'

In a BBC Online article about Freema Agyeman joining 'Doctor Who' as med student Martha Jones, there was this teaser about what to expect in the third series under Russell T. Davies' tenure:

Writer and executive producer Russell T Davies has promised "new thrills, new laughs and some terrifying new aliens".

"The Doctor and Martha are destined to meet William Shakespeare, blood-sucking alien Plasmavores, The Judoon - a clan of galactic stormtroopers - and a sinister intelligence at work in 1930s New York," he said.

First off, I do admire RTD's creation of names. In the past we've had Jabe, the Slitheen, the Face of Boe, and the Iolus. So I like the sound of The Judoon.

But I'm really excited by the prospect of the Doctor visiting New York City in the 1930s. I realize we are forty years too late to revisit Edith Keeler as played by Joan Collins, but why can't we have some references to that classic 'Star Trek' episode of "City On The Edge Of Forever"?

Two suggestions - recreate the mission run by Edith Keeler, or at least mention it by name. And perhaps show that poster which was promoting a boxing match. (That same poster was seen years later in an episode of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'.)

Even if RTD doesn't come through with that fan-geek's dream, the two shows are already connected. The Second Doctor visited an isolated human colony on the planet Vulcan. (I guess the Vulcans tolerated their presence so long as they didn't intrude on the Vulcan way of life elsewhere on the planet.) I suppose it was due to that visit and perhaps from other contacts with the Vulcans when the Doctor learned the technique of the mind-meld which we saw demonstarted in the episode "The Girl In The Fireplace".

At any rate, if there's no in-joke connection to 'Star Trek' in that upcoming episode about 1930s New York, I'm sure I'll be able to find some kind of missing link to other TV shows which have a connection to that time period.

Perhaps they could show Fillmore High (the school where Edith Baines Bunker attended, as did the kids in 'Head Of The Class'), or perhaps the police stations for either the 27th or 15th Precinct ('Law & Order' & 'NYPD Blue'). Maybe they could walk past DelFlorio's shop decades before it became a front for U.N.C.L.E. headquarters.

And if they needed to use a medical facility, Manhattan General would be perfect! ('Naked City' & 'Kay O'Brien')

Anything's pozzble!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby