"GALACTICA" ZONKS "MARS"

'Veronica Mars' had the potential for a massive Zonk this week with a long high-five to 'Battlestar Galactica'. Her client Max talked in detail about how he bonded with a girl named Chelsea at ComicCon (THE big sci-fi convention) who shared his passion for all things 'Galactica' (including the observation that the spaceships look like the Batmobile in flight).

But unlike the Zonking of 'Studio 60' by 'Heroes', there's an easy way around this. First off, for the entertainment of the viewing audience, all of the references to 'Battlestar Galactica' are meant to be about the remake of the series currently airing on Sci-Fi. And as a remake, the show does not exist in the same dimension as 'Veronica Mars'. So right there, a Zonk is defused.

But there is a 'Battlestar Galactica' that did take place in the main Toobworld. It was set decades ago and in its own sequel, the ragtag fleet finally made it to Earth about 27 years ago. Once they arrived on Toobworld, the Galacticans wasted no time in embedding themselves into the fabric that makes up Earth Prime-Time, with links to 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' and its spinoffs (with the TV network UBS), and with McCloud (thanks to an appearance by Sgt. Grover as played by Ken Lynch).

In the quarter century plus since they've been in the main TV dimension, the Galacticans have possibly gone on to infiltrate Toobworld society further. It's my contention, for example, that certain rebel members of their race contributed to the aggressions of the Eugenics wars of the 1990s.

And eventually, the news of their existence living among us came out (probably in an untelevised situation in which they were able to deflect and destroy the invading Cylon fleet that followed them to Sol). As such, it's believable that TV characters in other shows are aware of their existence and will sometimes mention the flagship of their spaceships (which have probably all been cannibalized to further the scientific advancements on Toobworld which separate TV Land from the real world).

As I mentioned once before in a post about 'Gilmore Girls', even the slang of the Galactican refugees would find its way into the language of native-born Terrans. Even if they had no clue their friends, neighbors, and co-workers may have come from alien worlds like Caprica, the people would pick up the usage of the epithet "frak" and freely adapt it to their own use.

There is, however, one reference that can't be attributed to the original version of 'Battlestar Galactica'. Veronica, in dissing the whole fan-boy obsession over 'BG', mentioned a girl named "Six".

On the remake, Six is an evolved Cylon android who doesn't look like the tin-can original, but is instead almost human in appearance, right down to the cellular structure. (One of them even bred with a human to produce a child!)

But for the original series, the Cylons always were the clinking, clanking, clattering, calliginous piles of junk.

So who could be Six in relation to the original 'Battlestar Galactica' as seen on Toobworld?

It's my belief that the reference is once again drawn from common knowledge among the Toobworlders. Six could be Six LeMeure, a character who was the "fast-talking, boy-crazy" best friend of 'Blossom'. But instead of being an evolved Cylon, she is a Galactican raised on Earth and who probably gained notoriety for being an alien child.

Assuming Six LeMeure is the same age as the actress who plays her (Jenna Von Oy), Six would have been born in 1977 (by Terran years). As the space fleet didn't reach Toobworld until 1980 (can't fight the facts of a title!), she couldn't be the equivalent of Virginia Dare of Roanoke, by being the first of her kind to be born in the New World.

That's my splainin, and I'm sticking to it!

For good measure, there were fleeting mentions of 'Star Trek' and "Star Wars", but both of those shows have been given their "Get Out Of Zonkdom Free" cards long ago and this has been way too long as it is to go back into those discussions!

Zonk averted. "So say we all."

BCnU!
Tele-Toby