RECASTAWAY: FROM "DOCTOR WHO" TO "LOST"

I'll warn you straight off that there will be spoilers in this post as I discuss a pivotal character introduced in last night's episode of 'Lost' ("Flashes Before Your Eyes").

So run away now while you have the chance, if you have not yet seen the episode, you DVRnachists!

Okay, you've been warned.......

Over in "The Fuselage", the official bulletin board for 'Lost', Yu Kai-lin aka Garf posted a nice recap of the episode. With thanks to Yu Kai-lin and to the folks running "The Fuselage", I'm going to re-post part of it here.

Here's the set-up: Desmond Hume goes into this small curio/antique shop to look at diamond rings because he's planning on asking Penny Widmore to marry him.

Fionnuala Flanagan guest-starred as the Shopkeeper, Ms. Hawking. Here's where Yu Kai-lin picks up the tale:

"Shopkeeper asks him his price range, then says she's got something perfect for him. A sweet little ring, he says he'll take it, and she suddenly says 'I don't think so' and then tells him he has second thoughts, walks out, doesn't ask Penny to marry him, and then runs down all the things he does in the future, claiming that if he doesn't do all the things we know he does, EVERYONE DIES!

I'm totally going to have to re-watch this episode to hear all the things the shop woman rattles off to Desmond as his future events, just to see if all the things have already happened, or if there is something new in there. I did get the whole 'Everyone would be dead' if he hadn't turned the failsafe key, so that's rather cosmic.

Des wants to know [who] the shop woman is and how she knows all this stuff. She invites him to eat roasted chestnuts. And notices a man wearing red shoes.

The red shoed man dies when scaffolding falls on him. The shop woman knew he it was going to happen, and says she couldn't warn him because he'd die anyhow the next day or the day after by a different method because it was meant to happen.

She then tells him that going to the island and pushing the button and turning the failsafe key are his destiny, and any choices he thinks he'll make won't matter, it's what he's meant to do. No matter how much he fights it."
[with thanks to Yu Kai-lin and "The Fuselage]

Maybe it was the bright whiteness of her hair and the white theme to her clothing, but based on what she had to say a certain character from 'Doctor Who' came to mind. So much so that I think they could be one and the same.

I'm thinking of the White Guardian, who appeared in the "Key of Time" story arc that spanned an entire season of 'Doctor Who'.

From Wikipedia, here is the relevant information about the White Guardian:

The White Guardian is an anthropomorphic personification of order and the counterpart of the Black Guardian who represents evil, chaos and entropy. The two Guardians balance out the forces in the universe, although the Black Guardian seems to desire to upset the balance in favour of chaos and evil while the White Guardian prefers to maintain the status quo.

The White Guardian had concerns that the universe was descending into chaos.

Although extremely powerful, the Guardians apparently cannot be seen to act directly, which is why they can only affect things through agents like the Doctor.

Being such an omniscient power of the Universe, it seems obvious that the White Guardian could assume any form it wanted. And for the purposes of dealing with Desmond, it probably assumed the form of Ms. Hawking.

Ms. Hawking certainly seems to have the same goal as the White Guardian - to protect the stability of the Universe. But to do so, the White Guardian had to work through an agent, the Gallifreyan Time Lord. And Ms. Hawking needed Desmond to understand that his fate was already sealed and that he had to follow through on its course no matter the personal cost to him.

I've been knocking around another connection between 'Lost' and 'Doctor Who', but there is a collection of answers I need to get from the 'Lost' producers first. And knowing how long that may take, I'm in no rush to spill the beans just yet.

Let me know what you think of this Toobworld theory though. Did we see a 'Doctor Who' guest character on 'Lost' last night?

BCnU!
Tele-Toby