Saturday, January 12, 2008

GRASKE TOOB

An alien of a species identified as the Graske appeared in "Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane?", the penultimate episode of the first season of 'The Sarah Jane Adventures'. Played by Jimmy Vee, the Graske was not encumbered with a name, and so it could be that he was the same Graske as was seen in the interactive adventure "Attack Of The Graske". This aired on the same night as "The Christmas Invasion" back in 2005.

So there's proof that online content - on a limited basis, I hope! - will have to be accepted into Toobworld proper, as is the case with several movies like the 1966 'Batman', 'Maverick', and the 'Star Trek' franchise.

But it wasn't the first time that a character created for an online source later appeared in a TV series. That honor may belong to Lt. Walter Neal, who worked 'Homicide: Second Shift' in Baltimore. We first saw him online in February of 1997, and then a year later he showed up in a January episode of 'Homicide: Life On The Street'. (Both versions of 'Homicide' shared a three part crossover, "Homicide.com" with the bracketing episodes done online.)

Does anybody know of an online character who crossed over into Toobworld proper before Lt. Neal and his team? Let me know!

BCnU!
Toby OB

2 comments:

Rob Buckley said...

What do you count as online? Only Doctor Who had all those TARDISODES for series two that featured minor characters that then appeared in the following week's episode.

Toby O'B said...

True. ABC is running the "Missing Pieces" right now for 'Lost' which is like caulk to fill in the blanks. CBS had a missing scene for CSI Miami - your fave! - a few years back which may have initiated a storyline but was meant to advertise a car.

I guess it'll always have to be a case by case basis. If it's an official production, fine. But I'm not accepting every video of somebody's cat thrown up on YouTube (or throwing up on YouTube for that matter.)