THE NAME'S FAMILIAR, BUT I CAN'T PLACE THE FACE

Our final piece celebrating the TV work of Ricardo Montalban.....

With the passing of Ricardo Montalban two weeks ago, I thought I'd revisit a Toobworld premise that I once put forth in the old website of The Tubeworld Dynamic.

Namely, that Mr. Roarke of 'Fantasy Island' was a Gallifreyan Time Lord, as seen on 'Doctor Who'!

Within the original series, it was established that Mr. Roarke was over 300 years old; certainly not a trait shared with many Terrans. He also made contact with aliens like the Doctor, but not in the conventional sense of BEMs from other worlds. He knew a mermaid, a humanoid species native to this planet, and he clashed with the Devil in one episode. (This means that we can link 'Fantasy Island' to 'Reaper', since the Devil can take on many guises.)

When the series was revived many years later, a new actor was now playing the role of Mr. Roarke. With any other show, this would have damned the remake to an alternate dimension shared by new versions of 'The Addams Family', '87th Precinct', and 'The Fugitive'. But with having already established that Roarke was long-lived like the Gallifreyans, we could then postulate that with Malcolm McDowell now in the role, Mr. Roarke had gone through regeneration at some point between the two series.

Not only did he have new physical features, but a new personality (somewhat darker and more menacing), new quirks, and a new taste in wardrobe. And haven't we seen that happen after each regeneration?

The new series gave us another clue that he was a Gallifreyan. On the island there was an old shed which his two manservants, Harry and Cal, used to store all of the garbage that had accumulated on the Island. And there was never any danger of it filling up because it was so very much larger on the inside than it was on the outside. O'Bviously this shed was a disguised TARDIS.

The new Mr. Roarke also associated with aliens, as evidenced by his assistant Ariel. She was able to morph her appearance to be anybody or even any animal. However, we can't link her to the Founders of the Dominion like Odo from 'Deep Space Nine' - because she could make a proper human nose. And we can't link her to the race Maya belonged to on 'Space: 1999' because she just an imaginary construct (as DCI Alex Drake would call her on 'Ashes To Ashes'). Maya only existed in the coma dreamworld of Commander Koenig after he nearly died in that nuclear waste dump explosion on the far side of the Moon.

Both versions of the show are off the air now, so there's no way to disprove my theory as to how they continued off-screen. And where's the harm in it anyway? Of course, if we follow the Gallifreyan connection to its logical conclusion, then we have to assume that Mr. Roarke died in the Time War, following the story established in 'Doctor Who'. But knowing how the network suits "think", I'm sure we'll see another incarnation of Mr. Roarke within a decade or so.

It would be nice to think he survived to continue granting wishes on his 'Fantasy Island'.....

BCnU!
Toby O'B