THE LOST DOCTOR WHO

No, sorry. The subject heading does not mean that I have discovered a copy of "Power Of The Daleks".
Although I had some questions still about the whole purgatory church aspect of the 'Lost' finale (along with so many of the show's other unresolved mysteries), I was happy that it turned out that everything that occurred in the storyline leading up to their arrival in the afterlife actually took place in the main Toobworld. Like they said in the show, what happened, happened. And everything matters.

Because of this, Toobworld Central can promote two possible connections to 'Doctor Who' - one of which occurred during an episode of 'Lost' and the other in an episode of 'Doctor Who' (the classic version).

Let's start with the one from 'Lost', even though the 'Doctor Who' part of the link aired first.
At the end of the two-part 'Doctor Who' episode "The Empty Child'/'The Doctor Dances', the 9th incarnation of the Doctor was dancing with his Companion Rose Tyler, with Captain Jack Harkness watching on the side (and ready to cut in with either one of them.) And the music they swayed to was "Moonlight Serenade" by the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

Somehow, as they raced forward in Time, the music heard inside the TARDIS leaked out and was picked up at two different points in the timestream.

First up, in the early 1960's, a very special radio was able to pick up the transmission from the TARDIS. This radio was in the attic of Ed Lindsay and it may have been magically attuned to picking up the music and entertainment and news programs from the past. Or it may have been triggered by the reception of "Moonlight Serenade" to receive those other programs.

Here's an IMDb description of that episode:
An old radio is taking bitter bachelor Ed Lindsay back to a happier time (before what he considers worthless tripe on television) when he starts picking up radio programs from the 1930's and 1940's. (There is the voice of a DJ announcing the song, however. This can be splained away though in that maybe the Doctor had locked in a radio transmission and even had it stored in the TARDIS computer. He may have had the original recording of the song in his databanks, but he might also have been a collector of that particular DJ's air checks, in much the same way my Iddiot friends collect the broadcasts of free-form legend Vin Scelsa's "Idiot's Delight Digest".)

But then the song showed up in the episode of 'Lost' entitled "The Long Con". Here's the Lostpedia entry about "Moonlight Serenade":

"The Long Con" – Hurley and Sayid were trying to find a signal on the Arrow radio, and instead found a radio braodcast which was playing the song. Sayid mentioned that the radio could be picking up signals from anywhere in the world. Hurley cleverly responds, "Or any time. Just kidding, dude."

But as it turns out, Hurley was right on the button. Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse confirmed in the Season 5 recap episode "Lost: A Journey in Time" that the radio broadcast was indeed from the 1940s and a product [of] time travel. (Also from that Lostpedia entry)

So I think it can be accepted that they were picking up on the TARDIS transmission of the Glen Miller classic.
And that's just one example in which 'Lost' and 'Doctor Who' crossed paths. As a Jedi master once said (which Hurley would appreciate): "There is another." And this one does begin with 'Doctor Who'.

The classic version of 'Doctor Who' began in 1963 and ended in 1989 with the 7th incarnation of the Doctor. We turn to the TARDIS Wiki entry for the episode "Survival":

Having already surmised that episode three of "Survival" was likely to at least be the last episode of Doctor Who for some time, and possibly the last ever, the programme's producer John Nathan-Turner decided close to transmission that a more suitable conclusion should be given to the final episode. To this end, script editor Andrew Cartmel wrote a short, melancholic closing monologue for actor Sylvester McCoy, which McCoy recorded on 23 November 1989, the day after Episode 1 was broadcast, and also by coincidence, the show's twenty-sixth anniversary:




"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there’s injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold! Come on, Ace — we’ve got work to do!"

This was dubbed over the closing scene as the Doctor and Ace walked off into the distance, apparently to further adventures. The Doctor Who production office at the BBC finally closed down in August 1990, having been in continuous operation since 1963.

"People made of smoke...." Well, it should be O'Bvious that the Doctor was referring to the smoke monster of the Island. "Smokey" was the spirit of "the Man in Black", transformed by the mystical properties of the Golden Light at the Center of the Island. It would usually manifest itself in its original human form, as the Man in Black, but as we saw over the course of the six seasons of 'Lost', it could take other forms as well. (We saw it manifest itself as Mr. Eko's brother Father Yemi, Jack's father Dr. Christian Shepherd, and of course as John Locke.)

So at some point in Time before the arrival of the 815 Survivors, one of the incarnations of the Doctor - any one of them from the First to the Seventh - had visited the Island in the TARDIS and experienced the Smoke Monster's ability to take the shape of someone from the Doctor's past (usually dead). It could have manifested itself as a Companion like Sarah Kingdom or Adric or as a villain like Omega. Perhaps even as one of his own earlier incarnations!

Whichever incarnation of the Doctor visited the Island, he was probably able to keep the Smoke Monster at bay with his sonic screwdriver. For some reason, the sonic fences used in Othersville and by Widmore's crew on his return to the Island kept the Locke-ness Monster from getting through. So since it wasn't very hooked on sonics, the Doctor's all-purpose sonic screwdriver would have made a nifty little defense weapon. (The Doctor would never consider it for tactical offense.)
Not that I will ever write the story, but this would make a great fanfic piece - the Doctor and the Man In Black (two characters who are nameless* to the general audience.) So if anybody out there wants to take a shot at it, be my guest. (And send me a copy when you finish it!)

[Thanks go out to Jim Mueller for the picture of the TARDIS & Smokey, and to Michael Cleary for 'Doctor Who' information... information... information.]

BCnU!

* Kristin Dos Santos of E! claims that originally the Man In Black's name was to be revealed as "Samuel".