CASTING OUT "OUTCASTS"

It looks like 'Outcasts', the latest sci-fi offering from the BBC (which hasn't even made it across the Atlantic yet), is insisting on the show taking place in 2040 AD, rather than leaving open the pozz'bility of 2040 as being designated in a new timeline.

I've seen five episodes of the series so far, and at one point Tipper Malone, Forthaven's wunderkind wastrel, talked about the New York Dolls as being from the last century.

This could still be saved, however, with a splainin that he was talking about a new incarnation of that band with nebulous ties to the original. (We've seen that happen with other groups, like the Inkspots, only not with hundreds of years between them.)

And if we accept that, then 'Outcasts' must take place more than four hundred years in the future. That way it's out of the way of the various 'Star Trek' series. Why is that important? Because PAS Chief Stella Eisen mentioned that with the last earthquake, San Francisco tipped into the bay.

Frisco is the location for Starfleet headquarters, so for both shows to exist on the same timeline, 'Outcasts' has to take place after at least 'Star Trek: Voyager'.

But if they continue to make allusions to our own recent events, why even bother to keep coming up with splainins?

So if we're forced to cast out 'Outcasts' from the main Toobworld, then what alternate TV dimension should be its new home?

As long-time readers must have figured out by now, I have a couple of suggestions.....

1] "OVER THERE"
This is the alternate dimension which has been dominating the third season of 'Fringe'. It's already a world of chaos because Dr. Walter Bishop crossed over from Earth Prime-Time to abduct the doppelganger of his recently deceased son. The walls between the dimensions have been breached and are in danger of collapsing; the drastic measure to seal the rift was to fill the affected area with "amber" - no matter how many people - or who - happened to be trapped in the vicinity. This is a world already pushed to the limit, but which has made incredible scientific advancements because of it. This would be a world which could build huge ark ships to travel to distant planets by 2025, and which could have developed accelerated human cloning. As for that DBV apparatus that could visualize what a person was thinking, no matter where in the TV Universe the show took place - even if it was the main Toobworld - that machine does exist. It was developed after forty years of improvements over the model used on 'The Prisoner' Number Six in the episode "A, B, or C".

2] "THE WEST WING WORLD"
Because of his Oscar win for Best Adapted Screenplay with "The Social Network", I don't think Aaron Sorkin will be interested in looking back and working on old successes like 'The West Wing', not with so many new opportunities ahead of him. But let's say he eventually wanted to re-visit the world of Jed Bartlet's America (now maybe even past the administration of Matt Santos.)

One reason to go back, if only for a one-shot reunion TV movie? Former President Josiah Bartlet finally dies (one way or the other, if you know your 'West Wing') from complications of his MS affliction. If that were to happen, then we would have to toss 'The West Wing' out of contention to be the new home for 'Outcasts'. But in the meantime, this TV dimension, which had been the home of international conflicts in Qumar and Equatorial Kuhndu, could logically serve as the scene for such events as the Shanghai Uprising, the First and Second Taiwan Crisis, the nuclear destruction of Chicago - and all before 2040. And it has had its share of natural disasters, so what's a few more?

I won't be surprised if in the next three episodes of 'Outcasts' (There are eight in all.) more references to the date being 2040 AD are tossed out by various characters. But with these options available for its new home, I'll be okay with it.

Not like you really care. LOL
BCnU!