Monday, April 25, 2011

1969 v. 1482

THE KNOWN WORLD - 1482
In the season premiere of 'Doctor Who' ("The Impossible Astronaut"), the Doctor mentioned that 1969 would be a fun time to visit, but that was not always the case with other years. For example, 1482 was full of glitches.

Being the good little (okay, not so little) televisiologist that I am, I checked out the Wikipedia entry for the year 1482. And not very much happened during those particular 365 days: 
  • The Portuguese erect the Fort Elmina near the mouth of the River Benya on the Gold Coast.
  • Tizoc rules the Aztecs.
  • Diogo Cão, a Portuguese navigator, becomes the first European to sail up the Congo.
  • Ivan III renounces the Mongol Khanate rule over Russia.
  • The Kingdom of England captures Berwick from the Kingdom of Scotland, resulting in the only permanent change to the Anglo-Scottish border from the signing of the Treaty of York in 1237 to the present day.
Maybe it was one of those glitches that caused other major events to disappear, only to re-occur at some later date?

But getting back to 1969, the Doctor and his Companions weren't the only ones to travel there via time travel - Dr. Sam Beckett quantum leaped back to the Gulf of Mexico in time to help out during the devastation of Hurricane Camille.
The Stargate team did it as well, going back to Woodstock to bring about a required historical change for one of their team.

Also at Woodstock was an "extension" of the Q Continuum, who saved the festival by getting the sound system fixed.

A G.I. was murdered at the Woodstock festival, but it would be just over forty years before a Philadelphia-based team of "cold case" investigators were able to solve the crime.

As sort of a cosmic balance, a WGEO-FM radio technician named Daryl was conceived at Woodstock.
  
David Fischer and his sister-in-law Brenda Chenowith were both born in 1969, as was Blair Sandburg and police detective Sam Tyler. Carl Winslow graduated from high school, and two hippy chicks were butchered by vampires John Mitchell and his mentor William Herrick.

So it's understandable that the Doctor would love to visit the Nixon White House in that year - if it hadn't been for the fact he had no clue as to Who was behind the summons to visit.....

SHOWS CITED:
'Doctor Who'
'Quantum Leap'
'Stargate SG-1'
'Star Trek: Voyager'
'Cold Case'
'FM'
'Six Feet Under'
'Family Matters'
'Life On Mars'
'The Sentinel'
'Being Human'

BCnU!

3 comments:

Sean V Cleary said...

Good reference via Star Trek: Voyager!
Woodstock seems to be some sort of convergence point for time/space oddities...

Sean V Cleary said...

Any link between Dr. Sam Beckett and Captain Jonathan Archer?

Hugh said...

I need to re-watch the episode, but I thought the Doctor was saying 1969 was an easy year, as in easy to navigate the Tardis to, since he isn't always the most accurate. I thought it was a commentary on the events of the year, and thus it was easy to find in the time stream.