AS SEEN ON TV: AUGUSTO PINOCHET

AUGUSTO PINOCHET

AS SEEN IN:
"Pinochet In Suburbia"

AS PLAYED BY:
Sir Derek Jacobi

From Wikipedia:
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973. Among his titles, he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean army from 1973 to 1998, president of the Government Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1974 and President of the Republic from 1974 until transferring power to a democratically elected president in 1990.

After peacefully stepping down in 1990, Pinochet continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 10 March 1998, when he retired and became a senator-for-life in accordance with the 1980 Constitution. In 2004, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia ruled that Pinochet was medically fit to stand trial and placed him under house arrest. By the time of his death on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations, tax evasion and embezzlement during his 17-year rule and afterwards. Pinochet was accused of having corruptly amassed a wealth of US$28 million or more.

Some authors have speculated that Argentina might have won the war had the military felt able to employ the elite VIth and VIIIth Mountain Brigades which remained sitting in the Andes guarding against possible Chilean incursions. Pinochet subsequently visited Margaret Thatcher for tea on more than one occasion. Pinochet's controversial relationship with Thatcher led Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair to mock Thatcher's Conservatives as "the party of Pinochet" in 1999.The case was a watershed event in judicial history, as it was the first time that a former government head was arrested on the principle of universal jurisdiction.

After having been placed under house arrest in Britain and initiating a judicial and public relations battle, the latter run by Thatcherite political operative Patrick Robertson, he was eventually released in March 2000 on medical grounds by the Home Secretary Jack Straw without facing trial.

Pinochet returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. His first act when landing in Santiago's airport was to triumphantly get up from his wheelchair to the acclaim of his supporters. He was first greeted by his successor as head of the Chilean armed forces, General Ricardo Izurieta. President Ricardo Lagos, who had just been sworn in on 11 March, said the retired general's televised arrival had damaged the image of Chile, while thousands demonstrated against him.

In March 2000, the Congress approved a constitutional amendment creating the status of "ex-president," which granted its owner immunity from prosecution and guaranteed him a financial allowance. In exchange, it required him to resign from his seat of senator-for-life. Of the legislators, 111 voted for, and 29 (mostly, if not all, from the Left) against.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Juan Guzmán's request on August 2000, and Pinochet was indicted on 1 December 2000 for the "kidnapping" of 75 opponents in the Caravan of Death case. Guzmán advanced the charge of "kidnapping" as the 75 were officially "disappeared": even though they were all most likely dead, the absence of their corpses made any charge of "homicide" difficult.

However, in July 2002, the Supreme Court dismissed Pinochet's indictment in the various human rights abuse cases, for medical reasons (vascular dementia). The debate concerned Pinochet's mental faculties, his legal team claiming that he was senile and could not remember, while others (including several physicians) claimed that he was only physically affected but retained all control of his faculties.

On 25 November 2006, Pinochet marked his 91st birthday by having his wife read a statement written by him, and read to his admirers present for his birthday: "I assume the political responsibility of all that has been done." Two days later, he was again ordered to house arrest for the kidnapping and murder of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende who were arrested the day of the 1973 coup and executed by a firing squad during the Caravan of Death episode.

However, Pinochet died a few days later, on 10 December 2006, without having been convicted of any of the many serious crimes of which he was accused.

BCnU!

THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN JACK

At the American press screening for 'Torchwood: Miracle Day', former 'Doctor Who' producer Russell T. Davies declared to reporters that there's absolutely no chance that you'll see the Doctor show up within the contest of a 'Torchwood' story. And it's not because he's no longer the man in charge of the TARDIS.

"The Doctor's never gone into Torchwood; it's always been the other way around. Torchwood's gone into 'Doctor Who,' which I think is correct because there's a big child audience for 'Doctor Who,' and I think that would demand if we took The Doctor into Torchwood, it would be a clash of styles."

Steven Moffat is now in charge of 'Doctor Who' and hasn't used anything from the previous run of the series that he didn't create himself - like the Weeping Angels. So Captain Jack might still return to his roots, since Moffat wrote his first stories, "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances". And I think he'd be right in grabbing the former Time Agent for a guest appearance, since RTD had no problem in using the Eleventh Incarnation of the Doctor for a two-part story on 'The Sarah Jane Adventures'. Fair's fair......

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: MARGARET THATCHER

Today's ASOTV Showcase is in memory of the actress Anna Massey, who passed away on July 2nd at age 73. I just recently saw her in a murder mystery solved by 'Agatha Christie's Poirot' - "The Clocks".......

 

PRIME MINISTER MARGARET THATCHER

AS SEEN IN:
"Pinochet In Suburbia"

AS PLAYED BY:
Anna Massey

By Jill Lawless, Published: July 4
Washington Post
Anna Massey, who as a young actress was killed off in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Frenzy” (1972) and later became a stalwart of British period dramas, often cast as a waspish spinster or maiden aunt, died July 2 in London. She was 73 and had cancer.

The actress was born in 1937 into a performing family — her father was Canadian actor Raymond Massey [who abandoned the family when she was two], and her mother was British actress Adrianne Allen. Her brother, Daniel Massey, also became an actor, and her godfather was director John Ford.

Ms. Massey worked most frequently in television period dramas. She appeared in TV adaptations of Anthony Trollope’s “The Pallisers,” Thomas Hardy’s “Tess of the D’Urbervilles,” Charles Dickens’ ”Oliver Twist” and many others.

Ms. Massey won Britain’s top acting award for her role in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner’s novel “Hotel du Lac.”

In 2006, Ms. Massey played former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the TV drama “Pinochet in Suburbia.”

From Alan Corr of RTE:
Massey was outstanding in a TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's "Hotel de Lac" in 1986, made partially from her own money, and more recently savoured the chance to play Margaret Thatcher in the 2006 TV drama "Pinochet in Suburbia". "I adored doing that," she said earnestly. "One of the reviews said I went over the top but I promise you I was under the top compared to what she was doing. She was mad. She had that waxen mad look. The poor thing now is so ill, she doesn't know where she is or if Denis is around. It's rather tragic. Do you think power does that to people? Reagan was the same wasn't he?"

BCnU......

OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT: CASEY ANTHONY

My Iddiette friend Kristin McCracken shared this on Facebook, regarding today's top story:

Best. Tweet. Ever?

RT @drnik46: Look out, Casey Anthony. Dexter lives in Florida...

Me? I'm not going to pass judgement until I see the Lifetime movie.....

BCnU!

A LEVERAGED FATHER'S DAY.....

I think this will remain my favorite in-joke for the entire year. It's definitely the sweetest.....

In "The 10 Li'l Grifters Job", the 'Leverage' episode that aired over the Fourth of July weekend, everybody had to dress up as a "fictional" detective.

Sophie was Irene Adler from "A Scandal In Bohemia", a Sherlock Holmes story.

Parker was Nancy Drew.

Harrison was one of the Hardy Boys.  (Update: Originally I had him listed as Encyclopedia Brown, because that's who he thought he was.  But I've just watched that scene again and Sophie corrects him over the comm-link: he's one of the Hardy Boys.  The big "H" on his sweater should have been a give-away.)

Elliott was real-life Pinkerton agent Charlie Siringo.

But best of all?

Nate Ford (played by Timothy Hutton) was Ellery Queen.....

Timothy Hutton's father, the late Jim Hutton, played Ellery Queen in a 1970's series by the creators of 'Columbo' and 'Murder, She Wrote'.

And seeing Nate Ford in that floppy hat, the tweedy jacket, and the red sweater, it was like seeing Jim Hutton in the role once more.

So when Nate declared Ellery Queen as the greatest detective ever, I think there was more than one voice speaking......

I'll have more on these disguises later in the week....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: ISAAC NEWTON

On this date in 1687, Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, ushering in a tidal wave of changes in thought that would significantly accelerate the already ongoing scientific revolution by giving it tools that produced technologically valuable results, which had theretofore been otherwise unobtainable.

ISAAC NEWTON

AS SEEN IN:
'Star Trek: Voyager'

AS PLAYED BY:
Peter Dennis

ISAAC NEWTON

AS SEEN IN:
'Voyagers!'

AS PLAYED BY:
Dan Kern

From Wikipedia:
"Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica", Latin for "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", often called the Principia ("Principles"), is a work in three books by Sir Isaac Newton, first published 5 July 1687. Newton also published two further editions, in 1713 and 1726. The "Principia" states Newton's laws of motion, forming the foundation of classical mechanics, also Newton's law of universal gravitation, and a derivation of Kepler's laws of planetary motion (which Kepler first obtained empirically). The "Principia" is "justly regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science".

The French mathematical physicist Alexis Clairaut assessed it in 1747: "The famous book of "Mathematical Principles of natural Philosophy" marked the epoch of a great revolution in physics. The method followed by its illustrious author Sir Newton ... spread the light of mathematics on a science which up to then had remained in the darkness of conjectures and hypotheses." A more recent assessment has been that while acceptance of Newton's theories was not immediate, by the end of a century after publication in 1687, "no one could deny that" (out of the 'Principia') "a science had emerged that, at least in certain respects, so far exceeded anything that had ever gone before that it stood alone as the ultimate exemplar of science generally."

In formulating his physical theories, Newton developed and used mathematical methods now included in the field of calculus. But the language of calculus as we know it was largely absent from the "Principia"; Newton gave many of his proofs in a geometric form of infinitesimal calculus, based on limits of ratios of vanishing small geometric quantities. In a revised conclusion to the "Principia" (see "General Scholium"), Newton used his expression that became famous, "Hypotheses non fingo" ("I contrive no hypotheses").

Although the Toobworld Dynamic states that all TV shows should share the same fictional universe, it's not always a given. 'Star Trek: Voyager' definitely shares the same TV dimension as its precursor, 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'. So why does the Isaac Newton of 'Voyager' look different from that in 'TNG'?



ISAAC NEWTON

AS SEEN IN:
'Star Trek: The Next Generation'

AS PLAYED BY:
John Neville

A simple splainin for this: Data's poker buddy was a computer-generated hologram. It was created based on the data supplied by Data, making a copy to the best of its ability.

It gets more complicated when comparing the Isaac Newtons of 'Voyager' and 'Voyagers!', however. We can splain away the differences between them with the recastaway excuse of aging, or by claming that whenever Phineas Bogg and Jeffrey Jones travel back in Time, they're entering alternate TV dimensions and meeting variations of historical figures. And in this case at least, using both splainins would also be applicable.

BCnU!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

It's a day to celebrate, but also to mourn the loss of Clarence Clemons last month.....

"DOCTOR WHO" ON JULY 4TH? PARRISH THE THOUGHT!

Happy Fourth of July! Happy Independence Day!

Or as they might say elsewhere in the world, Happy Monday!

As a Toobworld contribution to the Fourth of July theme, I'd like to offer this painting by my favorite artist, Maxfield Parrish:

"With Trumpet and Drum"

With big tin trumpet and

little red drum,

Marching like soldiers,

the children come!

The piece is entitled "With Trumpet And Drum" and it is dated from 1904. It was one of eight plates by Parrish to illustrate "Poems of Childhood" by the late Eugene Field. (He died nearly a decade earlier at the age of 45.)

As you can see in the picture, there was a clear influence for the main character in the painting:

The Gallifreyan Time Lord has met famous painters in the past, most notably Vincent Van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci, but also Michaelangelo and Gainesborough. So why not Maxfield Parrish?

I'm not offering up any splainins as to the circumstance leading to the meeting between Parrish and the Doctor. There are not enough "facts" available to make concrete connections within the reality of Toobworld.

This is more along the lines of fanficcer territory. So as a fanfic enabler, I will make a few suggestions... if you feel inspired to write about this encounter between the Doctor and Maxfield Parrish.

1]  Their adventure should take place in 1903, giving Parrish enough time to use the Eleventh Incarnation of the Doctor as the inspiration for the little drummer boy. And it should be something that might have borne a resemblance to the finished painting - only with a little boy rather than the boyish "young" Doctor.

2]  Parrish lived in New Hampshire, so the action should take place there. As with a lot of the wild areas in New England, the mountainous terrain and back country forests of New Hampshire are home to many myths, legends, and tall tales. Large lumbering giants and small devilish imp-folk can be found in the stories there. With either group, it should be easy to come up with an alien origin for their kind.

3]  Look into the actual history for New Hampshire at the turn of the 20th Century. There might be something that happened that could be given a 'Doctor Who' twist, which has always been a staple of the show.

4]  Was the event something that only the children of the area could deal with, because the adults had all been entranced by the alien adversary?

5]  And whether you use Amy Pond as his Companion, or some other young loverly who tagged along during that hiatus for the Amy & the Doctor team between "The Big Bang" and "The Impossible Astronaut", at some point in the story she should emulate at least one of the poses in other famous paintings by Maxfield Parrish.

Me, I'm partial to "Ecstasy" myself, but "Reverie" and "Hope" might also fit the bill.

If you do end up writing some 'Doctor Who' fanfic to go with this patriotic painting, please send a copy along to me. I'd love to read it!

Again, Happy Fourth of July!

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: JOHN ADAMS

JOHN ADAMS

AS SEEN IN:
'You Are There' -
"Washington Crosses the Delaware"

AS PLAYED BY:
Howard Wendell

From Wikipedia:
On July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Adams died at his home in Quincy. Told that it was the Fourth, he answered clearly, "It is a great day. It is a good day."

His last words have been reported as "Thomas Jefferson survives". Only the first two words "Thomas Jefferson" were clearly intelligible, however.

Adams was unaware that Jefferson, his compatriot in their quest for independence, then great political rival, then later friend and correspondent, had died a few hours earlier on the very same day. Somewhat later, struggling for breath, he whispered to his granddaughter Susanna, "Help me, child! Help me!" then lapsed into a final silence.

At about 6:20, Adams was dead, leaving Charles Carroll of Carrollton as the last surviving signatory of the Declaration of Independence. John Adams died while his son John Quincy Adams was president.

BCnU!

SKED ALERT: SCENES FROM TONIGHT'S "TRUE BLOOD"!

'Game Of Thrones' is over, but HBO doesn't let you take a break from great TV. The following week after the fantasy series ended its first season, their horror block-buster 'True Blood' returned for a fourth season.

Here are three scenes from the second episode, which debuts tonight at 9 pm ET on HBO. (Check your times and listings.....)

BCnU!

"TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY" - COMING SOON!

Now that we're in July, it's time to start hyping the new 'Torchwood' mini-series, "Miracle Day". I was a little worried about the project at first, especially coming off the great "Children Of Earth" from two years ago. And because they changed it up with American production values (courtesy of Starz!) and a ton of American actors.

But I'm reassured by the fact that Entertainment Weekly gave it an A-.

Here's the simple premise: what if suddenly no one on Earth died?

BCnU!

COLLECTEEVEE SOUL

The Sunday commercial break......

While watching the AMC marathon of 'The Rifleman' off my DVR yesterday, I saw this commercial:

That song in the background was bothering me; that I knew it and remembered hearing it often, but I just couldn't place it.

Took me five minutes to find the answer online, and that was mostly taken up with just logging in!

Long ago I lost any sense of amazement at what I could find on the internet. That's been replaced by the shock at the things I can't find. (Like a picture of Joel Grey in the NBC production of "George M.!" back in the early 70's......)

BCnU!

TRASHIN' "TODDLERS & TIARAS"

I wonder if there's such a thing as Video Voodoo..... You alter a video like this and it damns the subject to turn out that way.......

Hopefully, there'll be more opportunities from 'Toddlers & Tiaras' to make videos like this!

BCnU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOOB!

Friday marked the 70th anniversary of commercial television (not of television itself).

Here are a few videos about the early days for the medium which made the creation of the fictional universe known as Toobworld possible:

BCnU!

ON THIS DATE: GETTYSBURG

Two more years and America will be remembering, honoring, and paying their respects during the first three days of July - the 150th anniversary of the Battle at Gettysburg.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: TOM CRUISE

Today is Tom Cruise's 49th birthday.....

TOM CRUISE

AS SEEN IN:
'South Park'

AS PLAYED BY:
Trey Parker

From Wikipedia:
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards.

Cruise first debuted in a major movie in Francis Ford Coppola's film The Outsiders, released in March 1983. His first leading role was in the film Risky Business, which was released in August 1983. After playing the role of a heroic naval pilot in the popular and financially successful 1986 film Top Gun, Cruise continued in this vein, playing a secret agent in a series of Mission: Impossible action films in the 1990s and 2000s. In addition to these heroic roles, he has starred in a variety of other successful films such as Days of Thunder (1990), Jerry Maguire (1996), Magnolia (1999), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004) and War of the Worlds (2005).

Since 2005, Cruise and Paula Wagner have been in charge of the United Artists film studio, with Cruise as producer and star and Wagner as the chief executive. Cruise is also known for his support of and adherence to the Church of Scientology.

During Cruise's marriage to Nicole Kidman, the couple endured public speculation about their sex life and rumors that Cruise was gay. In 1998, he successfully sued the Daily Express, a British tabloid which alleged that his marriage to Kidman was a sham designed to cover up his homosexuality. In May 2001 he filed a lawsuit against gay porn actor Chad Slater. Slater had allegedly told the celebrity magazine Actustar that he had had an affair with Cruise. Both Slater and Cruise denied this, and in August 2001 Slater was ordered to pay $10 million to Cruise in damages after Slater declared he could not afford to defend himself against the suit and would therefore default. Cruise also sued Michael Davis, publisher of Bold Magazine, who alleged but never confirmed that he had video that would prove Cruise was gay. The suit was dropped in exchange for a public statement by Davis that the video was not of Cruise, and that Cruise was heterosexual.

BCnU!

A SIGH FOR HELP

I don't know what's going on......

All the icons for the 70 members of Team Toobworld no longer show up on my blog. And when I check the page elements in the design section of the blog's dashboard, all I get is a message saying that the page can't be displayed.

First my counter no longer appeared and its numbers remain frozen, and now this.

It's not like I tinkered with anything. I try to do as little as possible with the maintenance on the site. I post, and that's about it.....

Any suggestions?

Toby O'B

DRESS-UP DOCTOR WHO: FEZZES & MOPS

In the season finale for Matt Smith's first year playing the Doctor, he was sporting not only a Fez and he popped up in the distant past, but also a mop.

The Doctor made the look rock. After all, fezzes - and probably mops as well - are cool.

But he apparently already knew that, as he tried them both out back in his seventh incarnation......

BCnU!

WHICH CAME FIRST?

As our true blipvert for the weekend, here's the latest commercial from DirecTV, featuring the voices of John Goodman and Steve Buscemi......

BCnU!

GLASTONBURY

The Glastonbury music festival was held last weekend, and the big news out of it was that a friend of the Prime Minister was found dead in one of the port-O-potties. He may have committed suicide.

In the Tooniverse, this is what probably happened instead:

BCnU!

"MERCURY MEN"

I know little else about this new series than what has been shown in these two trailers. I don't even know when it will premiere.  But as a big fan of that retro sci-fi look, I'm in!  (Once I find it, that is.....)

They're even supplying a commercial within a commercial for the show:

BCnU!

ENTER FLASHMAN

We covered the life of Harry Flashman as it appeared - and should have appeared - in Toobworld this past week. Here's the chapter of 'Tom Brown's School Days' which featured the introduction of his character into Earth Prime-Time:

 BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: EVITA

Near the end of this month, the 59th anniversary of the death of Eva Peron will be marked in Argentina.......

EVA PERON

AS SEEN IN:

"Evita Peron: The True Story"

AS PLAYED BY:

Faye Dunaway

From Wikipedia:

María Eva Duarte de Perón (7 May 1919 – 26 July 1952) was the second wife of President Juan Perón (1895–1974) and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. She is often referred to as simply Eva Perón, or by the affectionate Spanish language diminutive Evita.

She was born out of wedlock in the village of Los Toldos in rural Argentina in 1919, the fourth of five children. In 1934, at the age of 15, she went to the nation's capital of Buenos Aires, where she pursued a career as a stage, radio, and film actress. Eva met Colonel Juan Perón on January 22, 1944, in Buenos Aires during a charity event at the Luna Park Stadium to benefit the victims of an earthquake in San Juan, Argentina. The two were married the following year. In 1946, Juan Perón was elected President of Argentina. Over the course of the next six years, Eva Perón became powerful within the pro-Peronist trade unions, primarily for speaking on behalf of labor rights. She also ran the Ministries of Labor and Health, founded and ran the charitable Eva Perón Foundation, championed women's suffrage in Argentina, and founded and ran the nation's first large-scale female political party, the Female Peronist Party.

In 1951, Eva Perón renounced the Peronist nomination for the office of Vice President of Argentina. In this bid, she received great support from the Peronist political base, low-income and working class Argentines who were referred to as descamisados or "shirtless ones". However, opposition from the nation's military and bourgeoisie, coupled with her declining health, ultimately forced her to withdraw her candidacy. In 1952 shortly before her death from cancer at the age of 33, Eva Perón was given the official title of "Spiritual Leader of the Nation" by the Argentine Congress. Eva Perón was given an official state funeral despite the fact that she was not an elected head of state.

Eva Perón has become a part of international popular culture, most famously as the subject of the musical Evita. Cristina Alvarez Rodriguez, Evita's great niece, claims that Evita has never left the collective consciousness of Argentines. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the first female elected President of Argentina, claims that women of her generation owe a debt to Eva for "her example of passion and combativeness".

The entire movie can be seen in 20 segments on YouTube, but unfortunately embedding it here has been disabled by request. Nevertheless, if you're so inclined to view it, you can begin by clicking here.

 
BCnU!

SHERLOCK HOLMES: PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes
On the left: his first appearance in "A Scandal in Bohemia"
On the right: in his last episode "The Cardboard Box"

The brilliance of Jeremy Brett's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, the official version of the role for Toobworld, could blind a viewer to the deterioration of his physical health as the various series progressed.

From Wikipedia, here's the story of what was happening outside the box:
After the death of Joan Wilson, Brett struggled with filming the third Granada series, 'The Return of Sherlock Holmes' in late 1985. On the set it was noticed that his manic episodes, his excessive changes of mood, were getting worse and eventually grief and workload became too much; he had a breakdown, was hospitalised and diagnosed manic-depressive.

Brett was given lithium tablets to fight his manic depression. He knew that he would never be cured; he had to live with his condition, look for the signs of his disorder and then deal with it. He wanted to go back to work, to play Holmes again. The first episode to be produced after his discharge was a two-hour adaptation of "The Sign of the Four". From then on the difference in Brett's appearance slowly became more noticeable as the series developed. One of the side effects of the lithium tablets was fluid retention. Brett began to look and act differently. The drugs were slowing him down; he was putting on weight and retaining water. Brett also had heart troubles. His heart was twice the normal size, he would have difficulties breathing and would need an oxygen mask on the set. "But, darlings, the show must go on", was his only comment.

During the last decade of his life, Brett was treated in hospital several times for his mental illness, and his health and appearance visibly deteriorated by the time he completed the later episodes of the Sherlock Holmes series. During his later years, he discussed the illness candidly, encouraging people to recognise its symptoms and seek help.

That certainly answers the questions about Jeremy Brett. But within the reality of Toobworld, what was happening to the state of Holmes' health?

My intent is not to make light of the situation; instead I wish to provide a splainin for the changes to Holmes' appearance by thinking inside the box. Hopefully this would also be in keeping with the "Canon", since he is the televisual embodiment of the original stories.

Although we didn't see it happen on screen, Holmes had begun conducting his experiments into the longevity benefits from the royal jelly of bees long before his retirement to Sussex.

Many Sherlockians believe he was ultimately successful and was able to extend his own life-span (to the point where some claim that Holmes is still alive today!) As with any scientific experiment, there would be many trials and errors during research. And heedless of his own physical well-being (which we know he was wont to do with the use of cocaine and morphine when bored), Holmes would have had no qualms about using himself as the test subject in his royal jelly experiments. He may have been convinced that his physical stamina (as demonstrated in "The Speckled Band") was enough to withstand any detrimental effects caused by his experimental serums.

But each new test caused physical alterations to his body - the bloating, the softening of his once finely honed features.....

Based on what we saw in those last episodes, Holmes never gave a splainin, and Dr. Watson was probably too polite to enquire. And then again, it may have happened in a scene were not privy to.

For Jeremy Brett, that physical deterioration was permanent and he died not long after completing his final story as Holmes. But for Sherlock himself, life continued after the series finale. Eventually he hit upon the right combination of the serum and probably returned to his old self again... with the guarantee of a longer life to boot.

BCnU......

AS SEEN ON TV: GEORGE SAND

Today we celebrate the 207th birthday of a "Notorious Woman" from France.....

GEORGE SAND

AS SEEN IN:
'Notorious Woman'

AS PLAYED BY:
Rosemary Harris

From Wikipedia:
Amantine (also "Amandine") Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness (French: baronne) Dudevant (Paris, 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pseudonym George Sand, was a French novelist and memoirist.

A liaison with the writer Jules Sandeau heralded her literary debut. They published a few stories in collaboration, signing them "Jules Sand." Her first published novel, "Rose et Blanche" (1831), was written in collaboration with Sandeau. She subsequently adopted, for her first independent novel, "Indiana" (1832), the pen name that made her famous – George Sand.

Drawing from her childhood experiences of the countryside, she wrote the rural novels "La Mare au Diable" (1846), "François le Champi" (1847–1848), "La Petite Fadette" (1849), and "Les Beaux Messieurs Bois-Doré" (1857). "A Winter in Majorca" described the period that she and Chopin spent on that island in 1838-9.

Her other novels include "Indiana" (1832), "Lélia" (1833), "Mauprat" (1837), "Le Compagnon du Tour de France" (1840), "Consuelo" (1842–1843), and "Le Meunier d'Angibault" (1845).

Further theatre pieces and autobiographical pieces include "Histoire de ma vie" (1855), "Elle et Lui" (1859) (about her affair with Musset), "Journal Intime" (posthumously published in 1926), and "Correspondence". Sand often performed her theatrical works in her small private theatre at the Nohant estate.

Sand's reputation came into question when she began sporting men's clothing in public — which she justified by the clothes being far sturdier and less expensive than the typical dress of a noblewoman at the time. In addition to being comfortable, Sand's male dress enabled her to circulate more freely in Paris than most of her female contemporaries, and gave her increased access to venues from which women were often barred — even women of her social standing.

Also scandalous was Sand's smoking tobacco in public; neither peerage nor gentry had yet sanctioned the free indulgence of women in such a habit, especially in public (though Franz Liszt's paramour Marie d'Agoult affected this as well, smoking large cigars). These and other behaviors were exceptional for a woman of the early and mid-19th century, when social codes—especially in the upper classes—were of the utmost importance.

As a consequence of many unorthodox aspects of her lifestyle, Sand was obliged to relinquish some of the privileges appertaining to a baroness — though, interestingly, the mores of the period did permit upper-class wives to live physically separated from their husbands, without losing face, provided the estranged couple exhibited no blatant irregularity to the outside world.

Toobworld Note: When RTD was in charge of 'Doctor Who', the 9th and 10th incarnations of the Doctor met several writers from Great Britain - Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Dame Agatha Christie.  So far, the 11th incarnation of the Doctor has crossed the Channel and entered the life of French artiste supreme Vincent Van Gogh.

Maybe he should revisit France and this time get caught up in some kind of adventure with George Sand.  She certainly is quite radical for her times and would have no problem in keeping up with the strange things that occur with the Doctor.......

Here's a suggestion....  He should give her the suit worn by the 8th incarnation of the Doctor as a parting gift......

BCnU!