Sunday, January 1, 2012

AS SEEN ON TV: LEMUEL GULLIVER

For the year 2012, all of the showcased characters in the "As Seen On TV" feature will be based not on historical characters, but on characters from literature. And to kick off this variant on the long-running Inner Toob segment, we have a character who appeared in a 'Doctor Who' story, befitting the theme of the day.....


LEMUEL GULLIVER

AS SEEN IN:
'Doctor Who'
("The Mind Robber")

AS PLAYED BY:
Bernard Horsfall

TV DIMENSION:
The Land Of Fiction

STATUS:
Recastaway

SOURCE MATERIAL:
"Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships", better known simply as "Gulliver's Travels" (1726, amended 1735)

WRITTEN BY:
Jonathan Swift (also known as Dean Swift)
From the source material:
The author of these Travels, Mr. Lemuel Gulliver, is my ancient and
intimate friend; there is likewise some relation between us on the
mother’s side. About three years ago, Mr. Gulliver growing weary of the
concourse of curious people coming to him at his house in Redriff, made a
small purchase of land, with a convenient house, near Newark, in
Nottinghamshire, his native country; where he now lives retired, yet in
good esteem among his neighbours.

Although Mr. Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire, where his father
dwelt, yet I have heard him say his family came from Oxfordshire; to
confirm which, I have observed in the churchyard at Banbury in that
county, several tombs and monuments of the Gullivers.

Lemuel Gulliver did exist in Toobworld, as played by Ted Danson in a mini-series based on Swift's book.

BCnU!

1 comment:

Hugh said...

Bernard Horsfall also played a Time Lord in one of the original series' visits to Gallifrey. Perhaps the Master of the Land of Fiction deliberately depicted Gulliver to look like a figure the Doctor knew from his own past...