Thursday, August 31, 2017

TELE-FOLKS DIRECTORY - PRINCESS DIANA



Wonder Woman:
I had more or less the same problem with Napoleon Bonaparte.

Marion Mariposa:
His dream was to conquer the world.  Mine is a little bit more realistic.

Wonder Woman:
You call this realistic? 
I'm beginning to lose my temper with you, Mr. Mariposa.
And it's something I haven't done in 500 or 600 years.

Marion Mariposa:
Then I would recommend a little self-control.

'WONDER WOMAN'
"SCREAMING JAVELIN"

Staying young and beautiful, basically looking the same from WWII* to the 1970s was a walk in the park for Wonder Woman.  She had been around since at least the 14th Century!

I imagine when she mentions that she lost her temper 600 years ago, she was probably just a child at the time.  So she was probably having a temper tantrum at the Paradise Island Day Care....

But once she was a young lady among the Amazons on Themiscyra, we can assume that she was involved in many exploits as a [Toob]world savior (superhero not being a term in existence until the arrival of Superman.)

She gives just one example in that quote above - she met Napoleon.  Diana may have had a hand in his capture and exile to Elba.

This seems like fertile territory for TV fanficcers.  (I'm sure those who dabble in the invented universe of comic books might find it of interest as well.)  Think of all the TV characters she may have met (and sometimes fought) down through the centuries: 
  • Rory, The Waiting Centurion ('Doctor Who')
  • Sir Thomas Grey ('Covington Cross')
  • Endora ('Bewitched')
  • Eric Northman ('True Blood')
  • Exigius 12½ ('My Favorite Martian') - perhaps during his visit with Da Vinci?
  • 'Nicolas Le Floch' and 'The Three Musketeers'
  • Angelus ('Buffy The Vampire Slayer' & 'Angel')
  • 'Bret Maverick'
  • Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry ('Alias Smith And Jones')
  • Dr. Miguelito Loveless ('The Wild, Wild West')
  • 'Sherlock Holmes' and Dr. Watson
  • Detective William Murdoch ('The Murdoch Mysteries')
  • Quentin Everett Deverill ('Q.E.D.')
  • Superman ('The Adventures Of Superman')
  • Trent aka "The Demon With A Glass Hand" ('The Outer Limits')
  • 'Batman'
  • John Drake aka Number Six ('Danger Man' & 'The Prisoner')
  • Admiral Harriman Nelson on board the Seaview ('Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea')
  • Markaris (anglicized as "Mark Harris"), 'The Man From Atlantis'
  • Bennu ('The Phoenix')
  • Buffy Somers aka 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer'
  • Jim Rockford of 'The Rockford Files'.  (Now that might seem mundane compared to the others, but here's how I see it beginning: While flying her invisible plane near the island of Mariposalia, that country's dictator, Marion Mariposa, is able to shoot it down.  Wonder Woman manages to hang in there long enough to crash into the ocean just off the beach at Malibu, where Jim Rockford finds her unconscious in the surf while doing some night-fishing.......)

And running throughout her personal timeline could be visiting Time Lords from the planet Gallifrey like:
  • The Doctor (Any one or more of his regenerated incarnations would work.)
  • The Master
  • The Rani
  • Professor Chronotis (All from 'Doctor Who')
Oh! The places she'd go!
  • The Village ('The Prisoner')
  • Eternia ('Secret Empire' & 'One Life To Live')
  • The Plateau ('The Lost World')
  • The Fortress of Solitude ('The Adventures Of Superman' - assumed.)
  • The Island ('Lost') - I can picture her on The Island (in one of its previous locations -back in the 1600s, exploring the mysterious relationship between Jacob and the Smoke Monster....
  • 'Downton Abbey'
  • 221-B Baker Street ('Sherlock Holmes')
  • Warehouses 8 through 13 ('Warehouse 13')
  • Perhaps through 'The Time Tunnel'
And along with Dr. Loveless, Princess Diana could have battled against other foes through Time:
  • Spike ('Buffy The Vampire Slayer')
  • The Cybermen ('Doctor Who') during "The Invasion"
  • The Black Oil even? ('The X-Files')
Princess Diana would not have assumed the identity of Wonder Woman until World War Two, and that would include her super-hero finery.  So if we find a young Lynda Carter in some other TV role set in the past, maybe a fanficcer could run with that, claiming that her character was really Princess Diana in disguise.....

It's unlikely we will ever see Wonder Woman in Earth Prime-Time ever again - at least as played by Lynda Carter.  Any other actress in the role would automatically place that appearance in an alternate TV dimension.  (The Arrowverse might find room for her.)  Since Princess Diana is basically immortal, she would still look as she did in the 1940s and the 1970s.  But Time has marched on for Lynda Carter - still beautiful, but definitely older.


However, if certain trappings of the old series were not revived for a remake set in "the present" (whenever that might be) - specifically, the recasting of Steve Trevor - then I would have no problem accepting a recastaway of Princess Diana/Diana Prince/Wonder Woman as being the same character seen in the earlier show.




By this point in History, both Toobworld and the real world, our identities are too deeply locked in - with social security numbers, NSA files, the saturation of surveillance cameras everywhere.  Wonder Woman would have realized that she could no longer get away with passing herself off as some relative of the super-heroine seen during WWII and the post-Watergate era.

And so back on Paradise Island, she would have had to resort to plastic surgery, maybe even magic, in order to change her appearance.  Why would it matter so many decades after the fact?  Because at least from the 1970s, there may have been people in her life as Diana Prince who could still be at risk from enemies of Wonder Woman.  And that would be cause enough to change her appearance......

All of these musings on this particular Amazon were inspired by my cousin Coco, who celebrates her (mumphle mumphle) birthday today.  She's a great fan of Wonder Woman in all of her glory, which explains the topic in this last day of the month meant to celebrate the TV Western.

Happy birthday, Coco!


O'BSERVATION:
I'm sorry if you checked this out, thinking it was my salute to Princess Diana on the 20th anniversary of her death.  The timing just worked out that way.  But I will be setting up her photo album on my TVXOHOF page at Facebook soon.  She was inducted into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame in 2016.

* I would not be surprised if Diana had adventures in World War I similar to those seen in the movie blockbuster of this past summer.  But that's the Wonder Woman of the Cineverse and has nothing to do with Earth Prime-Time.

BCnU!



2 comments:

  1. In the first episode of the 2nd season, Diana tells Steve (Jr) that on her next birthday (so 1978?), she will be 2,527 years old, so that opens up loads of potential crossovers!

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