Tuesday, January 1, 2019

WISH-CRAFT: A HARD DAY'S TARDIS




A website called "Minion Factory" has put together a fun page detailing a 'Doctor Who' "episode featuring the Beatles in a movie called "A Hard Day's TARDIS".

The great thing about writing fanfic that centers on a character who can travel through Time and Space is that no one need feel restricted if somebody else already used a specific idea.  Different incarnations of the Doctor can visit the same event but from a different perspective.  (I don't think that crossing one's own timeline was ever really a hard and fast rule.)

It's especially true with the Doctor making contact in some way with historical figures.  The whole timeline of a person's existence is available for visitations by all thirteen incarnations of the Doctor.

The TARDIS Data Core wikia has a list of all the Doctor's connections to the Beatles, including from the comics, novels, and audio-dramas.  But I've compiled only the ones from Toobworld, which is my purview as one of its Curators.  (See what I did there?)

By 13 July 1964, the Beatles had sold out the first leg of their United Kingdom tour. (TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?)

In 1965, the Beatles performed "Ticket to Ride" at Riverside Studios. The First Doctor, Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton and Vicki Pallister observed the performance on the Time-Space Visualiser. (TV: The Chase)

At some point during the concert, time distortion from the Rift Manipulator transported the Beatles to the roof of the same building in early 2008. They were sent back after Torchwood opened up the Cardiff Rift. (TV: End of Days)

By the 25th century, a museum dedicated to them existed in their home town of Liverpool. Vicki Pallister knew of them but had not realised that they played what she referred to as classical music. (TV: The Chase)

By the 42nd century, they were considered classical music and appeared in a list of questions in the SS Pentallian's security lock, although Riley Vashtee implied the questions automatically changed due to the presence of Martha Jones and the Tenth Doctor on the ship. (TV: 42)

Further in the future, the DJ on Necros had posters of several of the Beatles in his recording studio. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks)

"Paperback Writer" and "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" played in the background of cafés visited by the Doctor, (TV: The Evil of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks) as did The Beatles' recording of A Taste of Honey. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)

The Seventh Doctor referenced a song by the group, saying "It's been a hard day's night", at a dinner party in Gabriel Chase. (TV: Ghost Light)

Jo quoted "I Am the Walrus", after the Third Doctor said, "I am he and he is me," she replied, "and we are all together, goo-goo-goo-joob?" She explained it was a song by The Beatles, to which the Second Doctor asked how it went, intending to play it on his recorder. (TV: The Three Doctors)

The Tenth Doctor told Martha Jones he was a bit busy to remember who had more number one singles, then muttered, "Here Comes the Sun", before returning to the problem at hand – which happened to be that they were falling into a star. The Beatles were a part of the quiz to get the ship working again, made by the crew. (TV: 42)

The Beatles were to have filmed an in-studio cameo for "The Chase" in which they played elderly versions of themselves, circa 1996, playing at the Festival of Ghana. Their manager, Brian Epstein, however, forbade this. Had this happened, it would have created an anachronism, given the early death of John Lennon.

Ironically, given the loss of many Doctor Who episodes due to the BBC's policy of erasing old episodes, the clip of a live performance of the Beatles singing "Ticket to Ride" only survives because of its use in the first episode of "The Chase". It originated in a 1965 Top of the Pops episode which no longer exists in the BBC Archives. Because the production team for the story sourced the clips from this episode, this makes this the only known surviving footage of that performance known to exist.


At some point in today's blogathon, I'll revisit the idea of Doctor Who and the Beatles, tossing in a bit of another time-travel series, 'Primeval' in for good measure.

BCnU!





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