Diana Gabaldon was inspired to write her “Outlander” series of books because of her fascination with Frazier Hines’ portrayal of kilt-wearing Jamie McCrimmon in ‘Doctor Who’ during the tenure of Patrick Troughton as the Second Incarnation of the Doctor. When the TV series adaptation began production on the first season, they were able to get Hines involved, playing the warden of Wentworth Prison.
I haven’t read the books (yet*), but I’m wondering if she slipped any more allusions to the Time Lord into the eight novels (with one on the way) and several novellas since then. I know she’s added fictional characters from other sources in before – the eighth novel, “Written In My Own Heart’s Blood”, had a cameo appearance by the first American action hero, Natty Bumppo, from James Fenimore Cooper’s five-volume “Leatherstocking Tales”. But of course that was safe from any copyright infringement charges. ‘Doctor Who’ would be a different story.
I would think it would be hard to resist including the Doctor. After all, both works deal in time travel. And eventually the TARDIS would realize that the Doctor would be needed to put right what once went wrong; or at the very least, to deactivate the temporal gateway powers of the Cairn Duin stones. (There’s a suggestion on how to end the series of books. “Outlander” began with ‘Doctor Who’; maybe Ms. Gabaldon could find a way to end it with the Time Lord as well.)
As far as Toobworld Central is concerned, we do now have a theoretical link to ‘Doctor Who’ which can be found in the second season of the TV adaptation. We have to play a bit with the splainins for the fact that the character was a recastaway.
I’m speaking of King Louis XV of France, who has been a character in both ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Outlander’.
There will be spoilers ahead. And with the ‘Outlander’ passage, it might not be suitable for the younger members of Team Toobworld.
Even though we saw King Louis on ‘Doctor Who’ first, we’ll begin with ‘Outlander’ because of the placement for his appearances on the Toobworld Timeline.
From the ‘Outlander’ wiki:
After Jamie is arrested for dueling Jack Randall, Claire has an audience with Louis and begs him to free Jamie. She learns that he remains imprisoned because the Duke of Sandringham demands it as he wishes to keep Jamie away from Charles Stuart. Claire reveals to Louis that Jamie is not a Jacobite and Louis agrees to release Jamie on the condition that he leaves France. Louis will make sure that the charges against Jamie are dropped so that he can return.
Once these negotiations are over Louis asks Claire for a small service in return. Thinking that she is going to have to sleep with him, Claire follows Louis through a door but it does not lead to a bedroom. Louis takes Claire into a darkened round room, lit only by tiny oil-lamps. In the center of the room is a huge round table and the people sitting around it are all hooded. Standing in the room are the Comte St. Germain and Master Raymond, both of whom have been accused of sorcery.
Louis instructs Claire to listen to their testimony then use her powers as La Dame Blanche which enable her to see the soul of a man, to determine who is telling the truth. When Claire declares that the Comte is associated with a group called Les Disciples du Mal, the Comte retaliates by accusing Claire of being the servant of Satan in league with Master Raymond. The Comte produces a snake from his shirt and quotes a passage from the Bible that says that servants of the true God can handle snakes without being harmed. Master Raymond then speaks up and provides the rest of the quote which is that servants of the true God will not die if they drink deadly poison. As Claire, the Comte and Raymond now all stand accused of sorcery, Raymond suggests that they all drink some poison to prove their innocence. He produces a flask of 'Dragon's blood' and pours out three cups. Both he and Claire drink it without effect, but the Comte falls down writhing and then subsides into limpness.
Louis takes Claire back through the door and leads her to the chaise and lifts her skirts. He oils her with rose oil and then penetrates her with a few thrusts before leaving to go to his mistress to finish off.
And now, from the TARDIS Data Core wiki:
When the Tenth Doctor arrived in France in 1764, it was in time to see Reinette's hearse leaving Versailles for her grave. The King gave the Doctor a letter from his mistress. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace)
So King Louis XV makes his presence known in Earth Prime-Time first from 1744 to 1745 in ‘Outlander’, and then twice in ‘Doctor Who’: 1758 and 1764. In total, that’s a span of twenty years.
That time differential helps with the inner splainin as to why he looks different in both series. (Outside the box of course the reason is that two different actors played the role.) Toobworld Central gives a pass to the effects of aging on a TV character to help splain away such recastaways. Louis was a callow young man when we first met him, fair in feature due to his pampered lifestyle. But after surviving the attack of the clockworks thirteen years later, and grieving the death of Madame du Pompadour six years after that, the King has begun to show the wear on his countenance.
For now, that’s the kind of crossover we can best expect between both series. We might get more of those in the coming seasons of ‘Outlander’, or at least references to historical figures in both series which not only link the two shows but spare us the need to do any splainin.
Allonsy!
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