TVXOHOF: JULY, 2025 - MATT SYKES

 
With this July entry into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame (which usually showcases detectives), we’re honoring the memory of Gary Graham, who passed away over a year ago.

January 22, 2024
Gary Graham, who starred as the human detective who partners with an extraterrestrial newcomer to solve crimes on the Fox sci-fi television franchise ‘Alien Nation’, has died. He was 73.

Graham died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Spokane, Washington, his wife of nearly 25 years, Becky Graham, told The Hollywood Reporter.

In the ‘Star Trek’ universe, Graham played the Ocampan community leader Tanis on ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ in 1995; recurred as Ambassador Soval, a Vulcan ambassador to Earth, on ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’, from 2001-05; and portrayed the first officer Ragnar in ‘Star Trek: Of Gods and Men’ (2007) and ‘Star Trek: Renegades’ from 2015-17.

Graham starred as the L.A. detective Matthew Sikes alongside Eric Pierpoint as George Francisco, an “immigrant” and newcomer from another planet, on ‘Alien Nation’, which aired for a season (1989-90) on Fox.

The pair then returned for the telefilms “Alien Nation: Dark Horizon” (1994), “Alien Nation: Body and Soul” (1995), “Alien Nation: Millennium” (1996), “Alien Nation: The Enemy Within” (1996) and “Alien Nation: The Udara Legacy” (1997).

The series was an offshoot of a 1988 “Alien Nation” movie that starred James Caan as Matthew and Mandy Patinkin as the newcomer.
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

MATT SYKES

From Wikipedia:
Detective Matthew Sikes is a Los Angeles police officer reluctantly working with "Newcomer" alien Sam "George" Francisco. Sikes also has an on again-off again flirtation with a female Newcomer, Cathy Frankel.

[O’Bservation – Using his full name was not a concern when dealing with George and other Tenctonese.  But when his given name of “Matthew” was shortened to “Matt”, it proved to be a source of amusement to the Tenctonese.  In their language, “Sykes’ translated to “cranium”, while “Matt” meant “fecal matter”.]

From the ‘Alien Nation’ wiki:
Matthew Sikes is a human police officer and partner of George Francisco. He is divorced and has a daughter.

Both he and George are close friends, even if he sometimes acts quite bemused about Tenctonese customs.

When Matthew and George met for the first time, he refused to be the Partner of a "Slag", since his former partner, Sgt. William Tuggles, was killed during a gunfight with a Tenctonese criminal. Later however, after he worked a while with George, he came to the conclusion that he was wrong about his prejudice towards Tenctonese and the two became very close friends.

He has an on-off relationship with Dr. Cathy Frankel, a newcomer bio-chemist which remains sketchy during the TV series. During the TV movies, their relationship blossoms and ends up with them taking 'sex' classes.

ALIEN NATION
TV Movie

A bigoted human policeman in the L.A. of the future and his alien partner learn to live with each other's differences while attempting to solve a drug conspiracy hidden in the subculture of Los Angeles' newest immigrant population: extraterrestrials.
Five years after their spaceship crashed on Earth, the Tenctonese "Newcomers" deal with prejudice and discrimination as they try to adjust to life in Los Angeles. Detective Matt Sikes and his Newcomer partner, George Francisco, investigate a series of odd occurrences, including the death of Sikes's former partner. Meanwhile, the Francisco family tries to deal with being the first Tenctonese in a formerly all-human neighborhood.

O’Bservation:
The “Future” is now in the Past in the Toobworld timeline.

ALIEN NATION
22 episodes

In the near future, a human cop and his alien partner fight crime and discrimination in Los Angeles.
A flying saucer crashed in the Mojave Desert and its inhabitants turned out to be alien slaves, bred to be super intelligent and strong, and controllable by their Overseers. These Tenctonese, or "Newcomers", have been assimilated (sort of) into the population of Los Angeles. One of them, George Francisco, is a police detective with a human partner, Matthew Sikes. George and Matt fight crime together, while learning to respect the other's culture, and question his own. They also fight prejudice, as personified by the Purists, and fear, in the form of the unseen Overseers, who seek to regain control over their slaves.

ALIEN NATION: DARK HORIZON
TV Movie

An Overseer named Ahpossno comes to Earth to take the slaves, and all humans, back to the mothership.

Follow-up movie to the TV series about 250,000 aliens, or "Newcomers" as they are known, who have settled alongside the humans in California. Most of the Newcomers were slaves, and the Overseers are now looking for them. They send Ahpossno to earth to locate the slaves to take them back to the ship.

Picking up where the "season finale" left off, Emily and Susan are on life support after being contaminated with a virus, which is found to be from a Purist group. The Purists have created a mass of it to spray over LA to kill all Newcomers. At the same time, an elite Overseer arrives to organize the return of the Tenctonese to slavery, and decides to take the human population as well.

ALIEN NATION: BODY AND SOUL
TV Movie
Sikes and Francisco are called in to a case when a mysterious young girl, who looks part Newcomer, part human, appears. Her huge, brutish counterpart tries to free her from the precinct, and their bizarre relationship turns out to be the result of a slaveship medical experiment. Meanwhile, Cathy and Matt are going to sex school, in preparation of becoming intimate, while Buck distresses his parents by his anti-human opinions.

ALIEN NATION: MILLENNIUM
TV Movie
It's December 1999 and as the end of the millennium approaches, people are attempting to find spiritual enlightenment. However, a few people want to skip all the work that entails. A holy Tenctonese relic in the hands of a heretic is giving them a shortcut but it's not quite as easily controlled as she says.

ALIEN NATION: THE ENEMY WITHIN
TV Movie
When Detectives Sikes and Francisco are presented with the mysterious death of an Eeno, Matt is stupefied to discover that George had rudely snubbed the case. He, like most Newcomers, reviles the outcast Eenos. As the case unfolds, George has to reassess his prejudices, and George's family help save the city from an alien threat originating in an Eeno waste disposal facility.

ALIEN NATION: THE UDARA LEGACY
TV Movie

Matt and George investigate a series of strange occurrences involving Newcomers, who are found to be programmed to carry out someone's dirty work. The method by which they are brainwashed dates back to the slave ship's resistance movement, the Udara, of which Susan was a part. Susan and George's lives are further disrupted when Buck enrolls in the police academy.

Eventually, George Francisco and his family will be inducted into the Hall as well.  And good news for Matt Sykes – Dr. Cathy Frankel will be joining as well.

It has always been Toobworld Central policy that TV movies are independent of TV series, even if they serve as the pilot or as reunion shows.  This makes it easier for a character to be inducted.  (This wasn’t made up for Graham’s benefit.  It was used for Lt. Columbo as well.)

SPLAININ TO DO:
It’s now been a quarter century since the Tenctonese have been seen in Toobworld.  A few of them might still remain here, but as for the others?

I believe they have left Earth.  I think the Gallifreyan Time Lord known as “The Doctor” took them to another planet, an uninhabited world which they could make their own.  (With the TARDIS being bigger on the inside, I would think the Old Girl could easily have taken them all in one trip.

Remembering Gary Graham as we welcome Detective Matt Sykes into the Hall.  

"Good night and may God bless."


 

CLOTHES MAKE THE TIME LORD

THE LIEUTENANT AND THE DOCTOR

[A CONTINUING SERIES?]

I have written about this photoshopped picture in the Past; that it was a great jumping-off point for a fanfic crossover between ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Columbo’.

But now that picture might have a sequel….

In the previous blog post, I expounded on a possible fanfic story in which Dorothy McShane (AKA Ace) teamed up with the Curator, a future incarnation of the Doctor who had “retired” in order to tend to his duties in the Under Gallery.  (The position of the Under Gallery’s Curator had been an appointment by his wife, Queen Elizabeth I of England.)

Normally I don’t come up with the fanfic myself; I just make suggestions.  But based on a picture in that last post, it would appear that the Doctor somehow came into possession of Columbo’s shabby raincoat.  Either that, or he was so enamored of the look that he had one made in the replicator on board the TARDIS.

It probably wasn’t the first time that the Doctor filched clothing from Toobworld characters found in other TV series.  

Apparently he raided the wardrobe of the arch-criminal known as The Riddler in Gotham City…..

FANFICCER'S FRIEND - "ACE & THE CURATOR"

I consider publicity pictures and promotional photos to be valid sources of inspiration for fan fiction and can be used to illustrate the stories which they inspired.

Screencaps, on the other hand, wouldn’t be acceptable on Toobworld terms.  Those are moments which have already happened in the Toobworld timeline, frozen in Time.

This is the screencap which I always use as an example of why they should never be used to represent other characters.  Seen here are Peter Falk as Lt. Columbo and Gene Barry as Dr. Flemming in the first pilot movie for the TV series, “Prescription: Murder”.

That is all that it could be.  It can’t be re-used as an example of Daniel J. O’Brien (‘Trials of O’Brien’) with Captain Amos Burke (‘Burke’s Law’); we can’t even claim that it could be Lt. Columbo with his boss, Captain Burke, when they met to talk about a case at the LAPD’s Homicide Division.

So with that in mind, I present to you this publicity photo from 1990 which shows Tom Baker and Sophie Aldred on a museum exhibit celebrating ‘Doctor Who’.

Their characters – the Fourth Incarnation of the Doctor and Dorothy “Ace” McShane, respectively – never met in the course of the series.  In fact, she didn’t enter the Doctor’s life until several regenerations later.  (Ace was the last Companion to the Doctor – in his Seventh Incarnation – during the original run of the series.)  

The main O’Bstacle would be that the Fourth Incarnation should be time-locked to look as he did when he was on the show from 1974-1981.  As he appeared here from nine years later, Tom Baker looks more like the character he played in an episode of ‘Miss Marple’.

But!  This photo could be the inspiration for a fanfic adventure for the Curator teaming up with Ace, one year after we last saw her in Toobworld (“Survival”), and 23 years before we officially met the Curator at the end of the 50th anniversary special “The Day of the Doctor''.

What that adventure could be is not for my conjectures.  The point of the Fanficcer's Friend feature during the "Who's On First?" blogAthon is to provide my readers (hopefully, there are a few) with inspiration to create those adventures themselves.

I will point out as a suggestion that the Curator's TARDIS chose as "her" holographic decor the console as it was best remembered from the series original run.  Might be good for an O'Bservation by Ace?

I just ask that if you do come up with a story based on this photo, you might send me a copy to read.  (I always ask with each "Fanficcer's Friend", no matter the show, but so far I have yet to see any returns....)

It’s sort of comforting to see that some future incarnation of the Doctor took on the task of being the curator for the Under-Gallery at a younger age than we first met him, before he supposedly gave up gallivanting across the galaxies.  (At least, that’s according to sources outside the Toobworld canon, which is anything telecast in any of the TV dimensions.)

A 2025 TOOBITS AWARD WINNER (AND POSSIBLE FANFICCER'S FRIEND)

One of the Toobits Awards categories which I pass out every year is for Best New Child Character.  And this year, it goes to Lenny Rush, who played UNIT science advisor Morris Gibbons in several episodes of ‘Doctor Who’ in the first season of the 15th Incarnation’s tenure.  (Apparently, a passing asteroid somehow bathed him in cosmic rays which significantly amplified his intelligence.)

I expect we’ll see him again when the show returns later in 2025.

But....

Maybe he won't be coming back.  Or perhaps the show will not be delving too deeply into his background.  All we have is his word for that asteroid being the "splainin to do" as to why he is now hyper-intelligent.  Of course, he gave that splainin in front of several UNIT witnesses; they could have spoken up and called horse hockey-pucks on that story if he was lying.

But were they eye-witnesses to the transformation?  Was anybody there?

Keeping this Toobworld-centric, what if there is no such person as Morris Gibbons?  What if this small-fry scientist is someone who is descended from a combination of human genetics with those of humanoids from Sahndara and the Time Lords of Gallifrey.

I'm talking about Dr. Miguelito Loveless from 'The Wild, Wild West'.

In his double hands-full of episodes, Loveless always looked like he died at the end (if he didn't escape somehow.)  But because he had Time Lord DNA, he apparently regenerated.  However since he always came back looking the same, that was due to his blend of human and Sahndaran DNA.  (The main contribution of his Sahndaran genetics is that he looked like a refugee from that doomed planet named Alexander.)

As I said, this all depends on what more we learn about Morris.  But I like the idea that he was able to alter his appearance, perhaps with something mundane like plastic surgery.  Or maybe some magical elixir or glamour spell from some other TV series.

As for working on the side of "goodness and niceness", maybe he's just biding his time.  Maybe... he's playing a... Long Game.

A COUPLE OF CROSSOVERS

KAMEKONA TUPUOLA - A MONDAY MEMORIAL TVXOHOF TRIBUTE

 

From KTLA:

Actor Taylor Wily, best known for his role as Kamekona Tupuola on “Hawaii Five-0,” has passed away. He was 56 years old.

Lana Girl Langi, a Hawaiian personality and musician, announced his death on the local lifestyle show ‘’Island Life Live’ on June 20.

He’s appeared in Jason Segel’s film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and the modern reboots of “Hawaii Five-0,” “Magnum P.I.” and “MacGyver.”

As something of a confidential informant, Kamekona Tupuola proved useful to the Five-0 squad, Angus MacGyver, and Thomas Magnum.  And he was always around if you craved some flavored shaved ice, various shrimp dishes, or a sight-seeing tour in a helicopter.

Of course, it was his interactions with those other characters on their TV shows which get him into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame as one of the representatives for the Toobworld of TV Show Remakes – Toobworld-Toobworld or Toobworld2….

KAMEKONA TUPUOLA

From the 'Hawaii Five-0" Wiki:
Kamekona Tupuola is a confidential informant for the Hawaii Five-0 team and entrepreneur who runs Wailoa Shave Ice, The Shrimp Truck and a Hawaiian tour helicopter company.

And there’s more information from another wiki….

From Five-0 Pedia:

Kamekona is an ex-criminal informant who has ties to the underworld of Hawai'i. He is first introduced in “Pilot” when Chin Ho joins the Five-0 task force; Kamekona aids them in their search for Victor Hesse. Kamekona owns his own shave ice business named, Waiola Ice.

Kamekona frequently helps Five-0 in certain cases due to his former years in that type of work.

After the “Pilot”, he later appears in other episodes.  Among them:

• “Lankila” to which Steve McGarrett has tasked Kamekona to "babysit" his little sister, later on though Steve's sister, Mary Anne manipulates Kamekona into letting her go, he tells Steve she used a "Jedi mind trick".
• He appears briefly in “Ho'apono” when Kono is out with Lily asking her questions about the incident in that episode.
• In “Mana'o” it appears that he now has moved his franchise to be a mobile one instead the original one, declaring it "old school."
• He appears again in “Heihei” watching McGarrett repairing his house from the events of the previous “Po'ipu”.
• In “Hana 'a'a Makehewa”, he brings Danny an oversized Santa suit which Danno wears annually as a tradition for his daughter.

Here are the shows which qualified Kamekona for membership in the Hall.  (All summaries are from the IMDb unless otherwise stated.)

HAWAII FIVE-0

171 Episodes (2010–2020)

Again, from the ‘Hawaii Five-0 Wiki’:

In the “Pilot” episode, Lieutenant Chin Ho Kelly recruited Kamekona for information into the death of Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett's father, John McGarrett.  (In exchange for information, Kamekona charged money for a 'Wailoa Shave Ice' t-shirt.)

In many episodes, he is seen bringing food to the Five-0 team or assisting them in their investigations and is considered a close friend.

MacGYVER

FLASHLIGHT (2017)

In their trivia section for this episode, the IMDb posted this:

By crossing over with 'Hawaii Five-0', 'MacGyver' is now firmly placed in the same TV Universe as 'JAG', all three 'NCIS' series, and 'Scorpion'.

O’Bservation:

This is only partially true.  ‘MacGyver’ is in the same TV DIMENSION as the other two remakes - ‘Hawaii Five-0’ and ‘Magnum P.I.’.  Technically, they are in the same TV dimension as an alternate version of ‘NCIS: LA,’ which was only seen in that one episode of ‘Hawaii Five-0’.  All of the other ‘NCIS’ shows, plus their mothership of ‘JAG’ and ‘Scorpion’ as well, all exist in the main Toobworld, Earth Prime-Time.

As for the other half of the crossover....

HAWAII FIVE-0
PUKA 'ANA (2017)

The events of the ‘MacGyver’ cross-over episode are talked about.

MAGNUM P.I.

7 Episodes (2018-2020)

(The pictures all come from the same episode - "A World Of Trouble".)

1] FROM THE HEAD DOWN (2018)

A] Taylor Wily plays his character Kamekona from the remake of ‘Hawaii 5-0’. One scene is filmed at the restaurant that Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams were planning to open. This crossover from ‘Hawaii 5-0 follows’ on from the appearance of Kimee Balmilero (Dr. Noelani Cunha) in the first episode of the remake of ‘Magnum P.I.’

B] In the early restaurant scene, Kamekona (Taylor Wily) jokingly calls Magnum "Rockford", in reference to James Garner's character in ‘The Rockford Files’ (1974).

O’Bservation:
This not a Zonk, not a “Darrin Discrepancy”.  There has never been a remake of ‘The Rockford Files’, and the Good jakLord willing, there never will be one.  In Toobworld-Toobworld, ‘The Rockford Files’ is just a fictional TV series.  We have no clue if it even resembled the TV series from our world.  For alls I know, "Jim Rockford" was "just this guy, you know?" 

Had this been a reference from a TV series set in Earth Prime-Time, as was the case with Big Pussy’s mention of it in an early episode of ‘The Sopranos’, than he would have either been referring to the actual detective (who did work on some publicity-generating cases), or a TV show made about his life, as often happens to people in the main Toobworld.

2] DAY OF THE VIPER (2019)

3] LIE, CHEAT, STEAL, KILL (2019)
Three "Hawaii Five-O" characters - Noelani, Kamekona and Flippa - make crossover appearances in this episode.
Kamekona's line to TC about coming to him with a favor some time, and TC not saying no, is taken from “The Godfather” (1972).

4] DESPERATE MEASURES (2020)

5] MONDAYS ARE FOR MURDER (2020)

6] A GAME OF CAT AND MOUSE (2020)

7) A WORLD OF TROUBLE (2020)

But wait!  There’s more!

With those three series, Kamekona easily qualifies for membership in the TVXOHOF as a citizen of Toobworld2.  But what if I told you that he appeared even earlier in that particular TV dimension?

NORTH SHORE

TIES THAT BIND (2004)

O’Bservation:

Wiley’s character was unnamed, but his occupation was as a "Bartender" at the Sugar Bar & Grill.  He was O’Bviously deep into his mob connections, as evidenced by the way he threatened Jason and Frankie who were hoping to get some info.  

Frankie relieved him of his baseball bat and might have done some serious damage.  But luckily for Kamekona, Jason spotted the low-life they were seeking and they gave chase.

That was the last we saw of the bartender, but if we accept now that he was Kamekona, then this turn of events was probably his “Road to Damascus” moment.  Over the next six years, before we would see him again in the pilot episode of ‘Hawaii Five-0’ in 2010, he must have worked to better himself spiritually and probably found inner peace in shaved ice.

Welcome to the TV Crossover Hall, Kamekona.  I’m sorry Taylor Wiley has joined the Choir Invisible, but there’s nothing to prevent us from claiming that you still live on in Earth Prime-Time Redux.  In fact, I won’t be around someday to say so, but you could still be going strong by 2054, well into your eighties, enjoying the riches from the financial empire you built.

Raising a cup of shaved ice in memory of Taylor Wiley....

THE BEST 'COLUMBO'/'DOCTOR WHO' CROSSOVER... EXPANDED

I’ve made the claim in the past that ‘Columbo’ had a definite crossover with ‘Doctor Who.”  It can be found in the episode “Publish Or Perish” when he is examining the poster for a book published by Greenleaf Publishing – MODERN AZTEC COURTSHIP PRACTICES.

The woman seen in the illustration of that cover is the artist’s rendering of Barbara Wright, one of the first Earthlings to travel with the Doctor.  Along with fellow teacher Ian Chesterton, she accompanied the First Incarnation of the Doctor and his granddaughter back in Time to the era of the Aztecs.

And it was during that time when Barbara made note of the courtship practice which almost landed another wife for the Doctor because of the miscommunication regarding the offering of cocoa….

By the way....

As a further crossover connection between 'Doctor Who' and 'Columbo' could be the artist responsible for that book cover.

I think Max Barsini ("Murder: A Self-Portrait") would be the logical choice to cement that link, especially if Jaroslav Gebr was the artist at Universal Studios who created that cover.  (Gebr, a member of my TV Crossover Hall of Fame, also painted all of Barsini's artwork in his episode and also the portraits of Mrs. Melville ("Murder By The Book") and Grace Wheeler ("Forgotten Lady").

D'OHHH-LEK!

 

As Homer Simpson might say…. “D’OHHH!”

Doctor Who - All Regenerations 2022

There is some incredible enhancements in here!  I think my favorite would be the transformation of the Second Incarnation to the Third.  (But if an earlier video I shared re: "Doctor Ruth" and where she fits into the timeline proves true, that regeneration would be a neverwas.)

RIVER DRAGONS

Among these quotes by River Song, there is story potential in that final panel.  And it also has potential for theoretical crossovers with other TV series.  I’m thinking specifically of ‘The Librarians’ in which dragons took human form.

Of course, the two series which probably come to mind for others will be ‘Game of Thrones’ and its prequel, ‘The House of the Dragon.’  I’ve already incorporated the World of Westeros into Earth Prime-Time – theoretically, of course! – by claiming that it is the ancient version of Mondas, which was first seen in ‘The Tenth Planet’.  (Its existence is also theoretically hinted at in the ‘Twilight Zone’ episode “Probe 7 – Over and Out”.)  River Song probably got her dragon eggs from Mondas and brought them to the Earth at some point in the distant past.  Somehow the dragons evolved like the Wesen of ‘Grimm’ into animal/human shapeshifters.  (The Maiar of Middle-Earth, now officially part of Earth Prime-Time thanks to ‘The Rings of Power’, may have had a hand in that.)

WHO ZONKS - TIMEY WIMEY FROOD LOOPS

 

It was a funny bit in the New Year's Day special, but it did point out an established Zonk for Toobworld Central.

For years, "Groundhog Day" has been a fixture in the Cineverse, and has been referenced in Earth Prime-Time shows.  Posters and video boxes can be seen in 'Married... With Children' and 'Mad About You'; lots of TV characters compare their current situations as being "Groundhog Day"; it even is a movie in alternate Toobworlds as seen in shows like 'Smallville', 'iZombie', 'Veep'; and even in the Tooniverse ('The Simpsons' and 'American Dad!')

And then Bill Murray, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Brian Doyle Murray (along with the groundhog) reunited for a 2020 Super Bowl blipvert.  So now "Groundhog Day" had a presence in Toobworld.  

It can be easily splained away - the actual event occurred in Toobworld at some point before the movie was made and then the televersion of the film was based on what actually happened.  

So why did the Toobworld "reality" of "Groundhog Day" even happen?  My guess is that every so often the arrival of the TARDIS affects the temporal stability of its location.  Because it wasn't an isolated event - we've seen the circumstances occur in episodes of 'The X-Files', 'The Librarians', 'Fringe', and the latest version of 'The Twilight Zone'.  It could be the TARDIS was in the vicinity....