QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Toby is terrible.
Toby is the worst human being I have ever known!"
Michael Scott
'The Office'

And in response, here's a classic:

"I accept all superlatives!"

Abigail Mitchell

'Columbo'

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

TWIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES

According to Ken Levine (link to the left), there was a headline in the Sydney Morning Herald the other day that read:

Air Pacific says it has apologised to a young Japanese woman after a Fijian soldier urinated on her.

Just change Air Pacific to Oceanic Airways, and this is the type of story they should adapt for the next flashback involving Sun on 'Lost'!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

WHO LIVES IN A PINEAPPLE UNDER THE SEA... AND SHOWS OFF HIS BANANA?

Toobworld and the Tooniverse are two distinct TV dimensions, although there are times when characters from either side can cross through the vortex to visit the other side.

Sometimes, however, boundaries should be maintained.

Just ask Kimosabe over at "It's Over, TV"....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

COCOA PHARAOHS

It's Easter weekend, and Rob Buckley has gone all Toobworldish over in "The Medium Is Not Enough" with ruminations on "Stargate" and chocolate. (When it's Easter, my thoughts turn to jelly beans, but I don't really have anything toobworthy for that today....)

It's actually in connection to the Cineverse counterpart to the long-running TV staple, but his question would apply as well to the televersion, I'm thinking.

I'm also thinking a leap through the Stargate is the perfect opportunity to revive the old "Hey, you got chocolate in my peanut butter" blipvert.....

Click on that link above for a quick smile.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

VERIFY WANG?

One of my fellow "Iddiots" from the Idiot's Delight Digest asked this in the IDD:

Speaking of tv ads, I think I saw Garrett Wang, who played Harry Kim on ST:Voyager, on a tv ad today for a prescription heart medication called Coreg. He played a doctor explaining why this might be the right medication for you if you've recently survived a heart attack.

He looks like a slightly older Kim, with shorter hair and those ubiquitous rectangular glasses that everyone wears nowadays. He was wearing a white lab coat, not a Federation-issued medical uniform

I would put the probability that it was Ensign Kim at about 97%. This is not a clever ad but it does have a Star Trek connection, which may not be as hip today as, say, a Battlestar Galactica tie-in but it's still noteworthy.

And speaking of Battlestar, I should put in my vote here for Number Six (aka Tricia Helfer) as the hottest woman on that killer series, human or Cylon (though Grace Park as Sharon is a close second). And she is the best thing to happen to sci-fi numerologists since Seven of Nine (aka Jeri Ryan) was rescued from the Borg.

I know it's a long shot to ask, but is there anybody out there with info on this commercial, and especially as to whether that's Garrett Wang or not in the role?

More than just his idle speculation is at stake here....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

MARTHA, MY DEAR: "SMITH AND JONES"

I've seen the season premiere for 'Doctor Who', "Smith And Jones". And I have to say that it was one of the fastest forty minutes or so of Television I've seen in a long time. For two characters who were just meeting for the first time (although the actors have worked together before on the series), the Doctor and Martha seemed to mesh straight from the start. This looks to be a very comfortable companionship over the next year or so (hopefully!)....

So here are a few Toobworld points about the episode.....

Martha Jones - You should know that I'm not too keen on boring last names (And you can't get more mundane than Jones!), but considering that Martha will soon be thrust into exciting, alien worlds and experiences, perhaps it's good to have her anchored to her Terran background with such an unassuming name.

I'm glad they decided to address the fact that she appeared in "Army of Ghosts", the first half of last season's two-part finale. True, it was quite some time ago; but when these shows go into the endless syndication they deserve, there will be only two episodes separating Martha from Adeola.

So they fell back on a tried and true Toobworld staple - the identical cousin. And I think it works. It gives the show a link to its own past, and besides, Adeola wasn't onscreen for very long.

I just wonder if the Doctor will ever confess to Martha that in a way, he contributed to Adeola's death....

Well, that's all I have to say about Adeola, if only for the fact that I'm finding it very hard to refrain from being naughty with her name.

Ben Franklin - We found out that the Doctor was present at the famous kite-flying/electricity experiment conducted by Ben Franklin. And that he got serious rope burns from it.

I think that this was an offscreen adventure for the First Incarnation of the Doctor, as he was the one most interested in exploring Earth to learn more about its history.

As to who should be seen in the mind's eye as Ben Franklin, the "jury" is still out as to who best represents the image of this Founding Father in Toobworld. Tom Bosley? Fredd Wayne? Richard Easton?

Emmeline Pankhurst - the other historical reference during this adventure. Apparently, the founder of the women's suffragette movement in England stole the Doctor's sonic spanner, for which he branded her a "cheeky woman".

The following mini-bio for Mrs. Pankhurst comes from TVHeaven, which does give it a Toobworld spin by focusing on her as seen in the mini-series 'Shoulder To Shoulder'.

"Emmeline Pankhurst, who forms the Women's Social and Political Union, the driving power behind the women's movement.

Portrayed by Sian Phillips she is shown as a sensitive, caring, charismatic woman who was also responsible for an increasing militancy in the campaign, prompted by an occasion in 1905 when her daughter:

Christabel (Patricia Quinn), was ejected from a Liberal meeting in Manchester and then arrested and imprisoned for assaulting the police because she had dared ask the meeting about votes for women."

'Shoulder To Shoulder' came out in 1974 in the UK and in 1975 here in America. It was a project championed by one of its stars, Georgia Brown, who made certain that the mostly male writers of the mini-series threw out their preconceived notions of who these women were. There were six episodes and seems to have been highly praised for the role it played in remembrance of their work and in keeping the flame alive. (I don't think it's available on DVD however.)

Emmeline Pankhurst was portrayed in this mini-series by that great actress Sian Phillips (so memorable as the venomous Livia of 'I, Claudius'). Wendy Williams played Mrs. Pankhurst as well, in a mini-series look at the life of David Lloyd-George, but since 'Shoulder To Shoulder' focused on the woman, I think it only right that Ms. Phillips' performance be given preference in Earthe Prime-Time.

Not that it should be of concern for Toobworld, but there are two connections to 'Doctor Who' through the mention of Mrs. Pankhurst. One, she was a Mancunian, which producer Russell T. Davies must have learned while working for the BBC there in Manchester.

And that mini-series, 'Shoulder To Shoulder' was produced by Verity Lambert, who was an integral force behind the earlier era of 'Doctor Who'......

Sycorax ship over London - this was a reference back to "The Christmas Invasion" which featured Harriet Jones as the Prime Minister. However, that doesn't have to mean that this new season must be still relegated to that alternate TV dimension where all the previous adventures of Doctors Nine and Ten have taken place; we could be back in the main Toobworld universe, just so long as there is no mention again of Harriet Jones.

(The Sycorax invasion more than likely happened in almost all variations of the TV dimensions.)

Plasmavores - Ah, space vampires! I'll have to check TV Acres, but I'm sure that this must be a staple among extraterrestrial life found in sci-fi shows. When they first started talking about Ms. Finnegan and her salt deficiency, my heart raced that we might be seeing one of the last of the salt vampires in disguise. (This episode was set far enough back in Time so that there may still have been more than one of that dying race as seen in the 'Star Trek' episode "The Man-Trap".)

But no, Ms. Finnegan was a blood-sucker. And so neat about it too - she brought her own straw. I'm not sure what they may have looked like originally, but plasmavores had the capacity to assume the basic genetic structure of whomever was their host after they drained the victim of their blood. (Apparently they can't tell as they sup er, sip, what type of blood they're consuming and absorbing. Otherwise, Ms. Finnegan might have noticed the taste difference between human and Gallifreyan.)

That "taste" of the Doctor's blood might trigger a renewed discussion of a plot point from the 1996 TV movie - that the Doctor's mother was from Earth and he was only half-Gallifreyan....
Florence Finnegan - I like it when nasty old ladies get what's coming to them. But it's a shame they couldn't have let her escape to bedevil the Doctor another day.

Mr. Stoker - I was surprised Roy Marsden didn't get to be in the episode longer, and found it hard to think of him as just a red-shirt. As for his name, I've already contacted David Bianculli of the New York Daily News to tell him of the in-joke for use in one of his future columns about such "Extras".

The hospital's crater - Whatever the technology was that the Judoon used to transport the hospital complex to the Moon, they must have "borrowed" it from the Luminosians as seen in "Feasibility Study" from the first series of 'The Outer Limits'.

At least they brought the hospital back and reattached it in its original placement....

The Judoon - The basic humanoid form can be found throughout the universe thanks to "seeding" by a sect of the First Ones known as "The Preservers". I'm thinking that there might have been a separatist faction among the Preservers who took native life from whichever planets they visited to seed and then blended its DNA with that of the humanoid strain to create a new race of sentient beings.

As such, they apparently took rhinoceros DNA from Earth and created a humanoid form that retained that basic rhino visage. However, it was mounted on a humanoid skeletal system that doesn't look at first glance to be strong enough to support such a massive skull. In order to do so, the musculature must be incredibly dense and the bones would have to be the equivalent to adamantium steel.

I don't think these same Preservers can be held responsible for the creation of Gomez Addams' business partner. (He can be seen in the background of 'The Addams Family' house in a painting. He's a giraffe in a business suit.) No, I think he can claim the tele-version of Dr. Moreau as his "father".

(This will bleep off a lot of creationists, but humans are not native to Earth due to God's design, but rhinos are. Ionesco was onto something!)

By the way - Judoon: great name!

Martha's Family - I had no problems in meeting them; I'm glad they exist. But I don't want the show running back every other episode to get them mixed up in some of the adventures, as was the case with Rose Tyler. From what I'm hearing, somebody has stepped in to keep RTD from doing that again. Good.

The Blue Suit - I thought I would like it once I saw David Tennant in it, but it just didn't feel "right". I was glad he was back in the brown one by the end of the episode. I did like the red sneaks though!

And Finally.....

The Doctor's Brother - Martha asked the Doctor if he had a brother, and he responded "Not any more....." And he also made reference to "we" when talking about being in the nursery.

This has led to much speculation that the Doctor had a falling out with his brother and that could splain the enmity between him and the Master - they were brothers! Classic Cain and Abel!

But there are others who say that RTD is not fond of the idea for bringing back the Master; that maybe the brother (and the title for the last episode this season - "Last Of The Time Lords") are references to the Meddling Monk.

I'm not sure I like the idea of the Master being the Doctor's brother. I much prefer that the Master was first seen in "War Games" with Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor. And it's from that point on the Doctor has gained the Master's enmity.

There's also a pretty strong rumor that John Simm will be appearing in the series by the end of this new season. Could he be the Master? Could he be the Meddling Monk? Or is he the mysterious Mr. Saxon, who could still turn out to be either one of those two options?

Well, that's my take on this first episode of the new season. (PLEASE don't get me to come down on either side of the "what number season?" argument!)

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

MORE FLASHBACKIN'

Even though Ralph Bellamy passed away in 1991, he "starred" in last week's episode of 'Boston Legal', "Son Of The Defender". courtesy of those flashbacks from the 1957 'Studio One' production of "The Defender".

So other shows which might want to employ this technique wouldn't even need a surviving member of an original cast to incorporate such footage.

Here's an example that I came up with:

There have been suggestions of Gary Sinise assaying the role of Bones McCoy in the proposed 'Star Trek' film about the early years of Kirk and Spock. And there is something to suggest a younger DeForest Kelley in his appearance.

So why not track down early TV films or kinescopes of DeForest Kelley in a TV show in which he interacted with a young boy? Then it could be suggested that this was a flashback of Mac Taylor and his Dad for an episode of 'CSI: NY'!

Another idea I had:

Recycle some scenes of the darker side of suburbia from 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' to illustrate a 'Cold Case'-styled episode of 'Close To Home'. There were plenty of gruesome deaths on that program - remember the head in the ice bucket? Maybe one of those murders could be televised again as the prosecution team reacquaints itself with the facts of an earlier case.

Or a whole slew of them could be used while the members of the BAU on 'Criminal Minds' try to figure out the reasoning of a serial killer recreating the details from a famous case.

There's so much material out there, it's a shame more of it can't be recycled in this way to gain exposure for the originals. If the viewers liked what they saw, they could track down the original productions from DVD collections, or at media museums, or online at sites similar to LikeTV.

Just sayin', is all....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

"LOST" IN THOUGHT: "LEFT BEHIND"

Now that the barracks community of the Others (which I've also seen described as "downtown") has been deserted, I think Jack and Sayid should lead their fellow survivors back there to live.

It might even make for another biblical parallel for Jack to lead them there like Moses, hoping that so many hikers wouldn't rouse the smoke monster before they could reach the fence.

It would certainly give them a better position from which to defend themselves should there be that hinted confrontation with the Others. And it would get them farther away from the beach when the 2004 tsunami strikes the day after Christmas. (Right now it's about December 12th on the show.)

Speaking of the show's "current" date, the Powers That Be for 'Lost' probably never even had this in mind, but this week's B story reminded me of a classic tale.

It's probably Dec. 12th, 2004 or thereabouts on the island, based on what Nikki said about Thanksgiving last week.

So they're all at about that point in time when TV shows have their Christmas episodes.

I see Sawyer as the island's version of Scrooge, and Hurley as the Ghost of Christmas Present in getting Sawyer to change his ways.

Like I said, it was probably not intentional, but it's fun to think of it in those terms.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

PS:
Did you catch the number sequence to activate the sonic fence? Juliet typed in "1623".....

APRIL 2007 TVXOHOF: GUESS WHO

Since the TV Crossover Hall of Fame officially began back in 1999, I've tried to use the April induction to celebrate all aspects of "The Fool". There have been those who have been foolish or just plain dumb; others who have celebrated the traditions of clowning; and others who have embodied the Shakespearean sense of the Fool with insight, wit and guile; perhaps even assuming the role of Trickster.

Here are the Hall of Famers who have been inducted over the years during April:

John Munch
Lucille Ball
Gilligan
Maxwell Smart & Agent 99
Luther Van Dam
Montgomery Scott
Ted Baxter
Mike Logan

This year, we're kicking off a mini-theme, celebrating one of the longest-running dramatic series on Television. And April just seemed to be the perfect month in which to launch this theme with the main character who serves as the inspiration. (Especially since his show just returned for a new season this past Saturday!)

Throughout his career in Toobworld, he has been all those aspects of the Fool - witty, clownish, even a bit of a dolt at times. At one point in his career, he was often referred to as a baggy-pants clown; even a galactic hobo. And later that incarnation met up with himself from the future who was quite literally, a "wearer of the motley". (He would be dressed as though he had escaped from an explosion in a buffoon's wardrobe.)

There hasn't been much consistency to this aspect of his personality; indeed, there hasn't been any consistency at all to how he's been portrayed. And little wonder, since we're talking about a gentleman who's been portrayed in Toobworld by at least ten different actors (with additional casting side trips in the Tooniverse, the Cineverse, Skitlandia, and in the universes based on audio plays, comic books, comic strips, theatrical productions, and even on the Internet).

Who?

Exactly. The Doctor.

The Gallifreyan Time Lord of 'Doctor Who' had been on the air since the early 1960s until the late 80s. He came back for a charity special, and then a FOX TV movie, and then brilliantly returned for what looks to be another long run in 2005.

And throughout it all, the Doctor had the most ingenious way to splain away the "Darrin Discrepancies" caused by recasting the actor in the title role: the Gallifreyans can regenerate their bodies upon the point of death so that they can begin anew with a new physical look, with new personality quirks, and with a new taste in fashion. (This is what kept actors interested in taking up the role; they never had to be a slave to what the previous actor brought to the Doctor.)

Whether or not you consider the show one seamless ride from its original run through the TV movie and now into the new series, there have still been enough side trips into other tele-venues for the Doctor to qualify for membership in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.

There are the two "Children In Need" charity specials - 'Dimensions In Time' which featured all of the Doctors and many of his Companions up to the Seventh Incarnation (and which crossed over with 'EastEnders' to boot!), and the 2005 vignette which served as a bridge between the first two seasons of the revival.

The Doctor materialized in the year 123 AD, just long enough to pop out of his TARDIS for a quick "look-round" (Okay, okay, he had to take a leak!) before heading off to his next adventure. ('Chelmsford 123') The TARDIS was seen stored in the docking bay of the space ship Starbug which would indicate that for a time, the Doctor was on board as well. ('Red Dwarf')

Although it's not usually a dimension we should be paying attention to here at "Inner Toob", the movie universe had its own version of the Doctor in two different movies. Peter Cushing played the role in both and was actually named Doctor Who.

Over in The Tooniverse, we've seen the Fourth Incarnation of the Doctor at least twice on 'The Simpsons' and a serialized cartoon has just begun broadcasting on the BBC with an adventure for the Tenth Incarnation, "The Infinite Quest".

Then there are his many other incarnations in Skitlandia, that dimension made up from comedy sketches on variety shows, late night talk shows, etc. With a sketch on the Comic Relief telethon called "The Curse of Fatal Death", we saw the Doctor run through his last remaining regenerations with the actors Rowan Atkinson, Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, and finally Joanna Lumley in the role!

Richard E. Grant also played the role of the "Ninth Doctor" in an animated adventure "Scream Of The Shalka" for the Internet. The "jury" is still out as to whether or not Web content should be absorbed into the canon for any TV show, whether it be 'Doctor Who' or 'The Office' or 'Rescue Me', etc. But in this case, I think "Scream Of The Shalka" should be kept separate, as this Doctor was specifically referred to as the Ninth, and that role has been usurped in Toobworld by Christopher Eccleston's portrayal.

Here is a list of actors who have played the Doctor in Toobworld:

William Hartnell & Richard Hurndall as the First Incarnation
(Hurndall played the role in a guest re-appearance, "The Five Doctors", as Hartnell had already passed away. I like to think that Hurndall's portrayal was from slightly earlier in the First Doctor's life. But details from "The Five Doctors" may trip me up on that.)

Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor
(I know I shouldn't play favorites, but he is the one I like the best.)

Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor

Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor

Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor

Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor

Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor

Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor in the 1996 TV movie

Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor

David Tennant as the Tenth, and current, Incarnation

(Also, there should be some consideration for Michael Jayston, who portrayed the Valeyard in "Trial Of A Time Lord". The Valeyard was a future incarnation of the Doctor.)

Just the ten incarnations of the Toobworld Doctor alone will make for a very crowded exhibition. We may have to open a separate wing!

Welcome to the Hall, Sir... and Sirs!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

LINKS IN BLOOM

Thanks to London Tipton's obsession with Orlando Bloom, which forced the actor to take out a restraining order against the young heiress, Toobworld can presume there's a connection between 'The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody' and 'Extras'.

Bloom and Sophia Myles were filming a movie about opposing lawyers in love during the second season of Ricky Gervais' comedy about "background artistes".

BCnU!
Tele-Toby