THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - "BROACHURCH" & "THE NEWSROOM"

A new theory of "Relateeveety" for Toobworld....

Beth Latimer, 'Broadchurch'

MacKenzie McHale, 'The Newsroom'

(First Cousins)

Beth Latimer, wife of Mark and mother of Chloe and the late Danny, was Beth Ropley before she married.  (Her mother, Liz Ropley, stayed with them during those difficult weeks after the tragedy.)

BETH LATIMER

MACKENZIE McHALE

 So I think MacKenzie's mother was a Ropley and that her mother and Beth's father were brother and sister.  Beth was raised along the Dorset coast but Mac was raised in the United States during the time her father was the British Ambassador to America.  

Beth is played by Jody Whitaker and Mac is played by Emily Mortimer.

BCnU!

TELE-FOLKS DIRECTORY: KRISTA VILLAROCHE (aka TESSA PHILLIPS)

'MAGNUM P.I.'

"LITTLE GAMES"

'SPOOKS' (aka 'MI5')

CHARACTER STUDY:

KRISTA VILLAROCHE aka TESSA PHILLIPS

Krista Villaroche was a preventions analyst/investigator for Wakeman Insurance.  Her last big case dealt with the security of the Robin's Nest estate in Hawai'i for the Robin Masters Jewelry Design Competition in 1984-85.  She succumbed to the temptation to assist her father, legendary jewel thief Doc Villaroche, in making one last big score by stealing the entries in the competition, including the Karachi Diamond which was insured for about $175 million.

Although it angered Doc, Krista was relieved when she found out that Thomas Magnum had anticipated her plans and switched out all of the jewels, to be replaced by his Vietnam memento tream ring featuring the Cross of Lorraine.  She returned the ring with thanks for saving her soul and with the promise that one day she would return the favor.

Right after this case, Ms. Villaroche was approached by the British intelligence organization know as MI5, with a request to pull off a job for them at the American Embassy in London at the Court of St. James. This of course would mean it was on American soil.  Should she be apprehended while committing the crime, the agency would disavow all knowledge of her.  

They needed the best at her craft to pull off the heist since the security system for the embassy, but the safe in particular, had been designed by a former thief working for the SIA, Alexander Mundy.

Having proven herself successful in the "acquisition", Krista was offered a permanent position with MI5, which she accepted.  However, she was too well-known in many circles as not only Krista Villaroche, but also as the daughter of Doc Villaroche.  So she chose a new identity: that of Tessa Phillips.

("Phillips" was her mother's maiden name, and the first name was a diminutive of the nickname her father called her whenever he told her "bedtime stories" about kidnapped Persian princes, the Crusades, and the Nazi connection to the Karachi Diamond.  "Tessa" was short for "Contessa".)

When Doc Villaroche died under suspicious circumstances, something in "Tessa Phillips" changed; she became hard and cynical, always attempting to gain the upper hand in the office politics at Whitechapel.  And, having discovered how easy it was to create a new persona, she invented several fictional members of her team as a section chief in the Counter-Terrorism Unit.  This way she was able to draw about four more salaries in addition to her own.  

Once her ploy was uncovered by MI5 agent Zoe Reynolds, Krista/Tessa had no option but to flee, as she would be facing "extreme sanction" as a traitor to the state for stealing from the Crown.  Unable to use her identities as either Krista or Tessa, she assumed one of her other emergency aliases not known to the bureau.  She then called upon the memories of the stories told to her by her father of the Karachi Diamond and of its possession by Martin Bormann in South America*.

And if Bormann was able to elude capture there, being one of the most wanted men by the whole world......

To this day, Krista/Tessa is safely ensconced in South America under a new identity.  She may yet reappear on the Toobworld stage.

(There is some conjecture in the contstruction of this biography.)

BCnU!

* In the Trueniverse, Bormann's remains were found in West Berlin back in the 1960's.  The Toobworld follows the line of contention espoused by Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal that Bormann escaped to South America.

LITTLE BIG SCREEN: "CASABLANCA" - THE REAL STORY

Here's our second look at "Casablanca" for "Toobworld Goes To The Movies"......

As far as Toobworld is concerned, the 1942 movie "Casablanca" was an idealized version of events in the TV Universe.  The "real" Rick Blaine did not look like Humphrey Bogart; he was stockier and resembled actor Paul Douglas (whose televersion is confirmed thanks to an episode of 'I Love Lucy'.)

Douglas may not have been the most handsome of leading men, but then again neither was Bogart.  This is just another example of the movies idealizing the "real-life" inspiration.

The movie was adapted for television early in 1955 as an episode of 'Lux Video Theatre'.  It was O'Bviously edited for time, but all the major plot points from the movie were addressed.  And this is now the official version of events which were "later" adapted into the movie.

Later in 1955, and again in 1983, "Casablanca" was adapted as a TV series, but as prequels to the events of the movie.  Both of these are assigned to alternate TV dimensions.

It was tempting to finagle entry into Earth Prime-Time for the Charles McGraw series from 1955.  Altough many sources online claim that McGraw played Bogie's character of Rick Blaine, it's likely those sites just shared a common assumption.

If any site would be dedicated to every detail concerning "Casablanca", it would be Vincent's Casablanca Page.  

He says that McGraw played Rick Jason, not Rick Blaine.  I probably could have come up with a splainin - that Rick Jason sold the Cafe Americain to Rick Blaine, but then how would I splain away all the other recastings - like Captain Renault, Signore Ferrari, and Sam?

Occam's Razor must be applied here.  But it was tempting.  Just look at McGraw - he was perfect for the "historical" figure upon whom Bogie's movie character was based.......

So the one-shot for "Casablanca" is the only version of the movie in the main Toobworld.

Here's lookin' at you, Kid.....

(Unfortunately, I don't have any actual pictures of Paul Douglas as Rick Blaine.  The second photo is from "Panic In The Streets", but it had a nice feel to it - as though Rick was giving instructions to one of his waiters.....)

PROGRAMMING NOTE

I won't be doing the daily showcase anymore for Toobworld, neither the "As Seen On TV" nor the "League Of Themselves".  Four years of that was enough and I'm frankly burned out on the feature.

But I'm not tired of Inner Toob, never fear!  So instead I am instituting a monthly feature called "Toobworld Goes To The Movies".  Once a month we'll take a look at the TV adaptations for some of the great movies throughout Time.

And we're kicking off our monthly salute to the televersions of movies with a look at the Toobworld counterpart to the film considered by many to be the greatest movie ever made: 

"Casablanca"

This is one movie for which we'll have several posts, one running each week during January......

AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!

Hi there!

Didja miss me?

You may not have noticed, considering yesterday's deluge of posts during the annual Who's On First blogathon, but I have not been posting on a regular basis since August 19th!  There were a handful of posts done while I was recuperating from surgery, and only two of the Who posts were written once I got back to Toobworld Central (needed to wait until the 50th anniversary).

But I was not idle.  I filled a Composition notebook with stories, promising to post them in 2014, a post a day.  So some may feel like old news but that's the way it goes.  There still new O'Bservations for the most part (unless somebody else came up with the same idea?)

There won't be anymore daily features like "As Seen On TV" or "League Of Themselves", but I will have a monthly feature to go with the inductions into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.  It's called Toobworld Goes To The Movies and will be about the televersions of twelve classic movies, something appropriate for each month I hope.

As for the TVXOHOF, it'll be another off-beat year of candidates as the Hall celebrates its fifteenth year of existence.  Most of the inductees only have one credit to their name, but theoretically they could link many other shows together.  (Like Dr. Loveless did.)

Just keep my mantra in mind: "What I say, goes."

So I hope you enjoy this return to our normally scheduled programming, already in progress.......

BCnU!

TH-TH-TH-THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!

Well, here we are.  Midnight in Toobworld and our blogathon of 'Doctor Who' postings have come to an end.

As he played my favorite incarnation of the Doctor, I wondered what Patrick Troughton might have thought of my undertaking......

Oh well.....

Thanks for dropping by today, Team Toobworld.  I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did in putting it all together!

BCnU!

(Thanks to the "Oh My Giddy Aunt" Tumblr page for the gif.....)

THE DOCTOR'S FAVORITE SEX PARTNER?

There is a reason why the Doctor can't cross his own time-stream......  

Long infatuated with his own brilliance, and admittedly attracted to members of the same gender, inevitably he would be tempted to travel back in Time and go bleep himself......

BCnU!

RECASTAWAYS - FROM SMITH'S DOCTOR TO CAPALDI'S

As I write this, the 50th Anniversary special for 'Doctor Who' is still months away with the Christmas special a month after that.

I don't know how much I'll be able to accomplish in getting these posts done before I have surgery on Wednesday, August 21st.  But I'll have limited capability online while I'm recuperating up in Ct. - iPhone and tablet are worth shit for blogging to my mind.  So at best I'll be able to post the text of my thoughts on them both, but I'll have to eschew most pictures (just like in the old days!)

But in the meantime, I can post my theory about the donated DNA for the regeneration between the Eleventh Incarnation and the Twelfth.

For once, we actually saw it happen!

However, there is a hitch - this is the first time in which we saw an earlier Doctor's biological imperative absorb the DNA and not the Doctor immediately preceding the new Incarnation.

When the Tenth Doctor listened to Donna's pleas and went back to rescue the family of Caecillius, he grasped the hand of Caecillius to guide him inside the TARDIS.  That's when the contact was made.  

So this was one time when the DNA was stored but not used upon the next regeneration.  The Doctor may have even stored it away in that data storage program which may have been designed by his old school chum Drax.  Which is why his body called upon a later collected sample from young Jim Taylor when it finally did come time to regenerate.

Eventually I hope to have the regeneration scene added in for you....

As to those mewling complaints that Peter Capaldi shouldn't be the Doctor because he was not only in 'Doctor Who' - "The Fires Of Pompeii", but also in 'Torchwood: Children Of Earth' as John Frobisher?

Well, I hope my DNA absorption theory settles the conflict as far as Caecillius goes.  As for Frobisher, it was the show's production team at the time who suggested that Frobisher was descended from Caecillius.  

As usual in Toobworld, the family genetics ran strong even down through countless generations.

BCnU!

PS:
I'm back at Toobworld Central as of today, November 30th, but still hobbled by my foot.  However, at least I can blog again!

And in that time I spent away, I've heard a rumor that the facial resemblance between Capaldi's Doctor and the characters he played in 'Doctor Who' and 'Torchwood' may be addressed - if not in the Christmas special, then in the next season of the series.

"DOCTOR WHO" - AS SEEN ON TV... IN TV

Everything we see happen in the TV series 'Doctor Who' actually takes place in the TV Universe.  But there are TV characters in that same universe who talk about 'Doctor Who' as a TV show, when they should be sharing the same plane of reality.

This has happened with a lot of TV shows and Toobworld Central has had to accept the possibility that in the future - to paraphrase Any Warhol - everybody in Earth Prime-Time will have a TV show about themselves.  (Hence, all the mentions of 'Gilligan's Island', 'The X-Files', 'The Brady Bunch', 'The Twilight Zone', 'Lost', and especially 'Star Trek'.)  Any time a show becomes popular, some other show will eventually reference it.

There's no getting around the fact that the Time Lord has had a TV show created about him.  To get around this discrepancy (which we call a Zonk), I came up with the concept that the TV show within the TV show of 'Doctor Who' was underwritten and overseen by UNIT as a way to maintain a deniability of the Doctor's existence to the general public.  It's similar to claims by the government that visions of UFOs are caused by swamp gas.

Similar TV programs - and movies - were created to obscure the existence of the spy agency U.N.C.L.E. as well as secret agents James Bond, Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott.

The Fictional 'Doctor Who' in Toobworld began as a couple of theatrical films starring Peter Cushing.  (This is how Toobworld has dealt with the existence of those movies in our world.)  The facts about the Time Lord have been deliberately altered so that nobody should guess the truth.  For instance, Peter Cushing's version of the Doctor is a human, not a Gallifreyan Time Lord.  And his name really is "Doctor Who".

Since then, the focus has been on televised representation, with even scenes from the real series showing up in some other programs - like a clip from one of the "Peladon" episodes with Jon Pertwee as the Doctor.  Actual mentions of some of the actors who have played the role have been made so we got around that by saying that those actors were cast because they bore such remarkable resemblances to the actual Doctor in his various incarnations.

But they don't all have to be played by the actual actors that play the roles in our world.  

For instance, the Tenth Incarnation of the Doctor as seen in a quick cameo on 'Extras' could have been Rob Harker, who finally got his big break!  (As seen in an episode of 'People Like Us'.)

And who knows?  Maybe the entire run of the Seventh Doctor with his Companion Ace was played as a puppet show.....

(As seen in 'Spitting Image')

Okay, maybe not.

But as was seen in that quick cameo on 'Extras', the show within a show doesn't necessarily follow the same plots as the real show.  UNIT would never allow that.

So on the televersion of 'Doctor Who', the Doctor battles a giant slug named Schlongg.  

And then in one of the more recent episodes, this happened.....

BCnU!

RECASTAWAYS - FROM TENNANT'S DOCTOR TO SMITH'S

A bad habit picked up by the Eleventh

When he was hanging around with Stan Laurel.....

Because of the carolers and the purveyors of "Christmasey" products, the Tenth Incarnation of the Doctor knew what season it was; he just didn't know the year.  When he asked a young lad as to the date, the boy thought him to be as thick as a whale omelette, but did tell him that it was Christmas, 1851.

We never saw the Doctor physically make contact with the boy, but it may have happened.

The moment of contact probably occurred in the edit between his first sprint upon hearing Rosita's cry for the Doctor to the shot where he was running down the alleyway.  The lad had wandered off just before that but had to be in the general vicinity in which the Doctor was running.  So he would have been in the way and thus the Doctor had to nudge him aside.

I'm going to make the claim that the unnamed lad would grow up to be Jim Taylor, a character from the TV adaptation of Philip Pullman's "Ruby In The Smoke".

This period mystery marked the TV debut of Matt Smith (the main reason I find this choice irresistable), who would go on to become the Eleventh Incarnation of the Doctor.

Allowances do have to be made for the age of Jim Taylor, however.  First off, we can dismiss his age in BookWorld, where he was but a lad of thirteen - Smith just can't pull that off.  But the lad in 1851 is about 8 to ten years old which would mean that Smith would have to be playing Jim a few years older than he really was, perhaps even as much as a decade.  (That is, if the year of 1872 is the date for "Ruby In The Smoke" as it is in the book.)  At least that age could be considered pozz'ble, just pozz'ble.

One other problem does come up in making this suggestion.  Even though allowances are made for aging when it comes to recasting, it's hard to believe that this cherubic face would one day resemble Matt Smith's.  Especially when it comes to my personal bugaboo about physical features - the nose.

(Remember what the Doctor said upon finding out he had a snout like Jim Taylor's?  "I've had worse."  Even so, it's hard to believe it would go through that much of a change.)

Have no fear, the Toobmeister is here with a splainin.  During the rampant destruction caused by the giant Cyberman (which somehow must have been covered up by the Torchwood Institute), the lad - that is, Jim Taylor - was seriously injured.  He recovered, to the point you would never have known he had been in that disaster, but he was never going to look as he did as a young boy again.

BCnU!