Thursday, August 4, 2005

O'BSERVATIONS: "THE LONG GAME"


"Well, Doctor.... Still pursuing burglary, I take it."
The Master
'Doctor Who' : "Colony In Space"

The episode "The Long Game" proves that the Master knew what he was talking about. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to basically steal unlimited credit for Adam Mitchell so that he could do a bit of "shopping".

In an essay a few months back, I also postulated that the Third Doctor might have used some of his time in exile on Earth in raiding the trophies to be found in the Batcave under stately Wayne Manor in Gotham City. Among the items he purloined would be shirts formerly owned by the Riddler, with question marks on their collar tabs. And he would have snatched a custom-made umbrella with a question mark for the handle; this was most likely a gift to the Penguin from the Riddler. (Or even vice versa.)
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I've long maintained that DNA in Toobworld is extremely strong and doesn't dilute very much despite new strains blended in over the generations. This is why one's grandfather could look like an older version of oneself. And this is why there were always two Simon brothers looking like their forebears down through the generations to at least the 1700s.

So even though nearly 200,000 years separate them, I'd like to imagine that the Editor on Satellite 5 is in fact a distant descendant of one Dave Nelson who served as the News Director at WNYX in New York City back in the 1990s. ('NewsRadio')

They are played by two different actors (Simon Pegg as the Editor, Dave Foley as Dave Nelson), but they are similar enough in appearance to make the idea plausible.

And though Toobworld tele-genetics may be strong....... Let's face it, by 200,000 AD, there should be SOME diffusion.
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Here's hoping we see Bruno Langley again as Adam Mitchell; I think he made for an interesting character. Perhaps he could even return as a villainous Adam in the year 2012, now that he has that Type 2 chip installed in his head.

And since 2012 was the prophesied year for the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar, maybe Adam could be at the root of that?
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Clive was right in the first episode for the Ninth Doctor when he said that wherever the Doctor goes, Death and Destruction follow in his wake. ("The Horror At Fang Rock" is a great example from the Fourth Doctor years.)

So it's a shame we lost Suki Cantrell in this episode. Throughout the series there have been these interesting women who unfortunately lose their lives after encountering either the Doctor or Rose.

Raffalo in "The End Of The World", Gwyneth in "The Unquiet Dead", and now Suki in "The Long Game".

And there's this bright spark of personality, an overall - sorry! - cuteness about each of them that I found similar. Enough so that I'm inclined to invoke Minbarin beliefs about reincarnation to think that it just might be that each of these women were incarnations of the same soul.

Just an idea, and not one I'm really comfortable enough in backing up.
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Chronologically speaking, the Face of Boe shows up for the first time in the series here (although we first saw him/her/it in the second episode "The End Of The World".

BadWolf TV is shown broadcasting a report that the Face of Boe is pregnant with a Boemina (or that might be a term for many Boe). There are rumors that the Face of Boe is immortal, which would explain how we see Boe again five billion years later. Or that Face of Boe could have been one of the Boemina, or even one of their descendants.
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There's no real indication that the Editor died at the end of this episode, unless he was smothered in Jagrafess blubber. So it would be possible for Simon Pegg to reappear in the role somewhere early in the chronology between "The Long Game" and "Bad Wolf".
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The phrase "Bad Wolf"......

We're really getting a sense of looking for it by now. I think "Aliens Of London" really put it front and center.

"Rose": There are claims that it is roared by the Nestene Consciousness, but I've watched the scene several times and I don't hear it.
"The End Of The World": The Moxx of Balhoon mentions to the Face of Boe that their situation was similar to a "Bad Wolf" scenario.
"The Unquiet Dead": Gwyneth uses her Second Sight on Rose and foresees 'the big bad wolf'.
"Aliens Of London": A young boy paints the phrase as graffiti onto the TARDIS.
"World War Three": The Doctor makes the boy wipe it off before they leave, warning him that if he catches him doing that again, he'll 'ave him.
"Dalek": The code for Henry Van Statten's helicopter is 'Bad Wolf One'.

And now for "The Long Game", there is the BadWolf TV station. This is the genesis for the phrase in all other episodes, and the basis for my Crossover of the Week.
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There are other allusions throughout the series to the Bad Wolf idea. Rose's red-hooded cloak, the pig transformed to look like an alien, etc.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

1 comment:

WordsSayNothing said...

Don't forget the password to UNIT web site. (Not exactly included in the show directly, but nice to know in any case.)