Saturday, January 23, 2010

DOCTOR MOM

Claire Bloom showed up in "The End Of Time", the 'Doctor Who' finale for David Tennant's tenure as the Tenth Doctor, as a mysterious Gallifreyan. She was never identified within the the two-part episode, but in published reports RTD has stated that she was the Doctor's mother.

However, another theory has it that she was the regeneration of Susan, the Doctor's grand-daughter. The thinking goes like this: when Wilf Mott asked the Doctor who that woman was, all Ten did was to nod in the direction of Donna Noble, Wilf's grand-daughter and a former Companion to the Doctor. It's almost as if he was trying to give a clue that as Donna was Wilf's grand-daughter, so that woman was his own grand-daughter.

I like both theories and I just wish RTD had clarified it for the episode. Why bother brining in such a talented actress for a role when we never know who she really was or her motivation in trying to help the Doctor. (For that matter, why didn't they ever identify the other Time Lady being punished by Rassilon? If theory was correct and she was the mother of the Master, then why didn't she look up to see her son?)

I've come up with a new splainin for an old problem about the Eighth Doctor which makes me lean toward the identity of Claire Bloom's Time Lady being the Doctor's Mom.......

The Eighth incarnation of the Doctor claimed near the end of that 1996 TV movie that his mother was half-human. I used to contend that it was further proof that the Doctor is a liar (as he is about his age and the fact that humans can no longer cross between dimensions). But now I have a new suggestion.....

What if the Doctor's Mom had undergone a transformation via the Chameleon Arch so that her body had become, right down to the cellular level, human rather than Gallifreyan? And during that time (without knowing anything about her past life since the Arch also gave new memories) she became pregnant by the Time Lord who was the Doctor's father.

Maybe it was because she transformed that she was finally able to conceive - I would think that Nature would impose restrictions in biology on any society in which the populace would basically be immortal. Eventually she would revert back to her Gallifreyan physiology - perhaps even before she was able to give birth to the Doctor. (It would certainly be the more dramatic option for television!)

Whether it had any effect on the Doctor's own DNA, who knows? We could also combine both of my theories about why the Doctor said that for a new option: The Eighth Doctor was only telling a half-truth. Yes, his mother was a human, but only during the time she was under the transformation by the Chameleon Arch. And so he was still basically lying to Dr. Grace Holloway, just so that he could get into her scrubs.....

Just sayin', is all....

BCnU!

NOT AS SEEN ON TV: JOHN HANCOCK

John Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born on this date in 1737. But I couldn't track down a good picture of him as seen on TV to feature - I gave "John Adams" to my brother and he has my copy of "The Adams Chronicles". Eventually I'll get at least one of those for next year.

But in the meantime, on Thursday night '30 Rock' featured a John Hancock impersonator played by comedian Kevin Meaney. (Haven't seen him in ages!)

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: GOODBYE, DALI

Salvador Dali died on this date in 1989......

SALVADOR DALI


AS SEEN IN:
"Surrealisimo: The Trial Of Salvador Dali"

AS PLAYED BY:
Ewen Bremner

From Wikipedia:
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989) was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres.

Dalí (Spanish pronunciation: [da'li]) was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, "The Persistence of Memory", was completed in 1931. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire includes film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media.

Dalí attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes" to a self-styled "Arab lineage," claiming that his ancestors were descended from the Moors.

Dalí was highly imaginative, and also had an affinity for partaking in unusual and grandiose behavior, in order to draw attention to himself. This sometimes irked those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork.

BCnU!

Friday, January 22, 2010

WISH-CRAFT: WHO'S FOR ROMANA?

Speaking of Who News, it was also announced that Jane Tranter might try to reboot 'Doctor Who' for a US audience, which I'm assuming wouldn't mess with the established mythology as much as the 1996 TV movie did. (The Doctor stated that his mother was a human and they still haven't found a way to address that since.)

Regarding that TV movie, the one thing that gives me pause about this 'Torchwood' project is that it will be done for FOX. FOX has never had a good relationship with sci-fi; 'The X-Files' being the exception to the rule. ('Fringe' looks like it may have the legs, though.) Even when they have something good from the get-go - and I'm thinking 'Alien Nation' and 'The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.' - they don't show enough support, or just lose interest in it and let it get cancelled.

Here now, the Wish-Craft section of the post.....
As for another 'Doctor Who'? Re-creating the Doctor for an American audience "worked" once only because there was no other version currently on air at the time. And we did see Sylvester McCoy as the last Doctor hand off the character via regeneration to Paul McGann. But now Matt Smith is the current Doctor and his run in the series would overlap with any new Doctor. If that happened, the American version would have to be shunted off to some other TV dimension, and what good is that for Toobworld?

I'd rather have Tranter's proposed project turn out to be about another Time Lord from Gallifrey, and one who wasn't lost to the time-locked Time War. To keep the continuity with the original series, why not about a Gallifreyan gal? I'm thinking it's time to bring back Romana! With an escape from E-space and a regeneration from Lalla Ward in a cameo (who still looks great today!), I'm sure there are plenty of American actresses who could essay the role. It would certainly bring some buzz to the show.....
Of course, FOX would probably insist on somebody not only established with sci-fi acting creds to take on the role, but also somebody who's smoking hot - like a Tricia Helfer or Katee Sackhoff. Personally, I'd prefer somebody who's more unique, someone who could suggest that although they look human, they're really alien (and yet still fulfill the network mandate for eye-candy).
This could be the type of show that would create a star, so you don't have to start with one. I was originally thinking Signy Coleman might be a possibility (but my mental file on her could be outdated). However, the talent pool at just the soap operas alone are deep enough that you could find someone to pull off that Gallifreyan feel....

Just sayin', is all.....
Geez... I'm getting a Calista Flockhart vibe off that picture. But trust me - that's NOT the way I'd want to see this go!
BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: NICOLAS CAGE

NICOLAS CAGE

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Andy Samberg

BCnU!

JACK & GROUCHO

The blending of real TV game shows (as opposed to shows like '$50,000 Steeplechase' from 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show')with TV characters from other shows has been a staple in TV crossovers: 'LA Law' and 'Wheel Of Fortune', 'Cheers' and 'Jeopardy!', and 'Family Matters' and 'American Gladiators'.

This is from April of 1955, two months before I was born - it's a scene from 'The Jack Benny Show' in which Jack disguised himself so that he could appear on 'You Bet Your Life' with Groucho Marx and win some cash. The other contestant is great character actress Irene Tedrow, perhaps playing Congresswoman Geddes (from two episodes of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show') before she ran for office......



This may be the first such crossover between a TV series and a game show, although if any show might have trumped it, I would guess 'I Love Lucy' might have done so.....

(My thanks to Mark Evanier - link to the left! - for pointing this out!)

BCnU!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

"AMERICAN TORCHWOOD": STAY AWAY FROM ME?

Guess Who..... LOL

Once again, attempts are being made to translate a British TV show for an American audience, and this time the target is 'Torchwood'.

'Torchwood', an anagram of 'Doctor Who' for those not in the know, is a spin-off of that series intended for a more adult audience. It dealt with a group founded by Queen Victoria that works outside of the government to investigate - and if necessary, battle - alien visitations to the British Empire. There were at least four Torchwood hubs in the UK - the one in London was destroyed by the Dalek-Cybermen war on Canary Wharf; the Cardiff hub was the setting for the TV series and was destroyed in the first episode of the "Children Of Earth" mini-series; there's one in Glasgow which apparently is staffed by only one man; and then the fourth one which disappeared but which might be found someday. (Sounds like one of the space stations in 'Babylon 5'....)

The one reason I'm feeling a little more confident of this project than for others that have been announced in the past (Looking at you, 'Coupling'!) is due to the script being written by the creator of the original series, Russell T. Davies.

(I was happy to see RTD take his death-grip off the controls of 'Doctor Who', but I also loved the pilot script for 'Torchwood', "Everything Changes".)

His producing partner from 'Doctor Who' is also on board, Julie Gardner, as well as Jane Tranter, who's the executive Vice President in charge of programming at BBC Worldwide Productions in the United States.

There's talk that John Barrowman might return as Captain Jack Harkness for this new series. But if not, hopefully RTD will create all new characters and not just rework the originals. The new show will have a more global aspect than the original, which focused on the "Rift activity" to be found in Cardiff.

BCnU!

GUS AGAIN... AGAIN

In February of last year, Inner Toob speculated about a DirecTV commercial with Dule Hill who appeared to be playing his character of Gus from 'Psych'.

We didn't make any speculation about who Alan Tudyk was supposed to be playing in the blipvert because the only TV character we really knew him for was Wash from 'Firefly', and that was set too far into the Future to be of any use.

But since we posted that article, he's shown up on 'Dollhouse' as one of the Big Bads for the series: Alpha, the homicidal maniac "doll" that went on a rampage and has yet to be caught.

It could be that he's appearing in the ad as Alpha, channelling one of his more benign personalities. And if so, Gus was lucky he only escaped that situation as a hostage......
Here's the ad in case you haven't seen it recently:



BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: DAVID LETTERMAN

Continuing with 'Saturday Night Live' and its look at the late night talk show mess.....

DAVID LETTERMAN


AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Jason Sudeikis

'SNL' may not be the shining star it once was, but they're still the go-to when you need a real-life figure "as seen on TV" in a pinch....

BCnU!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

BLIPVERT CLASSIC: SUN FIZZ

That USPS ad with the creepy clown doll reminded me of this favorite from a few years back......



BCnU!