DEVIL DOCTOR

I saw the 'Doctor Who' episode "The Beast Below" a couple of times before it finally aired earlier tonight. (And relax, BBC-A - I recorded it and will watch it again when I get home in the morning!) Once was on a friend's PSP and the other time was via YouTube.

As expected, with it being in ten minute segments, the YouTube version was far from perfect. Whole chunks were missing, so that even though the story remained basically intact, there was some of the flavor missing.

But what struck me about the episode as seen on YouTube was the point where the Doctor yelled at the others that "Nobody human talks to me today!"

At that moment, the digital transfer on YouTube got strangely pixilated to look like this:

It's almost as if the Doctor's most inner demons had risen to the surface to become visible.

It was a freaky moment.....

BCnU!

RIDDLE ME THIS, LEMON!

When Jack Donaghy escorted financial reporter Avery Jessup to a bliack tie affair at the Natural History Museum on this week's '30 Rock', Avery remarked that "You always know you're at the right party when it feels like the Riddler is about to attack." '30 Rock' is notorious for its Zonks, especially since it is about the show business world of TV production at NBC. This episode had several references to other TV shows - real ones, not just the fictional 'Bitch Hunter', which either starred Will Ferrell or a fictional character that happened to look like Will Ferrell.

But this reference to the Riddler is not a Zonk. There was no mention of the 'Batman' TV series or to Frank Gorshin (or even to John Astin).

Avery's mention of the Riddler was to the actual Prince of Puzzles, the Gotham City criminal himself.

It's Toobworld Central's conceit that the Riddler has figured into the history of 'Doctor Who' - that one of the Doctor's earlier incarnations found his way into the Riddler's lair and absconded with several items from his wardrobe. That's why later regenerations of the Doctor favored items that bore the symbol of the question mark.

(And it's not like the Doctor is above stealing his wardrobe. Although Janis Joplin may have given him the overcoat favored by the Tenth Doctor, we've seen the Third Doctor and most recently the Eleventh Incarnation nick their duds.)

The Riddler stole a collection of Moldavian stamps, which could possibly tie him to 'Dynasty' (and from there to 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show', thanks to the televersion of Bette Ford.)

So it's no problem for Avery to have mentioned the Riddler on '30 Rock', as they share the same TV reality.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: LOIS WILSON & BILL W

We've got a Two for Sunday this time out, since tonight CBS is showing a new "Hallmark Hall Of Fame" presentation about the couple behind Alcoholics Anonymous.....

LOIS & BILL WILSON

AS SEEN IN:
"When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story"

AS PLAYED BY:
Winona Ryder as Lois Wilson
Barry Pepper as Bill W

From Wikipedia:
Lois Wilson née Burnham (4 March 1891 – 6 October 1988) was the co-founder of Al-Anon, a support group for the friends and family of alcoholics. She was the wife of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill W. As teenagers, Lois and Bill fell in love. They married in 1918 when Bill was in the Army, shortly before he was sent to Europe. Lois worked as an occupational therapist during his absence. After his return, the couple hoped to start a family, but after several miscarriages she was advised that pregnancy would be dangerous or impossible. Their attempts to adopt children were unsuccessful.

Her marriage to Bill W. began to degrade due to the combination of a series of miscarriages and his drinking problem. Lois began to work on programs to help families of alcoholics after Bill had gone through rehabilitation and founded AA. These efforts led to the founding of Al-Anon, although this was not the first program of its kind.

BILL & LOIS WILSON

AS SEEN IN:
"My Name Is Bill W"

AS PLAYED BY:
James Woods as Bill W
JoBeth Williams as Lois Wilson
BCnU!

TV ON TV: "BITCH HUNTER"

Enjoy it while you can.....

HOLMES & BATMAN

For his "Pic O' The Day", Win Scott Eckert (major domo of the Wold Newton website) recently chose this comic book cover.

I imagine that within the borders of the Wold Newton Universe, such a team-up could be possible. The Batman of WNU would have been operating in the 1940s, and Sherlock Holmes would have been still active, thanks to his use of Royal Queen Bee jelly.

We might be able to employ the same reasoning in Toobworld as well. However, Holmes would have to still be going strong in the 1960's (and there are many Sherlockians who believe him to still be alive), because that's when the TV Batman was operating at his peak in Gotham City.

There were two TV movies about Sherlock Holmes emerging from cryogenic preservation in the 80's and 90's, so those wouldn't count. And they'd have to be delegated to an alternate Toobworld anyway, since Jeremy Brett is recognized as the official Sherlock Holmes for the TV Universe.

We would have to take it on faith that Holmes was able to survive into the 1960's. However, Holmes himself would say taking that on faith would not be logical without empirical evidence. (And Dr. Loveless would say that without doubt mixed in, faith is just flabby sentimentality....)

BCnU!

HAIR ON BROADWAY; THE GREAT TOOB WAY

An interesting blend of Toobworld with the real world this past week on 'Nurse Jackie'. Marion Ross played Renata Ferber, an addled old woman abandoned by her state-paid, full-time caregiver. But Nurse Thor recognized her name, that she did the hair for Broadway musicals like 'Mame', 'Company', and 'Follies'.

A TV character meets a famous historical character - or is even related to them! - and it's accepted, sometimes even expected in the case of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. But that Toobworld should have its own televersions of those Broadway shows... that is cool beans.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: DAME EDNA

Michael Feinstein and "Dame Edna Everage" collaborated on a Broadway show called "All About Me", which ran from Mar 18, 2010 to Apr 4, 2010. The show never jelled as a whole, and had it been just about Feinstein or Dame Edna, the show might have run longer. (I went the first night of previews, there to see just Dame Edna, and the concept of the show worked for that one night only.)

But to commemorate the occasion, here's the televersion of Dame Edna, who's a character in her own right...

DAME EDNA EVERAGE

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Phil Hartman

BCnU!

[My thanks to Mark Thompson for getting me in to see the show!]

EDDIE ALBERT: GALLIFREYAN TIME LORD?

Jane Tranter, who is the executive VP of programming and production at BBC Worldwide, allayed the fears of 'Doctor Who' fans that they would never attempt to make an American version of the Gallifreyan Time Lord.

"It may well be confusing to have a British Doctor and an American Doctor at the same time," she said. "There is only one Doctor, so I don't see that happening."

The thing is, there may have been an American Time Lord on TV, and five years before 'Doctor Who' premiered at that!

I wrote about "The Eddie Albert Show" pilot back in 2005. Here's the basic plot description from IMDb.com: Unsold pilot: In 1958 he made a pilot for an adventure/fantasy series called "The Eddie Albert Show" where he played a reporter searching for amazing stories all over the world, as well as in other times and solar systems.

Nothing's changed since then as to finding out if the pilot was actually made, or only proposed. But wouldn't that have been a cool idea?

BCnU!

PS:
The photo of Eddie Albert is taken from the pilot episode of 'Voyage To the Bottom Of The Sea' - "Eleven Days To Zero".

A LOOK BACK INTO "THE DARK DARK HOURS"

There's a video making the rounds of a long-lost episode of 'General Electric Theater' - "The Dark, Dark Hours" stars Ronald Reagan (who was also the host of the anthology series), Constance Ford, and James Dean as the young punk who terrorizes a doctor and his family. I've seen it posted at the sites for The Huffington Post and The Atlantic.

Here's a compilation video of the scenes between Reagan and Dean, so that you don't have to plow through the whole thing. (I get the feeling that the entire story was very talky and hammy as well.)



James Dean performed in other TV anthology series as well before he hit it big as a movie star. (He certainly couldn't do so afterwards, as he died in a car crash at the age of 24 before two of his three films were released.) So he has a presence in Toobworld as well.

BCnU!

AMERICAN TORCHWOOD TORCHED?

BBC Worldwide Productions has released a statement concerning their attempt to bring an American version of 'Torchwood' to the airwaves here in the States:

“BBC Worldwide Productions and the FOX Broadcasting Company have mutually agreed not to progress together with a 13-episode serialized 'Torchwood' format. We are currently in discussion with several interested networks.”

"It's very much ongoing and very much alive," said Jane Tranter, who is the executive VP of programming and production at BBC Worldwide.

I was on the fence about this. On the one hand, I figured as long as they created all new characters to man the Torchwood US hub, fine. Toobworld could handle the new series. John Barrowman said that he wanted to portray his character of Captain Jack Harkness in the new series, rather than have the producers recast the role. And that would be excellent news - I can never get enough of Captain Jack on my TV!

But if the Captain was recast, then it would have been bye-bye 'Torchwood US' - send us a postcard from whichever alternate TV dimension that took you in.

Then again, I've always seen the Torchwood Institute to be a strictly British organization, even if it is outside the government as Captain Jack claimed.

I could have worked around that though, if I was working on the script. This Torchwood hub could have only just recently arrived in America; it could have been the Torchwood that had gone "missing", which Captain Jack hopefully figured would eventually turn up. Some kind of cross-dimensional slide, perhaps, and when it returned, it was now in the United States of America with the original staff dead or still missing and so a new American team would have to be assembled. That would have been my wish-craft, anyhoo.

Tranter sounds hopeful that they can find another home for the American version of 'Torchwood', and maybe they will. It would certainly fit in with the Syfy Channel, and being on Spike or FX would give them greater freedom to keep their edge.....

BCnU!