ROOM FOR ONE MORE?

I'm writing this on August 20th, 2013.  I think he saw John Hurt in the room.....

THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - THE ZHUKOVS OF 'JAG' & 'DOCTOR WHO'

CAPTAIN ZHUKOV

Captain Zhukov was at the helm of a Soviet nuclear submarine named Firebird in 1983 when the Doctor and Clara arrived via the TARDIS (thinking they were in Las Vegas.)  And a good thing they were there, because the sub had taken in a block of ice that held a cryogenically preserved "Ice Warrior" - one of the reptilian soldiers that once held sway over the planet Mars, at least until 5000 years ago.

SGT. SERGEI ZHUKOV

Zhukov had a sister who lived in the Siberian region of the USSR.  When an American pilot named Harmon Rabb was brought to Russia after being shot down over North Vietnam in 1969, he escaped and was given shelter by Zhukov's sister.  They eventually gave in to their natural desires for each other and she gave birth to his second son, Sergei Zhukov, who would become a sergeant in the Russian army.  (Harmon Rabb's older son and Sergie's half brother was Harmon Rabb, Jr., a Junior Advocate General in the US Navy.)  The sister would eventually die while saving her lover's life.

SHOWS CITED:

'Doctor Who' - Cold War'

'JAG' - 10 episodes during Seasons 6 - 8

BCnU!

AT THE MOVIES - APRIL 10th, 2013

"THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR"

Clara Oswald received a very old letter in the post from Lady Vastra, reaching across the centuries to summon the nanny for a "conference call":

"Assuming this letter reaches you on April the 10th, 2013"

So it was that on Wednesday the Tenth of April when Clara began perhaps her greatest adventure.  While she was gone with Vastra, Jenny, Strax and River Song on her "conference call", the Doctor was looking after the kids.  When he refused their request to go to the cinema, they suggested a game of blind man's bluff.  

But it was a trick.  While he was blindfolded, they took off and went to the cinema anyway.

It was a Wednesday.  Just as in America, movies open on Fridays - and at least since 'Star Wars' in 1977 - on Wednesdays in the UK.

So what opened on Wednesday, April the Tenth of this year?

I think Angie and Archie took off to see an opening day showing of the new Tom Cruise movie, "Oblivion".

It feels right; the type of title that has portent for the events in the episode.

And the kids probably laughed and threw razzberries because they were in on an inside joke.

BCnU!

WHY THE DOCTOR RAN AWAY

TALES OF THE RED LEECH

'Doctor Who'

"The Crimson Horror"

&

'Star Trek'

"The Apple"

& 

'Buffy The Vampire Slayer'

"Once More, With Feeling"

&

'The Memoirs Of Sherlock Holmes'

"The Golden Pince-Nez"

I don't think the red leech started life in the Jurassic Age of the Earth.  I think it was a visitor from another planet.

Specifically, it would be the sixth planet to be found in the Gamma Trianguli system which was located somewhere between the Tholian Assembly and Romulus in the Alpha Quadrant.  This was the planet where an unknown species (probably the Preservers) placed an artificial intelligence - a machine known as Vaal - to serve as a guardian for the planet.  10,000 years later, the original intent of Vaal was corrupted and it was stagnating the development of the humanoid population on Gamma Trianguli VI.

Those humanoids - at least those to be found in the vicinity of Vaal - all had white hair and a reddish hue to their skin.  I don't know what caused them all to have Bea Arthur hairstyles, but I believe their red skin was due to contact with the red leech.  As both were native to that planet, the leech's venom was not poisonous to the humanoids.  However, when it arrived on Earth Prime-Time, that venom did prove to be deadly toxic to the early humans.  

How did it get to Earth?  Stowaway on a visiting starship, perhaps - before Vaal was installed, of course.  They may even have slithered on board the vessel of the Preservers when they constructed Vaal.

Enough of these red leeches must have been hidden away in the cargo hold and escaped when the Preservers made their next stop - on Earth Prime-Time. Those red leeches caused great suffering among the Silurians and were eventually wiped out... except for one escapee.  The same slimy little monster which arrived on Earth in the Jurassic period was the same symbiote suckling on the chest of Mrs. Gillyflower in 1893 AD.

The Doctor:

“Yucky red parasite from the time of the dinosaurs pitches up in Victorian Yorkshire? Didn’t see that one coming.”

How was it able to survive for such a long period of time?  The Doctor surmised during the episode that this might have been due to some outside help, with Mrs. Gillyflower being the latest in a line of accomplices.  (But I think this could be a background reference to the Big Bad of the Great Intelligence.)

One way it could have survived would be by taking a temporal short-cut.  Perhaps it didn't endure the ages; perhaps it entered one of those 'Primeval' wormholes, which let it out at some point in the Victorian era leading up to its encounter with Mrs. Gillyflower.

At some point, I think it may have undergone its own version of pon farr.  

From Memory Alpha:

The pon farr is a Vulcan time of mating and the rituals following it are shrouded under a veil of mystery and secrecy. It is considered to be a very private matter within Vulcan society, so much that only a handful of Starfleet doctors have ever handled it. Amongst themselves, Vulcans find it inappropriate to involve themselves with another's pon farr. 

During pon farr, adult Vulcans undergo a neurochemical imbalance, that takes on a form of madness (culminating in the plak tow). A Vulcan could die within eight days if their pon farr isn't satiated.  Vulcan males (and females, according to T'Pol) experience pon farr every seven years of their adult life. 

Having no other of its own kind on this new planet with whom it could breed, the red leech may have forced itself on a young demoness visiting Earth from her own dimension via a Hellmouth.  This could have resulted in the birth of the demon who was also known as Mr. Sweet (Mrs. Gillyflower's name for her "silent partner".)

The demonic Mr. Sweet is a member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame (October, 2005) and has that same crimson hue as his alleged "father".  And there is just something "wormy" about the way he looks.....

 It was this "Crimson Horror" adventure of the Doctor which was mentioned in Dr. John Watson's story "The Adventure Of The Golden Pince-Nez":

When I look at the three massive manuscript volumes which contain our work for the year 1894, I confess that it is very difficult for me, out of such a wealth of material, to select the cases which are most interesting in themselves, and at the same time most conducive to a display of those peculiar powers for which my friend was famous. As I turn over the pages, I see my notes upon the repulsive story of the red leech and the terrible death of Crosby, the banker.

Holmes investigated the death of the banker Crosby in 1894, but it could have happened a year earlier and it took a while before it came to Holmes' attention.  That Crosby's death was horrible could mean that he was found paralyzed and his skin a reddish hue with a waxy coating.  It's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that Holmes discovered the truth about that red leech but was unable to capture it as it escaped with the help of Mrs. Gillyflower.

(This would tie in with "The Golden Pince-Nez" which was dramatized with Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes and Charles Grey as his brother Mycroft.  Mycroft's involvement instead of Dr. Watson marks a distinction between the official Holmes of Toobworld and the original one from BookWorld.)

Of course, this is all conjecture with nothing to back it up......

BCnU!

THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - FROM ADA GILLYFLOWER TO MILLIE OF BLETCHLEY CIRCLE

'Doctor Who'

"The Crimson Horror"

Ada Gillyflower was the daughter of the maniacal religious fanatic Mrs. Gillyflower in the Yorkshire area.  In 1893, Ada - despite being blind and disfigured - helped the Doctor quash the plans of her mother and her silent partner, Mr. Sweet.

At the end of their adventure, Ada was convinced that a bright young girl such as herself could do well after stepping out of the Dark and into the Light.  And the Doctor predicted that she would have a bright future.

I believe that it was not long after she began her new life that Ada found love with a man who could see beyond her scars and blindness.  And once married, they began a family.....

This is just a theory of relateeveety, but I believe Ada's granddaughter was named Millie and that she worked at Bletchley Circle during WWII.  As far as I can tell, we never learned Millie's last name, but should the series continue and we do learn it, then it could be the same surname as the husband of Ada Gillyflower (which usually means that Millie's father was the son of Ada.)

O'BSERVATION:

Rachel Stirling played both Ada Gillyflower and Millie....

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WHEN "DOCTOR WHO" CELEBRATED ITS 40TH ANNIVERSARY

WHY THE ZYGONS ARE ESSENTIAL FOR TOOBWORLD

From the TARDIS wiki:

The Zygons were a race of metamorphic humanoids. They originated from the planet Zygor, but often tried to migrate away from it. ("Terror of the Zygons")

The Zygons have shape-shifting abilities, allowing them to replicate the appearance of another being, but they must keep the subject alive in order to use its body print. This skill was vital in their concealment and in their scheme to seize power despite their small numbers.

The Zygons were also accompanied by an armoured cyborg creature called the Skarasen, the lactic fluid of which was necessary for them to feed. Broton planned to unleash the Skarasen (or Loch Ness Monster as it was known) on an energy conference in London as part of a bid to conquer the Earth.

The plan was foiled and both he and his crew were killed due to the intervention of the Fourth Doctor and the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT), while the Doctor caused the Skarasen to return to Loch Ness. Zygon technology is biological in nature: in essence their ships and equipment are actually alive.

Although they only figured in the one serial so far plus the 50th anniversary special, (mentioned in several other episodes, however), the Zygons are a key reason why 'Doctor Who' must be considered one of the "Essentials" - those TV shows which are vital to the existence of the Toobworld Dynamic.

Have you ever watched a TV show and thought to yourself that a certain character whom you knew so well was no longer acting the way they should?  ("So and So would never do that or say that!")  

If so, we could use the Zygons as the splainin.  The theory would be that the character, long established to act a certain way, was now a Zygon replicant with an ulterior motive.  And that would be why they were now acting differently.

The best part of all is the fact that they needed their test subjects to remain alive in order to maintain the illusion.  So should the character finally return to the way he or she was supposed to be behaving, we could say that the original subject had escaped from the Zygons and returned to their life.  All done off-screen, of course.

The real reason the character's personality or behavior changed could probably be chalked up to a change in the writing staff, but that's behind the scenes.  Isn't this splainin more entertaining?

BCnU!

"WHO" BY NUMBERS

As we go through 2013, I'll be collecting examples of the 'Lost' sequence of numbers which I find in episodes of 'Doctor Who', starting with this one:

1]  Jackson Lake, a man who was accidentally given some of the Doctor's memories, resided at Number 15, Latimer Street. ("The Next Doctor")


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BORN TO RERUN - TWO FROM WESTEROS

Even though I don't personally believe in it, reincarnation is a fact in the Toobworld Dynamic.  Many times it's not just the soul that is "born to rerun" but the physical form as well (which can happen independently of the soul's return.)  And this is not limited to just the inhabitants of Earth Prime-Time - the souls of aliens can be reborn into humans and vice versa.

(The Minbari believed in this; they thought their souls could be reborn in Terrans, which is why they stopped the war with Earth.  But as events at the 'Babylon 5' space station later showed, this was not the case.)

The planet Mondas used to be the twin of Earth Prime-Time, sharing its orbit and looking much like the younger planet... only upside down.  (Mondas - which means "Earth" in Old Gallifreyan and other ancient languages - was created by God; Earth Prime-Time was an artificial computer.  It was built by the Magratheans, who - according to 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy', specialized in planet-building.)  

Mondas existed long before Earth Prime-Time came into being and it vanished from the solar system around the same time as Mankind was getting a toe-hold on the other big blue marble.  Its inhabitants were basically humanoid - until they traded in their bodies for metallic form.

And it's my contention that several of the people of Mondas were reincarnated on Earth.

I have two examples of reincarnation in which the mind and body were reunited from one world to the next, both of them from the distant past of Mondas, when the Seven Kingdoms were in power on the continent of Westeros.  And both of them involve the same two shows.

1]  JOJEN REED > TIMOTHY LATIMER

Jojen Reed of Mondas was gifted with greensight, which gave him prophetic dreams.  It was his dream of a three-eyed raven trying to free a chained wolf which sent him seeking out Bran and Rickon Stark of Winterfell.  

He was reborn on Earth as Timothy Latimer in the Norfolk region of England in the late 1800s.  Latimer also had a form of second sight, which he was able to use in helping the Time Lord known as the Doctor to defeat the Family of Blood.

SHOWS CITED: 

'Game Of Thrones'

'Doctor Who' - "Family Of Blood" & "Human Nature"

2]  SER DAVOS SEAWORTH > CAPTAIN ZHUKOV

Davos was a sea captain and a smuggler known as the Onion Knight for one particular cargo he smuggled.  He loyally served Lord Stannis Baratheon, but was not afraid to argue some of his decisions - like putting so much trust in the priestess Melisandre.  This eventually led to him being imprisoned as a "traitor".

Davos was reborn, body and soul, as the captain of a Soviet nuclear submarine.  Captain Zhukov's greatest adventure never made it into the history books - in 1983, his submarine the "жар-птица" (the "Firebird") was under attack from a Martian "Ice Warrior", thawed out after thousands of years in the Arctic ice.  It is unknown how the Kremlin might have reacted to the way he handled the situation - especially if they ever found out he had the Time Lord known as the Doctor in his custody and let him go.

SHOWS CITED:

'Game Of Thrones'

'Doctor Who' - "Cold War"

BCnU!