WHO NEWS - JINKX MONSOON

I don't think this will see the light of day until after this "Who's On First" blogAthon.  More news may be released during the coming year and I'll probably add updates.  But I'm not going to speculate as to whom they will be playing.

From Variety:

Jinkx Monsoon, winner of the fifth season of 'RuPaul’s Drag Race' and the seventh season of 'RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,' has been added to the cast of the BBC’s long-running and immensely popular 'Doctor Who' series.

Monsoon is set to be playing a major role in the series.

“In a galaxy of comets and supernovas, here comes the biggest star of all. Jinkx Monsoon is on a collision course with the TARDIS, and ‘Doctor Who’ will never be the same again,” showrunner Russell T Davies said.

“I’m honored, thrilled, and utterly excited to join ‘Doctor Who!’ Russell T Davies is a visionary and a brilliant writer — I can’t wait to get into the weeds with him and the crew! I hope there’s room in the TARDIS for my luggage,” Monsoon said.

UPDATE
[based on the last special, "The Giggle".]

All might be revealed come Christmas*, but I'm guessing Monsoon will be the new Rani.

For the full story, click here.

* O'Bservation - it wasn't.  But a feminine hand was seen picking up the Toymaker's gold tooth which contained the essence of the Master.  So now I'm thinking that was Monsoon and they will be playing the Rani.

I hope that's true, mostly for my friend Mike who really wants to see the return of the Rani....

BANNED BOOKS ON GALLIFREY?

Of course, The Doctor is not supposed to cross his own timestream, so the Third Incarnation wouldn’t know that his future self, the Thirteenth Incarnation, would meet Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley on the night when she was inspired to write about the “modern Prometheus”.

It could be that the High Council of Time Lords banned the “Frankenstein” book from Gallifrey’s libraries and from the curriculum of their various levels of academia.  While they practiced regeneration, revitalizing themselves when they were “mostly dead”, they probably had serious qualms about bringing someone back from being completely dead.

By the way, the Lux Foundation Library planet had to have a copy “Frankenstein” in its massive data storage core, possibly more than one copy, as with any book, in a separate backup drive. 

THE MEDDLING MONK... IN OIL

 

This painting is "A Good Drink", by Eduard von Grützner (Oil on panel) from 1897–1897.

But could it be that the Galifreyan trickster known as the Meddling Monk posed for this a few years before the dawn of the 20th Century?

Why would the Monk have been whiling away the time in Germany by posing for the artist in 1897?  We know he enjoyed disrupting the timeline of the Earth, marking him as a renegade Time Lord. (In his own mind, I believe that he truly thought he was doing so for the greater good.)

Maybe his own Tardis was acting wonky and he arrived too early for the event which he planned to alter in History.  So he was biding his time until the right moment to strike by amusing himself as a model for Mr. von Grützner.

I've looked through the events of the German timeline for 1897, and one jumped out at me as being an interesting choice for a 'Doctor Who' timeline.

October 29 - The birth of Joseph Goebbels. 

Maybe the Monk thought that by causing Goebbels' death as a newborn infant, he could prevent much of the carnage to come.  Perhaps Goebbels would have been the first such victim, with Hitler on his hit list as well.

This possible plot line is reminiscent of the 'Doctor Who' episode "The Fires of Pompeii", in which he sadly had to stop the Pyroviles' plan to prevent the eruption of Mount Vesuvius so that History could play out as intended.

In this case, the Doctor and his Companion would have to make it possible for the Baby Goebbels to survive and eventually grow up to become the chief propagandist for the Nazis in control of Germany, until his scheduled death in May of 1945, as abhorrent as that was to their sense of justice.

As depicted in the painting, the subject doesn't look like the actor who portrayed the Monk, Peter Butterworth.  But in his own personal timeline, he could have sat for von Grützner centuries after we last saw him sparring with the Doctor.  As such, the years had not been kind....

Or maybe he had regenerated.  I expect - and hope - that soon the 'Doctor Who' series will bring back the Monk to be an adversary for the Doctor.

My dream casting for the choice of actor?  Kris Marshall.

Or the difference in appearance could just be artistic license.

A LITTLE ABOUT MYSELF....

It occurs to me that I should have begun this blog-A-thon with a little about me, WHO I am....

 

PRYDONIAN ACADEMY TEACHINGS - A LESSON IN PHILOSOPHY 101

 

FANFICCER'S FRIEND - A COMIC INSPIRATION

Apparently Mrs. Blumfield knew that her husband Carl had been trapped in the past due to a time machine.  It could have been one of his own making, or one that he found abandoned, or he got picked up by The Doctor in the TARDIS and unfortunately died during one of their adventures together back in 1924.  (Which incarnation of The Doctor?  If this newspaper comic inspires you to write fanfic to expand the story, it could be any one of your choosing.)

But I've got a suggestion to get you started – what happened during 1924 which could have gotten Carl killed?

Here are a few historical suggestions from Wikipedia, any one of which could have had an alien influence at work behind the scenes....

• January 25 – The first Winter Olympics, the 1924 Winter Olympics open in Chamonix, in the French Alps.
• April 27 – A group of Alawites kill several nuns in Syria; French troops march against them.
• April 28 – An explosion in a mine at the Wheeling Steel Corporation in Benwood, West Virginia kills 119 men.
• May 4 – The 1924 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies are held in Paris, France.
• May 26 – Harry Grindell Matthews attempts to demonstrate his "death ray" to the War Office in the United Kingdom.
• June 8 – George Mallory and Andrew Irvine are last seen "going strong for the top" of Mount Everest by teammate Noel Odell at 12:50 P.M. The two mountaineers are never seen alive again.
• June 13 – In Hungary, a devastating tornado, "Wildkansas", strikes, in 3 hours leaving a 500-1500m wide and 70 km long path of destruction from landfall at Bia to its end near Vác, completely destroying the village of Páty. 9 people are killed, 50 injured and many left homeless by one of the strongest tornadoes ever not only in Hungary but in Europe, estimated as F4.
• July 19 – Napalpí massacre: Around 400 indigenous people of Toba ethnicity are massacred in Argentina.
• Autumn – In the United States, the final raid of the Renegade period of the Apache Wars takes place, bringing the American Indian Wars to a close, after 315 years.
• December 30 – American astronomer Edwin Hubble announces that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe.

Or you could make up your own.

Mrs. Blumfield’s mention of a time machine seems to lock in that plot point.  But I still get the feeling that this could have been due to a Weeping Angel.

 

COULD RUBY SUNDAY BE A MATA HARI?

This on-location shot shows the crew filming Millie Gibson and Jemma Redgrave meeting as their characters Ruby Sunday and UNIT’s Kate Stewart respectively.

That picture is from January as is the following post....

One of the YouTube Who videographers reported that based on rumors he had heard, Kate Stewart might be actually related to Ruby Sunday.  And then he suggested that she could be playing her grandmother.

Her grandmother?  Jemma Redgrave is 58.  Millie Gibson is 19.  Whoever is the parent of Ruby and the child of Kate, they had to have been 20 at most when they had Ruby, and by extension, Kate would have been 19 when she had Ruby’s parent.

I like the idea of them being related, but not Kate as a grandmother! Ruby’s Aunt, maybe....

The idea that Kate would be related to a Companion sounds too coincidental to be believable.  The Doctor usually meets his Companions by chance. This had to be deliberate. 

Maybe Kate maneuvered Ruby into meeting The Doctor in order to have an inside source. But I don't see her risking a family member like that... unless Ruby is another member of the family who works for UNIT.

That would be a Companion tweak we haven't seen since the days of Turlough, who was working undercover for the Black Guardian. And it probably would work better if the Kate/Ruby family relationship wasn't part of it at all. Just have Ruby be an undercover UNIT trooper.

Just my two quatloos.  I will have a theory on Ruby's mother later today….

THE 2024 WHO'S ON FIRST BLOG-A-THON: INTRODUCTION

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope everybody had a great New Year's Eve?

Welcome to the 16^th anniversary edition of the "Who's On First?" blogAthon.  For the next 24 hours, there will (hopefully) be forty-eight posts about 'Doctor Who', one every half hour.

This round-the-clock celebration of 'Doctor Who' began somewhat modestly - there were only seven "episodes" for that first outing.  But it has grown to the point where for the last couple of years we have tried to present a new blog post about the universe of the Doctor every half hour.   That may not be the case this year.  We'll at least try to get one in every hour.

And I always amaze myself that I find enough topics each year.  But then, I have yet to see every episode of the 59 year old series.

Because of their time-sensitive nature, there were a few posts I published earlier in the year.  Some are just mentions of the Doctor, most of them dealt with the breaking news about the show.  If so, I'll re-post them early in the day's schedule.

This edition will hopefully be special.  (I'm setting up this post on January 9, 2023.)  By November of 2023, we should be celebrating the 60th anniversary of 'Doctor Who'.  If we haven't wiped ourselves out by then.

So here it is - the kick-off to the 2024 edition of 'Who's On First'!  And as always, we begin with the frame grab from 'Robot Chicken' which has become our mascot.... 

By the way, that quote in the picture of the Tenth Incarnation and Martha is from the lyrics of the song "The Toast" by one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Adam Ezra.

Check out the Adam Ezra Group on YouTube; join the Gathering!

TVXOHOF, DECEMBER 2023 - IT'S A WONDERFUL CROSSOVER, PART THREE

For this final installment in the salute to the televersion of the classic holiday film "It's A Wonderful Life", here are the flotsam and jetsam of TV show episodes which confirm the movie's existence in Earth Prime-Time....

from
FAMILY MATTERS
KEATON vs. KEATON

FAVORITE MOVIE OF CERTAIN TV CHARACTERS

"Fame" - Relationships (TV Episode 1983)
Doris Schwartz

"Tales from the Darkside" - Slippage (TV Episode 1984)
Richard Hall 

"Newhart" - The Prodigal Darryl (TV Episode 1985)
One of the two Darryls

"Family Ties" - Keaton vs. Keaton (TV Episode 1987)
Steven and Elyse Keaton

"Days of Our Lives" Episode #1.7167 (TV Episode 1993)
Sami Brady

"Dawson's Creek" - Hurricane (TV Episode 1998)
Mrs. Ryan

"Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" Chapter Eleven: A Midwinter's Tale (TV Episode 2018)
Sabrina Spellman

"2 Broke Girls" - And the Very Christmas Thanksgiving (TV Episode 2011)
Caroline Channing and Mary (Actually, it’s their second favorite)

from
FRIENDS
THE ONE WITH THE BUTT

from
NOT NECESSARILY THE NEWS
(Phil Noir's report on colorization of old movies)

POSTERS

• "Amazing Stories" - Welcome to My Nightmare (TV Episode 1986)
• “Tales from the Crypt" - Loved to Death (TV Episode 1991)
• "Friends" - The One with the Butt (TV Episode 1994)
• "Yellowjackets" Old Wounds (TV Episode 2023)

from
KING OF QUEENS
FOOD FIGHT

VIDEOTAPES/DVDS

• "Melrose Place" - A Melrose Place Christmas (TV Episode 1992)
• "Friends" - The One Where Old Yeller Dies (TV Episode 1996)
• “King of Queens” – Food Fight (TV Episode 2002)
• "The O.C." - The Best Chrismukkah Ever (TV Episode 2003)
• "Mike & Molly" - Karaoke Christmas (TV Episode 2012)

“NOW PLAYING”

• "Grace Under Fire" - The Holidays (TV Episode 1994)
• "How I Met Your Mother" False Positive (TV Episode 2010)

Basically, this last category was really just references and could have been added to the second post in the series.  But I just like the imagery it summoned, reminiscent of the old movie house seen in Bedford Falls.

Which reminds me....  Did you know that Bedford Falls does exist in Earth Prime-Time?

"Not Necessarily the News" Not Necessarily the Year in Review (TV Episode 1990)
Annabelle Gurwitch reports on Christmas in Bedford Falls in connection to the S&L scandal.

And with that, we wrap up this salute to "It's A Wonderful Life" and welcome it to the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.

HEE HAW!

And on a personal note, I just want to wish my baby sister, Leah, the Merriest of Merries and a Happy Krimble.  These three blog posts have been dedicated to her as it's her favorite movie....

DECEMBER, 2023 TVXOF - IT'S A WONDERFUL CROSSOVER PART TWO

We continue the salute to "It's A Wonderful Life" as the latest inductee into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame....

Even if scenes from the movie were never incorporated into various TV shows, there were plenty of mentions of this holiday classic in other shows which validate its existence in Earth Prime-Time.

 

from
'3rd ROCK FROM THE SUN"

  

 
from
'THE MADAME BLANC MYSTERIES'

These TV characters citing the "Lasso the Moon" quote are just two visuals of such lines from the film.  (I have to believe that variations on Zuzu's quote that an angel gets its wings whenever a bell rings must be the most-used reference to the movie overall.)

Here are just some of the other TV shows which make reference to "It's A Wonderful Life":

• "Rumpole of the Bailey" - Rumpole and the Case of Identity (TV Episode 1979)
• ‘St. Elsewhere’ - Santa Claus Is Dead (TV Episode 1985)
• "Remington Steele" - Small Town Steele (TV Episode 1984)
• "St. Elsewhere" - Schwarzwald (TV Episode 1987)
• "Perfect Strangers" - Couch Potato (TV Episode 1987)
• "Cheers" - Take My Shirt... Please? (TV Episode 1986)
• "Cheers" - Christmas Cheers (TV Episode 1987)
• "Newhart" - Shoe Business Is My Life (TV Episode 1989)
• "Murphy Brown" Phil's Not So Silent Partner (TV Episode 1992)
• "Quantum Leap" - It's a Wonderful Leap: May 10, 1958 (TV Episode 1992)
• "Roseanne" - It's No Place Like Home for the Holidays (TV Episode 1992)
• "Roseanne" - The Parenting Trap (TV Episode 1994)
• "Wings" - The Customer's Usually Right (TV Episode 1992)
• "Wings" Happy Holidays (TV Episode 1993)
• "Nurses" - Jumpin' Jack Flash (TV Episode 1993)
• "Married... with Children" - The Worst Noel (TV Episode 1993)
• "The Nanny" - Christmas Episode (TV Episode 1993)
• "The Nanny" - Ode to Barbra Joan (TV Episode 1994)
• "Baywatch" - The Life You Save (TV Episode 1994)
• "Due South" - One Good Man (TV Episode 1996)
• "Everybody Loves Raymond" - Look Don't Touch (TV Episode 1996)
• "Caroline in the City" - Caroline and the Monkeys (TV Episode 1997)
• "Caroline in the City" - Caroline and the Decanter (TV Episode 1997)
• "Caroline in the City" - Caroline and the Fright Before Christmas (TV Episode 1998)
• "Millennium" - Midnight of the Century (TV Episode 1997)
• "Melrose Place" - A Tree Talks in Melrose (TV Episode 1997)
• "Team Knight Rider" - Home Away from Home (TV Episode 1998)
• "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" - Christmas Amnesia (TV Episode 1998)
• "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" - Dream a Little Dreama Me (TV Episode 1999)
• "Jonathan Creek" - The Curious Tale of Mr. Spearfish (TV Episode 1999)
• "Dawson's Creek" - Weekend in the Country (TV Episode 2000)
• "Dawson's Creek" - ...Must Come to an End (TV Episode 2003)
• "Farscape" - Won't Get Fooled Again (TV Episode 2000
• "The Zack Files" - It's a Wonderful School (TV Episode 2000)
• "The Wonderful World of Disney" - Santa Who? (TV Episode 2000)
• "Twice in a Lifetime" - The Night Before Christmas (TV Episode 2000)
• "Angel" - Epiphany (TV Episode 2001)
• "The Drew Carey Show" - What's Wrong with This Episode IV (TV Episode 2001)
• "Just Shoot Me!" - The Two Faces of Finch: Part 2 (TV Episode 2001)
• "Friends" - The One with Ross's Step Forward (TV Episode 2001)
• "Gilmore Girls" - Richard in Stars Hollow (TV Episode 2002)
• "Teachers" - Episode #2.10 (TV Episode 2002)
• "Everwood" - Friendly Fire (TV Episode 2002)
• "The West Wing" - Game On (TV Episode 2002)
• "Scrubs" - My Big Brother (TV Episode 2002)
• "8 Simple Rules" All I Want for Christmas (TV Episode 2002)
• "JAG" All Ye Faithful (TV Episode 2002)
• "The Practice" - Choirboys (TV Episode 2003)
• "That '70s Show" - Winter (TV Episode 2004)
• "EastEnders" - Episode #1.2941 & Episode #1.2944 (TV Episode 2005)
• "Bewegte Männer" - Das Wunder von Köln (TV Episode 2005)
• "Smallville" - Lexmas (TV Episode 2005)
• "One Tree Hill" - Pictures of You (TV Episode 2007)
• "Reaper" - Charged (TV Episode 2007)
• "Nip/Tuck" Duke Collins (TV Episode 2007)
• "House" Joy to the World (TV Episode 2008)
• "30 Rock" Christmas Special (TV Episode 2008)
• "How I Met Your Mother" The Front Porch (TV Episode 2009)
• "Sonny with a Chance" Sonny with a Chance of Dating (TV Episode 2009)
• "Parks and Recreation" Ron and Tammy (TV Episode 2009)
• "Californication" The Apartment (TV Episode 2009)
• "Supernatural" Abandon All Hope (TV Episode 2009)
• "Supernatural" Caged Heat (TV Episode 2010)
• "Supernatural" I'm No Angel (TV Episode 2013)
• "Psych" The Polarizing Express (TV Episode 2010)
• "iCarly" iPity the Nevel (TV Episode 2011)
• "General Hospital" Episode #1.12275 (TV Episode 2011)
• "General Hospital" Episode #1.12637 (TV Episode 2012)
• "General Hospital" Episode #1.13981 (TV Episode 2017)
• "Bones" The Finder (TV Episode 2011)
• "Gossip Girl" Petty in Pink (TV Episode 2011)
• "90210" O Holly Night (TV Episode 2011)
• "Warehouse 13" The Greatest Gift (TV Episode 2011)
• "The Closer" Relative Matters (TV Episode 2011)
• "Glee" Extraordinary Merry Christmas (TV Episode 2011)
• "Rules of Engagement" Audrey's Shower (TV Episode 2012)
• "The Newsroom" Amen (TV Episode 2012)
• "Sparkling Girls" Episode #1.98 (TV Episode 2012)
• "Castle" Secret Santa (TV Episode 2012)
• "Castle" The Time of Our Lives (TV Episode 2014)
• "The Office" Dwight Christmas (TV Episode 2012)
• "Glee" Glee, Actually (TV Episode 2012)
• "Holliston" The Christmas Special (TV Episode 2012)
• "NCIS" You Better Watch Out (TV Episode 2012)
• "Arrested Development" Colony Collapse (TV Episode 2013)
• "Modern Family" The Big Game (TV Episode 2013)
• "Raising Hope" Murder, She Hoped & The Chance Who Stole Christmas (Both TV Episodes 2013)
• "The Big Bang Theory" The Cooper Extraction (TV Episode 2013)
• "Anger Management" Charlie and the Christmas Hooker (TV Episode 2013)
• Veronica Mars (2014) (The movie sequel to the series, but absorbed into the TV Universe)
• "Mom" Forged Resumes and the Recommended Dosage (TV Episode 2014)
• "Mom" Higgledy-Piggledy and a Cat Show (TV Episode 2019)
• "Hot in Cleveland" Cold in Cleveland: The Christmas Episode (TV Episode 2014)
• "The Hotwives of Las Vegas" You Make Me Wanna Drought (TV Episode 2015)
• "Scandal" Baby, It's Cold Outside (TV Episode 2015)
• "The Originals" Savior (TV Episode 2015)
• "Person of Interest" .exe (TV Episode 2016)
• "The Flash" Flashpoint (TV Episode 2016)
• "Arrow" What We Leave Behind (TV Episode 2016)
• "Snowfall" Baby Teeth (TV Episode 2017)
• "Absentia" The Emily Show (TV Episode 2017)
• "Ash vs Evil Dead" Unfinished Business (TV Episode 2018)
• "Maniac" Larger Structural Issues (TV Episode 2018)
• "Fresh Off the Boat" Cousin Eddie (TV Episode 2018)
• "Criminal Minds" Night Lights (TV Episode 2019)
• "Riverdale" Chapter Fifty-Eight: In Memoriam (TV Episode 2019)
• "Mr. Robot" 404 Not Found (TV Episode 2019)
• "Fuller House" Ready Player Fuller (TV Episode 2019)
• "Young Sheldon" Contracts, Rules and a Little Bit of Pig Brains (TV Episode 2020)
• "Coronation Street" Episode #1.10000 (TV Episode 2020)
• "Amazing Stories" The Heat (TV Episode 2020)
• "DC's Legends of Tomorrow" The One Where We're Trapped on TV (TV Episode 2020)
• "Euphoria" Trouble Don't Last Always (TV Episode 2020)
• "Last Man Standing" Meatless Mike (TV Episode 2021)
• "NCIS: New Orleans" Once Upon a Time & Choices (Both TV Episodes 2021)
• "Dynasty" Everything Looks Wonderful, Joseph (TV Episode 2021)
• Days of Our Lives: A Very Salem Christmas (2021)
• "9-1-1" In Another Life (TV Episode 2023)

As ingrained as the movie is in most people’s minds, not everybody can remember the details exactly….

"Lou Grant" - Libel (TV Episode 1980)
Lou recalled Janet Hart starring in "It's a Wonderful Town" with James Stewart. Donovan tells him that the film was called "It's a Wonderful Life" and starred Donna Reed.

“Beverly Hills 90210” – It’s A Totally Happening Life (TV Episode 1992)
I don’t know who the blonde girl was in this scene – I didn’t watch this show.  But she must have been the cliché of a true blonde – she thought the star of ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ was Cary Grant.

We've got one last post for this celebration of the latest member of the TVXOHOF.

And as with the first post, I'm dedicating this to my sister Leah.  (She's also my goddaughter.)  "It's A Wonderful Life" is her favorite movie....