Friday, January 10, 2020

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS 01/10/20 - CHARLIE THE DRUNK




Last August, the Television Crossover Hall of Fame inducted Corporal Randolph Agarn of ‘F Troop’ and his amazingly powerful DNA which accounted for not only his identical relatives in that series but for all of the other characters played by Larry Storch in the main Toobworld.

Mr. Storch’s birthday was two days ago – he turned 97!  So in honor of his birthday, we’re inducting another of his TV characters into the TVXOHOF, someone whom Toobworld Central considers to be part of the Agarn family tree.

This is what I wrote during that “ceremony” for Corporal Agarn:

Not only am I considering Charlie for the Agarn family tree, but he’ll also be a Friday Hall of Famer in January of 2020 when we celebrate the Classics.



“Charlie” should be well-known to the visitors of a certain police station in the Bronx….

Charlie Adamopolis
‘Car 54, Where Are You?’


In my theory of relateeveety, Agarn had gone back to Passaic, New Jersey, and married a hometown girl.  And he probably had daughters, or perhaps even just one daughter who gave Agarn a lot of granddaughters.  They all married and took their husbands’ names, which would be the name of all their sons who resembled their great-grandfather. 

So that’s why we never see any other characters from the 1960s to the 1990s who are named Agarn.


One of these Agarn great-grandchildren would have been born of the union between one of Agarn’s granddaughters and an American of Greek descent by the name of Adamopolis.

I guess it could be said that Life wasn’t kind to Charles Adamopolis.  He eventually became known as “Charlie the Drunk”.  He haunted the precinct house on Tremont Avenue in the Bronx, but eventually he went out West where he would later be found in San Francisco before he drifted down the coast to San Diego.

Here are the TV show appearances which qualify Charlie Adamopolis for membership in the Hall.

Car 54, Where Are You?
That’s Show Business


From the IMDb:
Muldoon's sister Peggy lands a part in the play "Waiting for Wednesday" and the boys of the 53rd Precinct become financial backers before learning that it's a gritty play about police brutality.  

Pretzel Mary

From the IMDb:
The boys finally bust a nasty nuisance in the Park - "Pretzel Mary". When they see her deplorable living conditions they replace her furniture - not realizing what they're taking away.  

Here Comes Charlie

From the IMDb:
The boys of the 53rd Precinct attempt to help rehabilitate chronically drunk Charlie by finding him a job where he won't be tempted to drink, but the officers' regular visits to check up on Charlie have an unnerving effect on his teetotalist coworkers. A Larry Storch tour de force!  


Phyllis
- Off the Bench
(1976)
... Bum

From the IMDb:
Phyllis's bum friend Van has a crush on a higher class woman, Lucille. Phyllis tries to clean him up to make him into a more presentable gentleman.

O’Bservation:
Van ends up giving his new clothes to another bum in exchange for that hobo’s duds.  That other bum would be Charlie.


CPO Sharkey
- A Wino Is Loose
(1977)
... The Bum

From the IMDb:
When a homeless drunk enters the barracks and makes himself at home, Sharkey is livid. And nothing that the men do dislodges the man from his comfy quarters.

O’Bservation:
You can’t dissuade me from claiming that this bum was Charlie as well.

Here’s what I wrote about those last two episodes when Corporal Agarn was inducted into the Hall:

Neither of these two bums were given names in those two episodes, so I’m going to claim that they are not only the same man, spending time in San Francisco before traveling down the coast to San Diego, but also that he’s actually Charlie Adamopolis who used to haunt the 53rd Precinct in the Bronx.

Welcome to the Hall, Charlie.  Hats off to you….


Monday, January 6, 2020

SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE LIVING FICTIONAL



'THE FATHER DOWLING MYSTERIES'
"THE CONSULTING DETECTIVE MYSTERY"


SHERLOCK HOLMES:
I am in fact precisely whom I appear to be - Sherlock Holmes.

FATHER DOWLING:
But Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character!  
You can't be him! You can't be here!

SHERLOCK HOLMES:
Yet I am here.

FATHER DOWLING:
How is that impossible?

SHERLOCK HOLMES:
You summoned me.

FATHER DOWLING:
I did?

SHERLOCK HOLMES:
Not perhaps by conscious thought; 
yet you sought my counsel as you have so many times before.  
But this time there was a difference.

FATHER DOWLING:
What difference?

SHERLOCK HOLMES:
You must have heard it said that certain... 
fictional characters are so real to their readers that they come alive.

FATHER DOWLING:
Yes.

SHERLOCK HOLMES:
Your belief in my deductive methods - and me - made me real.  
But yesterday your faith in my methods was shaken.

FATHER DOWLING:
More than that.... Wait a minute! 
Are you saying that if I stop believing in you, you'll cease to exist?

SHERLOCK HOLMES:
Precisely.  And that is why I am here: 
to help restore your belief in my methods... and me.


From the wiki for "The Librarians":
Fictionals are a race of magical beings summoned from stories encountered in the second season of the Librarians.

According to Jenkins there are two main types of Fictionals; those that can be summoned by powerful magic and those that come into being of their own accord. The second type are iconic characters whose stories are both well written and well known.

Though rare in the modern day, Jenkins believed there was most likely a small group of Fictionals living in the modern world; their magical existence sustained by the fame and acclaim of their stories. Also, and thankfully, most of them don't cause too much trouble; the Library has also struggled to keep track of them. Flynn commented he had always heard about them but had never actually met one.

Generally, Fictionals do not adapt well to the world outside their stories; Jenkins explained that their minds are only as complex has what their creator wrote meaning they may not be able to understand little if anything outside their stories. Fictionals from older or well written stories tend to have a better time adapting.

Fictionals are bound by their stories, but also empowered by them.

Outside of defeating them in the way their story dictates a Fictional can be destroyed if the specific book they appeared from is destroyed.



This incarnation of Holmes was a fictional, summoned by Father Dowling.  And the priest was the only person who could see him... at first.  But he was fully realized at least as far as Frank Dowling was concerned - to the point that Holmes drove a car with the priest riding shotgun.


This Holmes was summoned out of a specific book - Father Dowling's copy of "The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes".

And it's that book as seen in this episode which helps buttress the claim that in Toobworld, Dr. John H. Watson actually did chronicle the cases which Holmes investigated.

Here's how the title page looked in the episode:


There is no mention of Dr. Watson as the author, true.  But then again, the name of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle isn't seen either.  Doyle wasn't mentioned at all during the case.  If it weren't for the fact that Fictional Holmes' existence was dictated by the boundaries established in the book, I'd say he made a convincing case for Watson to be the true author:

SHERLOCK HOLMES:
Dr. Watson rarely chose to chronicle my failures.

But I'll settle for there being no Zonk in this episode.  Small victories.....

BCnU!

O'BSERVATIONS:

  • This is my annual celebration of Sherlock Holmes, one of the greatest and most recognizable literary characters in all of history, and by extension, his best portrayal in the greater TV Universe - that by Jeremy Brett.  
  • And why today?  Because it is generally accepted by Sherlockians that the birthday of Sherlock Holmes was January 6 and he was born in 1854.
      
  • This post was written In April of 2017.  Hey, when you only honor the Great Detective one day of the year, those stories tend to pile up......

Friday, January 3, 2020

TVXOHOF FOR JANUARY 2020 - SGT. ERNIE BILKO


It’s a new year and it’s time to get down to business with the Television Crossover Hall of Fame now that the holidays are over.

There is no general theme to the monthly showcase spot this year, but we’re adding a new twist for 2021.  (We’ll see how long it can last.) With the Friday Hall of Famers, the last Friday of the month will be celebrating a TV show which not only originated in Earth Prime, but which also existed as a TV show within Earth Prime-Time. Of course that means there will be Zonks a-plenty to deal with, but it should be interesting.

Meanwhile we’ve got the January Showcase to announce....

January is our Classic TV month and my only regret with this new member Is that I didn’t get around to inducting him years earlier!

M/SGT. ERNIE BILKO

From the Phil Silvers Show site:
Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko (Ernie)  Service number: RA 15042699.  Ernest G. Bilko, known to one and all as Ernie, was a master sergeant who would go to any lengths to beat the system, be it by conniving, bluffing, cheating, gambling, lying, fenagling or any other devious device known only to him. No sharper operator ever existed than Bilko, no one more capable of fleecing his fellow man or forcing even the top brass at the Pentagon to quake in their shiny boots.


No one was beyond or safe from a Bilko operation - he could smell money, and he had all human life worked out, being capable not only of predicting the thoughts of others but calculating how long it would take people to think them. But Ernie Bilko had two crucial weaknesses: like all gambling addicts, he could never resist one last bet, and, down, deep down, deep deep down, resided a conscience that prevented him from making the final, ultimate move which would garner him his life's goals: wealth and physical comfort. For all his efforts, Ernie would never win.  


Ernie ran the Motor Pool unit at two US Army camps, firstly at Fort Baxter, Roseville, Kansasand latterly at Camp Fremont, Grove City, California. Nominally the posts were run by Colonel Hall but Bilko was really in charge. He was the man who made the posts work with clockwork precision with the mere click of his fingers. The colonel would have loved to have got rid of Ernie Bilko, but he recognized immediately that Ernie was an essential part of the status quo that granted him, mostly, an easy life.



For more, click here:

Here are the shows and TV specials which qualified Bilko for membership:


1955
The New Recruits
M / Sgt. Ernest G. Bilko

From the IMDb:
This is the unaired pilot for ‘The Phil Silvers Show’/’You'll Never Get Rich’. This episode is known as “The Audition Show” and is titled “The New Recruits”, which was later re-filmed with the same title and a few different actors in different roles. The re-filmed, more polished version later aired as the first episode of the ‘You'll Never Get Rich’ TV series.

O’BSERVATION
That original pilot is how the world’s timeline originally played out before it was tampered with by any number of interfering time travelers before 1955 – everyone from Helen Cutter to the Doctor from Sam Beckett to Tony Newman and Doug Phillips.  It could have been a combination of factors from them all to account for the changes between the original pilot and the episode that later aired.


1955-1959
The Phil Silvers Show
MSgt. Ernest G. Bilko
143 episodes

From Wikipedia:
‘The Phil Silvers Show’, originally titled ‘You'll Never Get Rich’, is a sitcom which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959. A pilot called "Audition Show" was made in 1955, but never broadcast. 143 other episodes were broadcast – all half-an-hour long except for a 1959 one-hour live special. The series starred Phil Silvers as Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko of the United States Army.


1959
Keep in Step
Sgt Ernest G 'Ernie' Bilko

From the IMDb:
Spun-off from ‘The Phil Silvers Show’ (1955)
Bilko learns that a movie is to be made about him - but just who will play him?



From CBS
In 1959 Phil Silvers appeared as Sgt. Bilko with Diana Dors in "The Phil Silvers Pontiac Special: Keep in Step."  


It feels as though there should be more credits for Bilko, but that could be due to Ernie serving as the template upon which future Phil Silvers characters found their inspiration – Harry Grafton, Harold Hecuba, Shifty Shafer, and over in the Cineverse, Otto Meyer.

Bilko with fellow TVXOHOF member Ed Sullivan

Welcome to the TVXOHOF, Sergeant.  I’m sure you’ll find the poker room on your own.  Bret and Bart Maverick with Brady Hawkes and even your old buddy Corporal Rocco Barbella will be ready to test your skills at the table…..


This post is dedicated to two FB friends over in the United Kingdom - Steve Everitt and Mick Clews in honor of everything they do to keep the flame for Bilko burning over there.

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

WHOVIANS OF THE HAT SQUAD 2019



THIS IS  A WORK IN PROGRESS....


"The Hat Squad" was the name of a short-lived detective series years ago but I have purloined the title for my tributes to those in the TV business who have passed away during the year.  (I publish the list every New Year's Eve here in the blog.)  For me, it's a reference to my tip of the hat to all of the people who contributed to this fictional world of the Toob.

This year, there seemed to be quite a few who had connections to "the Whoniverse."  I don't know if there were more than usual - Time may be wibbly-wobbly, but it still marches on and so there will always be 'Doctor Who' personnel lost as we travel forward to six decades of the show, one second at a time.

The list will begin with the actors from the show.  (I'm not including myself, but there are people out there who are only interested in the characters onscreen.)  These aren't exactly obituaries, but instead a rundown of the characters they played.  With the people behind the scenes, there will be more of a look at their credits.

Most of the character descriptions come from the TARDIS wiki.

Sadly, let the tributes begin.....


W. MORGAN SHEPPARD

[August 24, 1932 - January 6, 2019]

CANTON EVERITT DELAWARE III -  In 2011, Canton was invited by a future version of the Doctor to the place where the Doctor would be shot and killed. There he met River, Amy and Rory again, told them that it was definitely the Doctor who was shot and that he was really dead. He left them gasoline to burn the Doctor's corpse; the Doctor had secretly used a Teselecta duplicate to fake his own death, and the gasoline barely singed it. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut, The Wedding of River Song) Canton also told them that he wouldn't see them again, but they would see him. This was before they were going to meet his younger self later in their personal timelines. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)  


DEL HENNEY
[July 24, 1934 - January 14, 2019]

COLONEL ARCHERColonel Archer was an officer in the British Army.  He was in command of the bomb disposal squad sent with Professor Laird to investigate a threat discovered in the London docklands — namely strange canisters discovered by builders in a warehouse. This turned out to be samples of the Movellan virus sent by the Daleks to Earth in 1984 for safekeeping.  Archer was killed by Lytton's "policemen" and replaced by a Dalek duplicate, which was killed fighting Daleks loyal to Davros. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)  

WINDSOR DAVIES
[August 28, 1930 - January 17, 2019]

TOBYToby was a criminal hired by Arthur Terrall to kidnap Jamie McCrimmon.  He took Terrall's keys and sneaked into Maxtible's laboratory and snooped in some of the boxes. Also in the room, was a Dalek, which exterminated him before he could get away from it. (TV: The Evil Of The Daleks)

CLIVE SWIFT
[February 9, 1936 - February 1, 2019]

MR. COPPERMr Copper was an employee aboard the Titanic who met the Tenth Doctor and Astrid Peth. Mr Copper was a travelling salesman, but he reached retirementwith little to show for a life's work. He pretended to have a first-class degree in "Earthonomics" to get the job of Ship Historian. In reality, he had been a student at Mrs Golightly's Happy Travelling University and Dry Cleaners. 
After the near-destruction of the vessel, the Doctor allowed him to live in 21st century England. (TV: Voyage Of The Damned)


SHEENA MARSHE
[dates unknown]
"BIG NOSE KATE" - Kate Fisher or Kate Elder was a singer at the Last Chance Saloon in Tombstone, Arizona and the girlfriend of Doc Holliday. 
  After the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Kate and Holliday left Tombstone together. (TV: The Gunfighters)    "Big Nose Kate" was an alias, with Mary Cummings being her real name.
  


THEORIES OF RELATEEVEETY - "DOCTOR WHO" & "OUTLANDER"


With my theories of “relateeveety,” I make familial connections between two TV characters from different TV series which normally don’t have any connection to each other.  These family trees then provide that theoretical connection.  I usually make these connections between two characters who were portrayed by the same actor.  If those characters share the same period in the timeline, I usually suggest my own version of that television trope of the “identical cousins”.  But for my darker vision of that concept, it’s not like ‘The Patty Duke Show’, where Patty and Cathy Lane were identical cousins because their fathers were identical twins (Martin and Kenneth Lane.)  Usually in Toobworld, the reason goes back a generation for examples of infidelity – most times a cheating husband, but sometimes a wife who strays as well. 

And in Toobworld, telegenetics is strong; exact combinations of DNA strands can repeat several times over in a family’s lineage.  (This was made television fact with one episode of ‘Simon And Simon’, as we saw ancestors of Rick and AJ Simon down through the ages and each pair of them looked exactly like the Simon brothers.

But I don’t always have to use exact duplicates because of the actor playing both roles to come up with such a theory.  There could be just a hint of a resemblance between two characters, or even just the same surname for me to find such inspiration.

And so it is in this case….


From the ‘Outlander’ wiki:
William Ransom is the son of Geneva Dunsany and Jamie Fraser. Legally, he is the son and heir of Ludovic Ransom, Eighth Earl of Ellesmere, who was his mother's husband at the time of his birth.  (Both of his parents – meaning Ludovic Ransom and not Jamie Fraser - died soon after William’s birth.)

Since the age of six, William has been raised by Lord John Grey, his legal guardian and husband of Geneva's sister, Isobel Dunsany.



Full name
William Clarence Henry George Ransom

Born
January 9, 1758

Also known as
Willie
William James
Lord Ellesmere

Titles
Ninth Earl of Ellesmere
Viscount Ashness
Master of Helwater
Baron Derwent

As a child he was spoiled and hotheaded, as perhaps befits a young earl.  

Actor Clark Butler portrays Young Willie in the Season Three episode, “Of Lost Things”, in the ‘Outlander’ television adaptation. Oliver Finnegan portrays Willie in the Season Four episode, “Blood of My Blood”.  


Before we move on to who might be the descendants of young Lord Ellsmere, let’s take a look along the family tree’s past.

One of those titles jumps out at me which could serve as a theoretical link to another TV series.  Granted, young William is not related by blood to the character, but he has inherited the title which may have come from him.

For Toobworld Central, the official version of the legend of Robin Hood is from the 1950s series ‘The Adventures Of Robin Hood’ (despite the fact Richard Greene’s title outlaw looks like he went to a 1950s barbershop for that hairstyle.  (I’m still open to the idea that his Robin of Locksley was indeed a time traveler.)


In his band of Merry Men, there was the de rigeur comic relief – Cedric Derwent, of whom I’ve written about in the past.  (If you’re interested, click here.)

This is just a conjectural theory, mind, (but then that’s what most of Toobworld is!), but it could be that after King Richard came home from the Crusades he absolved all of Robin’s band of Merry Men and appointed them with titles when he returned Robin to his rightful place as the hair to the Locksley estate.


If so, the then title of Baron Derwent has been an honorific passed down from Cedric Derwent in the 12th Century to Ludovic Ransom in the 18th Century and now it has passed on to his son.


In the TV series of ‘Outlander’, we’ve only seen William Ransom as a baby and as a twelve year old.  We may yet see him again as a 21 year old should the series continue through the run of Diana Gabaldon’s book series.  (And I see no reason why Starz would discontinue it.)  I don’t know what the future holds for the Master of Helwater, but even should he die young, William might still have planted his seed somewhere to insure a continuation of the family tree.  (Just as is the case with the saloon gals of the wild, wild West, it is for genealogical situations such as this when serving wenches and scullery maids come in handy for televisiological research.)

There are two TV characters who may be descended from William Ransom, one legitimately and the other from an extramarital liaison.  Let’s deal with the “official” offspring first.  It’s kind of boring so let’s get it out of the way.

Since William Ransom did return to the American colonies, it could be that he did put down some roots there.  If so, one of his descendants could have been Hope Ransome,

‘INSPECTOR LEWIS’
“THE POINT OF VANISHING”



While investigating the deaths of two men and the possible suicide of another, Lewis had to talk with Hope Ransome, the daughter of the American Secretary of State.
If William Ransom did have descendants in the later United States, it could be that – while not of royalty, O’Bviously – the family maintained their high placement in society with the wealth and influence that might garner.  And along the way, they altered the family surname as well, adding the “e” (perhaps to differentiate it from the common usage of such an unpleasant word.)

As you can see from this picture of Hope Ransome with Inspector Lewis, she still showed some slight evidence of Jamie Fraser’s contribution to the Ransom bloodline.

One other O’Bservation – “The Vanishing Point” was broadcast in April of 2009.  By that point in the timelines for both Earth Prime and Earth Prime-Time, Hilary Clinton was the American Secretary of State.  Had she been more invisible to public scrutiny, we might have been able to ignore this discrepancy between the two universes.  But her position in the world was referenced in other TV shows, so we have to accept that she was the Secretary of State in the main Toobworld. (In the alternate dimension of ‘Madam Secretary’, we have no choice in the matter – Mrs. Clinton showed up as her own televersion, now a former Secretary of State, along with Colin Powell and Madeline Albright.)

Now.  Let’s get to why we’re running this theory of relateeveety in the ‘Who’s On First’ blogathon!

‘DOCTOR WHO’
“HUMAN NATURE”

In 1913, Martha watches in jealousy from afar as The Doctor learns what it is to be human and to fall in love with the local school nurse, Joan Redfern. 

“FAMILY OF BLOOD”
The Doctor must deal with the repercussions of his decision to become human, as The Family Of Blood unveil themselves...  

(Summaries from the IMDb)


Among the people encountered by the Doctor and his Companion Dr. Martha Jones was Master Tim Latimer, a student at that school.  And I’m making the claim that he is descended from William Ransom as well.

From the TARDIS wiki:
Tim Latimer was a schoolboy who attended Farringham School for Boys in 1913. His history master was John Smith.


The fob watch containing the Tenth Doctor's Time Lord essence communicated with him and instructed him. It could do this because Latimer had low level telepathic abilities it could access. It also granted him a vision of the First World War which he used to escape a shell at a critical moment. After the Family of Blood was defeated, the Doctor let Latimer have his watch to look after and for good luck. He fought in World War I and survived. Like the Doctor, he did not like violence and refused to use a gun when the Scarecrows attacked, responding to a call of "Coward!" with "Yes sir! Every time!" an echo of the Doctor's answer to the question "Are you coward or killer?".


As a boy during his school days, Tim feared being bullied for his intellect, so he made sure to make his grades just good enough. He shared a similar belief in not fighting others, especially if they were poorly armed to combat him, just like the Doctor. He respected the Doctor thanks to what he learned of him, yet still feared the darkness within him.


Many years later, the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones saw him again as an old man, a veteran at a Remembrance Day ceremony. He still recognized them and silently acknowledged them, with tears in his eyes. (TV: Human Nature / The Family of Blood)

This was a theory of relateeveety that came to me because Lord William kind of resembles young Master Latimer.  They are hardly identical cousins but I think there is some similarity in the facial features of the actors Oliver Finnegan (William) and Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Tim).



I also can see a slight resemblance to Chip Douglas whose 'My Three Sons' family has Scottish roots.  But that's a blog post for another day.

Any other TV characters – as long as they are located in the main Toobworld – by the names of Ransom/Ransome and Latimer could be deemed kin to Lord William Ransom.

That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.


Allonsy!

GAME OF ZONKS - A WHOLE LOTTA WHO LATTE


May 6, 2019



From CNN:
What's this? Oh, just a coffee cup. A coffee cup on a table in the great hall of Winterfell in the fictional, very coffee-less realm of Westeros.

Sharp-eyed viewers noticed the anachronism during Sunday night's episode of "Game of Thrones," and, well, it's going to be a long time before anyone lets this mistake go.

Each Season 8 episode reportedly cost $15 million to make, so the fact that a grande mocha from Starbucks or whatever passed so many eyes and so many levels of experts and edits is very hilarious. That coffee cup is Arya Stark levels of sneaky.

Twitter is convinced it's a Starbucks cup, but it really could be from anywhere.


O'Bservation - Personally, I think it came from the craft services table.


There is nothing new about anachronistic items finding their way into ancient time periods of Toobworld.  But in most of those other cases, they were placed there deliberately as a joke point of reference in TV commercials.  These blipverts include


Pepsi


FedEx


Capital One


Bud Light



M&Ms
(The Dirty Dealer meant no harm.)

Image result for flintstones winston
Winston Cigarettes
(Although granted, that was in the Tooniverse.  Anything goes over there!)

It’s been the Toobworld Central position that these were all caused by one of the oldest ‘frienemies” of the Time Lord known as the Doctor – the Meddling Monk.  After two run-ins with the First Incarnation of the Doctor when he was trying to make grand scale alterations to the timeline of the Earth, the Monk must have decided to make small, subtle changes that would pass unnoticed at first until it was too late to revert back to the original timeline.  And he chose to introduce modern day innovations into those simpler times.


In this particular case, the Monk has mixed things up a bit – he – put that cup of coffee into the feast hall of Winterfell, one of the kingdoms in the North.  But as far as Toobworld Central is concerned, the contnent of Westeros is to be found on the planet of Mondas, Earth’s twin world from the stories of ‘Doctor Who’.

How it changed the timeline of Mondas, I know not.  Its original timeline was bad enough!  But maybe the discovery of the addictive qualities of the cocoa bean accelerated the desire of the inevitable Cybermen to reach Earth sooner.

Luckily the Doctor was there to go back in Time to “put right what once went wrong.”


By the way, that had to have happened – HBO has announced that the offending coffee cup has already been digitally erased from the episode. What does that mean within the reality of the show?

Time travel!

My thanks to Lucas Garrett, one of my Facebook crossover buddies for that meme.


Se voktys hen jēda iksin kesīr!


THE DOCTOR ON VULCAN.... INDEED. (A CONTINUING O'BSERVATION)




'DOCTOR WHO'
"POWER OF THE DALEKS"


I.
The TARDIS arrives on the Earth colony of Vulcan where the newly-regenerated Doctor assumes the identity of an Earth Examiner.
II.
While the Doctor worries about the inert Daleks in the capsules, Lesterson makes plan to reactivate one of them.
III.
The Doctor fails to convince the colonists of the danger posed by the Daleks and soon the other two are also reactivated.
IV.
With Polly being held prisoner by the rebels, the Doctor and Ben decide to investigate them, while Lesterson discovers the Daleks are reproducing.
V.
The Doctor and Quinn attempt to escape in order to stop Bragen using the Daleks to take over the colony.
VI.
With Bragen having taken over, the Daleks trick the rebels into turning them loose and only the Doctor can stop them wiping out the entire colony.


I've written about this story before and how - in their infinite wisdom - the BBC wiped the tapes clean in order to use them again.  So far none of the episodes have been recovered, only clips still exist.  But the soundtrack survived and an animated version was created, which was seen on BBC-America last year.

In the story (set in 2220), there was a human colony on Vulcan.  This doesn't have to create a Zonk with the mythos of 'Star Trek'.  It could be an abandoned and untamed desolate area uninhabited by the Vulcans and leased to the human settlers by the Vulcan High Council.  I imagine they did so in order to promote the relationship with the Terrans.

Once the Doctor was able to disarm the threat of the Daleks on Vulcan, he left the swamp area with Polly and Ben in tow - but he did not leave the planet, merely landed elsewhere on one of the continents dominated by the native Vulcans. 

While there, the Doctor easily picked up the Vulcan mind-meld procedure (in scenes not seen by the audience viewing at home.) And he soon had his fill of their narrow-minded sense of logic, which to him stifled the creativity needed to advance in all fields.  Only then did the Doctor and his Companions beat a hasty retreat in the TARDIS from Vulcan; to the battle fields of Culloden.  ("The Highlanders")


And that's why he dismissed the concept of Logic so flippantly to Zoe Heriot.  (The quote comes from "The Wheel In Space".)

At the same time, it could be that it was the Time Lords who taught Surak everything he needed to know in order to mold the mental disciplines of his fellow Vulcans in their fourth century.  Now that I've finally seen "The Sensorites", it appears the Doctor knew about such mental powers before his first full regeneration.  (More on that elsewhere today.)


'DOCTOR WHO'
"THE SENSORITES"



DOCTOR: 
What's the matter, my child? 
SUSAN: 
I had a talk with the senior Scientist just before we left. It seems that the Sensphere has an extraordinary number of ultra high frequencies, so I won't be able to go on using thought transference. 
DOCTOR: 
Oh, I don't know. It's rather a relief, I think. After all, no one likes an eavesdropper about, do they? No, I think you obviously have a gift in that direction. When we get home to our own place, I think we should try and perfect it. 

So it may be a discipline for the Gallifreyans as well, not an inborn trait which came naturally to them.

As we know however, Susan never did make it home to Gallifrey with her Grandfather - at least not as seen on TV.  By the time we met her again in "The Five Doctors", she may have finally had the chance to go back.  If I had the opportunity to bring her back to Toobworld, not just in fanfic, I would cover that pozz'bility.


BCnU!


UNREEL STRIKES AGAIN!



The shadow ops agency UNReel worked fast.  In order to maintain the illusion that the Time Lord known as the Doctor is not real, they have financed a reboot of the Toobworld version of the TV show ‘Doctor Who’ in which the Doctor has switched gender. 
And according to the dialogue in this scene, apparently Steven Moffat and presumably Chris Chibnall are in on the scheme.
We can claim this scene is also confirmation that the televersion of the actual series is different from the original.  That’s because the kid claims the new incarnation of the Doctor is a “badass”.  She’s smart, she’s crafty, but I’ve yet to see evidence that she’s “badass”.  “Badass” is the Tenth Incarnation drowning all the children of the Empress Racnoss.
Geronimo!