I was just browsing through the back archives of the webcomic theAccidental Centaurs. In this comic, Samantha gets turned into a Dalek (from the show Doctor Who), Kell (from Kevin and Kell, among other forms.
Thus, it occurred to me to ask people for all the references they have seen to Doctor Who, from whichever medium they would like to name.
After a little bit more thought, however, it occurred to me to ask for a topic that would get even more replies, to wit, what clever little reference to your favorite series have you seen, of any and all series/program/movie/non-fiction book.
In The Empire of Man series by David Weber and John Ringo, there are several Star Wars references. The Admiral of Sixth Fleet is named “Helmut”, and referred to as “The Dark Lord of the Sixth”. There are also several referances to "Imperial Storm Troopers. In the latest book Helmut is also a homage to Lois Bujold’s character Miles Vorkosigan; a short, hyperactive military genius. Also, an alien yells his own version of a LOTR quote, something he heard from a human friend :
In Empire from the Ashes, David Weber refers to Monty Python :
Ed McBain made several references to Andrew Lloyd Webber in his works. He described a character as “looking more like a cat than the performers in CATS, who always looked like people trying to look like CATS.” The lead character in “Downtown” is Michael J. Barnes–the J stood for Jellicle, a name given to him by his mother, who had read T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” before Andrew Lloyd Webber was a glimmer in an Englishman’s eye.
Nowadays, it’s impossible to find any popular books, movies, or TV shows that are not referred to by later works. It’d be harder to find those that had no references five years after they debuted. Some movies seem to contain nothing but references to other works (e.g., Shrek).
Some that were especially good:
The Peanuts cartoon where the sun came up as the image of Alfred E. Neuman from MAD.
The “Binford” toolbox in Toy Story.
Margaret Hamilton wearing ruby slippers in Brewster McCloud.
In the episode of Futurama where the cast joins the army and fights the balls, as Fry and Bender walk into the 7-11, a sign on the window says “Free pack of Ice-9 with 6-pack”.
It’s on screen for maybe 3 seconds, but it’s a great literary reference to my favorite author - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Ice-9 is a central plot element (a wampeter, if you prefer) in Vonnegut’s book Cat’s Cradle.
BUT I did like the few references they made to other hitman/assassin media.
Mr. Smith has a degree in Art History. Clint Eastwood’s character in the Eiger Sanction is a former assassin who is now an art history professor.
In Mr Smith’s office in the corner is a black suit with a red tie… which is the standard outfit for Number 47, the main character in the Hitman series of games.
Mrs Smith is given a baby to hold at one point and the scene is almost shot for shot exactly like the scene in Gross Point Blank where John Cusack is given a baby to hold.
Mystery Science Theater 2/3000 always had lots of fun and sometimes obscure references but my favorite was when a dark-haired female character appeared onscreen (I don’t remember the movie, something about Amazon Women I think) and one of them said “Look! It’s Kate Bush!”
Considering how America doesn’t know what the rest of the world knows, that is, who the hell Kate Bush is, and that this was a show out of the midwest, it was a real shocker. My husband and I just stared at each other and started whooping!
One of Steven Brust’s Jhereg books has a throwaway scene where the main character complains of having been turned into a newt. By one of the local witches.
David Weber loves referencing stuff in his books. Many of the earlier books in the Honor Harrington series includes references to Horatio Hornblower, ranging from stuff like a convoy escorted entirely by ships that shared names with ships from the Hornblower books, to Honor Harrington reading a Horatio Hornblower book (and liking the guy’s initials). I’ve yet to see if she has a string of sidekicks named after future US Presidents (Henke for President in '12! LaFollet for President in '20!)
Also, in War of Honor, we briefly meet a Sidemore Navy officer by the name of Lieutenant Commander Zahn. During the conversation, they make a couple of references to her husband, an analyst named Timothy.
In the webcomic Schlock Mercentary, a character named Der Trihs wears red and is always getting chopped up; the name of course is “red shirt” backwards.
In the Thor comic book way back when, Thor needed a secret identity and got one from Nick Fury. He was still too recognizable, so Nick handed him a pair of glasses and said “Here, these always work for that other guy.”. When he left the office, he bumped into a reporter named Clark, who looked at him and thought “Could that be…nah.”; then Lois told him to come on to the press conference.
My favorite from MST3K was from one of those cop movies that they always did…you know those ones with Joe Don Baker I think.
In one shot the camera is panning across the police station. At the front desk is a guy with dark coifed hair, big dark glasses and a brown leather jacket… one of the bots exclaimed “It’s Harlan Ellison!”
Being a huge Ellison fan I lost my business. That’s exactly what Ellison looked like in the 70s when the movie was made.
Another one that stick out to me if from that movie where the evil teenagers become giants. One of the giants makes his still normal sized girlfriend dance sexy for him… the music she dances to is wooden blocks banged together. One of the bots or maybe it was Joel starts singing The Who’s Magic Bus which uses wooden blocks for the beat.
Nethack, 8-bit games, various bands…
Why couldn’t he become Don Blake, instead?
