Good one.
I don’t actually remember that - I didn’t watch much during the Sylvester McCoy era.
Like all long-running sci-fi series, Doctor Who has a lot of internal inconsistencies. What a “Time Lord” is has been one of those. In the NuWho era, though, they seem to pretty consistently use “Time Lord” to mean The Doctor’s species, not just his title - the references to “Time Lord DNA”, for example.
So, Ace “becoming” a Time Lord could be an indication of sloppy/inconsistent usage of the term. Or, it could indicate that The Doctor and at least some other Gallifreyans are aware that humans can biologically become Time Lords, perhaps through space magic Time Lord science and direct exposure to the Time Vortex - because Gallifreyans themselves are, in fact, humans, altered by their exposure to the Time Vortex.
The theory of a friend of mine who was a big fan of The Prisoner - Number Six is actually in charge of the Village, but he may not consciously be aware of it.
In the intro, Number Six asks Number Two, “Who is Number One?” Number Two’s answer is, “You are Number Six.” The intent seems to be that Number Two is cutting off that line of inquiry by reminding The Prisoner that he’s a number, not a man, and numbers don’t ask questions or get answers. But, my friend pointed out, you can also parse that response as “You are, Number Six” - that is, “Who is Number One?” “You are.”
My extension of that insight:
The Prisoner is deeply weird, and the finale is weirder than that, but it makes a surprising amount of sense if Number Six is (cinematically) schizophrenic. A lot of the weirdness makes sense as a conflict between aspects of The Prisoner’s psyche fighting each other through the mechanism of the Village, and The Prisoner is an unreliable narrator. It makes even more sense if nothing we see objectively exists, and the Village is entirely in The Prisoner’s mind, and we’re seeing an inside look at his struggle for sanity.
I think this is probably the best explanation. It allows for him to confront himself at the climax of the final show.
Another good play on words was in the comic book sequel, where Number Two said that he wanted everyone in The Village to be “In Formation.”
But we don’t really need to allow for him to confront himself then; they already had him confront himself, in SCHIZOID MAN; it was, you know, the whole point of SCHIZOID MAN.
“You know, you really do bear a remarkable resemblance – remarkable – your job, Number 12, will be to impersonate him. Take his sense of reality away. Once he begins to doubt his own identity, he’ll crack.”
Prior to this episode, they’d tried it once and failed; and they’d also tried making it look like he’s free to go (which also failed) and making it look like he’s now in charge (which also failed); as far as I can tell, there’s nothing stopping them from simply trying all three again in rapid succession for the finale.
Perhaps that is why the producers chose a Scottish actor for the first Bond, so that the audience would be thinking of him as Agent MacGuffin.
Except that the duplicate is a fake in S.M. A guy named Curtis who lost his girlfriend/wife Susan. The idea of S.M. was to fake him out so he thinks he’s confronting himself. (And brilliantly done: one of the rare sustained “triple-think” episodes in TV, ever!)
In Fall Out, he really (?) does confront himself (?) Maybe. Best explanation available, anyway.
(The Village, in some ways, is so nice a place, part of me would want to stay there. That part is theirs to use…)
Three for Doctor Who fans.
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On Leela’s home planet, a race of warriors and a race of scientists are locked in a perpetual war. Obviously, it must be Skaro.
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Sarn and Karn are the same planet, at different points in history.
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In Snakedance , the Federation saved the people from the Mara 500 years ago. This was actually Jim Kirk. The ancient record of the event clearly shows a pictogram representing the Enterprise.
Well, yes, I agree that, with two question marks, we can say he maybe confronts himself. But since we already grant that they decided once to fake him out so that he thinks he’s confronting himself, can’t we agree — er, with two question marks — that he’s getting Faked Out To Think He’s Confronting Himself a second time, maybe?
Harry Potter and the Dresden Files are in the same universe. Both refer to large magical wars that occurred some time before the books started. Both reference a much larger magical world than what each of their stories cover. Both have very powerful and important magic that is hidden from the mundane world. Any discrepancies are because the two Harries (just a coincidence) are both unreliable narrators.
Capital-D Dunno! Maybe. The surrealism is intense. I love the President’s speech (which, IIRC, the actor himself had to write, pretty much at the last minute.) It’s the only thing in that episode that makes sense!
(When I first watched the show, original US airing in the sixties, I thought, all the way through, that The Butler was Number One. I’m still willing to look at that as a viable theory…)
In THE SIMPSONS Mr. Burns not remembering Homer or not understanding Homers competency isn’t because he’s a doddering old fool but Mr. Burns knows exactly that Homer is an idiot and fully plans on using him as a scapegoat if anything were to go wrong since he is suppose to be the Safety Inspector despite not having a college degree, which is why Burns always has him as part of his zany schemes so he’s the obvious fall guy.
I’m not a fan of that one. It’s too easy, too obvious. Despite the impossible tech (What is Rover, exactly? machine or being?) I prefer that the Village is what it seems to be, more or less. I also happen to think it’s run by Number 6’s side.
eta: I would say that 6 is the Villiage’s most important “guest” they’ve had.The biggest fish. Which is why he gets so much personal attention.
And 6 did actually answer Number 2’s biggest question: why did you resign. He told them precisely in The Girl Who Was Death, they were just too stupid to realize. As he knew would be the case.
Enjoyed that’n. Didn’t actually understand it, but I liked it. I think they actually did reveal what was going on, but I couldn’t follow it. Something about simultaneous events in The Village and outside in the (laughingly so-called) Real World? But it was a pleasant bit of nostalgia and a puzzler withal.
I did not.
For that matter, my friend, who came up with the “You are, Number Six,” was the big fan of the original series. I’ve seen it, but I’m probably more familiar with the GURPS The Prisoner RPG sourcebook than I am with the actual series.
Ha! Fun theory, and it makes a lot of sense.
I’ll stick with the standard interpretation that Mr. Burns - with his class bias and his sociopathic tendencies - views his rank-and-file employees as interchangeable sub-human drones, and thus can’t be bothered to view them as real, individual persons.
Deckard is a replicant!
I thought that up all on my own…
In The Empire Strikes Back, there is a mysterious reference Yoda makes to “another” who could be called upon should Luke fail. Once Return Of The Jedi came about, it was retrofitted to be Leia as Luke’s sister, but that wasn’t the original plan George and co had cooked up.
In the animated TV series The Clone Wars, we are introduced to Anakin Skywalker’s own Padawan Learner Ahsoka Tano, whose storyline takes her from being a loyal Jedi learner, involving herself deeply in the battle for the Republic, then losing her faith in the Jedi’s ways as it fell apart around her, and she leaves the Jedi Order to eventually become a lone insurgent, instrumental in the formation of the Rebellion against the Empire. This character was not just made up on a whim by showrunner Dave Filoni, she was suggested and developed by George Lucas himself.
I believe the “other” that George originally had in mind was planned to be Anakin’s former apprentice, who had left the Jedi Order, and had hidden herself away, a secretive but powerful Force wielder who had unique insight into Anakin’s vulnerabilities which nobody else had. i.e. Ahsoka Tano.
Here’s one for both Solo and Star Wars…
One of the reason that Han’s so cynical and dismissive about the Rebellion is that the one he ended up bankrolling with his cargo was just A rebellion, not The Rebellion™ and it got put down hard and fast.
The trauma along with the loss of a major payday caused him to say “fuck that.”