Once Upon a Time in Wonderland

[Mr. Adventure]

Is there really no thread on this? Hopefully I didn't miss it.

I liked the Knave of Hearts, sort of a Jake Gylenhall with a British accent, he keeps your attention when he's onscreen. I thought the Cheshire Cat was menacing and freaky. I'm not so sure about Alice but she does not have a typical Hollywood look.

However, I can't believe that whoever is in charge of casting could think whoever is playing the Red Queen is the best choice out of what must be a huge pool of actresses looking for work. Maybe she'll blossom but terrible first impression, not so much bad as *nothing*. The love interest seems like a bit of a drip as well.

Normally, I'd applaud the decision to stay so focused on Wonderland but I think this might be one of those series that would work better crossing over with the real world. Maybe that will come but Wonderland seemed kind of meandering. I've found that historically with Wonderland stories, it's a wondrous place for a child to visit once but there's not much as-is to propel further adventures. If there going to stick with that they really need to commit and build on the world. Running around a bunch of hedge mazes while the queen kvetches is not going to cut it.

 

[Samurai8472]

I watched it. It felt more like a late 90's fantasy miniseries like "Merlin" or any Robert Halmi Sr producution.

 

[Sindatur]

Is there really no thread on this? Hopefully I didn't miss it.

I liked the Knave of Hearts, sort of a Jake Gylenhall with a British accent, he keeps your attention when he's onscreen. I thought the Cheshire Cat was menacing and freaky. I'm not so sure about Alice but she does not have a typical Hollywood look.

However, I can't believe that whoever is in charge of casting could think whoever is playing the Red Queen is the best choice out of what must be a huge pool of actresses looking for work. Maybe she'll blossom but terrible first impression, not so much bad as *nothing*. The love interest seems like a bit of a drip as well.

Normally, I'd applaud the decision to stay so focused on Wonderland but I think this might be one of those series that would work better crossing over with the real world. Maybe that will come but Wonderland seemed kind of meandering. I've found that historically with Wonderland stories, it's a wondrous place for a child to visit once but there's not much as-is to propel further adventures. If there going to stick with that they really need to commit and build on the world. Running around a bunch of hedge mazes while the queen kvetches is not going to cut it.

Isn't Cora The Queen of Hearts?

I'll probably follow OUAT weekly, and record Wonderland and watch it all at once on the mid season break

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^ Queen of Hearts and The Red Queen are different characters

EDIT: Realized that might not be the point of contention, yes my understanding is Cora is Queen of Hearts which also would be related to Wonderland.

 

[Gryffindorian]

It was OK. The plot wasn't as compelling as the original Once's when it premiered. Maybe part of it is the lack of an ensemble cast of characters. We know the Mad Hatter (Jefferson) isn't around. So far, they've only shown Alice on her quest to find her missing boyfriend Cyrus the genie. But it was cool to see Sayid as Jaffar!

 

[DigificWriter]

Isn't Cora The Queen of Hearts?

Yes, Cora is the QoH, and yes, the PTBs want to get Barbara Hershey to reprise the role on the show (most likely in flashbacks, since she's kind of dead in the present, post-Curse timeframe in which the show's main narrative is set).

 

[FreezeC77]

Isn't Cora The Queen of Hearts?

Yes, Cora is the QoH, and yes, the PTBs want to get Barbara Hershey to reprise the role on the show (most likely in flashbacks, since she's kind of dead in the present, post-Curse timeframe in which the show's main narrative is set).

The timeframe of this show is hard to nail down. Alice comes from 19th century England... yet the Knave of Hearts is picked up in 21st century Storybrooke.

Baelfire was previously dropped into 19th century England where he then went to Neverland for presumably decades before ending up back in the real world.

Is the 19th century England that Alice comes from not the same as the 19th century England that exists in the Storybrooke world? Does the White Rabbit's "rabbit holes" exist outside of time and space and if so then how does one pinpoint just exactly "when" the story in OUAT-W is actually taking place in regards to the OUAT universe?

We know Cora at some point is the Queen of Hearts in Wonderland. Alice talked about her adventures in the aslyum, but did those adventures include meeting the Queen of Hearts and the things from the story we know, or is that yet to happen?

 

[DigificWriter]

The timeframe of this show is hard to nail down.

No, it's not. Here's how things are:

Neal/Baelfire ended up in OUR Victorian Era England before ending up in Neverland. He then escaped Neverland and ended up in Portland in the year 2000, where he ran into Emma and fell in love with her.

Alice comes from an entirely different world where the Victorian Era never ended.

Cora's reign as the Queen of Hearts started at some point after Regina shoved her through Rumple's magical looking glass, and ended just prior to the Curse being cast (which equates to 1983 in our world) after she and Hook went to the Enchanted Forest and she faked her own death for Regina's benefit.

As originally shot, the opening of Down the Rabbit Hole featured Storybrooke scenes that clearly took place concurrently with/during the events of the OUaT Season 2 premiere, Broken.

 

[Thestral]

I really enjoyed this personally, I thought Alice was played really well and the Knave was a lot of fun. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out, and while I usually prefer ensemble shows I think I'll enjoy this smaller focus for awhile. The Red Queen was... eh, not terrible imo. I liked her dismissiveness in "killing" the Genie. Jafar was definitely fun, though I'm a bit confused - is the prison where he's keeping Cyrus in the same "world" as Wonderland or was that massive pan just for effect? I like the twist on some familiar Wonderland inhabitants, a more feral Cheshire Cat, a downtrodden White Rabbit...

Alice comes from an entirely different world where the Victorian Era never ended.

Wait, what? I didn't get this impression at all, it's far simpler to assume the Knave and White Rabbit time-traveled.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ Time-travel doesn't exist in the Once-verse, and Alice coming from a fictional, alternate version of Victorian England is 'word of God' information from the PTBs.

 

[Fist McStrongpunch]

No, it's true.

http://tvline.com/2013/08/04/once-upon-a-time-in-wonderland-pilot-details-scheduling/

Apparently the same for Wendy Darling's England that Bae visited.

 

[FreezeC77]

The timeframe of this show is hard to nail down.

No, it's not. Here's how things are:

Neal/Baelfire ended up in OUR Victorian Era England before ending up in Neverland. He then escaped Neverland and ended up in Portland in the year 2000, where he ran into Emma and fell in love with her.

Alice comes from an entirely different world where the Victorian Era never ended.

I'm not sure how you get that about Alice simply by watching the first episode of this show. Is this something the creators have said that you read about it? Because I really do not see anything in the Alice scenes to imply that it's not 19th century England(our universe), but actually a world where it's the 21st century, but the Victorian era never ended. If there had been steampunk computers or portraits of Queen Elizabeth/Prince Charles/Prince William/etc... on the wall that were quickly visible I could see making that point.

But I personally did not see evidence that would have led me to say "Oh, so she's from Victorian-era England world where the technology/style just stayed that way."

 

[DigificWriter]

No, it's true.

http://tvline.com/2013/08/04/once-upon-a-time-in-wonderland-pilot-details-scheduling/

Apparently the same for Wendy Darling's England that Bae visited.

Actually, Wendy's Victorian London WAS the REAL-WORLD Victorian London, as per statements made at the time Second Star to the Right aired.

The timeframe of this show is hard to nail down.

No, it's not. Here's how things are:

Neal/Baelfire ended up in OUR Victorian Era England before ending up in Neverland. He then escaped Neverland and ended up in Portland in the year 2000, where he ran into Emma and fell in love with her.

Alice comes from an entirely different world where the Victorian Era never ended.

I'm not sure how you get that about Alice simply by watching the first episode of this show. Is this something the creators have said that you read about it? Because I really do not see anything in the Alice scenes to imply that it's not 19th century England(our universe), but actually a world where it's the 21st century, but the Victorian era never ended. If there had been steampunk computers or portraits of Queen Elizabeth/Prince Charles/Prince William/etc... on the wall that were quickly visible I could see making that point.

But I personally did not see evidence that would have led me to say "Oh, so she's from Victorian-era England world where the technology/style just stayed that way."

Alice coming from a fictional, alternate-reality Victorian London is, as I noted already, 'word of God' information straight from the mouths of Adam and Eddy, and the other pieces of timeline-related info come straight from OUaT itself.

Also, as I already noted, time travel doesn't exist in the Once-Verse.

 

[FreezeC77]

No, it's true.

http://tvline.com/2013/08/04/once-upon-a-time-in-wonderland-pilot-details-scheduling/

Apparently the same for Wendy Darling's England that Bae visited.

So then is Wendy Darling still alive? It doesn't make any sense for the writers to have Bae emphasize during OUAT that he obviously had to be in Neverland to keep from aging or else he would have been dead before ever meeting Emma if the world that he ended up in is a world 'outside of time'. So it's outside of time, but people can actually age and die there? Is everyone just stupid? Does technology not evolve?

 

[DigificWriter]

Wendy and her family were native to our world (the 'Land without Magic'), so, yes, she's long dead by the present of both OUaT and OUaTiW (which, BTW, is 2011 or 2012 depending on exactly how much time has passed since Emma first arrived in Storybrooke, which happened in October 2011).

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Because I really do not see anything in the Alice scenes to imply that it's not 19th century England(our universe), but actually a world where it's the 21st century, but the Victorian era never ended. If there had been steampunk computers or portraits of Queen Elizabeth/Prince Charles/Prince William/etc... on the wall that were quickly visible I could see making that point.

But I personally did not see evidence that would have led me to say "Oh, so she's from Victorian-era England world where the technology/style just stayed that way."

I don't know that it would have to be where Victorian-era England never ended, it could just be a reality where it's Victorian-era England.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I was surprised that the White Rabbit was so small. I thought that he'd be taller. Anyway I really enjoyed it. I like that Alice can kick some ass and i thought that Sophie Lowe was really good. And very cute.

I noticed that several times Alice called the Knave of Hearts Will. Then I came across this spoiler

Spoiler: about the Knave

a future episode reveals that he's also Will Scarlet, one of Robin Hood's merry men

 

[DigificWriter]

Because I really do not see anything in the Alice scenes to imply that it's not 19th century England(our universe), but actually a world where it's the 21st century, but the Victorian era never ended. If there had been steampunk computers or portraits of Queen Elizabeth/Prince Charles/Prince William/etc... on the wall that were quickly visible I could see making that point.

But I personally did not see evidence that would have led me to say "Oh, so she's from Victorian-era England world where the technology/style just stayed that way."

I don't know that it would have to be where Victorian-era England never ended, it could just be a reality where it's Victorian-era England.

Once again, time travel doesn't exist in the Once-verse.

Furthermore, a portal's destination is either pre-determined or driven by the thoughts of the person who created it, meaning that the Rabbit or the Knave would've had to have been to her world before in order for them to go rescue her.

Regarding that spoiler, Michael has apparently not been keeping it much of a secret, so it's really something we ought to have known going into last night's episode.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^^ Not time travel, it's just that particular reality happens to be at the state of Victorian-era England.

 

[Thestral]

Once again, time travel doesn't exist in the Once-verse.

You keep insisting on this, was it officially stated somewhere or just your conjecture? Considering all the shenanigans we've already got between Neal, Emma, and Storybrooke's timelines it seems strange to rule out entirely.


Making Alice's world one that's locked in the Victorian Era is fine I suppose, but seems overly complicated. Certainly there was nothing onscreen to indicate that, but maybe we'll get more clarity on it.