Are people really this fixed on things like the Bell Riots?

[Greg Cox]

The two Darins on Bewitched. Both are literally the exact same character in the exact same sitcom continuity. Does the "real" Darin look like Dick York or does he look like Dick Sargent? Samantha Stephens knows. As do their family and friends and Larry Tate. The rest of us? Well, we just roll with it.

And, of course, it worked the opposite way around, too. With the same actor playing multiple roles on the same series. (Hello, Mark Lenard, Diana Muldaur, etc.)

 

[Bad Thoughts]

If we wanted to take this back around but also to an insane conclusion, Gabriel Bell was Benjamin Sisko. The ending was a lampshading of this fact.

What do I mean? The actor who played Gabriel Bell, John Landsdale Bennett, was the stunt actor and stand in for Avery Brooks. I'm sure someone could magnify individual frames that show times when Bennett is playing Sisko.

We could laugh this away, and I hope we do. Nonetheless, it shows how there are discontinuities we accept

 

[cooleddie74]

And, of course, it worked the opposite way around, too. With the same actor playing multiple roles on the same series. (Hello, Mark Lenard, Diana Muldaur, etc.)

Jeffrey Combs.

In fact, I'm Jeffrey Combs right now.

 

[cooleddie74]

And T'Pau has been played by no fewer than three different actresses between 1967 and 2004, one of whom was Asian-American. But all in the same continuity and timeline.

 

[Greg Cox]

That was in Goldfinger, actually. Dr. No was released in 1962, when the Beatles were barely known in the U.K. and totally unknown in the U.S.

Oops. I stand corrected.

Can I plead that I first saw both of them (and From Russia With Love) at a triple feature at the drive-in back in the day?

 

[DaveyNY]

Jeffrey Combs.

In fact, I'm Jeffrey Combs right now.

Heh ... and have been for decades .... as far as I'm concerned.

 

[cooleddie74]

Just call me Re-Animator69.

 

[1001001]

Just call me Re-Animator69.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Just call me Re-Animator69.

I recently saw Combs in schlock fest called "The Phantom Empire." from the 80s.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

I'll cop to wondering why the "real" Catwoman (aka Julie Newmar) wasn't in the 1966 feature film.

Perhaps she attacked Adam West too thoroughly during their love scenes and had to be replaced by someone with a TV or G-rated sensibility.

Nobody batted an eye when William Christopher took over the part of Father Mulcahy from George Morgan, either.

And Christmas also came to the M*A*S*H 4077th four times over the course of a three-year war with three true Christmas episodes and one Boxing Day episode in a season between them.

THAT was all too noticeable. And if you were an extra-stickler for continuity, there's the Mulcahy ''Jocularity'' paradox.......mocked by Potter in one episode for something he HAD to say later in time. The mockable Mulcahy moment was filmed earlier*. The Potter-mocking was filmed later. But the laws of time were absolutely thrown out the window as a result.

(*and in that filmed-first, aired-second episode, Frank and Margaret parted forever. In the next episode they filmed, they're back again trying to watch MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. If I am the first to notice this, then I have left a teeny-tiny mark in life.)

 

[cooleddie74]

At least movie Catwoman from 1966 was also on Trek a couple of years later.

"I am for YOU, Batman."

 

[Greg Cox]

At least movie Catwoman from 1966 was also on Trek a couple of years later.

"I am for YOU, Batman."

As was the original Catwoman, in "Friday's Child."

A shame Eartha Kitt never guest-starred on TOS as well.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

A shame Eartha Kitt never guest-starred on TOS as well.

No. But she did guest star in 'Mission: Impossible' at around the same time.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

No. But she did guest star in 'Mission: Impossible' at around the same time.

Along with wannabe Spock.

 

[Greg Cox]

Along with wannabe Spock.

Who I saw just last night in "North by Northwest."

 

[cooleddie74]

PULL THE STRINGS!!!!


Am I doing this right?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Who I saw just last night in "North by Northwest."

PULL THE STRINGS!!!!


Am I doing this right?

Space 1999 has been streaming almost continuously on YouTube since May. My estimation of both Landau and Bain has dropped significantly.

 

[cooleddie74]

Space: 1999 is what it was. But growing up I did like Landau in it.

 

[FredH]

I think, to some degree, that it's often more important to stick to the spirit of the original stories than worry too much about making it all fit together seamlessly. So, the Klingons are always ferocious-looking, the Eugenics Wars always take place in the near future, and "today" always looks like today, and, eventually, World War III will take place sometime further down the road, while the stories themselves basically remain the same, allowing for a certain degree of artistic license.

Which is how movie and tv series alway worked, at least back in the day.

At it happens, I recently watched SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) from the umpteenth mind. SON is the third of the original Boris Karloff movies and the direct sequel to BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Is it 100% consistent with previous two films regarding matters of art direction? Not at all. Does it retcon some details from the previous films? Absolutely.

Does it matter? Not really. And certainly I've never seen anyone argue that SON is not "canon" or set in a different "timeline" or a "reboot." SON is the third film in the Universal FRANKENSTEIN series, period.

At the risk of showing my age, I like to think there's something to said for not being too much of stickler about such things. We're talking theater after all.

In the same “cinematic universe”, consider also the 1931 Dracula — which takes place in the 19th century — and Dracula’s Daughter, which takes place literally the next day — when it appears to suddenly be 1936 or so.

(Not to derail, but funny story: When I first saw Dracula’s Daughter, I was in one of my deep dark depressive everything-is-awful phases. Dracula’s daughter’s manservant Sandor is the ultimate goth: pale, frowning saturnine lips, sad empty eyes, sepulchral voice, wears all black, the works. At one point she asks him what he sees in her eyes, and he just intones, “Death.”

I turned to my partner and said to her, “Damn, I want his job.”)

 

[FredH]

There’s only so far that can go, though.

If we reach a point at which we’ve colonized the Solar System, have enhanced ourselves far beyond the Augments, have nanotechnology and artificial intelligence far more advanced and ubiquitous than the Federation’s, and have indefinite lifespans, how might we then reset Star Trek?

I suppose Discovery took a very small step in that direction with 32nd century technology.

It would certainly be reboot time long before that — but even then, you can pretty much just say the Temporal Wars did it. Keep the everyday stuff of the show(s) looking mostly like it did before, maybe write up a new and different background history that from now on will be referred to instead of the old established one, and for most of your audience, you’re good. (The “The toothpaste has changed color, IT’S NOT CANON!” folks will complain, but what of it?)

I mean, there’s no way the producers would wait for real tech to outstrip Trek by that much; the change would happen long before that.

And of course, I don’t really expect Trek to still be around that far in the future, though admittedly you never know.