Suggestions for a Dr. Who / Torchwood crossover

[ffutures]

One of the things I've been working on is a "Five Things" story for Captain Jack - minor spoilers for Utopia onward follow:



We know Captain Jack got thrown back in time to the 1860s. I want to write a story spanning that period, each chapter a crossover with something appropriate to the period.

1870-80s - a western of some sort - one of the Clint Eastwood films, I think.

1890s - the Buffyverse, Spike's encounter with Dracula and the reason Dracula owes him money. I think that this will be a poker game, or some other card game. Or possibly rat-baiting or similar.

1920s-30s - not sure yet, maybe something set in America e.g. The Grapes of Warth / The Great Gatsby / Thoroughly Modern Millie, but Cabaret might be fun if I can find a plot handle. Or Indiana Jones for that matter.

1966 - Lois & Clark (or Superman Returns for those who prefer that) - Kansas in the 1960s and the arrival of a small capsule from the planet Krypton. I've already written that, but I don't want it to be the first part of the story.

1970s-80s - one of the classic cop shows. The Sweeny? Kojak? Miami Vice? or take it a little later and make it Columbo or Hill Street Blues?

So, suggestions for all of the above (apart from 1966) would be appreciated.

Comments

[destro.livejournal.com]

What about Jack solving the Jack the Ripper mystery during the 1880s? Or, the slain hookers were actually aliens and he's...Jack the Ripper himself? Just completely misinterpreted by the local constabulary?

I love the opportunities Jack represents in telling all sorts of fun, pulpy stories. Maybe even being part of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and going on mad adventures of literary heroes? Gah! Now I'm having thoughts!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

No no no NO to the Ripper - most over-used plot coupon ever! And no to the League, I'm afraid, I really think that only Alan Moore does them properly. Besides, I really want to write a Spike & Drac confrontation.

[destro.livejournal.com]

"No no no NO to the Ripper - most over-used plot coupon ever!"

Ahahaha, now I feel like a TOTAL tool. Meeting Mark Twain is probably in the same boat, isn't it? I kinda hate myself for still wanting to see it.

Speaking of Moore creations that always seem fun to play with but is probably very hard to do thanks to the fact Moore already played with them so damn well - Promethea. I think Promethea's brand of pan-sexuality is something Jack would enjoy very much.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

So you don't think Captain Jack should meet V?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Nice idea, but a bit AU for the Dr. Who timeline.

[elementalv.livejournal.com]

1870s to 1880s could be Wild, Wild West, which always had something futuristic/odd in the storyline.

1920s to 1930s could be HBO's Carnivale.

1970s to 1980s could, if you're not totally wedded to cop shows, be The Rockford Files or maybe play with the Starsky & Hutch dynamic.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thought about Wild Wild West but I'm not mad keen on it.

Don't know Carnivale at all, I'm afraid, but Jack Finney's "The Circus of Doctor Lao" is a possibility.

Rockford / S&H are certainly possibilities

[elementalv.livejournal.com]

A totally demented 19th c. crossover would be with Little House on the Prairie, so perhaps I should suggest Gunsmoke instead.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

"Good night, Jack boy..."

[elementalv.livejournal.com]

Oh, god. The Waltons. Hadn't even thought of that.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Sorry - thought that was Little House - which shows how well I know the shows.

[dsample.livejournal.com]

"or take it a little later and make it Columbo."

The Columbo pilot episode starring Peter Falk was filmed in 1968. The series ran from 71 to 78, and there were sporadic "return of" type movies from 1989 till 2003.

The character is even older than that, though. "Lt Columbo" first appeared in a 1960 episode "Enough Rope" of "The Chevy Mystery Show" on NBC, played by Bert Freed.

"Enough Rope" was adapted into a stage play "Prescription: Murder" starring Thomas Mitchell in 1962.

The 1968 pilot staring Peter Falk was an adaptation of "Prescription: Murder" back into a teleplay.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - so I can fit him in pretty well any time from 1960 to 2003. Neat!

[dsample.livejournal.com]

Or even later. Peter Falk has a Columbo script that he wants to do, but ABC (who currently owns the rights) has passed on it, thinking that he's too old.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can see their point - he's in his seventies, I think. Unless they do a "20 years later" thing or something.

[dsample.livejournal.com]

A 70 year old Columbo could come out of retirement to consult on a difficult case, or something like that. Columbo was never a physical role; he always worked by thinking and talking, and the producers were never afraid of aging the character, along with Peter Falk. Now he could add some fake Alzheimer's to his "I'm just a dumb cop" act.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

Trying to think outside the obvious:

1870-71 gives you the fall of Napoleon III and the founding of the German Empire. 1871 gives you "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

1922 - Beer Hall Putsch.

1974 - Nixon goes down, which does have a police angle to it. Same year has Patty Hearst, and if you want something more fictional along the same lines there's always Dog Day Afternoon.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to stick to fiction crossovers. Hadn't thought about Dog Day Afternoon, but given Captain Jack appears to be unkillable a hostage situation lacks a little dramatic tension.

[dsample.livejournal.com]

An aging Horatio Hornblower (another whist player) might still be around in 1870. He'd be 94. (Born on the 4th of July, 1776.)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Now there's a thought - a bit early for the Dracula crossover I want to write, unfortunately.

[themolesmother.livejournal.com]

70s/80s - what about Starsky and Hutch? Jack would be in seventh heaven.

MM

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Certainly a possibility.

[learnedhand-dj.livejournal.com]

Well, I wouldn't call it a classic cop show, but if you were looking for something from the 80's, may I suggest Remington Steele (1982-1987 US)? I really like the idea of Jack and the mysterious Mr. Steele trying to out-pretty each other.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Don't know the show, I'm afraid.

[dsample.livejournal.com]

Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, pre-Bond. The first season was pretty good, but they only got renewed for more on the condition that they dumb it down.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know of it, but I've never actually seen an episode, which makes it a bit difficult to write the characters.

[soren-nyrond.livejournal.com]

The zanier ideas::
1870s -- Crossover to Wild Wild West (either version) & use one or other of the Lovelesses.

1890s -- either Buffy, or alternatively the Fu Manchu schtik :: Limehouse, opium, muscular young coppers, Ripper-esque prostitutes, higher-class Victorian courtesans, delicate daughetrs of nobility, and repressed governesses. I can see Galahad and the Castle Anthrax here. (Yes, I know you don't write porn, but we're talking Jack (If It's Got A PostCode) Harkness here !!!

1920s-30s cries out to be Bulldog Drummond vs Carl Peterson (though without casting Carl as an avatar of the Master). Jack would fit in totally with the demobbed adventurer line, and he'd be facing Nameless Evils (especially if you could work in Dread Cthulhu). Alternatively, a Doc savage rip-off might be extreme fun.

1966 -- alternative suggestion is steal Nick Fury from Marvel, and do a "Jack On The Helicarrier" (possibly by nicking the 1970s DW line of creeping infection).

1970s/80s -- My vote would be for Hill Street, because of the dissonance between clean-cut hero!Jack, and the somewhat chaotic and often scummy Hill Street precinct.


I don't know -- I find I like your stuff better the wilder you go ... somehow you carry off repressed insanity better than most authors I can think of.

[doctor-toc.livejournal.com]

1870-80's: I can see Jack as "The Man With No Name", can't you? Maybe he didn't remember who he was when he first made it back from the future.

1890's: The Spike/Drac thing would be fun. Maybe Jack was operating under the alias of Quincy Morris at the time?

1920's-30's: H.P.Lovecraft is out then? I'd be tempted to bounce this to the end or the era and have him meet up with Simon Templar.

1970's: Life on Mars? If not, it'd have to be either The Sweeney or or of the later shows like The Professionals (c'mon, you have to have him end up in bed with Bodie and Doyle... "lovely couple. They stayed in touch!")

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

You know me too bloody well. Exactly right for the first one. I think that Jack is going to become the legend that eventually becomes The Man With No Name, rather than a literal acting out of the plot of one of the films. And Jack being Morris makes a lot of sense - it's one of several possibilities I'm considering.

Templar is a very good idea indeed. I've written him before, maybe I'll give it another go.

I'd prefer The Sweeney to The Professionals because I actually liked the characters a little, whereas I thought that Bodey and Doyle were thugs. Maybe both series. Assuming that by then he's using his knowledge of the system to pose as a UNIT agent or something, there were episodes of both shows where agents from other organizations were involved.

[vitruvian23.livejournal.com]

For the late 1800s, I'm thinking it would be totally in character for Jack to be the Immortal - at least the one that messes with Angel and Spike and has Darla and Drusilla at the same time, with the possibility that the one based in Rome in the present day is somebody else taking over the legend.

For the 70s, perhaps not a Jack the Ripper bit, but an encounter with Ripper, i.e. rebellious youthful Giles?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Trouble with that is that The Immortal is supposed to have been around for centuries, which doesn't really fit.

Re Ripper, I only want to do one Buffyverse crossover, and someone else is already writing a Buffyverse / Live On Mars crossover with him in it.

[vitruvian23.livejournal.com]

Ah, but all we know about the Immortal for sure is his interaction with the Scourge in the flashback. All the stuff about him spending 150 years in a monastery, etc., could be Jack blowing smoke about his origins and past. Although I'm also partial to having TI be R'as al Ghul as played by Liam Neeson.

Pity about Ripper - imagine the slash potential in him, Ethan, and Jack...

[vitruvian23.livejournal.com]

Ah - the original Kolchak the Night Stalker series would be a wonderful cross for the 70s as well.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Don't actually want them all horror. I think the Buffyverse one will do for that.

[vitruvian23.livejournal.com]

Ah, but if it involves Kolchak investigating Jack, expecting him to be some creep who survives by cutting out people's glands or something, and it turns out not to be the case, it can be comedy of errors rather than actual horror.

For 70s crossovers, you could also go with the Brady Bunch, or if you want to go more British, how about the Tomorrow People?