For the record, here are all the deleted subpages:
- Awesome/Inspector Spacetime
- Characters/Inspector Spacetime
- Comic Book/Inspector Spacetime
- Fanfic Recs/Inspector Spacetime
- Funny/Inspector Spacetime
- Heartwarming/Inspector Spacetime
- Image Links/Inspector Spacetime
- Laconic/Inspector Spacetime
- Nightmare Fuel/Inspector Spacetime
- Noodle Incident/Inspector Spacetime
- Quotes/Inspector Spacetime
- Recap/Inspector Spacetime
- Shout Out/Inspector Spacetime
- Spin Off/Inspector Spacetime
- Tear Jerker/Inspector Spacetime
- Trivia/Inspector Spacetime
- Video Game/Inspector Spacetime
- Wham Episode/Inspector Spacetime
- WMG/Inspector Spacetime
- YMMV/Inspector Spacetime
Untitled Work in Progres
W Ith the BBC's casting announcement for the 13th Doctor coming tomorrow, here are the odds on some of the actors in the running who might be a good fit for the 13th Inspector instead. The criteria are similar - must have genre experience (scifi/fantasy), TV background, not be too famous - but of course they can't have too close a relationship to the Beeb or a previous DW role.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge – 2/1* Michaela Coel - 6/1 Natalie Dormer – 8/1 Tom Rosenthal – 10/1 David Harewood – 12/1 Andrew Buchan – 20/1
- She's the odds-on favourite, but as her own theatre company has vehemently denied she'd be leaving for DW, she might be in fact the best candidate here. Natalie Dormer of course has a bigger fan following, thanks to Go T and Hunger Games. Then again, we could go for someone unexpected. What do people think?
I added PWB to the characters page right after the DW announcement, so we'll see how it goes...
Untitled Work in Progres
The unfortunate side effect of moving the TV Tropes IS project from "Main" to "Just for Fun" was that its extensive discussion section was left behind. Not only was it a helpful platform for the ongoing collaboration here, but it also provided a sort of overview for how the project worked. While we have to start over on this talk page, the URL for the original is here for those interested: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/remarks.php?trope=Main.InspectorSpacetime
I'll ask for the discussion to be moved.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Untitled Work in Progres
Why isn't the Spinoffs subpage showing up at the top with all the others (e.g. Characters, Recap, Shoutouts)? Is this an admin issue with the TV Tropes wiki itself, or just a bug? Since there's no longer a table of subpages on the left column as part of the standard layout, this can lead to orphaned pages. Here's the URL: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Spinoff/InspectorSpacetime Thanks for looking into this.
In addition, there's no link to Wham Episode subpage (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WhamEpisode/InspectorSpacetime). Thanks again,
These subpages don't have namespace icons. They need to be accessed by the dropdown list at the top of the article.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Many thanks for clearing that up. (If it's OK, I might try to come up with some possibilities and post them in the appropriate sandbox.)
Untitled Work in Progres
The TV Tropes Inspector Spacetime project was originally conceived as something closer to a piece of parafiction than simply a just-for-fun exercise. Here and elsewhere on the 'net, such as Tumblr and Twitter, fans still keep up the poker-faced fictive art of IS actually existing. As such, it belongs in its own "Main" section with "Just For Fun" redirecting back to it in order to make this clear rather than the other way around (like the transparent jokes of "Disney's Anne Frank" and "The Ugly Barnacle"). (The redirect also cuts off the Main entry's discussion page, where people continue to discuss future possibilities for the meme.) Many thanks,
Hide / Show Replies
Huh. That seems like a case for a forum discussion - I'll look into starting one.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Many thanks. This isn't the first time this issue has come up, and in the past we've decided to return things to the status quo ante.
The other factor is that the original article also contained "Fandom-Related Tropes", which are fact-based tropes about Community's show-within-a-show. These would certainly go in the Main namespace, but that would bifurcate the collection and, ultimately, spoil the joke. As fits a punchline, this section comes at the end of the list of all the In-Universe, Classic Series, and New Series Tropes.
Cheers,
Untitled Work in Progres
While there's currently a placeholder choice for the 12th Inspector* here on TV Tropes, we have a wide range of potential candidates from the British bookies' top picks for the 12th Doctor after Peter Capaldi (I still can't believe they got that right). If we want to brainstorm our options, here are some of the names of those who have their own entries here: Idris Elba, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ben Whishaw, Hugh Grant, Colin Morgan, Billie Piper, Tom Hiddleston, Richard Armitage, Bill Bailey, Anthony Head, and David Walliams.
What do Tropers think?
* Ben Daniels
Edited by 216.99.32.43 Hide / Show Replies
Capaldi is a distinguished actor with a doctor who's supposed to be darker right? How's Anthony Hopkins sound?
Hopkins and Oldman would be good choices for either DW or IS, though perhaps too good. The main drawback is that they don't do TV anymore and prefer only to star in movies (probably why their names weren't even mentioned in the bookies' odds for the 12th Doctor). IS would need someone a little less A-list/Hollywood and a little more affordable.
Incidentally, in Hollywood, this kind of casting game is called "Want/Settle/Get", e.g. Want Anthony Hopkins for the role of the 12th Inspector, will settle for Derek Jacobi, but will get Ben Kingsley (who'll work for anyone, from Richard Attenborough to Uwe Boll).
Edited by 192.234.99.10
I quite like the idea of Anthony Head, it is interesting to note he would have been the same age as Lelsie French when he took the role of the First Inspector.
if guys like Hopkins or Oldman are too A-list... what about guys like Tim Roth or Ralph Fiennes
I firmly support superbender13: French-Head mirrors the Hartnell-Capaldi setup. And he fits nicely.
A vote of confidence for Anthony Head!!
Edited by 99.137.203.229 I have nothing left to do here. See you all in the funny papers.
ASH should certainly be in the running if IS mirror's DW choice of an older actor for the part. (On the other hand, if we want to zig where DW zags, then going for a much, much younger actress would be the direction to take, e.g. Natalie Dormer, Rose Leslie, Chloe Pirrie, or Alexandra Roach.) We'll see how things go—Community is halfway through its unexpected 5th season, and DW Series 8 has only just begun filming, so there's plenty of time for discussion.
P.S. The irony is that we are facing not only the same issues as DW's casting director—we need someone who can handle both drama and comedy, who is comfortable with science fiction, and who is established yet not too successful—but also the ones peculiar to the Internet—we need someone who is meme-ready, GIF-friendly, and hashtag-compliant, someone who has a solid Wikipedia entry and at least one fan-run Tumblr. Then again, it won't be too long before casting directors in the real world have to consider these factors, too.
Edited by 192.234.99.10
As much as I would love ASH as the Inspector, I think we should go in the opposite direction - I vote that James Marsters should be the 12th Inspector.
He would definitely fit the following tropes - Hellbent for Leather (as opposed to Mark Williams' Inspector), Mr. Fanservice, Fake Brit... He could avert the Dye Hard trope by staying with his natural brown hair!
He definiely has the wikipedia article, fans on tumblr, gif-friendly, meme-ready and hashtag compliant.
He would also be the choice NO ONE would be expecting.
Did I mention he's 51, like Capaldi?
And he could be the first Inspector to have an assistant crossover from That Ripoff - John Barrowman!
Marsters could definitely work as the Fake Brit candidate (John Barrowman, unfortunately, is ineligible as an Associate since he was already a Companion from That Ripoff and overlaps too much). He would be in the running once IS picks up again, whether with DW Series 8 or Community Season 6.
Meanwhile, Dan Harmon has confirmed that for Community Season 5, IS will not be reappearing (though of course it's in the background in Abed's apartment posters). As he put it at a Paleyfest Q&A, "The question isn't when he comes back, but why!" We can take that as not only a reassurance that Inspector Spacetime is still in the picture but also a promise that it won't return as mere Pandering to the Base.
Since the Night of The Doctor now exists, should we rename the Night of The Inspector? Anyone else have ideas for Day of the Doctor parody titles?
Hide / Show Replies
We've got the webisode "Twilight of the Inspector" as a prologue to "The Night of the Inspector", which works metaphorically, but "The Dawn of the Inspector" could be another option. Other ideas? (The Christmas episode of DW is "The Time of the Doctor", so we have the more precise "The Golden Jubilee of the Inspector" since the Inspector goes back in time to the 50th anniversaries of Queen Victoria in 1887 and Queen Elizabeth II in 2002.)
"The Appointment of the Inspector" could work—perhaps riffing on the Doomed Appointment trope. This may necessitate changing the Christmas special title, too, though. We'll see how DW's actually turns out, since our collaboration on the IS 50th anniversary material was done blind (not only was everyone avoiding spoilers, but Moffat and the BBC were determined in preventing leaks as well).
There's a lot more information coming out about the Christmas special in comparison to the anniversary. We'll see how it plays out, but so far, we're getting the Silence, Daleks, and Cybermen. Matt Smith has also promised that Moffat will somehow be tying up a lot of loose ends from the past three series. If so, IS might parody that by leaving its plot threads dangling, an old tradition of DW.
Untitled Work in Progres
There's a looming problem as Inspector Spacetime's TV Tropes main page nears a milestone: Its Wall of Text is almost as long as its inspiration's entry. While it's terrific that so many tropers have contributed so much, IS's main page has expanded beyond the original concept and is outgrowing the space as originally formatted. At this point the trope version of Archive Panic threatens to overwhelm the joke(s).
Back in 2011 when Inspector Spacetime began on TV Tropes, readers could quickly take in the few introductory paragraphs and then move on to the selected trope entries. From these they could piece together the rest of the story from allusions, references, and trope definitions. Reading between the lines, they could make out - or, with a bit of imagination, make up - the plots of serials and story arcs, the history of the programme, the character(s) of the Inspector(s), etc. This narrative effect, when it went well, was TV Tropes' answer to meta-fiction such as J. G. Ballard's experimental short story "The Index", Mark Danielewski's post-modern novel House Of Leaves, or the factitious ''Dictionary of the Khazars''. As more was added to the main page, however, related entries and recurrent themes grew farther apart, repetitive or extraneous notes built up like static interference, and adjacent jokes and running gags were broken up or stretched too far. Although there's been a lot of expansion on related subpages for everything from Awesome to YMMV, the main page is outgrowing its current formatting as it becomes harder to and harder to browse.
To restore Inspector Spacetime's TV Tropes main page to something less intimidating, we can take a leaf out of That Ripoff's book. First, the organizational method for tropes on Doctor Who's main page breaks down the trope list into four folder groups (alphabetically) of workable sizes. This can be adapted for IS by categorizing In-Universe Tropes according to whether they appear in the classic series, new series, or both, as strictly alphabetic sections would only break up the flow of the meta-narrative.
Next, to keep its main page at a manageable length, DW's tropers there have been curating it diligently. Zero Context Examples are either pruned or revised. Overly specific examples are quickly moved to the appropriate subpages, such as Characters, Nightmare Fuel, and Trivia. (IS unfortunately doesn't really have individual recap pages for story-specific examples, though, so other topical subpages will have to do.) As IS's main page already has breadth, other attractive options are to add depth and polish or to fill out the comparatively neglected subpages. And most of all, there's still much fun to be had collaborating on the Inspectrum.
With the 50th-anniversary series of Doctor Who about to begin in less than two weeks and Community well into its fourth season, Inspector Spacetime still has a lot of potential to tap, whether as a parody/pastiche or as a celebration of fan-favorite shows. While some have complained (unfairly) that Inspectators have run the gag into the ground, it has far more possibilities than less ambitious Just for Fun projects such as Disneys Anne Frank or The Ugly Barnacle. Where Community pushes the boundaries of meta-TV and Doctor Who uses science fiction to explore numerous other genres, this imaginary programme has the best of both worlds when it comes to playing with tropes and the wiki - provided we can keep it accessible.
Edited by btravern
Untitled Work in Progres
Anthony Pease is the creator of Inspector Spacetime, as revealed in the Community writers' Reddit AMA. We'll see how they build the IS canon in the episodes to come for this season. One of their official villains is apparently named "The Almighty Umlaut" and another is "Thoraxis".
Community writer Tim Saccardaco has tweeted a batch of set pix from the InspecTiCon: the InspecTiCon schedule, Sir Anthony Bonham-Pease, Baron von Morbidor, Inspector Minerva, Ümlaütsøn the Terrible, and "the star of Inspector Spacetime episode #472 (Wait, 472? There's little chance that IS could have that many episodes on a UK series schedule, even if it had been shown continuously for that entire time. At a certain point, we just have to admit that the 'net IS fans care more about the supposed 50-year history of the show than Community's gag writers…)
The very similar Doctor Who has, as of December, aired 790 episodes, since 1963. There's a good chance IS has amassed a similar number.
That was an attempt at humorous exaggeration to make a point about the Community writers' lack of a cohesive vision for IS (would it have been so hard to come up with a parody title, Saccardaco?). In any case, it's 790 episodes only if individual parts are being counted instead of serials. Since the classic series chucked naming individual episodes of serials by the end of the fourth season, they're referred to as Story X Part I, II, III, etc. rather than consecutive numbering of episodes. By that count, there are so far "only" 231 Doctor Who serials.
The point being, pedantically, No True Whovian would ever refer to "episode 472" but would instead call it by its proper name, "Underworld, Part III" (yes, that's the one). Likewise, Inspectators should always refer to serial names rather than episode numbers for consistency's sake - although there's nothing obliging us to keep the same length for serials (maybe the Fifth Inspector serial "The Stinging Nettles" was an epic 10-parter).
sliz225
Okay, the Crowning Moments seem to have disappeared from the main page. The pages still exist, but you have to search "Inspector Spacetime Tearjerkers," for instance, rather than seeing the little teardrop button when you click on the main page. Thoughts?
Hide / Show Replies
The teardrop icon doesn't appear on the main page for me either, along with several other icons for assorted subpages (I'm using OS X Safari). All the subpages are still listed on both the lefthand sidebar and the pull-down menu above the row of icons, so they're still relatively accessible. Since this hasn't happened on other shows' entries, it's probably a glitch.
Untitled Work in Progres
While TV Tropes' main pages for IS are pretty well fleshed out by this point and its canon has settled down into internal consistency, there's plenty of room for contributions to other existing categories:
FanFic Recommendations; Heartwarming Moments; Image Links; Quotations; and Tearjerkers
And for those feeling especially creative, some categories are awaiting their first entries (as of this writing):
Drinking Game; Haiku; Headscratchers; Oh Crap; and Under the Radar
Edited by btravern Hide / Show Replies
Also, the following pages exist for Doctor Who but not Inspector Spacetime:
Awesome Music; Dethroning Moment, Fandom-Specific Plot, Fridge, Gush, Large Ham, Memes, Narm, Noodle Incident, Shout-Out, Wall-bangers, and Woobie
So those topics are also wide open for expansion.
In addition, Spin Off and Wham Episode examples now have their own pages, mirroring the Doctor Who offshoots and subpages. (Plus the Expanded Universe for Audio and Books is wide open.)
Edited by btravern
Untitled Work in Progres
Just as an aside, in Neil Gaiman's Hugo acceptance speech for his teleplay "The Doctor's Wife", he referred to Community as "a spin-off of the Doctor Who-inspired show Inspector Spacetime"—a joke that appears to have originated here on TV Tropes!
bivalve
Regarding the episode list. We're going to have decide, do we ruthlessly keep it a one-to-one match with Doctor Who, with different titles, or do we add on extra episodes wherever we feel like it? (Someone just added a whole bunch.)
http://www.mansionofe.com Hide / Show Replies
A collaborative exercise like this needs some kind of agreed-on structure, so sticking to direct analogs of Doctor Who episodes at least provides a sort of framework (of course, there's no reason that the adventures have to stick to the titles when it comes to recaps).
If inspiration strikes for additional adventures, why not insert them as Expanded Universe titles, e.g. Great Ending Production audio adventures?
I'm generally in favor of divergence from one-to-one correspondence with Doctor Who in many ways, including episode titles. OTOH, I think the titles could be whittled down and improved a bit. Some just sound too intentionally silly (as opposed to titles the people at BTV thought were good, but in actuality sound silly), and some are just kind of boring (i.e., they don't prompt wild thoughts as to what the contents of that episode might be.)
Jet-a-Reeno!
Incidentally, I hypothesized a Clip Show episode, "Memories of Tomorrow," as something that might incorporate several minutes of the otherwise-lost episode "Ashata", but I'm not sure where it should go or what its nature should be. Anyone who has funny ideas for a Clip Show episode and wants to run with it, feel free.
Jet-a-Reeno!
I definitely agree with the "intentionally silly" comment. I've been doing that already, changing stuff like "Invasion of the Dodgy Special Effects." I also like the Expanded Universe idea; a person can include whatever they want there..
http://www.mansionofe.com
Sorry to bump such an old thread, but btravern's been discussing this with me via PM, as I added a 9th Inspector season in 2004, with Mark Williams' Inspector, and Arthur Darvill's Rory as Associate. I read somewhere— I've forgotten where— that the people at BTV re-booted IS in 2004, with 9/Rory, and then Russell T. and the people at the BBC got the idea to re-boot DW a year later, in 2005. Is this wrong? (Not that much can said to be 'wrong' in a fictional show.) I thought this seemed a neat way of further showing that DW ripped off IS, and of having Rory as an Associate (as I hadn't seen any episodes with Rory listed).
While the IS reboot definitely started in 2004, in keeping with the one-year-ahead-of-that-ripoff chronology that Community established, Rory's introduction with the Ninth Inspector has been left vague. Early on, though, there was the idea of Mark Williams lasting two seasons, i.e. series 1-2, but since this never took off, it was discarded and has left us with this echo of Early-Installment Weirdness.
IS's great advantage as a parody/pastiche is that it's not tied down to exact parallels to DW (unlike, say, Professor X). Theoretically, Rory could pick up with the Inspector at any time during Series 1. As there are only a couple of recaps here for those episodes, there's plenty of potential. Has anyone from the Pro Board group of fan-fiction writers completed anything from that period?
Edited by btravern
The IS Pro Boards also abandonned the idea of an extra Ninth Inspector series and kept the one-to-one correspondence of IS:DW seasons, so the Recap page can revert to the original version.
Meanwhile, the Great Endings audio plays' Expanded Universe adventures are still a blank slate: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Radio/InspectorSpacetime?action=edit. We've mentioned the Second and Eighth Inspectors' audio plays, but there's no reason the Ninth or any of the surviving others wouldn't have some as well.
Hm. Okay. Don't know where I got these ideas then. Sorry to bother you, I'll sort something out.
Untitled Work in Progres
Community's “Virtual Systems Analysis” episode presents us with a bit of a sticky wicket that we may or may not have to give tuppence about. Abed's IS adventure in the Dreamatorium has some pieces of information that seem canonically sound (e.g. the Inspector's transport is typically an X7 Dimensioniser, except for one little-loved season when it was the HMS Spacetime 12) but others that may be his own version of fanfic (e.g. Blogon means thank you in Blorgon or the status of the quantum spanner as the adventure's Swiss army knife). What do people think about ways to incorporate all this into the TV Trope page?
BOOTH was always kind of a place holder, so that's an easy find/replace with X7 Dimensioniser really (just like when we changed it from DARSIT).
The same creative difficulty with replacing DARSIT with BOOTH compounds the find/replace for this change. While DARSIT has been explained away as Early-Installment Weirdness, the change from BOOTH will require its own rationale. Is "Booth" the Inspector's nickname for the X7, the way the Doctor calls the TARDIS "old girl" occasionally? Is "Booth" how IS fans informally refer to it? Is there some other justification? (I'm just spit-balling here.)
Why do we need to justify anything? We just change it and pretend we had it right the whole time. :P
I think that justification is necessary because people are probably still going to use BOOTH (just as they are still using DARSIT).
Very well—BOOTH has been replaced throughout by X7 Dimensioniser (or the X7 or Dimesioniser, depending on the context) and the "Booth" is now the established fan nickname for it.
Next up, shoehorning in the HMS Spacetime 12 and Constable Rosamund from season five (whether the new or classic series, we don't know).
Edit: Oh FFS, now the NBC-Universal store is selling IS t-shirts with the phone box clearly labelled DARSIT.
It doesn't help either that Abed called it the "Time Booth" yesterday. Maybe another option is that X7 Dimensioniser is the model of Time Booth?
Well, the terms "TARDIS time capsule" and "Gallifreyan time capsule" do come up in Doctor Who in "The Claws of Axos" and "Shada", respectively, so there's a parodic precedent for calling IS's ship an X-7 Dimensioniser time booth. (The expanded Whoniverse appears to use the formal designation "Time Travel Capsule" or "TT Capsule" as well, but I can't find any mention of either in the programme.)
That works better, Daibhid. As the full description of the Doctor's transportation is a "Type 40 TARDIS time capsule", the Inspector's a "Model X-7 Dimensioniser time booth".
Untitled Work in Progres
Moffat learns of Inspector Spacetime, declares, "Let's take the rip out of THEM on OUR show."
Untitled Work in Progres
It turns out
◊ that Inspector Spacetime is a "production of Boogatron Media Distribution" and a "British Television serial starring several TV celebrities from Britain". (No idea what the JBV logo could mean, though.)
Because this TV Tropes page inspired me, I just started a sprock band. Space Master rock, obv. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMSyIgydYfs
I wrote a Sprock song, too! :D That's so awesome! Great minds think alike, no?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w21_rIvnlI
I couldn't find this on here, but has anyone come up with a term for fans of Inspector Spacetime?
Found this on Inspector Spacetime Confessions: http://inspectorspacetimeconfessions.tumblr.com/post/16721866557
It uses the term "Inspectator" ... which I'm guessing is a compound of "Inspector" and "spectator."
Thoughts?
Edited by inspectorfan1973 Hide / Show Replies
I know that the mass term is the Inspectrum. I just use "member of the Inspectrum" since it's easy but I do think Inspectator is clever.
Erm, if you don't mind, I actually prefer "Spacetimer".
Lemon curry?
bivalve
Travis Richey, who plays/played the Inspector on Community, is trying to put together web-series of the show. If you want to contribute, there's a Kickstarter page.
Unfortunately, Sony and NBC lawyers have told Travis to step off, so he's reworking the project "Untitled Webseries About A Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time".
Edited by btravern
Untitled Work in Progres
"You spell it Blorgons, I spell it Blogons": Blorgons is Word of God, but it was mispronounced as Blogons in their first appearance in Community's "Biology 101". Could we please stick to the official spelling, even though Google returns more results for the technically incorrect one?
With all the spin-off media, however, is there an opportunity for a running gag about Blorgons/Blogons, since the Daleks had some wildly differing interpretations from the original TV show in other incarnations, such as the multi-colored ones in the Peter Cushing movies, the weird variant types in comic strips, appearances in Doctor Who stage plays, expanded universe novels, and radio stories, etc.?
Edited by btravern Hide / Show Replies
I got an idea about the Blorgons being called "The Blisk" early in the series (Bilingual Bonus: "daleko" means "far" in Polish, as opposed to "blisko" - "close").
"what the complete, unabridged, 4k ultra HD fuck with bonus features" - Mark Von Lewis
There's already the Blorgon/Blogon confusion to contend with, thanks to their actual first appearance in Community. Adding a third term could cause more, the linguistic pun aside.
A Suspiciously Similar Substitute may be more fruitful since there's a precedent in both Doctor Who's classic series and expanded universe. Early on the BBC tried to replicate the Dalek fad several times but never successfully. Most notably there were the Quarks in the Second Doctor's adventure "The Dominators", as well as the Krotons in the Second Doctor's "The Krotons" and the cuter Chumblies in the First Doctor's "Galaxy 4". The new series was also considering new alternatives to the Daleks while the BBC was embroiled in negotiations with the estate of their creator, Terry Nation, but they were able to reach an agreement.
Edited by btravern
(One problem though is that the name Blisk for an alien race turns out to have been already used in the game Destroy All Humans!. IS ought to avoid accidentally reproducing names and terms if the conceit can work.)
Untitled Work in Progres
What of other Inspectors cited as tropes? Inspector Lestrade is obviously the Superintendent, but are there any candidates for an Inspector Javert or an Inspector Zenigata?
Edited by btravern
Seriously, take a moment to think about this...we've made a 26-second gag into an entire universe. If that isn't a testament to what we're capable of, I don't know what is.
Oh an episode guide? Go right ahead, that's a great idea. It'll be a group work in progress so you shouldn't have to write them all up yourself. I mean, it does have 26+ seasons, that's a lot of episodes. I think only two of them have names so far, even.
Blink = Stare End of Time = The Last Minutes
I think I may have seen a few more floating around, but I have things to do! People to see! I'll comment on it later.
Ideas for recent ep names:
Closing Time = Grand Opening
The God Complex = The Imposter Syndrome
The Girl Who Waited = The Girl Who Was Late
Night Terrors = Day Dreams
Let's Kill Hitler = Let's Kill Hitler (Same name, but very different take. IS had the characters actually kill Hitler and had a thoughtful presentation of what the world would be like, leading to a deep moral quandary of whether or not they should undo their actions and let him live. It was a difficult episode to watch, but very well done. The discussions and meta afterward were amazing.)
A Good Man Goes to War = A Decent Chap Stays Home
Edited by ailelie
"we've made a 26-second gag into an entire universe. If that isn't a testament to what we're capable of, I don't know what is."
Just make sure to use your powers for good... or for awesome. This clearly falls under awesome. :)
Deum, vitam, litteras amemus (Let us love God, life, literature)
The Empty Child = The Hollow Men (creepy alien puffball infectees in the trenches of WW 1)
The Doctor Dances = The Inspector Sings The Blues
The Parting of the Ways = Coming Back Together
Edited by NotSoBadassLongcoat "what the complete, unabridged, 4k ultra HD fuck with bonus features" - Mark Von Lewis
I changed all mentions of DARSIT to B.O.O.T.H.. It makes more sense to start referring to it as the B.O.O.T.H. now rather than accommodate the change later if it is ever named in the show. DARSIT isn't different enough from TARDIS to be considered, plus Travis likes the B.O.O.T.H. as a name. Neither Travis nor the Community people really like DARSIT. So if it will probably be changed if it is in Community, why keep it DARSIT? I admit, DARSIT is really unique and definitely refers to the Inspector's machine while B.O.O.T.H. might get confused for the word booth, but it is probably the better option at this point.
Plus a fun thing that we can do is have the Inspector change it every time he explains what it means instead of having one meaning for it. I thought that would be cute. I would check who said that, but the forum is blocked on the computer I am on.
Hide / Show Replies
I'm generally in favor of things that move Inspector Spacetime away from "direct Doctor Who parody with a very large number of direct points of correspondence" to being more it's own thing that can parody all sorts of stuff.
Like, for instance, the Inspector Spacetime Holiday Special, which is more about The Star Wars Holiday Special than anything Whovian.
We really should account for and expand upon what Community has told us about this episode, btw.
Jet-a-Reeno!
I agree on all points. (Although it seems like a minority opinion at this point from what I've seen.)
Shall we start coming up with canon related to Time Day and the 1981 special? Although it might be a bit complicated considering Richey played the Inspector in there and Constable Reggie was the Associate, but we can mess with it a bit, I think.
Mind you, the problem with 'booth' is that Inspector Spacetime is supposed to be a British show? And in Britain, they're called 'phone boxes '. Never 'telephone booth'.
Edited by Bluesqueak It ain't over 'till the ring hits the lava.
The gag with the B.O.O.T.H. is that the Inspector never reveals what it stands for, so it's perfectly possible the B could be for "Box". Would examples of guesses by the Associates work in a Fun With Acronyms bullet, e.g. Box Of Ongoing Transitional Hyperspace or Box-Operated On-Time Hopping?
Edited by btravern
Ditto on the moving away from a straight up parody thing. Richie can be explained through time travel-yness. It's that kind of show, after all.
The idea of "time travel-yness" sounds amusing. So, the Christmas special was produced for the Eleventh Inspector in 2011 but takes place in 1981?
I like that explanation. And instead it's just called "The 1981 Inspector Spacetime Holiday Special" or some such that way it makes sense in context?
It could be an in-universe Shada-esque merging of old footage from '81 with modern day intercuts with the Eleventh Inspector.
Where exactly do we get the notion that the episodes Troy and Abed watch are "modern" ones with the "Eleventh" Inspector? It seems fairly clear to me that they're parodying Doctor Who circa 1981 in those, not the more recent series. Is there something canonical or Word of God that puts these episodes in the 21st century?
Jet-a-Reeno!
Yeah, I've always been bothered with the idea that Richey's inspector is the current one. Clearly the episodes moments we see in Community are a parody of late Tom Baker/early Peter Davison.
Of course, the easy way to reconcile without rewriting everything, is to make two Richeys - as in Richey Sr. Was in the role in 1981 and Richey Jr. In the role in 2011/2012. I mean sure, it doesn't make sense with reality - but in reality, Richey isn't British either.
Truthfully though, the problem is everything here has gotten too specific and locked down. Richey's Inspector should be Inspector No. 4 or 5, and that's that.
So, someone reverted all the BOOTH references back to DARSIT (but also de-acronymed "Darsit" for some reason).
Obviously, it's best if we can avoid edit wars, but the problem is, when talking about a show that does not, in fact, exist, it's tough to say either name is "right" or "wrong."
Not really sure how to resolve this, exactly.
Edited by suedenim Jet-a-Reeno!
The Inspector Spacetime intro seen in Community's Biology 101 is clearly a parody of the current Doctor Who's. The orange coloring and fiery tunneling effect are associated only with the new series, as opposed to the classic howl-around of the 60s and 70s or the starfield of the 80s. It also makes little sense for Britta to have dug up old episodes when new ones would be more likely to be available (iTunes brings up all the new series in search results before classics, for instance). Moreover, rewriting the "established" canon in Tropes, Tumblr, and Wikia is a big enough job that the Word of God needs to be supplied first. Until Travis or Dan Harmon give us more information, it's easier to deal with the single instance of the 1981 holiday special.
I agree that it seems like it's parodying the 80s Who in some respects but that's really not all that changeable now (moving Richey out of the Eleventh Inspector spot is just futile IMO) plus there are elements of New Who in there as well. It's not all that changeable now anyway. But I stand behind changing the name to BOOTH now anyway. Travis mentioned here that we should have a different name because it almost definitely will never be named on Community as DARSIT. It's just too similar to TARDIS. He is fine with BOOTH, though, as shown here. I haven't heard anything from Dan, but I don't think he's really getting involved with all this.
It's going to be a problem to change over from DARSIT to BOOTH, yes, but it's better than being retconned later. We could always make a note on the page or something about it.
Edited by setavulos
DARSIT has been changed back to BOOTH, with a hottip handwaving the DARSIT name as Early-Installment Weirdness added.
Love this, but... The joke has already been done in the 90's within DW itself as a show was called "Professor X".
So, I suggest you guys add another level of insanity by replacing the link to "Doctor Who" with a link to "Professor X" as the imitator show.
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Professor_X
http://web.archive.org/web/19990203054134/http://dcs.ex.ac.uk/~dma/ProfX/
And, there is more! When DW vanished from TV fans created some actual alternative shows. The best were "The Stranger" and "Shakedown". There are lots of clips of these on You Tube that you could (mis)attribute.
"I agree that it seems like it's parodying the 80s Who in some respects but that's really not all that changeable now (moving Richey out of the Eleventh Inspector spot is just futile IMO) plus there are elements of New Who in there as well. It's not all that changeable now anyway."
I don't understand why anything isn't "changeable." Everything is changeable. The only date supplied in Community (the only true source of canon) is that the Richey version was the Inspector in 1981. That's it. That's the only date supplied. Everything else is fanon and supposition — really FUN supposition, but supposition none the less. Just as Star Trek didn't have a year connected to ANY of the series until the TNG episode "The Neutral Zone," we've been given a date finally for that incarnation of the Inspector and (just as Trek canon had to be partially reworked twenty years ago) we should rework the IS fanon to fit this new canon information.
Word of God was 1981. Now we must deal with it.
"Everything is changeable." Time can't always be re-writte—-wait, no. Anyway, jokes aside, I don't think so. These ideas are too locked into IS for us to change it now. Sure, we could try, just like with BOOTH. But for the people who are involved with IS on a lesser level, it's not going to make a difference. As much as I or you may be opposed to the idea, they will still call the BOOTH a DARSIT and they will still call Richey the Eleventh Inspector.
Also, the line between fanon and "canon" (quotes on purpose) is very blurred in our case. Anything can be called canon, and for a while it was. If we stuck with just what was shown in Community, we would NOT have a show here.
The fact that they supplied 1981 while stating the title of the special doesn't really matter that much because it could be construed a few ways. We could take it literally as you are and make it so that it aired in 1981, effectively making Richey the fifth or such Inspector. But the way that we have it now where the title of the special is The 1981 Inspector Spacetime Holiday Special (in a way that it would probably be taking place in 1981) is valid as well. We weren't specifically told that it aired in 1981, just that it was lost for a while, was REALLY BAD, and something has to do with 1981.
I hope I'm getting my point across... I'm not trying to be rude, but there are multiple ways to take these things. And the less we have to drastically change, the more it will be accepted by the people who have taken Inspector Spacetime as their own.
RE: Another Geek
Word of God stated that Doctor Who was a ripoff of Inspector Spacetime, not Professor X. Unless we have mention of it anywhere I don't think it is a wise idea to change things like that. It might just confuse people. I think Professor X and Inspector Spacetime can live peacefully separated. Besides, there's already a mention of Professor X in the Fandom-Related Tropes.
I think Traegorn is correct, and I suspect to whatever extent Community further plays with Inspector Spacetime in the future, it's almost certainly going to move toward a "This series was made in 1981" interpretation, not away from it.
The "Maybe the modern show went back in time to 1981" theory is cleverness worthy of Abed, but it's definitely the less likely theory.
Jet-a-Reeno!
Community's writers are probably less interested in specifying the chronological details than in coming up with good jokes. By keeping IS ambiguous, they can simultaneously parody the DW new series' recent tradition of Xmas specials (something the old series never did) and the notorious Star Wars holiday special of 1978. Similarly, their Kickpuncher parody of the Robocop movies doesn't seem to have been specified whether it was aimed at the original 80s/90s movies or the Aronofsky reboot that had been planned for 2010 at the time Community's first season was in production.
In any case, if we've collectively come up with a witty workaround in the absence of a real framework for IS, then that's enough until we get solid information, if we ever do. (If NBC is smart, they'll launch some kind of official IS site - but that's a big if.)
I thought Yorke was a cool idea, kind of unrelated to the Doctor Who mythos. He starts off as a bland, ordinary companion, maybe a poor man's Jeffrey. He's rather unpopular with the audience and people talk about how much they miss the old associates. Then it's revealed he's actually a Time Deviant (they look human, but are psychopaths who feed off of chaos and disaster) and he becomes one the audiences favorite villains.
Kind of making Inspector Spacetime it's own, separate universe.
Edited by McGonz
I like that. I was just racking my brain trying to come up with who he could possibly be in the DW universe, heh. I like the idea of Time Deviants.
Ah, I was racking my brain trying to figure out what Time Deviants were supposed to be parodying... thanks!
I don't know why "Blogons" was changed to "Blorgons," but I changed it back. "Blogons" comes from the original Community episode, thus it shouldn't be changed.
Hide / Show Replies
Travis Richey is actually the one who provided the correction. He said the script said 'Blorgons,' but it wasn't heard correctly due to the accent.
There's a difference between what was written and what was said, though. As filmed, the Constable clearly says "Blogons," even though "Blorgons" might have been written. So "Blogons" it is until another clip is shown contradicting it.
He actually said "Blorgons" though. We just heard it incorrectly because of the accent.
We should have a trope about the "controversy" among fans over how it should be spelled and pronounced, perhaps referencing the obstinacy of the "Silent-R" faction.
Edited by suedenim Jet-a-Reeno!
Seems to me that "Blogon" is the more prevalent spelling out there (a Google search for "'inspector spacetime' blogons" turns up over 20,000 results, while "'inspector spacetime' blorgons" turns up less than 4,000), so, you know, Death of the Author and all that. At any rate, playing up the controversy as a bitter in-universe feud seems like a brilliant idea, so I added a Broken Base entry to the YMMV page.
Edited by MagFlare
Regarding Doctor Who: Should we treat this like a sort of Alternate Universe thingy where this is the other version, or should we keep the page as it is (where it says DW is a poorly done spin-off)?
Hide / Show Replies
Having read more thoroughly through the page, doesn't it seem odd at all that the producers of IS would allow the BBC to use their character Rory Williams? If you ask me it seems like the fierce, decades old rivalry that exists in this weird alternate history is becoming much more subdued.
But DW's use of IS plots, characters, actors, and ideas had reached the point of joke by that point. When Darvill wanted more for his character than amnesia and a trip back home, IS producers suggested the BBC. It'd show off DW's lack of originality in a truly blatant way, and would be a way for IS to sneakily take over part of the DW storyline.
Also, DW ripped off of IS (according to Harmon).
I suppose, but why include DW in the first place? I guess going back to my first point, when did we decide that this was going to be an alternate predecessor rather than an alternate counterpart?
I seriously agree- Doctor Who should not exist as a show in the same universe where Inspector Spacetime exists as a show. Kill "The Ripoff", it's funnier the other way.
Shouldn't the Inspectors have Letters instead of ordinal numbers? (And they don't have to be Latin, e.g. Inspector Lambda)
Ketchum's corollary to Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced tactic is indistinguishable from blind luck. Hide / Show Replies
Having the Inspector's incarnations designated by letters (or codes or call signs) is a nice conceit, but given the extent of the current numbering references to IS across the Internet, we be hard pressed to implement it at this point in time.
It's already an uphill climb to figure out how to refer to the B.O.O.T.H. instead of the DARSIT (Word of God {Travis} has us on task).
I think that a lot of this would make more sense if Doctor Who and Inspector Spacetime began at the same time, and after the initial similarities, the later parallel plotlines and characters are a good-natured game between the staffs of the two series, rather than a vicious battle between them.
Let's loose the Doctor Who as a Ripoff thing. It's not funny and it brings up more questions than answers. Why not just have Doctor Who never exist? I get what Dan said, but he didn't see this project coming.
Hide / Show Replies
Besides the fact that Harmon said that DW is a ripoff of IS, having the two co-exist opens up the the IS a bit more to fans who *aren't* also fans of DW. If Inspector Spacetime is just an alt-Doctor Who, then IS becomes closed to a lot of fans who either have not seen Who or have only seen a little. This is problematic, imo, since IS started off in Community. When this was first running wild, several people complained about seeing Who stuff when they searched for Community tags. I don't know, I just think this will be more fun when it is more open and when people don't feel like they have to know all things about Who ever in order to participate.
So, since it looks like Inspector Spacetime is going to be a recurring thing,if we get Jossed by Community do we accommodate it or ignore it??
Hide / Show Replies
So this is about Associates. First of all, I love this little project, it's great, but the characters page is bothering me. The "more recent Associates include [...] and Rory Williams" really made me laugh. Just the whole deadpan including of Rory at the end against the list of expies really cracked me up, but I think the characters page has murdered the joke badly. First it seems to have another alternate Rory in "Aidan Davies" (unless he's supposed to be someone else) confusing the issue and by making explicit reference to Rory from Doctor who, which has the duel effect of killing the joke about Rory and the joke about Doctor Who being a rip-off of Inspector Spacetime by pushing it way too far.
I think this joke would be funnier if Spacetime Rory was just described to be absolutely identical to Who Rory (possibly even copy over some stuff from the Who tvtropes page word for word, changing names where needed) and having a general rule of making no explicit reference between Who Rory and Spacetime Rory.
Also there has been a version of Martha invented called Joanna Martin but I think it would work better to make Constable Wigglesworth the stand-in for Martha. Think about it, Martha is training to become a doctor making for a nice little thing in the show about the Doctor and Doctor Jones. Could Constable Wigglesworth be said to have the goal of becoming an inspector, therefore allowing a similar thing for Martha and the Doctor and Wigglesworth and the Inspector. As for Martha's love for the Doctor, when did tvtropes not love shoving huge Ho Yay entries into every article?
Hide / Show Replies
It isn't a 1:1 ratio. A lot of people were creating in a lot of places at once. Some expies were merged, some weren't. Some have absolutely no DW counterpart. If it matters, I don't know if Aidan was created as an alt!Rory. I just know that there was a tumblr image in which the poster gave support for Angie/Aidan.
Besides, it is fun to think that Who!Rory *is* Spacetime!Rory. And opens up some fun xover possibilities.
Far too late to implement this, but personally I think a better Regeneration parody (and more obvious opposite) would be to have the Inspector be imperfectly cloned every time he dies, so you end up with a series of different characters all played by the same actor. It would also mean that each incarnation is older than the last one, whereas the Doctor is generally going the other way.
Just felt I had to at least mention the idea.
Hide / Show Replies
Just on that note, should "regeneration" really be the term used? What about "rejuvenation"?
It's not over. Not yet.
Do you prefer the 10th Inspector (played by Daniel Landlord) or the 11th (Travis Richey)? And why?
Hide / Show Replies
Richey. The 10th Inspector got some excellent storylines and Associates, but, imo, the actor wasn't very strong in the role. I always felt sorry for Millie Drummer playing Lily. She deserved so much better.
Edited by ailelie
As much as I like 11, the new Head Writer has just been bogging down the show with too many hanging plotlines. We're giving this to 10.
Teutonic Tomboy T-Girl
WRT Hey Its That Guy and the Terry Pratchett example, I think it's actually even more important that the Inspector Spacetime page adhere to TV Tropes standards and practices, because it's likely to be the first page a lot of people see. If they see a page full of Natter, bad Example Indentation, misplaced YMMV and Trivia, then that's what they'll emulate.
In any case, I'm thinking we have some more appropriate trope than HITG for writers, don't we?
Jet-a-Reeno! Hide / Show Replies
Seriously you guys, I'm making this up as I go along. Please keep adding to it.
Hide / Show Replies
Naturally we're using "that wonderful element 'makeitupasyougalongeum'", which Terry Prachett claims is powering the new series of Doctor Who.
Teutonic Tomboy T-Girl
It seems we've been handling the number of Inspectors as parallel to the number of Doctors in that other show. Might it be more absurd and funnier to have some larger number of inspectors? ("The Twenty-Eighth Inspector debuted in 2011 after....")
Comic exaggeration of the show's longevity, and it'd also allow more "space" for funny bits.
Jet-a-Reeno! Hide / Show Replies
As the old maxim goes, "less is more".
Then again, there have been a number of non-canonical but BBC-approved Doctors in other media (e.g. Richard E. Grant in the web series The Scream of the Shalka, Rowan Atkinson et al. in the Red Nose Day TV special The Curse of the Fatal Death, Trevor Martin in the stage play Seven Keys to Doomsday), so there's no reason why additional Inspectors can't exist outside the TV series.
Edited by btravern
I've started writing an episode. The Premethium
Hide / Show Replies
(Ignore this remark - wasn't meant to be a response but a new discussion.)
Edited by suedenim Jet-a-Reeno!
Kind of made the Madame Kovarian Expy an old lady who likes to knit and drink tea. Her name is Ms. Patch.
Hide / Show Replies
Gifted Trope Novice
OK, I can see why some of the stuff I added got trimmed, but if someone could explain to my why the Terry Pratchett reference got the axe, I'd appreciate it. Douglas Adams wrote for Doctor Who back in the day, and since we seem to be doing parallels, that seemed appropriate and entertaining. Thoughts?
Strike First Strike Fast Strike Hard Strike Last Hide / Show Replies
I didn't see the reference, what was it?
Some stuff is being taken off because we now have a list of Inspectors...and people are adding a lot of associates. It's difficult to keep track, some of them might have to be short-lived in the "show".
One of the segments under "Hey, It's That Guy!". Seems like the whole segment got axed.
I replaced it now, if that violates some rules, than I'm sorry. But since this seems to be your baby and you didn't kill it, I'll assume it just fell victim to housecleaning rather than malice.
Edited by LokIago Strike First Strike Fast Strike Hard Strike Last
Oh yeah sorry! If anything gets deleted it's not out of spite. Contributions are awesome.
Hey It's That Guys go into the YMMV tab, so you can cut-and-paste it in there. (This is probably why Fast Eddie deleted it.)
Right so this is becoming a real thing now! I wanna say if anything gets deleted it's not out of spite! It's just that now that there's a lot of consistent information, people are just trying to adjust all of this into a workable canon. If something gets erased it's probably because it conflicts with something already established. If you want to help establish more canon, you can also come over here.
http://inspectorspacetime.proboards.com
We are planning to write episodes. TV Tropes is our go-to for plot material but we also pull some things from tumblr and whatever ailelie finds around and posts on her Dreamwidth.
ailelie.dreamwidth.org/299947.html
We're trying to keep as many people's ideas as possible in the canon in some way! After all, this is a group effort. And it's a big group. :)
Ladies and gentlemen...we're on io9.
I find this gratifying on a personal scale (I was the first one who typed up "quiet will rise"), but also to the community. We've done it, ladies and gentlemen. WE'VE CREATED A MEME!
Hide / Show Replies
About Brooke. She's gonna kill the Inspector, but in a totally different way. Any ideas. She also has a big hammer that destroyed part of the universe.
Should we list the Expy names here, so that people won't get confused and make new ones? So far we have:
Villains:
Blogons = The Daleks (of course)
The Sargeant = The Master (with Henry Anglo = Harry Saxon)
Space Masters = Time Lords
Snarling Lions = Weeping Angels
However, it looks like we have two names for the Cybermen: the Cymbals and the Metalguys
Companions / Associates:
Angelica "Angie" Lake = Amy Pond
Rory Williams = Rory Williams (I love this one!)
Mona Virtue = Donna Noble
Yorke = ???
Joanna Martin = ???
Captain James Haggard = Captain Jack Harkness
Minnie Smythe = Martha Jones (I confused this one with Mickey Smith at first)
Lily Taylor = Rose Tyler
Mary Sue Brown = Sarah Jane Smith
FE-Line = K-9
Anything I'm missing? Besides all the other companions I don't want to list?
The Cymbals were initially just meant to be the Sergeant's crazed ramblings, but they serve their purpose well. I say we keep them that way.
Joanna Martin = Martha Jones and Minnie Smythe = Mickey Smith, actually. We just genderbended Mickey.
We're still talking about a name for the Cybermen, I think. Some people have been calling them "circuit-chaps".
Still, we're trying to wean off the Expy-ness with Doctor Who. I do like Circuitchaps though. Do they live in a Circuit City?
Ah, I thought it was Mickey Smith at first - I'll have to change my recap of "Lily." Does this mean Lily is a lesbian though?
Oh, by the way, for the "Lily" recap, I have the Nestene Consciousness and the Autons as the Homene Awareness and the Clothons. Instead of plastic, they control fabric!
Someone needs to decide whether the Torchwood-like spinoff is "Peacemist" (which I like better) or "Flashtrees" (seen on the Crowning Moment of Heartwarming page).
Hide / Show Replies
Changed it to "Peacemist," since I was never satisfied with "Flashtrees." Also, can we think of a better name for the Sontaran-expies rather than Satarans? How about Ronstraans? Ronstra-HO!
Perhaps Rostraans? "Rostra-HO" rolls off the tongue better.
From what I've been hearing, Torchwood = Peacemist but some fans began calling it "Touchwood" as a joke.
I didn't realize that. I thought it was just supposed to be opposite of "Torchwood."
I changed the references to the spinoff series itself to Peacemist: Nicer Post (full anagram of Inspector Spacetime.) Just a heads-up.
Aaand it appears someone wants it to be Sepia Tomes Precinct (which is also an anagram of Inspector Spacetime).
The fact that "Peace Mist" is a weird counterpart of the words "Torch Wood" and it's a perfect anagram all on its own blows my mind; Peacemist should 1000% be the name and I will fight anyone who thinks otherwise! (over the internet, as a friend :P) Nicer Post is fine too, but Peacemist, wow.
Sepia Tomes Precinct is also pretty impressive, though, as far as anagrams go.
Teutonic Tomboy T-Girl
General Question Upon Which to Ponder: Who produced Inspector Spacetime? It shouldn't be the BBC, since it produced the competing series Doctor Who. ITV? In my own silly examples, I attributed the show to "BTV" as an ersatz ITV, but maybe it should just be the Real Life independent British channel?
Jet-a-Reeno! Hide / Show Replies
Hey guys, someone on Tumblr brought up a good point - maybe we should try to make Inspector Spacetime more of its "own" thing, instead of making everything in it a blatant Doctor Who parody. We've got the more obvious references like James Haggard, the Snarling Lions, and the Inspector himself, but it might be fun to just... take that and run in a completely new direction than Who ever took it. T Houghts?
Hide / Show Replies
I think it is interesting to build off the framework of Who, but make it completely different (like with my suggestion for LKH above). Then somehow make a continuity out of those things. Either way, I'll keep documentation on my dreamwidth. You know this is going to be a Yuletide fandom this year.
I can't wait. You already know about this, but for everyone else, there is an effort being made to get actual episodes written and we need fans to do it:
It might also be worth pointing out that IS is already different from That Ripoff. For example— Angie sees her world torn apart by the Sergeant. Amy has yet to meet (or even hear of, I believe) the Master. Also, Earth? Very much there. So maybe Angie is from the far future or another planet or something? Also, Rory traveled with the Inspector earlier in his lifetime, learning the secret to immortality (or, at the very least, how to cheat death really well), but apparently losing his memories since he never mentions the Inspector (memory loss, but certainly retains the no lasting deaths bit). And, a person on tumblr ships the canonical Angie/Aidan (well, she wrote Aiden with an E, but that'd not quite work with Aiden being the Gaelic, so it must be a different character and so Aidan with an A to save a lot of confusion).
What we have is already a lot more than just like That Ripoff.
I think that this is the best idea ever. I'm going to try and get a trailer out for a series sometime soon so we can judge the reaction, but we need to make this its own seperate thing.
This. Especially if it gets as big as it seems to be going for, it needs some things to stand out on it's own.
According to Dan Harmon, we will see more of Inspector Spacetime. http://chief-inspector-spacetime.tumblr.com/post/10721691963/this-would-be-a-scream-of-excitement-i-really
I was thinking he was an analog to Adric, who was The Scrappy until his death.
Considering Adric's was extra-sad, sure. Or, if we want to go complete reversal, everyone loved Jeffrey until his death made people laugh.
Nah I like Jeffery being hated until he dies. But we can make the story different from Adric.
Okay, I hate to ruin the joke, but this page has a tragic case of Fan Myopia. Please link back to Community or stick a short explanation in a hottip so that people who aren't familiar at all with Community (eg, myself) aren't completely lost and confused.
Hide / Show Replies
Once the page is unlocked from editing (people are adding to at lightning speed, hard to get a word in) if the note hasn't already been added, I'll add it myself :)
I added a link to Community using Poorly Disguised Pilot, but maybe someone will want to make it more explicit.
http://www.mansionofe.com
Well, it wasn't really meant as a Poorly Disguised Pilot (or is it?), but now that you say something...this could be prime web series fodder.
It was meant as a Poorly Disguised Pilot. It just wasn't really meant as a Poorly Disguised Pilot :P
Edited by jerodast
I've been trying to make things a bit more Captain Ersatz-y, so I changed the Catchphrase to "We must normalize the alignment of the electron stream!" and the Timey-Wimey Ball to the Spacey Wacey Cube. The last one was just because it sounded funnier to me, but it's okay if it's changed back.
I also added a bunch more episodes and changed ones that just sounded weird (what was [Quiet]? I changed that to "Night of the Sun.")
Edited by alliterator Hide / Show Replies
It shouldn't be exactly the same and more original (see above) than Captain Erstazy.
I know, which is why I didn't change some of them (I love the "Om Nom Nom" ones). It's just that [Quiet] seemed a weird name, so I changed it. "Shush" is better. I also think we should keep it close enough to Doctor Who to be recognizable, but also separate.
Also, thanks for the comments on the "Om Nom Noms". Wasn't sure how people would react to that, but it went over well.
Okay, so, I added folders to the main page separating the "canon" tropes and adding a section for "fandom" tropes (pointing out the Memetic Mutation of the show, its origin as an Affectionate Parody parody on Community, etc) and it was quickly deleted by another user. Does anyone think it would be a good idea to restore the folders? Due to earlier complaints about Fan Myopia I figured it might be best if we make it pretty clear that IS is not a real show; and the fandom itself is pretty troperiffic as it is. Any thoughts?
Hide / Show Replies
I wouldn't want to get people's hopes up. So until we actually make Inspector Spacetime into a fanparody show of both DW and Community, we should at least keep something on the page to let people know that this isn't a show they can actually find anywhere. Even Piratebay.
Do we need separate folders for it though? We can take a vote, the DARSIT is a democratic ship.
I'll put them back for now so you can see what I mean. I'd rather the fandom-related tropes not be mixed in with the "canon" tropes just so they'll be easier to see.
Ah, I think that's good. More room for us to play around, too. I say keep them!
Yeah. If someone deletes them again I might send her a PM or something. :/
Actually, here's a thought. I don't know this site as well as others, but is there a way you can keep the fandom tropes in a folder but let the In-Universe tropes sit outside of a folder?
Hm, I think it looks neater with the folders. What does everyone else think?
(Sorry for the inconveniences, skrcha. :[ )
Audience Reactions still need to go on the YMMV tab, as with any other work.
Rhymes with "Protracted."
So, to the person who keeps changing Naxos to Anglo...why?
Hide / Show Replies
I'm not the one doing it, but I'm assuming it's a riff on the phrase "Anglo-Saxon". And, honestly, I think that's a bit cleverer than "Naxos." But enough to get into an editing war? No thanks.
http://www.mansionofe.com
I originally put in Naxos because that was what was on Tumblr. Anglo is fine too though.
Yeah, I put in Naxos because it was how it was. Anglo is clever, but we can work that in some other way. I'd be fine with Anglo, though.
Oh, sorry, I put it in once. Only the last time was me, however. (To me, "Anglo" is cleverer than "Naxos" which is just Saxon backwards. But that's just me.)
Also, it should be noted that some of the ideas here like the DARSIT and the Sonic Crowbar came from other parts of Tumblr:
http://iaminspectorspacetime.tumblr.com
http://vondell-swain.tumblr.com/post/10581766885/inspector-spacetime
When I checked my TV Tropes watch list this morning, I discovered to my shock and dismay that all the IS subpages had been deleted overnight. Apparently there’s a new rule that “Just for Fun” entries may not have these, but this is exactly the opposite of TV Tropes’s “just for fun” spirit. I’m honestly beside myself over this terrible development—this vanishes years and years of tropers’ creativity across twenty pages of contributions to a practically unique Internet phenomenon.
Hide / Show Replies