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What'cha Watching Wednesday #9

As part of the Nerd-Week I present to you the ninth instalment of the What’cha Watching Wednesday, which again obviously covers more than one week.

WWWWhat is this about?

Every other Wednesday evening I will publish a post in which I collected the thoughts I had throughout the week(s) while watching the latest or any episode of a series or maybe even a movie.
Depending on how my time allows it, the comment will also be for those that I watched that day.
You’re warned: There will be Spoilers.

Let’s start

Supernatural – different episodes

Since the last time I guess I watched a few episodes, but I can’t really find them in my chronic…what I do remember is watching Tall Tales and The Monster at the end of this Book in German with Unmei. Both episodes are amongst my favourites, but it’s still weird to hear Sam and Deans German voices…(Chuck’s, Gabriel’s and Cas‘ aren’t that strange, but those two definitely are…)
A couple of weeks ago, Wren and I discussed me watching a couple of episodes in German and to pay closer attention to the translation. I didn’t manage to do much in that regard, as I was far too busy with my Advent Calendar, but I did find a few interesting changes in those two episodes above, but I’m nowhere near completing anything. When I do, it’ll probably be part of the Lost in Translation-series.

Doctor Who – Season 9, Episode 4-13 + Christmas Special

I don’t really want to go into too much details regarding the different episodes. In a way they were all incredible and I partly discussed this over at Geekritique, so to quote myself:

[T]hroughout the whole series I was torn between enjoying the episode and wondering what was going on, so the final[e] was both satisfying and utterly frustrating. 😀

Why was I frustrated by the finale?
Well…I for one enjoyed Clara’s death in Face the Raven. It was great closure. She finally overdid it, all her yearning for adventure and not caring for the consequence had finally brought her into a situation that was out of her hands.
And then The Doctor had to go spoiled child on the whole thing, go back and save her. As that was one of the topics of this Season, we more than once learned that that too has consequences. E.g. saving Caecilius – the one that frowned him his face – caused mayhem in Torchwood, saving Ashildr created another immortal (seemingly even a more powerful one than Jack Harkness) and now, through saving Clara he nearly caused the end of the universe.
So in a way I’m frustrated that he was so obsessed with her to even go down that road, but relieved that he now shares Donna’s fate regarding his memories.
Personally I do not want to see a Spin-Off with Clara and Ashildr.
The Husbands of River Song on the other hand was quite a great Christmas Special. It had a lot of laughs, a lot of emotions and was a great closure to Rivers storyline (like Last Christmas and Face the Raven could have been for Clara). The interaction between River and The Doctor was great and I wouldn’t have minded to see more of it, but that is probably quite unlikely.
All in all did I enjoy the Season. The topics were darker (and there was quite a high death-count) and it was a bit annoying that pretty much every episode had a life-or-death-situation, but it was still interesting. Now I’m curious what the next Season will bring.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Season 3, Episodes 2-10

I’m not entirely sure what to think of the Season so far. It was thrilling, exciting and a lot more, but it still left a bitter taste.
Why? Because after finally killing off Ward he is brought back as new vessel for Hive (if I read that correctly). I really hope that thing didn’t take up his attitude, as that would be really frustrating…
It was great to see some character development for Coulson, though it is a drastic change, but a welcome one. Every character – except Ward, who simply walks in circles – has had some development this Season and that’s great. I’m just afraid that the story line with the Inhumans and everything goes too fast before the actual MCU movie will air in 2019(?)…

Deadbeat – Season 2, Episode 7-13

Sooo…I’m caught up with this show now and I have to say the ending was kind of surprising. Though it seems that he will have a new ghost that will be following – tormenting – him next Season…
I’m still not sure what to make of it, but I liked how there at least was a bit of character development in the last few episodes.

Undateable – Season 3

A Season full of Live-Shows, there is only one thing I can say about this: Justin credible, I mean just incredible – sorry couldn’t resist the pun. 😉
But seriously a bunch of comedians and actors performing live in front of an audience is just a lot of fun to watch. The jokes and the story might not be the best, but the whole package is what makes this show enjoyable.
And there are a few gems in the jokes, especially when they mock each others projects. Or when they mess up and try to work their way out of a fiasko of sentence. 😀
One of my favourites from A Box of Puppies walks into a bar is definitely:

Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring. I just hope we get to do this for a few more Seasons.

From what I know they get the storyline and a few additions the others don’t know, but everything else is improvised. I think that is a great concept that very well should go on for another few Seasons. 😉
Though it does remind me a little of the Schillerstraße a German comedy-show that put different comedians into a situation before a live audience and while they played out the rough plot (there was no script and they all had to improvise) a game-master gave them instructions that they had to include into their play like „hug that person without warning“, „imagine there is something in your shoe“ and lot of way more ridiculous stuff. Ah, I miss that show… had to watch an episode after writing this back in December, but I wont go into more detail.

Reaper – Season 1/2

For quite some time now I wanted to finally watch this show that I enjoyed watching when it first aired in Germany. Well, after finishing Deadbead, I just went for it.
It has a lot of ups and downs, open story lines (whatever happened to Cady? Did she really just went to New Mexico and never returned?) and quite misogynistic plot lines, even if a lot of it was used as obvious clichés that was disappointing.
The show walks on the thin line of being utterly ridiculous – over the top acting and plots – and being incredibly dark, while dabbling more into the former than the later, but those dark moments are what make this show special. I can’t really describe it, but the characters grow on you, even the minor ones like Gladys and Tony – who are pretty cool.
In the two Seasons Sam had the most character development and part of that was quite, well, scary the more the Devil tried to pursue him and drive him towards the dark side. Though I really didn’t like the Sam is the son of Satan storyline – see Cady – and am glad to read that the producers had something else in mind. Check out this interview from 2010 if you don’t know yet: How Reaper would have ended.
I certainly wouldn’t have minded a continuation.

Jessica Jones – Season 1

Describing what it was like watching Jessica Jones seems difficult. I do get why people call it feminist or even go as far as to claim that it’s sexist towards men, but it’s so much more than those labels put onto it. It deals with many important topics in incredible ways, has many great characters and their interactions are natural and understandable, though for me personally a few things went too fast, but I guess that’s life. I also couldn’t care less about the different sex-scenes, but I always consider those to be annoying as they don’t really get the story forward, even if they – as they do in this case – advance the characterization.
(VERY) Unusual for me is that I like the main character, especially because she reacts so understandable and normal. She’s not over the top, she’s not able to solve stuff because she’s the main character, no, it’s because she’s determined and willing to do whatever is necessary so other people don’t have to suffer like she did. And that is awesome.
If more series and movies followed the example of the storytelling done in this Season we’d have an incredible change in the industry, though I guess that’s more or less wishful thinking.
I enjoyed the nods towards the larger MCU and Daredevil and I’m curious how it all will continue.

Galavant – Season 1

As you know have I joined Twitter recently and there I saw stuff regarding this show that I hadn’t even heard about before. So I watched the trailer, couldn’t stop grinning and had to check it out. What can I say? Who could resist Timothy Omundson as singing King Richard in a ridiculous „comedy extravaganza“? 😀
No seriously, about half of an ~20 minute episode is taken up by musical numbers, but they’re not always light-hearted numbers. Oh, no, no, no… I think my personal highlights were two peasants (Chef Vincenzo and handmaiden Gwynne) singing about their horrible lives and short life expectancy and deciding to spent the rest of it together and squires singing about their masters, but the guest-songs by Ricky Gervais‘ and Anthony Stuart Head’s characters were also quite fun. Or other really fun numbers where the characters tell each other what they actually think.
I guess the weirdest thing is that everyone is so okay with people randomly starting into songs – though some complains are made. 😀
The characters might not be the most creative ones, but they’re fun and not always entirely what they seem to be and that’s enough for a serial like this.  They’re enjoyable and dorky and fun, so what else do you want? So far the Chef, Gareth and of course Richard (it’s in the name, really) are pretty much my favourites and Galavant himself and especially Madalena quite on the other side, though I’m not so sure where to put Sid and Isabella… We’ll see if that’ll change with the new Season….

Once Upon a Time – Season 5, Episode 1: Dark Swan

At some point I tried catching up with OUAT again, but I kind of didn’t get past the first episode. I liked the twist that the Dark Ones dagger is the tip of Excalibur, but it is also a bit disappointing that they included yet another connection. Just as they re-used the whole „we get back to Storybrook and don’t know what happened“ – though I enjoyed that even the characters commented on that. Still, I’m curious how Dark-Emma actually came to be and stuff, but I still haven’t gotten around to watch it.

Psych – different episodes

I really felt like watching Psych again, especially after watching Galavant and reading about the connection from one of the movies I’ve watched.
Psych is simply one of those shows that you can watch time and again and it remains funny. The characters and the interaction between them, the stories, basically everything. It’s a pity the show is over, but it was an incredible ending. Besides not many shows can pull of a Musical Episode like that (even though that was a Season prior to the series finale). 😀

Sherlock – The Abominable Bride

This was an incredible special, especially as from all the promos you’re made to think that it solely takes place in 19th century London, but no, we get titbits that actually move along the current day story line and that is just amazing.
I enjoyed it greatly – even though I should probably re-watch it due to the lags in the stream – and it was great seeing all those characters again and this time in a new, but still similar setting and way.
I really liked the underlying storyline with the women of the show and Molly Hooper posing as man was a really interesting addition that nearly had me fooled as I wasn’t sure if it was her or not. And of course Moriarty and the whole explanation of how he survived ingrained into the old case.
I just really liked this special…

Different movies

I’m not sure I’ve watched that many movies these past few months. If at all.
I know I re-watched Mara, but I’ve told you about that one on Monday.
After the last HGWAnime we watched About a Boy and were quite fascinated by the fact that Nicholas Hoult’s face didn’t really change that much during the last 10+ years. 😀 It’s a fun movie, a bit weird at times, but still quite fun, but that’s British humour for you I guess.
Well there also were the Christmas movies – I tried finally watching The Grinch in English, after only knowing the German version, but simply didn’t feel like it -, but I don’t really want to got into details here, as there were too many. When I’m at my Dad’s place I watch WAY more TV then when I’m in my own flat (like 90% more, as I rarely even turn it on).
Aside from that did I check out Lars and the Real Girl after reading that the titles of Supernatural’s LARP and the Real Girl and Psych’s Shawn and the Real Girl derived from it. It’s quite an interesting piece, calm and slow, but a good pace for the topic. After Coming Down the Mountain it’s another piece that deals with mental illness in a sensitive way. It’s well-played and one can only hope that in real life people would react like the family and friends of the titular character in helping him overcome his delusion instead of condemning him.
For some reason I also decided to watch Revenge of the Nerds Quadrology with Curtis Armstrong, but I guess that was mostly due to the title, this is Nerd-Week after all…
The whole thing kind of left me with mixed feelings. Though that might be due to the fact that being a Nerd has changed over the decades since those four were created. The portrayed characters were awful (embarrassing) stereotypes and each movie followed the same pattern and frustratingly one of the main characters (Lewis) always goes back to his mindset from the beginning of part 1 – except for the last movie – and denies what he actually is. Some of the character concepts were quite advanced for that time, but still not fully fledged and that’s quite unfortunate.
Somehow I believe that you couldn’t make movies like that these days, but I guess that’s what makes them so unmistakably retro – or whatever you want to call it.
Still, I’m not entirely sure, but I might have seen one of the movies before – especially the second one seemed familiar at times – as I’m not entirely sure if they aired in German television. Though from the titles you wouldn’t even be able to recognize them as sequels (<translated> German titles: Die Rache der Eierköpfe/<The Revenge of the Eggheads>; Die Supertrottel/<The Supermorons (?)>; Operation Kleinhirn/<Operation Cerebellum>; Chaos Kings). From what imdb tells me they went straight to VHS and the first was released in 1986 in Western Germany – which means I didn’t have a chance to watch that one back then, because even if I had been born, I would have lived in the GDR. But one can never be sure what some channels dig up…

What were you watching?

What episodes (or movies) did you enjoy/dislike throughout the week/month?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

I hope you enjoyed this little look into the different stuff I watched throughout the last months. Maybe I’ll get around doing this more frequently this year, who knows.
See you tomorrow,
PoiSonPaiNter

Lost in Translation

For a couple of years now I watch series primarily in English. At first it was Anime with English subtitles, later there were many different shows that I wanted to check out.
Though I do believe I decided that I should watch more in English because I utterly failed at understanding Sherlock in A Study in Pink. He just talked way too fast for me.
Now several series later, I can understand him quite well and my next goal is Vicky Pollard from Little Britain. >_<
Anyway, what I discovered is that some shows like to include German elements into their plots – be it names, characters or other things – and as a German native that really likes the German language I consider these moments to be quite interesting.
Though in most cases they are also quite frustrating.

Let’s add some German things!

We Germans are fully aware of our past and as I mentioned in the post linked above, is it often still shoved into our faces, even though we are three or four generations after those who fought in the war. So it is not surprising that the most characters with German backgrounds that are included in shows and movies are Nazis or somehow involved with them.

Personally I think this is really annoying and whenever a show had this plot point I considered turning it off and lost a little respect for it. I mean in shows that cover historic elements it is good – and necessary – that they also deal with that part of the worlds history as it should not be forgotten, but in shows that focus more on entertainment than on, well, teaching, it just subtracts from its credibility if they have to use Nazis to fill episodes.

If that wasn’t enough are the actors portraying the supposed German people rarely even native speakers.
Whenever I notice that the language spoken isn’t English and sounds remotely like German, I listen again to understand it better. On the one hand is it difficult to switch between the languages, on the other hand is the pronunciation often really weird and hard to understand. Especially if they simply choose native English speaking actors, give them some German words to learn and let them play a German character.

So far – if I remember correctly – I only came across three (!) German native speakers that portrayed characters with German background (all Nazis, but, well, I can’t be that picky …): Thomas Kretschmann  in Dracula (the series) and Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ludger Pistor and Wilfried Hochholdinger in X-Men: First Class. With Daniel Brühl there will be a forth when Captain America: Civil War airs (Basically: Marvel does a good job at casting the right people).

Still, not all English native speakers are bad at portraying a German accent.
Reed Diamond’s German accent as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Daniel Whitehall, for example, was so well done that I had to look him up, to check if he was German and I’m still highly impressed by it – and I don’t give this complement often.
But even if they do it well, what is said does not always need to be correct …

They don’t talk like we do?

Apparently, beside not wanting to cast actual German native speakers are those responsible for the dialogues fans of literal translations and don’t really care about using actual German grammar for the things the characters have to say.
Though you don’t really hear complains about this from the actors or people involved.
But after having to order someone to

Schieß dem Fenster! (grammatically totally wrong: Shoot the window)

in Die Hard and being informed about its wrongness afterwards, Alan Rickman, for example, decided to never again take up a role of someone speaking German.

It is way easier to translate things word by word and not use the actual meaning of it – and we German’s aren’t spared from that as most people’s English is not the yellow from the egg – but I believe that in a show/movie viewed by thousands of people there would be time and effort put into properly translating phrases in a different language.

Besides German; Spanish and Russian – just as Japanese and Chinese – are used as foreign languages, but my Russian has become too bad for me to notice mistakes and my Japanese was never that good to begin with and I never learned the other two, so I can not say how well/bad they are doing with those languages.

(If anyone is interested: Mr. Rickman should have ordered the other guy to „Schieß auf’s Fenster“ to make it understandable)

It is also interesting how English native speakers seem to think German’s talk. I for one can’t watch a certain scene in Sherlock’s The Blind Banker without getting utterly annoyed and being really disappointed in the show …

Still, this gives me stuff to rant about.

Lost in Translation

For a long time I have contemplated how and if I should do this, but I have decided that I just want to get this out of my mind. I really like the German language, so it pains me if it is used poorly.
Starting with this one I will publish posts about the portrayal of the German language or culture in series and movies. I’m not sure how entertaining this will be for English native speakers, but I do believe those of you that want to learn a bit German (culture) might find it an interesting view on what writers actually throw at their audiences.

Definitely covered in this post-series will be:

  • The Wesen of Grimm and other words that are barely German
  • The infuriating tourist from The Blind Banker
  • The court scene from Sherlock’s Many Happy Returns
  • The repeated appearance of a certain historic figure (e.g. Doctor Who – Let’s kill Hitler; Grimm – The Three Coins)
  • The polite Daleks in Doctor Who’s Stolen Earth (thanks to hexenadia for reminding me of this one!)

If you watch/ed a series or movie where German was/is involved, let me know and I will check out if they have done it justice.

PoiSonPaiNter

The Elevator – Relaunch?

After I published my post about the Elevator-Meme (the one with certain characters from different Fandoms being stuck in the same elevator, read the link to know which one I’m talking about), quite a lot of people read (or looked at) the analysis and its accompanying One Shot that I had published on both Fanfiction.net and Animexx. I got some interesting and lovely responses so far (I even inspired someone to make a challenge out of this! o.O)  and well, what can I say…the mind keeps wandering back to it…
Several people have asked me if I will continue the idea, but at that time I didn’t have any idea how to.
The biggest problem being that I don’t know the majority of Fandoms as well as would be necessary to properly write such an enormous „Fandom soup“ (as a reviewer put it).
But as I said: The mind keeps wandering…I am more and more inclined to add more story to what I already have, to include scenes of everyone receiving the invite to get to the conference, to add some more thoughts and descriptions in certain moments and to simply continue where I left off.
As the Doctor Who Fandom is the one I feel most confident writing about, it his highly likely that the solution of the problem I created  (As a reminder: The universes merged and they met up to figure out how that happened and how they can reverse it) will be solved with the help of The Doctors companions (including Jack/Torchwood, River Song and the Ponds to some extend).
Though I see possibilities to also include „The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.“ and other Marvel researchers and possibly heroes as well. A mentioning of the Star Trek people is kind of inevitable , but I’m afraid I know too little about them to actually make that work beyond receiving and acting on orders. (If anyone wants to help, let me know how you would include them in my setting.)
Another thing I would need to worry about would be:
How do I include the other characters?
I have a rough idea what they could be useful for like the Holmes brothers for the planning, House for assembling and coordinating medical teams, Sheldon doing the same with „normal“ researchers, but that still leaves the question:
What am I supposed to do with the pirate and the angel? o.O (And the possibility of characters from their respective universes running amok…)
So you can see still a lot of thought is necessary to even get the characters to properly work for the sake of the story.
Regardless of that another important topic still needs to be contemplated:
How the hell did all that happen? Who caused it and how could the assembled people actually stop and reverse it?
The setting I created is quite Sci-Fi-y and as I said I’m most comfortable with Doctor Who, therefore my current thought is that the classic DW villains, the Daleks, caused it.
We have seen them mess with universes through their Reality Bomb, who is to say they would not create something that would merge universes, making it easier for them to kill everything in one go?
Quite overused probably, but the only thing I feel adequate to write about.
But long story short: The possibility that I re-work what I wrote to simply prove my points in the analysis and widen it into a more complex story with more details and an actual solution, becomes more and more likely.
It is just a matter of time until I find the missing pieces to start writing, I suppose. But you are more than welcome to join me in my musing. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter

Imagine all these guys were stuck in an elevator…

If you are amongst the people that look around the Internet for (funny) things concerning your fandoms than you probably came across this thing at some point:
elevator
So why am I writing about this?
Well, I started thinking about it when my brain was supposed to think about other – way more important – things and that usually ends up as a post…

Anyway, let’s have a look at this situation:

Eight guys from several different fandoms get stuck in an elevator for 24 hours.
In my opinion more interesting than: What would happen if they all were stuck? is: How the hell did they all end up in the same elevator? But before we get to that.

Who are these guys anyway?

We have: Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, The Doctor from Doctor Who, (Reboot) Spock from Star TrekDr. House from House M.D., Castiel from Supernatural, Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock and Tony Stark from Iron Man/The Marvel Cinematic Universe.
You could pretty much say that every person derives from a different universe, at least that’s what it looks like. Based on what we know of the stories and the connections between them we can soon come to some interesting conclusion:

  • Sheldon is a fan of both DW and ST and as Comic Book nerd he of course knows about Iron Man – all of them fictional in his universe.
  • There is however no – to me known – mentioning of House, Supernatural or PotC, yet the last two are most likely fiction as well
  • There is no mentioning of TBBT or House in one of the other formats
  • Sherlock seems to be fiction in all of the universes.
  • Except the one version of ST where Spock quotes Sherlock and says the line is from one of his ancestors.
  • Whereas Sherlock is mocked by John Watson for quoting Spock, making ST fiction in his universe.
  • Same goes for DW, when Rose Tyler calls the Doctor „Spock“
  • TBBT, House and Sherlock all play in a modern day setting that resembles our universe
  • So do Supernatural, IM and DW, but they have far to much influence on the time line of their respective universes, to be considered as one.
  • PotC plays in the past and is most likely fiction in both House and TBBT

To summarize that, we have:

  1. TBBT and House, that could be from the same universe where all the other people are fictional
  2. DW, where at least ST and Sherlock are fictional
  3. Sherlock, where at least ST is fiction
  4. ST, where Sherlock could be fiction or history
  5. IM, where at least Sherlock is fiction (and judging from characters in an Avenger Comic, the Doctor might be not-fictional)
  6. Supernatural, where at least Sherlock and ST are fiction and
  7. PotC, where non of the fictions yet exist and that might be a possible past for TBBT and House.

That makes, let’s say, 6 universes and a different time line of one that need to come together for them to end up in the same elevator.

How would that be possible?

Well, with ST and DW we have two of the leading Sci-Fi shows that occasionally deal with parallel universes and overlapping time lines. Add the Marvel Universe to the mix and the mash up is pretty much self-explanatory. I mean: The TARDIS blew up once and created a whole lot of cracks in the universe, combine that with the Alien technology of ST and IM and it could happen.

But why would these people be in the same elevator?

If you look at the people you soon realize that all of them – except Jack and Castiel – are really good at something. Well, Jack is good at retreating and Castiel’s an angel, but not in the way the others are. Just look at this:

 Sheldon Theoretical Physicists
 House  Medical Genius
 Sherlock  Consulting Detective
 Spock  Scientist
 The Doctor  The Doctor
 Tony Stark  Technology Genius

Now imagine a messed up combination of all 6 universes. Don’t you think the governments wouldn’t send their experts to meet up and figure out what’s happening? Now it is arguable why House would be involved, but I guess they would just want to include someone that can figure out if the mess-up will be unhealthy for the inhabitants of the planet.
In regards to Jack I’d say the Doctor is prone to picking up strays, so why should he let a disorientated pirate roam the streets of a major American city?

Why American? Well, most of the characters are American and I can clearly imagine it being some fancy meeting in one of those really high buildings. With lots of stops for an elevator.

So how did they end up in the same elevator?

I imagine it to be like this:
Sheldon had been asked to attend a meeting where his skills were needed. They had been quite secretive as to about what it really were, but they were government officials so he didn’t question them and was rather flattered by the invitation. The meeting would be in one of the highest levels, so he made sure to get a spot in the corner away from the console station as every other person that would enter would most likely leave before him. Before he entered he had seen an old man with a cane making his way to the elevator as well. For a second there he thought of just closing the door and let him take the next one, but he felt generous today. So he pushed the button to open the doors again for the man to enter. The man muttered a „Thanks“ and leaned against the side opposite of him. The physicist tried grinning at the other replying „My pleasure“ in a mocking tone, only gaining a suspicious look for that. When he was about to ask the man if he didn’t want to pick out a level the doors were stopped from closing again. For a moment Sheldon stared at the well-dressed foot, before the doors opened to reveal a man around his age in a coat that looked far to warm for this time of the year. The new arrival apologized with a wide grin and a „Sorry“ that didn’t feel at all sincere. The man glanced at the control station and the other passengers. With a small grin he then positioned himself in front of Sheldon facing the doors.
A loud yell emerged from the hall in front of the elevator when another man was fast approaching the machine: „Please hold that!“
The man in the coat stepped forward like he had done to enter. It would have been a waste of time to let another member of the meeting wait for the next elevator.
„Thanks.“ He said to the coat-guy before he added to the one that had followed him: „After you.“ The man wearing a blue Star Trek uniform entered before him. A cautious look in his eyes and a small courtesy smile on his lips. He stopped in the center of the small room while the other positioned himself in front of the console.
„Apparently we all have the same destination. That’s convenient.“ He commented with a smug grin, but did not get a reaction as he had hoped to get.
Bored with the other passengers he started to type away on a gadget.
For a moment there was silence in the room and the vehicle started to make its way upwards. Without any warning the latest arrival bluntly asked the Star Trek guy: „Are they real or did you have surgery to look more like Spock?“
He gained a snort from both the coat-guy and the one with the cane and a nod from the skinny boy in the back. The one in question just looked at him as if he didn’t get the reference. But before the gadget-guy could get an answer the elevator stopped abruptly and went down again. Quite faster than the passengers would have liked. When the doors opened they revealed two guys that looked like they had just robbed a costume store: One had decided to dress up as pirate, while the other pretended to be his own grandfather.
„Hello everyone, sorry for that. But I needed to take the lift. They didn’t allow me to enter the meeting with my own transport.“ He started babbling.
He shoved the other guy in front of him mumbling „Get in mate. Ha. Mate.“
„I’m The Doctor by the way and this is Jack Sparrow.“ He introduced himself and the other man that was just staring at the strange room.
„Captain Jack Sparrow“ Jack corrected and proceeded to knock on the metal walls.
„You know I once traveled with a Captain Jack. Nice fella. Became a fixed point in time though. Oh, and of course Sally Sparrow. Lovely Sally Sparrow. Had a run in with the Weeping Angels, but defeated them most brilliantly. You don’t happen to be related to her do you? No, that wouldn’t be possible. Would it? Hmm…“ The Doctor mused with his usual demeanor of running about and using his hands, only to stop and look at the Captain. When he noticed the others stared at them he added: „Oh don’t mind him. He’s a pirate from the 18th century. Doesn’t know what a lift is.“

Why isn’t Sheldon recognizing any of his heroes?

Because he can’t. Their stories are fiction in his universe, that means if the producers of the show have a rough idea of what the actual person looked like, they will hire an actor that resembles him. So to be clear: The Doctor, Tony, Sherlock, Spock and Jack (and Castiel) dress similar to their fictional counterpart and they resemble the versions played by Matt Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch, Zachary Quinto and Johnny Depp (and Misha Collins), but they are not them. Just as Sheldon doesn’t look exactly like Jim Parsons and House not like Hugh Laurie.
Strong resemblance: Yes. Alternative version of the actors: Not really.
It’s a bit like making a movie about a historical person: You take what you know about them and an actor that looks like them and wrap it in a tale.

But how would they get stuck in the elevator?

Let the tale continue…
Soon The Doctor noticed that the others were staring at him and not the pirate.
„Ooooh. I see. It’s me you are wondering about, not him. Some of the most brilliant minds of the universes and they are puzzled by me. Ha. Isn’t that something?“ He concluded clapping his hands together in delight.
„Oh please. We’re not puzzled. You clearly are just a lunatic babbling about pirates, that has the fashion sense of an old man.“ The man in the coat countered with distaste.
„Lunatic?“ The Doctor pondered this for a moment, before he replied with a wide grin: „No. I might be a mad man with a blue box, but I’m clearly not a lunatic. And: Bow Ties. Are. Cool.“ He declared, straightening the accessory and started to look more closely at the other one. Something was odd about him.
„Yes. That’s it. All of you listen up. Something is odd here. I don’t know what so far but I will figure it out soon. So now, everyone state their name, species and qualification.“ He ordered.
„And why would we do that?“ The coat-guy retorted in a superficial tone.
„Because if you hadn’t noticed: The lift stopped moving and it wont start moving again until you tell me what I need to know and we will all miss the meeting.“
„You can’t do that.“ Coat stated unconvinced.
„Apparently he can. I just checked the elevator software. It’s deadlocked. Heck, it’s that locked, I can’t even get through it and that says something.“ The man with the gadget admitted awed. „You’re brilliant. You have to teach me how to do that.“
„Awww…thank you. Maybe later. First introductions. You there in the corner. You go first.“ He pointed at Sheldon.
Nervous and unsure he fidgeted with his fingers. This man claimed to be The Doctor and if he wasn’t just an insane lookalike than he was really stuck in an elevator with one of the most incredible people he had ever heard about. Taking a deep breath he let it out in one go saying: „Sheldon Cooper, Human, theoretical physicist“
„Hello, Sheldon Cooper nice to meet you.“ The Doctor took his hand and shook it.
„N-nice to meet you too…Doctor“ He replied still shaking a little.
The Doctor then turned to the man with the cane and moved his hands into a „go-on“ gesture. „Gregory House, Human, doctor“ he simply replied.
„Ha. A doctor. Hello.“ The Doctor greeting him as well through shaking his hand.
When he turned around the man with the gadget had a wide grin on his face when he answered: „Tony Stark, Human, Genius“
„But not smart enough to break my deadlock.“ The Doctor mocked him before he took the offered hand.
„I am working on that and you have to teach me how to do that.“
„I will, later. Now you.“ He then started to circle the guy with the pointy ears. „You are not human. Maybe half-human.“
„That is true.“ He affirmed. „I AM Spock“ He started and stared at Tony for a moment „and I am half-human, half-vulcan and a scientist.“
„That is impossible.“ The remaining passenger commented, while they all were staring at Spock.
„Why would that be…oh…yes…you’re fiction…or at least you’re supposed to be fiction. Yet you are here. Oh, that is brilliant.“ The Doctor concluded in excitement.
„Fiction?“ Spock repeated when The Doctor went on to the last one.
„And you are?“ He prodded again.
With a sigh he complied. „Sherlock Holmes. Human. Consulting Detective“ This time all eyes were on him. Ignoring them he confronted the other man with the same question.
Straightening his bow tie again he answered „I am The Doctor. I’m a Timelord. I know how universes work.“
He grinned again pulling a metal stick out of his pocked and pointed it at the console
„And now: Geronimo!“ The Doctor yelled and the elevator started to move again, but not without throwing out sparks and making an abrupt start. When the machine had settled on a normal speed The Doctor grinned at the passengers.
„Sherlock Holmes. The great detective. Mr. Spock and other brilliant people. Oh this will be fun.“
Tony was just about to ask what a Timelord is and what that strange stick was when an
eighth passenger arrived out of nowhere.
„Hello? Did you call for an angel?“ He asked slightly unsure.
„Why would anybody call for an angel?“ Sherlock remarked.
„People do that. If they need help.“ The angel replied.
„You are a real, proper angel?“ The Doctor asked, staring at the man with slight distrust.
„Yes. Of course.“ The other replied.
„Does anybody know anything about angels existing?“ The Doctor asked the rest, when no one said anything he added: „Thought so. That makes…5 different universes and a different time line at least.“
„Six.“ Came a quiet correction.
„Six? Why six? What makes you think six?“  The Doctor started questioning Sheldon and tried to figure out what was different about him that he would think of a sixth universe.
With recovered confidence he cleared his throat and said: „I am fairly certain that Mr. Tony Stark aka Iron Man is not a part of my universe. Even though it’d be great if he was. You are quite incredible Mr. Stark.“
„Oh, thank you. I know.“ Stark replied to the flattery.
„Iron Man? You’re not made of metal.“ The Doctor wondered, pocking Tony in the chest. „And luckily you’re not a Cyberman either. Uuuh that would be bad. Oh that would be really bad. Let’s just hope neither the Cybermen nor the Daleks have noticed that there are several universes to destroy. And hopefully not the Sontarans either….“ He then went into another rant before he turned to Spock. „Did you know that the vulcan greeting is perfect for opening the doors in Sontaran battle fleets space ships? Probably not…poor Donna…But that’s not the point. Anyone else not having an ‚Iron Man‘?“
„Only in the movies.“ House replied.
„Yeah. I think there was one of those awful and loud obnoxious films called like that.“ Sherlock added with distaste.
„There’s a movie about me?“ Tony wanted to know.
„Three, by now. Plus an appearance in The Avengers. Several comic book series and cartoons.“ Listed Sheldon.
„Well, that’s awesome.“
„Wait a minute.“ Interrupted The Doctor and turned to Sherlock again. „A LOUD film?“
„Yes. Loud, as in: The volume of the film in the cinema is always turned up far too loud. Are you retarded?“
„Of course not. What year do you live in?“
„2013, why would that be of relevance?“
„Really?“ Asked Tony this time.
„Yes of course. What is this nonsense about?“
„Interesting. You’re supposed to be from the 19th century…“ The Doctor told him, while observing him again.
„Apparently I’m not.“ Sherlock and emphasized his comment through rolling his eyes.
„Apparently you’re not. And that is really interesting. Angel man!“ The Doctor moved up front again to talk properly to the man that was just standing there.
„Cas. That’s what…people call me.“
„Cas. Hello Cas. I’m The Doctor. Nice to meet you.“ He greeted him properly and shook his hand.
„So, Cas. Do you need to be anywhere. I think it’d be most interesting to have someone from your universe as well to be able to revert this whole mess back to normal.“
„Unless I’m called I don’t really need to leave.“
„Good. Very good. You stay. Jack stays. Jack stop pressing buttons. They make us stop every time.“ The Doctor then proceeded to scold the pirate.
„Sorry mate.“ He apologized and held up his hands in defence.

My point in this is basically: They wouldn’t get stuck. It would have to be one hell of an elevator to make them get stuck for 24 hours.
I can see The Doctor wanting to get information from the others so he knows whom he is working with and therefore stopping it or simply using his Sonic Screwdriver to get it working again.
Given enough time Tony would probably be able to unlock the machine and Spock would be able as well, if he saw fit in doing so.
It isn’t said much about Sherlocks hacking skills, but I think even though they would be quite good they’d still be far from Tony’s or Spock’s.
House, Sheldon, Jack and Cas would be pretty useless when it comes to technology.
Jack would only be helpful if they needed to escape and for that he would have at least a little bit of knowledge about where he is – which he doesn’t have as a pirate in an elevator. And of course only useful for pressing random buttons.
Cas would just teleport himself out, no idea who the other people are and what he would be supposed to do.
House would be good if someone hyperventilated.
Sheldon would probably be the one hyperventilating.

Anyway, what I find even also interesting in the thought process I just went through is:

What happens when they all exit the elevator?

In the „little“ tale I told with this, they all were send to a meeting to figure out what had happened.
So here is a glimpse at said meeting:

Finally the elevator had reached its destination. Pushing his way through the others Sherlock hurriedly exited the machine.
„Mycroft!“ He addressed his brother that was already awaiting him.
„What took you so long, brother mine?“ The older Holmes calmly retorted with he hinge of menace in his voice.
„That lunatic with the bow tie, babbling about time travel, space ships and different universes. How am I supposed to work with them? They’re useless. Why wasn’t I allowed to bring John? He would have been better company than those people.“
“ Oh dear. They were asked to come here just as we were. Just bear with them for a while.“ Mycroft tried to stop his brothers tirade, but he only got a snort.
„Hello. I’m The Doctor and you are?“ The ‚lunatic with the bow tie‘ interrupted their conversation, holding out his hand.
„Mycroft Holmes
. I’m with the British Government.“ He introduced himself and accepted the hand.
„You are the British Government“ Sherlock mumbled and got one of his brother’s famous smiles in return.
„Lovely, the older brother and the British Government. They like me there. Mostly. I was knighted by Queen Victoria…and then exiled. And don’t get me started on Elizabeth I….Still mad I never took her on a honeymoon. Anyway, British Government! I saved London a couple of times from alien invasions. Usually around Christmas.“ The Doctor rattled down, still shaking the hand, before he added: „Do I know you? You look familiar…“
„I can assure you that we have never met before.“ Mycroft replied taking back his hand.
„You saved London from alien invasions? Than you can’t be from my universe or you probably would have helped Thor.“ Stark interjected.
„Thor as in the Norse god of Thunder?“ Spock joined the conversation.
„Yes. In my universe he is a demigod travelling through different realms with the help of an Einstein-Rosen bridge. He recently stopped some Dark Elves from taking over the world. In London.“ Tony explained and showed the others pictures of Thor, Malekith and the destruction of London through his gadget.
In the back Sherlock gestured to his brother that these people were clearly insane.
„That is interesting. He looks a bit like me don’t you think?“ The Doctor held up the gadget that showed a picture of Malekith beside his face.
„Nope.“
„Really? Oh, yes…old face, not this face. Had different faces before. My mistake.“ He amended his statement and gave back the gadget.
Sheldon and House had already found themselves a seat at the long table that stood in the room, while Cas and Jack stared out of the window. As it was too ridiculous for him, Sherlock made his way to the far end of the table away from the others. His brother following him suit.
„They either are completely insane or they truly believe what they are saying.“ Mycroft concluded.
After a moment The Doctor turned to the ones responsible for the meeting.
„Can I bring up my TARDIS it’ll be helpful for figuring this out.“ As he was allowed he send a signal with the Screwdriver and the blue telephone box appeared beside him.
„That is one cool trick.“ Tony remarked.
„That is not a trick. That is technology I thought you’d know better than that.“ The Doctor retorted slightly offended.
„How can a wooden blue box help us?“ Did Spock want to know.
„Because it’s bigger on the inside.“ Sheldon answered before The Doctor could even open his mouth.
„Yes. How do you know that?“
„You are fiction in my universe too.“
„Oh. I am fiction. Haha.“ The Doctor clapped his hands in delight.
„Your show is called ‚Doctor Who‘ and it’s the longest running Sci-Fi show. Closely followed my Mr. Spock’s show ‚Star Trek'“ Sheldon explained.
„‚Doctor Who‘. I like that. Doctor who. Doctor who.“ The Doctor couldn’t help but repeat it in a sing-song.
„‚The oldest question. The question that must never be answered. Hidden in plain sight.'“
„What did you say?“ The Doctor now void of all delight and utterly serious.
„It was just a quote from the show!“ Sheldon replied in defence.
„You have my life in a show and even that made it into it. Not good. Really not good.“ He contemplated this for a moment before pointing a finger at the physicist and saying: „You might know things about my future. About everyone’s future that are fiction in your universe. You must be really careful of what you say. But first I need to set up some things.“
He then proceeded to go inside the TARDIS and pull out some cables that he then connected to screens on the far end of the room. Tony and Spock had provided him with their help to see more of that strange technology, while the others examined the box in suspicion.
„That is impossible.“ Sherlock concluded after he had rounded the box for the third time.
„‚Once you’ve ruled out the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth.‘ This box is a spaceship capable of flying through time and space and has bigger-on-the-inside technology.“ Spock told him with a hinge of admiration in his voice.
„What did you say?“ Sherlock demanded to know.
„You clearly heard what I said.“
„How can you know that? I haven’t said it here. Ah, right ‚fiction‘.“ Sherlock concluded raising his eyebrows in annoyance.
„You are fiction in the Star Trek and probably all the other universes. Though an alternative time line of Star Trek suggests you’re also related to Spock as one of his ancestors.“ Sheldon explained.
„Anc..?“ Sherlock started and stopped himself from letting his mind wander into that direction, while Mycroft burst out laughing.
The awkward moment of silence after this was then interrupted by the yelling of The Doctor:“Lazarus!“ As he turned to look at Mycroft.
„I hope you don’t turn into a giant spider thingy that sucks out the life force of other people.“ The Timelord mumbled and then proceeded to push a button he was holding: „Hello Kate! How is UNIT coping?“ He turned around in a swift motion to greet the blond woman that had just appeared on
one of the screens.
„Not well Doctor. We have all kind of strange reports floating in. We have to find out what caused this and how we can reverse it before any severe damage is done.“ The head of UNIT Kate Steward reported.
„Working on that. Just let me add a couple of others to the conference. You ready Tony?“
„Yup.“ Stark answered and pushed another button.
„Stark what is the meaning of this?“ Nick Fury of SHIELD answered right away.
„We just need a bit more information that’s all.“
„Spock! Your turn!“ The Doctor yelled again, making a turn to point at the scientist; earning confused looks by both Steward and Fury.
„On it.“ The other replied and pressed the third button that held a connection to his starship.
„Now that we are all together. We need to combine our knowledge about everything unusual. Everything strange. Everything that can help us to get out of this mess.“ The Doctor stated their plan.
„You mean aside from the fact that there are several supposedly fictional people meeting up in the same conference room discussing matters of high importance for their respective universes?“ Sherlock summarized their situation with a smug grin.
„Yes. Aside from that.“ The Doctor acknowledged dryly pointing at him.

Well, this is how I’d imagine it. As I said I don’t see most of the peoples actual usefulness in the given setting, but it’s the only one that’d make sense. Given the opportunity they might excel in their respective fields, but just for information gathering and techno-babble. Don’t thinks so.
And I hope you had as much fun reading the tale as I had writing it. 😉
(And if I might add: I haven’t seen that much of ST, TBBT, House and Supernatural. So any miss-characterizations or miss-informations derive from that.)

If this whole meme however means that the actors get stuck in an elevator.
Well, then one of them might know the meme and animate the others to make up a funny story of what happened when they got stuck.
But most likely they will only make smalltalk and wait like every other person for the elevator to move again.
Real people don’t really have „super powers“ after all…

PoiSonPaiNter

© The picture and it’s content, as well as all the characters belong to their rightful owners. Mine are only the ideas and the story formulated in this post. If you’d like to use it, let me know beforehand.