In this weeks Voyagers! Rewatch, Cory and Tom create something new and lose something old as they discuss episodes 5 and 6, “Worlds Apart” and “Cleo and the Babe.”
Bogg and Jeffrey, desperate to get away from a freezing Siberian snowfield, find themselves voyaging to 1917 Aqaba, where Lawrence Of Arabia has been captured in sharp contrast to the original history on which he led a successful revolt with the Arab people against the Turkish Ottoman empire. Bogg tries to help but a fire breaks out trapping Jeffrey, resulting in Bogg tossing him the Omni so he can escape away to…
Menlo Park, New Jersey, in 1879, where he faints after his near death escape, with a woman and her husband coming to his rescue. When he awakens later, he finds out that the man has taken the Omni to his workshop and actually dismantled the machine in an attempt to figure out how it works. Jeffrey is distraught but upon finding out the man is one of the world’s greatest inventors, Thomas Edison, he calms down, believing Edison’s promise that he can put it back together.
Bogg tries to figure out a way to help Lawrence escape from his imprisonment, but his attempt is thwarted and both he and Lawrence are now set to be executed.
Meanwhile, Edison finds himself discouraged at his lack of progress on inventing a stable electrical light bulb, further depressed by his backers demanding more rapid progress. Jeffrey manages to get the backers to allow more time, but breaks down when Edison decides to give up after many more attempts. Luckily, Jeffrey’s dismay leads Edison to happen upon the idea to use a cotton filament for his bulb and they finally create a successful light bulb.
Edison then fixes the Omni and Jeffrey returns to Aqaba, managing to land on top of a guard that was taking Bogg and Lawrence to be executed. Along with an Arab woman named Medina, they all go into the catacombs beneath the city to escape. Lawrence, Jeffrey, and Bogg escape but Medina is captured, leaving the three to come back and using a hidden stash of weapons and explosives to save her and take over Aqaba. As Lawrence leaves to fulfil his destiny, Jeffrey and Bogg voyage back to…
1879, Menlo Park to witness the night the entire street was lit up for the first time with Edison’s light bulbs, leaving our Voyagers basking in the glow of their own green light.
Lawrence of Arabia was Thomas Edward Lawrence; an advocate for Arab independence. The Turkish-Ottoman Empire had taken over Aqaba, a port on the Red Sea. If they could regain control, it would allow British ships to send supplies to Arab forces. During the actual battle for the port, Lawrence was injured after shooting his own camel accidentally. Later in life, he changed his name to T.E. Shaw, and was killed in a motorcycle accident.
Lawrence was played by Judson Scott. He’s had a lot of Star Trek roles; He was in Wrath of Khan and the TNG episode Symbiosis, both with Merritt Butrick (Kirk’s son, David).
Medina was played by Shanit Keter. Her character’s name was also a place in the Middle East.
Edison’s workers were real people; John Krusie, Boehm and Upton. They were called muckers and received a workman’s wages. The average work week was six days, 55 hours or more if Edison had an idea. He worked several teams at a time so he could pump out inventions.
“He could wither one with his biting sarcasm or ridicule one into extinction.”
“The privilege which I had being with this great man for six years was the greatest inspiration of my life.”
Krusie was played by Arthur Rosenberg. He was in the QL episode Raped, playing the Dad Jim McBain.
J.P. Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson Houston Electric to form G.E. The biggest bank today is Morgan Chase and Company.
Cleo and the Babe:
Bogg and Jeffrey find themselves landing in Rome, 44 BC, Just after Julius Caesar was murdered on the Senate floor. Caesar’s wife Cleopatra should have escapes to Egypt but the Omni’s red light confirms that that hasn’t happened. The Voyagers manage to help the queen escape the palace walls to a field where she can then make her way towards safety but she begs Phineas to stay with her, sneakily activating the Omni as she and Bogg voyage off to…
May 21, 1927, where a large crowd reacting to Charles Lindbergh’s transAtlantic flight finally landing in Paris causes Bogg and Cleo to become separated. Bogg retrieves Jeffrey and as the two search New York City for the Roman queen, they discovered that she isn’t the only thing wrong in 1927: apparently Babe Ruth never ended up playing for the Yankees resulting in Yankee stadium never being built.
The pair leap back to 1919 where they find Babe Ruth pitching for the Red Sox when he should have been known as a hitter instead. Jeffrey teaches Bogg some trick pitches in order to push Babe out of pitching and then teaches Babe how to hit those pitches, making the manager realize that if Babe was a fielder instead of a pitcher, he could play in every game and thus win more games with his hitting abilities. With Babe’s future set, Bogg and Jeffrey return to 1927 where they find Yankee stadium intact and soon discover that Cleopatra has changed her look and has been hanging out with notorious mobster, Lucky Luciano.
Bogg and Jeffrey infiltrate Lucky’s club and discover that Cleo is to act as a diversion enabling Lucky to stop Babe from making his 60th home run in order to win a huge bet. The attack however is foiled and Babe finally hits the record setting home run, with Bogg and Jeffrey grabbing Cleo and voyaging once again to Ancient Rome, placing the queen back where she belongs as our two heroes voyage off to their next green light.
Isaac Newton never actually got hit on her head with an apple, but merely witnessed it happening.
Ed Barrow sold Babe Ruth after the 1919 season. This was after he set a record of 29 home runs.
Babe’s 60th home run bottom was of the 8th, not the 9th.
After Caesar was murdered, Marc Antony, Marcus Aemilius and Octavian (Caesar’s adopted son) became a three person dictatorship. Antony was married to Octavian’s sister but had an affair, and three kids, with Cleopatra. Eventually, Marcus was kicked out, Antony was declared a traitor, so Octavian ruled solely. Antony and Cleopatra escaped to Egypt where they committed suicide.
Lucky Luciano was played by Michael Gregory. He done a lot of video game and cartoon work but is still a working actor. He’s appeared in many sitcom guest star roles. We know him as Col Wojohowitz in the Quantum Leap episode Star Crossed, Donna’s father.
Babe Ruth was played by William Lucking. He’s worked pretty regularly up to a few years ago. He also played Colonel Lynch in the A Team TV series. Captain America 2: Death Too Soon
Ken Swafford played Barrow. He was in “Captain America 2: Death Too Soon” as Everett Bliss along with William Lucking, who played Stader.
Norman Snow played Marc Antony. He was Commander James Hartig in QL episode Nowhere To Run, where Sam was a war hero who lost his legs.
John Achorn played Reporter #1. He played Irv in the QL episode One Strobe Over The Line. He still sporadically works.
Reporter #2 Charles C Stevenson. Was in the L&C episode Resurrection as Priest; the episode in which Mason Drake dies and dead men come back to life. He later played a Priest again in the episode Sex Lies and Videotape where Lois and Clark get caught romantically with him dressed as Superman. He’s a consistent working actor.
Next week we’ll be discussing “The Day the Rebs Took Lincoln” and “Old Hickory and the Pirate”.
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