Alison Vunderlande
Pop Culture Reference Guide
LOG #:
- Alien Burlesque
- "...if you're busy here with, ah, Bill Nye the Science Guy, I can come back later."
Bill Nye, the Science Guy was a TV series which first aired in 1993, aimed at teaching science to kids. Prior to this, in 1991, Bill Nye himself appeared in Back to the Future: The Animated Series. Since 2000, he's been seen as a technical consultant on Comedy Central's BattleBots. (Interestingly, Knox retorts "Bill Nye ain't got nothin' on me".)
- "...if I could get an autograph of Patrick Stewart or Mira Furlan or something that'd be really cool..."
"...Stewart is British and Furlan is Yugoslavian - she was on Babylon 5 donchaknow..."
Patrick Stewart played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) and the later Trek movies. Mira Furlan played Minbari Ambassador Delenn of the family Mir in the series Babylon 5 (1994-1998). (While both series are US based, Jadranka incorrectly identifies them as American actors; Knox claimed to have met Patrick once.)
- "...science fiction is really cool, but I'd never teach Klingon or anything, that's freaky."
Klingons are a race from Star Trek (1966-1969) and spinoffs. The Klingon Dictionary was published by Marc Okrand (professional linguist hired by Paramount Pictures) in 1985 (after Star Trek III: The Search for Spock came out). It was revised in 1992 after the movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country added more to the language, including a way of saying "to be, or not to be".
- "Um, by the way, Farscape, frelling good series, Knox here has taste."
Farscape (1999- ) is a series that would still be airing at the time of this scene. One of the buzzwords on that show is "frell", which is more or less equivalent to the English word "f***". (Ahem.)
- The Rite Stuff in LA - Part 1
- "So what do you figure? Disaster movie? Or something out of the Star Trek series?"
The Star Trek series of movies comprises nine at this point, the last being Star Trek: Insurrection from 1998. One more will be released in 2002 (Nemesis). (Danner retorts that 'Star Trek's all soundstages and blue screens'.)
- The Rite Stuff in LA - Part 2
- "You... you HIT me. PICARD never hit me," Alison says. Welcome to the world of bad John DeLancie impressions...
Said in response to a slap by Pip, this is a quote from the first season episode "Q-Less" on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. John de Lancie plays Q, an omnipotent entity who puts Commander Benjamin Sisko in a re-creation of a boxing ring, then is surprised when Sisko actually strikes him.
- Stuck in the Warehouse With You
- "... I'm not exactly Xena here but I'm pretty cool under pressure ..."
Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001) was a television series that took place in ancient times about a mighty warrior named Xena. (Gunn himself says Xena is pretty "fly" in the Angel episode "Over The Rainbow".)
- "The Host? There's a trill symbiote involved in this??"
"The Host" is the name of a fourth season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode that introduces the Trill race. Trill are a joined species, with a host and a symbiote, and were later revamped for use in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with series regular Jadzia Dax. (In scene, Madison was actually referring to Lorne.)
- "Um, killing zombies... doesn't shooting them in the head do that? I'm sure I've seen movies where that works. Unless they're being remote controlled from some central location..."
Most movies involving zombies require shooting them in the head in order to incapacitate them. Night of the Living Dead (1968) for the most obvious example. Some early zombie films also had the undead under the control of a madman, such as in White Zombie (1932) where Legendre (Bela Lugosi) uses walking corpses as slave labour.
- Sandtrap
- "I dreamt that I was standing in the woods with a bunch of zombie guys closing in. Then Angel swooped in with a rose between his teeth, pulled a shotgun from his coat, shot them all in the head, put the rose in my hair and bowed down to kiss my palm."
Tuxedo Mask is the romantic love interest from the anime Sailor Moon, whose arrival on the scene is heralded by a rose. Blade (1998) is a movie about a kinda vampire who wears a coat and totes a shotgun. Killing zombies with shots to the head was referenced above. Mix them together, you get a dream like Alison's.
- "Oh... like sand through the hourglass, so are the non-zombies of our lives?"
The tag line for the soap opera Days of Our Lives (1965- ) is "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of our Lives". It takes place in Salem, and like most soap operas, it will probably never end.
- "Frell me dead!" she breathes in surprise and anticipation.
Frell is again a reference to Farscape (1999- ), though the phrase "Frell me dead" was actually used by Aeryn Sun in the third season episode "Suns and Lovers", while rescuing several children. (Admitedly, the ep won't air until March 2001, which is after this scene occurs.)
- "Um, don't come any closer!" she cautions. "I have... well, swords.... and I'm not afraid to use them!!"
Variations on this line ("I've got a gun", "I have a knife", "I've got a dragon") can be found in many movies/TV shows/etc. Exact origins unknown.
- "Ai-yai-yai-yai!" she cries out in a REALLY bad impression of a Xena yell.
Another reference to the series Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001) and specifically the yell Xena (Lucy Lawless) uses when entering battle.
- The New Girl
- "...don't sell yourself short, you did good with the whole 'grrr! arrgh!' deal."
An oblique reference to the 'Mutant Enemy' logo seen at the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes (not unlike the reference made by Tara in "Bargaining - Part 1"). Joss Whedon made up the logo in the span of 20 minutes when he was told he had to have one. The standard "Grr Arrgh" was changed for a total of six episodes during the show's run.
- "I had parents who were big on Lewis Carroll."
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) is actually the pseudoym of English writer and mathematician Charles Dodgson. He is best known for writing 'Alice in Wonderland' (1865) and 'Through the Looking Glass' (1875); though the former was originally published as 'Alice's Adventures Underground'. The tie to Alison's name should be obvious - read it aloud!
- "I bought myself a couple movies at the same time, including 'Stargate'! That one was pretty cool after all, and now with the TV show it's, er..."
The movie Stargate (1994) involves finding an interstellar teleportation device ('star gate') in Egypt, and using it to travel to another planet. It sparked the creation of a television series Stargate: SG-1 (1997- ), still on TV, which chronicles the adventures of the SG-1 military team as they explore the galaxy.
- "By the way, Angel, HAVE you met H. G. Wells? He wrote 'The Time Machine', you know."
H. G. Wells (1866-1946) is best known for his science fiction books 'The Time Machine' (1895), 'The Invisible Man' (1897) and 'The War of the Worlds' (1898). He would have been alive (in England) during the two hundred year span Angel specified during this scene.
- "Host? That's the Trill guy who likes singers, yeah? Does he have a Goa'uld inside him??"
Worlds collide when Alison compares the Trill, slug-like symbiotes, most known from the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, with the Goa'uld, serpant-like symbiotes, from the series Stargate: SG-1. Both can inhabit human hosts (witness Commander Riker), but Goa'uld suppress human will more completely.
- Salmadundi
- "...you'll point that Goa'uld singer out to me, yeah?"
"Boy, you really don't look like a Trill *or* a Jaffa."
Again, references to 'hosts' from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Stargate: SG-1 (see above) when Alison finally meets Lorne. The Jaffa are actually modified humans who carry the Goa'uld to maturity, gaining strength and long life in return. (Jaffa are to Trill what Goa'uld are to Trill symbiotes.)
- "Kinda came to LA hoping to land a role in some cool movie, like one of the Star Wars prequels, or maybe if they bring The Doctor back - Dr. Who that is, not the lamer guy from Voyager - I could..."
The original Star Wars movie trilogy (1977, 1980, 1983) was actually released as the fourth, fifth and sixth installments in the saga. The first installment, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace was released in 1999, to be followed by the second and third parts (what Alison calls 'prequels').
The Doctor is the way everyone refers to the main character of the British television show Doctor Who, perhaps the world's longest running science fiction television programe, airing on the BBC from 1963 to 1989. The Doctor himself (an alien Time Lord) can conveniently recover from moral injury by regenerating into a new body (read: actor). The series sparked a TV movie in 1996 (featuring the eighth Doctor), seen in the US, which is why Alison makes reference to him possibly being brought back.
The Doctor is also the name of the holographic chief medical officer on the series Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001). So named because he never gets around to calling himself anything else on a permanent basis. (In his defense, anything compared to Dr. Who is liable come off as lamer.)
- "What races are here?? Are there any Minbari? Vogons? Hobbits? The Asgard, are they here? How about Scarrans? Daleks?" She smacks her forehead. "No, wait, they aren't real. Um, Wookies?"
Yikes. Okay, Minbari are a race from Babylon 5, Vogons are from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Hobbits are from Lord of the Rings, Asgard are from Stargate: SG-1, Scarrans are from Farscape, Daleks are from Dr. Who (actually machine-like creatures), and Wookies are from Star Wars.
- Two Geeks and a Vampire Walk Into a Bar
- "Jaffa, the Host guy. I mean, Host just sounds so... faceless, and he has a cool face, and even if he acts more like a Trill than someone hosting a Goa'uld, Jaffa just has so much more charisma to it."
More interplay with the connection between Trill (DS9) who tend to display more emotion than Jaffa (SG-1), both symbiote-holding individuals. (The term Jaffa having more charisma is a matter of personal taste.)
- "Get out! Have you met an Asgard??"
Said in reply to Virtue who first remarks on them, the Asgard are a race from the television series Stargate: SG-1 (1997- ). They average about a meter in height, with large heads and black eyes, bearing resemblance to 'Roswell Greys'.
- "If I were QUOTING, I'd say something like ''Doc, are you telling me that you built a TIME MACHINE? Out of a /DeLorean/?''"
A direct quote from the first movie of the Back to the Future trilogy (1985, 1989, 1990). It is said from Marty McFly to Dr. Emmett Brown during the first test of the time machine (using Doc's dog Einstein).
- "It's cool... he's like Nick Knight, the vampire police officer."
"Nick *Knight*, Angel, c'mon! I realize the show was set in Toronto and based out of Canada but the whole vampire-who's-not-bad-anymore was the show's premise ... Can you fly like he does?"
The reference is to the television series Forever Knight (1992-1996), a show about an 800 year old angst ridden vampire (Nick Knight) who lives as a homicide detective (on the night shift) in present day Toronto. It predates Angel (1999-2004), a show about a 250 year old angst ridden vampire (with a soul) who lives as a freelance detective in present day Los Angeles. Hmmmm.
- "Maybe if I talk back to this Rathius about the Star Trek Voyager series ... some of that technobabble can really put a guy to sleep."
The Star Trek: Voyager series (1995-2001), about a starship trapped in the Delta Quadrant, often spouted "technobabble", a portmanteau of "technology" and "babble". It means "the indiscriminate and sometimes inappropriate use of technical jargon". Interestingly, the word 'portmanteau' itself, that means "a word formed by combining two or more words" was coined by Lewis Carroll, who used many of these words in his poem "Jabberwocky".
- Strange Things Are Afoot
- "I know a hotel too. 'The Royale', it was visited by Riker, Data and Worf, who you've gotta admit looks like a demon..."
The reference is to a second season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) called 'The Royale'. The characters Alison mentions are trapped inside a recreation of a book, "The Hotel Royale", supposedly written by Todd Matthews in the early 21st century. This book has the oh-so-promising beginning "It was a dark and stormy night..."
- "Well, it's probably not Hypospray."
The hypospray is a medical device, sort of like a syringe, seen in the Star Trek series'. The typical site for injection of a hypospray is the side of the neck. (Safe bet that Angel really did mean 'Hyperion' during the scene.)
- Checkout Time
- "We're looking for a demon. Should we split up? Because they do that in all the bad movies and get killed, so I'm thinking we stick together on this one..."
Bad horror usually has people dying, not despite their best efforts, but because they did something dumb like splitting up in order to be picked off one by one. Even Willow in "Nightmares", the first season episode of Buffy points out how splitting up is "faster, not necessarily safer".
- "Is it Mr. Chandler come back from the grave?"
"You don't have to poke fun just because I watched the show 'Sliders'!"
The television show Sliders (1995-2000) is about four people who travel through a portal to parallel universes. In their fourth season, they would always book rooms on alternate Earths in The Chandler Hotel. Mr. Chandler himself only appears in one episode, "Data World", where they ultimately learn that on this Earth, he is a computer program, and the real Mr. Chandler is dead. (Alison draws the parallel because of Cordelia's earlier reference to a 'portal'.)
- "And I don't think Dave Thomas is likely to come by, though I'd love a cheeseburger."
Dave Thomas (1932-2002) is the founder of Wendy's, appearing in his own commercials for the fast food franchise since 1989. He opened his first Wendy's restaurant in Columbus, Ohio in 1969, naming it after his daughter. (Alison said this in response to Lorne's remark "Sweet B.J. Thomas", which is a reference to a versitile singer who has sold some 70 million records, two of them platinum, eleven gold.)
- "Come ON Wade, we have to get out of the Chandler Hotel! ... Rembrandt, what are you waiting for, grab Quinn and book it out the door!!" Really, you should have seen this coming, if you were paying close enough attention to some of her earlier sci-fi commentary.
The earlier reference to Sliders returns, casting the Angel Investigations team as Sliders characters. Quinn Mallory (Angel) was the person who discovered the technology, Wade Wells (Cordelia) was his love interest for the first few seasons, and Rembrandt Brown (Lorne) was the singer in the group who got sucked through their portal accidentally. Alison has actually cast herself as Maggie Beckett, who did not join the team until season three. (Evidence of her insanity, because Maggie was an annoying character...)
- "Look at the time! You've got less than /four minutes/ left! Marty!!" She races over and yanks a sheet off a chair, expecting to find... what, a DeLorean maybe?
"You're late!" she accuses ... "Do you have no concept of TIME?!"
Direct quotes from the first movie in the Back to the Future trilogy. The first was called out by Doctor Emmett Brown at 10pm while he's up on the clock tower, the second said by Brown when Marty first arrives at the clock tower that evening (to which the reply is "Hey, come on, I had to change, do you think I'm going back in that... that zoot suit?"). There were also multiple scenes that involved the DeLorean time machine being covered by a sheet, notably when it was parked on the street in front of the clock tower that evening.
- ... and she's all 'Cause and Effect' girl, turning to look at Lorne. "Captain, we have to get out of here, /now/," she asserts. Looks back at Angel. "Shields up! Evasive manoevers!" She throws the sheet she's holding onto her head .... She stumbles. "Shields inoperative!" She barely manages to stay on her feet. "The helm's not responding!" Looks back at Angel and backpedals. "The vessel is on a collison course! Impact in thirty-six seconds!" These are all direct quotes here, people. Look it up.
Alison eyes the approaching Angel. "Captain, I recommend we use a tractor beam to alter the other ship's trajectory!" But Lorne is already on his way out with Cordelia. So no help there, and Angel grabs Alison. "Inertial dampers failing. We're losing attitude control..."
"Cause and Effect" was a fifth season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that involved the crew being trapped in a time loop. Each dialogue phrase in the first pose is a direct quote IN SEQUENCE as said by the following people: Troi; Riker; Worf; Ro; Data. The last two quotes, breaking the sequence, are said slightly later by Data, then Ro. Really. Look it up.
- "Gooshie! Where's the door?!" she calls out in irritation. .... "Eleven," she counts softly as the vampire runs in what is most likely an apt slow-motion scene. "Ten seconds. Nine." Then she interrupts herself with, "Synchtron online." "Affirmative." "Stand by to fire... fire!" Angel's just got the door open. "FIRE!" And they're outside. The soundtrack for 'The Leap Back' really works well with this scene...
"The Leap Back" was the premiere episode for the fourth season of Quantum Leap (1989-1993). The premise for the show is that of a scientist (Sam Beckett) time travelling back and forth within his own lifetime, and again direct quotes are featured. The first remark about the "door" is Sam from near the start of this episode; the rest is in sequence at the climax of the story, where Ziggy (a parallel hybrid computer) counts down, the comments about the 'synchtron' and 'fire' being interjected by Gooshie. There is appropriately dramatic and touching background music played at this climax.
- "Oh great," she grouses. "I'm tuned into little kids, I'm tuned into dogs, and now I'm tuned into the mentally absent. Why not blondes? .... Oh, c'mon! That was just a direct quote from 'Shock Theater', third season finale, Quantum Leap."
Regressing back one episode (and verbally giving away the game for once), "Shock Theater" was the third season finale for Quantum Leap and features Al Calavicci with the direct quote. He is lamenting the fact that people in a mental institute can see him, even though he's meant to be a hologram that only Sam can see and hear.
- Calm Before the Storm
- "I had a moment there where I thought I was in a sonic shower and that's science fiction which is REALLY the thing that grates on all your nerves..."
The sonic shower is the way of getting clean on Star Trek without using water. One of the first references is in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), as this is where V'ger dumps Ilia when it returns her to the Enterprise. The first time such a shower is seen in action is at the end of the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Juggernaut" from the fifth season (1999).
- Weekend at Lorne's
- "Because there's still that whole weird portal thing Cordelia saw which I keep wanting to relate to the TV show 'Sliders'. ... And I hope this time I act more 'Samuel Beckett' than 'Maggie Beckett'."
Alison rehashes her last visit to the Hyperion through television series' Sliders (1995-2000) that featured the character Maggie Beckett and Quantum Leap (1989-1993) that featured the character Samuel Beckett. Her Beckett preference is clear.
- *"Finishing the spell," she reminds herself. "Right. Prepare yourselves for what could be bad Phoebe Halliwell impressions."
Phoebe Halliwell is one of the original three sisters who discovered she had supernatural "witch" powers on the television series Charmed (1998- ). (* This dialogue is inexplicably missing from the actual log, but was uttered just before the group entered the Hyperion. You'll notice Alison's short a pose.)
- "And so it begins..." (shouted after the little girl) "There is a hole in your mind!" (to Angel) "What do you want?" (to Gunn) "No one here is exactly what he appears." (to Lorne) "Nothing's the same anymore."
Back to Babylon 5 (1994-1998) and specifically the voiceovers that occurred during the opening credits for the television show's fifth season. The series itself was nearly cancelled after four seasons, despite creator J. Michael Straczynski's original plans for a five year run. As such, the final episode was shot in season four, before a last minute reprieve gave the go-ahead for season five. The opening voiceover for the last season itself is actually comments uttered by series' regulars over the previous four seasons.
- "Commander Sinclair is being reassigned." "Why don't you eliminate the entire Narn homeworld while you're at it?" Alison continues mumbling quietly the rest of the B5 fifth season theme to herself (SHAME on those who don't recognize it), however she also lets slip a "The Truth is Out There" when Angel speaks directly to her.
"Commander Sinclair" and "Narn" are continuing less than subtle hints to Babylon 5 before Alison's pose reveals her dialogue to be the narration mentionned above. The throw in of "The Truth is Out There" is the tag line to the X-Files (1993-2002) television series, and comes as a result of a line by Angel to Alison, "Stay here, Scully" (Dana Scully being a regular on that series).
- The tale of the last of the Babylon stations trails off just before they are about to place President Clarke under arrest, because Alison is now seeing everyone else, well, kind of freaking. But... the SPELL! Shocked momentarily back to her sort of senses, she
mutters, "Frell! Bad frell!"
Alison's narration of fifth season Babylon 5 finishes just before the voiceover did (with the arrest of President Clarke). She then switches into Farscape, making an oblique reference to the third season episode "Meltdown". In that episode (which would not air until 2001), crew members on Talyn began to lose control of their emotions, at one point sparking the dialogue between Aeryn Sun and John Crichton of "Frell!"; "Yeah..."; "No, no, no. I mean BAD frell!" (For the meaning of 'frell', see Log #1.)
- "Oh hess! What the yotz is that?" she sputters .... "Hey, Jaffa!" The shaking succeeds in slumping Lorne over; fortunately, his candle avoids jabbing him in the nose. "Frell!"
More Farscape terms; "hess" being equivalent to "hell" (usually spoken by Ka D'Argo) and "yotz" some unknown expletive used almost exclusively by Rygel. Jaffa is Alison's continuing way of referring to Lorne, connecting 'Host' to the Goa'uld hosts of Stargate: SG-1 (1997- ).
- She spots Angel and murmurs, "Michael Knight, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless..."
Alison watches as David Hasselhoff gets menaced by a demon. .... "Oh, Michael!" she gasps in horror. But Gunn is charging in. "You get him RC III!"
The first quote is lifted directly from the opening narration of the television show Knight Rider (1982-1986), which starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight (pre-Baywatch). Note that the description is not too hard to apply to Angel. RC III was a (black) character who appeared as a regular for the show's fourth season. (Interestingly, Knight Rider is no stranger to Angel, even though Angel himself didn't understand what Spike was talking about in the episode "Underneath".)
- "Li! Oh my God, I'm coming!" Scooping up her sword, the feelings she has for Li outweigh her earlier apprehension, and holding the sword out in front of her like some sort of staff, she charges forwards. .... "Clow Card!" she screams. "Return to your power CONFINED!!"
"Actually, I think I was Sakura Kinomoto at the time..."
Enter Japanese anime, and in particular Card Captor Sakura (1998-2000), which was dubbed (poorly) into English as CardCaptors. The main character is Sakura Kinomoto (dubbed Sakura Avalon), a girl tasked with capturing a number of magical cards after she accidentally sets them loose in the first place. To do this, she uses a staff, and tends to utter the (dubbed) tagline "return to your power confined". Her male rival, who eventually becomes her friend in this series, is Syaoran Li (dubbed Li Showron).
- "My name is Alison Vunderlande, a secretary!" she cries out to no one in particular. "A technobabble wave hit, and I got shot through a wormhole! Now I'll be lost in some distant part of the universe on a ship, a living ship full of strange alien life forms! Help me! Listen, please! Is there anybody out there who can hear me...?" The rest is lost within the portal, accompanied by a flash of light and some nifty special effects that would cost the Jim Henson Company a mint.
Alison exits the hotel the way she entered, with the opening narration to a television series, this time season one of Farscape (1999- ). It's somewhat apropos, as the original narration goes as following, setting up the series' premise: "My name is John Crichton, an astronaut. A radiation wave hit and I got shot through a wormhole. Now I'm lost in some distant part of the universe on a ship, a living ship full of... strange alien life forms (help me). Listen, please! Is there anybody out there who can hear me...? I'm being hunted by an insane military commander. I'm doing everything I can... I'm just looking for a way home." The Jim Henson company (founded some 45 years ago and home to the Muppets) is responsible for the puppeteering on Farscape.
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