QUINTOOBLETS: THE CAECILLIAN SECTION

"Everybody knows in a second life,
We all come back sooner or later.

As anything from a pussycat
To a man-eating alligator."

Yes, that's right! As those lyrics to 'My Mother The Car' would indicate, this is yet another "Born To Rerun" post about reincarnation in Toobworld.

In the TV dimension, it's possible for the karma of two souls to be so intertwined, that they are reincarnated together over and over again throughout History. We know this was true for the souls of Rick and AJ Simon ('Simon And Simon'), and it's our belief that it happened to 'Dharma & Greg' as well.

But now I'm thinking that it could happen when even more souls are involved......

During the "Fires Of Pompeii" episode of 'Doctor Who', we were introduced to the family of marble merchant Caecillius - his wife Metella, their daughter Evelina and son Quintus. If we were dealing with the fictional universe of literature, then this would have constituted a crossover! Not only are there hundreds of tie-in novels about the Doctor, but Caecillius and his family are the featured "stars" of the Cambridge Latin Course books! (However, in the Cambridge Latin Course books, there is no daughter in the family and only Quintus survives the explosion of Vesuvius.

Of course, the books are supposedly narrated by Caecillius after his death, so we have to allow for artistic license in his accounts!)

I watched the episode hoping to see some allusions to the classic Britcom 'Up Pompeii' which starred Frankie Howerd. But instead, there were routines from "Mary Poppins" ("Positions!"), and an in-joke reference to 'Only Fools And Horses' with the Stallholder who sold off the TARDIS, ten minutes after the Doctor and Donna landed.

And that could mean that the Stallholder would one day be reincarnated as Del Boy Trotter, and even his phrasing of "lovely, jubly" carried over with him into the new life!

However, as I watched it a second time, it occurred to me that the souls of Caecillius and his family could have been reincarnated together into a well-established family in British sitcoms - the Harpers of 'My Family'.

Caecillius = Ben Harper
Metella = Susan Harper
Evelina = Janey Harper
Quintus = Michael Harper

[This may be a bit of a stretch, but Caecillius sculpted marble; Ben is a dentist who could be said to sculpt/chisel away at teeth instead of stone. If you don't like the idea, perhaps you're an anti-dentite!]

The only one missing from that equation is Nick, the oldest of the Harper children and who's a bit thick-headed. (I think the character of Quintus better matches up with Michael, who was even smarter than his dad.) It could be that the Caecillian family had an elder son, but that he, like Nick in 'My Family', had already moved away. Nothing says that they would have had to mention him at all during the 'Doctor Who' episode, what with all the chaos about them. And for all we know, they may have done so, especially while huddled together near the end, but we weren't allowed to hear him mentioned.

There could be Fate involved in all of this; that the Doctor was destined to meet this family of Pompeii because he was traveling with Donna. Donna Noble is from Chiswick, and so is the Harper family.

Here's one more possibility for reincarnation, an intermediary link between both shows......

The name "Quincy" indicates "an estate belonging to Quintus". The last time we saw 'Quincy, M.D.' was in 1983. The actor who played Michael Harper (Gabriel Thompson) was born in 1986.....

Even though Jack Klugman is still alive, could it be possible that his character of Dr. Quincy died sometime after his last appearance on TV and was then reincarnated as Michael Harper? (Thus bringing together the Caecillian family once again in new forms.) And Dr. Quincy could have been the reincarnated link between Quintus, who was studying to be a doctor, and Michael, who was smart enough to grow up to be a doctor (and whose father was a dentist.)

Maybe.... nothing is set in stone!

SHOWS CITED:
'My Mother The Car'
'Doctor Who'
'My Family'
'Quincy, M.D.'
'Only Fools And Horses'
'Up Pompeii'
'Studio One' - "Mary Poppins"
'Dharma & Greg'
'Simon & Simon'
'Seinfeld'

BCnU!
Toby OB