TELE-GENETICS: DONALD & CHRISTOPHER

Donald Westphall was a doctor at St. Eligius Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, whose roots were in New Hampshire. He moved there after leaving the hospital dubbed 'St. Elsehwere' and probably retired there after leaving again in the late 1980s.

Christopher Foyle was a police detective in Hastings, England during World War II who retired on the same day that Winston Churchill announced that the war was over.

Decades and distance separated the two men. But I think if you went far enough back in the Toobworld timeline and in the genealogy of both DSI Foyle and Dr. Westphall, you'd find the men had a common ancestor. In Toobworld, tele-genetic echoes are quite strong; people with similar features are found all the time, even if no apparent familial link can be established. I'm not saying they're cousins, identical cousins, but you have to admit there is a similarity between them.

I'm one of those students of the TV Universe who believes that the finale of 'St. Elsewhere' could be interpreted differently. It's my belief that the entire run of the series actually did happen in Toobworld, and that the final "snow-globe" scene was young Tommy Westphall's fantasy as he stared out the window at the falling snow.

Therefore, there would be no Zonk in imagining that both Donald Westphall and Christopher Foyle were distantly related; both series could co-exist with each other easily in the Great Link that is Toobworld.

BCnU!