What Would Happen If Doctor Who And Inspector Spacetime Collided?
NBC’s embattled sitcom Community may be the nerdiest show on television that doesn’t actively feature a robot or space aliens. In three seasons the intrepid students of Greendale Community College have faced down a zombie apocalypse, piloted a space shuttle (sort of), lived through a Claymation holiday episode, and become characters in an 8-bit videogame. Hell, there’s a Beastmaster gag in the first Halloween episode (that’s the moment where I climbed fully on board the Community train).
For those of you not familiar with Community, one of the main characters, Abed (Danny Pudi), has become obsessed with a long-running British science fiction show called Inspector Spacetime. Some of you may notice similarities between Inspector Spacetime and another series, also British, also about an individual who travels through space and time with loyal companions, that has also been on the air for multiple decades. We are, of course, talking about Doctor Who. The two are distinct entities, in a legal sense, and any similarities are purely coincidental. Still, one can’t help but wonder what would happen if those two completely different things came together. I wonder what that would look like? (Click the image below for a larger version.)
It’s fun to these two imagined side by side. Matt Smith’s Doctor is certainly the most enthusiastic participant in this inter-series meeting, waving in a friendly manner from the top of the TARDIS. Rory (Arthur Darvill) and Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) look less than enthusiastic about the encounter.
On the other side of this particular looking glass, Abed’s Inspector wears his usual look of quizzical disinterest, unsure as he is about how to read human emotional cues. Troy (Donald Glover) and Annie (Alison Brie) are also apparently in the what-the-hell-is-going-on camp.
However this imaginary encounter would have turned out, you can bet your ass that there will be more Inspector Spacetime in the future. The Hugo Award-nominated Community returns for its abridged, and oft-delayed, fourth season on February 7th.
