Tonight’s episode is made up of exactly three things:
1. Dead and dying loved ones.
2. The Year Without a Santa Claus.
3. Time travel.
That’s it! Enjoy!
QUESTIONS:
Has anyone ever gotten time travel right (in film, story, etc?) –Anonymous
LINKS:
This is the article I mentioned at random in the middle, if you care.
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So, driving to work yesterday I finally thought of a new question for the hat–what’s your favorite Christmas TV show….
So much for THAT!
My first thought about who was the parent of whom on “The Year Without a Santa Clause” also was about physics but I was thinking that probably made Father Time Heat Miser’s real dad–something along the lines of knowing of the existence of the Arrow of Time because of entropy and I think entropy is why we feel heat? Also there’s the whole thing about Heat Miser being a wee bit on the chaotic/destructive end of the spectrum.
Oo… good one…
OK, how about this?
In some time before the universe existed — maybe in something like the Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime, before it even made sense for there to be a “Mother Nature” or “Father Time” — the entities who would eventually become Mother Nature and Father Time — let’s call them Sharon and Craig, respectively — each married someone else.
Sharon married Order and they had a son, Snow Miser, master of crystalline ice.
Craig married Chaos and they had a son, Heat Miser, master of accelerated entropy.
Later the couples divorced and after Sharon became Nature and Craig became Time, they married and the boys had to learn how to get along.
This sounds like a really awful sitcom.
OK, but since it’s in the Aussie Dream Time, I think her name should be Sheila, ’cause you know, she was the first Sheila. And then maybe for symmetry, Craig’s name would be Matari (man).
Deal.
I picked Sharon and Craig because the Miser Brothers remind me of some real-life half-brothers I know, and Mother Nature is exactly like their mother (whose name is Sharon). It’s all kinda’ eerie, really. I wanted to cast the three of them in a live-action The Year Without a Santa Claus musical.
I could have picked Marshall rather than Craig, since the real-life brothers have the same mother. But I know Craig personally and the whole Father Time thing totally fit for him, too. (In case you’re curious, Craig is the, uh, “Snow Miser” brother’s dad in the case of my real-life friends.)
Like I said… eerie.
I went the Greek Mythology route for previous spouses–making Rhea Father Time’s first wife, and Zeus would be Mother Nature’s first–well father of her offspring, shall we say. Umm, but Zeus would then be Heat Miser’s other step-brother, making Heat Miser’s step-brother his step-father, and ahhhh, Heat Miser would also be Snow Miser’s step-uncle…..eeesh….
Hey people, this is supposed to be a kid’s show!
That’s the Greek pantheon for ya…
Great conversation guys! Also pleased to report that I am caught up!