Once Upon a Time Season 2 Episode 5: "The Doctor"
Having been a fan of Once Upon a Time since it began airing last season, I like to guess the fairy tale counterparts of the Storybrooke community before they are revealed. One character whose identity had been perplexing viewers since the series' inception was Dr. Whale...at least until last week's episode. Within the first ten or fifteen minutes I had my suspicions as to his true identity, given the plot of the episode, which was Dr. Whale attempting to bring Regina's dead lover Daniel back from the dead. Add in his Storybrooke name (an allusion to the director of the 1931 film version) and what do you get...Victor Frankenstein.
While some viewers may be left scratching their heads as to why a character from a science fiction/horror novel written in 1818 is a character on a fairy tale show, I think it was a rather interesting move on the part of the writers. First of all, it reminds me of the comic Fables and its spin-off Jack of Fables, as its author Bill Willingham included various public domain characters and even genres themselves as characters. We've already seen characters from legend (Mulan) and children's fantasy novels -- which some consider literary fairy tales -- (Jefferson/Mad Hatter and Hook). While I wasn't particularly expecting Frankenstein, I think given Rumple's scheme of traveling to a world without magic to find his son, this new addition is an interesting twist. I personally have been hoping for Oz and Narnia characters to turn up, so we'll see what happens.
As for Victor Frankenstein, he's been turning up in a number of places recently, not just Sunday night television. Look for posts on Frankenweenie and the novel This Dark Endeavor soon.
Having been a fan of Once Upon a Time since it began airing last season, I like to guess the fairy tale counterparts of the Storybrooke community before they are revealed. One character whose identity had been perplexing viewers since the series' inception was Dr. Whale...at least until last week's episode. Within the first ten or fifteen minutes I had my suspicions as to his true identity, given the plot of the episode, which was Dr. Whale attempting to bring Regina's dead lover Daniel back from the dead. Add in his Storybrooke name (an allusion to the director of the 1931 film version) and what do you get...Victor Frankenstein.
While some viewers may be left scratching their heads as to why a character from a science fiction/horror novel written in 1818 is a character on a fairy tale show, I think it was a rather interesting move on the part of the writers. First of all, it reminds me of the comic Fables and its spin-off Jack of Fables, as its author Bill Willingham included various public domain characters and even genres themselves as characters. We've already seen characters from legend (Mulan) and children's fantasy novels -- which some consider literary fairy tales -- (Jefferson/Mad Hatter and Hook). While I wasn't particularly expecting Frankenstein, I think given Rumple's scheme of traveling to a world without magic to find his son, this new addition is an interesting twist. I personally have been hoping for Oz and Narnia characters to turn up, so we'll see what happens.
As for Victor Frankenstein, he's been turning up in a number of places recently, not just Sunday night television. Look for posts on Frankenweenie and the novel This Dark Endeavor soon.
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