Talk:Trask (The Highlanders)

Merger
Can we talk this through first? I do want to keep the speedy rename list empty, but this is not a reason to rush things either. I understand the excitement: it is an amazing find, indeed. Let's do it properly though. There are several things here (for instance, it needs to be merged to preserve the history of edits at Trask (Alien Bodies)). I'll be happy to do it. But first, could you please walk me through the connection of Trask from the novel to Trask from The Highlanders? I do get the name is the same. What are the other similarities? On the scale of "River is Amy's daughter" to "the Doctor's name is Basil", how clear-cut is the connection? Amorkuz ☎  19:05, November 27, 2017 (UTC)


 * I'd be happy to talk this through! In PROSE: Alien Bodies, Trask is the reanimated corpse of a human whose death the Doctor caused "a long time ago". At one point, Trask remembers his death: falling into the water and drowning (and dramatically seeing the face of the Doctor, in an incarnation that looks older than Eight, staring down at him; but the Shift later explains this away as a fake addition to trigger Trask's memory and make it more dramatic). After his death, he was zombified by the Celestis, who have a habit of appearing to regular Joes, pretending to be gods, and getting them to sign away their soul in exchange for a few extra years of life. By the time of Alien Bodies, Trask has been dead for so long that he doesn't have any other memories from his life. And his name is Trask.


 * Meanwhile, in TV: The Highlanders, Trask is the captain of a ship. The Doctor tricks Trask into being distracted while the captives stage an attack, which ends with Jamie forcing him over the side of the ship. (Earlier, Trask had told everyone, "The only way off this ship is drowning," and he's not seen again in the episode, so the insinuation is clear.) And also, his name is Trask.


 * In a lot of ways, I feel like the name connection is the best reason, since I feel that if we had the same situation but both characters were specifically named "Nathanael Bumbernickel", the pages would've been merged from the get-go. But this isn't a John (Borrowed Time) / John (The Christmas Invasion) situation where it's a very common name used twice without connection; "Trask" is by no means anything approaching a common name, and I highly doubt it's just a coincidence of reappearing nonsense, since the author of Alien Bodies was clearly familiar with The Highlanders (cf his previous novel Christmas on a Rational Planet, which references every Classic story, and his later work in About Time 2). The "death by drowning, caused by the Doctor" connection is just the icing on the cake.


 * So yeah, that's my reasons. I'd already been working on a total rewrite of Trask (Alien Bodies) to amend the earlier confusion with the similar but completely different Kristopher Patrick Englund, so it was easy for me to merge it into Trask (The Highlanders); I apologize if I rushed it through when it shouldn't have been. – N8 ☎ 00:59, November 28, 2017 (UTC)


 * I've changed the "speedy rename" to a "rename" for a couple of reasons. The obvious one is that this matter is now under discussion, so it's not an obvious, non-controversial change. Also, speedy renames can't really apply when the proposed new name already exists as a redirect. It takes a little more work than just the speedy rename process to deal with an already-existing name. Shambala108 ☎  01:03, November 28, 2017 (UTC)


 * Gotcha; sorry about that.

Also, some more relevant evidence, since I've just realised that I accidentally read "four thousand" instead of "four hundred": in Alien Bodies, which is set in the late 21st century, Trask is said to have been dead for "nearly 400 years". Given that he dies in or around 1746, "nearly 400" might be a bit of a stretch, but the intent is clearly there. – N8 ☎ 16:34, November 28, 2017 (UTC)