The Laughing Academy

Yesterday I watched all of Torchwood: Children of Earth in one go, and by the time I got home I needed some cheering up, so I made my weekly phonecall to my father. He told me this story:

So I’m at AA, and another guy in the room says, “I can’t remember where I heard this, it was some Hollywood actor in a movie, but anyway, someone once said, ‘If you see someone without a smile, give him one.’”

Now, you can’t blurt out a response to someone in an AA meeting. They call that “crosstalk,” and it’s a no-no. So I just sat there laughing quietly to myself, because what I thought right after he said that was, “Oh yeah, that...wait. That was Jack Nicholson. As the Joker.”

I can’t decide what’s funnier: if Dad has attributed that line correctly, or if he hasn’t.

I had a painful thought after yesterday’s marathon viewing of Torchwood: Children of Earth.

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Note: x-posted to torch_wood.

ETA: In a comment to my post on torch_wood, eandh99 pointed out a striking similarity between CoE and the 1979 Quartermass serial. Coincidence? Hommage to another Verity Lambert production? Rip-off?

This information appears as a postscript to my previous entry, but I think it bears repeating:

In a comment to my post on torch_wood, eandh99 pointed out a striking similarity between Torchwood: Children of Earth and the 1979 Quartermass serial.

I don’t know what to make of this. Coincidence? Clever hommage to another Verity Lambert production? Rip-off?