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Ever since Fringe made Yoko Ono/Walther Bishop canon, I've been wondering: what if Walter replaces Magic Alex in the Beatles saga? Would it have been better or worse?
Explanation for Fringe fans unfamiliar with Beatle lore and Magic Alex: Alex(is) Mardas started out as a Greek tv repair man, then impressed himself on first John Lennon - who nicknamed him "Magic Alex" and declared him as "my guru", then the rest of the Beatles, as a scientific genius. Meanwhile, the studio people like producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick hated his guts. (George Martin to this day insists that Alex simply "had a subscription to Science Monthly, and the Beatles didn't.) He was given lots of money and headed the Apple science division (which mostly consisted of him and in the end didn't produce anything). His reputation in Beatle biographies is mostly that of a con man, though he successfully sued the New York Times when they called him that (I think the defense was something along the lines of "The king of Jordania liked me, too", which he did). In recent years, he found a defender in Peter Doggett who interviewed him and came away impressed that the man still has personal charm and, however dodgy his genius inventor credits, does possess a lot of John Lennon tapes which he hasn't sold, which certainly makes him different to most people set on squeezing the last bit of money out of Beatle memorabilia, let alone tapes of John actually singing. Be that as it may, his role in the John/Cynthia divorce was incredibly skeevy, which is why I still don't like him. (And do not feel sorry that he suffered the fate of virtually all of John's pre-Yoko objects of admiration.) (As for Paul, George and Ringo, they sound distinctly sheepish and somewhat embarrassed talking about the whole Alex episode post-1970.)
Explanation for Beatle fans unfamiliar with Fringe: Walter Bishop is an actual genius inventor. Fond of mind-altering substances. Very enthusiastic. More than slightly crazy. Did Oppenheimer one better in what he's responsible for. Can make you feel distinctly sorry and distinctly appalled at the same time. Had canonically a fling with Yoko in the 70s.
So, my question is: if in 1967 young Walter instead of young Alex hooks up with the Beatles, what would have gone differently? On the one hand, Walter's inventions actually work (do they ever), which presumably would have meant less money loss for Apple which in turn might have meant no Allen Klein, though I don't think so; the "we need someone to manage us" question would have arisen sooner or later either way. On the other hand, the idea of young Walter, with no scruples and trauma yet to make him think twice, being given all the money Alex was to fulfill his scientific dreams makes me fear for the safety of the universe. I mean, even more so than Walter usually does.
Other thoughts of Walther-as-Alex:
- the India episode would have ended with Walter discovering not only that the Maharishi could really fly but was actually an Observer gone rogue
- given Paul's tendency to write songs to his dog, car, and daughters' pony, I have no doubt he'd have written a song about one of Walter's experimental cows (i.e. the 60s version of Gene), too
- Ringo's one week walkout during the White Album would have resulted in Walter building him an actual submarine and an encounter with a mutant octopus
- Walter thought it was a good idea to help John deal with his parent issues by building a view screen to show him a glimpse of the parallel universe where Julia didn't get hit by a car. Naturally, this was an utter and complete disaster but in the Fringe verse the Plastic Ono Band album has an additional vintage bitter Lennon song called "Walter!"
- Yoko much appreciated Walter's invention of 3-D cinema a few decades ahead of time for her experimental films, but drew the line at his idea of using film projectors to manipulate everyone's brain waves so that people would be less aggressive and universal peace would set in
- The Paul-is-dead craziness from late 1969 was actually the result of Walter going ahead with the sublimal messages anyway and getting it wrong on account of his own drug intake at the time and having had to listen too much to John and Paul yelling at each other.
Feel free to add other suggestions to this scholarly topic.:)
Explanation for Fringe fans unfamiliar with Beatle lore and Magic Alex: Alex(is) Mardas started out as a Greek tv repair man, then impressed himself on first John Lennon - who nicknamed him "Magic Alex" and declared him as "my guru", then the rest of the Beatles, as a scientific genius. Meanwhile, the studio people like producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick hated his guts. (George Martin to this day insists that Alex simply "had a subscription to Science Monthly, and the Beatles didn't.) He was given lots of money and headed the Apple science division (which mostly consisted of him and in the end didn't produce anything). His reputation in Beatle biographies is mostly that of a con man, though he successfully sued the New York Times when they called him that (I think the defense was something along the lines of "The king of Jordania liked me, too", which he did). In recent years, he found a defender in Peter Doggett who interviewed him and came away impressed that the man still has personal charm and, however dodgy his genius inventor credits, does possess a lot of John Lennon tapes which he hasn't sold, which certainly makes him different to most people set on squeezing the last bit of money out of Beatle memorabilia, let alone tapes of John actually singing. Be that as it may, his role in the John/Cynthia divorce was incredibly skeevy, which is why I still don't like him. (And do not feel sorry that he suffered the fate of virtually all of John's pre-Yoko objects of admiration.) (As for Paul, George and Ringo, they sound distinctly sheepish and somewhat embarrassed talking about the whole Alex episode post-1970.)
Explanation for Beatle fans unfamiliar with Fringe: Walter Bishop is an actual genius inventor. Fond of mind-altering substances. Very enthusiastic. More than slightly crazy. Did Oppenheimer one better in what he's responsible for. Can make you feel distinctly sorry and distinctly appalled at the same time. Had canonically a fling with Yoko in the 70s.
So, my question is: if in 1967 young Walter instead of young Alex hooks up with the Beatles, what would have gone differently? On the one hand, Walter's inventions actually work (do they ever), which presumably would have meant less money loss for Apple which in turn might have meant no Allen Klein, though I don't think so; the "we need someone to manage us" question would have arisen sooner or later either way. On the other hand, the idea of young Walter, with no scruples and trauma yet to make him think twice, being given all the money Alex was to fulfill his scientific dreams makes me fear for the safety of the universe. I mean, even more so than Walter usually does.
Other thoughts of Walther-as-Alex:
- the India episode would have ended with Walter discovering not only that the Maharishi could really fly but was actually an Observer gone rogue
- given Paul's tendency to write songs to his dog, car, and daughters' pony, I have no doubt he'd have written a song about one of Walter's experimental cows (i.e. the 60s version of Gene), too
- Ringo's one week walkout during the White Album would have resulted in Walter building him an actual submarine and an encounter with a mutant octopus
- Walter thought it was a good idea to help John deal with his parent issues by building a view screen to show him a glimpse of the parallel universe where Julia didn't get hit by a car. Naturally, this was an utter and complete disaster but in the Fringe verse the Plastic Ono Band album has an additional vintage bitter Lennon song called "Walter!"
- Yoko much appreciated Walter's invention of 3-D cinema a few decades ahead of time for her experimental films, but drew the line at his idea of using film projectors to manipulate everyone's brain waves so that people would be less aggressive and universal peace would set in
- The Paul-is-dead craziness from late 1969 was actually the result of Walter going ahead with the sublimal messages anyway and getting it wrong on account of his own drug intake at the time and having had to listen too much to John and Paul yelling at each other.
Feel free to add other suggestions to this scholarly topic.:)
