Alternate Wikibox Thread

[prezZF]

The Queen and the Millard
The true story of the House of Fillmore

Alexandrina Victoria, by the grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India, ruler of an empire on which the sun never set, gazed upon the man who had just entered her audience chamber. "Sir, you are without a doubt the handsomest man I have ever met!", the sovereign exclaimed. Love at first sight.

Many an eyewitness to that day's events would look back with astonishment to that fateful day, when the destiny of two great nations, though separated for fourscore years, was bond together once more, never to be separated again.

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I really wanna see more of this tl. Also, how does Millard win in '56?

 

[Neoteros]

This is very cool. I'm tempted to do a semi-realistic write up of my old nationstates county of Tarylya.

It was in a region of islands presumably in the mid atlantic but as an island on its own I could write something

Another wikibox, taken from an article about the local language:



Mine isn't an island country though - far from it, in fact: take the narrow strip of land where the Andean capitals are located, and stretch it wide enough for it to be half the size of Tibet. This way, you've got a whole country where it's basically always April or May.

 

[shearsforest]

from We Shall Overcome
questions are welcome.

choice of presidents and VPs near-entirely original. some overall inspiration from @allthepresidentsmen, @Blackentheborg, @Comrade Izaac, and @Excelsior.

 

[Blackentheborg]

from We Shall Overcome
questions are welcome.

choice of presidents and VPs near-entirely original. some overall inspiration from @allthepresidentsmen, @Blackentheborg, @Comrade Izaac, and @Excelsior.

The portraits are CLEAN

 

[Comrade Izaac]

from We Shall Overcome
questions are welcome.

choice of presidents and VPs near-entirely original. some overall inspiration from @allthepresidentsmen, @Blackentheborg, @Comrade Izaac, and @Excelsior.

The portraits are CLEAN

i agree, that Vivek portrait is incredibly clean.

if i could make a suggestion tho, i find it very unlikely that the modern Democratic Party would run either a. two Hispanic candidates on the same ticket or b. two white men on the ticket.

 

[shearsforest]

The portraits are CLEAN

i agree, that Vivek portrait is incredibly clean.

if i could make a suggestion tho, i find it very unlikely that the modern Democratic Party would run either a. two Hispanic candidates on the same ticket or b. two white men on the ticket.

Thanks — for Vivek in particular, I just used a still snapshot of the guy from a recent interview with Fox News(?).

I might do Raphael Warnock with AOC; Austin Davis, who is black, is currently lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania if that's what Izaac meant.

After some feedback from some folks on AH.com, I might swap Schiff out with a no-VP Hakeem Jeffries, as well as probably not giving Harris a VP at all; as per @Cascadiawank on AH.com, Harris would lack the necessary votes needed to nominate O'Rourke to office thanks to Republican votes, and Jeffries would likely still be Democrat leader in the House by 2032.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

I have returned to The Polarity is Reversed after thinking way too much about Moon Jae-in's Eleventh Doctor.

So expect way too much write-up since the Korean element is genuinely a key aspect to understanding TPiR's 'New Who'.



The Eleventh Doctor, acted by Moon Jae-in, is perhaps the emblematic Doctor of many viewers who started on New Who. Sure, there's a generation that first saw Gillard, maybe a few poor sods whose first Doctor was Papandreou, and of course the many youngsters who started with Germanotta or Putin, and those who just started by watching Marin, but Moon Jae-in enjoys the honour of being the Doctor who introduced millions to the show. At once a friendly older figure - perhaps an older father figure or grandfather - yet someone who could be very serious if he needed to, he struck perhaps the perfect delicate balance that Gillard struggled at times to achieve and Papandreou... didn't succeed at.

There's a case to argue that Doctor Who between 2007 and 2012 - one which lasted three seasons and barely one more while struggling with austerity, bad casting and below-par writers - was in many ways the last gasp of Old Who. This arguably does a disservice to Gillard for her efforts at reinventing the show for a new century, but alas, the narrative has stuck even though she remains a popular Doctor. Nevertheless, the BBC was deeply suffering from cuts imposed to it by George Osborne. Doctor Who was about to be put on hiatus for a second time.

Then the Koreans arrived.

Korea was the hub of a wave of Britmania in the 2000s and the Korean Broadcasting Service was very interested in purchasing rights to produce Doctor Who. The BBC, hesitant at signing away permanently one of its most well-known shows, yet acutely aware of tightening budgets, agreed to what would fundamentally transform the show - perhaps truly start 'New Who' - a co-production between the state broadcasters of Britain and Korea. It was Doctor Who's second foray into Asia, after the Fifth Doctor was acted by Hong Kong actor Teng Hsiao-ping, and arguably one far deeper. With Teng's Doctor, it was still British writers - leading to quite a few orientalist stories - but this was a full co-production.

The unique dynamic that led to the co-production arguably empowered KBS compared to BBC. KBS was the one with the money purse, they were amply funded by the state and was keen to ensure that while Doctor Who still remained 'British' in spirit, that it would become undeniably Korean in influence. Ironically enough, the suggestion of a Korean actor for the new Doctor was from the BBC side [with Doctor Who being already famous for being the show that almost always never cast a Brit as the protagonist]. Moon Jae-in was already notable in a popular Korean show named The Occultist that explored a woman's deepening dependence on a spiritualist, even as she rose to greater heights. His role as Detective Yoon Duck-soo made him a household name and it was this that drew British eyes to him. He was easily confirmed.

The companions being also Korean was a bit of a push, and in the end it was agreed that the two - a couple - would be Korean-American. Both BBC and KBS obsessed about breaking into the American market, and this is why you see a good deal of American settings in the first season, including the first episode being in San Francisco and leaning heavily on the 'Silicon Valley' theme.

Despite the BBC signing off on it as "well, they're paying, not us, why not" with low expectations, Series 5 proved immensely popular. People all around the world loved the experienced yet kind Eleventh Doctor and his companions, with the family dynamic between Danny and June, their time-travelling daughter Hana and the friendly Doctor proving to give the show a grounding that past Doctors seemed to lack. A Christmas Special and new series was signed off after the third episode proved to bring in impressive viewer numbers.

Series 6 would continue this dynamic, but the BBC was loath to make Doctor Who into an ensemble cast and the final episode of the series - Midsummer Nights - would see June and Danny permanently leave the show via being sent to an alternate dimension. Their experiences in that alternate dimension would eventually end up a very popular show named The Lake Beside the Woods and run on for 2 series on KBS, but safely distanced from the Doctor Who franchise. The Christmas Special would focus on the Doctor alone.

The BBC was keen to explore a less 'family-oriented' dynamic than KBS initially agreed to, and eventually got their way with one of the next pair of companions. With the white whale of the American market still being frustratingly un-harpooned, a different tactic was sought. Namely Down Under. Doctor Who was not unfamiliar with Australia, after all Gillard was from there and a few companions were Australian in the past. The casting of Australian actress Ruby Rose as biker rebel Jacinda Regan was received with cautious optimism, especially alongside Han Dong-hoon as beleaguered teacher Andy Park [the old tactic of making companions be from the diaspora was deployed again].

Jacinda and Andy were a fairly different dynamic to June and Danny, being a teacher and his rebel ex-student, but the series proved popular, even if not quite as popular as before. KBS still was happy enough to hand over the funding, but Jacinda left at the end of the series, having said to have chosen to stay to join a biker gang in Pyongyang. The Christmas Special was one involving Hana Lake and her complicated relationship with the Doctor.

Andy carried on to the next series, along with a new companion Penny Han, who was intended to add a bit of mystery with her extrahuman abilities. Series 8 was reasonably popular. Not as much as 5 or 6, but it was getting regular viewership, and the last episode - "Meteor Garden" - received numbers that would impress anyone. Andy leaving the show was mutually agreed, he was essentially 'done' as a companion, and Penny's arc ending up with her being overwhelmed by the forced injection of knowledge and the Doctor trying to save her from complete brain-collapse.

With a new Labour government in Britain keen to increase funding for the BBC and the KBS starting to lose interest in the co-production, Series 9 proved to be one of the show's more unique series. The presence of Jess Lyons - acted by Scotswoman Mhairi Black - was the first unambiguously British companion in quite a while and the focus being on her relationship with the Doctor, one defined by both obsession and distrust, was a shift that received mostly positive reviews focusing on her being a companion who was already familiar with the Doctor.

After the end of S9, the BBC confirmed that they were ceasing the co-production with KBS on amicable grounds [a good few Korean writers would choose to stay in the UK to work for the BBC, and that is why there's a neighbourhood in Cardiff with an unusually-high Korean presence] and Moon Jae-in confirmed he intended to retire, wishing to seek other works, saying that his Doctor's story was "almost completed", and completed it would be with the final episode, a Christmas Special in which many tuned in to watch of the Doctor's adventure in a hotel on the moon haunted by spirits.

His regeneration into the Twelfth Doctor ended a very unique era for Doctor Who, and one that remains unforgettable.



The six companions of the Eleventh Doctor.

June Lake and Danny Shaw are a Korean-American couple living in San Francisco. They serve as somewhat relatable people in the new Doctor Who, with their tight relationship with each other being the foundation for the 'family dynamic' of Series 5 and 6. Their employment is left vague, with it being just enough for a comfortable apartment. The Doctor enters their lives as the city becomes very confused on who are robots created by Nestene Corporation and who are humans. In the end this is cleared up and all the robots - Autons they are belatedly called - are either dismantled or in certain cases just neutralised. Their travels with the Doctor weave through their developing family life, including with their daughter Hana who ends up disappearing due to her latent time travelling abilities [acquired due to being conceived on the Tardis]. In the end, they chose to go together into a parallel world and be trapped forever there to save the universe from being taken over by Cybermen.

Jacinda Regan is a rebel, simple. She loves her bike and she always holds authority in disdain, making her former teacher Andy Park deeply frustrated at times. However, she is a kind-hearted woman who holds a strong moral code. With the Doctor and Andy, she's often the one arguing to help people when they just want to leave. In the end, she chose to stay in Pyongyang to join a biker gang after the end of the series. The actress has given her opinion that she thinks that Jacinda would end up being dissatisfied with the gang and seek to do greater things.

Andy Park is a teacher. A hard-working teacher often frustrated with his students. But a teacher nevertheless. He takes pride in being able to notice even the littlest things, and even though Jacinda dropped out of school, he still attempts to teach her things on their travels. With Penny, he proves a far more successful teacher even if Penny's abilities prove beyond his understanding. In the end, he leaves the Tardis voluntarily, citing a wish to continue teaching his students and finding time travel increasingly a distraction.

Penny Han is a normal woman. Or at least she thinks. One day she wakes up and notices that she can see scents. It gets worse from there as she manifests other (far more extreme) abilities, seemingly at random, that wrecks her life and brings her to the Doctor's attention. In the end, it is revealed that she is a genetically-enhanced human augmented by the Nestene Corporation (seeking revenge on the Doctor) and ends up having her brain be overloaded with knowledge in an attempt to bring the Corporation down, throwing her life in danger. In the end, the Doctor reaches out to the Neutwork Project [brain-uploading, already introduced in a previous episode] to save her, which they do but it's only confirmed in the Thirteenth Doctor episode The Trial of a Time Lord, Resurgence, in where she appears to the Doctor as a digital consciousness.

Jess Lyons was once obsessed with the Doctor. She regularly went on websites such as "Who is the Doctor?" and "Police Box Sightings". But she decided that it all was nonsense. Up until a police box appeared in front of her as she was walking home from work. Her teenage obsession was now proved correct. Her relationship with the Doctor is always slightly fraught, but deeply interested on both sides. The Doctor this late in his eleventh incarnation is seeking someone who can share similar appreciation of the wonders of the universe, and Jess seems to fill that box. Eventually she decides that it is time to put away childish things once more, and works with the Court of Time to go after the Doctor. It was initially planned that she would make a re-appearance in The Trial of a Time Lord, but contract negotiations fell through.

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

Moon Jae-in was already notable in a popular Korean show named The Occultist that explored a woman's deepening dependence on a spiritualist, even as she rose to greater heights.

tibby y r u like this

 

[fanofeverything25]

The Fourteenth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is played by Toby Alexander-Smith in five series as well as five specials. The character has also appeared in other Doctor Who spin-offs, including an alternative version from another timeline who assumes the name of The Victorious in the eponymous TV show Rot of the Victorious. Alexander-Smith's time as the Fourteenth Doctor is highly regarded among fans of the show and is considered one of the greatest incarnations of the character, often ranked alongside Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor and Colin Jeavons' Eighth Doctor. It is also widely considered to be the darkest portrayal of the character in the show's history.

During their regeneration from their prior face (Noel Clarke) into this incarnation, the Doctor is shot by a Dalek, and it grazes him mid-regeneration. Although not enough to permanently kill the Doctor or prevent regeneration, it severely affects his post-regenerative trauma. His personality on the surface is that of an affable family man who deeply loves his wife and daughter. However, with the slightest, often meaningless provocation, he shows a deeply unhinged and terrifying anger. It is later explained that the incident with the Dalek during his regeneration caused severe damage,The Doctor's mental state increasingly deteriorates throughout the course of his tenure, inflicting increasingly sadistic punishments on his enemies (including trapping Davros in a loop of suffering the full effects of 175,000 mSv for eternity) which results in the Master (Balvinder Sopal) having to stop the Doctor and express her disgust at his depravity.

He has a number of companions, including amongst others a Sontaran, Commander Strax (Dan Starkey) and his wife, Kate Stewart (Anna Maxwell Martin). He also visits their daughter, Jen Stewart (Kara-Leah Fernandes), at the Time Lord Academy, but she does not travel with this incarnation.

During the course of the episode Exoplanet Valtir, a copy of Sopal's Master is mortally wounded by a Valtirite. During her regeneration, the Doctor uses his Sonic Screwdriver to recreate a Dalek's extermination ray and shoots them mid-regeneration. He screams at his companions that "Now they'll know what it feels like", and the Copied-Master regenerates into a new body (Arthur Darvill) and escapes to a junked TARDIS.

In Alexander-Smith's final season, The Copied-Master, suffering the same mental effect as Alexander-Smith, kidnaps Jen Stewart, and threatens to kill her unless the Doctor gives him the Hand of Omega. The Doctor presents a pathetic picture, begging on his knees to the Copied-Master to spare her life. The Copied-Master is about to kill her when she is saved by the proper Master (Sopal). The Doctor emotionally embraces his daughter, and when the proper Master checks to see if the Doctor is okay, his face turns, reaches into the Master's pocket, takes her laser screwdriver, and blasts the Copied-Master with it, disabling their ability to regenerate, and proceeds to slowly, excruciatingly age them to death with a manic expression. It takes the crying face of his child to bring him to his senses.

The Doctor's final episode is A Genius for War, which sees him, alone for now, have mind penetrated by a voice telling him to travel to Gallifrey. He does so, and quickly realises he has travelled to a familiar point in time on the planet (the events of The Deadly Assassin) Here he encounters the much earlier Master (Geoffrey Beevers, reprising his role 42 years later) and violently prevents the Master from stealing the energy from the Eye of Harmony.

The Doctor suddenly gets the gut feeling that the Time Lords have failed, and he starts frenziedly babbling to the Time Lords gathered around him that he has no choice but to overthrow the High Council. He is then confronted by his past self (Tom Baker) who quickly recognises he is talking to his future incarnation, and is horrified by what he has turned into. This does not deter the current Doctor, who pushes him aside. Our perspective temporarily shifts to Baker's Doctor, starting what is essentially a preview of the 60th anniversary specials, and he pilots the present Doctor's TARDIS while he isn't looking. He travels to the Lethbridge-Stewart residence, and the audience expect him to ask his future wife for help...But he does not. The past Doctor rematerialises in front of the present Doctor, who is about to assassinate the High Council, and demands that he stop. He continues marching to the chamber of the High Council, when he hears a familiar voice...

Out steps Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart (A 93-year-old Nicholas Courtney, who would reprise his role in the subsequent 60th anniversary specials shortly before his death in January 2024) who still has his commanding voice in his old age. He lambasts the Doctor for his reckless actions, and finally makes him see full sense. The Doctor collapses crying, almost prostrating himself before the Brigadier, who forgives him, as the past Doctor watches. The present Doctor knows he cannot continue like this. He takes the Master's Laser Screwdriver, which he still had posession of, and hands it to the Brigadier. The present Doctor briefly explains to the pair the circumstances of his regenerative trauma with the Dalek, and asks the Brigadier to flick the 'Regeninducer' switch on the Laser Screwdriver, and shoot him. After much persuading, the Brigadier does so, reluctantly, mortally wounding him. The Doctor, now glowing with the familiar rainbow regeneration energy, thanks the Brigadier. The past Doctor tips his hat to the present one, and goes with the Brigadier into his own TARDIS, their memories of this journey wiped.

Now alone, the Doctor makes one last monologue to himself, a melancholy regretful speech, yet with a tone incredibly grateful that this pathetic, dangerous incarnation had come to an end; at the end he says one last 'Kate, Jen, Brigadier... I love you...' before he violently regenerates in the empty streets on a cold Gallifreyan night. After an extended regeneration sequence, which is not disturbed this time, he turns into the Fifteenth Doctor (Tom Baker again) and sees his old face in a reflection. The episode ends with his increasingly confused expression. The episode led into Lungbarrow, the first of the 60th anniversary specials, which aired five days later.

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i want to see the other doctors!

 

[Turquoise Blue]

To understand what caused the BBC to agree to KBS' offer and to starting the 'true' era of 'New Who', we have to explore how it got so bad.

To do that, we have to go back one more Doctor.



Truth be told, George Papandreou's Tenth Doctor on the screen is not a popular one. In audiobooks long after, he has acquired a strange afterlife, especially as he has received better writers (turns out a good few of those Korean writers that came in with Number 11 were chomping to the bit to write better stories for him after watching Series 4 and the specials, and it has worked wonderfully). There's even talk of a possible run of specials featuring him, giving him his long overdue renaissance on the screen. Still, we are not here for that. We are here for the tragedy itself.

It didn't start with him. It's easy to think that, but it didn't. Already by Series 3, you can notice a slight drop in quality due to the Recession leading to some cuts by Prime Minister Alistair Darling to the BBC, which only worsened as the new Conservative government got in. George Osborne and Chancellor David Laws implemented austerity - which they argued was necessary - and a good few writers chose to seek new employment elsewhere. Liam Byrne was the showrunner after the last one quit, and after Gillard chose to leave the show, he sought someone new.

That someone was George Papandreou. On paper, he was a great candidate. A notable actor since the early 2000s, often playing what's often called 'straightforward dads', it was believed that he would be a great successor to Gillard's more fiery figure. As the audiobooks long after shows, he certainly could easily do it. But as he reputedly said later, he was perpetually discontented with the stories he was handed.

Series 4 was, well. It was okay. Let us not exaggerate. But it was less popular than even Series 3, and for a show struggling to prove itself worthy of staying on, with the BBC making cutbacks and people still remembered the show's hiatus in the 1980s and the two failed returns as movies.

So Liam Byrne, when asked in early 2012 if there would be a Series 5, infamously replied "Well, I'm sorry, but we don't have any money left". He had to save face a bit by announcing a while later that there would be four specials in the year, including a Christmas Special, but declined to confirm any longer term plans. This threw the fan community into a panic. Was Doctor Who to be cancelled again? It is at this time that their view of Byrne went from mild disdain to deep contempt. Even now, mention the name 'Liam Byrne' at a Who convention will get you angry faces.

The 2012 Specials - The Eye of Horus, The Celestial Puppeteer, The Strong Storm and End of the Line - are, again, okay. But that was all they were. Byrne was told after the unpromising returns on the third special that he would likely be told to move on to other prospects.

It's a fact primarily only known by Who fans, but KBS initially wanted to keep on the Tenth Doctor for at least one new season, and he declined because he was deeply frustrated with the show and it indeed would take him a good few years before he returned to it via audiobooks.

So, what was the personality of this Doctor who led such a charmless life? The bluster and moral outrage of the Ninth Doctor burnt out, and left a man who privately struggles with his past while still having enough backbone to go through his adventures, especially with Nicky by his side.



Nicky Jones is the Tenth Doctor's first, last and sole companion. A hairstylist, her first encounter with the Doctor was during a fateful day at the museum - which ended up somehow involving a travel back to Isaac Newton's days. Nicky loves adventure and loves seeing new things, and she's unusually blithe about danger - often adding to the Tenth Doctor's worry that she'll end up dead because of adventures with him. Surprisingly, Nicky left the TARDIS intact and returned to Earth at the end of The Strong Storm albeit deeply traumatised after a thousand years trapped in the Eternal Panopticon. For the Doctor who saved her, it was but a day, but the Panopticon is designed to maximise the experienced time inside.

The actress, far more known for her role as unfortunate lettuce-seller Mary Dunn in the comedic movie For Want of a Lettuce (2018) and her ongoing role as the increasingly-mad yet sympathetic monarch Cordelia in The Serpent's Tooth (2022-present), a modern-fantasy take on King Lear and the wider Shakespeare canon, notably declines to discuss her role in Doctor Who, often breezily moving past it when talking about past roles.

 

[Conster]

It was Doctor Who's second foray into Asia, after the Fifth Doctor was acted by Hong Kong actor Teng Hsiao-ping, and arguably one far deeper.

Wikibox or riot

 

[shearsforest]

The 2020s and 2030s as analogues of the 1950s and 1960s, respectively, in We Shall Overcome. (the original infoboxes are the ones on the actual Wikipedia pages for the latter decades)

 

[Meppo]

(portrait made by allthepresidentsmen, for which I am very grateful)



Lewis Edwards Schlucher (/ˈʃlʌkər/ SHLUH-ker; born Leonard Edwards Schlucher; 4 January 1968) is an American far-right politician and economist who has served as Chair of the Democratic National Committee since 2022. He has been the U.S. representative for New York's 9th congressional district since 1999.

A graduate of Columbia University, Schlucher previously served as staffer for Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani from 1994 to 1995 as well as chief executive officer of several New York banks until his election to the House of Representatives. His congressional district is anchored in Brooklyn, primarily consisting of middle-class European and Jewish neighborhoods.

In Congress, Schlucher has served as Ranking Member on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs since 2017. Schlucher's tenure has been marred by a sex scandal in 2018, after several journalists as well as Spokesperson for the United States Department of State Mary Zachary accused him of sexual harassment.

 

[Blackentheborg]

(portrait made by allthepresidentsmen, for which I am very grateful)

View attachment 79625

Lewis Edwards Schlucher (/ˈʃlʌkər/ SHLUH-ker; born Leonard Edwards Schlucher; 4 January 1968) is an American far-right politician and economist who has served as Chair of the Democratic National Committee since 2022. He has been the U.S. representative for New York's 9th congressional district since 1999.

A graduate of Columbia University, Schlucher previously served as staffer for Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani from 1994 to 1995 as well as chief executive officer of several New York banks until his election to the House of Representatives. His congressional district is anchored in Brooklyn, primarily consisting of middle-class European and Jewish neighborhoods.

In Congress, Schlucher has served as Ranking Member on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs since 2017. Schlucher's tenure has been marred by a sex scandal in 2018, after several journalists as well as Spokesperson for the United States Department of State Mary Zachary accused him of sexual harassment.

What's the backstory here?

 

[Meppo]

What's the backstory here?

The backstory is that TTL's United States is a dominant-party regime, in particular that of the Americans United, with the deeply diminished Democrats and Republicans as minor parties in a system deemed authoritarian per the 2020 Phrygian Index. (Also I've seen a lot of people on Discord misread the faceclaim's surname.)

 

[CTTeller]

​

 

[Callan]

Edward Heath was a British civil servant and amateur sailor who famously disappeared while competing in the Sun-Globe Round-The-World Race, a single handed, round-the-world yacht race.

A decorated veteran of the D-Day Landings, Edward Heath initially worked post-war as a civil servant but his hobby of sailing soon turned into a full-time endeavor, inspired by several major yachting records and races achieved in the 1960s, participating in two transatlantic crossings the Sydney-Hobart yacht race. The ailing Sun newspaper, recently purchased by Robert Maxwell, sponsored a round-the-world yacht race and personally sponsored Edward Heath, portraying him as a patriotic hero as the most prominent British contestant.

While Heath and his yacht Morning Cloud started off ahead it soon fell behind, and his intermittent communications caused consternation amid concerns that his over-engineered yacht was ill-prepared for rough Atlantic weather and he had been pressured to set sail and continue sailing by his sponsors despite his own personal safety concerns. Heath's last radio transmission was broadcasted on July 17 1969; he has not been seen since. Despite an extensive international search (also sponsored by Maxwell), no trace of Heath or the Morning Cloud has ever been found. He was declared dead in December of that year.

Heath's mysterious disappearance has been the subject of much speculation and fascination from commentators and artists in the years and decades since. Conspiracy theories speculated that he had been abducted or killed by pirates or a naval vessel of a hostile power or that Heath, a former civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, was a KGB spy who used the race to successfully defect. It has inspired a number of books, stage plays and films, including a documentary, Deep Water (2004) and the feature film Morning Cloud (2011), in which Heath is portrayed by Hugh Grant.

Edward Heath is not to be confused with British musician and big band conductor Ted Heath, who died the same year.

​

Harold Wilson was an English political theorist, writer and historian.

Born into a middle-class family in Yorkshire's West Riding, Wilson was admitted to Jesus College, Oxford on a combination of scholarships and grants and soon became a protégé of historian R. B. McCallum. While conscripted into the civil service for the duration of the Second World War, Wilson afterwards returned to Oxford, where he worked as a lecturer and researcher out of University and New Colleges for the remainder of his career.

Wilson's academic focus was on economic history and modern European socialism. His two most notable publications, A History of Decline (1960) and The Modern Guild (1968), are both focused on the uncertain place of Britain and its economy post-Empire, and the open question of social democracy's response to it. The books were highly influential, and have been cited by many Labour politicians and functionaries as key influences on the 1978-82 Castle Ministry and the 1999-2011 Ashdown Ministry.

In his own life, Wilson was best known for his high media profile and close links with senior politicians, many of whom he either studied with or taught at Oxford. He was known to have provided political counsel to every British prime minister between George Brown and Peter Walker, future Labour leaders Jack Straw and Paddy Ashdown, as well as foreign leaders such as John Harney and Yelena Bonner.

In the 2010s his work and theories saw renewed interest, most prominently as a commonly-cited influence on Marxist philosopher Jordan Peterson.

 

[Callan]

Edward Heath
Harold Wilson

​

Leonard Callaghan was a trade unionist and Labour peer.

Callaghan worked as as a civil servant for Inland Revenue, but for most of his career worked full-time for the Inland Revenue Staff Federation (IRSF), rising to become its General Secretary in 1970, a position which he held until 1982. He was also active in the International Labour Office.
He emerged as one of the key union allies to the Castle Ministry during the 1980-1 period which saw repeated strike action by many trade unions, cautiously supporting many of the proposed union reforms proposed by her government even as colleagues on the TUC opposed them.

After retiring as leader of the ISRF, Callaghan was nominated as a Labour peer. He became active as an electoral observer in many post-Communist nations through the 1980s. Along with all Life Peers, he lost his peerage in the 2001 Representation of the People Act. He declined to stand in the 2001 by-election for the succeeding House of Peers.

 

[Time Enough]

Edward Heath
Harold Wilson

View attachment 79847​

Leonard Callaghan was a trade unionist and Labour peer.

Callaghan worked as as a civil servant for Inland Revenue, but for most of his career worked full-time for the Inland Revenue Staff Federation (IRSF), rising to become its General Secretary in 1970, a position which he held until 1982. He was also active in the International Labour Office.
He emerged as one of the key union allies to the Castle Ministry during the 1980-1 period which saw repeated strike action by many trade unions, cautiously supporting many of the proposed union reforms proposed by her government even as colleagues on the TUC opposed them.

After retiring as leader of the ISRF, Callaghan was nominated as a Labour peer. He became active as an electoral observer in many post-Communist nations through the 1980s. Along with all Life Peers, he lost his peerage in the 2001 Representation of the People Act. He declined to stand in the 2001 by-election for the succeeding House of Peers.

Love the use of that BBC/Thames Television image of Callaghan that appears in those wiki articles for slightly obscure Labour figures.

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

He emerged as one of the key union allies to the Castle Ministry during the 1980-1 period which saw repeated strike action by many trade unions, cautiously supporting many of the proposed union reforms proposed by her government even as colleagues on the TUC opposed them.

rip I want to run 2 u

This really is a great series of boxes—very underexplored format.