Connections Pika-Who? By DJ Forrest

Ten Vs Looker

Many years ago, when the world was firing off Pokémon in all directions, on all television and internet adverts, candy lollipops with Pokémon characters in their centres, the catchphrase ‘Gotta Catch ‘em All’ a constant reminder to parents that the craze was nowhere near over yet, and the collectable figures that were all the rage – now costing an absolute fortune for the rarest of rarities on eBay; a character caught my attention.  A character that wasn’t a Pokémon trainer, nor was he a Pokémon, but he was nevertheless a character within the game and his name was Looker. 

Now instantly being the Whovian that I am, I saw this character as Doctor Who, AND as this was during the reign of our 10^th Time Lord – Tennant, I’m sure you can agree with me that there are some similarities.  For a start, the hair! 

Now as you know, every Doctor has a distinctive feature, whether it be their outlandish coat, their catchphrase that manages to wander into everyday use, in some form or another, or some quirky habit that they have. (Jelly baby anyone?)  With Tennant it’s all of those, AND the hair.  The hair looks ok till you see it sideways on and notice that the fringe is somewhat out there. 

Well Looker also has a distinctive fringe.  And from his ID and photos featured, there is an indication that it does bear the same resemblance as that of Ten.  Looker is also portrayed as an English character; very much in the way that Tennant portrays the 10^th, and is voiced by English voice actor Jason Griffith.

As the Doctor, Tennant wore a brown suit, with tie, and a brown great coat and a variety of Converse trainers, from white to red to black, depending on episode, Looker wears the same ensemble.  Although his black penny loafers could replace the Converse worn by Tennant as the Doctor, but Looker also has brown eyes, dark hair and wrinkle marks around his mouth, black eyebrows and an inquisitive look.  Now maybe aside from the wrinkle marks around the mouth, Tennant does tick all the other boxes.  And the inquisitive look is very much the 10^th Doctor, in my opinion. 

The hometown of Looker is unknown, including region and family, although he is seen in Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos.  He is not listed as having a class, I’m thinking this means in terms of whether he is a trainer or a creature, not whether he had any form of etiquette, but it does say on the Wiki pages that Looker is a member of the International Police force.  

The Doctor we know came from Gallifrey and is a time traveller who travels in the TARDIS which resembles an old 1950’s police box.  Also being a Time Lord despite only meaning to watch and not interfere in matters, the Doctor does like to get involved, so it could be seen that he likes to fight crime, right a wrong, so a similarity there I feel.

Although Looker doesn’t time travel, he does own a car and he has two companions, Lucas and Dawn.  The Doctor has the TARDIS and often travels with companions.

Looker made his debut in the Pokémon Platinum game. He appeared first in the Jubilife City where he’s seen to introduce himself to the player.  Although he seems to aid the player in the plot of the game, he doesn’t tend to engage in the battles.

The Looker is also a character who can change his appearance, being a part of the police force I’d suspect this would come under the heading of ‘undercover work’.  When the player has completed the Elite Four level, and returns home, the Looker plays the role of the player’s mother.  Now how the player fails to notice the difference, between his mum and that of a male police officer, I’ll never know but, he gives the player a Super Rod, and gives them a mission to look around the Unova region to find Sage Members of Team Plasma as some have escaped.

Tennant’s Doctor made his debut at the end of ‘Parting of the Ways’ when the regeneration process turned the Doctor from Eccleston’s 9^th into Tennant’s 10^th. The full sketch of 10^th Doctor coming to terms with his regeneration was played out for the Children in Need Sketch ‘Born Again’ in 2005.  The 10^th Doctor then appeared in the first episode of the new series on Christmas Day for the ‘Christmas Invasion’, where the Sycorax held the humans carrying A+ blood groups to ransom if their demands weren’t met.

Looker returns once more in Pokémon X and Y and it soon becomes clear that you’re working for him rather than just trying to ‘catch ‘em all’.  Looker sends a holo caster call to the player instructing them to meet him at his headquarters near Rouge Plaza in Lumiose City after they’ve defeated the Elite Four and Diantha and become the Pokémon Champion of Kalos.  The Looker is out to capture the mastermind behind Team Flare.

Throughout 10^th’s tenure he has used more than one alias when investigating.  One flash of his psychic paper and the Doctor could be a physician of the King’s Court, John Smith, teacher at Deffry High and many more.

Looker made his debut in the episode ‘Frozen in their Tracks’ http://pokemonepisode.org/episode-598-frozen-on-their-tracks/ .  Again as the International Police, he investigates Team Galactic, and teams up with Ash, Brock and Dawn to stop them from stealing something important to the region of Sinnoh.

Before the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Looker was to appear in episodes BW023 and BW024 but these were ultimately cancelled.

Tennant’s Doctor, has appeared in not only in the television series but also in novels, magazines, and come in a series of games including hand held games and I believe in the Latest online game of Legacy. 

Looker is an interesting character, if only from my point of view because of his likeness to Tennant’s Who, and I only wish I could locate the figure of him to sit on my computer shelf, along with all my other random collections of Ten’s tenure as the Doctor. 

To find out more about Looker visit his Wiki page http://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Looker