And while the cultural references in RtC didn't bother me too badly, the original DS never did this outside of the clothing. ![[female_skull]](http://www.dsboards.com/SMF/Smileys/classic/female_skull.gif "Female Skull")
I'm a little confused by your statement. Are you saying you feel that what was then the "present time" DS never used any cultural references, or that NONE of the storylines did?
One case I remember in Leviathan where cultural references were used was in the is Grant Douglas Quentin or not storyline? They specifically have him make a comment about Jenny Lind, an operatic soprano who was world famous when Quentin was a boy. Haven't seen many of the present day eps lately, so that may be an isolated case.
However, with 1897, the storyline I am most familiar with, they used many many references, not to historical events, but to cultural norms of the day (one example I can think of offhand is one instance where Quentin tried to warn Edward about something, and Edward scoffed it off as an opium dream. Opium and its derivatives like Laudanum were legal then and sold openly, as well as being amongst the recreational drugs of choice of the rich.) The fact that they did this sort of thing as often as they did established the characters in a specific time and place, giving the created world depth.
I'll do my best to answer you here given that I wrote that post over a month ago, and even though I've reviewed it, that doesn't mean I remember my motivations behind writing it. lol.
I think what I was trying to say that the original DS episodes didn't really drop references to the outside world that much, or at least not ones that I noticed. You mention 1897 references. Though I'm interested in history, I'm no buff, so it's unlikely that I'd catch these references. And I didn't live in the 60s and 70s, though I can infer some references from what I do know about the time period, but again, some references may escape me. I used the clothing example because obviously the clothing worn in the original series was from the 60s and 70s, and that is the most obvious example of a reference to the outside world, although it couldn't really be helped.
Ultimately, what I was talking about or comparing was the fact that in the 04 Pilot Vicki mentions to Roger that she recognizes him from his article in Forbes magazine. You never heard any mention of something like Life magazine or any other magazine popular during the 60s and 70s. And in RtC someone, I think it's Willie, mentions eBay. The internet didn't exist in the 60s and 70s for large portions of the population, so they couldn't have mentioned it and expected people to know what they were talking about. But, they also never mentioned the Vietnam War, which was going on during that time.
Hope this helps to get my point across a little better.
