"Heroes" and "LOST": Connections?

[imdaly]

So this debate has kinda started to take over the Episode 16 Discussion thread, and I don't want to contintue to keep that thread off-topic, so I'm making this thread to let this continue.


Basically, some people (myself included) heard Nathan's line in the latest episode about people taking the Special People and putting them in a lab on an island somewhere in the middle of the ocean, and immediately took it as a little shout-out to the show "LOST". When brought up here, some people disagree.

Now I'm not saying that I'm definitely right or anything, because until the creator's of the show actually say flat-out if it was or not, we'll never know. BUT, in my love for both shows, I've stumbled across this intreresting article on the net:

DOES NBC'S HEROES TAKE PLACE IN THE SAME WORLD AS ABC'S LOST?
(Too-Good-to-Be-True Conspiracy Theory of the Week!)

ANALYSIS: Roughly 13 million-plus Americans have fallen hard for Heroes, television's newest cult-pop sensation, and I am proud to say that I am one of them. My friends and family have applauded the expansion of my geek-TV interests; they were worried that Lost had begun to take over my life. Of course, Heroes isn't much of a leap from Lost, considering how much they overlap: Both shows have a diverse, multicultural, interconnected cast; fixations with fate, coincidence and destiny; mysterious comic books; an inexplicable recurring motif (in Lost, it's the Numbers; in Heroes, it's a helix-shaped pattern); a mythology grounded in weird science and possibly sinister scientific experimentation; and even a potentially superpowered kid with estranged parents. Hmmmm...

In fact, after watching the most recent chapter in the unfolding Heroes saga, my conspiracy-theory senses began to tingle and twitch in that crazy Brad Pitt-in-12 Monkeys kinda way that makes my wife very, very nervous. Because it suddenly struck me that Heroes' fantastical premise — that human beings are breaking out with superpowers as an evolutionary response to environmental changes (overpopulation, global warming, war) threatening the survival of the species — is conspicuously similar to the sci-fi conceit of Lost's Hanso Foundation/Dharma Initiative mythology. And by ''conspicuously similar,'' I am indeed suggesting that both shows occupy the same creative universe.

THEORY: The mysterious island on Lost was a mad-scientist laboratory focused on accelerating human evolution that created the superpowered heroes on Heroes.

According to the Lost revelations disclosed this past summer through The Lost Experience (and if you haven't seen the mother of all Lost orientation films, check it out here), the purpose of the Dharma Initiative was to develop radical scientific solutions that could save the world from an impending apocalypse, as predicted by a mathematical formula called the Valenzetti Equation. The Numbers belong to that equation; it seems that each digit in the sequence — 4 8 15 16 23 42 — is a value in the equation that corresponds to a key variable in Valenzetti's recipe for disaster. Those variables include overpopulation, global warming, and war — the same environmental factors that are (allegedly) triggering Mother Nature to sire a world full of X-Men on Heroes.

Apparently, Dharma financier Alvar Hanso believed that if just one of the values in the Equation could be changed, Armageddon could be averted, or at least delayed. Dharma's activities on the island somehow had the ability to have an impact on the rest of the world, perhaps via the ''unique'' electromagnetic energy that radiates from the same section of the island where Station Three: The Swan was located. Remember the radio tower that was broadcasting the Numbers? It was basically a weather report, updating the scientists on the condition of the world; when and if they heard that the core values of the Equation had been changed, they would know that their work had succeeded. Alas, according to The Lost Experience, the Dharma Initiative failed to accomplish its mission.

But what if the Dharma scientists did have an impact on the world, one that defied calculation and measurement at the time? Remember, Dharma was active on the island during the '70s — about the time that all the superpowered characters on Heroes were conceived and born. What if Dharma spiked the world's gene pool with some superpowered hooch? According to The Lost Experience, Hanso is affiliated with a prominent confectionary marketer called the Apollo Candy Company; maybe one of those Apollo candy bars gave Nathan Petrelli on Heroes a real high-flying kick, if you know what I mean.

Okay, maybe I'm the one who's high. But I think there's enough reason to be suspicious, especially since the two shows in question share one unquestionable link: the creator of Heroes, Tim Kring, and the co-creator of Lost, Damon Lindelof, used to work together on Crossing Jordan and remain good friends. So: Are the brilliant buddies quietly engaged in some kind of clandestine creative collaboration?

RESPONSE FROM HEROES CREATOR TIM KRING: Hey! Look at this! Turns out we're onto something, at least in a wishful-thinking sort of way. Asked if Heroes and Lost are in a secret alliance, Kring says, ''Well... Damon and I did talk about a lot of stuff. And unfortunately, we're on different networks, because otherwise, a lot of those things would have been really, really fun to have done.'' By ''stuff,'' do you mean you guys actually discussed the possibility of mythologically linked shows? ''Oh, yeah,'' says Kring. ''We've talked a lot [in general] about how two shows could dovetail. But again, we are limited by the fact that we are on competing networks.'' But couldn't you guys conceivably do this idea without ever technically acknowledging it in any formal way? ''That's true. That's true,'' says Kring with a laugh.

TRANSLATION: Keep dreamin', Doc J. (BTW: Thanks to Mr. Kring for kindly indulging my obsessions.)

ESTIMATED CHANCE OF A LOST/HEROES CONNECTION: Oh, like they would ever admit it if this were true!

Source


So yeah, I think that it wouldn't be too hard at all, given the close friendship of the two show's creators, that "Heroes" would shout-out to "LOST".

Also, remember Mohinder's friend back home that was arguing with him about the possibility of a person having special powers? That SAME actor played practically the SAME part on "LOST" a couple episodes ago! This time, he played Desmond's friend who argues with Desmond about the possibility of a person being able to time travel.

Coincidence? Eh, probably...maybe...



So, we've got our own thread about it now. What do you all think? Was Nathan's a line a shout-out to "LOST"?

Or, wow....what do you think about the idea of the shows taking place in the same world??

 

[Super_Child]

No No No! Stop.

 

[The Punisher]

I deny this. Heroes is it's own show.

 

[Asgard]

Pretty cool.

Since I watch both shows, I wouldn't mind if Lost and Heroes gave the other show a shout out now and again.

 

[Eddie Brock]

Heroes = God
Lost = teh suckage

 

[Saved]

Yeah, cause I am so sure Heroes would be talking about lost when he says "Island" Hey, maybe Survior is based on lost too! He said that because comics, movies, and some Tv series have put uncontrollable or dangerous people/things on secluded islands where they can't hurt or kill or destroy anything. We even had a real life thing like that, alcatraz. So, if alcatraz was also pointing to lost in your minds, go get a psychiatrist.

 

[Frico]

Heroes = God
Lost = teh suckage

Right. Here.

 

[The Apocalypse]

I don't watch Lost.

Yeah that was a pointless post

 

[Rockula]

Don't forget that there is a comic book tie in for Lost as well. Walt was reading a japanese version of a comic book that featured Flash and Green Lantern.

 

[Omega214]

it was spanish. it was hurleys. and it was forewarning, giving you a mysterious feel to both hurley and walt.

in hurleys case they were setting up 4 his "its all in your head" craze and they want to add mystery to walt.

 

[The Question]

I doubt it. Claude was certainly born before the 70s, as was Dale, most likely. Also, I think they're leading up to introducing past "Heroes" from ancient times being the source of several myths.

 

[faceplant]

two different shows, two different networks, two different premises, yet somehow people think they're connected. Imagination is a wonderful thing.

 

[Antrax255]

Interesting but no

 

[Eddie Brock]

two different shows, two different networks, two different premises, yet somehow people think they're connected. Imagination is a wonderful thing.

that's the only point you really need...and it's the one i made in the other thread

 

[Darren Daring]

Of course, they're not in the same universe. it was just a little wink and a nudge, that's all.

 

[ragdus]

two different shows, two different networks, two different premises, yet somehow people think they're connected. Imagination is a wonderful thing.

And yet there's the creator of Heroes saying they at least entertained just such an idea, even if in passing.

 

[3 Dev Adam]

I think LOST is the TV show that the Petrellis watch then they're offscreen, so no one at NBC will know about it.

 

[ash_klownkiller]

i too havent watched lost simply because i didnt get to waatch the first season and i hate jumping in after the fact

but it would be pretty cool to have them sort of intersect

but it wont happen

but since they are friends (the writers)

im sure that it was a shout out

 

[3 Dev Adam]

ash is right, they're just trading harmless winks and nods.

 

[Ghostvirus]

This is just stupid! They are on different networks. There is no way that 2 shows would work together on different networks. Even if they one is about what is happening on the Island, & the other is what is happening on the mainland, there for they would never have to acknowledge each other. Only until the final episodes, & there is no network in the world that would agree to a cross connection for the final episode.

Look at Buffy, & Angel they were on different networks, & in Buffy's last episode you didn't see Angel popping by did you? No because it is just not logical at all!

Wait....

 

[3 Dev Adam]

two different shows, two different networks, two different premises, yet somehow people think they're connected. Imagination is a wonderful thing.

That never stopped THE SIMPSONS from making fun of every network around (remember the episode when Homer is chased by laser-yelding Teletubbies?), or that annoying little girl from Cosby appearing on the show with a Bart mask just to annoy Bill.

 

[chosen1]

THe only connection to LOST is Jeph loeb

Lost Now = Garbage

 

[Lurk]

If people knew what we were capable of, they would drop a collective brick...because that's what I would do, I'd round us all up, stick us in a lab, on some island in the middle of the ocean.

I still don't see how one word, "island," qualifies as a nod. I said in the other thread, Nathan's description sounds more like Weapon X or Genosha, both comic references, of which there are already many in the show. Genosha is an island where specials are required to live and are experimented on, just like Nate describes. The Lost people got there by accident, the specials would be rounded up and taken there. The Lost people survived a crash, the specials would be guinea pigs.

I have no problem with the writers "saying hi" in their shows, I just don't think the word island, and island only, is actually a nod. If Nathan had said something about dropping the specials on an island for their own private Lord of Rings, or getting rid of them by sticking them on a plane that mysteriously crashes in the ocean and disappears, that would make sense to me as a Lost ref.

 

[PLAS]

while my Lost fever wore out quite some time ago, it would be interesting to have little nods thrown here and there

anybody remember back in the 70's that DC and Marvel creators were doing unnoficial crossovers of events and the like? little, hidden references meant for fans of both shows

but just for fun, nothing that would go deeper into either show's storyline

 

[deathshead2]

Its a neat comment. But there is no connection. Even though it would be pretty cool to see a crossover between ABC and NBC.