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Did Dr. Bombay Have Other Patients besides Samantha and Her Family?

posted 21 days ago by [email protected] (6243)
8 replies | jump to latest

Just watched a few episodes with Dr. Bombay. Every time Sam summons him, he is in the middle of one of his hobbies.

In the Macedonian Dodo Bird episode, he is upset because he was riding a dolphin.

A few scenes later he exclaims, “Now you’ve plucked me off me porpoise!”.

One time, Sam called him when he was in a surfing contest. “Would’ve won if I had used a surf board.”😁

In another episode, Endora said he couldn’t be reached because he was on vacation climbing Mount Everest. What did he need a vacation from?🙄

Dr. Bombay’s entrances were always funny. You wondered what outlandish thing he would be engaged in when he was summoned. And Bernard Fox always delivered his lines in that great deadpan way the British have.

But it makes me wonder if he had ANY other patients? It seemed like medicine was just another hobby of his.

[–] Costumer (1834) 21 days ago

I'm sure he did. But we might consider that witches might not get sick that often. (Samantha not withstanding). It is likely there are other witch doctors around and the total witch population can't be large. (any extremely long-lived or near immortal species is unlikely to have a high fertility rate.). And doctor's certainly can take time off.

Author of the Sodality Universe

The Road from Antioch
In the Markets of Tyre
Flight to Lystra
The Theater at Ephesus
The Council on Jerusalem

The Shattered World series begins in 2025

[–] [email protected] (6243) 21 days ago

You brought up an interesting point about their fertility rate.

I was just wondering about that when watching an episode the other day. It was the episode when Carlotta comes to claim Samantha as her son Juke’s future bride. She and Endora had made a pact that their firstborns would marry.

I thought it was interesting that both women were centuries old, yet they appeared to have only one child each.

Sam also appeared to have only one cousin, Serena.

At times one of them would say something referring to “our family”, but the witches sure did not seem to have big ones, family that is.

[–] Costumer (1834) 18 days ago

It is a bit confusing, though the logic holds. Samantha does have a fairly large circle of relatives of the older generation: There was Uncle Arthur, Aunt Clara, Aunt Bertha, Aunt Grimalda, and Aunt Agnes. Other than Serena, several other cousins are mentioned: Henry, Edgar, Mario and Panda.

Now how those relative shake out is uncertain. We know Arthur is Endora's brother. Clara may well be a great aunt, since even the other witches acknowledge she is old. So the other three could be Endora's sisters or Maurice's. (likely some combination thereof.)

Now witch culture could consider aunts and others as any older relative connected somewhere, so other than Arthur the other aunts could be parents of second or third cousins of Samantha.

It is an interesting puzzle, because there simply can't be that many of them around. I can't imagine more than ten or twenty thousand at most.

Author of the Sodality Universe

The Road from Antioch
In the Markets of Tyre
Flight to Lystra
The Theater at Ephesus
The Council on Jerusalem

The Shattered World series begins in 2025

[–] [email protected] (6243) 18 days ago

Yes, I totally forgot about Sam’s cousin Henry who was in a fifth season episode. Just watched that last night. He was played by Steve Franken who was in a number of episodes as other characters.

I think Mario was the cousin whose wedding she was invited to, but Darrin didn’t want her to attend since it was in India and he could not accompany her. Geez, sometimes Darrin could be a jerk! I know he was against her using witchcraft. But why was he against her attending family functions?

I don’t remember a cousin Panda. What episode was that person mentioned? I never really thought about cousin Edgar since he was an elf. Wonder how witches would be related to elves.

There was also Aunt Enchantra.

[–] Costumer (1834) 17 days ago

I don't recall the exact episode, but I think it was in season 8.

I forgot about Aunt Enchantra as well.

Author of the Sodality Universe

The Road from Antioch
In the Markets of Tyre
Flight to Lystra
The Theater at Ephesus
The Council on Jerusalem

The Shattered World series begins in 2025

[–] [email protected] (6243) 17 days ago

I guess that is why I don’t recall Panda. I don’t have seasons 7 and 8. Haven’t seen them in years.

Often wondered if the witches are truly immortal. When Sam and Darrin were deciding on a name for the new baby, Adam, Maurice says that was his father’s name. He doesn’t say IS, he says was.

When I am referring to a relative who has passed, I use the same past tense. Or maybe his parents were so old that they just retired and turned themselves into useful objects. Like the time Aunt Clara said she was going to turn herself into a potted plant.

[–] GirlNamedSue (279) 18 days ago

It seemed that most of Samantha's illnesses were related to her marriage to a mortal so maybe witches dont' get sick that often.

[–] [email protected] (6243) 18 days ago

That is true. There were a number of times where Samantha lost her powers because they were all “clogged up” from a lack of use.

In one episode Dr Bombay asks her if just because she is married to a mortal, was she trying to live like one! Apparently their powers got rusty if they didn’t use them.

In one of my favorite second season episodes, Take Two Aspirin and a Pint of Porpoise Milk, a pregnant Samantha comes down with square green spots.

She was exposed to a black Peruvian rose and witches were allergic.

At the start of the episode when she feels faint Darrin panics and says that people like her don’t get sick. I took that to mean that witches down come down with the usual run of the mill human colds and viruses.

But it IS interesting that Samantha had a regular mortal obstetrician for both of her pregnancies. Apparently a human doctor did not notice any difference.