In fact, Walt's emergent psychic powers were just the tip of the iceberg for the weird science fiction fare Lost might have introduced. Eventually the show went full genre (despite, again, claiming otherwise in the early pitch document) with all that time travel malarkey in season five, but before that the show was actively resisting those urges. It was a prestige drama, not The X-Files! But it so clearly wanted to be The X-Files. Or rather, The Twilight Zone, with that opening title and weird noise inspired by the classic sci-fi series and put together by JJ Abrams. It was the weirder, more esoteric and supernatural elements of Lost that drew Abrams in in the first place, and by his suggestion that they were heightened. Still, it took a while for that to really take hold. The studio resisted the sci-fi elements, but the Walt thing was very clearly supposed to be more in that vein. Eventually the time travel thing happened, but if Abrams and the crew had gotten their way, there might have been even more weird fantasy stuff earlier than that. Like Batman being a doctor who dies in the pilot, for example.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
