The Tail Section

I’m a little embarrassed I didn’t know about this sooner… I was perusing Daniel "Doctor Arzt" Roebuck’s website today (www.danielroebuck.com) and came across an entry concerning a Doctor Arzt action that was custom built for him by Highly Flammable Toys.

Apparently,  the LOST writers contributed a back story to the figure that gives us Doc Arzt’s background in a nutshell.  I’ve transcribed it here:

"Born in an unremarkable suburb of Jersey City, Leslie Arzt soon demonstrated the kind of promise that could only herald a doctorate from an unremarkable university in the state system.  Though not a particularly patient or didactic man, Leslie Arzt soon parlayed the staggering lack of interest shown him by employers in the private sector into a long-term career teaching science in the New Jersey Public Schools system.  While neither a student nor faculty favorite - and in brazen defiance of a brusque personal style that rendered him unfit for the job - Dr. Arzt (as he insisted on being called by everyone from students to school board administrators) courageously expanded his activities from mere teaching in teachers union politics.  After giving decades of his life and sacrificing - by his own account - three marriages to his activities, Dr. Arzt finally took a vacation to Sydney Australia.  The cataclysmic crash of Oceanic 815 left Dr. Arzt one of the 48 survivors stranded on an uncharted island.  On the island, Dr. Arzt soon wen about making friends and influencing people in his own indomitable style - alas, this bright light was snuffed out explosively during an impromptu lecture on the instability of nitroglycerin.   Few who knew him will truly miss him."

So there it is.  Another character’s back-story put to rest, however sardonically.