H.G. WELLS NAMELESS TIME TRAVELER IS BACK to save the day, with mixed results. Alongside the superpowered but sarcastic duo, Heart and Diamond, the Time Traveler meets old friends and enemies, travels from the age of piracy to space opera, stumbles over monsters, and tries to do his best with wit, charm, high intelligence and low cunning. Featuring:
The Pirates of Penance – The trouble with being a Time Traveler is you never know if the past is catching up to you, or if it’s coming back around the other way. The secrets of Heart and Diamond are revealed.
Heartbreak – The Time Traveler’s old foe is back, as a tourist? Featuring Morlocks, aliens and more.
Mourning – The Time Traveler, seeking help, looks up an old friend. Maye ‘friend’ is too strong a word.
Toad Warrior – On his own, the Time Traveler visits a sleepy English village which conceals a supernatural guardian. But even the supernatural ages, and things are about to go wrong.
Debts Owed – Shapeshifting aliens invade a golf course, friends are re-united, enemies are back for another round. The fate of Weena, the secret of the Morlocks and the Time Traveler’s true identity are about to be revealed.
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Second Volume, this time solo by Ewen. Technically, one of the stories in there – Mourning, is mine. But it’s very short.
Okay, so Season One, I told you the story of how this all came together. So what about Season Two? There wasn’t supposed to be one. I envisioned a single season, the crew lurching from one disaster to the other, massive infighting, in the end they finish by the skin of the teeth and everyone moves on because they can’t stand each other. Over time they reconcile.
But Ewen kept on writing. My fault, I guess. I’d written ‘Mourning’ as a hook for a possible second season. So we decided that the worst thing in the world would befall our backstage heroes: They got renewed for a second season. Oh no! So a bunch of people who couldn’t stand each other got called back one more time.
There was stuff arising out of the first series that we followed up on – the actors playing Heart and Diamond were terrible, so they got written out. A popular actor was brought back. A villain was brought back. These were fans, a Blake’s 7 Crossover (one where they neglected to get the rights) happened, there were attempts to get rid of the stars. The whole thing melts down even worse. Ewen and I bounced the backstage around, it was mostly him, although I contributed ideas and thoughts
But the episodes, the stories, those were all his. There was an element of melancholy to his stories. His New Doctor was human and humane, not altogether competent, getting by on charm and luck and a combination of high intelligence and low cunning. But he wasn’t boisterous or arrogant, there was a sadness to the character.
Ewen’s father was dying of cancer during this time. I think you can feel some grief and poignance.
He kept on writing stories. A third season, where the main producers had been forced out of their own show, leaving only the Star and a production company trying to complete contractual obligations. The star had his brush with stardom, and couldn’t let go – no career otherwise, he desperately tries to prolong his career with marginal productions, then an Australian co-production, a stage production, audio adventures. All these frames for at least four more volumes. Ewen was amazingly prolific.
Anyway, seems my work got cut out for me.
This has actually turned out to be a lot more work than I wanted to do. Ewen in these stories uses a modified script format – maybe audio drama script format. It’s almost all dialogue with setting and stage directions. So literally, to edit it, I had to go line by line, making sure each stage direction, setting, line of dialogue and speaker was properly formatted. It took forever.
And there was a lot of hassle trying to adapt and replace. You can’t use a Tardis, so we had to redo the Traveler’s Time Machine, and his interface, the description of the machine. The monsters were original Sontarans, Draconians, Autons and Changelings. They had to be replaced with new original monsters carrying on the same role. The thing is, you can’t just change the names, you have to give them new backstories and descriptions and work everything in. If you’re following through that it’s Well’s Time Traveler, you have to do that.
The amazing Dawne Dominique did an extraordinary job on the covers for both books. And I got to say, the final products look damned good.
Way, way more work than I planned on. It actually derailed my own projects. I was supposed to be working on two other books, pitching a third, doing all the writerly stuff.
Anyway, I’ve got two more volumes set up and ready, but I think I’ll take a six month break before the next effort. Ewen won’t mind.
Although that makes me wonder, why work so hard. He’s dead, he’s not going to care. Well, maybe his mother cares. Maybe his friends care. Maybe he was a really nice guy and a really good writer and that should count for something. In a just world, he should have had his breakthrough, he should have had books or scripts published, and his father proud of his son’s accomplishment. But that didn’t happen. He didn’t deserve what happened to him, and I can’t do anything about that.
But maybe I can make sure that his work and his name is out there in some books, that he’ll have a mark in the world, a legacy that will live on. He was a nice guy and a really good writer, and he deserves to be remembered. This is just my way of making sure.