Crossover of the Week

May 26, 1846

THE LAMENT OF THE DUKE AND THE KING 

The so-called Duke of Bridgewater and King of France hop a train, and in the process meet Doctor Omega and his companion Miki. The Doctor gives the conductor a Hynerian sixteen harzmo gold piece. They are joined by the Doctor's other companion, the Steel General. The King says he is the long-lost Dauphin of France, and that he used to be visited by a woman named Madame LaFarge. The Chevalier de Maison-Rouge allegedly tried to rescue the King’s mother. An artist named La Salle was sent by the Baron de Batz to rescue the Dauphin and replace him with a lookalike. When he nearly drowned, a man named Moreau rescued him. The General claims he incited Moreau’s animal people to revolt, but the Doctor clarifies that the King means Andre-Louis Moreau, who he and Miki saw costar with Marguerite St. Just in a play called Don Juan Triumphant in 1791. De Batz was working with the Scarlet Pimpernel, who the Duke claims was the Prince-Regent’s butler, Mr. Edmund Blackadder. The Pimpernel turned the Dauphin over to a smuggler dressed as a scarecrow, who handed him off in turn to an American named Bumppo. The Doctor refers to Miki’s colossal, radioactive, reptilian friend, and says General Santa Anna has the services of an evil scientist named Dr. Campos, who has uncovered a mind control device left on Earth centuries ago by an alien named Kukulcan. 

Short story by Matthew Baugh in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 12: Carte Blanche, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2015; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 20), Jean-Marc Lofficier, ed., Rivière Blanche, 2017. The Duke of Bridgewater and the King of France are from Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Doctor Omega is the title character of Arnould Galopin’s novel. Miki Saegusa is from the Godzilla movies. Although the massive level of destruction seen in the films does not fit into the CU, other crossovers indicate a version of Godzilla exists in the CU whose exploits are much less Earth-shattering. The Hynerian Empire is from the television series Farscape. The Steel General is from Roger Zelazny’s Creatures of Light and Darkness. Madame LaFarge (or rather DeFarge) is from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. The Chevalier de Maison-Rouge is from Alexandre Dumas’ eponymous novel. Florence de La Salle is from Rafael Sabatini’s The Lost King. The Baron de Batz is a historical figure who appears in both that book and Sabatini’s Scaramouche, whose title character is really Andre-Louis Moreau. The other Moreau and his animal people are from H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau. Marguerite St. Just is the wife of Sir Percy Blakeney, aka Baroness Orczy’s hero the Scarlet Pimpernel. The play Don Juan Triumphant is the basis for the opera of the same name penned by the title character of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. Edmund Blackadder is from the television series Blackadder the Third. The smuggler dressed as a scarecrow is Russell Thorndike’s Dr. Syn, aka Captain Clegg and the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. Natty Bumppo is from James Fenimore Cooper’s The Leatherstocking Tales. Dr. Campos is from the movie Santo Contra Hombres Infernales. Kukulcan is from the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode “How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth” and the Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle episode “Tarzan and the Space God.” 

This crossover writeup is one of over a thousand appearing in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover TV Episode: Colours

 

In this episode of Endeavour, Chief Inspector Thursday and his wife attended the Stuart-Hargreaves Dance Studio in Bicester. Murder victim Jean Ward is really the Right Honorable Moira Creighton-Ward. The South Oxfordshire Regiment was at Mboto Gorge. One of the Regiment’s members is Private “Geordie” Collier. A pair of British fascists named Spode and Webley are mentioned. Yvonne and Barry Stuart-Hargreaves were the dance instructors at the holiday camp Maplins in the TV show Hi-de-Hi!, which takes place in 1959-1960. Apparently, they left the camp and opened a dance studio in Bicester sometime between 1960 and 1968. The Right Honorable Moira Creighton-Ward is apparently a relative of Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward from the television series Thunderbirds, which has already been established as a possible future for the CU. The Battle of Mboto Gorge is from the Blackadder Goes Forth episode “Goodbyeee.” Private Collier may be Newcastle native Terry Collier from the television series The Likely Lads. Terry joined the army in the last episode. Roderick Spode is from P. G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves novels. Everard Webley is from Aldous Huxley’s Point Counter Point. 

This crossover is one of hundreds covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will be published by Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover of the Week

July 20, 1963

THE COLOR OUT IN SPACE 

American astronaut Magnolia Jones comes to Arkham, Northumberland in 1963 at the request of Human Protection League (HPL) agent and Women’s Royal Air Force member Mabel Peabody for a space mission to rescue Yuri Gagarin, who is being menaced by a member of the Colour Out of Space’s race. Also appearing or mentioned are: Tarooma; Dr. Maxwell Edison Gardner; Dirk McQuickly; the British Experimental Rocket Group; the Q-I, 1953; the M-76, 1956; the Q-II, 1958; Flasheart; Prof Q; Lonsdale College, Oxford; “tekeli-li!”; the magnetic anomalies in Tycho and Olduvai Gorge; Doktor Merkwürdigliebe; Zellaby; the Midwich changelings incident; an “Inventor”; Fendelman Industries; a ship from Mars that crashed to Earth under modern London five million years ago; Haven, Maine; Ivor Dare; Harriman Nelson; the “Saliva Tree Incursion” at Cottersall, Norfolk, England, in 1896; Gizhinsk; the SSRN Seaview; Captain Crane; and Peabody’s niece Jocelyn. 

Short story by Stephen Baxter in The Lovecraft Squad: Waiting, Pegasus Books, 2017. Magnolia Jones is an ancestor of the character of the same name (aka Melody Angel) from the television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, which takes place in a potential future for the CU. Tarooma and the Q-I are references to the British science fiction television serial The Quatermass Experiment. Dr. Bernard Quatermass is the head of the British Experimental Rocket Group. The Q-II and the ship from Mars that crashed to Earth under modern London five million years ago refer to Quatermass and the Pit. Dr. Maxwell Edison Gardner is Maxwell Edison from the Beatles’ song “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” revealed here to be a descendant of Nahum Gardner from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space.” Dirk McQuickly is the Paul McCartney stand-in in the Beatles parody the Rutles, first seen in the television series Rutland Weekend Television. The M-76 is from No Man Friday by Rex Gordon. Lord Flasheart is from the Blackadder Goes Forth episode “Private Plane.” Lonsdale College, Oxford is from the television series Inspector Morse, based on Colin Dexter’s novels. “Tekeli-li!” is a phrase from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, later used by Lovecraft in “At the Mountains of Madness.” The magnetic anomalies in Tycho and the Olduvai Gorge are from Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which must be an AU, although elements of it (or counterparts thereof) have been referenced in several CU works. Doktor Merkwürdigliebe is the original name of the title character of the movie Dr. Strangelove, which ends with all of humanity being wiped out in a nuclear conflagration. However, Emmanuel Gorlier’s “A Present for Hitler” establishes that Merkwürdigliebe has a CU counterpart. Gordon Zellaby, Midwich, the Inventor, and Gizhinsk are from John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos. Fendelman Industries is from the Doctor Who serial “Image of the Fendahl.” Haven, Maine is from Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers. Ivor Dare and Professor Jocelyn Mabel Peabody are from the British science fiction comic book Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, which takes place in the then-future of the 1990s, in a world where travel to and from other worlds is common. These versions of Ivor and Jocelyn must be CU counterparts to the ones from the comic. Admiral Harriman Nelson, the SSRN Seaview, and Captain Lee Crane are from the TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which was set in the then-future of the 1970s. These must be the CU versions of the characters and ship from the show. The Saliva Tree Incursion is from Brian Aldiss’ The Saliva Tree. 

This crossover writeup is one of hundreds included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to be published by Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover of the Week

December 26, 1922

FEAST OF FOOLS

            Charles St. Cyprian speaks to George “Boko” Fittleworth, who resides in Steeple Bumpleigh. According to their mutual friends, Boko’s successes make liver-gnawing characters like Adam Fenwick-Symes and Harold Acton grind their teeth in literary frustration. Boko remarks that it’s a shame none of the Trinity Tiddlers could make it, and that George St. Barleigh enjoyed a touch of the polo. St. Cyprian refers to Tuppy and Bingo, and Boko asks where Bertie Wooster is. Their host Monty Wallace is a member in good standing of several London clubs, including the Drones. St. Cyprian notices a few stragglers from the Runcible set among the guests. Boko remarks that he thought Finknottle was a pedantic ass, with his blasted newts. St. Cyprian mentions his predecessor Carnacki. Monty complains about a bottle of Averoigne ’72 left in his burning house.

            Short story by Josh Reynolds in PulpWork Christmas Special 2012. George “Boko” Fittleworth, Steeple Bumpleigh, Tuppy Glossop, Bingo Little, Bertie Wooster, the Drones Club, and Gussie Fink-Nottle (spelled Finknottle here) are from P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves stories. Adam Fenwick-Symes and Agatha Runcible are from Evelyn Waugh’s novel Vile Bodies. The Trinity Tiddlers and George St. Barleigh are from the television series Blackadder Goes Forth. Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s short story collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. The French province of Averoigne appears in a number of Clark Ashton Smith’s stories.