Crossover TV Episode: The Librarians and the Final Separation

 

In this episode of The Librarians, the title characters visit Shangri-La, ruled by Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. Shangri-La, originally from James Hilton’s Lost Horizon, previously appeared in the TV movie The Librarian: Quest for the Spear. Sun Wukong is from Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West.

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

Winter 2018
THE LIBRARIANS AND THE POT OF GOLD 
The Librarians must find a leprechaun’s long-lost pot of gold before their old foes the Serpent Brotherhood can get their hands on it. Before that, the team deals with a seeming haunting at the Paris Opera House by a party that is seeking the only copy of the Phantom’s concerto, Don Juan Triumphant. The new Opera Ghost reveals to Jake Stone and Ezekiel Jones that he is the descendant of Erik and Christine Daaé, the consummation of whose relationship Gaston Leroux left out of his novel. Cassandra Cillian, before directly encountering the new Opera Ghost, wonders if the book was based on a real person who is still around, like with Dorian Gray. The Librarians’ Guardian, Colonel Eve Baird, having trouble reaching Jake and Ezekiel on her phone, remembers running into the same problem while buried alive beneath the Mountains of Madness. The Librarians play Trivial Pursuit; all three of them have mastered the Geography category, though Baird doubts there are too many Geography questions concerning Shangri-La, El Dorado, or the Bermuda Triangle. The Library holds everything from Penelope’s unfinished tapestry to Prufrock’s intimidating peach. Included in the Hibernian Wing is a copy of Bram Stoker’s book The Lair of the White Worm, which Jenkins describes as, “One of his lesser works, to be frank, but not nearly as fictional as generally believed.” Serpent Brotherhood member Max Lambton knows that magic wishes, be they granted by fairies, devils, djinns, or a mummified monkey’s paw, almost invariably backfire on the wisher, no matter how carefully the wish is phrased. Jenkins says a chasm he and Cassandra encounter reminds him of a bottomless pit he once encountered while in pursuit of a certain grail. Stone, battling Max, adopts a fighting stance taught to him by none other than the Monkey King himself. Ezekiel cracks a Glenn-Rieder X-3000 vault. 
2018 novel by Greg Cox. Erik the Opera Ghost, Christine Daaé, and Don Juan Triumphant are from Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. Dorian Gray is from Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Mountains of Madness are from H. P. Lovecraft’s novella “At the Mountains of Madness.” Shangri-La is from James Hilton’s Lost Horizon. Penelope’s unfinished tapestry is from Homer’s The Odyssey. Prufrock’s intimidating peach is from T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” The events of Bram Stoker’s novel The Lair of the White Worm have been established as part of the CU. The mummified monkey’s paw is from W. W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw.” The mention of a bottomless pit in conjunction with the Holy Grail is a reference to the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, is from Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West. Glenn-Rieder security systems are from the TV series Leverage. 

This crossover writeup is one of hundreds found in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3! As with the first two volumes, this one is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2 and will be published by Meteor House!

Crossover Cover: Mr. Blank

A man with many identities works for all of the various conspiracies and secret societies (and a few monsters) in Los Angeles. As a result of his work, he can find Symbionia, Thule, Shangri-La, and the entrance to the Hollow Earth on a map. The Elder Gods are mentioned, and our nameless hero mentions rumors of a Gill-Man in Reseda, though it turned out to be a mechanic with a skin condition. Thule is a region in the far north in European folklore. Shangri-La is from James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon. The Hollow Earth theory has been adapted in a number of works of fiction, including Edgar Rice Burroughs’ series set at the Earth’s core. The Elder Gods were created by August Derleth as part of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, and are inimical to the Great Old Ones. This false Gill-Man is pretending to be a member of the species seen in the film Creature from the Black Lagoon and its sequels.

The Librarian(s) in the CU

In the 2004 TV movie The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, genius Flynn Carsen is kicked out of college, and receives a job offer from the Metropolitan Public Library. He soon discovers that he has been appointed to act as "the librarian," the guardian of historical and often magical items found in a hidden section of the library. When the evil Serpent Brotherhood steals one of three pieces of the Spear of Destiny, which when combined can be used to control the world, Flynn must go on a quest to prevent them from acquiring the other two pieces. He finds the last spear piece in Shangri-La. After defeating the Brotherhood, Flynn learns that the Death Scorpion Cult has stolen H.G. Wells’ Time Machine. The connections to Shangri-La (from James Hilton’s Lost Horizon) and the Time Machine (from H.G. Wells’ novel of the same name) bring Flynn Carsen into the CU. Various accounts set in the CU have portrayed different parties as possessing the Spear of Destiny. It has yet to be determined which, if any, of these stories features the true Spear.

In the 2006 TV movie The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, Flynn and archaeologist Emily Davenport strive to prevent a thief from plundering the treasures of King Solomon’s Mines. While traveling to the mines, they pass the Breasts of Sheba and Three Witches Mountain. Both landmarks are from H. Rider Haggard's first Allan Quatermain novel, King Solomon's Mines. Solomon’s treasure must have been returned to the African mines from the Pacific island where it was kept for a time, as seen in the Tales of the Gold Monkey episode "Legends Are Forever."

In the 2008 movie The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice, Flynn battles the vampire Vlad Dracula, who has rejuvenated himself by drinking from the Judas Chalice. Supposedly, Dracula was left crippled and stripped of most of his power after drinking from the corpse of a cholera victim hundreds of years ago. This “Dracula” is most likely a “soul-clone” of the true Count.

In 2014, the TV series The Librarians debuted, featuring a new team of Librarians hand-picked by Flynn. The group's greatest foe is the Serpent Brotherhood, led by an immortal named Dulaque. Last night's episode, "The Librarians and the Apple of Discord," continued the pattern of crossovers in the franchise. The World Crime League is named as one of the factions that sent a representative to a conclave of supernatural beings. The League is from the film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Jenkins, the group's caretaker, refers to the amendment to the Wold Newton bylaws at a prior conclave. The conclave involving the Wold Newton bylaws may have been part of a larger conclave that happened in Wold Newton, Yorkshire on December 13, 1795, as originally revealed by Philip José Farmer in Tarzan Alive, and elaborated on by Win in “The Wild Huntsman.” The O2STK is also mentioned. The O2STK (Organization Too Secret to Know) is from Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Les McClaine’s comic book The Middleman.

Crossover Covers: Shangri-La

Lara Croft travels to the Immortal City of Shangri-La, and has to fight her way back out again. Shangri-La is from James Hilton’s Lost Horizon. Both the one-shot comic Tomoe/Witchblade: Fire Sermon (set in 1995) and the Army of Darkness comic storyline “League of Light Assemble!” (set in 2008) portray Shangri-La as having been abandoned by its former inhabitants, but apparently a select few stayed behind.