By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
All copyright MGM
When night falls, the terror comes.
Last year brought a new gen to our collective intentions and I immediately fell in love with this new horror show From. Horror is at the very core here as in the opening scene a little girl and her mother are ripped apart by a demon at a window masquerading as someone they know. Soon we learn that we are in a town that you cannot leave except through death itself. You are safe during the day but when night falls creatures emerge from the forest eager to kill any and all humans not protected behind locked doors and windows. It feels very much Stephen King meets Lost. Mystery upon mystery unfolded especially in the last couple of episodes leaving us on a cliffhanger that left me wanting more.
There is a genuine sense of fear and creepiness in this show from the very first episode so I cannot wait until April the 24th when it hits our screens again.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Copyright Owen Quinn
Given the amount of stories written as part of the first set of Time Warriors books, I found they had to be split into four volumes.
Tempest ties together all the events from the first three volumes, First Footsteps, The Voalox Horror and Red Water as the Family finally make their move and launch their final assault to take the Juggernaught. As each of the Warriors are targeted, they can trust no one as the walls close in.
What is Area 52? What are they really working on? What are the Weavers hiding?
Varran must face the consequences of his actions; consequences born the day his homeworld died.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
SPOILERS AHEAD
copyright CW
As much as I’VE enjoyed the first season of The Winchesters, I couldn’t help but listen to the niggling voice in the back of my head.
Young John Winchester and Mary Campbell working side by side battling demons and monsters just like their sons? That sounds great and we will get to learn more of the Winchester’s story from the beginning. There’s a slight problem with this the voice kept saying as I tested my memory by doing a bit of googling. Sure enough, I was right.
This never happened.
In the parent show Supernatural, Dean is sent back in time to 1973 by angel Castiel in season 4 episode 3 In The Beginning.
There he meets his parents. Dean persuades his father to buy the Impala and discovers that his mother Mary has kept her future husband in the dark about her hunting life. Dean also gets to meet the surly Samuel Campbell, his grandfather and his sweet grandmother. However by the end of that episode both his grandparents are dead and Mary has been forced to make a deal with the Yellow Eyed Demon to bring John back from the dead. However all she has done is set in motion the future and her own death despite Dean’s attempts to persuade her otherwise. This has all been a plan by the angels for Dean to find the Colt; the only weapon that can kill Lucifer.
In a direct sequel to In the Beginning, both Sam and Dean and a weakened Castiel travel back in time to stop vengeful angel Anna Hilton from murdering the Winchesters. If that happens they will be able to erase Sam and Dean from ever being born and Lucifer will not rise.
In this episode Mary and John are living a supernatural free life but the angels soon bring them back into it. It is only now in this episode that John discovers the world of the supernatural and that Mary is a hunter. He gives himself to Archangel Michael who stops Anna and wipes Mary and John’s minds of all that happened returning Sam, Dean and Castiel back to the present.
It is further established that when Mary is killed by the Yellow Eyed demon, John discovers the world of the hinters at that point and becomes one to avenge his wife. This action sets Dean and Sam on the path they were always destined to walk.
So how then could the Winchesters series possibly be correct given the history established in Supernatural?
Each episode is narrated by Dean who tells us he is piecing together the story of his parents’ life together and there may be a few surprises along the way.
Are we looking at a previously unknown genesis for The Winchesters that Dean has discovered? Now all this narration had to occur before Dean’s death in the series finale but what has he discovered and did Sam know?
The answer may well have been mentioned in the series already when, as almost a throwaway line, there is mention of a spell that can wipe anyone’s mind. Could this seemingly harmless line be how John has no recollection of his years as a monster fighter? Indeed in the 300th episode Lebanon, it is unclear whether John knows about the Men of Letters or is he just processing what Dean andd Sam have told him given they now live in the Men of Letters bunker at that point. Mary is fully aware of her hunter past and presumably is keeping John’s past a secret from him too. So will the series have a limited shelf life with some major cataclysm causing the spell to be invoked and John to be the John we meet in the Supernatural series?
We have already seen two old familiar characters return to the show; Archangel Gabriel in the guise of the Trickster Loki and the witch Rowena, mother of Crowley. Right now anything is possible in the show. There is talk of a Spiderman No Way Home crossover where all three versions of John will meet.
Which should have tipped me off to what the viewers were actually watching. In the season finale Dean himself turns up and it is revealed that it was he who gave John the letter from his father. In effect Dean has seemingly changed histroy. In our Supernatural John beleived hs father ran away and abandoned him. Dean shared this hatred of his grandfather when they met in the parent series. By delivering the letter Dean ensures that John knows that his father never left him intentionally and how much he loved him. A mystery that haunted and tortured John Winchester for years is nipped in the bud freeing up at least part of the pain that filtered into Dean and Sam’s lives.
However it is much bigger than that as we discover this version of Dean is the one that died in the series finale and is in heaven. We saw Dean find the Impala in heaven and drive off. He reveals he found himself able to visit multiple universes and that this John and Mary are not his parents.
We are in a totally different unoverse.
Bobby Singer is with Dean and they have nudged events here to help the Monster Club stop the Akrida. It is revealed that God created the Akrida to wipe every universe out in the event Dean and Sam stopped (Chuck) God somehow. The new God Jack appears scolding Dean but he argues that he had no choice but to intervene. If the Akroda were not stopped here then their universe where Sam is alone would have fallen too. All Dean was looking for was a universe where his family had a happy ending. It seems this one is the closest he could find. He hands John his journal to help him in the battles ahead but Dean is content that not only are his parents together and in love but they now have an advantage our John and Mary never had.
While this is a lovely and touching scene, it feels flat to me. It is great to see Dean, Jack and Bobby again and wish they could stay longer for a couple of episodes but the whole multiverse thing is now becoming stale. I feel it would have been much better if they had taken the hidden history route with an impending tragedy where John would have his memory of monsters wiped so it dovetailed into established history.
As it is now we get a whole new history but the question is would this John and Mary really bring kids into this life? Will Sam and Dean ever be born in this reality?
While my instincts may have been right about the discrepancies, at the end of the day it was probably the only way to go without being tied down by established history. Now we have a whole new future to unfold bringing a whole new slurry of enemies. But will Mary listen to Dean’s warning and kill the Yellow Eyed Demon before he destroys their lives like he did before?
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
copyright Owen Quinn
THE GIFT:
I had already started to expand the supporting cast as it helps add to the mythos and expands our main characters.
Robert is Tyran’s brother and a real millionaire’s son, living a lifestyle using his father’s success and name. In Tempest he had been tricked by one of the Family’s operatives Sharon into thinking she was pregnanat with his child when in fact he was being used to gain access to the Juggernaught.
A lesson I learned from Doctor Who writer Malcolm Hulke was to give life to even the smallest of characters. With Robert I wanted to see the consequences of the trauma they had all been through in Tempest. Is it possible that people can change for the better through pain or is it a temporary reaction?
In The Gift at the request of his father and Varran’s graciousness, Robert is spending time with the Time Warriors especially where his sister Tyran can keep an eye on him. While exploring another world, they come across Zara, a girl being hunted. Rescuing her they discover she is from a world where her gift in communicating with the dead makes her hughly prized and a prisoner for life in a golden cage. Varran is uneasy as it goes against his beliefs and an argument breaks out between them all. Robert takes Zara and they go off the grid.
The story focuses on just them in a cabin where no one can find them and over the weeks Zara brings Robert an inner peace he has never known. He teaches her about Earth customs and they fall in love. But tragedy is just around the corner threatening their new found happiness…
There was a scene originally where Zara and Robert have sex for the first time but upon reflection I cut it so it was implied rather than shown.
It’s an enjoyable coming of age story.
FIRE AND ICE:
This was designed as an intro to Rachel following her return to Michael in Tempest. Rachel finds herself in another reality where the Earth has been invaded by the reptilian Saurians. Fighting to free humanity is a seemingly one man band, Yuri. Escaping with him, Rachel discovers there is more to the invasion than meets the eye.
This is an action packed story which allows Rachel to showcase herself as the newest member of the team. Hopefully between this and Tempest, she will endeared hrself to the readers.
IRISH EYES:
In a famine stricken village in Ireland Varran finds something alien is terrorising the shrinking population. Can he help stop the starving villagers from leaving to America and stop whatever it is that is stalking them? With the help of a local teacher, Varran suddenly finds there is more to fight for than he realised.
As you know I love a village under seige and I thought it would fun to not only explore part of Varran’s past but set a story during the Irish famine to educate people on what happened and the reasons behind it. Irish Eyes became a lot more poignant than I intended but also became a nice exploration of what motivates Varran to help a strange planet.
TWISTED:
Alternate future time when Michael and Jacke are thrown into a world which knows about the Xerebans and the Juggernaught is a stripped out hulk in Hyde Park. Internment camps hold thousands of people, Tyran is in the resistance and Varran is working with one General Castle who has an agenda to wipe out every last Xereban who have secretly invaded the Earth. Hunted by the government Michael and Jacke must fnd a way home before they are captured and executed.
I love alternate world stories like Star Trek’s Mirror Universe so this one had to be done. It’s a joy to put our characters in different situations and see different versions of themselves. You can do anything you want and push the envelope.
TRINITY:
In ancient Ireland something alien has buried itself beneath the land watching and waiting. The Warriors arrive and are helped out of trouble by a young shepherd boy. He is plagued by visions and when alien parasites begin attacking the human and animal population, the fight is on to stop the monstrous Soogara from making Ireland their new power base. With every life on the planet on the line, Maewyn the shepherd boy must fight alone when the Warriors fall.
THE MOON ONCE MORE:
With this story I wanted to see what it would be like for a seemingly ageless being like Varran to watch helplessly as a friend dies. This is set in a hospital room where Varran sits by the bedside of his terminally ill friend, Derek. Would Varran be jealous or sad as he listens to the clock tick tock its way to Derek’s last breath?
This one is essentially a stage play with two people in one room. This allows a bit more intensity and reflective dialogue with the clock a constant reminder that time is running out. So what does that mean for a Time Warrior?
Issue 22, Spring 2023, releasing at the end of next week. Featuring exclusive fiction, Dwayne Boyd, Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe, Noel K. Hannan, Graham Masterton and Karolina Mogielska, Butch Patrick and Paul Tremblay. Also: Charles Black tribute, Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, Supernatural, The Prisoner, Audrey Rose, Gothic Horror and vampires, artwork, reviews and more!
Daredevil Born Again starts filming in April and it has been announced that fan favourite The Punisher is returning alongside Matt Murdock. Ever since The Punisher was cancelled unexpectedly, fans have wanted the return of Frank Castle as well as Daredevil so here we go. The boys are back with a bang.
This Saturday sees the debut at Dublin Comic Con March 11th of Stormtroopers, the newest fan made ilm from Michael Fitzgerald and his team. With Michael’s kind permission TW is showing you the original Stormtroopers from 2018. It’s great to see Irish talent and imagination are alive and well and doing a great job. Get your tickets and get along to the Convention Centre this weekend for a day long remembered,,.
Stormtroopers is an Irish film about a platoon of Stormtroopers who raid a remote Rebel Mining outpost. More info – http://www.RogueStormtroopers.com Stormtroopers was filmed in Ireland on location in Cork, Waterford & Tipperary. Stormtroopers stars Carolyn Bracken, Peter Cosgrove, Klancy Casey Williams, Micheal Fitzgerald, Michael Stack & Melissa Ciepierski. Stormtroopers is written & directed by Micheal Fitzgerald and was produced by Cork Racing. Cork based production and animation powerhouse Dog Day Media completed the VideoFX & Post-production. Director of Photography was Matthew Kirrane. SoundFX Design by Alan Keogh. Film Original Score by Electric Foxx. Stormtroopers is an Irish Star Wars Fan Film made in Ireland. This Short Film is fan made and is neither endorsed nor affiliated with Lucasfilm or Disney. All names and references are copyright and trademark of their respective owners. “Stormtroopers” is a non-profit fan film made for fans, by fans. Web – http://www.RogueStormtroopers.com Email – troopers@corkracing.ie
The Time Warriors and Beyond 