The Time Warriors: The Moon Once More & Other Stories Checklist

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?

Phantasmagoria #22 on sale now

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!

Punisher Joins Daredevil Born Again

copyright marvel studios

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.

TW presents Stormtroopers 1 the original Fan Film

Presented by Owen Quinn

Photos copyright Owen Quinn

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

Carlos, the real star of The Winchesters

By Owen Quinn the author of The Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

copyright CW

As the first season of the Supernatural spin off, The Winchesters, comes to a succwssful close, there is one character that stands out above the rest.

Carlos Cervantez for me has become the best character in the show with their sassy attitude, killer hair. fashion sense and deep loyalty for those he cares about. Carlos is played by the effervescent multitalented JoJo Fleites.

Carlos has an explosive entrance in the pilot episode where all the others have walk on intros or handshakes.

When battling a demon, John nd Mary are saved by a camper van that rear ends said demon into unconsciousness. Carlos swaggers out talking non stop, encircling the demon with salt and gets John to eorocise the demon while revealing a favourite sandwich on the reverse og the menu the spell os written on. Hispanic Carlos is smart, sassy and has a new mission to get John dressed in appropriately fashionable clothes.

With his mass of long hir and sharp fashion sense, Carlos is totallyunlike any hunter we have met before but so muh more than a token caricature. Like the character of transgender Catalina in the Time Warrior story The Skull, Carlos is ahead of his time and a reminder people have always been people all through time.

Carlos was thrust into the hunter life when a ghoul murdered his entire family. Young Carlos once had a crush on Mary but snogged her former boyfriend. Carlos is a singer and a musician something that reflects Jojo’s real life talents. As a non binary character Carlos’ addition to the Supernatural universe is a refreshing and welcome one. Over the course of the episodes we discover Carlos is far more than a PC tick exercise but a carefully thought out character. It is highly likely Jojo had a lot of input into how Carlos should be portrayed.

The series is set in the era before the internet so together with fellow hunter, pacifist Lata, Carlos has to play detective in order to solve cases and bring down the Akrida. It is also Carlos that helps Lata admit to her darkest secret when both are trapped by a magical bracelet.

Carlos breaks boundaries on every level especially when we discover that they are in fact a veteran of the Vietnam War. Carlos and John enter a therapy group while on a case in a veteran‘s hospital. Carlos discovers that such therapy frpm Dr Z is helping him deal with his trauma but struggles to get John to admit to his. Visually you wouldn’t think of Carlos in those terms but his time at war and traumatic past totally affects his effervescent attitude to life and zest to live it to the full. As he tells John it’s how a hunters have worse endings than beginnings. This is something brought from the original series. So many times Sam and Dean tried to have a normal life to no avail and it was all their mother wanted for them before she was murdered by the yellow eyed demon.

Shades of that once normal life creep back when Carlos’ former band mate betrays yjrm to the Trickster Loki. This is the first crossover with the original series as Richard Speight Jr returns to the role.

In Supernatural he was the bane of Sam and Dean’s existence as the Trickster before it was revealed he was actually Archangel Gabriel hiding behind the guise of Loki to avoid other angels. He was killed by his brother Michael in an alternate world but in this prequel, Loki is alive and well. The gang are powerless against him and Carlos has to die to save them. He refuses to inflict the curse on anyone else. By choosing to sacrifice himself, Carlos breaks the curse which allows them to trap Loki and stop anyone else dying.

Carlos does nothing without a reason and when they are battling a nest of vampires hunting John down, Carlos does what is the stand out moment of the season. Lata dowses his luscious locks in holy water. As the vampires attack, Carlos swings his head, water showering the vamps with holy water long enough to gain the upper hand.

With such a deceptive look,  there is no doubt Carlos has no hesitation in killing anything that threatens people using anything and everything close to hand.

However that ruthlessness is offset when they fall for Anton. They have a first date but Carlos struggles with asking for a second one. Maybe this is because of the life of a hunter and the dangers it brings he mentioned to John earlier in the show. After all how a hunter’s life ends is worse than how they begin this life as we saw many times. But Carlos does ask Anton out again reinforcing you cannot let this hunter’s life destroy any moment of happiness that comes your way. But this is Carlos. They live life despite the horrors because after all the trauma Carlos grabs it all by the throat. The future is not written; all we have is now especially with the threat of the Akrida about to  invade our world destroying everything natural and supernatural alike.

We are about to reach the end of the first season of the Winchesters and an epic battle awaits. Whatever happens Carlos needs to stick around for a long tome to come.

It is characters like Carlos that need to be front and centre to continue breaking those barriers.

Fear the Walking Dead final season trailer released

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

It’s more change in the Walking Dead universe as the first spin off Fear the Walking Dead is coming to a close when it returns to our screens on May 15th.

Originally headed by actress Kim Dickens as Madison Clark for the first three seasons before being written out in season four to allow Walking Dead’s Lennie James to take over the lead role changing the show entirely. It was a controversial move as seasons two and three of Fear were outstanding television. Madison was written back in last year. The show has had some memorable characters and storylines like killer Ted played by Jon Glover and a nuclear strike cliffhanger. Saviour Dwight also crossed over to the Fear unverse where he became an ally to Morgan. He finally got his wish and was reunited with his missing love Sherry.

Victor Strand and Daniel Salazar have become firm favourtes as frenenemies. It didn’t get the run its parent show did but it stands proud in its final hours.