Titan: An Alternate History?

[roidhun]

In the 1990s, when Doctor Who had disappeared from TV screens and the only sources of new stories were the original novels from Virgin Publishing and the comic strip in Doctor Who Magazine, one of the most memorable novels of them all was Blood Heat by Jim Mortimore. It was set in a parallel universe that the TARDIS crossed over into seemingly by accident, and more specifically on the Earth of that universe. In the alternate-history 1970s of said universe, the prehistoric reptilian-humanoid inhabitants of the Earth who humans have inaccurately dubbed the Silurians (they actually date back to a much earlier geological period) still awoke from the suspended animation they placed themselves into 65 million years ago, in order to escape the looming mass extinction event that was soon to claim the lives of the dinosaurs (and their relatives in the wider category of archosaurs). But in this universe, they killed the Doctor before he could thwart their plans to wipe out the human race via biological warfare. 20+ years later, the Earth has effectively been terraformed into a fairly good imitation of what it was like in the Cretaceous Period and a handful of still-surviving humans led by Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart are being methodically hunted to extinction. (An alternate outcome of the events of the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) story The Silurians from 1970.)

Obviously, this scenario draws at least some vague inspiration from the Terminator movie franchise.

If the same kind of nightmare scenario were being applied to an alternate-history version of Titan and the wider FF Universe, what do you think would make for the most chillingly memorable and reasonably plausible kind of "evil has won" world? And would you find it interesting to have a player character from the familiar version of Titan accidentally be shunted "sideways in time" into such a world and struggle desperately to stay alive long enough to find a way home?

Personally, I think the most chillingly hopeless scenario would have to be one where the resurrection of the Night Dragon was not successfully thwarted and now the monster and its Stalkers and the human cultists that worship it rule most of Titan, with the good/lawful dragons having been slain and devoured while the evil/chaotic dragons have become its cowed slaves. Most of the humanoid races (with the possible but by no means certain exception of Lizard Folk) are now nothing more than food. I have a picture in my head of the reanimated-undead (and therefore probably not very tasty) Zanbar Bone and Zagor, of all people, leading a desperate, hopeless humanoid resistance effort after all the prominent living sorcerers like Yaztromo and the Archmage of Mampang were all devoured. The likes of Razaak and Xakhaz would probably offer to serve the Night Dragon. The likes of Balthus Dire and Count Reiner Heydrich would probably die in futile resistance to it. Nutcases like Zeverin and Shanzikuul... who knows?

Whadda youse guys 'n' gals fink?

Edit:
Why am I suddenly talking like a refugee from a 1930s gangster movie?

Edit:
I've always tended to assume that, if a later book is not specifically stated to be set before or at the same time as an earlier one, it's logical to assume that it must be set after it. Therefore, on the basis that The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, City Of Thieves and Return To Firetop Mountain were all published before Night Dragon, while Port Of Peril seems to be set not long after City Of Thieves, I'd assume that Zanbar Bone and Zagor have both died once and been resurrected once before they end up becoming very unlikely resistance leaders in my scenario. You might want to take those kinds of chronological considerations into account when formulating nightmare scenarios of your own. Or you might not.

[Gabe Fandango]

Surely the most hopeless scenario has to be Globus successfully gaining control of the Aleph, and therefore all the multi-verses (not just Titan). And retain control of the Spectral Stalkers who can pursue victims across the universes. It'd take the remnents of all the multi-verses to stop him - Titan, Orb, Amarillia…maybe even get the sci-fi universes involved with the likes ot Silver Crusader and the Rogue Tracer getting drawn into the conflict by invading Stalkers to their worlds.

[kieran]

I suppose Gates of Death went down the apocalyptic route with Blacksand and Salamonis falling foul of a zombie plague. Probably would have been the end of Titan if Ulrakaah wasn't destroyed.

[vastariner]

I think the problem with Globus is he would need one hell of an army to control the Omniverse. Titan would be a mere footnote somewhere in space and time.

The Titan threats have to come from demon princes. They're the only ones with planet-devouring powers.

[CharlesX]

Nov 29, 2023 6:08:00 GMT roidhun said:

In the 1990s, when Doctor Who had disappeared from TV screens and the only sources of new stories were the original novels from Virgin Publishing and the comic strip in Doctor Who Magazine, one of the most memorable novels of them all was Blood Heat by Jim Mortimore. It was set in a parallel universe that the TARDIS crossed over into seemingly by accident, and more specifically on the Earth of that universe. In the alternate-history 1970s of said universe, the prehistoric reptilian-humanoid inhabitants of the Earth who humans have inaccurately dubbed the Silurians (they actually date back to a much earlier geological period) still awoke from the suspended animation they placed themselves into 65 million years ago, in order to escape the looming mass extinction event that was soon to claim the lives of the dinosaurs (and their relatives in the wider category of archosaurs). But in this universe, they killed the Doctor before he could thwart their plans to wipe out the human race via biological warfare. 20+ years later, the Earth has effectively been terraformed into a fairly good imitation of what it was like in the Cretaceous Period and a handful of still-surviving humans led by Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart are being methodically hunted to extinction. (An alternate outcome of the events of the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) story The Silurians from 1970.)

Being a Whovian I say what roidhun has written is 51% correct. Because there were attempts to get Doctor Who on audio in the '90s, but OTOH they were not terribly successful, I'll quote Wikipedia:

BBC Radio, meanwhile, attempted to get a new series of Doctor Who stories made for radio. Although more were planned, only two were ever completed: The Paradise of Death (1993) and The Ghosts of N-Space (1996), both written by Barry Letts and featuring Jon Pertwee, (in two of his final performances as the Third Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney.

I'll also add Dalek Attack was released around that time. This could well get moved by the moderator after developing, but I'll say Dalek Attack was an old-school platformer which some will enjoy and others will not. I never got into it, because it was repetitive and hard for me (as much because levels were similar and a game long as difficulty), I don't have an issue with the Doctor being violent but the game wasn't terribly sophisticated or addicting and always seemed like "nothing special" after I got past the first few levels and the thrill of being the Doctor facing robot foes. I believe some games before it from the 8-bit era were more 'meh' than that, where modern games from say Smith's era got generally good reviews, but the only big Doctor Who game I've only played is Dalek Attack.

   I'll just add I tend to agree with people who say not to judge things you haven't seen, but I looked up some youtube vid of the original 8-bit "Doctor Who And The Mines Of Terror" and it looked like it was very, very average for the time and hasn't aged well.

[roidhun]

I listened to The Ghosts Of N-Space on BBC Radio 2. I thought it was pretty atrocious. Total waste of the talents of fine actors like Pertwee, Sladen and Courtney.

And of course there was the one-off TV movie that was co-financed by a Canadian broadcaster in 1996, which had the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) dying and regenerating into the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann). Again, good actors, bad script.

[evilwizard]

I like like to pretend the more recent books that ignore established history / lore / canon / fluff / background and / or are just badly written like Port of Peril, Gates of Death, Blood of the Zombies, Assassins of Allansia, etc exist in a parallel universe in every way. Allows others to enjoy them and tie themselves in knots trying to fit in the woeful inconsistencies with what came before, while I blissfully ignore their existence.

[CharlesX]

Nov 29, 2023 18:24:40 GMT evilwizard said:

I like like to pretend the more recent books that ignore established history / lore / canon / fluff / background and / or are just badly written like Port of Peril, Gates of Death, Blood of the Zombies, Assassins of Allansia, etc exist in a parallel universe in every way. Allows others to enjoy them and tie themselves in knots trying to fit in the woeful inconsistencies with what came before, while I blissfully ignore their existence.

That is not altogether unlike the way I feel about Star Trek Strange New Worlds where the Gorn are comic-book supervillains and Mr. Spock becomes heavily emotional. They don't give reasons either, I'm hardly Enterprise's biggest fan but when they encounter the Ferengi they bother to have the Ferengi say they will not tangle with the Federation for a while (meaning their account is obscure\disbelieved).

   Or in TOS where it is canon women cannot become Captains.

[roidhun]

To be fair to Blood Of The Zombies, it isn't making any claims to be set on Titan in the first place.

It might be a reasonable fit for the world of Appointment With F.E.A.R., given that it revolves around the nefarious schemes of a supervillain.

[roidhun]

It belatedly occurs to me that, in my own apocalyptic scenario, you might have terrified hordes of the peoples of Khul trying to escape the hunger of the Night Dragon by fleeing through the Portal of Evil into the other-dimensional Prehistoric Lost World on the other side. Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire!

[CharlesX]

Nov 30, 2023 16:18:15 GMT roidhun said:

It belatedly occurs to me that, in my own apocalyptic scenario, you might have terrified hordes of the peoples of Khul trying to escape the hunger of the Night Dragon by fleeing through the Portal of Evil into the other-dimensional Prehistoric Lost World on the other side. Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire!

This would be like a realistic 'Lost In Space'. Astronauts in a spacecraft fall through a wormhole and are transported to somewhere else very far away in the galaxy. Whatever planet they come to is not one with breathable air, but in actuality is somewhere like Neptune or Uranus. Because pot luck doesn't tend to work the other way.

[evilwizard]

Nov 29, 2023 18:48:59 GMT roidhun said:

To be fair to Blood Of The Zombies, it isn't making any claims to be set on Titan in the first place.

It might be a reasonable fit for the world of Appointment With F.E.A.R., given that it revolves around the nefarious schemes of a supervillain.

I never claimed that it did. Regardless of where it is supposed to be based, it is so badly written that its mere existence is a massive, pungent, and permanent skid mark on the hitherto pure and unblemished cream coloured 1000 count Egyptian Cotton sheets that represent the previous 29 years of FF...

Pretending it doesn't exist makes life much more pleasant, especially as Ian should have known better than to think that tripe was in any way shape or form worthy of being written, let alone being the 30th anniversary celebration of the series that made him his millions...

[roidhun]

Got to admit that the thought of not even having a Skill or Luck score had me feeling tempted to start yelling "Heretic! Heretic!" too.

Amy is kind of cute, though.

[CharlesX]

Dec 1, 2023 1:08:39 GMT evilwizard said:

Nov 29, 2023 18:48:59 GMT roidhun said:

To be fair to Blood Of The Zombies, it isn't making any claims to be set on Titan in the first place.

It might be a reasonable fit for the world of Appointment With F.E.A.R., given that it revolves around the nefarious schemes of a supervillain.

I never claimed that it did. Regardless of where it is supposed to be based, it is so badly written that its mere existence is a massive, pungent, and permanent skid mark on the hitherto pure and unblemished cream coloured 1000 count Egyptian Cotton sheets that represent the previous 29 years of FF...

Pretending it doesn't exist makes life much more pleasant, especially as Ian should have known better than to think that tripe was in any way shape or form worthy of being written, let alone being the 30th anniversary celebration of the series that made him his millions...

I haven't read Blood Of The Zombies but my understanding is it has a deeply mediocre narrative\plot\story with good enough illustrations, and had the difficulty been vaguely balanced instead of beyond ridiculous Blood Of The Zombies might have been acceptable. Bit like the bad reviews of Eye Of The Dragon (and possibly Port Of The Peril) which don't bother to point out if their opinion would be affected if technical errors and mess had been cleaned up - I know I would have a positive opinion of Port Of Peril if it weren't for those technical errors.