The Dancers At the End of Time: Synopses

Orion/Millennium 1993, Art: Mark Reeve

An Alien Heat

• Prologue: In the last cycle of Earth (and possibly the universe), technology has enabled Mankind to become nearly omnipotent beings. However, this existence causes them to become so jaded to the experience of human struggle that they have come to enjoy life only for its entertainment value, without any interest in morality, ambition or philosophy. However, the arrival of a late 19th-century woman named Mrs. Amelia Underwood changes things for a curious man named Jherek Carnelian.

1. A Conversation with the Iron Orchid: Jherek Carnelian is a fan of historical artifacts, in particular those from the 19th century. He tries to explain the concept of “virtue” to his mother, the Iron Orchid.
2. A Soirée at the Duke of Queens’: At a party held by the Duke of Queens, Jherek speaks with Mongrove, a somber giant who revels in self-pity. He also runs into his friend the mysterious Lord Jagged, and together they criticize the Duke of Queens’ “bad taste” in architectural design.
3. A Visitor Who is Less than Entertaining: The Duke of Queens appears and presents an alien from the planet Pweeli named Yusharisp. Yusharisp warns that the “End of Time” has arrived and that everyone in the universe will soon die. The party-goers find this announcement boring, and the Duke’s rival, My Lady Charlotina, merely decides to add Yusharisp to her “menagerie” of visitors. When a woman in conservative late 19th-century attire appears and criticizes My Lady Charlotina for her brusque intentions, Jherek becomes intrigued by this apparent visitor from the past.
4. Carnelian Conceives a New Affectation: Lord Jagged informs Jherek that the female time traveler is a new “acquisition” in Mongrove’s menagerie. He encourages Jherek to fall in love with the woman, since such a drama could prove to be entertaining.
5. A Menagerie of Time and Space: Lord Jagged helps Jherek gain an audience with Mongrove (who has always held resentment towards Jherek for his light-hearted teasing). Mongrove eventually takes them on a tour through his menagerie, which winds up at Mrs. Amelia Underwood’s enclosure. A furious Amelia believes that she is in Hell, or at least a depraved foreign land. Mongrove declines Jherek’s offer to take her off his hands.
6. A Pleasing Meeting: The Iron Orchid Devises a Scheme: The Iron Orchid proposes that Jherek could visit My Lady Charlotina and steal Yusharisp from her. Then, he could trade the alien space prophet for Mongrove’s Mrs. Underwood.
7. To Steal a Space-Traveller: While Lord Jagged and the Iron Orchid keep My Lady Charlotina distracted, Jherek finds Yusharisp and disguises him as an “apeman”. On the way out, Jherek’s deception nearly fails, but he bluffs his way past his hosts and escapes in his locomotive-shaped airship.
8. A Promise from Mrs. Amelia Underwood: A Mystery: Jherek brings Mrs. Underwood back to his “ranch” and tries to initiate a courtship ritual. Eventually Mrs. Underwood begins to realize where and when she is, and what kind of person she is dealing with. After she manages to have Jherek fabricate a toilet, she resolves to install “civilized manners” in her naïve host. Later, Lord Jagged informs Jherek that My Lady Charlotina has declared vengeance on Jherek for stealing Yusharisp away from her.
9. Something of an Idyll: Something of a Tragedy: As the weeks pass, Mrs. Amelia Underwood gradually adjusts to her circumstances and has Jherek remake his home into an approximation of her home in Bromley in (circa 1896). Realizing Jherek to be harmless, she eventually develops a kind of affection for him. However, just as some form of romance begins to bloom, Mrs. Underwood vanishes from sight. Jherek realizes that My Lady Charlotina has wreaked her promised revenge at last.
10. The Granting of Her Heart’s Desire: When Jherek tells the Iron Orchid and the dark, Gothically-inclined Werther de Goethe about his distress, they are surprised at the earnestness in which he has embraced his “love venture”. He finally visits My Lady Charlotina who tells him that Brannart Morphail has sent Mrs. Amelia Underwood back to her own time. Jherek resolves to follow her to 1896.
11. The Quest for Bromley: Jherek uses Brannart’s time machine (the same device that Karl Glogauer had used in Behold The Man, apparently recovered by Morphail after Glogauer’s death) to reach Whitechapel (circa 1896), where he meets a somewhat unsavory character named “Snoozer” Vine. Snoozer takes “Jerry” to a disreputable lodge named Smith’s Kitchen.
12. The Curious Comings and Goings of Snoozer Vine: After Snoozer dresses Jherek in a “Lord’s” costume, they check into a high society hotel under false pretenses. During the night, Snoozer burglarizes the valuables in the hotel. The next morning during their departure, Jherek innocently reveals the true nature of Snoozer’s activities to the hotel staff. In the ensuing chaos they are forced to flee (especially after Snoozer kills a porter). Days later, the police raid Smith’s Kitchen. Snoozer is killed and Jherek is arrested.
13. The Road to the Gallows: Old Friends in New Guises: Jherek is visited in prison by Mrs. Amelia Underwood, who tries to attempt to convince the court that Jherek is insane and misguided (but innocent). Jherek is surprised to see Lord Jagged (“Jagger” in this time period) serving as the judge in his case (although Jagged refuses to acknowledge any familiarity). Later, Jherek receives a note from Mrs. Amelia Underwood professing her love for him. Eventually, Jherek ruins his own defense by claiming that he is from the future and is hanged.
14. A Further Conversation with the Iron Orchid: Jherek comes back to consciousness back in Brannart Morphail’s lab, having been pulled back to his native time by the Morphail Effect (which states that time itself prohibits time travellers from remaining too long in the past, in order to guard against paradox events). Lord Jagged eventually visits Jherek at his newly-created “England 1896” ranch compound and admits to his hand in the entire affair, although his greater motives remain unclear. Jherek reunites with the Iron Orchid and tells her that “virtue” might have something to do with “corruption”.

Hart Davis 1975

The Hollow Lands

1. In Which Jherek Carnelian Continues to be In Love: While awaiting the hopeful return of Mrs. Underwood to the End of Time (through the Morphail Effect, a theory which states that time travellers can never remain in the past for very long), Jherek accompanies his mother (the Iron Orchid) to the “rotted city” of Shanalorm, an ancient urban center of technology, and the place where the Iron Orchid had originally conceived Jherek (in the “Dawn Age” biological manner).
2. Playing at Ships: Jherek and the Iron Orchid visit the Duke of Queens at his newest creation (“New York 1930”). Together they then attend My Lady Charlotina’s “regatta”, where many oddly-recreated ships from history have been gathered in an anachronistic sea battle.
3. A Petitioner at the Court of Time: After all of the ships have destroyed themselves, Jherek tries to ask Brannart Morphail about time travel, but the time scientist is still annoyed at Jherek for having lost Brannart’s globe-shaped time machine back in 1896.
4. To the Warm Snow Peaks: While relaxing on a snowy peak, Jherek and his companions run into the Duke of Queens, who invites them to join him on his hunt for some aliens whose landing approach he had sighted earlier.
5. On the Hunt: During the search, the Duke of Queens’ ornithopter crashes. Unharmed, the group continue on into a strangely darkening forest in pursuit of the Duke’s prey.
6. The Brigand-Musicians: The party finally come across the crashed space ship. Its passengers are the Lat, short, one-eyed, hairy “pirate-like” creatures, who play strangely beautiful music. However, they also seem inclined to take the humans as their prisoners.
7. A Conflict of Illusions: The Duke of Queens uses an illusion (“deceptor”) gun to conjure a giant lizard. As Captain Mubbers and his Lat shipmates attack the illusion, the Jherek and his friends escape into the wood. Jherek falls into a deep hole in the ground and is soon greeted by a small girl, who welcomes him to “Wonderland”.
8. The Children of the Pit: Jherek realizes that he has stumbled across a forgotten underground children’s refuge, created thousands of years ago in order to defy a “Producer’s” children’s purge. This time-looped enclave of never-aging children is maintained by a robot named Nurse and her mechanical toy soldiers. The slightly addled robot Nurse mistakes Jherek as one of her charges and forces him to remain in her nursery.
9. Nurse’s Sense of Duty: Several days pass until the alien Lat eventually intrude upon the enclave and try to take Jherek prisoner again. However, Nurse appears and, invulnerable to the Lat’s weapons, gives the aliens all a spanking. Nurse eventually realizes that Jherek is speaking the truth about the surface world (that the Producers have died out long ago), and that she should release the children under her care to society. Jherek also convinces her to send him back to 1896 with her time manipulation technology.
10. On the Bromley Road Again: A cylindrical device transports Jherek back to 19th-century London. Jherek eventually stumbles upon the Café Royal where he is glimpses Lord Jagged inside. Jagged disappears before Jherek can greet him, but an editor named Frank Harris introduces Jherek to H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw. Jherek joins Wells when the writer mentions that he is heading to Bromley (Mrs. Underwood’s hometown).
11. A Conversation on Time Machines and Other Topics: On the train, Jherek and Wells discuss time travel (Wells assumes Jherek has read his book The Time Machine, and has developed a very active imagination). When Jherek appears at Mrs. Underwood’s house, Amelia faints, believing Jherek to have died from his earlier hanging.
12. The Awful Dilemma of Mrs. Amelia Underwood: After Mrs. Underwood recovers herself, she tells Jherek that, despite her last note to him, she does not want to return with him to the future - she is content in her life in Bromley with her husband. Mr. Harold Underwood soon returns home and is revealed to be a bitterly conservative religious adherent. Jherek eventually says something bizarre and Mr. Underwood is convinced that Jherek is a madman.
13. Strange Events in Bromley One Night In the Summer of 1896: When Amelia tells Harold the truth about Jherek, he accuses her of being unfaithful and asks her to leave. Meanwhile, spooked by Jherek’s deceptor gun, the maid summonses the police. Jherek and Mrs. Underwood eventually find a horse and escape from the pursuing constables.
14. A Scarcity of Time Machines: Jherek seeks a contemporary time machine (or bicycle) with which they can escape back to the future, but naturally none are found to be “real”. They eventually reach Surrey, where Mrs. Underwood has a brief moment of weakness. However, she soon regains her sense of resolve and bravely confronts the problems at hand.
15. Entrained for the Metropolis: They soon board a train heading towards Charing Cross in order to get back to London, but are spotted by the police at the station. After a quick escape by bicycle, they eventually make it back to the Café Royal, where they run into the editor, Mr. Harris, who has decided to get “their story” for his paper (The Saturday Review).
16. The Mysterious Mr. Jackson: Harris leaves them in his Bloomsbury apartment, apparently a room reserved for illicit romantic activities of some sort. Mr. Jackson (who is apparently Lord Jagged in disguise) arrives and tries to interview them for Harris’ paper. Mrs. Underwood realizes that Harris and Jackson take them to be political activists trying to spread a sociological “Utopia” fantasy (such as the kind written by Wells, Edward Bellamy, etc). When Inspector Springer and his men arrive at the Bloomsbury rooms, Jherek is advised by Jackson to use his deceptor gun, which summonses immaterial female Cannibal Empire warriors. In the confusion, Jherek and Amelia escape from both Springer and Jackson.
17. A Particularly Memorable Night at the Café Royal: The pair return to the Café Royal where they find Harris again. Soon Captain Mubbers and his Lat crew appear, as well as Inspector Springer, Mr. Underwood, Lord Jagged, the Iron Orchid, the Duke of Queens, Bishop Castle and My Lady Charlotina (the End of Time humans and the Lat apparently having arrived through Nurse’s still-active time chamber). Brannart Morphail also appears briefly (in his own portable time machine) to warn of a disturbance in the “megaflow”. Eventually everyone is taken off to prison.
18. To the Time Machine, At Last!: Munroe, a friend of Lord Jagged’s (as “Lord Jagger”) arrives and has everyone released except for the Lats. Mr. Underwood rejects any further relationship with Amelia. The Iron Orchid, the Duke of Queens, Bishop Castle and My Lady Charlotina suddenly vanish (pulled back to their own time by the Morphail Effect). Jagged hurries Jherek and Amelia to the repaired Glogauer time machine, and admits that he has been trying to save the inhabitants of the End of Time through a secret plan (he had brought Amelia to the End of Time in his own secret time machine). However, during Jherek and Amelia’s journey back to the future, something goes terribly wrong en route.
19. In Which Jherek Carnelian and Mrs. Amelia Underwood Debate Certain Moral Problems: Jherek and Amelia emerge from the now-shattered time machine in what appears to be the prehistoric period. Jherek theorizes that, if time is cyclic, they may have gone beyond the End of Time to the beginning of a “new cycle”. Amelia resolves herself to survive in this new situation, and soon warms to Jherek’s overtures, despite the fact that she is technically still “Mrs. Underwood”.

Vortex #3, #4 (Mar, April 1977), Art: James Cawthorn

The End of All Songs

1. In Which Jherek Carnelian and Mrs. Amelia Underwood Commune, to Some Degree, with Nature: Stranded on a beach in a prehistoric time period, Jherek and Amelia try to start a fire and find some edible food. A “Time Traveller” (apparently the one described in H.G. Wells’ book The Time Machine) briefly stops by and offers them a basket of provisions before moving on in his one-seater.
2. In Which Inspector Springer Tastes the Delights of the Simple Life: Amelia fascinates Jherek with some poetry by “Ernest Wheldrake”. Later, during an increasingly romantic stroll, they come across Inspector Springer, who believes himself to be in either Heaven or Hell. The Lats also soon appear from the inland forest.
3. A Lower Devonian Tea: Despite the Lats’ unpleasant outbursts, Jherek and Amelia share their basket of food with the other arrivals. During a “tea break” they discuss their survival options.
4. A Fresh Quest – On the Trail of the Hamper: During the night, the Lat steal the basket of supplies and run off. Amelia promptly initiates a pursuit (despite the complaints of the wheezing Inspector Springer) and they finally catch up to them on the shore of a creek just as the Lat begin heading out on a raft. However, giant scorpions and sharks attack the Lat’s makeshift craft and destroy it.
5. At the Time Centre: Suddenly a powered motorboat appears, piloted by Mrs. Una Persson and Captain Oswald Bastable (members of the Guild of Temporal Adventurers, some time after the events of The Steel Tsar). Una and Bastable bring all of the displaced time travellers back to the Guild’s Time Centre, a somewhat rubbery mobile time compound.
6. Discussions and Decisions: Mrs. Persson describes some theories concerning the Conjunction of the Million Spheres. Bastable consults with “Sergeant Glogauer”, who also refers to another GTA operative named “Faustaff” (from The Wrecks of Time). Mrs. Persson promises to return Amelia and Jherek to the End of Time in the next morning. Jherek becomes troubled when Mrs. Underwood and her handsome near-contemporary, Captain Bastable, seem to be getting along a little too well.
7. En Route for the End of Time: After some farewells to the Guild members, Jherek and Amelia depart the prehistoric past in a small time capsule. They eventually arrive at the End of Time in the same forest where Jherek had first met the Lat.
8. All Travellers Returned: A Celebration: Back at Jherek’s ranch, Amelia seems almost disappointed to see such a faithful reproduction of her own native time. The Iron Orchid later appears and invites them both to a party at the Duke of Queens’ to honor Lord Mongrove’s return from a space journey with Yusharisp.
9. The Past is Honoured: The Future Reaffirmed: The next day Jherek and Amelia (now beginning to relish her presence at the End of Time) arrive at the Duke of Queens’ “Royal Scotland Yard” fabrication and merrily greet their old friends.
10. In Which the Iron Orchid is Not Quite Herself: While Amelia converses with some of the Dancers, Jherek runs into the cynical 27th-century time traveler Li Pao, who playfully suggests that Jherek’s recent dalliances with “true emotions” may lead to the downfall of his entire society (which is based on “airs”). The Iron Orchid later greets Jherek (several times, as she has divided herself into several physical bodies) and appears to be jealous of Jherek and Amelia’s apparently fruitful romance.
11. A Few Quiet Moments in the Menagerie: The Duke of Queens shows Jherek and Amelia the latest acquisitions to his menagerie: more members of Yusharisp’s race, who have recently arrived on Earth in search of their comrade.
12. In Which Lord Mongrove Reminds Us of Inevitable Doom: Mongrove and Yusharisp take the party’s center stage and announce that that the cities of the End of Time are sucking out the energy from the rest universe, thereby hastening its deterioration and eventual extinction. Again, the denizens of the End of Time generally find their pronouncements a bit boring.
13. The Honour of an Underwood: Jherek learns that the Iron Orchid has taken a mysterious trip into the past with the aid of one of Brannart’s time machines. After a few weeks of growing familiarity (in a fairy-tale castle fabricated by Amelia herself), Jherek and Amelia’s idyll is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Inspector Springer, his fellow constables, and Mr. Harold Underwood (all brought to the End of Time by the conscripted Time Traveller on his new passenger time machine).
14. Various Alarums, A Good Deal of Confusion, A Hasty Excursion: During Springer’s arrest proceedings, the top of Amelia’s fairy-castle is destroyed. Bishop Castle arrives and states that the Lat have returned and begun a reign of destruction on the End of Time. Jherek takes Mr. and Mrs. Underwood away in his flying locomotive.
15. In Which Jherek Carnelian and Mrs. Underwood Find Sanctuary of Sorts, and Mr. Underwood Makes a New Friend: Jherek takes them to one of the ancient Rotted Cities (Shanalorm), where a force field prevents the Lat’s weapons from reaching them. While Mr. Underwood is involved in a philosophical discussion with one of the Rotted Cities’ memory banks, Jherek begins to formally propose marriage to Amelia. However, Captain Mubbers and the Lats suddenly interrupt the pair.
16. The Skull Beneath the Paint: Quickly arriving after the Lats is the Duke of Queens, bringing with him Inspector Springer and his men. The Duke explains that Yusharisp and the Pweeli have defeated the Lats and taken over. The light becomes strange and the Rotted City starts to crumble due to some unknown energy flux. Only a dead landscape can be seen outside the city borders. Nonetheless, Jherek is ecstatic when Amelia admits to Harold that she loves Jherek.
17. Some Confusion Concerning the Exact Nature of the Catastrophe: Mongrove and the Pweeli arrive and propose that a few survivors may try to live through the universal dissipation in a space ark of some sort. Jherek however, is more interested in sharing the End in a private moment with Amelia. They finally they share a long-awaited kiss.
18. In Which Truths Are Revealed and Certain Relationships Are Defined: The Time Traveller arrives in the city, soon followed by the appearance of a black time sphere carrying Una Persson and Captain Bastable. Amelia asks Mrs. Persson to try and save the survivors of the crumbling planet but Una seems to be unconcerned.
19. In Which Differences of Opinion Are Expressed and Relationships Further Defined: Jherek and Amelia sight a last bit of rural “paradise” (generated by Shanalorm’s fading energies) and see that a picnic awaits them. Unfortunately, the Lat and Springer’s constables soon arrive to disturb their repast. Lord Jagged and the Iron Orchid suddenly materialize out of thin air. They explain that they have mastered the skill of travelling through time without mechanical aid. Lord Jagged then reveals that he is Jherek’s father.
20. In Which Lord Jagged of Canaria Exhibits a Frankness Not Previously Displayed: Jagged explains that he is originally from the 21st-century and that his unusual genes somehow allow him to defy the Morphail Effect (thus explaining his long sojourns in the past). Some time ago, he had realized that the dissipation of the universe was approaching. In order to counter this, he has been working to engineer a romance between his son (Jherek, who shares his Morphail Effect-defiant genes) and Amelia so that they could start a new race in the prehistoric past, thereby preserving the culture of the End of Time. However, now he has a new plan.
21. A Question of Attitudes: Lord Jagged explains that he and Nurse have made modifications to the cities so that power has been conserved for a last bit of technological fabrication. After he uses his power rings to create a new sun and sets the Earth in rotation about it, he explains that he intends to put the End of Time into a repeating 7-day time cycle (such as the one Nurse had overseen in the underground refuge).
22. Inventions and Resurrections: In the ensuing days, the Dancers recreate and repopulate the denuded Earth with new creations and resurrect their old friends (killed in the brief Apocalypse). Amelia however feels a bit “aimless”. One morning, she suddenly begins to fully embrace the outlandish aesthetics of the Dancers, which catches Jherek off guard. She then creates a nightmarish, Bosch-like cliff-and-sea scenario with her power rings.
23. Amelia Underwood Transformed: Amelia hosts a party and seems to have fully transformed herself into one of the socially-uninhibited members of the Dancers. Jherek is saddened by her sudden change. Werther flirts with Amelia and the others encourage a duel between her two “suitors”.
24. The Vision in the City: When Amelia seems to respond to Werther de Goethe’s flirtations, a troubled Jherek decides to simply leave the party. A somewhat distressed Amelia follows Jherek out and together they head for the Rotted City. There, they find that Mr. Underwood and Springer’s constables have become Christian fanatics after having seen a vision from “God” (who Amelia assumes must have been Jagged in disguise).
25. The Call to Duty: Back at their ranch home, Amelia confesses that she had been trying to alter her behavior and outlook to “fit in” with Jherek’s friends, but now realizes that it is impossible due to her “sense of duty”. Jherek is relieved to see the return of the “original” Amelia. Nonetheless Amelia is still despondent for not having any sense of purpose at the End of Time. The Time Traveller visits and reveals that Jagged has arranged for him to bring Harold and his new Christian followers back to 1896. That night, Amelia abruptly invites Jherek into a consummation of their love. The next morning, she attempts to join Harold on his journey back to 1896 in a self-sacrificial gesture to save him from his “delusions”. However, Harold rejects her offer and departs without her.
26. Wedding Bells at the End of Time: Resolved to her life at the End of Time, Amelia tries to add some elements of her old life from Bromley to the idyllic life at the End of Time. Later, they join another celebration held by the Duke of Queens. The practice of “marriage” has become a fad, inducing many old friends and enemies to marry each other in a large gathering.
27. Conversations and Conclusions: After a brief blackout interrupts the wedding festivities (caused by the forced “reboot” of Jagged’s final 7-day loop sequence), Lord Jagged appears and tells Amelia that she and Jherek can still escape this “time-recycled” world of stasis if they so desire. After a brief “literary duel” between Amelia and Jagged (citing Wheldrake and Swinburne, respectively), Jagged offers her a final time machine journey where they can move into the future and reach the Paleozoic Age of the “next cycle”. Amelia realizes that this is her last chance to regain a sense of purpose: the restart of the human race in a new universe (Jagged himself plans to explore the multiverse on his own). After Jagged promises to officially marry the couple (in his capacity as a civil servant of 1896), Jherek and Amelia enjoy their last night at the End of Time. Jherek hopes that someday Amelia can finally teach him what “guilt” is.

Harrow 1973, Art: Sue Greene

Grafton 1989, Art: Paul Damon

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