[Scenario Seed] The Yesterday Machine
Sept 14, 2021 14:03:53 GMT
boredeternal, greyhame, and 1 more like this
Post by Catsmate on Sept 14, 2021 14:03:53 GMT
Being another attempt to scavenge an old and obscure sci-fi film for useful gaming ideas. This one has Nazis!
The Yesterday Machine.
To quote Wikipedia (because I'm too lazy to summarise the film)
Now the film was released in 1966, a mere 21 years after the Second World War ended, so there will need to be significant changed made to use the plot in the modern day. However for the UNIT era it'd still fit in well. And for a group of time travelling PCs that's not really an issue.
You can find the film on YouTube, though the quality is mediocre. It opens with a memorable scene of baton and skirt twirling by majorette Margie De Mar, played by Linda Jenkins (about which a quick search finds damn-all).
The plot is pretty simple Margie and boyfriend Howie Ellison (a cheerleader) have a broken-down car, which he can't fix. They seek assistance at a farmhouse, only to encounter a pair of American Civil War era Confederate soldiers. The kids run, Howie is shot, collapses, is found by a passing motorist and taken to hospital. Margie disappears.
In the hospital a period Minié bullet is extracted from the injured boy and this intrigues local reporter Jim Crandal whose boss wants him to investigate the disappearance1 and miss his vacation.
Crandal is interested in the story that Ellison has told and realises that the missing girl is the sister of noted nightclub singer Sandy De Mar. The latter is told of her sister's disappearance by Detective Lieutenant Fred Partane (played by Tim Hold, the only cast member to have a wiki page).
The trio meet and discuss the case; the police have tried bloodhounds without success, and found a uniform hat that appears to be a century old. Crandal theorises about Civil War reenactors, while Partane tells the story of liberating a concentration camp in '45 with well-fed inmates, a destroyed electronic apparatus and a eighteen-year-old who seems to have been aged to death. Oh and the camp commandant, a brilliant physicist named Ernst Von Hauser, disappeared too.
The following day Crandal and Sandy De Mar investigate further (a scene that brought The Visitation to mind, I was waiting for Sandy to sprain an ankle) and disappear.
They experience some odd effect and head back to their car, but it's gone. Barbed wire fencing is gone, replaced by wood, the road is no longer paved, the trees are different and electricity/telephone poles are gone.
One panic attack later Crandal tells Sandy they've been displaced in time. Following the road they encounter a horseman, complete with tricorn hat. He rides off and the pair continue on, eventually stopping to rest. (It's actually 1789)
At which point they're teleported to Von Hauser's laboratory.
Politely Von Hauser introduces himself and hisgoons assistants, Manfred and Wolfe. There is some discussion of the irrelevence of time and Von Hauser urges calm. Sandy is reassured about her sister's safety. Oh and another character is introduced, Didiyama a Nubian slave from the court of Rameses II and who's now the professor's slave.
There is some plot exposition. Van Hauser considers Hitler a "great genius".
Margie is fine, other than being locked in a cell, where Sandy soon joins her.
Meanwhile Von Hauser is demonstrating the controls of his 'miniature atomic power plant' and time machine to Crandal. More exposition, complete with blackboard drawings, but a continued lack of bashing people with convenient lab equipment.
After some conversation a goon returns and Margie is carried off under his arm2.
The viewpoint returns to the laboratory where Margie is strapped to a chair while Van Hauser assures her that, while he's never performed the experiment that he's planning for her, it's perfectly safe. Or if anything goes wrong she'll never feel a thing.
Yep, she'd being sent to the future. She's somewhat unhappy about her role in this experiment.
Back in the cells Didiyama feeds the prisoner and Crandal attempts to persuade her to help them escape. Conveniently she speaks excellent, slightly broken, English with a French accent.
To summarise, a goon arrives, knocks Didiyama down, opens Sandu's cell and appears to be about to rape her. Then Didiyama (who is far and away the best character in the film) stabs him in the back, only for him to strangle her.
Sandy gets the keys, releases Crandal and the pair head to the lab to retrieve Margie.
Who is strapped to the chair, struggling and showing off her legs. She disappears into time as Crandal and Sandy burst in. Crandal at least having had the presence of mind to grab Goon #1's pistol uses it to shoot Goon #2.
Van Hauser retrieves Sandy, there's some shooting, and the three Americans escape, exiting via a trapdoor conveniently next to Lieutenant Partane and his troopers above them.
Partane and a detective head down to the lab, shoot Van Hauser and smash the machine. Which explodes with the appropriate sparks and smoke.
There's an interesting final scene where Partane declares that the world is not ready for time machines, "Hydrogen bombs are enough for people to worry about".
Overall the film struggles to overcome 'mediocre', the acting is often turgid, the sets make classic Doctor Who seem well funded, and the voice dubbing is slightly 'off'.
Game use.
Suggestions? Ideas? Comments?
1. A cynical sort of person might think this has something to to with the disappearee being a nubile teenage girl in a short-skirted uniform. Perish the thought...
2. Is it just me, or did the camera spend a lot of time focused on her short skirt?
3. Not in the sixties.
The Yesterday Machine.
To quote Wikipedia (because I'm too lazy to summarise the film)
The Yesterday Machine is a regional American science fiction film written, produced, and directed by Russ Marker. It stars Tim Holt, James Britton, Ann Pellegrino, and Jack Herman. In the story, a newspaper reporter, a nightclub singer, and the singer's sister fall into the hands of a mad Nazi physicist who has developed a time travel machine with which he intends to snatch Adolf Hitler from the past, teleport him into the present, and forever bring the world under the brutal domination of the Third Reich.
- As mentioned in previous posts the return of the Nazis was a common theme in the 'spy-fi' genre of the sixties and seventies. Check out The Man/Girl from UNCLE, The (New) Avengers, The Tomorrow People, Freewheelers, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, et cetera.
You can find the film on YouTube, though the quality is mediocre. It opens with a memorable scene of baton and skirt twirling by majorette Margie De Mar, played by Linda Jenkins (about which a quick search finds damn-all).
The plot is pretty simple Margie and boyfriend Howie Ellison (a cheerleader) have a broken-down car, which he can't fix. They seek assistance at a farmhouse, only to encounter a pair of American Civil War era Confederate soldiers. The kids run, Howie is shot, collapses, is found by a passing motorist and taken to hospital. Margie disappears.
In the hospital a period Minié bullet is extracted from the injured boy and this intrigues local reporter Jim Crandal whose boss wants him to investigate the disappearance1 and miss his vacation.
Crandal is interested in the story that Ellison has told and realises that the missing girl is the sister of noted nightclub singer Sandy De Mar. The latter is told of her sister's disappearance by Detective Lieutenant Fred Partane (played by Tim Hold, the only cast member to have a wiki page).
The trio meet and discuss the case; the police have tried bloodhounds without success, and found a uniform hat that appears to be a century old. Crandal theorises about Civil War reenactors, while Partane tells the story of liberating a concentration camp in '45 with well-fed inmates, a destroyed electronic apparatus and a eighteen-year-old who seems to have been aged to death. Oh and the camp commandant, a brilliant physicist named Ernst Von Hauser, disappeared too.
- Which is a really lazy bit of exposition, IMO.
The following day Crandal and Sandy De Mar investigate further (a scene that brought The Visitation to mind, I was waiting for Sandy to sprain an ankle) and disappear.
They experience some odd effect and head back to their car, but it's gone. Barbed wire fencing is gone, replaced by wood, the road is no longer paved, the trees are different and electricity/telephone poles are gone.
- "Jim, I'm frightened". It seems Sandy is firmly in the 'Screamer' class of companion.
One panic attack later Crandal tells Sandy they've been displaced in time. Following the road they encounter a horseman, complete with tricorn hat. He rides off and the pair continue on, eventually stopping to rest. (It's actually 1789)
At which point they're teleported to Von Hauser's laboratory.
- "You are in no danger. At least not for the moment".
Politely Von Hauser introduces himself and his
There is some plot exposition. Van Hauser considers Hitler a "great genius".
- For some reason the reporter utterly fails to subdue the smaller, elderly, physicist who's temporarily without both his goons. Don't expect players to be as unwilling to act.
Margie is fine, other than being locked in a cell, where Sandy soon joins her.
Meanwhile Von Hauser is demonstrating the controls of his 'miniature atomic power plant' and time machine to Crandal. More exposition, complete with blackboard drawings, but a continued lack of bashing people with convenient lab equipment.
- But that would have eliminated the last quarter of the film.
After some conversation a goon returns and Margie is carried off under his arm2.
The viewpoint returns to the laboratory where Margie is strapped to a chair while Van Hauser assures her that, while he's never performed the experiment that he's planning for her, it's perfectly safe. Or if anything goes wrong she'll never feel a thing.
Yep, she'd being sent to the future. She's somewhat unhappy about her role in this experiment.
Back in the cells Didiyama feeds the prisoner and Crandal attempts to persuade her to help them escape. Conveniently she speaks excellent, slightly broken, English with a French accent.
To summarise, a goon arrives, knocks Didiyama down, opens Sandu's cell and appears to be about to rape her. Then Didiyama (who is far and away the best character in the film) stabs him in the back, only for him to strangle her.
Sandy gets the keys, releases Crandal and the pair head to the lab to retrieve Margie.
Who is strapped to the chair, struggling and showing off her legs. She disappears into time as Crandal and Sandy burst in. Crandal at least having had the presence of mind to grab Goon #1's pistol uses it to shoot Goon #2.
Van Hauser retrieves Sandy, there's some shooting, and the three Americans escape, exiting via a trapdoor conveniently next to Lieutenant Partane and his troopers above them.
Partane and a detective head down to the lab, shoot Van Hauser and smash the machine. Which explodes with the appropriate sparks and smoke.
There's an interesting final scene where Partane declares that the world is not ready for time machines, "Hydrogen bombs are enough for people to worry about".
Overall the film struggles to overcome 'mediocre', the acting is often turgid, the sets make classic Doctor Who seem well funded, and the voice dubbing is slightly 'off'.
Game use.
- Evil Nazis (are there any other kind3) with a time machine, who need to be stopped from enacting the Fourth Reich. Perfect.
- If UNIT is involved Van Hauser could have some more muscle. And the time machine really needs to be more difficult to operate, as it is the thing is too powerful.
- In fact it appears to be at least as capable as the Gallifreyan Time Scoop, so maybe it's not all his own work, but based on something that emerged from the Time Vortex and Van Hauser melded with human science?
- He could have acquired some items, or help, from the future.
- For example the Cybermen dumped into the Vortex after the Battle of Canary Wharf. Might he, and his goons, be cybernetically augmented?
- Or might he be under the influence of the Cybermen?
- For time travelling PCs the machine could have dragged the PCs craft to the site. And then dropped it into a different era, leaving them stranded.
- Given the disappearances and shooting they could be mixed up with police and in trouble rather quickly.
- In fact lots of stuff that was in the Vortex could have emerged. Ramón Salamander and Sky Gypsy come to mind.
- I think the roles of Marge and Didiyama could be better handled.
- Marge could have been transferred to the future and returned after several subjective years, in the mode of Ace's stint in Spaceforce, as a hardened soldier. Maybe she encountered the Dalek Invasion?
- Maybe a Dalek came back, or was brought back in a prior experiment, and is roaming the countryside?
- And Didiyama really deserves to survive, without her Crandal and Sandy would have stayed in their cells and been further fodder for Van Hauser's experiments.
Suggestions? Ideas? Comments?
1. A cynical sort of person might think this has something to to with the disappearee being a nubile teenage girl in a short-skirted uniform. Perish the thought...
2. Is it just me, or did the camera spend a lot of time focused on her short skirt?
3. Not in the sixties.
