Post by Catsmate on Aug 8, 2023 15:14:49 GMT
Another odd idea following some semi-random film watching. In this case the film was an old (1978) CFF production called A Hitch In Time, starring one Patrick Troughton. A film so obscure it doesn't (yet) have a wiki page....
Professor Adam Wagstaff.
And that's it, basically. Two thirteen year old kids (Paul and Fiona) decide to help out the eccentric professor in his experiments to refine his unreliable time machine. Aided by the grandfather of one and hindered by an unpleasant teacher, and his ancestors, they hope around in various eras before returning to the 'present day' (1978) where Fiona and the rest of the school lacrosse team save the professor from the authorities.
It reminded me a bit of The Star Beast, without the cuddly alien, and in an earlier era without the benefits of a decade of Thatcherisation.
Fluff, but rather well done fluff (it was the CFF after all, the masters of using a small budget well).
Detailed summary, from the BFI website.
Some notes and ideas.
The time machine.
Wagstaff's machine is the classic 'projector' type (see this thread). Stand on platform and, with pushing of buttons and twiddling of dials, and you disappear into a coloured lightshow for a brief period before arriving at you destination. Wagstaff selected the castle as it had a long history and provided a useful base. Of course for much of that long history it was inhabited....
Recall is done from the projector, with a 'time belt' to signal an urgent need to return.
Of course there's nothing stopping the professor from later building a more refined, self-contained, time craft...... Knowing him it could be built into an arm-chair.
There is some ambiguity as to whether OKSA is the time machine or the voice controlled computer that runs the system.
Who is Wagstaff?
If I may be forgiven the pun. Is he a human? Inspired to meddle in temporal technology? Or a Scion of Gallifrey, perhaps fathered by the Second Doctor in the 1920s? Or the product of a Sinister Experiment using harvested Gallifreyan genetic material (which might tie nicely into a Tobias Vaughn Lives! campaign). Or is he something more exotic? Perhaps a time displaced and amnesiac Ramón Salamander driven by an obsession?
Or maybe he's just the Second Doctor up to something. Is he still hiding from the Time Lords after escaping from them after they suppress the War Lords? Or on some strange mission for the CIA?
Endless possibilities.
And just why is he so eager to involve two teenagers in his plans? Just what are his plans?
Comments? Suggestions? Ideas?
Professor Adam Wagstaff.
Inside an old castle, an eccentric professor is testing out a new time-machine, but it keeps going wrong. He asks two children to become his assistants and they get some curious and unexpected results.
It reminded me a bit of The Star Beast, without the cuddly alien, and in an earlier era without the benefits of a decade of Thatcherisation.
Fluff, but rather well done fluff (it was the CFF after all, the masters of using a small budget well).
Detailed summary, from the BFI website.
Late for school, Paul and Fiona take a short cut past an old castle and hear the shouts of someone in trouble. In the cellars, they rescue a man trapped underneath some strange electronic contraption. Introducing himself as Professor Wagstaff, he explains this is his time travel device, OSKA (Oscillating Shortwave Kinetic Amplifier). Invited to return later, the children head for school. Paul is late for 'Sniffy' Kemp's history class, earning a ban from Miss Campbell's school play of Robin Hood.
At lunchtime, Paul and Fiona agree to help test OSKA - Wagstaff gives them a recall belt that will return them to the present. The test appears unsuccessful, but returning to school that afternoon, they find it's morning again.
In Robin Hood costumes, Paul and Fiona plan a trip to 1190, but when OSKA blows a fuse they arrive in 1953, to meet an overbearing schoolboy version of Sniffy. A teacher intervenes and, finding Fiona's name is Hatton-Jones, takes her to meet her grandpa, now much younger and with no idea of who she is. Explanations are avoided when Wagstaff patches up OSKA and shoots them back further in time.
Unable to control OSKA, Wagstaff sends the children to various times, where they encounter assorted Sniffy ancestors - a duelling nobleman about to shoot a Hatton-Jones, a traitorous Cavalier, a caveman. They escape the present, avoiding a Stone Age bear.
Undeterred, Fiona tries a trip to 1635, but OSKA malfunctions, sending her to 1941, where she meets a young Miss Campbell and her grandfather in an air raid. An explosion sends Fiona hurtling around various eras - eventually she's captured by a Highwayman Kemp and imprisoned in the castle dungeon. Paul zaps back to find Fiona and they return safely.
Now ready for time-travel himself, Wagstaff dresses as a court jester, set for 1364. With Paul operating OSKA, Wagstaff travels to the court of a king who is less than amused by his act and orders the professor to be beheaded. Wagstaff's recall belt has stopped working as Sniffy has tracked Paul down and, suspecting him of running a bomb factory, delivered him to the police. Fiona's lacrosse team make a timely intervention by storming the castle; in the confusion Sniffy is 'reverted' to being a schoolboy. Unfortunately Paul, Fiona and the Professor fall into the machine and the children suddenly find themselves back at the very moment they first met Wagstaff.
At lunchtime, Paul and Fiona agree to help test OSKA - Wagstaff gives them a recall belt that will return them to the present. The test appears unsuccessful, but returning to school that afternoon, they find it's morning again.
In Robin Hood costumes, Paul and Fiona plan a trip to 1190, but when OSKA blows a fuse they arrive in 1953, to meet an overbearing schoolboy version of Sniffy. A teacher intervenes and, finding Fiona's name is Hatton-Jones, takes her to meet her grandpa, now much younger and with no idea of who she is. Explanations are avoided when Wagstaff patches up OSKA and shoots them back further in time.
Unable to control OSKA, Wagstaff sends the children to various times, where they encounter assorted Sniffy ancestors - a duelling nobleman about to shoot a Hatton-Jones, a traitorous Cavalier, a caveman. They escape the present, avoiding a Stone Age bear.
Undeterred, Fiona tries a trip to 1635, but OSKA malfunctions, sending her to 1941, where she meets a young Miss Campbell and her grandfather in an air raid. An explosion sends Fiona hurtling around various eras - eventually she's captured by a Highwayman Kemp and imprisoned in the castle dungeon. Paul zaps back to find Fiona and they return safely.
Now ready for time-travel himself, Wagstaff dresses as a court jester, set for 1364. With Paul operating OSKA, Wagstaff travels to the court of a king who is less than amused by his act and orders the professor to be beheaded. Wagstaff's recall belt has stopped working as Sniffy has tracked Paul down and, suspecting him of running a bomb factory, delivered him to the police. Fiona's lacrosse team make a timely intervention by storming the castle; in the confusion Sniffy is 'reverted' to being a schoolboy. Unfortunately Paul, Fiona and the Professor fall into the machine and the children suddenly find themselves back at the very moment they first met Wagstaff.
Some notes and ideas.
The time machine.
Wagstaff's machine is the classic 'projector' type (see this thread). Stand on platform and, with pushing of buttons and twiddling of dials, and you disappear into a coloured lightshow for a brief period before arriving at you destination. Wagstaff selected the castle as it had a long history and provided a useful base. Of course for much of that long history it was inhabited....
Recall is done from the projector, with a 'time belt' to signal an urgent need to return.
Of course there's nothing stopping the professor from later building a more refined, self-contained, time craft...... Knowing him it could be built into an arm-chair.
There is some ambiguity as to whether OKSA is the time machine or the voice controlled computer that runs the system.
Who is Wagstaff?
If I may be forgiven the pun. Is he a human? Inspired to meddle in temporal technology? Or a Scion of Gallifrey, perhaps fathered by the Second Doctor in the 1920s? Or the product of a Sinister Experiment using harvested Gallifreyan genetic material (which might tie nicely into a Tobias Vaughn Lives! campaign). Or is he something more exotic? Perhaps a time displaced and amnesiac Ramón Salamander driven by an obsession?
Or maybe he's just the Second Doctor up to something. Is he still hiding from the Time Lords after escaping from them after they suppress the War Lords? Or on some strange mission for the CIA?
Endless possibilities.
And just why is he so eager to involve two teenagers in his plans? Just what are his plans?
Comments? Suggestions? Ideas?
