Tuesday 12 June 2018

Time Travelers' Bases

First Manson Everard, then Wanda Tamberly, is trained at the Time Patrol Academy in the Oligocene period. We see Everard at the Patrol's lodge in the Pleistocene Pyrenees twice. The Patrol has a ranch in North America in 15, 926 B.C. and a secret vault under Hammurabi's Babylon in 1765 B.C. There is a Patrol office in London in 1000 A.D. In 209 B.C., there are stations in several cities. See here. In Harfleur, France, in 1307, timecycles arrive and depart in a locked dockside shed. In 1890-1910, there are milieu headquarters in London, Moscow and Peiping. In the twentieth century, the Patrol has a warehouse in New York and a bookshop in San Francisco. In the late twentieth century, an export-import business fronts the Amsterdam office of the Patrol.

In The Dancer From Atlantis, a futurian expedition has a building with airy, iridescent arches and a terrace above forest and water. See Chapter Twenty.

In There Will Be Time, we are told only that the main base of Havig's group is in the middle Pleistocene, on a wooded hill above a might river that shines like bronze in the sunlight. We want to read a chapter about what the group does when they are in the base.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Even if it was just a front for the Patrol, I would be interested in that bookshop in San Francisco.

Yes, we should have seen more of Havig's Pleistocene base. Poul Anderson was a master at writing "condensed" stories packing a surprising amount of ideas and information, but THERE WILL BE TIME could have been expanded a bit more.

Sean