TimeDancer

TimeDancer

TimeDancer - A proposed spin-off of Gargoyles, and the title of the one who travels through time with the lost Phoenix Gate. This spin-off would have chronicled the adventures of Brooklyn with the Phoenix Gate.

Development

The idea was first conceived by Greg Weisman in 1995. [1] He's written that as the main series progressed, the characters Brooklyn, Broadway, and Lexington could not continue their lives as "The Three Musketeers", believing "that childhood friendships must evolve or die". [2] Brooklyn's abrupt transformation (from the Manhattan Clan's point of view) would not only perfectly visualize this key shift for the Trio, but also naturally demanded a separate spin-off to tell Brooklyn's forty-year odyssey. [3]

Brooklyn's popularity with fans was another big factor that convinced Greg to create a spin-off that the gargoyle could be the lead in. [4]

The premise was soon developed as a single episode and suggested to Eric Lewald during the production of The Goliath Chronicles. [5][6] Ultimately, they turned it down (the non-canonical episode "Runaways" was made instead). [7][8]

In short, it was too late for the concept to be made into a fully-fledged spin-off, no official pilot was made, and it was never seriously considered by any networks. [9][10] The proposed spin-off was later revealed to fans during the earliest days of Ask Greg. [11] In the time between the original series' end and the first wave of comics, details hinted by Greg Weisman included that Brooklyn would vanish in 1996 only to reappear five minutes later (from Broadway and Angela's perspective). [12][13] In addition to Katana, Gnash, and Fu-Dog returning with Brooklyn, Egwardo would have already hatched and be known as the gargoyle Tachi. [14] By 2001, such details ultimately changed as Weisman fine-tuned his timeline. [15]

The TimeDancer premise was finally introduced into canon in 2009 when Slave Labor Graphics published Gargoyles: Clan-Building, Volume Two, which featured the unreleased issues "The Gate", "Tyrants", and "Phoenix".

Following the conclusion of the Bad Guys: Redemption miniseries, Greg Weisman's tentative plan (before the Disney license with SLG ended) was to tell a six-issue TimeDancer story following six-issue arcs of Gargoyles: Dark Ages and Pendragon, respectively. [16]

Story

According to the concept, the Phoenix Gate was not lost forever when Goliath threw it away at the end of "Future Tense", but reappeared to Brooklyn less than a year later (as seen in "The Gate"). It proceeds to transport Brooklyn to various different points in time, depositing him in one and vanishing only to reappear a while later and whisk him away again; Brooklyn presumably attempts to seize the Gate and use it to return himself home, but never succeeds until the end. (In "The Gate", the Phoenix Gate was depicted as changing into the Phoenix, which becomes the means of shifting Brooklyn through time.)

The Phoenix Gate initially transports Brooklyn to Scotland in the year 997, where he meets Mary and Finella, still on the run from Constantine's forces, and protects them and the Grimorum Arcanorum until the Gate reappears (this story was covered in "The Gate", "Tyrants", and "Phoenix") and transports all three of them, and the Grimorum, to the United States in the late 1970s. There, the three of them eventually plot the alliance between Xanatos and Demona that led to Castle Wyvern being moved to the top of the Eyrie Building, with some help from Owen/Puck. [17][18][19] Afterwards, Brooklyn would have been taken away by the Gate for still further adventures.

Among other things, Brooklyn would meet the Xanadu Clan in China at some unspecified point in time, where he obtains the gargoyle beast Fu-Dog as a companion, visit the Earth in the year 2198 to assist Samson and his followers against the Space-Spawn, and come to feudal Japan where he would have met his mate Katana and fallen in love with her. [20][21][22] Katana also accompanies Brooklyn on his travels, and during their adventures their biological son Nashville is hatched and another egg is produced. Like Mary and Finella, others would also have temporarily journeyed with Brooklyn. [23]

Greg has also hinted at the possibilities of Brooklyn landing in the Mesozoic Era to encounter dinosaurs, visiting the court of Caesar Augustus in ancient Rome to witness the original Magus's casting the Spell of Humility, meeting himself at some point in time, clashing under as yet unknown conditions with the "enhanced Archmage", revisiting Wyvern Hill and meeting Douglas Bader (the historical RAF pilot whom Goliath and Griff had earlier encountered during the Battle of Britain in "M.I.A."). [24][25] Brooklyn might even have run-ins with Caliban and Queen Mab at unspecified points in time. [26][27] At last, Brooklyn, Katana, Nashville, Fu-Dog and the egg containing Tachi reappear at Castle Wyvern to join the clan once more in the present day - only forty seconds after Brooklyn had left. [28] The Phoenix Gate then disappears, to return to the original point in the time-stream where it had first appeared, to begin its time loop all over again (Brooklyn's return to New York City in 1997 with his new family appeared at the end of "Phoenix", but the Phoenix or the Gate's fate are as yet unrevealed in the comic). [29][30]