Morlocks

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Morlocks are a fictional species created by HG Wells for his 1895 novel The Time Machine , and they are the main antagonists . Since their creation by HG Wells, the Morlocks have appeared in numerous other works including sequels, films, television shows, and works by other authors, many of which have deviated from the original description.

When choosing the name “Morlocks”, Wells was possibly inspired by the Mauro Walachs (also known as Morlaken) - an ethnic group native to the Balkans - who attracted the attention of western and central European travelers and writers , including such famous people as Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , and who have been described and represented in various writings as the archetype of “ primitive peoples ”, “backwardness”, “barbarism” and the like.

Morlocks in the novel "The Time Machine"

The Morlocks are initially a mysterious presence in the book, insofar as the protagonist initially believes that the Eloi are the only descendants of humans . The Morlocks are later made the antagonists of history. They live in the English countryside from 802,701 AD in subterranean tunnel systems whose above-ground exits resemble ventilation shafts, where they wait for old machines whose construction they may or may not remember. In their tunnels , the noise of the machines in operation can be heard, so it is possible that the Morlocks have preserved the scientific culture of humanity. They also steal the protagonist's time machine, probably to study it. Nevertheless, they are primarily guided by instinct and necessity, or at least that is how it appears to the time traveler. After thousands of generations without sunlight , the Morlocks have dull gray-white skin, chinless faces, large gray-red eyes with the ability to reflect light, and flax-colored hair on their heads and backs. They are smaller than humans, probably about the size of the Eloi. Like the Eloi, they are significantly weaker than the average person - the time traveler injured or killed some of them with relative ease with his bare hands - but a large swarm of them can pose a serious threat to an individual, especially if they are unarmed and / or does not have a portable light source.

Their sensitivity to light usually prevents them from attacking during the day, which is why they hunt on new moon nights , the only nights they can come to the surface as they are used to the dark. The Morlocks and the Eloi have something of a symbiotic relationship. The Eloi are clothed and fed by the Morlocks; in return, the Morlocks eat the Eloi and on several occasions they also bite the protagonist. The time traveler perceives this and suspects that the Eloi-Morlock relationship developed out of a different social class that existed in his own time . The Morlocks represent the working class that has been banished underground so that the rich upper class can live in luxury on the surface. Over time, the balance of power changes - the hedonistic surface people no longer dominate the underground inhabitants, but become their cattle .

Sequels and precursors of the novel "The Time Machine"

"The Time Ships" (novel)

The Time Ships (1995) by English author Stephen Baxter is considered the legacy and sequel to HG Wells The Time Machine (1895) and was published on the occasion of the centenary of the original publication. In his broad narrative , the time traveler tries to return to the world of tomorrow, but instead finds that his actions have changed the future; a future in which the Eloi never manifested . Instead, the earth has become an almost barren desert , abandoned in favor of a 220 million kilometers wide, self-sustaining Dyson sphere around the sun that draws its energy directly from sunlight as it completely surrounds the star and receives all of its energy output where the Morlocks and several other offshoots of humanity now live.

Completely peaceful, moralistic, and highly intelligent (Nebogipfel, a Morlock, learns English within a few days and is soon able to speak it fluently - with some limitations due to the Morlocks' special vocal apparatus, which is different from that of humans), these new ones are similar Morlocks the monstrous cannibals of the first future only through their appearance and their habitation "underground". The sphere they inhabit is divided into two concentric shells, with the Morlocks living exclusively inside the almost bland exterior. Above them is the inner shell in which the sun shines openly, an earth-like utopia . In their many forms and at many technological levels (from somehow familiar, everyday, industrial worlds to worlds with anti-gravity devices ) they continue here in the same way as they did in the time of the time travelers (with war being the most obvious holdover).

The Morlock civilization comprises a multitude of thought and ideology- based national groups between which individuals move without conflict. All needs are met by the sphere itself, including procreation , in which the newborns are "extruded" straight from the ground. These peaceful, intelligent Morlocks also seem to have extraordinary resistance to disease and perhaps radiation , even when they are not in their home world, as Nebogipfel noted in the Paleocene (the time traveler got sick quickly there from unknown germs , while Nebogipfel, though injured and disabled, had no obvious impairments).

The only Morlock given a name is Nebogipfel, who stays with the time traveler throughout the novel. Nebogipfel's name comes from the main character of the first attempt at a time travel story from 1888, which was then called The Chronic Argonauts . The main character's name was Dr. Moses Nebogipfel . The name Moses was also used in The Time Ships , although it was given to the younger version of himself that the time traveler encounters on his journey.

"Morlock Night"

In KW Jeter's 1979 novel Morlock Night (German: The Night of the Morlocks ), the Morlocks stole the time machine and used it to invade Victorian London . These Morlocks, however, are far more terrifying than in The Time Machine - a clever, technological race with enough power to conquer the entire world. You will also receive support from certain traitorous nineteenth-century people , notably a dark wizard named "Merdenne". It is also revealed that the Morlocks, who lived in their homeland - the 8,028. Century - lives that Eloi no longer let roam free and now keep them in shelters.

In the novel, the Morlocks are divided into two types or castes . On the one hand the short, weak, stupid "Grunt Morlocks" that the time traveler allegedly met, on the other hand the "Officer Morlocks", who are taller and more intelligent, speak English and have a high rank within the Morlock invasion force. An example of the latter type is "Colonel Nalga", an antagonist mentioned later in the book.

These Morlocks are always described as wearing bluish glasses, which they presumably wear to protect their sensitive Morlock eyes, which have been adapted to dark surroundings.

Morlocks in other works

  • The Journey with the Time Machine (1946) by Egon Friedell -translated into Englishby Eddy C. Bertin andrepublishedunder the title The Return of the Time Machine . At the time of publication, this was the only sequel to The Time Machine at the time . It describes the further visits of the time traveler in the future and the entanglement of the time machine with the past.
  • The Man Who Loved Morlocks (1981) by David J. Lake . This novel tells of the time traveler's second journey. This time, he again encounters the Morlocks, but with a camera and a Colt - Revolver equipped This book is distinguished in that it represents the Morlocks in a sympathetic and entirely different light. On his second trip, the time traveler discovers that the Eloi and Morlocks of the future world are all dying of an illness that he brought with him on his first trip and against which they have no immunity . As he travels further into the future, he discovers a great and noble civilization whose beautiful inhabitants are eventually learned to be the descendants of the few surviving Morlocks. In addition, an ancient diary is discovered which tells the story of the time traveler's first journey from the point of view of the Morlocks and shows that the Morlocks, instead of being enemy hunters and farmers of the Eloi, were in fact the custodians of a kind of nature reserve belonging to theirs Protection and its preservation. The seemingly hostile actions of the Morlocks are explained by showing the story from a different angle.
  • Time-Machine Troopers (2011) by Hal Colebatch (1945-2019). In this story, the time traveler returns to the future about 18 years after his first visit, hoping to regenerate the Eloi, taking with him Sir Robert Baden-Powell , who will later found the Scouting Movement in England. You set out to teach confidence and self-defense to the Eloi , but are captured by the Morlocks. It turns out that the Eloi and Morlocks are both more complex than the time traveler had assumed, including that Weena is still alive and leading an Eloi resistance movement. The story is meant to be a response to Wells' pessimism as the time traveler and Baden-Powell seek to teach scouting and cricket to the future world . Winston Churchill and HG Wells themselves also appear as characters.

Fiction

Some authors have taken over the Morlocks and adapted them to their works, often completely independent of The Time Machine or were named as homage to works from HG Wells' universe.

  • The Morlocks appear in a story by Alan Moore with the title Allan and the Sundered Veil (German: Allan and the divided veil ), which was published in 1999/2000 as an appendix to the comic series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (German: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ) appeared. In the story, the time traveler takes some of the regular Alliance characters with him into his future world, where he made a base out of the Morlock Sphinx. The group is soon attacked by the Morlocks, who are fierce, ape-like creatures in this story. Physically, they are much more powerful than the creatures of Wells, although they resemble the Hunter-Morlocks from the 2002 movie The Time Machine .
  • Larry Niven included a version of the Morlocks in his Known Space book series. They appear as a subhuman alien race that lives in the caves in a region of the planet Wunderland, one of the colonies of humanity in the Alpha Centauri system. Many of these stories come from Hal Colebatch in the joint spin-off series, The Man-Kzin Wars (German: Die Kriege der Kzin ), especially in volumes X, XI and XII. They are also mentioned in stories in the same series by Matthew Joseph Harrington (* 1960).
  • In Joanna Russ ' short story The Second Inquisition , the time machine is mentioned several times, and the unnamed character referred to as "our guest" - and obviously a visitor from the future - claims to be a Morlock despite being physically the Morlocks of Wells does not resemble.
  • In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 , Morlocks are the elite warriors of the "Iron Hands" chapter of the Space Marines and appear in several Horus Heresy novels , where they act as bodyguards for their primarch "Ferrus Manus".

In essays and non-fiction books

In his essay In the Beginning ... was the Command Line (German: At the beginning .... was the command line ) on modern culture vis-à-vis the development of operating systems , Neal Stephenson shows similarities between the future in Wells' Roman The Time Machine and contemporary American culture. Stephenson claims:

“Contemporary culture is a two-tier system, like the Morlocks and the Eloi in HG Wells' The Time Machine, only it's turned upside down. In The Time Machine, the Eloi were an exhausted upper class, supported by many subterranean Morlocks who kept the technological wheels running. But in our world it is exactly the opposite. The Morlocks are in the minority and they are in charge because they understand how everything works. The much more numerous Eloi learn all they know because they are imbued with electronic media from birth, directed and controlled by book-reading Morlocks. So many ignorant people could become dangerous if steered in the wrong direction, and so we have developed a popular culture that is (a) almost incredibly contagious, and (b) neutering anyone who is infected by it unwilling to judge and unable to take a stand. "

- Neal Stephenson : In the Beginning was the Command Line, 1999

JRR Tolkien Morlocks three times mentioned in his 1939 essay, On Fairy-Stories , where the today as Fantasy designated genre is discussed. The first mention comes where Tolkien tries to define the genre. He suggests that the Morlocks (and Eloi) place the time machine more in the genre than the midgets in Gulliver's travels . He argues that the Lilliputians are only tiny people, while the Morlocks and Eloi are distinctly different from us and "live far away in an abyss of time so deep that they are enchanting." Another reference to the creatures of the novel The Time Machine can be found in the section of the essay, Recovery, Escape, Consolation . Here it is argued that the imagination offers a legitimate means of escape from the everyday world and the "moronic horror of the factories". Elsewhere in his essay, Tolkien warns against dividing fantasy readers into superficial categories using the Eloi and Morlocks as a dramatic illustration of the effects of the dismantling of the human race.

Movie and TV

Film "The Time Machine" (1960)

In the 1960 version of " The Time Machine " directed by George Pal , the Morlocks are finally defeated by the Eloi , who were motivated to fight by the time traveler (named George). They are shown to be quite prone to beatings, but this may be due to the fact that they have never encountered resistance before. One of the movie's differences, the Morlocks (the blue-skinned, monkey- and sloth- like Bigfoot inhumans with glowing eyes), is that the divergence was not caused by a varying caste system, but rather by being caused by a nuclear war that started on August 19, 1966 began and lasted hundreds of years to be forced underground.

The Morlocks in the film also have a system in place to summon the Eloi into their Sphinx with the help of sirens, which were supposedly originally used to warn of bombing attacks. Reacting to the sirens is innate to the Eloi, and the Eloi do it like cattle today. The Morlocks use whips to drive them.

Film "The Time Machine" (1978)

In the television film " The Time Machine (1978) " directed by Henning Schellerup , which was first broadcast on US television on November 5, 1978, the protagonist Dr. Neil Perry (played by John Beck ) and his time machine to the future to his company Mega Corporation, for which he is a " antimatter - bomb " has developed to report on their future destructive impact on humanity. In the future he witnessed the destruction of civilization, but also learns that nature has revived itself from the wasteland and some of the people who had previously sought protection underground, the Eloi , have returned to the surface. The race that stayed below the surface became the Morlocks, and when Perry arrives there, he watches the Morlocks begin to harvest the Eloi for their food. Here he also meets the Eloi girl Weena , played by Priscilla Barnes , who, in contrast to the other film adaptations, now has a brother named Ariel.

Weena leads Perry to a preserved technology museum, which also shows the bomb he developed for the Mega Corporation in the past, and in a video animation he can watch the damage caused by his bomb. Before Perry returns to his time, he and Ariel blow up three entrances to the Morlocks' caves using plastic explosives they found in the museum. When he travels back in time to tell his company about the dramatic effects of the bomb in the future, his superiors are disinterested. Perry travels into the future again to return to Weena and the Eloi, and discovers that her world is now rid of the Morlocks.

Film "The Time Machine (2002)"

In 2002 , HG Wells' great-grandson, Simon Wells, directed another film about The Time Machine . The Morlocks, like the Eloi, were changed in several important ways in this film. They have become physically stronger and faster, they are now very ape-like and often walk on all fours.

The film shows three of these breeds:

  • The Hunter Morlocks (German: Jäger-Morlocks) who hunt and catch the Eloi. They are muscular, gorilla-like hunters. They have a strong sense of smell that they use to track down the Eloi. Various actors portray Morlock's hunters: Richard Cetrone, Edward Conna, Chris Sayour, Jeremy Fitzgerald, Darrell Davis, Grady Holder, Bryan Friday, Clint Lilley, Mark Kubr, Jeff Podgurski, Dan McCann, Bryon Weiss and Steve Upton.
  • The Spy Morlocks (German: Spionage-Morlocks ), who shoot arrows at fleeing Elois with blowpipe arrows, mark them with a sharp substance and thus make them easier for hunters to find. They are slimmer and more agile than the Jäger-Morlocks, but much weaker. Various actors portray the espionage Morlock: Joey Anaya, Jacob Chambers, Doug Jones , Dorian Kingi and Kevin McTurk.
  • The Uber-Morlocks who telepathically command the first two races . They seem more human than the other two castes in the film. Instead of gray skin and patches of fur, the Uber-Morlocks (played by Jeremy Irons ) who appear in the film have long flowing white hair and skin, a general human physique, and clothing. Your brain is so big that it doesn't fit in your head, but rather pulls down your back and envelops your spine . You are telepathic and telekinetic , articulate yourself in English and eventually fight Alexander Hartdegen (the main character of this film).

When Alexander is brought to the Uber-Morlocks in an attempt to save the Eloi Mara, they declared that they were descended from humans when they sought refuge underground after an attempt to demolish a lunar colony on the moon brought some of their fragments to earth crash. They stayed underground for so long that they developed bodies with albinism and very sensitive eyes that could not stand sunlight for long. As a result of the past catastrophe and the resulting strain on resources , the Proto-Morlocks divided into several castes, two of which (the "hunters" and the "spies") could survive in daylight . They were inbred within each caste until the Morlock breed was made up of genetically fine-tuned sub-breeds designed for specific tasks.

The highlight of the film is the scene when Alexander kills Uber-Morlock by displacing him from the moving time machine and turning him to dust as a result of rapid aging. Shortly before his downfall, he turns to Alexander one last time and tells him the following words:

“We all have our time machines, don't we? The ones that bring us back are memories. Those who move us forward ... are dreams. "

- Over-Morlock :

The rest of the Morlocks are destroyed when Alexander causes his time machine to fail and explode in their tunnels.

"Time Machine: Rise of the Morlocks"

A television film of 2011 with the original name Morlocks , later renamed Time Machine: Rise of the Morlocks (German: Rise of the Morlocks ), produced for Syfy , with David Hewlett and Robert Picardo in the lead roles. The plot is based on a time machine that opens a portal to the future and allows the Morlocks to travel back to the present to wreak havoc and havoc. These Morlocks descend from a patient with terminal cancer whose father is using the military time travel project to seek technology as a cure in the future. One of the first Morlocks to escape through the portal into the present is captured and his DNA extracted; paradoxically, it is treatment with this DNA that causes the patient to mutate into the first Morlock.

"Mutant War"

Morlocks are briefly named by the protagonist in reference to the zombie-like mutated antagonists of the film.

Television productions

  • In the series Timelash , the fifth series of the 22nd season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who , which first aired on 9 and 16 March 1985 in two weekly parts on BBC1 , the sixth Doctor , played by Colin Baker , HG Wells into the future, where they encounter an underground reptile species called "Morlox" (a homophone of the "Morlocks"). The "Borad", an evil ruler, accidentally becomes half Morlox before this episode.
  • In the American television series Challenge of the Super Friends from 1978 with the title Conquerors of the Future (German: Eroberer der Zukunft ) "Barlocks" are shown, a variation of the Morlocks in a time when the super friends are long dead and outside of one doomed city that is the capital of the earth. The Barlocks have attacked them many times, but bright light chases them away. In addition, they are not very good at mastering their technology. When the Legion of Doom (German: Legion of perdition ), a group of villains arrived and strikes the Barlocks concludes Lex Luthor an alliance with their leader (voiced by Ted Cassidy ) and thinks a trick off to the the fall to take over the consecrated city. After that, the Legion of Doom uses them for their plans to conquer the galaxy, with Lex Luthor leading the Barlocks to conquer the ruling planet in Sector 13, while the Black Manta, also a villain led by the Barlocks, to conquer conquer ruling planets in the Outer Galaxy Region. When Superman , Green Lantern and Flash (Barry Allen), another fictional superhero of the time, arrive after appearing by chance in the distant future and finding a history book detailing the history of the earth, they defeat the Legion of Doom while Flash uses his super speed to bring the Barlocks back to their cave. The inhabitants of the Earth capital ensure that the planets that have conquered the Legion of Doom and the Barlocks are liberated.
  • In 2003, Peak Entertainment re-launched Monster in My Pocket with the former main villain "Warlock" as the hero. The new villain became Warlock's evil twin "Morlock". The series was passed on by Cartoon Network and Peak's rights to Monster in My Pocket were revoked on December 22, 2004. Given the series' limited circulation, it's difficult to determine if the connection was more than a nominal one.
  • In 2006, a new incarnation of Power Rangers entitled Power Rangers Mystic Force features Morlocks as enemies of the Mystic Force Rangers. Sources prior to the show's premiere described them as " zombie- like foot soldiers " and it has also been suggested that they live underground beneath the town of "Briarwood" - where the show takes place - and plan to rise and destroy everything . Meanwhile, however, it turned out that the Morlocks on the show are not just foot soldiers, but comprise the entire enemy group of the Power Rangers, which is led by "Octomus". The Morlocks on the show are completely different from those in The Time Machine , except that they still live underground and are villains. These Morlocks are not portrayed as a deviant species from humanity, but rather an ancient, evil legion that was sealed underground centuries ago. The Morlocks have finally broken the seal and are planning an invasion of Briarwood and later around the world. The Morlocks were the main villains in Power Rangers Mystic Force . Although they were referred to as the Morlocks in promotional material, this reference was never mentioned on the show, where they were commonly referred to as the Forces of Darkness .
  • In the The Big Bang Theory episode entitled The Nerdvana Annihilation (German title: "The Time Machine"), Leonard Hofstadter and his friends contributed to the purchase of an original time machine prop from the classic film Die Zeitmaschine (1960) . No one in the group was more enthusiastic about the purchase than Sheldon Cooper , who seems to believe he is the only one who can fully explore the possibilities of owning such a unique memorabilia. However, his point of view changed drastically after experiencing a series of episode-ending dreams, all based on the infamous cannibalistic Morlock art from the classic book by HG Wells. The first dream was that on April 28, 802,701 he was traveling into the future and was eaten alive by three Morlocks. When he wakes up, Leonard agrees to get rid of the time machine, but he hires "starving Morlocks" for it. When they eat Sheldon, he wakes up again and yells for Leonard to help him.
  • In the 2010 Futurama episode titled The Late Philip J. Fry (German: The Incredible Journey in a Crazy Time Machine ), Bender , Professor Farnsworth and Fry travel into the future and arrive in AD 5 million ; a race of enlightened, purple-skinned humanoids live on the surface of the earth, while "dumblocks" - wild, primitive creatures - live underground. The professor asks if these advanced people invented a backward traveling time machine. He is replied that they did not, although if they focused their mental efforts on the problem they should be able to come up with a solution within five years. The three promptly jump forward another five years only to discover that the small, intelligent creatures have been overrun and destroyed by the troglodytic dumblocks.

comics

Video games

  • In Bookworm Adventures 2 , the Morlocks who appear as enemies in the sixth book are called "Troglocks".

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, Chapter V, Morlocks, p. 80 ff, In: planetpdf.com (English)
  2. ↑ a b The BBC Production, The Time Machine, January 24, 1949, In: colemanzone.com
  3. ↑ a b c d H. G. Wells, Die Zeitmaschine (1895), In: Archive.org
  4. ↑ HG Wells, The Time Machine, Chapter V, Morlocks, pp. 87 ff, In: planetpdf.com (English)
  5. ^ Stephen Baxter, Zeitschiffe May 1995, In: buchrezicenter.filmbessprechungen.de
  6. ↑ a b c Nebogipfel, In: timemachine.fandom.com
  7. ↑ KW Jeter, The Night of the Morlocks , 2010, ISBN 3-937897-39-9 , In: editionphantasia.de
  8. ↑ Colonel Nalga in Morlock Night, In: timemachine.fandom.com
  9. ↑ The Return of the Time Machine, by Egon Fridell, In: web.archive.org (English)
  10. ↑ The Man who loved Morlocks, by David J. Lake, In: web.archive.org (English)
  11. ↑ Allan and the Sundered Veil, by Alan Moore, In: timemachine.fandom.com (English)
  12. ↑ League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 1, by Alan Moore, In: dc.fandom.com (English)
  13. ↑ Matthew Joseph Harrington, In: sf-encyclopedia.com (English)
  14. ↑ Morlocks - Lexicanum
  15. ↑ The Primarchs, VII. Ferrus Manus, In: librum-40k.de
  16. ↑ In the Beginning was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson, In: steve.parker.org (English)
  17. ↑ In the Beginning was the Command Line, by Neal Stephenson, p. 26, In: pdfs.semanticscholar.org (English)
  18. ↑ JRR Tolkien, Tree and Leaf , (German: Baum und Blatt ), ISBN 0-04-820015-8 , 2nd edition, Unwin Paperbacks, 1977, pp. 19, 48 and 64 (English)
  19. ↑ The Time Machine Project, by Don Coleman, In: colemanzone.com (English)
  20. ↑ a b Über-Morlock, In: villains.fandom.com (English)
  21. ↑ Mara, In: timemachine.fandom.com (English)
  22. ↑ Über-Morlock, In: timemachine.fandom.com (English)
  23. ↑ The Time Machine (2002), Jeremy Irons: Über-Morlock, In: imdb.com (English)
  24. ↑ Time Machine: Rise of the Morlocks, In: imdb.com (English)
  25. ↑ Time Machine: Rise of the Morlocks, In: moviepilot.de
  26. ↑ Timeslash, Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide, In: bbc.co.uk (English)
  27. ↑ Rachel Hyland: Classic Doctor Who: The Sixth Doctor's Essential Episodes. In: tor.com. October 18, 2013, accessed April 28, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Challenge of the Superfriends: Conquerers of the Future (Part 2), by Ben Kegg, In: jabootu.net (English)
  29. ↑ Challenge of the Super Friends, Genre: Animated Series, Release Dates: September 9, 1978 - September 15, 1979, Characters, In: voicechasers.com (English)
  30. ↑ Homer the Moe, In: imdb.com (English)
  31. ↑ a b Morlocks, In: powerrangers.fandom.com (English)
  32. ↑ The Late Philip J. Fry, In: theinfosphere.org (English)
  33. ↑ Dumblocks, In: theinfosphere.org (English)

Web links