Anonymous writes...

Why exactly is does Brooklyn name his son Nashville? Does he name him after the city or does he name him after something else that bears the name of the city?

Justin writes...

Hi Greg

Ok now am I too assume correctly that when the 78 ( 39 biologically) year old Brooklyn returns from his dances he is stronger than he was when he left right? I mean he had been fully grown by that time and plus the perils of the dance could cause for a greater need to thicken up.

So the big question,
Can the (39) year old Brooklyn hold his own or maybe even win in a fight against the (29) year old Goliath?

Thanks

Anonymous writes...

Why are Brooklyn's travels in time called dances?
Is something or someone controlling where he goes?
Could you tell us who or what it is?

Justin writes...

Ok forgive me if this is confusing but this is the only way I could figure out how to word this question. You have mentioned that a Time Dancing Brooklyn would be a character in 2198. Now, since Brooklyn come home eventually, wouldn't a ver old Brooklyn also be present? or at least Nashville and Tachi? What I am asking is during his Time Dancing wouldn't Brooklyn encounter older versions of himself, Katana, Nashville and Tachi? Seeing as how they do come home, thus are a part of the timestream from 1996 on?

Thanks again!

Jim R. writes...

I'm still a little baffled about Timedancing Brooklyn and the story behind him. You state that when Goliath threw the Phoenix gate into itself without a mind to guide it, it would be forever lost in the time stream. Then you went on to say that it lands in front of Brooklyn.
1. Why did you choose Brooklyn?
2. When does it land in front of him, in what time?
I was reading through the archived responses about this, and you say that he never lays a finger on the gate.
3. But how is it possible for him to travel forty years leaping in and out of random time shifts the gate creates? The gate is just a talisman, without a mind or the incantation it really can't go anywhere, which leads me to my next question.
4. If Brooklyn is susceptable to random time shifts, how long does he or can he stay, in one time?
5. Why couldn't he lay a finger on the gate? I mean surely he would eventually find out how the gate works in some time, grab it, speak the incantation, and boom! he's back home again in his own time exactly when he left. Brooklyn isn't that stupid, he surely would have had some pre-existing knowledge from Goliath about the dangers of the gate.

Please. Maybe you could explain this whole Timedancer mess in better detail or in a nutshell, or at least point me out someplace online I could go to read more about it in further detail.

Adam writes...

1. When he returns from Timedancing, is Brooklyn aware of the time and place of his own death?

2. If so, is he also aware that there is nothing he can do to change the circumstances of his demise?

Adam writes...

If I understand Timedancing correctly, it occurs at unpredictable intervals. The Phoenix Gate suddenly appears and whisks Brooklyn off to a new time period. So my question is: when Brooklyn does his final Timedance, the one that brings him back to just minutes after he originally left, how does he know that his Timedancing is over? Does he know that the Gate will not appear again, or does he expect to be Timedanced(?) away again at any moment?

If he knows that his journey has come to an end, is it because he has gained control of the Gate? If he does have control of the Gate, why did he choose to come back just a few minutes after he left? Didn't he have anyplacetime better to go after forty years of Timedancing? What does he do with the Gate once he gets back?

Justin writes...

Here we go again...
1) Will Goliath and Elisa ever have kids?
2) Will Brooklyn and Katana have kids in the 2008 rookery?
3) Will Lexington?

Thanks

Anonymous writes...

Were you inspired in someway by Quantum Leap while making Timedancer?

Bruno writes...

Hi Greg,

Thoughts about time travel:

There is a little controversy about time travel vs. free will. If the past is unchangeable -and also the future, for consequence- then there is _no_ free will?

On the contrary; The events in the past can't be changed, but they WERE and ARE done by us. That's easy to guilt the others or the timestream, but, quoting Rorschach, from Watchmen:

"That's not God who kill the children, nor the chance who shred they, nor the destine who feed the dogs with they. They're us. Only us". (I'm translating to english from a translation to the portuguese. :-)

Plus, on the contrary of the common sense, change the past is not use free will, but kill it: Demona betrayed Wyvern. If she came back and change this, she should be obstructing her OWN free will. And her responsability, to boot. And responsability is one of the series' themes.

This is a paradox, but, with time travel, what else did you want? The unchangeable past universe IS the free will universe. :-)

Oh, well, now back to my time travel questions:

1- Roughly, when was the Phoenix Gate "created"? Meaning when it droped in Avalon, starting the time loop.

2- If the Phoenix Gate is a "steam valve" and it exists among two time points (??? or before and 2198 or after), what was the steam valve before the Gate? And after?

Ps. I just wanted to say that I fully understood the time loops in Vows, Avalon II and M.I.A. and I loved then. Vows and Avalon were amazing and smart, and M.I.A. was just too fun: Goliath couldn't change the history, but he was so smart that he could trick it! Great work.

LSZ writes...

Would the Loch Ness Monsters ever be featured in Dark Ages or Timedancer?

(The Guppi) writes...

Did Brooklyn and Katana lug each of their kids' eggs around with them for the 10 years it took for them to hatch?

Camcuru writes...

Do you have any ideas as to what Katana, Nashville, and Tachi look like, if so will you tell me?

1)Is Tachi a girl? When I looked the name up in the encyclopedia on Jeb's page it said Tachi was a male.

Todd Jensen writes...

Your description of how important it is to control the Phoenix Gate (or else you wind up, to cite your example, at Burger King instead of Fort Knox) got me wondering just now: is this one reason why it takes Brooklyn forty years to get back home during "Timedancer"? That he didn't concentrate in the right manner on his desired destination until the final "dance"?

Ed writes...

'VOWS' - what an episode. So many twists, so much drama, and some brilliant comedy from the Xanatos family. The thing that always occurred to me when watching this is: who on earth in Shari Goodharz? She only wrote the one episode that I recall and yet this is one of my favourites, if not my favourite outright. And yet she never did anything else. I guess looking at your outline she had a lot of dialogue to work in but even so, it was pretty damn good.

Actually, it always seemed like quite an intense episode to put before a multi-part story. I didn't watch it in order properly until I knew the whole season ('CITY OF STONE' aired at the beginning of the season here in two back-to-back weekends: accompanied with some stunning preview adverts of Demona blasting the stone humans).

Just one reply:

You said…
"But the gate stays open long enough for him to go with. Did it ever occur to her to go somewhen else other than 994? I guess part of it could be chalked up to dim memory. It was over a thousand years ago. And Demona lived through that 1000 years. Even for a very significant event in her life, it must still be very hazy."

Apart from the shock factor of the castle still burning (in this episode) and Goliath in stone, I think this would have meant most to Demona. But another possible explanation is in your outline:
"But choosing requires incredible concentration. Otherwise, the chooser's emotional or mental whim of the moment may cause the gate to drop everyone off at Burger King instead of Fort Knox."

Seeing as how Demona claims to have a clear memory of Goliath's 'inspirational' presumably this is the thought that would have dragged her to 994.

I really like your explanation of the Gate's changing size as being due to its 'time valve' function. Was this something you ever planned to develop or at least mention out loud in the series? I guess we'd get some hints from what you've told us about 'TIMEDANCER' so far.

Aris Katsaris writes...

At what age do you feel that gargoyles learn to glide?

Will Tachi (aged six) know how to glide when she timedances into the present, or will it be something she'll learn during the course of the series?

John writes...

Hi Greg,
On my last question you repost: Define "love". Well, I know that Brooklyn didn´t really love Angela from our point of view. But from his point of view, he is in love, and so, I think, he would tell angela, that he is. So, will he ever?
CU, John

Aris Katsaris writes...

You've revealed to us (through chronological info) that the gargoyles' twenty-year cycle is "attuned to the earth" rather than something which is mostly internal (as I had earlier assumed).

How did this affect Katana during her timedances? Her and Brooklyn's two children are twenty years apart in age, as if the cycle had been internal for her, affected only by the time which passed for her, rather than affected by the "earth's cycles" and the different times she would journey to.
Is that simply a coincidence? Did she just happen in her travels to journey to two mating seasons, with a period of twenty years inbetween as subjectively perceived by the timedancers?

Faieq writes...

Is Brooklyn's timedance injury that severe that it can't be healed by the healing rays of the sun? Or is magic involved which prevents it from healing?

Vashkoda writes...

You mentioned that one Timedancer villain would be the Archmage, presumably due to his little side-trip with Goliath during their battle for possession of the Eye. If this actually makes it into a Timedancer episode, then presumably it will also feature Brooklyn. So...

1) Does Goliath meet Brooklyn in that/those episode(s), and therefore have foreknowledge of Brooklyn's Timedancing?

2) Does Goliath have any role in how the Gate ends up with Brooklyn?

Sothis writes...

Dear Mr Weisman,

Regarding Timedancer and The Dark Ages, given the time, would you plan to turn both of those into animated shows, or do you feel they are best left as part of the written world?

KW Keller writes...

In "M.I.A.", mention is made about gargoyles in WWII being chalked up to "gremlins and the like." So the question is, were there really gremlins out there? If so, where do they fall in terms of the "three races?"

Ed writes...

Would Brooklyn visit any time beyond the scope of 2198? If he goes back at least as far as Feudal Japan then it makes sense he'd go forward a similar distance. But there again, plotting REALLY far ahead must be difficult. If he doesn't, will there be an in-universe reason?

John writes...

Hi Greg,
Some days ago, i poste that question:
"Are there other girls, then Katana, in Brooklyns timedance that are REALLY close to him? And if yes, how manny?"
You awnser:"Not sure what you mean."
Well, I mean, that he fall in love with other girls during his timedance. Or, maybe, he was verry close to a merryage with another girl, and then the Gate take Brooklyn away. Things like that.
Hope, You understand now.
Cu, John

Aris Katsaris writes...

Quick! We must fill the queue - Greg's caught up! :-)

Anyway, just a nitpick: You said "Odysseus traveled for twenty years."

Well, he was away from home for twenty years. But ten of these years he had been fighting at Troy. His return took him a further ten years, seven of which he spent as a virtual prisoner in Callisto's island.

So, one could say that he spent only *three* years travelling, though it was twenty years that he spent away from home.

If one's nitpicking, anyway. :-)