From: "Ed Reynolds" <ed>
Date: Fri Aug 29, 2003 7:18 pm
Subject: [TGS] Re: "The Faery's Child"

> Maybe a Norman, if we have him in England; there was a little early
mingling
> between the Normans and the English before 1066 - it was most
prominent
> during the reign of Edward the Confessor (who had a lot of Norman
favorites
> who were unpopular with the English and abused their status as "the
king's
> favorites" considerably), but Ethelred the Unready (who was King of
England
> at the time of the Wyvern Massacre and Oberon and Titania's
divorce) had
> married the daughter of the Duke of Normandy, Emma - who, by the
way,
> according to some research work that Greg Weisman and I did once,
was also
> Princess Elena's sister and thus Prince Malcolm's sister-in-law and
Princess
> Katharine's aunt. He might even have had some connection to the
Norman
> ambassador in "Vows", although I don't know if he (the ambassador -
whom we
> named Lamord in "Dark Ages") would still be alive in the 990's.

I like this idea, but what if we amend the history so that the "Dark
Ages" material in this episode happens in 976 - around the same time
as season 3. By this time, the relationship has already happened
(say, in 970) and the WK is looking for a way to get to Avalon and
find his lady love. Consequently, he needs the Grimorum, which
contains the spell. He fails of course, and perhaps becomes something
of a recurring antagonist, or maybe just goes away. All the same,
he'd eventually reach Avalon or at least make Oberon aware of his
story. We'd get the drama of Oberon divorcing Titania and then a
short while later (in Avalon time), the banishment of the Children as
a whole. Thus, we'd end up with the banishment in 994 without the
problem of tying our hands with regard to what we can do in
future 'Dark Ages' (for example, if we set it in 993 but showed
Asrail, we wouldn't be able to do anything to Asrail for the rest
of 'Dark Ages' pretty much).

I don't know if this change takes us out of Ethelred's rule though.

> As for his being Lancelot's son, I'm not entirely certain about
that, but it
> could be workable. (There'd be a certain appropriateness if he
was, since
> Lancelot's canonical son, Galahad, has been often nicknamed "the
White
> Knight", though obviously the forsaken knight should not be
Galahad.)

This is a bit of a radical idea, but it does make some sense to me
given the similarity of their situations and descent into
ruthlessness as a result of love. Also, they clearly knew each other
in 'Pendragon', and it would give the character a lot more sway in
future since we're going to be investing a good deal of development
in him as it is.

Actually, if we do have the White Knight (who we need a proper name
for) as Lancelot's son, I'd like to write that revelation at the end
of "Flight from the Enchanter" if possible.)

Ed

PART ONE

WYVERN 976: Goliath and the White Knight are violently engaged in
battle.

MANHATTAN 2000: The White Knight arrives in New York, breaks into the
Eyrie building using whatever sorcery he's picked up over the years,
on the trail of Fox whom he believes to be Titania – Fox's
resemblance to Anastasia, the fact that Madoc Morfryn made his last
stand in Manhattan and the traces of a Child of Oberon in the
building (Puck) make him sure. So the first part is basically an
elaborate stalking exercise, but perhaps at first we'll think it's a
gargoyle (Goliath?) not Fox that he's after. Fox needs to be shown as
cunning and always thinking, so there'll be a real battle of wits
here. I suppose this would end up as a game of cat and mouse.

WYVERN 976: …Set against the counter-point cat and mouse game of 1020
years ago when the White Knight is arriving looking for the faerie
that is his lover. He's come having heard Brother Edmund's stories.
He wants to steal the Grimorum and to learn the secret path to
Avalon, to find his lost lover. Goliath and the White Knight would
come to blows and we'd come back to the ending sequence, but maybe
someone more familiar with the DA cast could give some thoughts on
that.

(The idea with the flashbacks is also to kind of reopen the wound of
the Wyvern massacre by reminding the gargoyles about it. This is a
story about old, old wounds that never quite heal.)

MANHATTAN 2000: We need to see Fox's mind working all the time, and
we'll need to bring in the gargoyles. I guess the obvious place to
end it would be to have the White Knight meet Fox and realise that
she isn't Titania – only to have Titania appear in their midst and
announce herself.

PART TWO

MANHATTAN 2000:
A kind of slow introduction with a lot of talking, by way of
preparation for the big revelation:

ENGLAND 970: We need to see the White Knight's vibrancy and youth to
make it less tragic, maybe offset it against the father. If it is
Lancelot, I don't know if we ought to reveal it here (we could just
call him "Father") but we could make it so that it's possible to
guess. Then we can simply follow the events of Keats' poem, albeit
expanding on it a little. One possibility – instead of the "sweet
moan" bit which obviously won't pass S&P when adapted, why not just
cut the normal narrative of just before and then include the poem in
its entirety, and then pick up the narrative on the cold hillside.

MANHATTAN 2000:
We bring the story to a close. Titania tries to make peace with the
White Knight to move on – but the White Knight has spent a millennia
pained and will not be denied his faerie queen. He has some kind of
weapon which takes Titania out temporarily, while his knights carry
her away. I think the Knight's magic needs to be quite stylised,
something dark and powerful that is strong simply because of the
power of his depression. That's what made his pale kingdom
perpetually bleak. It's not quite human magic either – maybe the
seduction by Titania changed him, but at any rate he's now got some
magical quality about him. Maybe a kind of early vampyre, but without
Madoc's darker purpose. At the end, Fox and Goliath will determine to
rescue Titania.

PART THREE

MANHATTAN 2000: The clan and the Xanatoses put their every resource
into tracing Titania, but ultimately it's a job for magic. Puck and
Alex have to get on the case. This is where we'd get reflection on
the Knight and his plight, and maybe some reflections on the lost
Wyvern clan members from 994. They're also keen not to let Oberon
find out because if he came storming in, things could become much
worse – especially since he's still in a foul mood after Madoc's
death (see "Return to Avalon").

AVALON 995: The White Knight finally arrives on Avalon having found
another route – maybe via a faerie that dislikes Titania (who?). His
declaration so shocks Oberon that Oberon listens to him. It's very
embarrassing for him to be cuckolded in the middle of his court, so
we see Titania banished. But it isn't quite over, and Oberon banishes
the rest of his children as well. Hopefully someone more familiar
with the politics of the Avalon court can handle this.

MANHATTAN 2000: The White Knight plans to use the love juice potion
from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to bring Titania back to him, for
the purposes of then abandoning her in an iron cage. This plan is, of
course, deeply stupid since it will incur Oberon's wrath, but he's
created his own personal hell for himself and so doesn't really fear
Oberon. The heroes find the Knight in time for a big fight to break
out between the pale knights and the clan. The love juice is used on
Titania and the Knight relents and decides that even after all these
centuries he could not abandon her. He must find a way to escape from
Oberon's reach forever, and there's only one human with the resources
for that: we see him materialise with some kind of ghostly power in
the offices of Mr. Duval.

PART FOUR
(Yes, I know a 4-parter is going to be a nightmare to actually
produce, but hey… ;))

MANHATTAN 2000: Big fight with the gargoyles and the knights.
Meanwhile, the White Knight tries to persuade his father that this is
the right thing to do. Lancelot is sympathetic because he remembers
how it ends with Guinevere – but then, this isn't love. It's
obsessive lust. They had one night together over a millennium ago:
that's all. The White Knight denies this: they had a millennium…

VARIOUS TIMES: We see the White Knight build his realm from the
magics he inherited from Titania, speaking to Keats, building a
foundation, learning what further magics he could, occasionally
tracking down Titania. Eventually, he finds her with Renard and is
briefly angered. He confronts Anastasia, but at this point Anastasia
still hasn't become quite as sympathetic as she is now. She denies
that she loves Renard, and she continues to play with the Knight's
affections for fun, making promises that she doesn't plan to keep.
There should also be a quite definitive scene where Renard's
integrity is presented to her in its starkest form (shouldn't be
difficult, he wasn't exactly subtle about it) and Anastasia is quite
awestruck. It melts her. The White Knight sees this and he feels
betrayed afresh. But he convinces himself that he deserves her. He
loved her, and now it was his turn to love him.

MANHATTAN 2000: In the present, Lancelot and the White Knight are
still arguing when we see Oberon crashing through the walls, having
spied Titania in the arms of the White Knight through Oberon's
Mirror. He's convinced that Titania has fallen upon old ways, and
starts tearing the place up. This alerts the gargoyles and Xanatoses,
who come zooming in to try and make Oberon see reason, but it's not
really going to happen. Before Titania can be punished in a terrible
way for her second treason, Puck persuades Oberon that he's got the
wrong end of the stick – and uses the love potion again to prove it.
Puck hopes that this will get him into the good graces of Oberon, but
it doesn't really – although Titania may promise him that his act
wouldn't be forgotten. Needless to say, after "The Gathering", it
means a lot to the Trickster. I'm not sure what will happen to the
White Knight. Duval's office will need redecorating. He and Xanatos
will recognise each other, but Xanatos isn't going to make
introductions to the gargoyles for obvious reasons. He still has to
respect the Society, and that means keeping its secrets. At the end,
we'd need to bring it back to the gargoyles for emotional closure. I
think Goliath's ability to move from loving Demona to Elisa may be
something that we could bring out over the course of the episodes,
and that would fit as an ending.

Well, that's quite rough indeed and there's a lot of gaps there. What
does everyone else think?

Ed