The Professor
This is it, the movie that started the time (and space) travelling adventures of the titular "Professor" back in the 1950s, still going strong today, the eccentric traveler has become a global hit filling theater and TV screens from Veracruz to Nippon.
It all started as the reborn republic of Venice was enjoying an economic boom, with a movie industry looking for opportunities to expand into new markets. With good amounts of funding and enthusiasm available ideas soon began to click into place, first to make an adventure movie which would be expanded to a TV series if successful, a time travel adventure, which will allow to recycle props and costumes from historical productions if needed, and let the main character travel through space too, make him some kind of highly advanced alien, that way you can fit all kinds of stories into the series.
With a first draft in hand the next step was to look for actors and locations, making the project a joint Venetian-Byzantine production secured the funding and the means to shoot a big part of it in Constantinople, taking things a step further to a Venetian-Byzantine-Ottoman production brought in some excellent outdoor locations and the expertise of an experienced dubbing and subtitling industry which allowed the movie (and the later series) to quickly have a variety of dubbing and subtitles options in several languages.
And then, the characters...
The main character would be the titular "Professor" ("Doctor" in some languages), a highly advanced alien capable of travelling through time and space, a wanderer, scholar, and philanthropist, that prefers to travel around instead of resting on the benefits of his civilization's technology. His home and his relationship with it are deliberately kept vague with hints that he had some kind of disagreement with them and is seen as some kind of eccentric maverick that enjoys meddling on the affairs of primitive planets. He prefers to trick and outwit his opponents, using simple but highly advanced tools (to the point of appearing to be magical), such as "psychic paper" which show whatever he wants and "psychic coins" which anyone will think of as being very valuable, no matter the currency of their civilization. He also carries a multipurpose "sonic gadget" which is used for a variety of things, from opening locks to taking control of vehicles to fixing all kinds of devices, when a character points out that sound can't help (What, are you going to shout at the lock?) he will grumble at the ideas of "primitive physics" that separate "sound, light, and gravity and put them into neat silly boxes".
He lives and travels in what he calls his "laboratory" a huge time machine with many rooms, the movies and the series never give a number or a limit to them, most of the scenes there take place in the control room, covered with futuristic control panels, dials, and screens, built around an impressive central console.
The exterior and the appearance of the machine was another matter, in the first drafts it would change shape to fit it's surroundings, but that would have been too expensive and probably not very convincing, then it was thought to make it look like something mundane like a phone booth, and give the excuse that the "camouflage circuits" were malfunctioning, still not good enough...
And then one of the writers came up with the solution, it has no exterior, as the Professor puts it "It's right there, you can't interact with it because you insist on limiting yourself to just three dimensions." and he can enter and exit it through any door (over time this rule would be bent to include not just doorways and arches, but many things, gates, a pair of stones, or a couple of trees, for example), the visual effects are pretty nice and give the impression that he (and his guests) simply vanishes into (or appears from) thin air in mid-step as if he was naturally walking through a door. His appearance is that of an absent-minded, eccentric scientist, often wearing a huge colorful scarf or some other extravang accessory, a role which was very well played by Brittonic veteran actor Tom Cushing.
And then on to his rival and nemesis, at least for the first movie, the Jester (or Clown, or Joker in some languages). Also a traveler in time and space, coming from the same civilization but with a big difference, he cares only for his own personal amusement. He loves to collect art and other curiosities and has a twisted sense of humour, and will use his powers and technology to steal whatever he feels like or play twisted pranks without caring about the damage caused, sometimes changing the course of history in the process, handling everything as one big joke.
Like the Professor he has a time machine, which he can access through places in deep shadow rather than doorways, its interior is a random mess of shadows and colored lights, reflecting his chaotic nature. He's played by César Romão a former telenovela star from Veracruz looking for a chance to do something different, and he managed to do it wonderfully, wearing the iconic green hair and clown makeup with glee, his manic evil laughter the rants against the Professor are pure gold.
Caught between these two screen veterans are a couple of more mundane human characters played by younger local actors, two "companions" put in to give the Professor relatable sidekicks and prevent the stories from becoming only a struggle between two alien, invincible, untouchable, demigods.
First we have Petra, a young dynamic photographer working for the fictional newspaper "Daily Trumpet", nicknamed "the spider" for her wide "web" of contacts and her sense for finding a new story (her "spider sense" as the gruff Johnah, owner of the Trumpet, puts it). She joins the Professor in present day Constantinople after she's caught up in the aftermath of one of the Jester's crimes, the biggest story in the universe is happening around her and she won't let it go for anything.
And second, Matteo, a violin player picked up in 18th century Venice during a confrontation with the Jester in an opera house, as the Professor and Petra try to undo the damage that the Jester caused to history. Shy and with an excellent ear, a skilled fencer despite needing thick glasses, he sometimes jokes that he doesn't need to see very well because handles his violin and sword by instinct. He's in for the chance of living an incredible adventure, as he puts it, to be a daredevil for once.
And the story?
Well, basically it's a chase through history, things kick off in the present day when the Jester crashes the opening ceremony of the new Bosphorus hover-ferry, robbing the guests in search of a few rare antique jewelry pieces that they're wearing. Petra's day has just become a lot more interesting than covering an average ribbon cutting ceremony.
He's interrupted by the Professor, who manages to chase him and retrieve the jewels with Petra's help. With this theft thwarted the chase is on to catch the Jester and stop his crime spree, and that will lead to a showdown during a opera night in 18th century Venice where they infiltrate the theater with the excuse of being a couple of stage helpers, it's going to be a very eventful night, with a time travelling criminal to catch while making sure that the opera premieres as it's supposed to, thankfully Matteo will join them with helpful skills and local knowledge.
So the Jester is thwarted and locked inside his own time machine which is locked down and blocked in a "pocket dimension" out of the flow of normal time, seemingly forever? Not quite, the Professor points out that a genius like "the clown prince of crime" will surely find a way out, but that will take time ("It will take time for him to get back into time,"), until then the universe can rest and repair the damage of his crimes.
And there is a lot to repair, the damage to the timeline has been piling up and has reached a critical point and now history has been blown off-course, meaning that the Professor and his companions return not to present day Constantinople but to "Istanbul".
The timeline is in flux, turning into an alternate version where Constantinople is long gone, conquered by a sultan some centuries before and now part of a "Turkish Republic" (not a very original name, actually there are a lot of "Republic of This" and "That Republic" on this alternate world map, but for the purposes of the movie it's good enough). A few moments in a bookstore show how widespread the changes are, strange names almost everywhere, New Amsterdam is still there but it changed to New York, why did they do that? Maybe they just liked it better that way, the Professor quips.
Indeed, if Petra is overwhelmed and Matteo concerned, the Professor is more optimistic, the Jester's changes are thankfully limited to the history of this planet, haven't settled down completely yet and can be undone, it will take some work and a lot of adventure, so, let us begin, shall we?
And so the movie ends, the tv series goes on and expands the story and the universe with visits to Earth's history in order to repair the damage caused by the Jester and to the future and other worlds. It will also introduce new antagonists such as the Cyberwarriors, a species of space dwelling cyborgs looking to capture and convert humans that views emotions, art, and other such things as chaotic deviations that must the stamped out, as the Professor puts it "The Jester was the evil of chaos, this is the evil of order". Another one are the Aleps, mutant intelligent cephalopods that emerged from a polluted ocean world, always zooming around in personal robotic vehicles that look like a giant salt-shaker topped by a dome and a single baleful eye, with a history of constant warfare which destroyed their world's ecosystems, they look for new worlds to conquer and inhabit, hating every other lifeform with a bitterness created by lifetimes of hatred and conflict. They were inspired by a particularly murky little Venetian canal which would be cleaned up after several complaints ("Even the tv monsters would run away from there").
Despite the seriousness of these new antagonists the series often takes a light tone, with frequent moments of humour and many episodes centered around a visit to a lighthearted historical moment or a funny future society that requires the protagonists to solve a humorous misunderstanding or help along in a romantic plot. Also the Jester returns several times, with outlandish schemes and improbable hijinks, keeping his role of main antagonist on movies and pivotal episodes.
The series turned out to be a massive success leading to further movies and the need to reinvent itself as the actors wished and needed to move on other projects, but that had a simple solution, the companions could just settle down and let new ones come in while the Professor, being a highly advanced alien being, would change his appearance from time to time, "regenerating" himself whenever he needed to recover from an injury or felt fatigued after a particularly troublesome adventure, allowing for another actor to step into the role.
Which was the case for a long time as the franchise would be quite long lasting and well loved.
This is it, the movie that started the time (and space) travelling adventures of the titular "Professor" back in the 1950s, still going strong today, the eccentric traveler has become a global hit filling theater and TV screens from Veracruz to Nippon.
It all started as the reborn republic of Venice was enjoying an economic boom, with a movie industry looking for opportunities to expand into new markets. With good amounts of funding and enthusiasm available ideas soon began to click into place, first to make an adventure movie which would be expanded to a TV series if successful, a time travel adventure, which will allow to recycle props and costumes from historical productions if needed, and let the main character travel through space too, make him some kind of highly advanced alien, that way you can fit all kinds of stories into the series.
With a first draft in hand the next step was to look for actors and locations, making the project a joint Venetian-Byzantine production secured the funding and the means to shoot a big part of it in Constantinople, taking things a step further to a Venetian-Byzantine-Ottoman production brought in some excellent outdoor locations and the expertise of an experienced dubbing and subtitling industry which allowed the movie (and the later series) to quickly have a variety of dubbing and subtitles options in several languages.
And then, the characters...
The main character would be the titular "Professor" ("Doctor" in some languages), a highly advanced alien capable of travelling through time and space, a wanderer, scholar, and philanthropist, that prefers to travel around instead of resting on the benefits of his civilization's technology. His home and his relationship with it are deliberately kept vague with hints that he had some kind of disagreement with them and is seen as some kind of eccentric maverick that enjoys meddling on the affairs of primitive planets. He prefers to trick and outwit his opponents, using simple but highly advanced tools (to the point of appearing to be magical), such as "psychic paper" which show whatever he wants and "psychic coins" which anyone will think of as being very valuable, no matter the currency of their civilization. He also carries a multipurpose "sonic gadget" which is used for a variety of things, from opening locks to taking control of vehicles to fixing all kinds of devices, when a character points out that sound can't help (What, are you going to shout at the lock?) he will grumble at the ideas of "primitive physics" that separate "sound, light, and gravity and put them into neat silly boxes".
He lives and travels in what he calls his "laboratory" a huge time machine with many rooms, the movies and the series never give a number or a limit to them, most of the scenes there take place in the control room, covered with futuristic control panels, dials, and screens, built around an impressive central console.
The exterior and the appearance of the machine was another matter, in the first drafts it would change shape to fit it's surroundings, but that would have been too expensive and probably not very convincing, then it was thought to make it look like something mundane like a phone booth, and give the excuse that the "camouflage circuits" were malfunctioning, still not good enough...
And then one of the writers came up with the solution, it has no exterior, as the Professor puts it "It's right there, you can't interact with it because you insist on limiting yourself to just three dimensions." and he can enter and exit it through any door (over time this rule would be bent to include not just doorways and arches, but many things, gates, a pair of stones, or a couple of trees, for example), the visual effects are pretty nice and give the impression that he (and his guests) simply vanishes into (or appears from) thin air in mid-step as if he was naturally walking through a door. His appearance is that of an absent-minded, eccentric scientist, often wearing a huge colorful scarf or some other extravang accessory, a role which was very well played by Brittonic veteran actor Tom Cushing.
And then on to his rival and nemesis, at least for the first movie, the Jester (or Clown, or Joker in some languages). Also a traveler in time and space, coming from the same civilization but with a big difference, he cares only for his own personal amusement. He loves to collect art and other curiosities and has a twisted sense of humour, and will use his powers and technology to steal whatever he feels like or play twisted pranks without caring about the damage caused, sometimes changing the course of history in the process, handling everything as one big joke.
Like the Professor he has a time machine, which he can access through places in deep shadow rather than doorways, its interior is a random mess of shadows and colored lights, reflecting his chaotic nature. He's played by César Romão a former telenovela star from Veracruz looking for a chance to do something different, and he managed to do it wonderfully, wearing the iconic green hair and clown makeup with glee, his manic evil laughter the rants against the Professor are pure gold.
Caught between these two screen veterans are a couple of more mundane human characters played by younger local actors, two "companions" put in to give the Professor relatable sidekicks and prevent the stories from becoming only a struggle between two alien, invincible, untouchable, demigods.
First we have Petra, a young dynamic photographer working for the fictional newspaper "Daily Trumpet", nicknamed "the spider" for her wide "web" of contacts and her sense for finding a new story (her "spider sense" as the gruff Johnah, owner of the Trumpet, puts it). She joins the Professor in present day Constantinople after she's caught up in the aftermath of one of the Jester's crimes, the biggest story in the universe is happening around her and she won't let it go for anything.
And second, Matteo, a violin player picked up in 18th century Venice during a confrontation with the Jester in an opera house, as the Professor and Petra try to undo the damage that the Jester caused to history. Shy and with an excellent ear, a skilled fencer despite needing thick glasses, he sometimes jokes that he doesn't need to see very well because handles his violin and sword by instinct. He's in for the chance of living an incredible adventure, as he puts it, to be a daredevil for once.
And the story?
Well, basically it's a chase through history, things kick off in the present day when the Jester crashes the opening ceremony of the new Bosphorus hover-ferry, robbing the guests in search of a few rare antique jewelry pieces that they're wearing. Petra's day has just become a lot more interesting than covering an average ribbon cutting ceremony.
He's interrupted by the Professor, who manages to chase him and retrieve the jewels with Petra's help. With this theft thwarted the chase is on to catch the Jester and stop his crime spree, and that will lead to a showdown during a opera night in 18th century Venice where they infiltrate the theater with the excuse of being a couple of stage helpers, it's going to be a very eventful night, with a time travelling criminal to catch while making sure that the opera premieres as it's supposed to, thankfully Matteo will join them with helpful skills and local knowledge.
So the Jester is thwarted and locked inside his own time machine which is locked down and blocked in a "pocket dimension" out of the flow of normal time, seemingly forever? Not quite, the Professor points out that a genius like "the clown prince of crime" will surely find a way out, but that will take time ("It will take time for him to get back into time,"), until then the universe can rest and repair the damage of his crimes.
And there is a lot to repair, the damage to the timeline has been piling up and has reached a critical point and now history has been blown off-course, meaning that the Professor and his companions return not to present day Constantinople but to "Istanbul".
The timeline is in flux, turning into an alternate version where Constantinople is long gone, conquered by a sultan some centuries before and now part of a "Turkish Republic" (not a very original name, actually there are a lot of "Republic of This" and "That Republic" on this alternate world map, but for the purposes of the movie it's good enough). A few moments in a bookstore show how widespread the changes are, strange names almost everywhere, New Amsterdam is still there but it changed to New York, why did they do that? Maybe they just liked it better that way, the Professor quips.
Indeed, if Petra is overwhelmed and Matteo concerned, the Professor is more optimistic, the Jester's changes are thankfully limited to the history of this planet, haven't settled down completely yet and can be undone, it will take some work and a lot of adventure, so, let us begin, shall we?
And so the movie ends, the tv series goes on and expands the story and the universe with visits to Earth's history in order to repair the damage caused by the Jester and to the future and other worlds. It will also introduce new antagonists such as the Cyberwarriors, a species of space dwelling cyborgs looking to capture and convert humans that views emotions, art, and other such things as chaotic deviations that must the stamped out, as the Professor puts it "The Jester was the evil of chaos, this is the evil of order". Another one are the Aleps, mutant intelligent cephalopods that emerged from a polluted ocean world, always zooming around in personal robotic vehicles that look like a giant salt-shaker topped by a dome and a single baleful eye, with a history of constant warfare which destroyed their world's ecosystems, they look for new worlds to conquer and inhabit, hating every other lifeform with a bitterness created by lifetimes of hatred and conflict. They were inspired by a particularly murky little Venetian canal which would be cleaned up after several complaints ("Even the tv monsters would run away from there").
Despite the seriousness of these new antagonists the series often takes a light tone, with frequent moments of humour and many episodes centered around a visit to a lighthearted historical moment or a funny future society that requires the protagonists to solve a humorous misunderstanding or help along in a romantic plot. Also the Jester returns several times, with outlandish schemes and improbable hijinks, keeping his role of main antagonist on movies and pivotal episodes.
The series turned out to be a massive success leading to further movies and the need to reinvent itself as the actors wished and needed to move on other projects, but that had a simple solution, the companions could just settle down and let new ones come in while the Professor, being a highly advanced alien being, would change his appearance from time to time, "regenerating" himself whenever he needed to recover from an injury or felt fatigued after a particularly troublesome adventure, allowing for another actor to step into the role.
Which was the case for a long time as the franchise would be quite long lasting and well loved.
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