I haven’t done one of these in a while, so I thought I’d dig into the ol’ “thought bucket” (estimated count is around 300+ ideas right now) and see what I have sitting in there growing stale from disuse (and at least let it see the light of day somehow). Here’s one that was a fun, crazy idea I had a long time back that I abandoned when some other time travel stories showed up on the scene.

“The Temporal Pimpernel”
A new take on the public domain story, “The Scarlet Pimpernel” as a foppish, bored aristocrat from the future engages in anonymous swashbuckling adventures throughout history to save rich and wealthy people of the past from certain demise and whisk them away to safety in his future world. But one day, his wife discovers she’s one of these aristocrats from the past, but her memories had been rebuilt to hide her identity in the future. The authorities learn her secret and threaten to send her back to her primitive origins (where there’s not a single future luxury or convenience to be found) unless she works with them to unmask the Pimpernel.

This idea came to me when I was discussing public domain properties with friends, and being a fan of swashbuckling adventures as a kid, one of the first stories to come to mind was “The Scarlet Pimpernel.” This idea evolved from that as I tried to think of a way to put a twist to this classic swashbuckling hero. I even had a little short story I wrote going through what looked like a classic Scarlet Pimpernel story until the end when he tells the person he saved about how history says that person actually died… just before transporting him to the future to start his new life.

Dashing hero full of bravado and daring. Sword fights. Displays of acrobatic skill. Embarrassing the constabulary along the way. Misdirection. Deception. Defying death. And time travel. All blended up into a fun little idea.