Question about Canon Timeline

[nicholas_lucien]

So I happened to come upon The Forever Knight Concordance, published in 1994.  It gives a very nice summary of each season 1 episode, divided down into the main plot, subplot, flashback, etc.  Towards the end it gives a pedigree of LaCroix's vampire family and notes about historical events and places in the show.  But there is also a section where it gives a timeline of Nick's life, saying it was created from things mentioned in the episodes or inferred through conversations.  Some seem a bit ... confusing so I'm not sure where this was inferred or was a story built from one mention but then who built the story?  Were some of these ideas that the writers had or stories that were going to be done but was later changed or dropped when they got back to doing season 2 and 3?  

For example, we know Nick can speak Mandarin, so according to this timeline, in 1275 Nick accompanied Marco Polo and met with Kublai Khan, becoming the Khan's tax collector and thus learning the language during that time.  Or somehow Nick is in New York in 1923 helping Harry Houdini trying to stop spiritual mediums. In 1390s Nick is a ship Captain during the 100 years war.  Nick was born in Parhenay, France.

So does anyone know anything about this timeline of events?  

Comments

[senmut]

I don't know. I remember the scheduling being all over the place, long delays... and it feels like there must have been some changeover in the writing. So maybe they had some scripts with bits that got cut?

I also believe the German versions had more footage?

[nicholas_lucien]

I feel like there must have been some changes or stories that just didn't get used.

[brightknightie]

The German episodes do have more footage. I have them on European DVDs, and I "hacked" an old DVD player to play them for me. :-D

The added scenes are not, as rumored back in the day, "R-rated." And none add something as significant as a flashback or timeline anchor.

Most of the additional footage is just longer establishing shots -- hallways are longer, buildings are taller, we see more of the extras' business inside of the precinct and other sets with background folks. There are some lines of additional dialogue, though, most significantly in "Dark Knight" and "False Witness." There's one silent scene I like of Nick lowering the shades in his loft, where there's a book on the credenza (implying that he has been reading the book).

[pj1228]

I've never heard of the Forever Knight Concordance before. Where is that available?
So, I have no clue either what this timeline is based on.

The history bits aren't from cut German versions as senmut suggested.

However, the Marco Polo bit does sound familar. Could it be mentioned in one of the novels?

I usually go with the script-based timeline available at brightknightie's website.

[nicholas_lucien]

I found it on a website that just have lots of fanzines like star trek and highlander, and bunches of others. And they had this concordance. Everything is just typed titles, no descriptions or pics, so I had no idea what this was about. I got excited when I flipped through and found a timeline, but was really confused where they got the info for it.

Hmmm, I'll have to read through to see if Marco Polo comes up anywhere else.

[pj1228]

It just occurred to that those history bits I find familar were perhaps from the Virtual Fourth Season?

[greerwatson]

I'd never heard of the Forever Knight Concordance, and there's hardly anything about it in the FK Wiki, either, apart from a mention in a list of fanzines. However, I've just checked, and there's a Fanlore page. Sadly, it doesn't have much information beyond what you've just said, except that the editor was Pam Jenson. It does have the following critique from the Forever Knight Fanzine List: "Out of print 6/96. Lots of nice information, but had a few major errors and the timeline included some non-canon information." Which is, of course, an observation that you have also made.

Speaking as an editor on both wikis, it would be really helpful to have as much detail as possible about the contents so that a more detailed article can be written.

Can you photograph the cover? (Back cover, too.)

[nicholas_lucien]

Yeah, I had never heard of this before and I had found it online and it was just a list of the names of fanzines and books so there was no info about it or pictures. So I was very surprised when this binder arrived and flipping thought I saw it was summaries of the first season episodes. But when I got to the end and the timelines so many things seemed off so I began to wonder why.

I can put together a better summary of this and take better pics (there is no image on the back of the binder), but this is what I got for tonight:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156677605@N04/albums/72157718523597486

[greerwatson]

This is fascinating. There's certainly a lot of non-canon material in there; and the spelling of Nick's name is one I've not seen before.

I've saved all of those. You don't mind if I mine them for info? (And any more you take, too.) Also, I'd like to upload some of pictures to the wikis, especially the photo of the cover.

[nicholas_lucien]

sure, not a problem. Like I said, I'll get better ones this weekend

[brightknightie]

I bet that the compiler of that fanwork -- which doubtless dates to the long hiatus between seasons one and two -- chose to merge in info from the original Nick Knight pilot starring Rick Springfield, along with made-up extrapolations of FK's first season. That would explain Nick's birthplace being known as in France, for example; our FK Nick was from Brabant, but the NK Nick was from France.

[nicholas_lucien]

Ah yes, the movie