We recently re-watched Sam Peckinpah's famous gritty Western The Wild Bunch. This time around I realized something: at least one of the titular Bunch is a secret agent of the Time Patrol.
The moment of revelation comes when the gang arrive at the headquarters of the corrupt Mexican warlord General Mapache and see the General's brand-new automobile (nobody seems to know exactly what kind of car it is, maybe an early Oldsmobile or Packard). The horse-riding Western bandits goggle at the machine, and then Dutch Engstrom (played by Ernest Borgnine) says "They're gonna use them in the war."
The movie takes place in 1913. Engstrom knows World War I is coming. He is not the simple Old West train-robber he pretends to be.
Presumably Time Agent "Engstrom" was inserted into 1913 to make sure that Mapache — who is clearly getting aid from Germany — doesn't rise to become dictator of Mexico. A Mapachista Mexico on America's southern border would strengthen isolationist sentiments in the United States, reducing the amount of help America could provide to the Allies and ensuring that no doughboys get shipped to France.
The result is a Europe dominated by Kaiserine Germany, the German Communist revolution of 1932, followed by the long bitter war between the British Empire and the Marxists, and the deadly atomic war of 1961.
That's a timeline the Time Patrol wants to keep from happening, so "Engstrom's" job was to recruit a gang of gunfighters to get rid of Mapache. He managed it well, faking his own death and time-hopping out in the confusion. The same agent was active throughout the history of the 20th Century, including numerous Time Patrol operations in World War II. He also played a key role in the "Plissken Affair" of a now-deleted 1997.
Write this alt history! I'll buy it!
Posted by: Gregory Benford | 12/18/2018 at 12:38 PM