Dr. Theophilus Tanner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dr. Theophilus Tanner, or "Doc" as he is known, is a fictional character from the book series Deathlands. He is rescued by Ryan Cawdor and his people from the ville of Mocsin, where he was being kept captive by Jordan Teague, the ville's baron.

Dr. Tanner speaks in a very strange, Victorian, way. Physically, he is very tall and skinny. His face is deeply lined and framed by long gray hair. He has perfect teeth and speaks with a deep, rich voice which commands attention. He is a doctor of philosophy, as well as having studied ichthyology. He carries a Civil-war era LeMat black powder pistol, that fires nine .44 rounds and also has a second smooth-bore barrel that fires a single homemade shotgun round, and a "Sword-Stick", a slinder Rapier concealed as a walking stick and on more than one occasion has saved the Doctor and his friends lives.

Theophilus Algernon Tanner was actually born on February 14, 1868 in South Strafford, Vermont. During a time traveling experiment by scientists, he was brought one hundred years into the future, to 1998. Since he proved to be a nuisance and kept trying to escape, the scientists pushed him a further one hundred years into the future, to the Deathlands. The time travel has put a strain on his body, and his memory has partly lapsed. His knowledge of pre-apocalypse redoubts (hidden government fortresses) proves invaluable to Ryan Cawdor and his team. He possesses knowledge of several other projects besides the one with "Time Trawled" him to the deathlands time period,noteably TITAN,there is a past drug induced psychotic break whenever something brings that particular project to the forefront,and Doc fails to think clearly till the moment passes or he is distracted to another subject. the current storyline dealt with a Cyborg named DELPHI,who was trying to capture Doc,but lost the battle and was eaten by a Kraken...they left the storyline open from there,weather DELPHI will return,after being ingested and digested of his organic parts,is is that the final book featuring him

Dr. Tanner was left out of the 2003 film Deathlands: Homeward Bound. His absence might be because the muddle-headed Doc was a somewhat divisive character among fans, who tended to love him or hate him.