Aha!

[selenak]

As awful as tumblr can be, I just stumbled across an intriguing information re: new character introduced in the recent Penny Dreadful episode.



To wit, that Catriona Hartdegen's last name, which I thought was simply Logan making a German/English pun because of her fencing, is actually one she shares with an Victorian literary character in an adaption - the time traveller in H.G.Wells' novel "The Time Machine" is unnamed, but the 2002 adaption christens him "Alexander Hartdegen".

Given we've already a genderbent character this season via female Dr. Seward, I don't think it's too much to speculate Catriona might be the Penny Dreadful version of the Time Traveller, which explains, among other things, her hair cut. Though mind you, time travel is a risky premise to include in this show, because the Victorian surrounding is part of the allure. However, I could see one immediate use set up within the larger narrative for Wells' time machine: our heroes travel forward and discover the much announced apocalypse (with or without Wellsian Eloi and Morlock), or rather its aftermath, the world in which forces of darkness are unleashed etc.. They then travel back to prevent same in their own time. Mind you, this might not happen this season, or rather, might happen in a cliffhanger finale?

But I don't think Catriona's last name is a coincidence. And H.G. Wells' The Time Machine certainly qualifies as a late Victorian literary source.

Comments

[rachelmanija]

Catriona is also the sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped. It's the first thing I thought of, as I too was trying to figure out who she might be or be a version of - she really felt like a character from something. I have not read that book, though, so I don't know what she's like in that. Anyway, the tumblr idea is more likely overall (and very intriguing, so long as they stick to Victorian ideas of time travel) but I might have the source for the first name, which is quite unusual.

[selenak]

Given that in addition to Henry Jekyll we got another Stevenson reference this season - the book the Orderly reads Vanessa from is by him -, I'd say chances are John Logan brushed up his RLS for this season. Which makes it very likely that Catriona's first name was influenced by said reading!