Vintage Science Fiction from Australian Newspapers

Items

• Yackandandah in the Year 2000 A. D.
  This is a long-winded dialogue much like Australia Advanced with much description that fills the pages with nothing. Still it’s SF to a degree. Yackandandah is a tiny town in northeast Victoria. Could be interesting to check if the things predicted in 1898 came true in 2000.
• When the World Reeled
  World domination story but mainly a romance with electricity
• When the Southern Cross Shines Red
  Future War attack on Fremantle Western Australia by the Japanese. Both navies with advanced vessels yet the ship The Forth causes damage to the Japanese fleet by lighting its oil reserves and exploding into the air and crashing into the fleet. A second episode appeared a month later regarding the attack of the Japanese on Sydney. Looking at other stories by Patrick Vaux it seems he made a career of this as there are other short stories in a similar vein. Due to time constraints I have not yet had a chance to closely read more of his stories to see if there are any strong SF modes in use. Interesting that in 1917 Vaux published a book about gadgets featuring details of the latest technology and inventions at the time.
• When the Sleeper Awakes
  A man falls asleep in the 19th century and awakes years later to learn about the dramatic changes in the world but also to fight in an 'aeropile' and die in another invasion of London. A dystopian ending to a future war story.
• Venus Calling
  Alvin Lister invents a spaceship called "The Venus" which uses his discovery of repelling gravity to push the ship into space. He takes on all his builders, mechanics and engineers, two female friends, one of them the investor, and a worldly adventurous friend called Ulysses, for a test run. On the trial run, four criminals stowaway on board and take over the ship, but Lister's security guard had also made it aboard at the last minute and, in the fighting, the controls are damaged and the trial run becomes the journey to Venus. Over the ensuring weeks the criminals are given limited freedom. The complement of 17 eventually make it to Venus, navigate the thick atmosphere and land on a mountain side, immediately believing that it is a dead world. While the rest explored, three of the antagonists take the opportunity to steal the ship with the intention of going back to Earth but Lister had expected that to happen so had locked all the exit cells (airlocks) open, so they could never leave Venus. The fourth antagonist had already shifted to their side and was helping the crew, earning respect from everyone. The crew then need to find food and shelter and soon find a hidden area where a venus-cavewoman riding a four-winged pteradactyl-like creature invites them for lunch. It turns out that her ulterior motive was to claim Ulysses as her husband-slave and an amusing scene ensures as Ulysses can't comprehend that her offer to give him a flight on the Plodja would end with him being taken to a village of women and beaten and dragged across the ground to a hut where he is trapped with his kidnapper who quickly disrobes. Various adventures ensue as Lister keeps the team together, Ulysses travels Venus, works out the system of the world and quickly breaks it by punching the queen in the face, who laughs and finally treats him as equal; and Ingerfeldt, the leading villain, attempts to kidnap Lister to get him to unlock the exits, even eventually capturing Ulysses and stringing him up for hanging if Lister didn't comply. Eventually, with the antagonists having given away much of the supplies to bribe the inhabitants to help capture Lister, when the protoganists finally win, not all of them can return to Earth.
• Through the Vanished South Pole
  Gravity reversers airships and monsters 32 chapters. Paratext describes him as a Sydney gentleman patents indicate he stayed in Paddington for awhile.
• They Found Atlantis
  Escape from the lost city of Atlantis with Atlanteans
• The Year of Miracle. A Tale of the Year One Thousand Nine Hundred
  A doctor finds a cure to the plague then launches the plague on London to sell his cure. It gets out of control and all of England is affected with many dying. Ends with a bright new future with a lot less people!
• The Year 22 / The Earth Abides / The Last American
  A pestilence returns humanity to the dark ages and after many generations a few try to get humanity back on track again. A novel in three parts.
• The World's Last Wonder
  Australia's First Space Opera. The inventor takes his friend and others on a journey to Mars in competition with someone who had stole his patent for his space car. The antagonist's car is called The Annexator and their plan is to claim Mars for themselves, and have even kidnapped the girlfriend of one of the passengers on the protagonist's ship. A tense nailbiting situation mid story as both ships link up and attempt exchanging documents in a vacuum, even though neither car had been designed with an air lock. Landing on Mars, the protagonists meet two intelligent species and detail the attempts to communicate. Unfortunately, the antagonists' prior landing had eventually caused the inhabitants to realise humanity is dangerous and force the protagonists off planet and determine Earth is now under quarantine. This summary does not do the huge amount of science and inventions in this story justice. A critical scholarly digital edition is available for download.
• The World-Masters
  Inventor blackmails world controling all electric current. Creates a death ray (like a laser) that turns people to skeletons on contact.
• The World Peril of 1910
  A complex hybrid airship and submarine is offered to the Kaiser potentially altering political power around the world.
• The World in Peril: A Tale of the Air and the Sea
  Advanced air and sea tech. Protagonists travel the world and have adventures. Editorials: Remarkable production. Invented a craft which is at once a submarine or a flying ship. Sensational events.
• The Woes of Mr Wobbley Comedian; Or, The Dangers of Modern Science
  An invention that etherialises a person that can only be seen by his brother and Mr Wobbley. Amusing scenes of Wobbley dealing with the ghost of Penthrip and police accusing him of murdering the man until he suddenly returns from etheralisation at the end.
• The Wickham Aeroplane
  An earlier more advanced design for the aeroplane was first demonstrated by Wickham however it was stolen by a Russian spy with him in it with the plan to land it on a steam boat built with a landing pad. Wickham was able to smash the aeroplane into the ocean so that it did not fall into the wrong hands. Predicting aircraft carriers by 8 years.
• The Whispering Death
  Inventor uses a gravity box to create planes without sound or engines or propellers – Third story in the Dr. Night trilogy
• The War of the Worlds
  Reprinted from 1897. Martians invade Earth killing with heat rays but fall victim to Earth's bacteria and have to leave.
• The Vibration Disintegrator
  Inventor demonstrates a device that cancels sound waves by disintegrating them predicting sound cancellation technology by 20 years.
• The Unknown Terror
  Japanese scientist suspected of creating a chemical bomb and blowing people up as an experimentalist, with a plan to help Nippon take over the world.
• The U-Boat Chaser
  Mainly a war story but with hydrophones and advanced searchlights and a superfast submarine. Need more chapters to confirm extent of science fiction tropes.
• The Three Bushmen; or Australians in the Far East. A Thrilling Story of the Russo-Japanese War.
  Japan Russian War adventure with one character having a small invented submarine in a part of the story. Considering the war only started in February, this counts as future war fiction.
• The Threatened Bombardment
  Russian war fleet attack on Melbourne (satirical and political)
• The Terror by Night
  Village attacked by strange creatures and police kill them. Advisor to the detective reads dead scientist's notes at the end. Scientist worked on evolving a pig then a mad human but both experiments reverted from higher intelligence back to pre evolved forms. Scientist is killed. Possibly influenced by H. G. Well's Island of Dr. Moreau.
• The Terrible Submarine
  Advanced submarine encounters a replica from stolen plans and it's a fight to the death
• The Terrible Eye
  Invention of a time window seeing into the past and present. Originally published in The Bayonne Times (New Jersey) in the USA in 1943
• The Strange Adventures of Bailey Catford. Scientist and Inventor.
  Catford is accused of a crime he didn't commit so escapes uses his huge submarine with working underwater exit door having solved pressure and air problems captures the real murderer and gets him to confess in his patented 'air tight entrance'. Reprinted several times including in 1931 as The Man with the Submarine.
• The Stolen Submarine
  An advanced submarine battleship with large rooms (including a saloon) and a strong 'ray' light is used in war exercises
• The Stolen Phoenix
  Inventor creates an advanced submarine called The Phoenix which is then 'stolen' from him in a scam. He creates another called The Dolphin.
• The Steel Dutchman
  Basic adventure but with a boat that is incredibly fast runs on transmitted crystalline energy and can fire torpedoes. Science of tiny wavelengths. Missing lots of chapters. Other chapters on Trove suggests its a fast boat against another fast boat and a strong dutchman is the enemy. It gets more SF near the end with pulling about the power transmission system. Fliegende Schaum Bainbridge Thermionic Controlling Systems remote control motors crystal driven power transmission across space. A similar science fiction engine was used in Doctor Who Terror of the Zygons in 1975.
• The Star Germs
  An experimenter collects what he feels may be germs from the stars from the top of mountains and studies them in his laboratory. He attempts to cultivate them in six different test tubes. However, the first four tubes explode and the geometric creatures from a lower dimension begin attacking the members of the household. One rapidly develops into a Satyr creature that the scientist feels is the result of the shapes tapping into common thought forms. The fifth tube explodes with a stronger creature before the final sixth tube explodes exposing a bright creature that the others fear. The scientists proposes that the Satyr is evil from Saturn and the glowing creature must be from Venus. An engaging story replete with scientific explanations about biology, how cells work, concepts of different dimensions of existence, and more.
• The Space Raiders
  Airships are destroyed by space ships from another world manned by ape-like creatures who kidnap a scientist inventor. Basic space invasion story with a scientist damsel in distress, a suspicious inventor, and many inventions.
• The Social Code
  The story opens with there already being a linked observatory at Mt Kosciuszko and on Mars. The astronomy falls in love with a Martian woman he sees at Mars observatory 10 yet it will always be unrequited. Allegory to relations between Christians and Muslims as a Martian man is angry when the Martian woman takes off her veil to the astronomer and she is later vaporised for her crime.
• The Sky Block
  Weather Wreckers hiding in tunnels. Spy story with an invention that disrupts the weather
• The Silver Ball
  An invading fleet of gunboats await payment near Melbourne and a scientist scares them away with a device that separates the water around the ships into its 'chemical constituents'.
• The Siege of Sydney. The War of Tomorrow.
  Predicts Japan invasion with fighting in Hornsby junction with guns and cannons. Story ends with the communication cable being reconnected to Australia, and everyone finding out that the rest of the world had been at war, too.
• The Shades of Jupiter
  More of a crime story. Poorly written science fantasy with the influence of Gods and a maniacal scientist filling the protagonist with electricity with no explanations of how he might have moved with a field of electricity to his bed without setting fire to everything including himself. Various inventions peppered throughout the story with no reason besides they look good there.
• The Secret of Castle Storm
  Scientist keeps his deceased wife in suspended animation in a crystal freezer and works in a laboratory searching for the elixir of life. While there is not much science it is interesting in that this story seems almost identical to the story of Dr Freeze in the movie Batman and Robin which is based on an old comic book from 1959. Also as the scientist and his frozen wife are destroyed by a great storm and the ending is that only through God will we receive eternal life this story reflects Adelaide Primrose's ending in The Professor's Experiment in 1906.
• The Second Armada A Chapter of Future History
  Set 3 years later so not much has changed. A battle is fought and one. SF only as it's in the future. A two column story. Queensland along with the British were fighting the Frontier Wars so this could be a recruitment article.
• The Sapphire Riddle
  A scientist finds a way to reconstitute cheap gems into more expensive gems and sells them
• The Rocket: A Forecast
  British Civil War approximately 10 years after 1915 with workers revolting against the royalists. Not quite French revolution but definitely alternate future. Slow ponderous lots of description barely anything happening so many chapters!
• The Robot Age of the Future: A Glimpse of Hobart in 3,000 A. D.
  3000 A.D. A man from 1932 is resurrected and learns about the future through one of his physicians, finding out how science and invention has made the world a better place, until a bad actor takes control of the science and destroys everything.
• The Right to Love
  Predominantly a romance yet set in a utopian dystopian eugenics-focused country with everything anyone can want excerpt for forced marriages based on beauty and brains.
• The Return from Mars
  After crashing on Mars and staying for 6 years, a scientist, a meteorologist have finished repairing their ship and say goodbye to the Martians they'd enjoyed their time with. On board, discussions of gravitation and magnetic fields, before approaching Earth. When they get there they find all of humanity has been wiped out. A war in 1940 had seen the development of a deadly gas that had killed all of humanity. They return to Mars.
• The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes
  Davidson's eyes are damaged in an electrical flash resituating their vision 8000 yards away. His body is in his house but his vision is on a beach with penguins. The story is mostly about his experience with a brief possible explanation at the end after he recovers that space has been folded over like folding a piece of paper - interesting that this is now the common example used for wormholes
• The Rejuvenation of Slogger Binns
  Mendax buys the father of his housekeeper from her for 50 pounds and experiments on him with the plan to rejuvenate him. Unfortunately the man goes crazy and tries to kill Mendax.
• The Red Terror [Prequel to The Space Raiders]
  A prequel story to the Space Raiders featuring a red light from space that captures people and a 4 propeller helicopter with torpedoes capable of reaching the stratosphere and destroying the creatures from another world.
• The Red Life. An Australian Story of Ambition, Invention and Romance
  Food out of the air. Atmosoup. The elixir of life. Reprinted as The Death Doctor in various mastheads in 1932. Invention creating a life saving soup but others think he is trying to fix his problem of being literally poison which seeps out of his skin. Some scientific explanations.
• The Red Kite
  Experimental giant airship aeroplane for four traveling from England to Germany during the war. Can fly all night at 150m/h go into the stratosphere and stay motionless while it dropped bombs. (Fastest plane at the time was 135m/h) Also features almost silent machine guns. Story is mainly a war romance. The interesting thing about this story is that as it hasn’t been long since aeroplanes were invented. This story predicts the naming of parts of them by using ‘prow’ for the front of the airplane taking that from boats. This might be a precursor to later space opera stories where space ships are using boat terminology rather than plane terminology.
• The Raid. A Story of the Last Phase of the Great War.
  (Not to be confused with Captain H. G. Mackenzie) Attacks on Sydney and Melbourne!!! Started serialising before the war ended. Detailed plane / airship fights over Sydney. Over 26 chapters somewhere. This is not by 'Captain' H. G. Mackenzie who had died several years previously. Extensive searches of various databases around the world have not found this particular H. G. Mackenzie. As the story has reference to work in a newspaper office it is possibly written by a journalist under a pseudonym. Stylometric analysis might help, however the descriptions of the fight and the discussions between characters seem to be different styles of writing, and may be a collaborative effort.
• The Quest of the Costa Rica
  Invented airship and submarine. From the pages.Three young Australians in search for a sunken treasure ship aided by the marvellous inventions of a clever scientist who has learnt the secret of how to transmit power by wireless. A mysterious enemy who has also mastered the secret attempts to ruin the expedition with many thrilling consequences. Described as a Thrilling Scientific Adventure.
• The Professor's Experiment
  A professor has retrieved the body of a recently deceased street dweller and, with the help of his concerned medical friend, carefully place wires attached to batteries around the heart of the unfortunate, describing the exact placement to correctly stimulate the heart in the hope of restarting it. Just as the man begins to recover, and success looked likely, the laboratory is blown up by a freak lightning strike, destroying all occupants and evidence.
• The Pillar of Light
  Inventor creates the 'marine auriscope' and tests it on three boats. Like sonar but looking like a compass it can detect ships far away. Review and synopsis at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14625722
• The Phantom Enemy
  Simple 5 chapter narration of a burgler who worked with an inventor to be invisible. Not the same as Morris J Steeles.
• The Parrot-Faced Man
  Brain in a jar that is still conscious and speaking.
• The New Utopia
  A reply to Bellamy's Utopic story. Satirical meta textual extremes of equality with everyone dying the hair black.
• The Muted Quest
  quote The plans of the engine while revolutionary are worthless without the formulae of the metal used in construction. Japanese try to move their stolen engine while others have committed to other plans. SF spy story.
• The Moonman
  Young boy Sonnie is awoken by a little green moonman on the edge of his bed who, with his friends, takes Sonnie up on a moon beam for an adventure. Sonnie soon finds that moonbeams are like trains and the southern cross is the station, and he can't visit Earth's moon just yet but he's welcome to visit the mechanical occupants of one of Mars' moons. Many of the characters are surprised whenever a female appears, and when Sonnie is offered a trip to one of Mars' moons by a beautiful moonmaiden he doesn't hesitate, leaving all the moonmen behind. A satirical story with a dig at Australian academic culture as a subtext.
• The Missing Dimension
  Scientist removes a dimension and can walk through the world with the appearance of being two dimensional while still existing as a whole.
• The Meteoric Benson A Romance of Actuality
  First fiction helicopter developed by Benson. Plans stolen and rival copy built. Various skermishes then an agreement to end all war.
• The Message
  Novel came first. Dystopia to Utopia. Germany invades Britain and is overthrown. Long and ponderous and realist.
• The Mendax Gold Saver
  Mendax creates a portable device that quickly extracts gold from sea-water. This is probably inspired by the Argyle 1905-1906 gold-from-seawater plant at Broken Head considering the story is set in the past. However as the the Argyle plant closed and no company has come up with a more efficient method Mendaxs invention is still science fiction.
• The Men of Mars
  Inventors build a rocket ship to take them to Mars. Some science. In instalments in the children’s pages up to instalment 26. Some are short so estimate 7000 words.
• The Man Who Tilted the Earth
  Entire 25000 word story in one issue. Atomic physics fight to prevent the militarisation of explosive Z with the help of scientist Dr. Gloria Surrocks. But Dr Zachavitch has other plans and has created a disintegration ray that breaks atoms into energy the force being millions times greater than any known explosive. He tests it in the arctic and causes sudden mountains tidal waves and a shift of the Earth's axis pushing icebergs to the equator.
• The Man Who Stopped a War. A Tale of an Australian War Correspondent.
  A skirmish between British and Japanese naval forces in the Pacific with a pressman describing the vast battlefleets mines and reciprocal attacks. Future War fiction but a strange one in that it isn't fully explained how the Australian stopped the war. The British and the Japanese were allies between 1902 and 1923 so why a future war story? Evidence suggests it was published in the Pall Mall Magazine in 1901 due to a report in the Tasmanian news that they had received a copy of the magazine (19/07/1901) which featured a Naval Duel of the Future by Patrick Vaux. As the British navy fought the Japanese navy in 1942 in the Battle of the Coral Sea this is also a predictive story. Mention of a marconigram which also suggests it was written before telegram had become common or perhaps Vaux wished to point to an alternate future.
• The Man Who Ended War
  Features a disintegration ray and minor science descriptions in Chapter xx.
• The Man They Couldn't Arrest
  Inventor creates machine that can listen to almost any conversation on a telephone. Is attacked and defends with electricity shocking the criminal temporarily blind. The criminal dies trying to escape and the inventor plays a film of what happens on a wall to a detective proving his innocence.
• The Luminous Ray
  Placeholder. Details coming soon.
• The Little Florist
  A florist creates a complex central heating system for his orchard saving his crop and offers to help the woman next door with her field as the coldest night in years rolls in to destroy crops in the area. To start a romance the only way an inventor knows!
• The Kid From Mars
  Scientists and doctors investigate a kid who claims to be from Mars then a group of humans visit mars and encounter 7 foot tall Martians. Probably written for children. Originally published in 1948 and Disney now owns the rights.
• The Kaisers Secret
  Germans invent battery containing wireless operated poison loaded plane to attack the UK but are thwarted by a British seaplane. A long drawn out war saga with a few inventions described but not in great detail.
• The Jewel-Maker
  Inventor converts diamond dust into various jewels. Complex description of the device and process in X but mainly a romance and crime story.
• The Isle of Submarines A South Sea Terror
  An advanced electric submarine covered in different alloy scales described as being able to travel at greater than 60 mph (subs at the time had atop speed of around 14mph on the surface and 7mph below), and has continuous breathable air due to breaking water into hydrogen and oxygen, then liquifying them, and using the hydrogen for explosives.
• The Invisible Ray
  The town thinks the scientist escaped from an asylum and is working on a deathray. Actually he created his own kind of television. A satirical story. Also referenced in Death Rays and the Popular Media 1876-1939 A Study of Directed Energy Weapons in Fact, Fiction and Film By William J. Fanning, Jr. · 2015
• The Invisible Man
  While discussing rational physical principles of optics and plausibility of changing matter to not be reflective or refractive a scientist finds a way to make most of his body invisible although an unexplained ethereal energy is used to complete the process on his cat and then himself.
• The Invisibility of Mendax
  Mendax is painted with a chemical that causes him to become mostly invisible leaving a beard and skeleton. The hot water and reagent to remove it turns him Prussian blue. Similar setup to the Disney movie The Invisible Kid (1988) where the chemical can be washed off with water though the pain is different.
• The Inventions of Mr Potty II. The Mechanical Rooster.
  A satirical story about a genius inventor's wooden and springs mechanical rooster that wins a cock fight. A distant sequel to "The Automatic Preacher."
• The Inventions of Mr Potty I. The Automatic Preacher.
  A satirical story told at Flannigan's pub about the genius inventor's failure of his mechanical minister which preached a sermon from its internal phonograph before its mechanics failed, causing it to leap into the congregation.
• The Invasion of Maryborough (Written in the 20th Century.)
  A future war between England and Russia
• The Invasion of Australia. A Forecast.
  World War in 1914. Quite detailed. Australian Politics. Massive new German Battleship. Electric launches. Massive fleet invades a defenceless Australia.
• The Invasion of 1910
  Bleiler says highly researched two writers. Complex and detailed German invasion of England. Future War with only slightly advanced weapons.
• The Inoculation of Ideas. Prof. Paff's First Peace Experiment
  Paff is accumulating the electric energy of positive human behaviour at musical and other events in specially made batteries. Paff tests this on the population to great success promising to release the electric energy of enthusiasm as the Prime Minister tours the country to sell his great scheme of country-wide irrigation.
• The Inner House
  Elixir helped create an eternal college city of immortal physicians and describes those that rejected this and ran way from the Great Discovery
• The Hopkins Manuscript (summary by Edgar Holt)
  The narrator's summary describes the meeting of the moon and the Earth ending much of civilisation but with limited scientific fact.
• The Hertzian Voice. A Story of Strange Adventure and Romance of Wireless Telegraphy (aka Phantom Wires)
  Environment of inventions. Inventor creates a camera that can transmit pictures wirelessly but can't get funding. Ends up dealing with broken wires on a ship and discussing wire-less communication. More of a spy drama surrounded by inventions but the epilogue has him working on simplifying his selenium cell so that portable picture transmission cameras can be built. (Selenium solar batteries were first built in 1883.)
• The Half God
  Scientists develop super-radium capable of curing all ills, but the gram is stolen. Crime, murder, court case. Also, radium was already in use as a cancer cures so this is only a slight advance.
• The Green Flame
  Placeholder. Detailed description coming soon.
• The Greed of Conquest
  Development of a raygun by a scientist with the invention used by others
• The Great Murchison Mystery
  Dr. Verity's experiments enables telepathic contact with Martians. There is also a death ray.
• The Great Mendax Transmitter
  Mendax goes into his transmitter just as his dog breaks in. Hilarity ensues. Likely this is the first Mendax short story.
• The Great American Telescope
  Advanced telescope sees a technofuturistic civilisation on Mars
• The Gold Magnet
  A man finds his wife’s hair's static is attracted to gold uses a lock of it to detect large deposits of gold. Not much science besides the mention of static electricity so more fantasy. But it could be argued it is.
• The Ghost Counts Ten
  Features a heat ray that melts anything (death ray)
• The Final War. A Story of the Great Betrayal
  The electric rifle actually a laser gun as the scientific explanation points to that was used succesfully in a future war.
• The Fall of Albany
  Japan and France declare war invade Albany. Australia fights back. The enemies try Freemantle but are defeated by electric ships that can travel at 30 knots. Not something electric ships could do until 2021
• The Fall of a Dictator
  Inventor for Cyrania working for the Cyranian military is developing a death ray and an electric torpedo.
• The Ether King. A Story of Mystery and Adventure.
  A futuristic airship by an inventor scientist. A location programmed death ray that can destroy any part of the world in seconds. An arch nemesis, a damsel in distress, and so many wireless inventions, make this the pulpiest entry into the Australian vintage science fiction stories from newspapers.
• The Esramians
  Newspaper printed excerpts from a novel - not complete. Martians following a Christian style philosophy visit Earth to impart their wisdom.
• The Electric Spark
  Chapter 1 of The Novels of the Future. The first story features lovers enhancing their kiss with electricity.
• The Eagle of Peace. A Tale of Love, Invention, and War.
  Advanced airship invention travels across the world fighting Germans. Basic story with only the airship being the science fiction part. More spyfi than scifi.
• The Drum Beat. A Story of the German Menace in Australia.
  Set in 1918, initially a love story, and a little spyfi with the Germans living in the town, introducing the main science fiction invention, an aeroplane that is silent and can rise to quite a height without the occupants feeling cold-with one of the Germans very interested in it. The story is quite slow and ponderous with many repeated situations and diversions before Germans launch their attacks on Sydney in August 1918 (after over twenty chapters of character development and aeroplane adventures). One of the highlights is that Gillian is a female pilot and fights against the Germans with her aeroplane. Eventually the Australians win against the Germans but at a high cost, with many an important character dead.