Thomas Prentice (Camelot 3000)

Thomas "Tom" Prentice was a young man in the year 3000 who discovered King Arthur's tomb under Glastonbury Tor while fleeing from an alien invasion. He awoke Arthur and became first his squire and later one of his knights in his quest to repel the invaders.

History

Origins

Tom was born in a polluted and overpopulated world which had been rebuilt following a nuclear war. He was a junior surveyor for a project to convert the ancient tunnels under Glastonbury Tor into housing, as any space where a human could conceivably live needed to be used. The alien invaders attacked England and Tom attempted to flee with his parents to France, but their car was spotted and blasted by an alien ship. Tom's parents were killed instantly but he managed to get away. Tom fled to the Tor, hoping to hide from the aliens, but he was seen entering the tunnels and they followed him in. While fleeing, he stumbled into an area of tunnels he did not recognise and found Arthur's tomb. Arthur rose from his slumber and killed the aliens, and Tom told him that he had slept until the year 3000. Arthur left to find Merlin and asked Tom to accompany him as his squire. Tom initially refused but realised that he had no reason to escape to France now that his parents were dead and joined Arthur. They travelled to Stonehenge, where Arthur was able to free Merlin from his prison; and then went to Salisbury Down, which was now a nuclear power plant, to retrieve Excalibur. The Lady of the Lake lifted the sword from the water, but when Arthur attempted to take it, it disappeared.

Camelot 3000

Merlin had sent the sword, once again lodged in the stone, to the United Nations Building so the entire world could see Arthur draw it again. He teleported them to New York City, where Arthur drew the sword before the eyes of the world and declared that he would defeat the aliens. When Arthur drew the sword from the stone, it released bursts of energy that should have restored the memories of Arthur's knights, who had been reincarnated in the 30th Century. However, the spell was partially disrupted by Arthur's old enemy Morgan LeFay, requiring them to go to the reincarnated knights and restore their memories in person. They first went to Commander Joan Acton, the head of United Earth Defense, where Arthur was able to restore her memories of her previous life as Guinevere.

Merlin then took them to a terraformed asteroid in low orbit belonging to Jules Futrelle, the world's richest man. Arthur claimed it as "New Camelot" and fought off the robotic guards. Jules Futrelle himself came out to confront them, but as soon as he laid eyes on Arthur he regained his memories as Lancelot, and immediately knelt and pledged his loyalty to Arthur.

The group took up residence on New Camelot, and the next day Merlin gave each of them an amulet that would trigger the memories of the five other reincarnated knights on Earth. To Tom's surprise, he was sent alone to Canada, appearing in the middle of a wedding. Tom assumed that the groom, war hero Sergeant Owen McAllister, was the knight; but when he attempted to use the amulet on him, Owen was unaffected and he attacked Tom. The true knight turned out to be the bride, Amber March, who was in fact Sir Tristan reincarnated in a female body. They returned to New Camelot and reunited with the other reincarnated knights.

Despite Tristan still identifying a a man, Tom thought of him as a woman and became infatuated with Tristan, or at the very least with his vision of "Amber". Shortly after the Knights of the Round Table reunited, New Camelot was attacked by a squadron of fighter jets commanded by McAllister and what appeared to be United Nations soldiers. The knights and Tom fought off the attackers, and Arthur brought down McAllister's craft by slicing off its wing with Excalibur. McAllister attempted to kill Tom, blaming him for "Amber" leaving him, but Tristan shot and killed McAllister himself. Tom tried to thank "Amber" for saving him, but Tristan said he would have saved any of his comrades, and ordered Tom to call him Tristan. The attackers apart from McAllister turned out to be aliens in disguise, although unbeknownst to the knights they had in fact been sent by the U.N. Security Director Jordan Matthew, who was in league with Morgan LeFay, the leader of the aliens.

Tom quickly noticed that Lancelot was still in love with Guinevere and confronted him, as their affair had lead to the fall of Camelot in their previous lives. Lancelot admitted that he knew his feelings were wrong, but that he could not stop loving Guinevere and would make any sacrifice for Arthur except giving up her. He told Tom that he could judge him as harshly as he wanted, but that he may one day know the same pain of love.

Arthur saw their conversation, and Guinevere coming and kissing Lancelot as soon as Tom had left; and so announced that he would remarry Guinevere in two days time in order to cement his relationship with her. The ceremony was held at the U.N. building, where Guinevere was assassinated, but was restored to life by the power of Lancelot's love. The knights were also attacked by a shapeshifting blob monster, who turned out to be Owen McAllister back from the dead. McAllister grabbed Tristan and tried to subsume him into himself, but Tom killed McAllister with an incendiary bomb. Tristan was furious at needing to be saved by a boy, believing he could have fought off McAllister if he still had a male body. Tom tried to convince Tristan that he was a woman, clearly in the hopes of pursuing "her", but Tristan insisted again that he was a man. Suddenly, one of the bystanders approached Tristan and revealed that she was the reincarnation of his love Isolde.

All the knights except Tristan returned to New Camelot. Tom hung around outside Tristan's quarters hoping to "bump into" him, and when Tristan returned the next morning Tom again tried to talk to him. However Tristan rebuffed him, disgusted by Tom's obvious desire for him. Arthur, not trusting the governments of Earth after the assassination attempt and McAllister's return as a monster after his body was handed over to the UN, decided to free and recruit the political prisoners from the UN's major prison in Australia. He took the full complement, including Tom, where they managed to overpower the guards, free the prisoners and recruit a squad of mutant Neo-Men to their cause. A squad of aliens attacked them after they broke out of the prison, and Tom helped the knights fight them off.

Unfortunately, upon their return to New Camelot, Lancelot and Guinevere resumed their affair, unable to resist one another. Arthur banished them from New Camelot and fell into a depression, refusing to do anything or stir from his throne for days on end. Merlin attempted to talk Arthur out of his mood when suddenly he was spirited away by Nyneve, his former apprentice and lover. Arthur found Tristan in Merlin's quarters, standing over a broken talisman which he had used to hold Nyvene at bay. Arthur recalled Guinevere and Lancelot and subjected Tristan to trial, accusing him of being in league with Morgan LeFay. Tristan admitted that he had intended to destroy the amulet and betray Arthur in exchange for Morgan transforming him back into a man, but claimed the talisman was already destroyed when he got there. Tristan seemingly proved his innocence by swearing on Excalibur, which Arthur claimed would kill anyone who lied while holding it.

Arthur then ordered each of the knights to swear in turn on Excalibur to discover the traitor. He dismissed Tom, as he trusted him absolutely and knew he had not betrayed him, but Tom asked to stay anyway to know the identity of the traitor. The others all swore on the sword, but when Arthur's brother Sir Kay refused to touch it, he proved that he was the traitor. He admitted that he had allowed Nyvene onto the asteroid because he thought Arthur and Merlin could have fought her off and it would have roused Arthur from his funk. Arthur sentenced Kay to death, regardless of his motives.

As the Knights did not have Merlin to warn them of an attack, Morgan and Jordan sent a fleet of alien ships to attack New Camelot. They began bombarding the asteroid just as Arthur was about to behead Kay. The knights managed to rally, but one of the ships flew up on Arthur from behind and fired on him. Kay and Tom both jumped into the path of the beam to save Arthur; Kay took a direct hit and was killed instantly, while Tom only caught a glancing blow and was left alive, but seriously injured and afflicted with radiation poisoning that would kill him in only a few days. Arthur knighted Tom for his actions.

To save Tom's life, Arthur determined to find the Holy Grail which could heal him. He sent Tom with Lancelot and Guinevere, as well as Sir Percival, who had seen the Grail in his previous life, to find it. Arthur apologised to Tom for not coming with him as his duties as king took precedence, but told Tom that he loved him like a son. Before they left, Tristan, who now thought better of Tom, told him that he would have found his affections flattering if he thought of himself as a woman. The group tracked the Grail to Glastonbury Tor where Percival had a vision that lead him to a secret cave. In the cave they met the Guardian of the Grail, Percival's uncle, still alive after more than two thousand years. Percival was able to find the disguised Grail from among a group of objects, and the Grail healed Tom when he was only seconds from death. Percival ascended into Heaven and the Guardian handed the Grail to Lancelot, telling him that he was now its protector. However, as soon as they left the cave they were attacked by an alien strike force who took the Grail.

Meanwhile, Arthur and the other Knights had stolen the last remaining rocket on Earth, mankind having abandoned space travel long ago, and journeyed to the aliens' home planet on the edge of the Solar System in order to rescue Merlin. Lancelot lead them back to the Salisbury Down nuclear plant, taking the opportunity to work out his frustrations over losing the Grail on the alien guards as he did so. Lancelot called upon the Lady of the Lake, who had once been a mortal woman who loved him, to take them to the tenth planet and join Arthur. The Lady took them through the waters to the alien planet, arriving shortly before the rocket landed. The two groups happily reunited, with Arthur pleased to see Tom alive and well, although Tristan still politely but firmly rebuffed Tom.

They camped for the night, with Tom and Galahad taking the first watch. Tom went to check on the ship and found a message warning them that, as Arthur suspected, Morgan LeFay was in league with Jordan Matthew; but when he saw that it was from Isolde he destroyed it and told nobody about it. A few hours later, Tristan and Guinevere emerged from the tent, hearing a sound that none of the men could, and a crowd of aliens appeared on the ridge. However, these aliens were peaceful and lead the group to their queen mother. She told them that Morgan LeFay had come to their once frozen planet, changed the climate to make it into a desert and kidnapped some of the queen's infant children who she turned into her mindless puppets; the aliens they had been fighting. The queen mother promised to help them destroy Morgan.

Arthur planned to lead a small force, including Tom, into Morgan's castle and rescue Merlin while Lancelot lead the remaining knights and their alien allies in a frontal assault. However, Lancelot knocked Arthur unconscious and took his place so he could find and retrieve the grail. Some friendly aliens snuck Tom, Lancelot, Tristan and Sir Gawain into Castle LeFay hidden inside crates of food; and they split up to search for Merlin.

While they were roaming the halls, Tristan was once again attacked by Owen McAllister, brought back from the dead by Morgan's magic. Tristan was able to kill McAllister, but only by sacrificing an amulet Morgan had given him which could have transformed his body back to male. Trapped forever in a female body, Tristan was about to kill himself but Tom stopped him. Tom told Tristan he could learn to like his life as a woman, and hoped he may finally be able to get Tristan to accept his advances, but Gawain stumbled across them and the moment was gone.

Outside, Arthur's forces could not break through the gate of the castle, and so Galahad sacrificed both himself and the rocket to blow open the gates. Arthur and his forces charged in and squared off against Morgan and Jordan Matthew, who had regained his memories as Arthur's son Modred. Arthur was able to kill Modred and free Merlin, who also slew Nyneve. However, Morgan summoned her entire army to attack them, and the knights and their allies could not fight them off. To destroy their enemies once and for all, Arthur had Merlin teleport the others back to Earth and used Excalibur to split the atoms of a rock, triggering a nuclear explosion and sacrificing himself to kill Morgan and her army.

With the war over, Tristan told Tom that he had decided to return to Isolde, and thanked him for everything he had done, thereby letting him down easy. Tom returned to England to assist in the rebuilding of London.

Thomas Prentice (Camelot 3000)

Contents

History

Origins

Camelot 3000

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

Weaknesses

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Related

Footnotes