Hello, just to let you know I don't own 20,000 leagues under the Sea or Mysterious Island.
This version of Captain Nemo was portrayed by John Bach, who in a couple of years later played Pierre Aronnax's father in the TV movie of 20,000 leagues under the Sea starring Michael Caine. In this version of Mysterious Island, Nemo was manipulating the castaways on the island, driving them apart and documenting the experiences like a scientist studying rats in a cage.
Enjoy.
Pirate Freedom Fighter to Social Manipulator.
As he guided the Nautilus away from the island after ripping away the hope from the castaways, Captain Nemo wondered what kind of changes would be wrought on Harding and the others after he had offered them the chance to escape the island only to rip that hope away by leaving.
The castaways had been surprising him for the last few months during their time on the island since the day he had fired a round into the balloon which brought them all the way to America; no matter what he desired from them, they relied on each other too much for Nemo's tastes; he would have preferred them to have turned against each other, their relationships destroyed due to his subtle manipulations as their prolonged stay on the island got to them.
If Nemo had had his way, Neb's 'death' would have turned the other castaways on Harding's perceived leadership very gradually, especially when it became increasingly clear to Jack and Herbert Pencroff that Harding was attracted to their wife/stepmother. Jack had shown that he was incredibly protective of his wife, something Nemo not only understood but approved of wholeheartedly when he remembered his own relationship with his family before the British destroyed it like they destroyed everything else their foul eyes locked onto, but if he'd had the right circumstances within his grasp then Nemo could have effortlessly torn the Pencroff family to pieces.
It might have been so simple, really; Jack had been overprotective and he hadn't understood his son's own interests and admiration of nature which Nemo himself could understand considering what he had seen on his Nautilus, and it turned into moments of frustration whenever Herbert refused or hesitated to kill an animal he was hunting or whenever Joanna became too friendly with other men without realising that his own insecurities were causing tension. Nemo could have made use of that.
In comparison, Herbert was more interested in doing things his own way and he had shown signs of being frightened his own father would become impatient with him. And Joanna was tired of her husband's lack of faith in a trained United States Army engineer's abilities which caused more tension within the group, and faith in her own integrity. It wouldn't have been a problem if he had found the right opportunity to tear them to pieces, most likely blaming or taking sides with Spillett or Harding and going off on their own and fending for themselves and if they didn't make amends in the long term or they did, Nemo would document it in his files.
But the frustrating thing was it hadn't happened, Nemo had hoped that the long incarceration on this island which was far from the shipping routes in this part of the Pacific and those conflicts could have split the group up and made them fend for themselves on different parts of the island so he could monitor them and add new ideas and theories and observations to his portfolios. Nemo's work had been going on for a long time since his war against the British Navy and the death of his family, but when he had found Aryton living on his own Nemo had studied the castaway, he had realised something important, something he had never realised he could transform into a weapon against the British and his other enemies.
Captain Nemo came from a country that had been torn apart by British imperialism. His family, who had been wealthy, had been lucky enough to be historic shipbuilders. Their knowledge in seamanship and their standards of constructing ocean-going clipper ships and merchantmen had been passed on to him. Thanks to his family, his father and three of his uncles, Nemo learnt how to build basic boats from canoes, rafts and longboats before learning how to navigate rivers and write charts and navigate before his family sent him off into the world when they realised he had a gifted intellect and they sent him away to acquire a complete and comprehensive education.
Accompanied by a number of his family's servants, Nemo travelled all over the globe, visiting every country in Europe as part of his education. He learnt how to write and speak many languages, studying cuisine, alcohol making, making contact with mathematicians in different countries while meeting chemists, botanists and engineers, while he learnt martial arts such as Savate in France and sword fighting in Spain, Portugal, and Germany and hunting in Switzerland on the Alps. It was in France and Spain that Nemo discovered the earliest submarine vessels from Robert Fulton's Nautilus which was displayed to France's Napoleon Bonaparte before the Battle of Trafalgar, but then he had travelled into France because Nemo had longed to free his country from British oppression for a very long time.
He had merely hoped the country's history would give him ideas that he could make use of, and he had hoped before he had gone into Britain itself he hoped to find a weakness he could use to exploit against them. It was hoped the Nautilus would be used to destroy British shipping and prove to be an invaluable weapon against the British. France quickly became one of Nemo's favourite countries because of their antagonistic rivalry against Britain and he had met many soldiers and sailors including the French corsair Robert Surcouf who taught Nemo many tactics which would become invaluable when Nemo later returned to Europe in his own submarine and attacked the British navy with the torpedo weapons he had pioneered and the mines he had planted on several warships and scattered off the coast of Portsmouth.
Spain was another of Nemo's favourite countries thanks to the submarine Ictineo 1, a submarine constructed to aid divers. Nemo made contact with the vessel's inventor and designer, who was more than intrigued by Nemo's interest and fascination. The ghost of an idea had bloomed within Nemo's mind when he had travelled into France, and he realised there was a brilliant weakness that he could use against his country's enemy.
Britain was an island with ports pointing towards their ancient enemies. Even London was not immune; the city had a river running through it, as did Glasgow with the River Clyde, and Newcastle Upon Tyne with the river Tyne. With the right circumstances, somebody would be able to make use of those rivers and ports and cripple the British shipbuilding industries and naval strength. When he was in America and discovered the Turtle, an early submarine attack on a British warship, Nemo's mind clinched and he began making plans after studying advanced shipbuilding and engineering techniques. Within America's best universities, he discovered ways of constructing advanced hydroelectric generators and turbines, combined with a way of making solar energy work.
By the time Nemo returned to his home country, he had finished the plans for a submarine warship while he settled down and had a wife and a son. By the time his son was old enough, he had finished constructing the Nautilus, and he had used his submarine to salvage the gold and jewels lost over the centuries in hurricanes and disasters in order to pay for intelligence networks and weapons. With the backing of the people of his country who yearned for freedom from Britain, Nemo began launching attacks on the British Navy. He mined the English Channel, destroying a number of warships and torpedoed a number of warships. At first, the British and other countries believed the Nautilus was a sea monster, but the revelation they were dealing with a submarine came about from the worst source imaginable.
For a long time Nemo had hoped his son would prove to be his clone in mind, but he wasn't. Nemo had no idea why, but his son yearned for peace. They had dozens of arguments about Nemo's vendetta against the British. The boy had never understood that the British would never eventually leave them alone. They only understood violence and could only be driven out with violence. Foolishly the stupid boy had gone to the British with information that the Nautilus was a submarine, and he took pictures of the secret construction of the submarine vessel. Angered when he discovered what his son had done, Nemo had gone after him but the British had taken him captive - Nemo didn't understand why, but when he had taken the Nautilus out, time and time again to try to save him, he eventually found his son dying from torture. His son didn't even have time to say anything before he died, but in his eyes, Nemo knew his son had finally accepted the truth.
The British were evil. They had tortured him to discover what he knew, what weaknesses Nemo had and they had refused to listen to his son's hopes for peace.
Nemo had pretended to sink the Nautilus out of rage for his son's death during a battle with the British Navy, but his ship and crew survived. However his crew eventually decided that he was too extreme for their tastes, so they tried to mutiny against him, but he had designed the Nautilus and he had installed a number of features and safeguards to ensure his safety in case of a mutiny and when it came, he killed his crew, abdicated and took his submarine into the Pacific to the island.
On the way, Nemo had reflected on his life and recent events, and he had come up with dozens of questions.
What had made his crew just revolt against him like that?
What had inspired his son to betray him?
Why were the British more feared than other nations?
On his travels, Captain Nemo had spent a lot of time learning the art of psychology but there were some things that eluded the greatest minds in that field, but on the way to the island, Nemo had become inspired by the idea of setting up a base in the Pacific, an isolated island, where it was rare for ships to visit. He could plant a number of people on the island and push them through all kinds of grief, giving them hope and then taking it away. And if he was lucky, he could discover a way of lashing out at the British in a more poetic way than using torpedoes. He knew many warmongers used terror tactics in their campaigns, and they came off as vicious and dangerous and their reputation spread, becoming more exaggerated as time passed by.
Why couldn't he find a way of doing the same for the British and the other countries who were likely dangerous to his country? At the same time, if he was lucky, he could find something to terrify the British and any other enemy that may attack again. He had prepared the island and he had studied Aryton, a castaway who'd been lost on the island for years before Harding and others arrived, and he had forced the other man who had managed to set up a little hut and a garden and turned him into a Neolithic man who barely knew his own name by the time he was done. But Aryton was simple, he needed a group and he had the perfect group on that island.
As he stood in the Nautilus control room holding the spokes of the steering wheel, Nemo promised himself that he would return to the island soon. He had decided not to go back for six months originally but he would return in just a week, and he would reveal himself again in a few months after observing and spying on their psychological progress.
If you're interested in funding my work, please look me up on Pa-treon under the name The Stargate Time Traveller.
Thank you.