[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ivanhoe_gambit.jpg]]

A series of twelve novels by Simon Hawke, written from 1984 to 1991. The main characters live in the 27th century, but the greater part of each book takes place in the past.

After the invention of TimeTravel, the world has ended war in the present. International conflicts are resolved by sending soldiers into the past to fight in wars that have already happened, but the soldiers have to be careful not to cause a TemporalParadox, which could have disastrous effects on the timestream. The main characters are members of the Time Commandos, a unit with the job of averting paradoxes by carrying out "adjustment" missions in the past.

The main recurring characters are Lucas Priest, an everyman type who's the main audience identification figure; Finn Delaney, a career soldier with an exceptional service record and a serious discipline problem (he has very little patience with any officer who doesn't earn his respect -- which is nearly every officer he's ever met); and Andre de la Croix, who was born in the 12th century but wound up emigrating to the 27th and joining the Time Commandos after getting mixed up in an adjustment mission.

A recurring antagonist, Nikolai Drakov, was introduced partway through the series. One of his plots resulted in attracting the attention of another set of recurring antagonists, Time Commandos from an AlternateUniverse who became convinced that their own universe's survival depended on them sabotaging the protagonists' history.

[[folder:Works in this series]]
# ''The Ivanhoe Gambit'' (''Literature/{{Ivanhoe}}'')
# ''The Timekeeper Conspiracy'' (''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'')
# ''The Pimpernel Plot'' (''Literature/TheScarletPimpernel'')
# ''The Zenda Vendetta'' (''Literature/ThePrisonerOfZenda'')
# ''The Nautilus Sanction'' (''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'', via [[Film/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea the Disney movie]])
# ''The Khyber Connection'' (Creator/RudyardKipling's ''Soldiers Three'' and "Gunga Din", via [[Film/GungaDin the 1939 movie]])
# ''The Argonaut Affair'' ([[Myth/GreekMythology Jason and the Argonauts]], via [[Film/JasonAndTheArgonauts the Harryhausen movie]])
# ''The Dracula Caper'' (Franchise/UniversalHorror movies and the works of Creator/HGWells)
# ''The Lilliput Legion'' (''Literature/GulliversTravels'')
# ''The Hellfire Rebellion'' (Pre-revolutionary Boston via ''Literature/JohnnyTremain'')
# ''The Cleopatra Crisis''
# ''The Six-Gun Solution'' (The gun fight at the OK Corral, ''despite'' most film interpretations)
[[/folder]]
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!!Tropes found in this series include:
* AbandonedWarChild: When Forrester was a young soldier he once had an affair with a local girl while temporarily separated from his unit, and then had to abandon her when his comrades found him again. (With the additional complication that, because it was a time war, this happened not only in a different country but in a different ''century''.) Their son grows up with a massive grudge, and becomes the series's main recurring antagonist.
* ActionGirl: Andre
* AlternateUniverse
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Lucas]], via a screwy time-travel trick that fixed it so he never died in the first place
* BastardBastard: When Ned Land calls Drakov a bastard in ''The Nautilus Sanction'', he calmly replies that it's literally true. He is the illegitimate son of a Russian peasant woman and a time traveler who had a liaison with her and then returned to his own time without realising he'd got her pregnant.
* CaptainNemoCopy: ''The Nautilus Sanction'' features Drakov, a mad captain from the future, stealing the titular ship, armed with nuclear weapons in this version, to start a world war. The name of the ship is very blatantly a reference to [[Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea Captain Nemo]] and his ''Nautilus''.
* CloningGambit: see above.
* CoincidenceMagnet: The series posits as one of the rules of time travel that doing it too frequently distorts causality and results in the time traveler encountering larger and more frequent coincidences. This is often cited as a justification for instances of the LawOfTimeTravelCoincidences, and is particularly showcased in ''The Zenda Vendetta'', where the entire plot runs on coincidences including several sets of chance meetings between old acquaintences and one of the main characters turning out to be the IdenticalStranger of two separate historical figures.
* CompeteForTheMaidensHand: After Andre joins the Corps, Lucas and Finn agree on a drinking contest to settle which of them gets to make a move on her. She learns about it and insists on being allowed to join the contest, wins it handily, and claims as her prize a night on the town at their expense without either of them.
* DeadAlternateCounterpart: Happens both ways once the timeline of the Alternate Time Commandos is introduced. It's established early on that Andre's counterpart is dead; later inverted with the Time Commandos meeting the late Hunter's still-living counterpart.
* DrinkingContest: After Andre joins the Corps, Lucas and Finn agree on a drinking contest to settle which of them gets to make a move on her. When she learns about it, she insists on being allowed to compete as well, wins handily, and makes it clear that she's not much impressed with either of them.
* ExpendableAlternateUniverse: Averted; the characters are understandably horrified to learn that [[spoiler: their technology has caused the equivalent of a nuclear war in the AlternateUniverse, which declares war on them]], and whenever they set out to mess with the alternate world's history, it's with a full understanding of the consequences.
* FashionsNeverChange: Averted. The Temporal Corps has extremely efficient research and wardrobe departments whose job it is to ensure that the time travellers are not wearing or carrying anything that could mark them as being a non-local. Helped by the fact that the trips are almost always made to a specific time and event (usually a battle). One problem encountered is that many of the veterans are smokers who keep attempting to smuggle cigarettes back with them, even to places and times where tobacco was unknown. One character does note that if you do find up somewhere you're not supposed to be, a 'generic' mud stained peasant outfit will pass in many eras, provided no one looks to closely.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Andre.
* FlockOfWolves: In ''The Pimpernel Plot'' there's a scene where, apart from Literature/{{the Scarlet Pimpernel}} and his nemesis, everybody in the room turns out to be an undercover time traveler, with about half of them working for the villain and the other half there as backup for the heroes. (Possibly a bonus in-joke for readers familiar with the source novel: in the original version of the scene, apart from the Pimpernel and his nemesis, ''the room is empty''.)
* GeniusBruiser: Finn.
* GodGuise: In ''The Khyber Connection'', Gunga Din hails Dr. Darkness as the god Shiva after seeing him teleporting.
* HalfHumanHybrid: The hominoids.
* HaveAGayOldTime:
** In the original ''Literature/ThePrisonerOfZenda'', there is a scene in which it is decided that the King's double must hold up the ruse by making love to the King's fiancée. When this scene is revisited in ''The Zenda Vendetta'', the conversation is re-worded to make it quite clear what this will (and will ''not'') involve.
** In ''The Dracula Caper'' the team, disguised as contemporary American secret agents, use "gay" in the modern sense, leading to the following exchange:
-->'''H.G. Wells:''' The deceased was ''gay?''\\
'''Agent:''' He means the deceased was homosexual, Mr. Wells.\\
'''H.G. Wells:''' I'm so glad I learned that before travelling to America, I would hate to give the wrong impression.
* HeadlessHorseman: ''The Hellfire Rebellion''
* HedgeMaze: A clandestine meeting occurs in one in ''The Pimpernel Plot''.
* HeManWomanHater: Doctor Darkness. Actually, he just doesn't like people (and moved to a base on a planet around another star to get away from them) but Andre is told he has particular issues with women.
* HighDiveEscape: ''The Zenda Vendetta''
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Freely mixed with {{Public Domain Character}}s and becoming more prevalent as the series moves towards historical fiction at the end.
** ''The Nautilus Sanction'': Creator/JulesVerne
** ''The Khyber Connection'': UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill
** ''The Dracula Caper'': Creator/BramStoker, Creator/ArthurConanDoyle, Creator/HGWells, Creator/OscarWilde
** ''The Hellfire Rebellion'': Sam Adams, Paul Revere, the Sons of Liberty
** ''The Six-Gun Solution'': The Earps, the Clantons and Doc Holliday.
* HistoricalInJoke
* IdenticalStranger: ''The Zenda Vendetta'' takes the situation from ''Literature/ThePrisonerOfZenda'', with the added complication that both of the identical Rudolfs look almost exactly like Finn.
* InSpiteOfANail:
** The timestream can compensate for small disturbances, as long as you don't do something major like kill UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill.
** Even though the AlternateUniverse has a different history, each of the major characters has an exact genetic duplicate there, and all their duplicates are in the equivalent of the Temporal Corps.
* KnightKnaveAndSquire: A number of the books revolve around the same three characters (Lucas, Finn and Andre) going on missions together. Lucas is the more idealistic officer, Finn the more pragmatic warrior, and Andre the newcomer.
* LastMinuteHookup: [[spoiler: Lucas and Andre.]]
* LawOfTimeTravelCoincidences: Each of the books has the protagonists getting caught up in the events of a famous story or historical event; sometimes that's because the villain is deliberately tampering with those events, but quite often it's just a coincidence. The series posits as one of the rules governing time travel that doing it too frequently distorts causality and makes the time traveler a CoincidenceMagnet.
* {{Lilliputians}}: ''The Lilliput Legion''
* LostInImitation: Each book is based more on a famous film version of its inspiration than directly on the book itself: ''The Nautilus Sanction'', for instance, on the Disney film of ''Film/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea''. It's not clear whether this is because Hawke expects his audience to be more familiar with the films, or because the film versions are generally a more convenient length, or what. (There are enough in-jokes and references to show that Hawke has read the originals, so that's not the reason.)
* LukeYouAreMyFather: Drakov reveals that his father is [[spoiler:Forrester, the Time Commandos' commanding officer]].
* MadLibThrillerTitle: Every single book, often referring to a classic work of literature that inspired the book. In order: ''[[Literature/{{Ivanhoe}} The Ivanhoe Gambit]]'', ''[[Literature/TheThreeMusketeers The Timekeeper Conspiracy]]'', ''[[Literature/TheScarletPimpernel The Pimpernel Plot]]'', ''[[Literature/ThePrisonerOfZenda The Zenda Vendetta]]'', ''[[Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea The Nautilus Sanction]]'', ''The Khyber Connection'', ''The Argonaut Affair'', ''[[Literature/{{Dracula}} The Dracula Caper]]'', ''[[Literature/GulliversTravels The Lilliput Legion]]'', ''The Hellfire Rebellion'', ''The Cleopatra Crisis'', and ''The Six-Gun Solution''.
* MadScientist: Dr. Darkness.
* MagicPlasticSurgery: often used to help the protagonists impersonate historical figures
* MakeGamesNotWar: Disputes between nations are settled by a series of 'war games' conducted by representatives of the nations militaries who are sent back in time to conduct these games during historical battles. The games are judged and scored by the Referee Corps, who decide upon the winner.
* MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight: Most of the villains, for a variety of reasons.
* MexicanStandoff: In ''The Pimpernel Plot'', immediately after the Flock of Wolves reveal.
* TheMole: [[spoiler: Martingale.]]
* NewChildLeftBehind: Drakov's origin story.
* NoEqualOpportunityTimeTravel: It is mentioned in the first novel that while the Temporal Corps recruits women, they are often limited to support roles in missions as not many time periods have frontline female fighters.
* NoIAmBehindYou: A common technique in one-on-one fights between time travelers is to teleport behind one's opponent a few seconds ago so you can stab them in the back -- hopefully before they notice, or they'll do the same to you. If both fighters are on the ball, the result will be, for a moment, a long alternating line of fighters each trying to stab the one in front of them. The technique is called "temporal fugue", probably in homage to the similar fighting technique of that name in ''Literature/CreaturesOfLightAndDarkness''.
* OneOfTheBoys: Andre, having grown up as a 12th Century SweetPollyOliver knight.
* OntologicalInertia: The Law of Historical Inertia says that any minor charges in the timestream will be smoothed out like water flowing round rocks. You need to make a sizable change to affect history, which the antagonists generally plan to do.
* ThePlan: Drakov, over and over.
* PublicDomainCharacter: The inevitable lynchpin of a series based on WholePlotReference.
* RecruitersAlwaysLie: Temporal Corps recruiting presentations involve the more attractive soldiers, many of whom have never seen actual combat, dressing up in pretty historical costumes. The series regulars bitterly note how these sales pitches bear almost no resemblance to their actual duties, which frequently involve being on freezing, muddy battlefields, disguised as peasants in lice-ridden clothing.
* SamusIsAGirl: Andre de la Croix in the first novel. The reader doesn't find out her gender until after she's kicked serious butt at a tournament.
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: In the Pimpernel Plot the team manages to reverse an error that (unbeknownst to them) created an alternate timeline...and then has to live with the fact that erasing that alternate timeline may just make them ''the greatest mass murderers in all history.''
* ShoutOut:
** All the {{Whole Plot Reference}}s.
** Andre's mentor, Hunter, compares himself at one point to [[Theatre/MyFairLady Henry Higgins]].
* ShownTheirWork: ''The Hellfire Rebellion'' and ''The Six Gun Solution'' both contain excellent summaries of the historical events and people involved (Pre-Revolutionary Boston and the gunfight at the OK Corral, respectively).
* ShroudedInMyth: In ''The Ivanhoe Gambit'', Robin Hood turns out to be a lot less impressive than legend makes him out to be.
* SplittingTheArrow: In ''The Ivanhoe Gambit'', one of the heroes, standing in for Robin Hood, cheats with uptime technology to pull off this feat.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: Lucas is happy to return to civilian life at the end of the first book, but finds he doesn't fit in any more and re-enlists.
* SubmarinePirates: ''The Nautilus Sanction''
* SweetPollyOliver: Andre, in the first book and a few times thereafter.
* TakeAThirdOption: Gulliver (yes, ''the'' Gulliver) says he'd prefer death to a memory wipe, which he sees as essentially the same thing. Colonel Forester recruits him instead.
* TechnoBabble
* TemporalParadox: heading them off is the commando's primary job.
* TerminatorTwosome: In ''The Ivanhoe Gambit'', Lucas and his team are sent to the 12th Century to prevent a rogue referee from damaging the timeline. The events of this novel wind up uncovering the larger conspiracy that drives the plot of the rest of the series.
* TimePolice
* TimeTravel
* TokenRomance
* TomboyishName: Andre again; she acquired the name in her SweetPollyOliver days but continues to use it even when not posing as a man. (Any other name she may have had is never even mentioned.)
* TheTourney: Part of ''The Ivanhoe Gambit'' takes place during the tournament from ''Literature/{{Ivanhoe}}''.
* TrickedOutTime: basically the entire MO of the Time Commandos
* TheTropeKid: The Montana Kid in ''The Six-Gun Solution''.
* VillainExitStageLeft
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Drakov and the Timekeepers.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman
* YearInsideHourOutside: The Temporal Corps recruiters only require soldiers to enlist for a week, but that's a week of the ''present''; you can spend six months in the past and come back five minutes later. However, thanks to 27th-century anti-aging treatments, most soldiers look much younger than they really are and still have a decent lifespan left when they leave the army.
* YouWillBeBeethoven: ''The Pimpernel Plot''. [[spoiler:Finn has to impersonate Sir Percy Blakeney after the real Sir Percy is killed. At the end of the novel, another member of the Temporal Corps is sent back to take over Sir Percy's life and live it out as history records to prevent temporal paradox.]]
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