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Morlocks are one of the two fictional species of post-humans created by H. G. Wells for his 1895 novel The Time Machine (the other being the Eloi). The origin of the names is not established (with regard to Wells' inspiration or inspirations). In the Wells' story, the Morlocks are the novel's main antagonists. Since their creation by Wells, Morlock characters have appeared in many other works, including sequels, films, television shows, as well as in works by other authors (many of which deviate from the original description).
After thousands of generations of living without sunlight, the Morlocks have come to resemble troglofauna. They are described as apelike, with dull grey-to-white skin, chinless faces, large greyish-red eyes with a Tapetum lucidum, and flaxen hair on the head and back. They are stronger than the Eloi, but smaller and weaker than the average human (the Time Traveller hurt or killed some barehanded with relative ease), but a large swarm of them could be a serious threat to a lone man, especially unarmed and/or without a light source. Unlike the Eloi, the Morlocks retain some of their human curiosity, initiative, and aggression: they are intrigued by the Time Traveller and band together to attack him when he invades their dwelling. Their language is composed of strange, unpleasant sounds, which the Time Traveller never deciphers. Their sensitivity to light usually prevents them from attacking during the day.
The relationship between the Morlocks and the Eloi is symbiotic: the Eloi are clothed, fed and possibly bred by the Morlocks, and the Morlocks consume the Eloi as a food source. Seeing this, the Time Traveller speculates that the relationship developed from a Social class distinction present in his own time: the Morlocks are descendants of the working class who were relegated to working and living underground so that the rich upper class could live in luxury on the surface. With time, the roles altered – the surface people grew apathetic and helpless to the point that they were no longer masters of their subterranean counterparts. However, the Morlocks must have continued to tend to the Eloi (the protagonist guesses this may at first have been out of tradition or intrinsic habit) and at some point began using them as livestock.
The Morlocks in this 1995 novel are utterly peaceful, moralistic, and highly intelligent. The character Nebogipfel learns English in a matter of days and is soon able to speak it fluently, although with some limitations due to the Morlocks' vocal apparatus, which is quite different from humans. The only resemblance these new Morlocks have to the monstrous cannibals of the first future is that of appearance and dwelling "underground". The sphere they inhabit is divided into two concentric shells, with the Morlocks living exclusively inside the nearly featureless exterior. Above them, the inner shell where the sun shines openly is an Earth-like utopia; in its many forms and at many technological levels (from somehow familiar nowadays like industrial worlds, to worlds having anti-gravitational devices), they continue on here in much the same way as that of the Time Traveller's era, war being the most obvious holdover.
The Morlocks' new civilization includes a variety of nation-groups based on thought and ideology, in which individuals move between without conflict. All needs are met by the sphere itself, including reproduction where the newly born are "extruded" directly from the floor. These peaceful intelligent Morlocks seem also to have extraordinary resistance to disease and perhaps to radiations too, even when not in their homeworld, as stated by Nebogipfel when in the Paleocene. (The Time Traveller quickly became ill from unknown germs, while Nebogipfel, though injured and disabled, suffered no apparent ill effects.)
Nebogipfel is the only Morlock whose name is revealed, and remains with the Time Traveller throughout the book. Nebogipfel's name derives from the main character of H. G. Wells' first attempt at a time travel story, then called "Chronic Argonauts", and a character there named "Dr. Moses Nebogipfel". (The name Moses was also used in The Time Ships, though it is given to the younger version of himself that the Time Traveller meets on his journey.)
Hence, on the whole, these Morlocks are much more formidable than those in Wells' The Time Machine—a clever, technological race with enough power to take over the entire world. They also receive support from treacherous 19th century humans, especially a dark wizard named Merdenne. It is also revealed that the Morlocks living in their native time (the 8,028th century) have stopped allowing the Eloi to roam free and now keep them in pens.
Larry Niven included a version of the Morlocks in his Known Space books. They appear as a alien race living in the caves in one region of Known Space, which is one of 's colonies in the Alpha Centauri system. Many of these stories are by Hal Colebatch in the shared spin-off series, "Man-Kzin Wars", especially in vols. X, XI and XII. They are also mentioned in stories in the same series by M. J. Harringtom. In Joanna Russ' short story "The Second Inquisition", The Time Machine is referenced a number of times, and the unnamed character referred to as "our guest" (who is evidently a visitor from the future) claims to be a Morlock, although she does not physically resemble Wells' Morlocks.
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, Morlocks are the elite warriors of the Iron Hands chapter of space marines and feature in several Horus Heresy novels where they act as bodyguards for their primarch Ferrus Manus. The inhabitants of the Moscow metro are sometimes sarcastically referred to as Morlocks in Dmitry Glukhovsky's Metro 2033.
J. R. R. Tolkien mentioned Morlocks three times in his 1939 essay On Fairy-Stories, which discusses the genre now called fantasy. The first reference occurs where Tolkien attempts to define the genre, and he suggests that the Morlocks (and Eloi) place The Time Machine more in the genre than do the Lilliputians in Gulliver's Travels. He reasoned that the Lilliputians are merely diminutive humans, whereas the Morlocks and Eloi are significantly different from us, and "live far away in an abyss of time so deep as to work an enchantment". Another reference to the creatures of The Time Machine occurs in the essay's section "Recovery, Escape, Consolation". Here it's argued that fantasy offers a legitimate means of escape from the mundane world and the "Morlockian horror of factories". Elsewhere in his essay, Tolkien warns against separating fantasy readers into superficial categories, using the Eloi and Morlocks as a dramatic illustration of the repercussions of sundering the human race.Tolkien, J.R.R., Tree and Leaf, 2nd edition, Unwin Paperbacks, pp. 19, 64 & 48;
The Morlocks in this film draw the Eloi to their doom through the use of air raid sirens. Sirens, which once warned their ancestors to seek shelter underground, now evoke an instinctual response in the Eloi: they go into a trance and proceed to Morlock realms, where the Morlocks finally herd them underground with whips.
Weena leads Perry into a preserved technology museum, which also shows his bomb developed in the past for the Mega Corporation, and in a video animation he can see the damage caused by his bomb. Before Perry returns to his time, he and Ariel blow up three entrances to the Morlocks' caves with plastic explosives they found in the museum. When he travels back in time to tell his company about the dramatic effects of the bomb in the future, his superiors show disinterest. Perry travels to the future again to return to Weena and the Eloi and finds that their world is now free of the Morlocks.
The movie displays three of these races:
As explained by the Über-Morlock when Alexander is brought to him while trying to save the Eloi Mara, the Morlocks originated from humans that sought shelter underground, after operation demolitions for constructing a colony on the Moon sent some of its fragments crashing to Earth. They remained underground for so long that they developed bodies with albinism and very sensitive eyes that could not tolerate sunlight for long. As a result of the past catastrophe and the resulting strain on resources, the proto-Morlocks divided themselves into several castes, two of which (the 'Hunters' and the 'Spies') could survive in the daylight. They inbred within each caste until the Morlock race became composed of genetically fine-tuned sub-races designed for specific tasks.
During the climax of the film, Alexander kills the Über-Morlock by pushing him out of the moving time machine. The rest of the Morlocks are destroyed when Alexander causes his time travel to malfunction and explode in their tunnels.
In the 1978 Challenge of the Superfriends episode titled "Conquerors of the Future", the episode featured Barlocks, a variation of the Morlocks in a time period when the Super Friends are long dead who lived outside a domed city that is Earth's capital. The Barlocks have attacked it many times and are driven away by the bright lights. In addition, they aren't very good at mastering the technology they have. When the Legion of Doom arrived and encountered the Barlocks, Lex Luthor formed an alliance with their leader (voiced by Ted Cassidy) and came up with a trick to take over the domed city. Afterwards, the Legion of Doom used them in their plans to conquer the galaxy with Lex Luthor leading the Barlocks to conquer the ruling planet of Sector 13 while Black Manta leads the Barlocks to conquer the ruling planet in the Outer Galaxy Region. When Superman, Hal Jordan, and Barry Allen arrive in this time after accidentally appearing in the farther future and finding a history book that details the history of Earth, they defeat the Legion of Doom as Flash uses his super-speed to place the Barlocks back in their cave. The inhabitants of Earth's capital city sees to it that the planets the Legion of Doom and the Barlocks have conquered are liberated.
Homer Simpson mentions Morlocks in The Simpsons episode "Homer the Moe", claiming he became their king while telling a shaggy dog story.
In 2003, Peak Entertainment relaunched Monster in My Pocket with former lead villain Warlock as the hero. The new villain became Warlock's evil twin Morlock. The series was passed on by Cartoon Network and Peak's rights to Monster in My Pocket were revoked on December 22, 2004. With the series' limited distribution, it is difficult to say if the connection was more than a nominal one.
In 2006, a new incarnation of Power Rangers, titled , includes Morlocks as the enemies of the Mystic Force Rangers. Sources from before the show's premiere described them as "zombie-like foot soldiers" and it was also implied that they live underground below the town of Briarwood (where the show takes place) and plot to rise up and destroy everything. However, it has since been revealed that the Morlocks in the show are not simply foot soldiers; they comprise the entire group of enemies of the Power Rangers that have been led by Octomus. The Morlocks in the show are entirely unlike those in The Time Machine, except that they still live underground and are villains. These Morlocks are not portrayed as a divergent species of , but instead as an ancient, evil legion who were sealed underground centuries ago. The Morlocks have finally broken the seal and are planning to invade Briarwood, and later the world. The term was used exclusively in promotional material and was never mentioned in the show.
On the episode of The Big Bang Theory called "The Nerdvana Annihilation," Leonard Hofstadter and his friends chipped in to buy an original time machine prop from the 1960 film classic The Time Machine. None in the group was more excited about the purchase than Sheldon Cooper, who seemed to think he was the only one able to grasp the full possibilities of owning such a unique piece of memorabilia. His viewpoint changed drastically though, after he experienced a series of episode-ending dreams, all featuring the infamous cannibalistic Morlock species from the classic H. G. Wells book. The first dream was him travelling to the future on 28 April 802701 and being eaten alive by three Morlocks. When he wakes up, Leonard agrees to get rid of the time machine, but he hires Morlocks to do it (called Starving Morlocks). As they eat Sheldon, he wakes up again and yells for Leonard to help him.
In the 2010 episode of Futurama titled "The Late Philip J. Fry," Bender, Farnsworth, and Fry travel to the future where they meet a society of small creatures who explain that humanity has diverged into two distinct groups through evolution. Upon returning five years later, the crew discovers that the small, intelligent creatures have been overrun and destroyed by the troglodytic "Dumb-locks."
In the 2014 episode of Regular Show titled "Journey to the Bottom of the Crash Pit," Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man and Hi-Five Ghost travel to their cave in search for a video camera, they find it in possession of the "Carlocks" instead of Morlocks, who are the first and last of the mighty underground race and refuse to give it back, forcing them to steal it and escape in a worn-out car. The Carlocks give chase to try and get the camera back, but the four manage to escape the hole. Skips' truck then dumped dirt into the hole, killing them for good.
In Italian Horror comic Dylan Dog Morlock is presented in episode Zed as a large humanoid monster with big fangs and three eyes.
The Carlocks, instead of Morlocks, also appear in the online game Fist Punch 2 as enemies.
In Deponia Doomsday, Morlocks are instead named Fewlocks, but being referred to as Morlocks once and appear as enemies to the protagonists.
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