"The Time Machine" is the 24th Thunderbirds comic story published in TV21, spanning six parts across issues 203 and 208.
It directly introduced the concept of time-travel into Thunderbirds for the first time, with Scott, Jeff, Gordon, Brains, and Thunderbird 4 all travelling 10 years into the future - TV21 had earlier established such a thing was possible during the Fireball XL5 story Time Slip!, and the Lady Penelope's Secret Files series had previously alluded to it in Nobody Stopped the Train. Uniquely, however, this version of time-travel ages those who use it as they travel forward, resulting in older versions of the characters involved.
Synopsis[]
Twenty years of research and hard work from Professor Walter Darien have gone into the creation of the Time Cone, and he has invited Jeff and Scott to beat witness to his first trip - 10 years into the future. However, on the cone's return, Walter is missing, with the only person inside being a two year old child - Walter's son Robin, who had been eight when he left. Scott and Jeff are forced to travel into the future to age Robin back up and find out what has happened to Walter - and uncover an eco-terrorist plot to destroy the newly dammed Niagara Falls, inundating a vast area with a large amount of water.
Characters[]
(in order of appearance)
- Jeff Tracy
- Scott Tracy
- Walter Darien
- Robin Darien
- Brains
- Lambert
- Virgil Tracy
- Gordon Tracy
IR Equipment Used[]
Trivia[]
- International Rescue appear to no longer be operating by 2078, as their 2068 counterparts take it upon themselves to repair the Niagara Falls dam instead of leaving it for their future selves to deal with.
- Thunderbird 4 is dismantled in its entirety to fit inside the Time Cone, and reassembled on the other side. Indeed, it only takes three and a half hours to reassemble the craft on the other side.
- Despite seemingly being originally called out to witness the Time Cone as a personal endeavour, Jeff and Scott have no hesitation in revealing that they are part of International Rescue when things go awry - something that have taken great lengths to avoid in the past.