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The TV 21 Time Machine was a time machine located on Venus which was regularly used by TV Century 21 in the 2060s for the purposes of obtaining news stories for their magazine, such as stories from the 1960s.
Function
The time machine was a "huge, complex aerial" located on Venus. It was the second piece of equipment in TV 21's video-report net-work. TV 21's reporters at the machine fed the selected material into a computer, with the type then being transformed into radio waves to the cyclon, a wheel-like item at the aerial's centre. After being atomised, the waves were then sent out at one hundred times the speed of light. The process was then reversed at Unity City's receiver aerial before the news story was passed on to the London editorial offices. (PROSE: TV 21's Time Machine [+]Loading...["TV 21's Time Machine (short story)"])
Through this process, the machine was able to report on stories from the 1960s. (COMIC: Who Killed Lord Nelson? [+]Loading...["Who Killed Lord Nelson? (comic story)"], PROSE: Fireflash Mk II Bound for New York [+]Loading...["Fireflash Mk II Bound for New York (short story)"], etc.)
History
The machine was used in 2065 to report on the Los Angeles Homicide Bureau in 1965, documenting events such as their investigations of Wall Street tycoon Elias Hoodreim's death, (COMIC: Who Killed Elias Hoodreim? [+]Loading...["Who Killed Elias Hoodreim? (comic story)"]) actor Lord Nelson's death, (COMIC: Who Killed Lord Nelson? [+]Loading...["Who Killed Lord Nelson? (comic story)"]) and Death's death. (COMIC: Who Killed Death? [+]Loading...["Who Killed Death? (comic story)"])
Engineers once had to be called in to check the time machine because a fault seemed to have developed in the Fireball XL5 recieving channel, which was reading 1965 instead of 2065. (COMIC: The Menace of the Monstrons [+]Loading...["The Menace of the Monstrons (comic story)"])
By 2069, the time machine had begun reporting on Stanley Unwin (PROSE: Fireflash Mk II Bound for New York [+]Loading...["Fireflash Mk II Bound for New York (short story)"], XL5 Crew Detained on Astra! [+]Loading...["XL5 Crew Detained on Astra! (short story)"]) and the Supercar team. (PROSE: XL5 Crew Detained on Astra! [+]Loading...["XL5 Crew Detained on Astra! (short story)"])
At some point, the time machine had broken, but was fixed by the time of a report in 2069, which also reported that it would be documenting the exploits of Father Stanley Unwin in his role as a covert agent for British Intelligence. (PROSE: Fireflash Mk II Bound for New York [+]Loading...["Fireflash Mk II Bound for New York (short story)"])
Later, the machine gave reports regarding one of Dr Beaker inventions being inadvertently activated, as well as the theft of Stanley Unwin's suitcase. (PROSE: XL5 Crew Detained on Astra! [+]Loading...["XL5 Crew Detained on Astra! (short story)"])
Behind the scenes
The TV 21 Time Machine was a recurring element of TV Century 21, being used to report on series such as Burke's Law and Supercar, due to said series not being set in the 2060s like most of the magazine.