Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 28, 2021

Maybe Tracy is talking about Honeymoon who wanted to see Moon Valley?

What’s wrong with Tracy’s pinky? Is he having a stroke? Why does his shirt seem so wrinkled at the collar? Is that a booger in his nose? Can this story get anymore boring than it is???

“Use new tech to look into the past? Borrrrrinnnng! I might know one person into that kind of thing.”

Does Diet always button his jacket when a guest leaves?

Just wondering.

Good morning™, everyone!

So no future pictures for the foreseeable future, but who does Tracy know who’s always wanted to see something in the past?

Something moon maid related?

Almost looks like a one-off. Dietrich finished his show-and-tell and Tracy seems finished with visiting Smith.

In the meantime, we got some time to kill before the anniversary.

Minute Mystery next week?

Good morning™, timely talkers !

Goggles guy must be protecting his eyes from a radiation unknown to the others. He may also be a bad guy subbing in for the real tech who is tied up in a back room. Sabotage or theft of the time machine may already be in progress.

Better tell him who it is for security reasons…

One of the most important things about time travel is what it says about free will. Smith saw flying saucers in old artworks so he designed the time drone to look like one. And, in the future, he has to send the drone back in time several times so it will be visible to those artists in order for history to go unchanged. Now, when Smith does this, will he be using free will, or is history (or God) making him do it? Does he have a choice? If he doesn’t do it, he has free will, but that would disrupt the timeline. So he must do it even if he doesn’t want to. Either choice is taken from him, or he doesn’t really have free will at all, only the illusion of it.

I believe we have free will, but that means time travel into the past is impossible (you cannot do something before you’ve chosen to do it) and God does not exist. If God exists and is all-knowing, He knows who’s going to Heaven and who isn’t before that person is even born, and free will is an illusion. Smith said that his time drone “was meant to be.” Does that mean that he had no choice in creating it?

If it were any other detective in the world, other than Dick Tracy who has solved every case he’s handled, s/he would have a crime s/he was desperate to know the facts on.

I think this storyline is for Tracy 90th anniversary.

Countless mysteries lost to time and you’re not curious about any of them, Tracy? Pfah.

“Yes, my neighbor is a big time atheist and wants to see events after a certain Crucifiction.”

Heh:

Diet: “Send the time drone back to Roswell, New Mexico in 1947; I’ve always wanted to know what really happened there.”

[a few minutes later]

Tech: “Sir? We’ve lost contact with the drone and think it’s crashed.”

Diet: “Drat!” [pause] “Ooohhhh…”

This is a long shot, but I think the “he” is Sam and it involves something that occurred before he came to Tracyville and joined the MCU. Perhaps Flattop being taken down…I agree the 90th anniversary probably ties in.

“Always in motion is the future.” -Yoda

Hey, Diet! Why don’t you program the controls so that the first thing it says is, A question. Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question.

He’s going to bring Les Moore over so he can watch Lisa die fifty more times.

Never mind that! Who sawed Courtney’s boat?

Call me when you get tomorrow’s lottery numbers.

Maybe our “authors” should go back and meet someone who could tell an interesting story with interesting characters.

1-DT: Gotta go. I just received a message that there’s a big power drain that blacks out the entire city. Seems that the juice is being redirected to some location near here.

DOIT: Izzat right? Well, good luck. Seems to be a victimless crime to me though…

2-DT: Yeah. They’re not all mysterious murders I guess. Though a lot of people at the hospital are kicking off because even the juice from the hospital generators gets sucked into this unknown area. Lots of machines switching off and surgeons suddenly making cuts in the dark! HA! It’s like a 3 Ring Circus there!

DOIT: I guess we’re lucky here at Smith Industries to still have power then!

DT: You sure are! Well, see ya next time!

Not as boring as our post!

Why is DT smirking?

“Aparently Vitamin used to date Cleopatra and he said he wanted one more look at her before settling into the married life.”

Finally caught up to the present day, or rather my time device has synched to the present instead of the near-past. I did leave a few wisecracks back in history for future time travellers here and there to appreciate after I’m gone.

Great art of the featured characters today!

But the Time Drone epic is sputtering; it would be nice to see something happening beyond the rather simplified conversation about what the Time Drone can or might do….

Who killed Breathless Mahoney??

What happened to Ribs Mocco?

Did the cigar smoking cat leave any descendants?