How old is Johnny Alpha?

[JOE SOAP]

He was just resting.

[Steven Denton]

The real problem is that once you put the ability to time travel into a story, it causes huge problems with the "finality" of anything. Most likely why it's played down in Strontium Dog post the 1980's.

No it doesn't. Time travel can be used as a lazy fix all but that just introduces more problems then it fixes until, inevitably if you go down that rout, every story is just a complete mess of fragmented continuity and alternate realities.

Bringing charters back from the dead does cause huge problems however as if you do it once fans and future writers will keep asking 'why not this character too'. It's something that Wagner tried to head off in strip in the resurrection story with an in strip explanation, but once the Genie is out of the bottle you can't put it back in.

[Steve Green]

It's not really time-travel specifically - it's Johnny has a lot of tech and powers which is the same problem Dredd has (or had) with Psi-Division, Birdie, PSU etc.

Seems like it's more a case of stripping away the devices that could be used as get out of jail free cards.

E.g. time bombs become dangerous to use on yourself/very expensive/illegal, but also Johnny's mind reading powers post mortem, his jedi mind tricks, limited telepathy.

You just end up with a long list of 'why didn't he use that skill/gadget?'

Even with the scope of time bomb usage it's been pushed to breaking point - that Johnny can get from one planet to another to a specific time (and back again) in Blood Moon.

[Richard]

I've just re-read John Wagner's interview in Megazine 3.65 (May 2000), and he says quite a lot about all of this.

WR Logan did the interview, and asked about the return of Johnny Alpha in The Kreeler Conspiracy. Wagner said:

Had I gone the way I originally intended the changes would have been more drastic, including the writing out of Wulf. Andy Diggle appealed to me to reconsider, as I would be in danger of upsetting a lot of staunch Stront fans (including him). He was quite right -- I'd miss old Wulf if I knew he was never going to appear again. I'd probably have to stage another miracle resurrection to bring him back. So really all that's changed is the chronology and some of the background of Johnny's world. The Kreeler Conspiracy takes place before Wulf came on the scene and we'll probably have Wulf back for the second series...

As far as making Stront my own again, I've never felt it was anything else. I've not read a Strontium Dog or related story since Johnny's death and don't feel bound by anything that's happened since that point. However as the stories I'll be doing will be taking place during Johnny's lifetime -- never-before-told adventures -- I won't be going out of my way to contradict anything anyone else has done.

I can't remember if I co-wrote Johnny's last story; I think Alan may have done that one on his own... No matter, I must have agreed to it happening. Do I regret it? I don't know, maybe a little, but nobody lives forever. Johnny had to die sometime. It doesn't stop me telling new Strontium Dog stories. Is it only the possibility that the hero might die that makes a story worth reading? Does knowing when and how Johnny will die take away the pleasure of stories that happened earlier in his life? Surely not. You know for a fact when you read a Dredd that he is not going to die, but that doesn't spoil it for you.

[sheridan]

Reversing a death with time travel has already been shown not to work (in Rage) - death finds a way of claiming its own.

Is that a Time Drogue?  They've never been presented as anything other than a short-term fix (like, 30 seconds).

[TordelBack]

I'd argue that if there's ANY way of reversing a death in the SD Universe,  Johnny would have used it on Moses Quest, at a point in his career where he was throwing time-tech around like confetti.

As it turned out,  the only way was sorcery/necromancy (as it was with Johnny himself, and indeed Wulf), and that turned to shite too. 

[Steve Green]

Reversing a death with time travel has already been shown not to work (in Rage) - death finds a way of claiming its own.

Is that a Time Drogue?  They've never been presented as anything other than a short-term fix (like, 30 seconds).

Yep, it's a time drogue.

Time Bombs displace the victims in time but not space (supposedly)

Time Traps loop a sequence (Kreelman was caught in one)

Time Drogues rewind time - in the first SD story, Johnny actively turns off the time drogue and the victim dies a second time. There's never been an explicit explanation in story how it works, as there's no need.

In the fan film we had it on a timer, but stuck with it being a temporary effect.

There's also a Time Stretcher type thing which accelerates time locally (used against Willy Blanko)

[ZenArcade]

If he was born in 2150, he is minus 132.  Z

[Dark Jimbo]

Reversing a death with time travel has already been shown not to work (in Rage) - death finds a way of claiming its own.

Is that a Time Drogue?  They've never been presented as anything other than a short-term fix (like, 30 seconds).

 Johnny tracks a bloke who can help him get on the trail of Max Bubba, but he arrives at the bar just in time to see his lead killed as a result of cheating at cards. He uses a time drogue to undo the murder and questions his lead. Then Johnny simply walks off - the man thanks him for saving his life, but Johnny tells him not to bother. Sure enough, the cheating comes to light again (though in a different way) and the lead's murdered a second time as Johnny leaves. The third-person narration explicitly talks about Death never letting itself be cheated out of what it's owed.

It does explain why, in a universe chock full of time weapons, nobody ever so much as attempts to use them to undo death - it must be (fairly) common knowledge that it simply won't stick.

[Pyroxian]

If he was born in 2150, he is minus 132.  Z

Also, only 14 years before another Nuclear war in the Dredd-verse

[JayzusB.Christ]

If he was born in 2150, he is minus 132.  Z

Also, only 14 years before another Nuclear war in the Dredd-verse

When Britain gets nuked so hard that Brit Cit disappears and all pre-Megacity towns grow back again.

[Steve Green]

Reversing a death with time travel has already been shown not to work (in Rage) - death finds a way of claiming its own.

Is that a Time Drogue?  They've never been presented as anything other than a short-term fix (like, 30 seconds).

 Johnny tracks a bloke who can help him get on the trail of Max Bubba, but he arrives at the bar just in time to see his lead killed as a result of cheating at cards. He uses a time drogue to undo the murder and questions his lead. Then Johnny simply walks off - the man thanks him for saving his life, but Johnny tells him not to bother. Sure enough, the cheating comes to light again (though in a different way) and the lead's murdered a second time as Johnny leaves. The third-person narration explicitly talks about Death never letting itself be cheated out of what it's owed.

It does explain why, in a universe chock full of time weapons, nobody ever so much as attempts to use them to undo death - it must be (fairly) common knowledge that it simply won't stick.

More surprisingly why no-one seems to use it to Biff Tannen their way to billions.
The universe seems to tolerate observation (Mork Whisperer) after all.

[sheridan]

More surprisingly why no-one seems to use it to Biff Tannen their way to billions.

You've been listening to Space Spinner 2000!

[Steve Green]

Always.

[sheridan]

Always.

I guess the clue was in you starting the Forum thread on the podcast *ho hum*