21: TV Century 21, 1965

Secret Agent 21 was the longest running comic strip to appear in the pages of TV Century 21. The star of the strip was a Universal Secret Service agent code-named 21 - the James Bond of the future.

21 first appeared as the fictional editor of the comic. The readers were drafted in as his agents and asked to address their reports (i.e. letters) to Contact 21. He was a mysterious figure - you only ever saw the back of his head pictured on the letters page until the secret agent's life story began in issue 21 (of course), cover dated 12th June 2065. This was a single page black & white strip simply entitled 21 drawn by Rab Hamilton, and initially written by the comic's real-life editor Alan Fennell. Although its page count was increased, and title was often altered, the strip ran until the very last issue of the original run of TV21, issue 242, dated 6th September 2069. Secret Agent 21 stories also appeared as text and strip features in the five original TV21 Annuals, the 1971 Thunderbirds Annual and three of the TV21 Extras.



Alan Fennell soon entrusted assistant editor Tod Sullivan with the scripting of Agent 21, but Rab Hamilton remained as artist (with the exception of one fill-in story drawn by Jon Davis) right until the last issue. TV21 readers remember Secret Agent 21 with affection even though he never appeared in any of Gerry Anderson’s TV series.

Twenty One lived in the Supermarionation universe, and his early stories were set in the formative years of the World Space Patrol and World Aquanaut Security Patrol. He helped create and define the history and politics of the 21st Century inhabited by our puppet heroes, unifying our perception of their fictional world. Twenty One reported to ‘S’ the Operational Head of the USS - Air General Zodiac.

Unfortunately Hamilton's fine-lined artwork deteriorated in the last few years of the strip. His style became very rushed and appeared to be only roughly pencilled at times but even so the stories are still a joy to read again today. TV Century 21 would not have been quite so good without Secret Agent 21.

The World of Secret Agent 21

The strip featured the life and death assignments of Brent Cleever - Senior Special Agent 21 of the Universal Secret Service - commencing in the year 2046. This meant that the strip was originally an 'historical' series, as all the other Anderson strips were set from 2065 onwards.

The Solar System had been mostly colonised by this time and many of the planets (or their satellites) had been given artificial Earth-like atmospheres. The Universal Secret Service headquarters was situated near Kahra, the capital city of Earth's colony on Mars. To the general public it was seen as a factory owned by Century 21 Toys Incorporated - one of the largest toy manufacturers in ‘the Universe’. Senior Special Agents operated under cover as toy salesmen, and carried sample cases equipped with Deadly Toys - weapons and equipment disguised to look like a standard range of playthings.

The Universal Secret Service had brought all the intelligence agencies of the World Government under one banner and its brief was to track down and destroy subversive organisations and crime cartels that threatened the security of Earth and its Space Empire.

The greatest threat to the newly elected World Government of President Nikita Bandranaik was Bereznik, the military dictatorship that refused to join the World Government when it was set up in 2045. Bereznik was introduced in the Lady Penelope strip (TV Century 21 issues 12-18) and featured in many of the TV21 Anderson strips over the five year life of the comic. Bereznik was carved out of the ruins of Poland and the surrounding Balkan States after the European Atomic War of 2028 (first mentioned in Fireball XL5, TV Century 21 issue 47). Danzig was renamed Katania (as referenced in the storybook Stingray - The Deadly Alliance) and became its coastal capital. A state of cold war existed between Bereznik and the World Government.

The greatest threat to Earth's World Space Empire was SOFRAM (Solar Organisation For Revenge And Murder) a neo-fascist organisation dedicated to dominating the Solar System. It was the most extensive, powerful and dangerous organisation in history. SOFRAM leaders wore military unforms (complete with jack boots) and pointed Ku Klux Klan style black hoods to hide their features. Their forces also wore uniforms with a distinctive helmet and harness. SOFRAM prided itself on its ability to regroup and rebuild itself, allegedly mightier than before, after any major defeat.

Magenta Seven & Special Agent

These are the two Double Two One text stories that appeared in the first TV Century 21 annual, published in August 1965. Print production was much slower and more intensive in the 1960's. Material for the annual would probably have been prepared in the spring of '2065'. As such, these stories furnish an origin for the 'host' character of TV Century 21, which differs in some aspects from the Agent 21 who would debut in June. The illustrations for the stories show a distinct likeness to Sean Connery (right)! The stories appear to be set circa 2060-62.

Brent Cleever was Double Two One of the Special Investigating Branch (S Dept) based on Earth. In Magenta Seven he was sent to Venus to capture the alien Zheno, leader of Magenta, a Mafia-like organisation operating on seven planets of the Solar System.

In Special Agent, Double Two One is sent to Mars to trace and rescue the kidnapped Professor Carrel - who is developing Cahelium Extract X4 - for use by the World Space Patrol on their forthcoming Fireball XL Fleet, and the World Aquanaut Security Patrol for their new Stingray combat submarine. The story guest stars Vice Commander Zero and Sub Commander Shore of these fledgling organisations. Double Two One rescued Professor Carrel but sustained a crippling injury that put him out of active service for good. S promoted him to Chief Officer 21. All agents will now be able to Contact 21!



It should be pointed out that when the 21 strip appeared in TV Century 21, the comic ran a short biography which explained that Brent Cleever was a toy salesman who improvised with his sample case to save the World President from a kidnapping. Cleever was offered a job with the Universal Secret Service, and his toys were converted into Deadly Gadgets. Not only does this contradict the Agent Double Two One stories, it also contradicts the text in the ©1966 TV Century 21 Annual. Generally accepted as Cleever's official biography, this states he was born Sir William Fraser , and changed his name to Brent Cleever when he joined the USS. Coincidentally or not, a character called Sir William Fraser (of the British Secret Service) is heard in the Thunderbirds episode ’30 Minutes After Noon’. This text feature also confirmed a remark made by Steve Zodiac in one of the Fireball XL5 strips. His father had been born Steve Kalinski, and changed his name to ‘Zodiac’ when he joined the Universal Secret Service. Therefore ‘S’ was Steve Zodiac’s father. Unfortunately the ©1966 TV Century 21 Annual mis-spelt the name as ‘Kalizki’.

21 strip guide - part one

Story One (aka All In The Mind*)
Writer: Alan Fennell (?). Artist: Rab Hamilton. 1 page, b/w.

Part 1: TV Century 21 Issue 21, dateline 12 June 2065

The year is 2046. Special Agent 21 Brent Cleever arrives at the Factory of Century 21 Toys Incorporated on the outskirts of the Martian Capital City Kahra. On his way to meet his boss ‘S’ (the Head of the Universal Secret Service) 21 passes through a workshop where fellow agent Tina demonstrates a new line in the deadly toy range – an exploding doll that can blow the door off a safe. S enters the workshop behind the two agents and informs 21 he might need the exploding doll on his new mission...

Part 2: TV Century 21 Issue 22, dateline 19 June 2065
S informs 21 that contact has been lost with three USS stations on Jupiter and he wants him to investigate. 21 arrives on Jupiter and heads for Station J10, a Toy Shop in the capital city of Daraville. A man behind the counter tells him the shop is closed but 21 opens his sample case and insists on demonstrating his latest toy - a cute long-eared walking doll. The doll quickly walks off into the shop with the man dashing after it. Small cameras in the doll’s eyes transmit a TV picture back to the screen built into the lid of 21’s sample case. The doll enters a back room before being caught and 21 sees a fleeting image of a man laid out on the floor – Parelly the shop keeper and USS station chief. A man (who we later learn is Dr. Zalizka) enters the toy shop behind 21 and suddenly stabs him in the arm with the needle-sharp point of his walking stick. The USS agent falls to the floor unconscious...

Part 3: TV Century 21 Issue 23, dateline 26 June 2065

21 regains consciousness to find Parelly standing over him – or is it? Parelly calls him ‘Mr. Cleever’ and does not recognise the simplest USS password. 21 leaves the toy shop and decides to check out Stations J11 and J12 only to find they are manned by imposters too. 21 returns to Parelly’s shop and sees the man who stabbed him leaving the premises. The USS agent decides to follow him and sees the man enter a hospital on the outskirts of Daraville. Two armed guards stand at the entrance to the hospital grounds – a plaque on the wall reads: ‘Happy Homes Hospital. Director Dr. Zalizka’. 21 decides to investigate...

Part 4: TV Century 21 Issue 24, dateline 03 July 2065
21 secretly enters the hospital grounds by climbing up a line (unravelled from his agents vest) fired across the perimeter wall into a tree with the aid of a deadly toy rocket launcher from his sample case. The USS agent now selects a few deadly toys for the task ahead, and uses the rocket propelled line again to climb onto the flat metal roof of the hospital building – leaving his sample case hidden in the grounds nearby. He uses one of the toys (a robot shipbuilder) to cut a hole in the roof big enough to climb through – but Dr. Zalizka and two white coated assistants are waiting for 21 below ready to catch him in a net...

Part 5: TV Century 21 Issue 25, dateline 10 July 2065
21 drops down through the hole – and is trapped in the net below. He informs his captors that killing him wont help as other agents will follow but Zalizka knows 21 is bluffing – the USS know nothing of his organisation. Zalizka instructs his men to take 21 to the preparation room - for a little operation on his brain. The USS agent is dragged into the preparation room where the two assistants roughly release him from the net so he ends up lying on the floor beneath an operating table. 21 immediately sees a chance to escape – he hits the table’s foot pedal hard with his hand. The operating table swings around and knocks the two hospital assistants to the floor, allowing 21 to jump up and throw himself out of the nearest window. Zalizka enters the preparation room and sees 21 jump down into the grounds below. He gives the order for the dogs to be released...

Part 6: TV Century 21 Issue 26, dateline 17 July 2065
21 recovers his deadly toy sample case as the alien looking dogs close in on him. He hurls the case at the animals which explodes on impact killing them instantly. The smoke bomb released by the explosion covers 21’s escape. He shoots the two hospital guards as he leaves the grounds before they have time to fire back. Zalizka gives the order to ‘Pack up and move out’. Away from the Happy Homes Hospital, 21 contacts Tina who informs him S has recalled him to Mars…

Part 7: TV Century 21 Issue 27, dateline 24 July 2065
Back on Mars at the Century 21 Toys factory 21 argues with his boss that the situation on Jupiter is serious but S will not listen and wants to send him on a new mission to Venus. 21 notices a small scar on S’s neck and realises that he has been operated on. He accuses S of being under Zalizka’s mind control only for his boss to pull a gun on him...

Part 8: TV Century 21 Issue 28, dateline 31 July 2065
S’s finger tightens on the trigger but 21’s quick thinking saves his life – he congratulates S on passing the test saying he has also had the operation and turns his back on S to show his boss his non-existent scar. S is momentarily confused and 21 explodes into action knocking his boss out with an uppercut to the jaw. 21 calls Tina and USS Dr Blade into S’s office and explains what has happened. Blade confirms the scar on S’s neck was not there at his last medical. They take S to the factory hospital and fours hours later Blade informs 21 and Tina that he has removed a tiny valve from the USS Chief’s brain that had been controlling his every action. 21 hopes it will help lead them to the gang responsible...

Part 9: TV Century 21 Issue 29, dateline 07 August 2065
21 orders Tina to fix the brain valve into a robot Scottie dog tracker in the hope it will trace where the controlling signals are coming from. The robot dog leads the two USS agents to an old bakers shop in Kahra. 21 calls HQ for a PX45 – the code for a raid. A team of USS agents soon arrive and they ram their way into the bakers shop in an armoured van. The agents burst through the rear door of the shop to find Kalizka and his men in a large basement control room. Zalizka orders ‘emergency black’ and jets of black smoke pour from the ceiling allowing him to enter an escape passage unnoticed by the USS agents...

Part 10: TV Century 21 Issue 30, dateline 14 August 2065
Zalizka grabs a small transmitter as he enters the underground escape passage so that he can retain control of the USS agents he has operated on. This proves his undoing as the robot Scottie dog tracks the signals from the transmitter, and leads 21 and Tina to the entrance to the escape route. 21 races down the narrow tunnel, which leads him up into a walled garden. He sees Zalizka about to get into a car parked at the curb just outside the garden gate. 21 orders him to stop but Zalizka raises his ‘walking stick’ and fires three shots at the USS agent. 21 throws himself flat onto the pavement, firing back with his ray gun, and Zalizka falls to the ground like a stone. Sometime later 21 and Tina visit S in hospital and find their boss back to his old self. S tells them that all the special agents who had been fixed by Zalizka have now been traced and the rest of his gang have been rounded up.


Reprinted:
TV2000 - issues 36/1966 to 45/1966 (as Geheim Agent 2000)
Action 21 - issues 2-10 (parts 1-9 only)
Joe 90 - issues 1-4 (colourised as Agent 21, Spy of the Future)

Notes:
• Mankind has colonised Mars by 2046 and the planets’ capital city is Kahra.
• We discover that the Century 21 Toys Incorporated factory is a cover for the HQ of the Universal Secret Service.
• The Century 21 Toys doorman is named Harry.
• USS Agent Tina is introduced in part 1 but we learn very little about her apart from her first name.
• Mankind has also colonised Jupiter by 2046 and the planets’ capital city is Daraville.
• The man in the Parelly toy store in part 2 has what appears to be a model of a hoverjet, previously seen in parts 2 and 3 of the Fireball XL5 'Astran War' story (issues 16 and 17 of TV Century 21).
• Zalizka is mispelt as ‘Zalikza’ in parts 6 & 7
• Zalizka may have been a SOFRAM agent.
• Communication between Mars and Jupiter is by hyper-accelerated telephone.
• The telephone number of Century 21 Toys Inc on Mars is KAHRA 7392.
• In part 7, we see a space liner of the same style - as previously seen in the Fireball XL5 story Vengeance of Saharis - leave Jupiter on the overnight flight to Mars.
• It is not made clear at the end of the story whether 21 kills or stuns Zalizka. I would suggest he shoots to kill though, based on his ruthless streak that we see in later stories.

• The masthead alternates between instalments. A second version first appears with part 4 (issue 24), then it is seen again in issues 26, 27, 30, 33, 34 and then 36 to 51 inclusive (i.e. until the strip expanded to 2 pages).
• The reprints in Action 21 were updated to 2065, in line with the other strips being updated to 2088-89. The character of 'Brent Cleever' was resurrected as editor.
• Unfortunately, for the reprint in Joe 90, the colourist makes Tina a brunette in part 1, but gives her more characteristic blonde hair for subsequent appearances from part 7.


Story Two (aka Enter SOFRAM*)
Writer: Tod Sullivan (?).
Artist: Rab Hamilton. 1 page, b/w.

Part 1: TV Century 21 Issue 31, dateline 21 August 2065
The year is 2046. Four helijets swoop down on the construction site of Space City - uniformed armed troopers leap out and break into one of the domes. The raiders steal all the drawings within the safe, and seven minutes and forty seconds later the helijets head back up into the sky – mission accomplished. Soon after these events, S attends a council of war in Washington DC at the HQ of the newly formed World Space Patrol to discuss the raid. General Bretzniv refers to S as General Zodiac but the USS Chief tells him while on duty his name is ‘S’. Bretzniv wants S to put his agents on the case of tracking the raiders and suggests using 21. In a secret base on Triton (one of the moons of Neptune) a hooded SOFRAM leader looks at the stolen plans and declares them ‘rubbish’. He wants drawings of the new XL Space Ships – not building plans for Space City. He orders his second in command Capric to attack Washington if need be to get them...

Part 2: TV Century 21 Issue 32, dateline 28 August 2065
21 arrives in Washington and S asks him if he has any idea who the Space City raiders might be. The USS agent thinks they must belong to a new organisation. Suspecting another raid on WSP HQ, S wants to put Washington’s defences on standby but 21 suggests the opposite, so the raiders can attack and get away – with 21 disguised as one of them. They don’t have to wait long for SOFRAM to make its second attack. Helijets sweep low over Washington and land next to the WSP HQ. The armed troops force their way into the building with little resistance. Unseen, 21 knocks one of the raiders out with a karate chop and quickly changes into his uniform…

Part 3: TV Century 21 Issue 33, dateline 04 September 2065

21 joins the SOFRAM troops as they leave WSP HQ having successfully stolen plans of the new XL Space Ship. S watches them escape in their helijets from an office window – but 21’s special homing pen transmits a signal that allows them to be tracked to a nearby valley. S orders the valley surrounded – but the raiders have a space ship waiting for them, and are soon on their way back to SOFRAM’s base on Triton. 21 remains unnoticed throughout the journey but after disembarking from the space ship the troops are instructed to prepare for sonic examination. The men pass through an archway and the USS agent is picked out as an imposter...

Part 4: TV Century 21 Issue 34, dateline 11 September 2065
The black hooded SOFRAM leader orders 21 be searched and then thrown in a cell. They find the homing pen and the Leader orders it put on a rocket, to be blasted back into space. 21 refuses to tell his captors who he is and who he works for. The USS agent is now left in a cell for two days without food and water before interrogation begins. The SOFRAM Leader orders the use of a Brain Reader which probes 21’s mind with hyper high frequency radio waves – but only images of the agent, sitting beside a river fishing, appear on the screen no matter what questions he is asked. The probing continues for three days without success – SOFRAM cannot break 21’s conditioning. The USS agent is finally taken back to his cell. Capric suggests leaving 21 for a few days and starting again but the Leader thinks it will be a waste of time. He wants 21 executed - saying it will entertain the men...

Part 5: TV Century 21 Issue 35, dateline 18 September 2065
The SOFRAM Leader gives the order for 21 to be brought from his cell for execution. 21 appears half dead so only one guard enters his cell to take him to the Leader. The USS agent draws upon his last reserves of strength and karate chops the man. He takes the guard's hand gun and knocks out another SOFRAM guard with it as he heads for the main cavern – determined to destroy the base’s powerhouse if he can. A few moments later 21’s escape is discovered and the alert is sounded…

Part 6: TV Century 21 Issue 36, dateline 25 September 2065
Capric leads a squad of SOFRAM troopers in the search for 21. They realise he is heading for the atomic powerhouse. 21 reaches his goal and slams the door on the SOFRAM men before they can follow him in. The USS agent grabs an axe from beside a fire extinguisher intent on destroying the atomic reactor...

Part 7: TV Century 21 Issue 37, dateline 02 October 2065

21 slams the axe into a control panel and plunges the base into darkness. The SOFRAM Leader orders everyone to make their way to the pressure suit store – the base will soon be a vacuum. Meanwhile S has been tracking 21’s homing pen from the Washington DC HQ of the World Space Patrol. The pen is now well beyond the Solar System. S realises he may have been tricked and wants a list of every place the signal has stopped – even if only for five minutes. Back on Triton emergency power lights the base. The SOFRAM Leader is afraid the atomic reactor is running wild and will soon explode. 21 finds an escape route from the power house along a ventilator shaft, intent on finding the XL rocket Ship plans. He crawls through the blackness of the trunking, only to suddenly plunge fifteen feet down a vertical shaft and land hard at the bottom. The SOFRAM Leader and Capric are standing by a ventilator grille and hear the USS Agent’s fall. Capric peers through the grille and can see 21 – a sitting duck…

Part 8: TV Century 21 Issue 38, dateline 09 October 2065
The SOFRAM Leader passes Capric a rifle to shoot 21, but the USS agent recovers and fires first. The Leader calls for more guards, instructing them to get 21 out of the air vent. Meanwhile in Washington S informs Tina that the homing pen is nearly in Andromeda. It has been static twice since the raiders left the WSP HQ – once in the next valley and once on Triton. S orders Tina to go with a sample case of deadly toys, and she takes a rocket ship bound for Triton. Sometime later she descends to the surface of Neptune’s moon by hovershute and heads for the map reference where 21’s pen had temporarily halted on its journey out of the Solar System. In SOFRAM’s hidden base the guards have removed the ventilator grille but 21 has gone. The Leader orders them to follow him up the ventilator shaft…

Part 9: TV Century 21 Issue 39, dateline 16 October 2065

21 has managed to climb back up the vertical ventilation shaft to the higher level. He fires down on the SOFRAM troopers as they try to enter the shaft with his stolen hand gun. Meanwhile Tina has managed to approach the base undetected because of the power failure. She uses the deadly toy archers from her sample case to knock out the SOFRAM troops guarding the entrance. Tina now takes a deadly toy Zeus Tank and directs it towards the steel doors. The miniature tank fires twin laser beams, which soon begin to eat into the inches thick metal. In the base the SOFRAM troops sound the alert, thinking the base is under siege. The Leader decides to take the XL Rocket plans, leave his men, and escape...

Part 10: TV Century 21 Issue 40, dateline 23 October 2065
The deadly toy Zeus tank completes its task and the mighty steel doors of the base fall inwards. The SOFRAM troopers panic and rush to escape the base. 21 hears the hurried evacuation and climbs back down the ventilator shaft and out through the open grille. He quickly finds a space suit intent on discovering what is happening. Tina’s deadly toy archers cut down the SOFRAM troopers as they try to leave the base. 21 realises who is attacking the base and calls Tina on his suit radio. She is overjoyed to see him walking out of the base towards her. Meanwhile the SOFRAM Leader prepares to leave the base in his escape rocket with the XL ship plans stashed in his briefcase...

Part 11: TV Century 21 Issue 41, dateline 30 October 2065
21 and Tina see rocket bay doors open in the cliff side near the base entrance. 21 takes a ray rifle and climbs up to the bay doors to investigate, andsees the SOFRAM Leader entering his escape rocket. 21 fires down into the launch bay and hits the mechanism which controls the bay doors. They begin to close as the rocket takes off, and the USS agent dives for cover as the rocket hits them, and explodes in a ball of fire killing the SOFRAM Leader. An hour later a squad of USS agents land on Triton to completely flush out any SOFRAM survivors before planting explosive charges to destroy the base. On their way back to Mars the two senior special agents watch as the charges detonate and Tina wonders if that is the end of SOFRAM – but 21 does not think so.


Reprinted:
TV2000 - issues 46/1966 to 03/1967 (as Geheim Agent 2000)
Joe 90 - issues 4-6 (colourised)
The New Thunderbirds - issue 80 (colourised)

Notes:
• Part 1 firmly places 21 in the Anderson Universe with references to Space City, the World Space Patrol and XL Space Ships.
• The World Space Patrol has only just been formed in 2046.
• Construction of Space City has only just begun in 2046.
• In part 1, we learn that S is General Zodiac.
• This story introduces SOFRAM (the Solar Organisation for Revenge and Murder). It would appear to be the first time that the USS has knowingly fought SOFRAM’s forces.
• Being set about twenty years 'in the past', we see ships that bear an early resemblance to the XL design being discussed in the story.
• In part 8 we learn that Tina is USS Senior Special Agent 23.
• It looks like the USS agents have destroyed Triton and not just the SOFRAM base at the end of this story.
• Tina says they can now return the XL plans at the end of the story but surely they have been destroyed with the SOFRAM Leader – unless the Leader’s brief case was blast proof that is.

• A third variation of the masthead, combining elements of the two previous ones, is seen for the first two parts.


Story Three (aka Down with the Director*)
Writer: Tod Sullivan (?). Artist: Rab Hamilton. 1 page, b/w.

Part 1: TV Century 21 Issue 42, dateline 06 November 2065
London – December 2046. Within sight of Big Ben armed military police patrol the route to be taken by the Director – Head of the Military Council that rules Great Britain. In a second floor office overlooking the route a man called Brown is caught looking out of a window by his superior and told to get back to work. Brown smashes the window and throws his shoes out at a passing hovercar, and it is destroyed in a blinding explosion. Military police rush into the building and capture Brown. Sometime later 21 and S watch a video recording of these events. Brown was USS agent 24 – and he was captured and executed for nothing. The Director had been in the car following the one Brown destroyed. S informs 21 that the Directorship must be overthrown so Britain can join the World Government – it is now his job to assassinate him...

Part 2: TV Century 21 Issue 43, dateline 13 November 2065

A Barracuda submarine of the World Navy takes 21 and Tina to the coast of Wales – 4 miles from Milford Haven. The two senior USS agents leave the sub in a dinghy – but the Director’s Coast Guard has spotted them. Heavy shore guns open fire at the Barracuda forcing it to dive and 21 and Tina to abandon their dinghy and swim to shore. A high speed launch is sent out after the agents. Treading water, 21 selects a deadly toy submarine from his sample case…

Part 3: TV Century 21 Issue 44, dateline 20 November 2065
21 aims the deadly toy sub at the incoming launch. The toy submarine is packed full of explosives and destroys the enemy launch. The resulting explosion creates a tidal wave that washes the two USS agents ashore. 21 and Tina clamber up a cliff face where two revolutionaries named Dai and Clive are waiting for them. A third revolutionary waiting by a car parked on the cliff top road sites army troop carriers approaching and shouts a warning to Dai that the Director’s goons are coming…

Part 4: TV Century 21 Issue 45, dateline 27 November 2065

21 opens his sample case and leaves a surprise for the Director’s troops before joining Tina and the three revolutionaries in their car. They speed away along the cliff top road. The two troop carriers pursue the car along the cliff top road and drive over the deadly toy car stoppers 21 has left in the road – the resulting explosions blow both vehicles over the cliff top. Arrangements have been made by the revolutionaries to get the USS agents secretly into London using the pipeline. This is the name given to a series of people who help move spies across Britain. Sometime later in London, an old woman takes them to the hideout of the London Resistance Group, where a man in a military police uniform meets them…

Part 5: TV Century 21 Issue 46, dateline 04 December 2065
21 thinks they have been betrayed - but the old woman introduces the military policeman as the Leader of the London Resistance Group. (N.B. We learn the man’s name is Gordon in part 6) 21 gets down to business straight away and asks what action the London Group have decided upon. Group Leader Gordon had planned a direct attack on the Director’s HQ but the USS agents think that would be suicide. Fresh plans are made - the London Group will blow up Westminster Bridge while the Western Group lead a fake frontal attack on the Director’s Headquarters. 21 and Tina will lead the main group through the sewers, and they have four days to prepare. When Gordon leaves the building, the old woman asks 21 what he is doing as he studies one of his deadly toys. The USS agent informs her that Tina placed a homing pin in the Group Leader’s hat so they can track his movements. The old woman pulls a gun on 21 saying it is a pity he is so suspicious. 21 realises she and Gordon are double agents working for the Director and presses a stud on the side of his sample case. A stun beam shoots out from the case knocking the old woman to the floor. 21 orders Tina to take over while he goes after the Group leader...

Part 6: TV Century 21 Issue 47, dateline 11 December 2065
21 follows the unsuspecting Gordon through the busy streets of London and sees him enter the Ministry of the Interior Building. The USS agent takes a deadly toy bloodhound from his sample case and tunes it into the homing pin Tina placed in the Group Leader’s hat – the tiny robot dog now enters the building unnoticed. 21 hurries back to the meeting place of the London Resistance Group and finds Tina holding the old woman at gunpoint. He opens his sample case and turns on the screen beneath the lid. It shows a TV picture transmitted by the toy bloodhound, which has followed the Group Leader into an office. Gordon is meeting with Military Police General Lane and reporting on 21’s plans to use the sewers in the assault on the Director’s HQ. The Group Leader is a traitor to the revolutionaries. 21 detonates the explosives in the deadly toy killing the Group Leader and Lane. The military police know that Gordon had just returned from a revolutionary meeting before reporting to the General. They send four cars with armed officers to surround the meeting place with orders to shoot anyone found there…

Part 7: TV Century 21 Issue 48, dateline 18 December 2065
21 sees the military police arrive through the meeting room window and surround the revolutionaries hideout. He can see from the map they have been using to plan the assault on the Director’s HQ that a main sewer runs beneath the building they are in. While Tina keeps the old woman covered with her gun he selects a deadly toy spinning top from his sample case. The special hardened tip of the spinning top is soon cutting into the concrete floor. The USS agent now smashes the meeting room window and uses a ray rifle (also stored in his case) to keep the military police pinned down while the spinning top cuts into the foundations of the building. It finally drops into the sewers beneath leaving a hole just big enough to climb down through. 21 sets up his deadly toy archers and Zeus Tank along the meeting room window sill to hold off the police while they make their escape into the sewers with their captive...

Part 8: TV Century 21 Issue 49, dateline 25 December 2065

The Military Police send for reinforcements, and a flamethrower is used to destroy 21’s deadly toys so they can gain entrance into the revolutionaries building. They find the escape hole in the meeting room floor. The officer in charge orders one of his men to warn the Director’s Palace to close off all sewers before leading the rest of his team down through the hole after the USS agents. 21 has heard them enter the sewers and left them a surprise – his sample case primed to explode just as they reach it. The police are killed in the blast, which blocks any further pursuit...

Part 9: TV Century 21 Issue 50, dateline 01 January 2066
The old lady suggests the USS agents surrender as all the sewers will now have been closed off around the Director’s Palace by now. 21 agrees with her and refers to his map of the sewers. They are now very close to their destination and he decides they will finish their journey in the open. They climb up through a manhole without being seen and eventually reach a small park near the Palace, which is surrounded by armed guards. The old woman says they will never gain entry. 21 tells her to shut up or he will shoot her and then takes a model plane and two golf balls from his pocket – deadly toys taken from his sample case before priming it to explode. He fits the golf balls beneath each wing of the plane and launches it at the Palace. 21 informs his captive that the golf balls are atomic bombs. The old woman breaks away from the USS agents to shout a warning to the guards around the palace. They begin firing at the model plane as it flies towards its target...

Part 10: TV Century 21 Issue 51, dateline 08 January 2066
21 and Tina race away from the Director’s HQ. The model plane strikes home and the resulting blast destroys the Palace and sweeps across the surrounding square blowing the USS agents off their feet. Dai and his Revolutionaries pour into the square as the dust settles - a Union Jack flying on their lead vehicle. A gun battle ensues with the Director's forces that survived the blast. Dai meets up with 21 and Tina during the battle and then good news arrives - the British Army has joined the revolutionaries and risen up against the military police. Resistance to the Revolution collapses. Two months later Great Britain joins the World Government. 21, Tina and Dai are at the ceremony.

Reprinted:
TV2000 - issues 04/1966 to 13/1967 (as Geheim Agent 2000)

Notes:
• In parts 8, 9 and 10, the Director’s Headquarters is referred to as the Director’s Palace (i.e. Buckingham Palace).
• Presumably the deadly toy golf balls produced a clean highly focussed atomic explosion which destroyed the Director’s Palace and nothing else.
• Presumably the Director and his Military Council were killed in the destruction of the Palace.
• Presumably Great Britain joined the World Government in February 2047 (ie two months after the December 2046 Revolution).

TV Century 21 Summer Extra (published July 1965)



Contact 21 (aka Break-In*)
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Rab Hamilton. Four pages, b/w.
Two men break into the Century 21 Toys Factory outside Kahra on Mars – they are after a list containing the names of all USS agents held in a safe ready for a Government audit of their salaries. The break-in triggers an alarm in S’s house on the other side of the city. S contacts 21 and instructs him to get over to the factory. 21 picks up his partner Tina on the way, and they arrive just in time to give chase in their car as the two thugs speed away from the factory. The thieves fire on the USS agents’ car puncturing a tyre. 21 struggles to control his vehicle as Tina fires back with the car’s bonnet mounted machine gun – hitting her target.

Both cars career of the roadway and end up wrecked on the Great Martian Plain outside of Kahra. 21 is knocked unconscious in the crash but Tina clambers out of his upturned car to see one of the thieves running off. She grabs 21’s deadly toy sample case and gives chase on foot. An hour later, 21 comes around with an aching head. He finds the second thief dead at the wheel of his car and realise Tina must be on the trail of the other one – or be his captive. He finds a toy arrow from his sample case pointing out across the plain – Tina is leaving a trail. 21 follows the trail of carefully dropped toys which lead to his sample case left on a nearby ridge – with Tina’s handkerchief indicating she has been captured. Over the ridge he sees an isolated villa. 21 takes a deadly toy bloodhound from his sample case and sets it to follow Tina’s trail. 21 watches the tiny robot dog walk down to the villa and then climb one of the walls before entering a second floor window. Tina sits tied to a chair in the room the bloodhound has entered. She sees the toy dog and quickly radios a report to 21 via the microphone built into the bloodhound – the enemy agent is about to transmit the list of USS agents names to his boss. 21 decides there is no time for fancy tricks, and gun in hand smashes his way into the villa through a ground floor window. He enters the main reception area without being challenged and sees a large winding staircase leading to the upper floors. Suddenly, shots ring out and 21 throws himself to one side and fires back, killing the thief. Sometime later back at USS HQ S tells 21 he was effective but lucky – he retrieved the list of agents names before it could be laser beamed to the enemy organisation behind the break-in. The USS intends to track down the organisation responsible and clean it out.

Reprinted:
TV2000 Thunderbirds Extra (as Geheim Agent 2000, Holland 1966)

Notes:
• The strip in the Summer Extra is titled Contact 21 whereas in the weekly comic it is just 21.
• We learn that Tina is USS Special Agent 23 and Chief (Deadly) Toy Designer in this story.
• The first two pages of the Dutch TV2000 version were colourised (see above).
• Pages 32 and 33 of the Special feature a game called 'Spytracker', in which players become either Special Agents for Century 21 Toys Inc., or an enemy agent from the planet Zalar, and attempt to outwit each other by either planting or defusing bombs at toy stores on planets Mars, Saturn, Jupiter or Neptune.

TV Century 21 International Extra (published October 1965)

Contact 21 (aka Sabotage*)
Writer: Unknown.
Artist: Rab Hamilton.
Five pages, colour intro, 2 b/w pages, 2 colour pages.
The year is 2046. SOFRAM Leaders meet in a New York penthouse to make their monthly reports. One of the hooded men named Canues proposes a plan to destroy 21 and the USS headquarters which is agreed unanimously. The following evening a squad of SOFRAM troopers led by Canues cut their way into the perimeter fence surrounding the Marineville construction site. They gain entrance to the part-finished WASP base and head for Marineville’s powerhouse where they fix explosives to each generator before making their escape. Four minutes later the powerhouse is blown to rubble. Before the SOFRAM squad fly away from the scene Canues informs a man in a WASP uniform that he can take over now. The SOFRAM Leader is confident 21 will soon be on the scene. At Century 21 Toys Inc on Mars S calls 21 and Tina to his office and informs them of the incident at Marineville, instructing them to find out who is behind the sabotage. The two senior special agents are booked on the midnight Mars-Earth rocket. The rocket soon touches down at Los Angeles, and 21 and Tina take a helijet to the Marineville building site where they meet Lieutenant Adams of WASP security. 21 asks to see the hole cut in the perimeter fence which surprises Adams. The USS agent explains that he hopes to pick up some clues to the saboteurs identity from the scent they will have left at their point of entry to the base. 21 takes the deadly toy bloodhound from his sample case and sets it to record the odours left by anyone who has been near the hole in the fence since it was cut. Tina sends the results of the odour scan to Mars for checking against USS records while Adams shows 21 the remains of the powerhouse. 21 informs Adams he will now have to wait for the results of the odour scan so the Security officer leaves the USS agents to carry on with his duties. 21 is puzzled over why cutting through the fence didn’t set off Marineville’s alarms. Tina informs him the mains fuse had conveniently blown. Half an hour later Adams leaves the Marineville site in his car and drives out to a nearby cabin in the surrounding woodlands where Canues is waiting for him. The SOFRAM Leader has a duplicate of 21’s deadly toy sample case by his side. He asks Adams what samples 21 is carrying and Adams says he managed to take a microfilm picture of the contents of the agent’s case while it was open. Canues wants Adams to switch 21’s sample case for the duplicate one - which is loaded with explosives.

The duplicate case will allow 21’s movements to be traced by SOFRAM and when the agent returns to Century 21 Toys on Mars Canues will detonate it destroying both 21 and the USS base. Suddenly 21 and Tina burst into the shack and hold Canues and Adams at gunpoint. They have tracked Adams car with a tiny homing device they attached to it. Canues plucks an exploding pencil from his sample case and flicks it at 21. The USS agents throw themselves out of the cabin door just in time to save themselves. They race around the back of the shack to see Canues running towards his helijet with Adams close behind him clutching the duplicate sample case. Canues has not noticed that Adams is carrying the dummy sample case – he thinks it is still in the shack where he left it. He detonates the explosives hoping to catch 21 and Tina in the blast, killing Adams and Canues instead. 21 and Tina report back to S. 21 explains that they became suspicious of Adams when his scent was detected at the same spot and time as Canues by the hole cut in the perimeter fence. The camera detector in 21’s case had also detected the photo Adams had taken of his deadly toys. S knows that SOFRAM will keep trying to destroy the USS.

Reprinted:
TV2000 Thunderbirds Extra (as Geheim Agent 2000, Holland 1966)

Notes:
• This four page strip is preceded by a one page introduction (left) to Century 21 Toys, the U.S.S., Agent 21 and Tina, and who SOFRAM are. This was also reprinted with the strip in the TV2000 Thunderbirds Extra in the summer of 1966, and again as an introduction to the Agent 21 reprints in the 1990s Joe 90 comic.
• The one page colour introduction confirms Tina is Senior Special Agent 23 and 21’s partner. It also states that USS agents travel ‘The Solar System’ tracking and destroying subversive criminals.
• Construction of Marineville has only just begun in 2046.
• The results of the odour scan are sent to Mars by a hyper video scan transmitter.
• Deadly Toy sample cases incorporate a camera detector.
• The strip in the International Extra is titled Contact 21 whereas in the weekly comic it is just 21.

*These stories were originally untitled and are titled here for reference only.

'Geheim Agent 2000', and beyond...

21 Secret Agent also appeared in the Dutch comic TV2000, as the almost literally translated Geheim Agent 2000, with the renamed 'Agent 2000' sharing editorship with Lady Penelope. This was probably due to the title gaining an equal amount of material from both TV Century 21 and Lady Penelope. Whereas the two TV21 Extra stories from 1965 had appeared in parallel with the first weekly strips, in Holland the TV2000 Thunderbirds Extra was published before the title launched, so these stories almost act as pilots. The Dutch reprints in TV2000 are faithful to the originals, retaining the 2046 setting, though one suspects most of the references to other Gerry Anderson series may well have been lost on Dutch viewers who had little chance to see them. Geheim Agent 2000 would run the first three stories, then took a break when the publication changed from a TV21-style newspaper to a more magazine format in the spring of 1967.

These first strips were also reprinted as the secondary strip for the 1990s Joe 90 comic, usually three or four instalments per issue. Unfortunately, even though issue 6 of Joe 90 carried the coded message of 'Thrills galore next issue when the SOFRAM Leader blasts off', the rapid curtailment of the title meant the last part of the second story was held over from issue 7, without introduction or explanation, to issue 80 of The New Thunderbirds! This would mark the end of reprinted appearances until the equally short-lived Thunderbirds Are Go! comic in 1995. These skipped the third story to go on to the start of the two-page strips in issue 52, renamed 21 Special Agent...

On to Part Two of this series.

The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History would like to thank:
Ronald Kroon
and Paul Winsum
- for their help with this feature.

Version 1.1 - 01.05.05


Any comments or notes about any of the strips, please contact technodelic@blueyonder.co.uk.

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