Fireball XL5: TV Century 21, 1965

I’m a big fan of the Fireball XL5 TV show, have been since 1962.
I don’t regard the TV21 Fireball XL5 strips as any kind of continuation of the TV show. It’s a ‘re-imagining’ as they say these days. I get the impression most of the stories are by people who didn’t know very much about the TV series. Whatever it is that I like so much about Fireball XL5 on television just isn’t in these TV21 strips. But of course, back in the 60’s if Fireball XL5 was off the air, TV21 was about the only way to see Fireball and favourite characters. It was better than nothing.

But what about those favourite characters? Zoonie, Doctor Venus’s pet lazoon, is completely forgotten about and is never even mentioned. Commander Zero is perhaps the only character to exhibit any recognizable character traits in the strips. He’s a pretty short tempered, grumpy individual. But his role seems to swing from being in command of numerous space battle fleets to being Steve’s sidekick - in the same story!

Lieutenant Ninety, also a favourite character of mine only makes a couple of very brief appearances in the earlier stories. Professor Matic is there, but he’s not a bit like the Professor Matic we see on TV. In most stories he seems much younger, slimmer and fitter. He’s no longer eccentric. He’s so much like Steve in his actions sometimes that it’s difficult to tell the characters apart. Both Mat and Steve are basically generic space heroes, devoid of personality in most of the stories.

Worst of all, Venus is very badly presented in the TV21 strips. In the TV show, Venus is a brave woman, a Doctor of Space Medicine, very professional and quite assertive when she needs to be. I often compare Venus with that other famous TV heroine of the early 60’s, Emma Peel of The Avengers fame. Both characters were way ahead of their time in terms of how women were depicted on TV. But, in TV21, Venus is more or less, a complete waste of space. It seems the writers thought of her as some kind of girlfriend, simply taken along for the ride. In fact, several times, Steve leaves her back on Earth because he thinks the mission is too dangerous for her - or perhaps that she’ll only get in the way. Most of the time Venus only seems to be there to panic or be rescued. Her contributions to the adventures are at best, minimal. She is not written as a valuable member of the team, far from it. Quite obviously, the writers did not like having ‘girls’ in their stories.

Aside from the characters what else is ‘re-imagined’? Well the Earth seems to have fleets of space battleships, at least it does in one story. A far cry from the TV show where there only seem to be a couple of dozen Fireball ships to patrol space. Another major ‘change’ is that the crew often wears ‘spacesuits’ which are usually depicted by the addition of a goldfish bowl helmet to their normal uniforms. In the TV show spacesuits have been obsolete for many years and oxygen pills are used instead. Most curiously, in these TV21 stories, oxygen pills are used in space, but ‘spacesuits’ are worn on planets and asteroids. Maybe it’s some kind of space etiquette? Many of the TV21 strips feature spacesuits as an important part of their storyline. So perhaps the suits are a result of adapting ‘space stories’ to become Fireball XL5 stories.

As I said though, back in the 60’s the Fireball XL5 strips were better than no Fireball XL5 at all, and if there seemed to be ‘errors’ back then we’d assume we’d misremembered the TV show. After all, TV21 couldn’t be wrong, could it? I’ve read that some people regard Steve Zodiac as a ‘bland generic space hero’ and Venus as a ‘typical 60’s dumb blonde’. I think they got those ideas from TV21, not the TV show itself. After all, the Fireball comic strip was out week after week, year after year. The TV show was repeated all too rarely. But.... now we have the DVDs!!!

Let’s take a look at this ‘alternate’ comic based Fireball XL5, and adventures of heroes who are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the characters in Fireball XL5 - the TV series.

Fireball XL5 strip guide - part three

Story One
Writer: Tod Sullivan (?). Artist: Graham Coton. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1: TV Century 21 Issue 01, dateline 23 January 2065
A huge freighter floats in the blackness of space... the deathly silence broken only by its automatic distrss signal.

Lieutenant Ninety informs Commander Zero, who orders him to alert Fireball XL5 and tell Steve Zodiac to investigate. The vessel broadcasting the mayday call, a space freighter, is located by Mat using the ‘videoscope’. As Xl5 draws alongside the freighter, they notice that the cargo bay ‘slider’ hatches are open, giving the craft a ‘spooky’ look according to Mat. Venus reminds Steve to take his oxygen pills. Steve dons a strange looking thruster pack and investigates the freighter. Gun toting batmen swoop, but Steve scares them off with a ‘stun gun’. Steve enters the ship and finds the crew, apparently unconscious. A batman shoots Steve and his body is seen drifting out of a hatch. As the freighter speeds away, Mat and Venus recover Steve’s body. Venus declares that Steve is dead...

Part 2: TV Century 21 Issue 02, dateline 30 January 2065
The story-so-far panel states that ‘Steve Zodiac is dead’. Venus is grieving over Steve’s body as they bring him back to the ship. Mat tells Venus to get some rest. He carries Steve’s frozen stiff body to sick bay. (He must have been working out). Puzzled by the ice on Steve’s body, Mat calls Venus to the sick bay. Venus does some tests, with Mat’s assistance. She discovers that Steve is frozen in suspended animation. Atomic heating rays are used to defrost Steve, and he recovers. Zero informs Steve that the freighter is nearly in hyperspace, this term appearing to mean something like, ‘uncharted space’ judging by the artwork. Mat looks over Steve’s shoulder and points to an asteroid where the ship has landed. ‘Pressure suits’ are worn as the three heroes explore on jetmobiles. Two ships are found - the freighter and another ship. Steve orders that they all stay together. Venus gets left behind as she stops to pick up a ship’s nameplate, then shouts for help as two batmen seize her...

Part 3: TV Century 21 Issue 03, dateline 06 February 2065
The two batmen fly off carrying a screaming Venus between them. On their jetmobiles Steve and Mat follow them to a cave. Hordes of batmen are lurking on the ceiling and Steve and Mat are soon dragged from their jetmobiles. They are taken to an underground lake. The batman leader declares that he is a space pilot. He demands that Steve disarms his robot and surrenders his ship. Venus has been tied to a ducking stool and is about to be plunged into the lake. A jetmobile is lowered into the lake by the batmen as a demonstration of what will happen to Venus. The crushed and frozen jetmobile is then pulled from the lake. Steve refuses to surrender and Venus is lowered towards the lake...

Part 4: TV Century 21 Issue 04, dateline 13 February 2065
Steve changes his mind and surrenders to the batman leader. He orders Robert to come to the cave. Valeen, one of the batmen, is ordered to watch the prisoners while the batman leader takes XL5 for a test flight. When the batman leader returns, Steve orders Robert to grab him. In the struggle, it’s revealed that the batman leader is actually wearing a spacesuit...

Part 5: TV Century 21 Issue 05, dated 20 February 2065
Steve dives at the batman leader and rips off the disguise. The batmen declare that they will kill their ex-leader, but Valeen tells Steve to take the human with them. The freighter crew is defrosted and leaves in their ship. Turns out that the leader was an escaped prisoner from a shipwreck who pretended he’d changed into a batman after the bat people had found him. Fireball returns to Earth.

Tomorrow's News Today:
• Issue 1: Steve Zodiac Dead?
• Issue 2: New Asteroid Disappears!
• Issue 4: Fireball Surrenders! Combat Ships Alerted

Notes:
• The 'forgotten' story of Fireball XL5, eclipsed by Mike Noble's two year stint on the strip and omitted from the 1990s reprints.
• Although the story has been written with an eye for series continuity, the artwork leaves a lot to be desired. It’s rather sketchy and the characters have no consistent appearance from panel to panel. Zero and Ninety are not recognizable, and Ninety has ‘lost’ his curly epaulettes. (Their dialogue however, is spot on).
• XL5 has a ‘videoscope’ instead of the astrascope used in the TV show - and if that’s the navigation bay, it’s sure changed. Although Steve uses oxygen pills when he explores the freighter in space, the crew wears ‘pressure suits’ when they explore the asteroid.

• We see early indications here that Venus isn’t going to be taken seriously in these strips. She panics and incorrectly diagnoses that Steve is dead - hardly the reaction of a professional doctor of space medicine. However, with Mat’s prompting, she gets her act together and saves Steve. Later she lags behind on the asteroid - going against Steve’s orders - and so gets herself, and the others captured. However, her character hasn’t completely been lost - she does not cry out for help while tied to the ducking stool, and she does not try to influence Steve’s decision.
• The idea that an earthman in a spacesuit could convince alien bat creatures that he was one of them by wearing a disguise does not seem plausible. A very weak ending to an otherwise fast paced and entertaining story, which could almost have been a Fireball XL5 episode.
• 'Hyper-space' is referred to as a region beyond Sector 25, and the opening panel of part 3 states the asteroid is situated there.
• Interestingly, the masthead on these first five strips appears to have been drawn by Mike Noble, and based on the photo seen on the cover of issue 4. However, Mike Noble maintains it is not his work, and it is possibly by Eric Eden who handled a lot of the editorial artwork. The masthead would appear once more, in issue 7, before the more commonly known version running up the left side of the first page.
• This story was promoted on the cover of issue 4 with the headline 'Fireball Surrenders!', and features the best-known and almost iconic image of Fireball XL5 blasting out of Earth orbit for the Moon. Strange to think this was never used for the series itself, and was specially shot for TV Century 21 - the first of many such photos.


Story Two (aka The Vengeance Of Saharis!)
Writer: Tod Sullivan (?)
Artist: Mike Noble. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1: TV Century 21 Issue 06, dateline 27 February 2065
1987 - an Earth-like inhabited planet called Saharis is rendered almost lifeless by 6 mysterious nosecones from space. Two survivors, Truen and Piil swear vengeance on the planet that destroyed their world.
2065 - Truen and Piil have hollowed out a mountain on Saharis and built a factory there - in order to get their revenge. They launch a replica nose cone style missile at a robot space-train. In Fireball XL5 Steve, Mat and Venus witness the destruction of the robot space-train. The nose cone was of a type used in the 1960’s...

Part 2: TV Century 21 Issue 07, dateline 06 March 2065
The crew leaves Fireball to investigate the wreckage of the space train. Mat determines that the nose cone was one of six Red Star space bombs lost in space in the 1960’s. Piil and Truen, in their Saharin mountain base have observed Fireball’s arrival. They launch another nose cone at the spaceship. Taking evasive action, Robert suddenly boosts Fireball away, leaving Steve, Mat and Venus floating in space...

Part 3: TV Century 21 Issue 08, dateline 13 March 2065

Using his communicator Steve orders Robert to destroy the nose cone with interceptor missiles. Undaunted by this setback, Piil and Truen launch two nose cones at Earth. Venus passes out through lack of air. Robert arrives with XL5 and the unconscious Venus is taken aboard. Mat finds that two nose cone missiles are in Earth’s Solar System...

Part 4: TV Century 21 Issue 09, dateline 20 March 2065
Steve warns Space City. Space City launches missiles that destroy the two approaching nose cones. Mat figures that the nose cones came from Saharis - a desert planet according to the space navigation manual. Fireball Junior lands on the planet and Steve, Mat and Venus investigate on jetmobiles. They discover the factory in the mountain. Steel doors close behind them and they are trapped...

Part 5: TV Century 21 Issue 10, dateline 27 March 2065

The XL5 crew is trapped in the factory. A voice from the control room loud speaker announces that in two hours a neutron nose cone will explode. The XL5 crew learns that Earth Red Star space bombs were responsible for a dreadful accident - the destruction of Saharis. Steve and the others get to the control room, but the voice is a tape recording - Piil and Truen are on their way to Earth with an Omegaminus device that can destroy the whole Earth. Steel bars trap the crew in the control room. In order to escape Mat constructs an electro magnet to open the doors - but it blows the main fuse and Venus is flung across the room. And at the same time, Saharis 1 enters the solar system..

Part 6: TV Century 21 Issue 11, dateline 03 April 2065
With the main fuse blown Steve opens the control room door. Reaching their jetmobiles they blast their way out of the factory and escape in Fireball Junior. Steve warns Space City about the approaching Truen and Piil’s space ship and their Omegaminus bomb. Truen and Piil intercept Steve’s warning radio message but Piil is confident of his foolproof plan. As Fireball Junior heads away from Saharis the planet is destroyed by the nose cone bomb.

Part 7: TV Century 21 Issue 12, dateline 10 April 2065

Fireball Junior survives the explosion and connects up with the main ship. Meanwhile, Piil boards a space liner bound for Earth whilst Truen takes their ship to an asteroid belt to await the liners arrival - so he can bolt the Omegaminus device to the liner’s hull. Piil forces his way onto the liner’s flight deck and holds the crew at gunpoint...

Part 8: TV Century 21 Issue 13, dateline 17 April 2065
While Piil ties up the flight crew, Truen fixes the Omegaminus device to the ship’s hull. Piil sets the liner’s auto pilot to take it to Earth - then the two Saharians leave in their spaceship. Suspicious of an open escape hatch on the liner, Steve goes aboard to investigate - and frees the flight crew. But there’s no way to stop the ship - which will reach Earth in five minutes...

Part 9: TV Century 21 Issue 14, dateline 24 April 2065

Steve uses tools to loosen the Omegaminus device and then attaches a cable so that Fireball can pull the device from the liner - with only minutes to spare. The liner can now land safely on Earth and Fireball destroys the Omegaminus device with missiles. Piil and Truen are still at large - and no one knows their identities.

Tomorrow's News Today:
• Issue 6: Destruction! Space Train Destroyed
• Issue 10: Earth In Peril! Jodrell Bank Detects Space Danger!
• Issue 14: Zodiac's Rescue Bid! Attempt To Save W.S.W. Space Liner!

Reprinted:
Thunderbirds The Comic - issues 35 to 43

Notes:
• This is an interesting story that doesn’t jar with the TV series, and the artwork for this strip is far better than in the previous ‘Batmen’ story.
• It’s just a shame that Venus is only there to get in the way, as if she’s a passenger rather than part of the team.
• The notion of space bombs being ‘lost’ in the 1960’s and them reaching a world beyond our Solar System in a few decades is rather hard to swallow.
• Mat asks Steve if they should wear spacesuits instead of take oxygen pills. Venus passes out through lack of oxygen and so prevents Steve from stopping two more bombs heading for Earth.
• Mat is slimmer and broad shouldered than in the TV series. He does get to use his initiative to cobble together an electro magnet, which is ‘in character’ - as is the device causing the fuse to blow. Mat pilots Junior, something we never see him do in the TV show. I doubt he has the reflexes to do that. This should have been Venus’s chance to do something useful, we know she can pilot Junior.
• In my view, Mat, being older and less fit, would have been a better candidate to pass out - and then Venus could have done some doctoring instead of being a waste of space. Surely she should have been monitoring radiation levels rather than Mat - being the doctor of space medicine.
• Commander Zero is in character though his dialogue isn’t quite right.
• This story features the debut of Saharins Piil and Truen, who would make further appearances in the strip.
• Nice to see a space passenger liner. We don’t see anything like this in the TV show but it seems likely there would be such vessels. The fact that Steve is faced with the very real possibility of having to destroy the liner with 1000 passengers aboard generates a lot of suspense. Of course, he risks his neck to save them.
• A photo of a Gemini rocket launching promoted the start of this story on the cover of issue 6, and provided artist Mike Noble with reference for the Saharin rockets.
• Part 1 features the first use of the most commonly seen masthead, running up the left side of page 1.
• However, part 3 features this masthead at the top of page 1.
• Part 4 features a sepia-toned photo of Fireball XL5 lifting off at the top of the first page, in addition to the regular masthead.
• Part 6 features a longer recap than usual, with the first three frames allocated to what has already happened.
• Mike Noble discusses part of this story in this interview.


Space Border Battle
(aka The Astran War and War In Space/Mission To Astra)
Writer: Tod Sullivan (?).
Artist: Mike Noble. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1: TV Century 21 Issue 15, dateline 01 May 2065
Space Border Battle
The Solar System’s Tenth Fleet patrols space near the border of the Astran Empire. In Fireball XL5, Steve Zodiac and Professor Matic watch the ships with pride. Venus points out that a war with the Astrans would not be a good thing. Commander Zero orders XL5 back to Earth. Meanwhile, a fleet of Astran saucers is moving towards the border. (Astrans are strange jellybean shaped aliens with no appendages, smooth and featureless). The Astrans fire a warning shot at the Solarian space fleet. The two fleets close, neither prepared to back down, each on it’s own side of the border. Someone’s nerve breaks and a weapon is fired. A fierce battle ensues. The Solar System’s Tenth Fleet radios Space City reporting heavy losses on both sides and requesting reinforcements...

Part 2: TV Century 21 Issue 16, dateline 08 May 2065
Commander Zero orders the fleet to cease-fire and withdraw. The Astrans break off the fight when the Solar System ships retreat. Space City is soon bristling with rockets - the threat of war looms. Zero tells Steve they’ve been ordered to Unity City to speak with the World President. On arrival they meet the President and the Astran Ambassador. They have a mission for Zodiac that means almost certain death for him...

Part 3: TV Century 21 Issue 17, dateline 15 May 2065
Steve wants to stop the space war and volunteers for the mission. He’s given a sealed message to take to the Kaplan, the Astran leader. The Astran Ambassador tells Steve that the Astrans will shoot first and ask questions later. Steve tells Commander Zero he wants to perform the mission alone. Venus and Mat watch Fireball XL5 launch into space. Steve and Robert fly XL5 to the Astran border. The Astran fleet detects XL5 heading for Astra and intercepts, preparing to open fire...


Part 4: TV Century 21 Issue 18, dateline 22 May 2065
The Astrans fire missiles at Fireball XL5. Steve surrenders and Astrans board the ship and take him prisoner. The Astran Kapt listens to Steve’s story and says it is up to the Kaplan to decide what is to be done. Under escort Fireball XL5 is flown to Astra and lands at Kapland, capital city of Astra. Steve meets the Kaplan Minus. He explains his mission but the Astran shoots Steve with a ray projected from its body. The Kaplan intervenes to save Steve, admonishing the Kaplan Minus for his behaviour towards an ambassador. Steve is taken to the Kaplan’s room where he explains his mission and delivers the message. The Kaplan agrees to fly to Earth to sign a peace treaty. However, someone, somewhere, sends a radio message stating that the Kaplan must die...

Part 5: TV Century 21 Issue 19, dateline 29 May 2065
Assassination!

A televised broadcast covers the arrival of the Kaplan’s saucer on Earth. The President greets the Kaplan and Kaplan Minus. A cavalcade takes the leaders on a state drive through Unity City. Someone prepares to use a rifle. Steve and the Kaplan Minus are in the car behind the one carrying the President and the Kaplan. The Kaplan Minus tells Steve he suspects the Earthmen have set a trap. Crowds watch and streamers pour from buildings as the cars pass by. The Kaplan is suddenly shot dead. People rush to the car. Steve has seen where the shot came from and orders security men to cordon off the area. He races to the roof of a building but finds it empty. The Kaplan Minus says that Zodiac trapped them and gives him 36 hours to find the killers - or there will be war. The President tells Zodiac to get to it. Steve protests but Zero tells him he has his orders. The whole thing has been broadcast to millions of watching viewers. Two of the viewers are Lady Penelope and Parker. Penelope tells Parker that while all eyes are on Zodiac nobody will be watching them...

Story switches to Lady Penelope strip
TV Century 21 Issue 19, dateline 29 May 2065
Parker tells Lady Penelope that Count Lugosti is the top hired gun. Penelope decides only the top assassin would have been hired for this killing. They travel by Fireflash to Unity City. Parker says Lugosti is a keen gambler. Knowing no one would be allowed to leave the city, Lady Penelope looks for Lugosti at the casino. She picks out Lugosti as the one stranger amongst the gamblers she knows, and he’s obviously not a tourist. She joins her suspect for a game of Century, and wins by cheating using a gadget and Parker’s help. Taking the money, she leaves. Outside in a quiet street, the gambler points a gun at Lady Penelope. She uses a truth drug gas. Lugosti admits he used a rifle to kill the Kaplan. Steve is given an anonymous tip off and finds Lugosti chained to a lamp post. Back in England Lady Penelope tells Parker that Steve will now have to prove Lugosti’s guilt - a truth drug is not admissible legal evidence.

Part 6: TV Century 21 Issue 20, dateline 05 June 2065
Zodiac Makes An Arrest

Steve and Zero drag Lugosti into their hover car. As they drive away another car rams theirs at an intersection. While Steve and Zero are still stunned, two men take Lugosti to another car. Steve fires as the car drives off and it crashes into a building. Steve dives at Lugosti and catches him but is struck from behind and is knocked out. Lugosti is shot by his ‘rescuer’ as his identity has been revealed to the police...

Part 7: TV Century 21 Issue 21, dateline 12 June 2065
Army In House To House Search
Steve orders a house to house search, fingerprints checked and buildings X-rayed. At Unity House, Steve and Zero see the President and Astran Ambassador. Steve says he believes the killers will now be found in Unity City by nightfall. The Kaplan Minus is returning to Astra and Steve is to transport the killers to Astra if he catches them. The security forces ask Steve to return to the casino. X-rays have revealed a hidden underground room there. There is a remote controlled machine gun protecting the hideaway. Steve has bits of silver paper dropped down into the room to fog the gun’s radar. He climbs down along a sprinkler pipe - but it comes away from the ceiling and he is coming into the machine gun’s line of fire...

Part 8: TV Century 21 Issue 22, dateline 19 June 2065
Assassins Escape!

Commander Zero uses a fire hose to short circuit the machine gun control circuits with water. Steve, Zero and the police find a vast underground cavern - and a submarine makes a very hasty getaway. Some criminals are left behind and arrested. Steve says that now it’s a job for Stingray...

Story switches to Stingray strip
TV Century 21 Issue 22, dateline 19 June 2065
Stingray is launched immediately; Marina is left behind as it’s going to be dangerous. A spotter plane locates the submarine and alerts Stingray. The submarine finds cover behind a ridge on the seabed. Troy notices that fish are avoiding an area of the ridge. Stingray fires Sting missiles, which destroy part of the ridge and expose the submarine. After a short battle the submarine is destroyed. A surface ship picks up two criminals and an Astran. Mission accomplished.

Part 9: TV Century 21 Issue 23, dateline 26 June 2065
Zodiac Flies Out...

Steve and Zero return to Space City. In a detention room Steve asks the villains to talk. One starts to recite the tale of Goldilocks and Steve punches him in the face. He says they will take the prisoners to talk to the new Kaplan on Astra. The Astran prisoner panics and says he’ll talk to Steve. The Astran says it was the Kaplan, as Kaplan Minus, who organized the assassination of the Astran leader. Steve says the Astran will help him to bring the new Kaplan to justice, but the Astran says they will all die. Steve, Mat and Zero board Fireball XL5 and head for Astra. Venus is once again left behind, told that it is a job for the three men. Mat locates the Astran fleet. Once in range, Steve sends out a surrender rocket. The Deputy Kapt is in command, whilst the Kapt sleeps in his quarters. The Kaplan has ordered that any Earth ships are to be destroyed. Missiles are fired at Fireball XL5 and Steve takes evasive action...

Part 10: TV Century 21 Issue 24, dateline 03 July 2065
XL5 Under Attack

Steve destroys the missiles with interceptors but he’s outnumbered and won’t survive another attack. He orders Robert to ram the attacking ships. The Kapt wakes and sees it’s Steve’s ship. He fires a surrender rocket. Steve fires retros and avoids colliding with the Kapt’s ship. He explains the situation to the Kapt and they head for Astra. Fireball lands outside the capital city, Kapland. Steve flies a jetmobile towards the city alone. The Kaplan and his guards meet him. Steve tells the Kaplan that the assassins have talked and he now knows the truth. The Kaplan shoots a ray from his body to kill Steve...

Part 11: TV Century 21 Issue 25, dateline 10 July 2065
Revolution On Astra
Steve is unharmed by the ray. He tells the Kaplan his special ‘suit’ has protected him from the ray. The Kaplan fires a ray from his flying platform and destroys Steve’s jetmobile and Steve falls injured to the ground. The Kaplan scoffs at Steve’s protective suit. The Astrans leave Steve in the wreckage and the Kaplan declares his enemies will have to destroy the city and it’s population in order to get him. Zero goes to find Steve and brings him back to Fireball. They return to the Astran fleet. The Kapt cannot attack the city and destroy his own people - but Steve has a plan. There are only six entrances to the city, all guarded. They return to Astra, and Astran forces are sent to cover three of the entrances. Steve, Mat and Zero are to deal with the other three. Steve prepares to destroy a tank in one of the entrances, using a bazooka type weapon...

Part 12: TV Century 21 Issue 26, dateline 17 July 2065
Astra's Final Battle

Steve blows up the tank and it bursts into flames. Soon the other two exits are dealt with the same way and the smoke is blown into the city by Astran spacecraft. The Kaplan’s men desert in order to escape the smoke. The Kaplan says he’ll blow up the city. The entire city is evacuated just before it is blown up by the mad Kaplan. The Kapt becomes the new Kaplan and Zero offers help from Earth. Fireball takes off and heads back to Earth.

Tomorrow's News Today:
• Issue 15: Battle In Space - Interplanetary War Scare!
• Issue 16: Space Battle - Cease Fire!
• Issue 17: Zodiac's Rescue Bid! Attempt To Save W.S.W. Space Liner!
• Issue 19: Kaplan Assassinated! Astran Leader Shot In Unity City
• Issue 22: Zodiac Sends For Stingray!
• Issue 24: XL5 Collision Course! Steve Zodiac Sets Fireball To Ram Astran Flagship!
• Issue 26: Civil War - Astran City Burns

Reprinted:
Countdown - issues 21 to 30 (parts 3 to 12)
Action 21 - issues 1 to 10
Thunderbirds The Comic - issues 44 to 55

Notes:
• TV Century 21's first 'epic' is a superb tale that takes the world of Fireball XL5 and expands it into both Lady Penelope and Stingray with incredibly bold moves.
• Mike Noble on the crossover: 'In the early strips for TV21, Alan Fennell experimented with storylines running between XL5 and Stingray. I dreamed up the Astrans which Ron Embleton had to use and I used his 'assassins'. I think photostats of the characters we drew were exchanged. The idea was soon dropped as it became too complicated.'
• This is a story that people often remember from when they read it in the 1960’s. I certainly do. I think it was because the aliens, the ‘Astrans’ were so odd looking and, well, alien. The story was clearly ‘inspired’ by the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963.
• Whoever wrote this strip didn’t want women in the story. Venus is left back on Earth, seemingly because the missions were too dangerous. Likewise, Marina is left back at base in the Stingray segment for the same reason. I’m surprised Lady Penelope didn’t stay at home too and leave things to Parker. This is so bad. Both Venus and Marina faced many dangers in the TV shows. Neither have a ‘safe’ day job. A very sexist story in this respect that does not reflect the enlightened attitude to women that we see in the Fireball XL5 television series and, to some extent, in Stingray.
• Another major break with the TV show is that there are fleets of space battleships. (Ugly and unimaginative looking ones). A very different universe to the one we see Fireball XL5 patrol where there seem only two dozen or so Fireball class patrol ships to patrol most of known space, assisted by even smaller light patrol ships. The existence of many fleets of huge battleships would seem to make Fireball XL5’s role in space more than a little redundant.
• The battleships of the 'Tenth Fleet' are actually based on early space station designs, seen later in some of the factual features by Roger Dunn.
• I get the impression this was not a story originally written for Fireball XL5. Not only does Venus get ditched for most of the adventure but also Zero seems to tag along with Steve as his new sidekick. Presumably to give the younger fitter version of Mat a break. I would have thought that Commander Zero (who in this story seems to control at least 11 war fleets) would have better things to do than play at being an Earth cop. Not exactly sensible allocation of human resources.
• When Mat is supposed to come up with a protective ‘suit’ for Steve, all we see is the addition of a goldfish bowl on his head.
• The crossover with the Stingray strip was promoted on the cover of issue 22 with the headline 'Zodiac Sends For Stingray!' (left).
• The photo used on the cover of issue 26, with the headline CIVIL WAR - Astran City Burns, actually shows the irrigation plant on fire from the Thunderbirds episode 'The Mighty Atom', which would not be seen on television for another five months.
• The reprint in Countdown in 1971 curiously starts with part 3, and omits the Lady Penelope and Stingray instalments.
• This story was split in two for its reprint in The New Thunderbirds - an eight part story (War In Space) and a four parter (Mission To Astra)


Fireball Answers S.O.S. (aka Giants From Space)
Writer: Tod Sullivan (?).
Artist: Mike Noble. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1: TV Century 21 Issue 27, dateline 24 July 2065
Fireball Answers S.O.S.
Whilst returning to Earth from Astra, Fireball XL5 picks up a distress call from Animal Expedition Ship AE7. The call states the animals have broken loose, and a mouse seems to be a major problem. Fireball reaches the ship and Steve uses a thruster pack to reach the emergency entrance hatch. Seeing a twelve-foot high butterfly, about to attack, he kills it with his raygun. The butterfly shrinks to normal size and Steve enters the ship. In the main control room Steve kills a fifteen-foot high mouse, which also shrinks to normal size. Steve then returns to Fireball. Mat is sent to collect the bodies for tests. XL5 then tows the ship back to Earth. Two men, Piil and Truen watch from a spacestation millions of miles away. Piil says Zodiac will soon learn that animals on Earth can grow too. Zodiac will not beat him this time. He orders Truen to turn a beam to bear on Earth - they will destroy Earth with it’s own animals...

Part 2: TV Century 21 Issue 28, dateline 31 July 2065
New York Evacuated
From their spacestation, Piil and Truen turn their beam towards Earth and target New York. Fireball XL5 lands at Space City with the salvaged ship. Steve orders Mat to find out what caused the animals to grow. Venus greets Steve. She tells him the animals in New York have grown to enormous sizes and there is panic. Commander Zero says he’s going to Washington to call a meeting of the War Council. Steve takes Venus to New York in a hoverjet. Flying over New York, they see giant sea gulls. Steve shoots a giant dog that is chasing people, and the animal shrinks to normal size. Meanwhile, unknown to Steve a giant bird is swooping down on their hoverjet...

Part 3: TV Century 21 Issue 29, dateline 07 August 2065
Ants On The Move

The giant sparrow hits the aircraft and Steve and Venus eject. Once safely on the ground, Steve says they’ll have to keep together to escape from New York alive, as they only have one gun. A giant cat is fighting an equally giant mouse. Steve and Venus find a hovercar and take off. A frightened pack of giant thirty-foot tall dogs runs towards them, causing Steve to crash. As they climb from the car, they see what has caused the dogs to panic - an army of gigantic ants...

Part 4: TV Century 21 Issue 30, dateline 14 August 2065
Venus needs to rest, so Steve has to carry her several blocks to the heliport and air museum. Finding the building deserted, Steve and Venus hurry to the roof. Venus searches the hangars and finds them all empty. Peering over the edge of the parapet, Steve sees that the giant ants are swarming up the building. In desperation, he and Venus enter a museum hangar. While Venus fetches a fuel truck, Steve hauls out a 1965 jet fighter plane from the hangar. The ants have almost reached the roof...

Part 5: TV Century 21 Issue 31, dateline 21 August 2065
New York Heliport Ablaze!
Steve starts fueling the plane. When the tanks are half full, Venus climbs into the plane while Steve rams the parapet wall with the fuel tanker, leaping clear at the last instant before it crashes through it to the ground, where it explodes into flames. Steve powers up the jet fighter, releases the brakes - and the plane screams off the roof and plunges into the smoke...

Part 6: TV Century 21 Issue 32, dateline 28 August 2065
The Battle For Washington
Steve fights with the controls and brings the aircraft under control. They fly to Washington. The military are fighting with the giant animals. Commander Zero says a knock out gas is being used on the larger animals, but the ants will have to be killed. A courier hands Steve a message from Professor Matic. Mat has pinpointed a source of power connected with the animal growth. Zero orders Steve back to Space City; the source has to be destroyed. Fireball XL5 launches as soon as Steve and Venus get back. Mat supplies the co-ordinates of the energy source. They find Piil and Truen’s spacestation. Steve primes planatomic missiles and destroys the spacestation. But the giant ants continue to attack Washington...

Part 7: TV Century 21 Issue 33, dateline 04 September 2065
The Ants Are Winning...

The army is using sleeping darts on the other large animals, putting them to sleep long enough for them to return to normal size. But there are not enough darts to tackle the massive army of ants. Fireball returns to Space City. Mat says he has a solution for dealing with the ants. No animals have grown on the Space City island because of the hyper high frequency radio waves. Soon, Steve, Mat and Venus are sitting at consoles to line up communications satellites with the aerial at Space City. Mat switches on the hyper-high frequency radio. Just as the troops think they are done for, the radio waves hit the ants and knock them unconscious, whereupon they shrink back to normal size. Mat has saved the day, and the Earth.

Tomorrow's News Today:
• Issue 27: Spaceship S.O.S - Fireball Races To Rescue!

Reprinted:
Countdown - issues 31 to 37
Thunderbirds The Comic - issues 56 to 62

Notes:
• I could tell this story was doomed from the very first panel. The opening line is: “It’s got me...The mouse... Aaagh!” Not so much a Fireball XL5 story as a Hollywood ‘B’ movie - ‘Attack Of The Giant.......’ (fill in the blank)
• Steve kills the two surviving animals on the ship and then complains the ship reeks of death - has he forgotten that his coma raygun can stun?
• They tow the ship on a cable - why not have Robert fly it? Landing a spaceship on the end of a cable is probably tricky.
• Surely Doctor Venus should have been examining the bodies and determining the cause of growth - not Mat.
• Venus is a liability in this story. Doesn’t Space City have specialist staff whose job it is to direct satellites? (Still, at least it gave Venus something to do).
• Steve uses planatomic missiles to destroy the space station. This seem a case of ‘overkill’, since a planatomic missile can destroy entire planets, and we never see any indication in the TV show that Fireball carries such armament.
• TV21 continuity with the TV show is generally pretty poor, but continuity from one week to the next is often a little hazy too. Typical of TV21 continuity, one week it is stated that gas is being used on the giant animals, and the next week they are using darts.
• Zero told Steve he was going to call a ‘War Council’ in Washington. But Steve later wonders how he’s faring with the giant animals... which so far as he knew, were only in New York.
• The cover of issue 27 of TV Century 21, promoting the first part of this story, features new photos of Fireball XL5 taken with a model of the AE7 expedition ship. This photo also appears in the Letts TV21 Diary in 1970
• Another photo from this shoot, showing the AE7 exploding with Fireball XL5 in the foreground (left), appears as one of the endpapers for the ©1969 TV21 Annual.


Contact Lost With Space Expedition (aka Icemen of Space)
Writer: Tod Sullivan (?)
Artist: Mike Noble. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1: TV Century 21 Issue 34, dateline 11 September 2065

Fireball XL5 is at Space City being loaded with supplies to take to the planet Uraniture in Sector 25. It is a frozen, ice-covered world. Steve and his crew are delivering six months worth of supplies to the two man expedition stationed there - Bentley from Earth and Estermil, a four-armed humanoid from the planet Plaquer. Bentley and Estermil are surveying the planet. Estermil is confronted by what appears to be a snowman and radios Bentley. When Bentley arrives on the scene, he is grabbed by a snowman and instantly transformed into a snowman himself...

Part 2: TV Century 21 Issue 35, dateline 18 September 2065
Abominable Snowmen!
Fireball XL5 lands on Uraniture and Steve, Mat and Venus emerge on jetmobiles. Finding the base-camp deserted, they search for the two surveyors. Snowmen suddenly block their path and surround them. When they ignore Steve’s order to stop and identify themselves, he opens fire with his raygun. A snowman melts revealing a spacesuited figure who calls out “Don’t let them touch you.” The suit collapses - empty. Steve, Mat and Venus speed back to Fireball, the two men firing their jetmobile rayguns to clear a path as they go. Venus is knocked from her jetmobile by a falling spacesuit and cries out for help...

Part 3: TV Century 21 Issue 36, dateline 25 September 2065
Fireball Snowed Under!
Steve tells Mat to cover him while he goes back to rescue Venus on his jetmobile. They hurry back to Fireball with the snowmen in cold pursuit. The snowmen surround the ship, joining hands in a big circle. The crew watch as the snowmen turn into a wall of ice. Steve tries to get the ship to take off but the rockets have frozen up. The ice wall continues to grow and threatens to engulf Fireball...

Part 4: TV Century 21 Issue 37, dateline 02 October 2065
Escape - Fireball Blasts Out!

Mat suggests firing interceptors to break the force field circuit. They blast a hole in the ice wall and it rapidly shrinks, revealing a broken ring of snowmen. The snowmen move off. Venus wants to leave the planet, but Steve insists on trying to find the surveyors. Robert is fitted with a TV camera and sent out on a jetmobile. Snowmen roll a giant snowball down a slope towards the robot...

Part 5: TV Century 21 Issue 38, dateline 09 October 2065
The giant snowball engulfs Robert. Steve decides he’ll have to look for the surveyors himself. He puts on three spacesuits as a defence against the snowmen. He walks from the ship and heads for the hills, armed with his raygun. Steve shoots a snowman that blocks his path and presses forward into a tunnel. A voice welcomes Zodiac by name, telling him to join Bentley and Estermil. The two surveyors appear. Steve grabs the two men and says he’s taking them back to Fireball, but they turn back into snowmen and try to freeze him...

Part 6: TV Century 21 Issue 39, dateline 16 October 2065

Three snowmen now walk down the tunnel, but one of them is Steve Zodiac, protected by his three suits and still carrying his raygun. As they walk, the snow melts from the three figures. Steve is led to see the snowman leader, Klawking, who states that all of the snowmen are nothing without the life he gives them. Klawking turns the three back into snowmen - but Steve is insulated from the effects and retains his identity. Klawking advances menacingly. Steve’s raygun has no effect on the creature, so he fires repeatedly at the walls and the cavern begins to collapse. Steve runs to the exit with Bentley and Estermil, but they collapse as empty spacesuits. Mat has guessed what has happened and is waiting on his jetmobile. All of the snowmen are dead. After collecting Robert, Steve, Mat and Venus head for home in Fireball XL5. Mat concludes that the men were ice zombies, having no life of their own so they perished along with Klawking.

Tomorrow's News Today:
• Issue 34: Ice Planet Mystery - Survivors Vanish On Uraniture
• Issue 39: Revolutionary Engine For XL5 - Speeds In Excess Of Velot 4

Reprinted:
Countdown - issues 38 to 43
Century 21 - issue 4
Thunderbirds The Comic - issues 63 to 66
The New Thunderbirds - issues 67 to 68

Notes:
• In this story, Fireball XL5 seems to play the role of a freighter, simply taking stores to a two-man survey team.
• Venus does very little apart from needing to be rescued and making statements and suggestions, which are usually contradicted by the others. Venus seems to be more concerned about her own safety than the plight of the surveyors. It seems she’s just along for the ride.
• There are at least fifty or so snowmen - each one presumably a ‘dead’ astronaut. Wonder where they were all supposed to have come from and why they were not missed. The whole story seems pointless, as nothing much seems to be achieved. Very peculiar.
• This story seems to resemble Flash Gordon more than Fireball XL5. Brave hero, scientist advisor and girl to scream and be rescued.
• This story was promoted on the cover of TV Century 21 issue 34, and features a new photo of XL5 heading for a planet. This photo was also used on the cover of the TV Century 21 Summer Extra, which was released in July.
• The front cover of issue 39, promoting a new engine for XL5, does not relate to the story inside but the start of Time Slip in issue 44. This seems to suggest the next story, drawn by a different artist, was perhaps slotted in as a 'filler'.


Emergency Landing
Writer: Tod Sullivan (?)
Artist: Frank Hampson. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1: TV Century 21 Issue 40, dateline 23 October 2065
Fireball XL5 is returning to Earth. When the boosters are fired there is an explosion. Mat ejects to check the damage and he suggests they land to make repairs. They land on a nearby asteroid. On the asteroid the crew wear thruster packs and helmets. Venus says she’ll explore while Steve and Mat work to repair the ship. Mat is surprised when an inspection hatch he removes falls to ground with some force - in an almost weightless environment. Venus radios for help, so Steve and Mat rush to her aid. They find a spacesuited figure holding a gun...

Part 2: TV Century 21 Issue 41, dateline 30 October 2065

There is a landed rocket ship behind the suited figure. Steve approaches the motionless figure and finds it’s a skeleton. They head for the ship. Mat thinks it would be interesting to find out who the people were. He finds the engines were burnt out when trying to take off. Steve confirms this, having checked the logs. Steve and Mat continue their repair work on XL5.
A spanner is dropped and it sticks to the surface. Mat suggests they should complete the repairs in space - the magnetic pull of the planet being too strong. Fireball can’t take off and they have to cut the motors before they burn out. Mat discovers that the asteroid has become a huge magnet and they are trapped, just like the other ship. Steve vows to find a solution. The three split up to explore using thruster packs. Steve suddenly falls through a trap door that he happens to be standing on...

Part 3: TV Century 21 Issue 42, dateline 06 November 2065

Steve falls headfirst into an underground room. His ‘spacesuit’ cushions the fall. 'Stand aside for meals’ a speaker announces and tables and benches come out of the floor. Steve waits, but no people appear. After half an hour the tables disappear back into the floor. Steve walks down a corridor and finds a control cabin. Then, hearing motors he steps towards a door. A voice orders him to return to his quarters. Suspecting a trap, Steve crawls to the door, and a jet of flame flares above his head. He blasts the door with his raygun and enters a small empty room beyond. Another steel door closes behind him, trapping him inside. Liquid pours in from holes in the wall. A voice says he was warned and now he must die...

Part 4: TV Century 21 Issue 43, dateline 13 November 2065
Using his raygun, Steve blasts through the wall and it collapses. He’s sucked from the cubicle into the electro-magnet engine room, where he’s whirled around the room by magnetic forces. The liquid causes an explosion when it reaches the electro-magnet terminals. Steve wakes up back on the surface with Mat and Venus by him. Venus says Steve has broken both legs and orders that they return to Fireball. Steve is carried back on a stretcher. He is puzzled. Mat tells him the occupants of the asteroid died thousands of years ago. The ship was run automatically by machines. Venus asks about the trapped ship. Mat says the asteroid ship had generated a magnetic field when it’s motors changed course. He returns to the repairs. Two days later they set course for home.

Tomorrow's News Today:
• Issue 40: Fireball Explosion! - Crippled Ship Heads For Asteroid

Reprinted:
Countdown Holiday Special 1971

Notes:
• This is an intriguing science fiction story idea that had undeveloped potential. It seems to be a generic space story, not written with the Fireball XL5 characters in mind. It could easily have been a Dan Dare story, for example.
• Venus does do something useful at the end of the story by tending to Steve’s broken legs - as if the writer only realised she was a doctor when he had practically finished the story, and had Steve break his legs for that reason. Steve seems to solve their problem by luck rather than judgement. Mat doesn’t do anything much. The story has rather an abrupt and unsatisfactory conclusion
• The artwork is disappointing considering it was drawn by the creator of Dan Dare, Frank Hampson.
• Whilst Mat doesn’t wear a helmet when out in space (which is as per the TV show), on the asteroid, the crew wear goldfish bowl helmets - though in one panel Mat isn’t wearing the helmet. I guess the helmets were an after thought.
• Also Steve’s ‘spacesuit’ which is said to cushion his fall is merely drawn as helmet and gloves on a normal uniform.
• Mat is again drawn slimmer and younger than in the TV show.
• The likenesses are not consistent from panel to panel, but the close-ups of Steve and Mat’s faces look much like the puppets. The first close up of Steve is in a different style to the other close-ups - looking more like a real person. The interiors of Fireball are well drawn, showing that Hampson must have studied reference material. XL5 exteriors are okay but the fin and pods are a little two-dimensional.
• This story was promoted on the cover of TV Century 21 issue 40, with the headline 'Fireball Explosion!', and features a new photo of XL5 over a mountainscape, presumably from production of Thunderbirds.
• This story takes place directly after the previous one, as Fireball XL5 is returning to Earth from Uraniture. The reprint in the Countdown Holiday Special, however, states it is just 'returning from patrol'.
• This strip, like the first one by Graham Coton, was omitted from the 1990s reprints.


New Booster for Fireball (aka Time Slip!)
Writer: Tod Sullivan (?).
Artist: Mike Noble. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1: TV Century 21 Issue 44, dateline 20 November 2065
Fireball XL5 is fitted with an experimental booster. A scientist explains the heliotomic booster is to be given a flight test. XL5 is to travel to Neptune at normal speed and then return with the new booster at full rate. Fireball launches the next day and soon arrives at Neptune. The heliotomic booster is fired and Fireball becomes a streak of light in space. The ship returns to Earth and heads for Space City. But they find an empty atoll...

Part 2: TV Century 21 Issue 45, dateline 27 November 2065
Steve tries to radio Space City to get a bearing. He picks up a sports commentary that nobody understands. Mat suggests they head for Washington. Old-style USAF fighters intercept them. Steve accelerates and evades the aircraft and proceeds to Washington. His radioed request for permission to land is granted. Meanwhile, Air Traffic Control asks the Pentagon to send troops to the airfield immediately, because an alien spacecraft is landing. Unknown to Steve and his crew, a hostile army is moving to welcome XL5...



Part 3: TV Century 21 Issue 46, dateline 04 December 2065
Fireball XL5 lands at an empty airfield. The tanks and rockets are kept out of sight. As Steve, Mat and Venus emerge from the ship on jetmobiles the military prepare to act. Although the crew notice the buildings look different they think it’s due to rebuilding after the ‘ant war’. When armed troops surround the trio, Steve knocks them out with his jetmobile ray. As the crew hurries back towards Fireball, tanks emerge from hiding and start shooting. Seeing the ship is in danger, Steve uses his wrist-radio to order Robert to get XL5 back into orbit - leaving the three of them stranded...

Part 4: TV Century 21 Issue 47, dateline 11 December 2065

Missiles are fired at XL5 and Steve orders Robert to use interceptors to protect the ship. Steve and the others are captured and questioned. It is found to be November 1966. Mat refuses to talk and they are locked in a luggage room. Steve asks Mat why they can’t talk. Mat explains that the U.S. would want their weapons and knowledge. Mat says that there would be war if America had their weapons. Venus is French and her great grandfather could be killed in the conflict - meaning Venus would cease to exist. They are observed on a TV monitor...

Part 5: TV Century 21 Issue 48, dateline 18 December 2065
The airman who observed the conversation decides that Mat is right - there will be war if the USA gets the technology and weapons of XL5. He knocks out the guard and frees the prisoners. The alarm is sounded. The four escapees steal a tank, but the airman is shot and wounded. Venus and Mat tend the wounded man, while Steve drives the tank though the airfield fence into the open countryside, with other tanks in pursuit...

Part 6: TV Century 21 Issue 49, dateline 25 December 2065

Mat takes the controls of the tank while Steve puts on the airman’s clothes. He jumps from the tank and hides as the pursuers pass him by. He makes his way back to the airfield looking for the jetmobiles. The jetmobiles are loaded on a truck bound for the White House. Steve hides underneath the truck as it drives off. When the truck arrives at the White House gates it is stopped by guards who prepare to make a search...

Part 7: TV Century 21 Issue 50, dateline 01 January 2066
The truck driver says he has top priority clearance and the guards let him through the gates. Steve drops from his hiding place and begins searching for Venus and Mat. A security guard spots Steve and radios for assistance. Steve peers through a window in the White House and sees Venus and Mat being questioned. The airman is wearing Steve’s uniform and has his arm in a sling. A security guard presses a gun to Steve’s back but Steve knocks the gun from his hand - it goes off. Steve floors the guard with a punch. Inside the room, armed guards hearing the shot rush to the window. Steve smashes his way in through the window, whilst firing his gun. He grabs the President and tells everyone to keep still or he’ll kill him. At Steve’s order, Mat calls Robert and orders him to land the ship. The President says his men will stop them escaping, as his life is not as important as gaining the XL5 technology. Steve orders Robert to destroy every major American City if they are not back on board in an hour...

Part 8: TV Century 21 Issue 51, dateline 08 January 2066
Steve changes back into his uniform. He holds the President at gunpoint as Venus, Mat and the airman escape though the shattered window. Troops burst in and the President tells them not to act as the spaceship has missiles aimed at American cities. Steve and the President join the others who are waiting with the jetmobiles outside. Steve tells Mat to have Robert land Fireball Junior and leave the main ship in orbit, missiles primed. As the Xl5 crew board Junior on their jetmobiles, Steve thanks the airman. The airman says his own name is Zodiac. As the President and the airman run for cover and Junior blasts away the tanks open fire.

Junior heads for space and docks with the main ship. Mat decides full boost to Pluto and a slow trip back to Earth will get them back into the future. The plan works and XL5 heads back to Space City. Steve says that his father’s name was Kalinski and he changed it to Zodiac, so the airman was not a relative.

Tomorrow's News Today:
• Issue 45: Where Is Fireball? Wonder Ship Missing On Test Flight
• Issue 51: Time Barrier Busted - Fireball Returns From Twentieth Century

Reprinted:
Thunderbirds The Comic - issues 69 to 75 (omitting part 5)

Notes:
• There are two rather odd ‘facts’ introduced about Steve and Venus in this story. One directly contradicts the TV series. The other seems to use bizarre logic that smacks of editorial changes:

• At the end of this story, Mat and Venus ask Steve if the airman named Zodiac may have been one of his ancestors. Steve is positive this is not the case - as he says that his father’s name was ‘Kalinski’ and he changed his name to ‘Zodiac’. We know from the episode ’Flying Zodiac’ that Steve did actually have ancestors with the name ‘Zodiac’. So Steve saying that his father only adopted the name, so the airman could not be his grandfather, makes no sense.
• Venus is said to be French in this story. But this makes no sense for the storyline. The crew are prisoners of American forces back in 1966. If the Americans get XL5‘s technology they will use it to attack their enemies in a war. Fair enough. But why does Mat say that Venus may cease to exist because her great grandfather was French? Surely, America’s adversary at that time was the Soviet Union. So I think the writer originally intended to have Mat say that Venus was a Russian - and that would make far more sense than that her ancestor would be at risk if America made a pre-emptive strike using Fireball technology.
• Steve hands over control of a tank to Mat - not Venus. We know from the series that Venus is far more capable at controlling vehicles than Mat is. This is part of the general way Steve and Mat are treated as pretty interchangeable heroes in the comic - at the expense of Venus. In the series, Venus is far more capable than Mat in many areas.
• Overall this is a great story. It reminds me of the far more recent ‘Little Green Men’ episode of Deep Space Nine, where Quark, his brother, and Odo are taken prisoner by American armed forces in the 1950’s. Can’t help but think that this comic strip inspired that episode.
• A new photo of Fireball XL5 flying over a cityscape (presumably from Thunderbirds again, production of which was coming to a close) appears on the cover of issue 45.
• Another new photo, of Fireball Junior landing, also appears on the cover of issue 51.
• The cover of issue 51 features what could be seen as a major continuity error for TV Century 21. The main headline is 'Time Barrier Busted', but stories such as Burke's Law and Supercar had already been brought to the readers in 2065 'courtesy of the TV21 time machine'...
• Part 5 of this story was accidentally omitted from the reprint in The New Thunderbirds, which should have appeared in issue 73. The stories for Zero X and Lady Penelope that week also jumped forward an instalment, and these were not reprinted.
• The artwork for the first page of part 1 is still known to exist, and went for sale on eBay for the price of £1,100 in Ocober 2005.

TV Century 21 Summer Extra (June 1965)

Fireball XL5
VENUS VANISHES! Mystery Kidnappings in Jacksonville
Writer: Alan Fennell (?). Artist: Pat Williams. Four pages, b/w and colour.
It is evening in Jacksonville. Armed men wearing sinister-looking cowled costumes are bundling an unconscious man into a vehicle. On a country road a family is rendered senseless and abducted when they stop their car to aid a man lying in the road. A kidnapper says they need one more woman. In Jacksonville one of the gang climbs a hotel fire-escape. Seeing Venus alone in her room he over-powers her.
A week later Venus is due back from her holiday. Jacksonville police inform Commander Zero that Venus and 59 other people have vanished. In Jacksonville Steve and Matt learn that one witness saw a flying saucer. Records reveal a saucer left for planet Klondyke. Fireball XL5 heads there but they spot a flying saucer leaving the quarantined planet Roma - It has a civilization 2000 years behind Earth’s. Alerting patrols to intercept the saucer Steve changes course for Roma.

Fireball lands in a city reminiscent of ancient Rome. Guards take Steve and Matt to an arena to meet Caesar. Lions are about to fight unarmed slaves. Matt reminds Steve they cannot interfere. Venus appears amongst the slaves in the arena. Seizing a spear, Steve leaps into the arena. Matt holds Caesar at gunpoint, ordering him to call off his guards. Steve holds off the lions as Venus escapes. As she climbs into Caesar’s box Matt gives her his gun to keep Caesar covered while he uses a curtain to help Steve to climb out of the arena. Steve, Matt, Venus and the freed prisoners return to Fireball. Steve warns Caesar against such behaviour in future.
Two days later Zero says the kidnappers have been arrested. Venus declares that she won’t go to Rome for her next holiday.

Notes:
• This is a somewhat odd tale, almost like two different stories joined together - flying saucer abductions and SF meets Spartacus. The concept is interesting, but I think this story could have been a lot better and more like a Fireball XL5 story. I would have preferred this story to have focussed on what happened to Venus during that missing week between her abduction and eventual rescue.
• Around the same time (1965), the Doctor Who story ‘The Romans’ also featured the heroes being captured to fight in the arena. About three years later Star Trek did a story along similar lines, ‘Bread And Circuses’.
• The artwork in this strip is rather sketchy, except in close-ups, which are quite good, as are the ‘Roman’ settings, lions, chariots etc. Venus is drawn in a generic ‘glamour girl’ style.
• With a universe in which to take her holidays, Venus is staying at a hotel in Jacksonville. Pity we don’t know why. With a whole page devoted to the abductions we learn surprisingly little about Venus’ stay there.
• The kidnappers are dressed in very conspicuous ‘super-villain-style' costumes, bearing stylized skull emblems. Obviously dressed so as not to attract attention to themselves, but they bear a suspicious similarity to the space pirates seen in the penultimate TV Comic strip.
• The police chief didn’t seem to think that the report of a flying saucer was to be taken seriously. He must not have realised that he was in a Fireball XL5 story set in the 2060’s where flying saucers are legitimate space vehicles. Maybe that’s also why he sent a telegram alerting Space City (a week after the people had vanished). Maybe he’s a bit backward.
• Why did Steve use a spear to fight off the lions instead of simply stunning them with his raygun?? Had he been watching Tarzan movies?
• Venus holding Caesar at gunpoint seems a bit out of character, she never uses a gun in the TV show.
• Despite Roma being ‘quarantined’ Steve seems to land Fireball in the middle of the city without causing any fuss.
• How did Steve find room for 59 freed prisoners aboard XL5? Actually it’s not at all clear whether all 59 people were rescued. We only see two other ‘slaves’. Still, as nobody seems worried I assume they were all freed somehow.

• I don’t find the plot very plausible. Isn’t this a rather expensive way to feed lions? Kidnapping people from Earth and shipping them to Roma? Has Caesar exhausted his supply of natives? Surely people from worlds 2000 years more advanced than Roma could be found more useful things to do.
• This story refers to a Star Trek-style non-interference directive a good few years before the series aired in the UK - - when Matt tells Steve they cannot interfere due to Universal Law. This notion of not interfering is in stark contrast to the story in the later TV Century 21 International Extra, murdering Teenians in order to rescue an Earth spy.
• The front cover of the Extra features a new colour photo of Fireball XL5 heading for a planet. This would later be reused on the cover of TV Century 21 issue 34.
• As in the weekly TV Century 21 issues, each story was previewed, this time by a small feature and photos on page 3 of the Extra, with 'full details' in the story itself.

TV Century 21 International Extra (October 1965)

Fireball XL5
T.O.P. SPACESHIP ATTACKED. Fireball XL5 in Rescue Bid
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Harold Johns (?). Five pages, b/w.
Telephotographic Observation of Planets (TOP) gathers information about alien planets via photographic reconnaissance. Chuck Hanson, a TOP spy, is captured whilst photographing industrial areas on planet Teenus from space. Hanson must be rescued before he reveals secrets to the Teenians. On Teenus Hanson is being taken to the brain surgeons’ laboratory. He struggles and the guards recoil in horror, using long poles to restrain him.

Arriving at Teenus, Fireball XL5 destroys three fighters before landing. Steve, Matt and Venus explore on jetmobiles. They hide in an automated vehicle to get into the prison. Meanwhile a Teenian has been transformed into a duplicate of Hanson to infiltrate the WSP. Steve and the others free ‘Hanson’ and start to make their escape. Steve becomes suspicious and grabs the duplicate’s arm. The imposter reacts violently to his touch, hitting Steve. Venus realizes he’s really a Teenian since he has their fear of being touched by humans. Steve punches the Teenian and uses the aliens’ fear to force him to reveal where Hanson is being held. The alien tries to escape and falls to his death. Steve, Matt and Venus destroy the laboratory and free Hanson. They blast their way out of the prison, mount their jetmobiles and return to Fireball. Destroying another Teenian fighter, XL5 returns to Earth. The Fireball crew hand Hanson film of Teenus taken when they landed. Hanson tells Commander Zero that he has a great crew.

Notes:
• Like the earlier Summer Extra issues, each story was again previewed by a small feature and photo on pages 2 and 3 of the Extra, with 'full details' in the story itself (right).
• The 'videogram' preview on page 2 reads:
COMMANDER ZERO, WORLD SPACE PATROL, SPACE CITY
TELEPHOTOGRAPHIC OBSERVATION OF PLANETS ORGANISATION REQUESTS IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE STOP
T.O.P. AGENT CHUCK HANSON MISSING STOP
AGENT'S SPACECRAFT DESTROYED STOP
HANSON BELIEVED CAPTURED BY ALIENS STOP
IMPERITIVE HANSON RESCUED STOP
PLEASE EXPEDITE STOP
CONTROLLER, TELEPHOTOGRAPHIC OBSERVATION OF PLANETS.
• The artwork in this strip is very poor. The characters and perspectives are very badly drawn. Matt is depicted as being much slimmer and younger. Only his glasses identify him. Hanson’s TOP uniform is drawn like those worn by Steve and Matt.
• The WSP (and TOP) seem to be completely in the wrong in this story. Very ‘us’ against ‘them’, might is right. The behaviour of the WSP would likely have started an interplanetary war. Not at all like the fairness and ethics that we see in the TV show. It seems many Teenians are killed in order to rescue the spy.
• Steve behaves like a thug to interrogate a terrified Teenian.
• Venus carries a raygun?? And she does something useful - spotting that Hanson is being impersonated by a Teenian.
• The Teenian army were searching all over the area after XL5 landed. Although the Teenians allow Steve and the others to get into the prison as part of a ruse, it's not clear why their ship and jetmobiles weren't destroyed or captured as soon as the Teenian leader realized his plan had failed. He ordered that the XL5 crew were to be killed even before Hanson had been located and freed.
• The rayguns the XL5 crew use don’t seem to have a ‘stun’ setting as Steve and Matt also hit people over the head with them.
• Steve and the others board Fireball using a ladder. Perhaps the artist forgot about the jetmobiles they had been riding.
• The unidentified artist, possibly ex-Dan Dare artist Harold Johns (though this is speculation) is also responsible for one of the strips in the ©1966 Fireball XL5 annual.

The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History would like to thank:
Keith Ansell
Mike Dennison
Mike Noble
and Howard Elson
- for their help with this feature.

Version 1.1 - 01.09.05


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


All text © The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History, and its respective writers, and may not be reproduced without permission.
All images © their respective copyright holders