Zero X strip guide - part three

Story Fourteen (aka Britonium!)
Writer: Angus P. Allan.
Artist(s): F. Belsia and Mike Noble. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1 - Issue 192, week ending 20 September 2068
The Moon's Sea of Serenity... home of the World Government's weapon-testing establishment...
Professor Briant arrives at the control and observation blockhouse to supervise a special test. A million megaton neutronic bomb is trapped to a tower outside - and detonated. There is a blinding flash... then nothing, not even radiation. This has been made feasible from a single pellet of an element called britonium, but which is so rare it has taken thirty years just to mine the quantity used. Being so heavy, britonium sinks straight to the Earth's core, but a new planet - number 497 - is forming in Sector 51, and it is possible to mine it from the surface before the planet cools. Zero X is launched for the mission, but as it approaches Planet 497, the crew realise the surface is an inferno...

Part 2 - Issue 193, week ending 27 September 2068
Problem Number One!

Leaving Brad in the main body, Paul takes the others down over the surface in the MEV. Magnetic dust nearly causes a crash before Doc Pierce finds a high concentration of britonium in the 'seas', which are actually moving sand. Some aras have cooled, and the MEV settles at the base of some cliffs. Even though the gravity is only one-tenth that of Earth, the weight of britonium - about a ton per cubic foot - is still enough to require a hover case. While Paul and Greg dig the mineral up, Pierce investigates some geysers nearby... an starts to sink in the moving sand. Unable to reach him in case they sink too, Paul and Greg return to the MEV to try and haul him out with a grapnel but it will not fall properly in the low gravity. Pierce is sinking fast, and if the MEV goes too low the jets will roast him...

Part 3 - Issue 194, week ending 04 October 2068
Life Or Death For Doc Pierce?
Paul tells Greg to wind the grapnel back, and jumps out with it to give it additional weight. Using himself as a human link in a chain, Paul pulls Pierce from the quicksands to safety. Landing once more, they face further danger from an earthquake caused by rocks colling and contracting, and the MEV lists perilously into a chasm. Whilst there is no damage to the MEV, it is now at a difficult angle for take off, and Paul calls the main body for possible assistance. Brad uses the cannon to blast rocks from the nose, and slowly the MEV takes to the air. But above them the main body is approaching, and a collision seems certain...

Part 4 - Issue 195, week ending 11 October 2068
Panic Stations!

Paul orders the horizontal jets to be fired, and the MEV blasts away from the main body just in time. Reconnected, and its mission complete, Zero X sets course for Earth. But en route, the atomic pile fails, and it seems the britonium sample is emitting a radiation that has affected it. Without power, Zero X is on a collision course with the Sun, which could be catastrophic is the britonium falls into it. Paul suits up and tries to get the sample away from Zero X, but the magnetic field of the ship draws it back. Cutting his life line and using a jet pack, Paul gets the sample far enough away, but then the fuel in his jet pack runs out. If Zero X alters course to pick him up it will attract the britonium again so Paul orders Greg to return to Earth...

Part 5 - Issue 196, week ending 18 October 2068
The Greatest Sacrifice!
Brad thinks the MEV is small enough not to attract the sample, and Greg sets out to rescue Paul. Reunited with his crew, Paul has to contact Earth for orders, as the britonium could fall into the sun of another system. Professor Briant can only guess at the amount of nuclear material it would take to absorb the britonium, and Zero X is ordered to a space port to refuel and be armed with the maximum load of missiles. With its lifting bodies attached for stability, Zero X launches a missile attack on the drifting sample, and a chain reaction is set off in the stellar dust. But then... the explosion is snuffed out with no radiation. Back on Earth, Paul apologises to Briant for losing the sample but the professor thinks they have learned from their experiences, and prepares answers for a return to the planet. Greg can hardly wait...

Notes:
• The artwork for this story is a rather odd mish-mash, pasting in frames from Mike Noble's earlier strips (mainly Mission To Saturn), for the images of Zero X in space, onto the pages.
• The following frames have been replaced with Mike Noble's work:
• Part 1, page 2, frame 7: The Red Planet, part 5, final frame
• Part 1, page 2, frame 9: Mission to Saturn, part 8, page 2, frame 3
• Part 4, page 1, frame 1: Mission to Saturn, composite of part 8, final frame, & part 5, page 2, frame 5
• Part 4, page 1, frame 2: Mission to Saturn, part 8, page 2, frame 3
• Part 4, page 1, frame 3: Mission to Saturn, part 7, opening panel
• Part 4, page 1, frame 7: The Stowaway, part 1, opening panel
• Part 5, page 2, frame 3: Horror of Asteroid Belt Nine, part 1, frame 1
• Part 5, page 2, frame 4: Mission to Saturn, part 6, final frame
• In addition to the added Noble frames, others have been altered. In part 3, Zero X appears to have been painted out of the sky in the 6th and 10th frames.
• Ironically, some of the pages from the Mission To Saturn strip are still known to exist - with the frames used in this story missing.
• Mike Noble on the incident: 'Some decision was probably made at TV21 to strip up my artwork and use it in this story. Once one's work was paid for the publishers could do what they liked with it.'


Story Fifteen (aka Zero X's Double!)
Writer: Angus P. Allan. Artist: Mike Noble. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1 - Issue 197, week ending 25 October 2068
A remote island off Greece... and the Zero X crew are undergoing their annual survival and fitness course...

But as they master the killer slope and approach the next obstacle - a fifty yard ditch covered with blazing rocket fuel - Paul Travers' belt communicator gives an emergency relay signal from Glenn Field. it is a Priorty A-1 Red, and in a couple of hours, they have flown back by military jet to report. In the control tower, they are shown a video signal from the unexplored planet Zinglat, which shows another Zero X crashed on the surface. As the original is still out on the launch apron, the crew are despatched to investigate. Long weeks later, and the ship arrives in orbit for the MEV to separate and explore. Landing on the outskirts of a ruined city, Paul, Greg and Pierce see a lone figure standing nearby. A breeze flutters the figure round to reveal a huge hole in its back - it is just an empty skin...

Part 2 - Issue 198, week ending 02 November 2068
Picture Language!
Pierce is sure the 'skin' is still a living organism, as it moves and - the amazed crew watching - the nape of its nack projects up to show an image of a dove. Peace - the alien is a friend, perhaps from a race that no longer uses speech. The images of the crashed Zero X they saw before may have been a way of getting them to land on their planet, and the skin-man leads them to a beautiful if frail city. An earth tremor brings one of the buildings down on the alien skin, killing it. Noise alerts them to another creature - a red and yellow striped, staring humanoid with spiky white hair approaches. Before their eyes, one of the white quills bursts from its head into the ground, and another of the creatures sprouts forth from it...

Part 3 - Issue 199, week ending 09 November 2068
The Skin-Men's Hideout!
The two striped creatures surge forward, more hair flying free to plant and grow of them. The process shakes the ground, and starts to bring the city down. With a crowd of rampaging creatures after them, the Zero X crew make for the plains where more skin aliens beckon to them. An escape by a boat to an underground cavern, where the skin leader shows them their history on a video screen. The leader seems to have created the striped Plastoid creatures, which have now bred out of control, and Pierce surmises they have been lured there to get rid of them...

Part 4 - Issue 200, week ending 16 November 2068
But Guns Won't Destroy Them!
The leader also shows them pictures meaning weapons are useless against the hypnoplastoids, and that the Zero X crew will have to use a scientific method to destroy them. The first step is to capture one, and on the surface they ambush a straggler from a destructive group. Greg knocks it out, giving Pierce a chance to examine it for an hour. But left alone as Paul and Greg report to the skin-people, Pierce is abducted by the hypnoplastoid when it recovers. Returning with one of the skin-men, Paul wonders where it is taking him, and the alien shows them a picture of a double-headed snake...

Part 5 - Issue 201, week ending 23 November 2068
The Hypnos Play With Death... And Doc Pierce!
The skin-man continues to communicate through its visio-flap - showing a skull and crossbones - and the meaning is now clear, as the hypno is taking the Doc to a place of death. For two long hours, Paul and Greg pursue the hypno, but then it turns and fires spikes from its hair. More of the creatures sprout from them, and the two men claw their way clear to continue after the hypno and Pierce. In a rocky canyon, they stop in their tracks to see a large group of hypnos, playing as if children. The valley is strewn with the double-headed snakes, the poison of which does not seem to affect them. Pierce thinks their physical structure is so basic they can only behave like kids. And like Earth children they have a new toy - Pierce. A bizarre game of 'catch' ensues, with the Doc tossed back and forth in the air like a ball by the playful hypnos. If he lands in the snakes the poisonous bite will kill him...

Part 6 - Issue 202, week ending 30 November 2068
A Game Of Death!
The hypno tosses Pierce down a rock slide into a nest of the snakes, and as death closes in on the doctor, Paul and Greg rush forward and blast them. Rescuing the Doc, they make for the safety of a cleft in the rock cliff as hypnoplastoids close in. Before he was captured, Pierce discovered the red stripes on their skin is a gland structure - if punctured it could kill them. As ordinary weapons are useless, Pierce uses a high-pressure dart gun to hit the stripe between the neck and shoulder of the closest - and it collapses and shatters. With all three firing darts, the crew emerge - and one by one the hypnoplastoids meet their end. The leader of the skin-people brings his people out into the open, and offers the throne to the crew, but even though Greg is tempted to become 'King of Zinglat', they lift off to leave the aliens in peace.

Notes:
• Interestingly, the 'skin alien' in part 2 uses a very Earthbound image of a dove to indicate peace, and later a skull and crossbones to indicate death.
• It is never explained how the skin-people knew of Zero X, or were able to transmit its image across space to lure the crew to help.
• In part 3, Pierce dubs the striped aliens 'plastoids' for no real reason, then in part 4 they are 'hypnoplastoids'. This is abbreviated to 'hypnos' for subsequent parts.
• The artwork for the second page of part 2 is still known to exist in a private collection.


Story Sixteen (aka Trouble On A New Planet)
Writer: Angus P. Allan. Artist: Mike Noble. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1 - Issue 203, week ending 07 December 2068
Earth's giant radio telescope probes distant space where a new planet, 849 Emerald, has been discovered.

But Jodrell picks up strange signals from the planet, and Zero X is launched to investigate. But as they approach, they see a fleet of ships attacking the planet. Zero X comes under attack, both from the alien fleet, and from the planet when they launch the MEV. It seems they have been caught in the middle of a battle, and it is only a matter of time before thay are hit. Crash-landing on the surface, the crew watch as one of the alien ships comes down nearby - and crab-like aliens emerges...

Part 2 - Issue 204, week ending 14 December 2068
Clawed To Death!
The shellbacked creatures hunt for the crew as they hide in the undergrowth. But then a fleet of small aircraft appear, attracting the attention of the creatures. Paul throws rocks at one as it swoops low over them, knocking it out of the sky. It carries a booby-trapped warhead , which they only narowly avoid being killed by. As the shellbacks close in, Paul has no choice but to get the others to run for their lives. Another threat in the form of alien humanoids looms ahead, but they join forces to fight the shellbacks. The creature is too armoured to use even laser pistols, and the two human forces flee. But then another wave of small robot aircraft dives towards them...

Part 3 - Issue 205, week ending 21 December 2068
Captured By A Shellback!
Paul and Greg dive for cover but the warrior chief remains standing and calm, telling them that the 'war-birds' will not harm them. These were built by their ancestors and, as they watch, the small craft home in on a shellback and explode. However, even this attack is useless, and the creature continues after them. The warrior chief has another plan, and leads them through undergrowth to a clearing. Instructing Paul and the others to follow, but only one at a time, the chief gingerly crosses the clearing. From the far side, they watch as the shellback follows - and crashes through the surface into an animal trap. More warriors appear, filling the pit with water, and the chief adds a 'sacred powder' which freezes it. Within minutes, the shellback is immobilised in a black of ice, and raised out by a winch and pulley. As the ice melts, Paul and the others examine the seemingly dead creature - but then it revices and grabs Brad in its claw...

Part 4 - Issue 206, week ending 28 December 2068
Journey To The Mountain Of Sighs!
The shellback starts to shove Brad in its maw, but Paul grabs the leader's spear and uses it to hack at the shellback's vunerable spot - its eye antennae. Blinded, the creature topples and Brad staggers free. But Paul makes an astonishing discovery - the creature's eye is manufactured, and the shellbacks are machines! What appears to be a direction finder inside the robot broadcasts on a frequency beyond human hearing - but which the Emeraldite leader hears - and can lead to their controller. Although terrified, the leader agrees to help, and tells Paul when the signal is loudest, allowing them to track it. Their path leads to a vast pyramid, which the leader calls the Mountain of Sighs, from which no-one ever returns...

Part 5 - Issue 207, week ending 04 January 2069
Missile Base In The Desert!

As they advance towards the pyramid, the ground starts to move. Batteries of missiles emerge from the ground, and one fires into the sky. The leader tells them their ancestors had a great knowledge of science, even though they themselves have lost that to become simple hunters. Forcing their way into the pyramid through ancient sealed doors, they enter one chamber which starts to fill with sand. Then the exit closes, trapping them...

Part 6 - Issue 208, week ending 11 January 2069
The Great Library!
Unable to force the exit, the crew and the leader move furhter into the pyramid, where they find a massive library of scrolls - the scientific wisdom of the ancestors. Another block of stones seals them in, and they have o choice but to continue on. In a massive underground control room, they find the monster controller. It explains the war between its people and the natives' ancestors, but they were banished seven generations ago and missile systems erected to prevent their return. But now the natives have forgotten the wisdom, and the controller has broken through the defences, to rule the planet. Paul attempts to tackle the creature, but it is protected by a force-field...

Part 7 - Issue 209, week ending 18 January 2069
Battle for Survival!
The shield contracts around the crew, immobilising them. The controller shows them the war between its creatures and the natives, as the missile defences are destroyed. But the natives have reached the pyramid, and are tearing it apart. As the control trembles under the falling blocks, the shield shatters, freeing Paul who strikes the control panel. Trying to stop him, the controller hits the panel... and forty thousand volts kill it. Some time later, the crew and the native leader emerge from the shattered pyramid. The planet has no defences but they can learn the wisdom of the ancestors again. With Zero X repaired, the crew leave, past the directionless alien fleet, for Earth.

Notes:
• Throughout the story, the native leader takes on a more human appearance - the eyes are no longer bulbous and face becoming less angular.


Story Seventeen (aka Trip To Mars... With A One-Man Crew!)
Writer: Angus P. Allan. Artist: Mike Noble. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1 - Issue 210, week ending 25 January 2069

Zero X is returning to Glenn Field when there is a undercarriage jam in Number One lifting body. The crew's training and expertise compensate, and the starship makes a perfect landing. At the debriefing, Paul and Greg are introduced to Garrison, an automations expert who has been working on a flight-computer which can fly Zero X with just one man at the controls. Paul is sceptical that such a system can replace a highly skilled crew but as the most inexperienced member, Doc Pierce will be used for the first flight test. A week later, Zero X makes a perfect take-off for a routine flight around Mars, with only the scientist aboard. For three days, the flight goes as planned but contact is then lost. After two more days of silence, Zero X returns, and Garrison believes it was simple radio failure, especially as the craft makes a perfect landing. On board, Paul sees the figure of Pierce sitting at the controls, but as a gust of air blows through the hatch, the body topples and shatters...

Part 2 - Issue 211, week ending 01 February 2069
Full Crew Blast-off For Danger Zone!
It is a wax dummy model of Pierce, and Paul blames Garrison for the incident, but the scientist still claims everything is working perfectly. The fact of the matter is something attacked Pierce while he was alone, and Paul intends to find out what! The last contact was skirting the asteroid belt on the far side of Mars, so Paul takes Zero X up to investigate Solar Sectors 59 and 60. Garrison also accompanies, eager to prove his computer system works and is not to blame. But eyes - or rather a single large red eye - is watching them, and a large powered bag of liquid is fired from an asteroid at them. Paul shouts a warning to Garrison to take evasive action - but too late! Zero X hits the bag, and is covered in a form of magnetised wax that stops the ship dead in space...

Part 3 - Issue 212, week ending 08 February 2069
Zero X Captured!
Suiting up, Paul and Greg open the airlock, and melt their way through several feet of wax. There is little they can do to free Zero X, and then they see an asteroid approaching. Led by a sinister red eye, they realise it is artificially powered and return to Zero X as a vast hatch opens in a crater, and arms pull the ship along a gantry. Long minutes pass, and Garrison's computer tell them the atmosphere is breathable. Leaving the cocooned Zero X by way of a rope ladder, they examine the interior - and find Doc Pierce immobilised in a clear cell. It is beyond their experience - as it the strange outline of a man that suddenly addresses them...

Part 4 - Issue 213, week ending 15 February 2069
Doc Pierce Destroyed!
The outline invites them to examine it, and Garrison determines it is a clever type of electrical circuit - a mobile machine on tiny wheels. Vibrations make it simulate a human voice but Paul is not amused by the game and wants to know if Pierce is still alive. A flash blinding light, and Pierce is revealed in a recess, which fills with a wax-like fluid. Moments latr, and a perfect dummy is pulled from him - exactly like the one found in Zero X - created by an advanced moulding process. The real Pierce is revived, and the outline reveals the true purpose was to lure Garrison, the expert in automation. The outlines snaps itself around the scientist, and the others are helpless as he is carried off...

Part 5 - Issue 214, week ending 22 February 2069
M.E.V. In Rescue Bid!

As Garrison is pulled away by the wire outline, Paul and the others are pinned down by a paralysing electronic impulse. It shuts off once Garrison is sealed behind a door, leaving the Zero X crew to ponder a course of action. The sheer scale of the asteroid ship gives Paul an idea, and they scrape enough of the wax from Zero X to launch the MEV, and use that to explore. Piloting skills manoevre the small ship down a corridor, to emerge in the main control room. But then the MEV flies into a giant spring-like mechanism...

Part 6 - Issue 215, week ending 01 March 2069
Meet The Master Voice!
Paul orders the retros to be fired, and the ship leaps back out of the spring and lands nearby. Emerging to investigate, the cre are confronted by two armed, whiskered humanoids who flank the captured Garrison. They explain they are discarded convicts from the planet Parthonex in Supernova Seven, whose punishment is exile in the artificial moon. When its mechanism winds down, they will drift in space and die. With no knowledge of it, they want Garrison to work out a way of rewinding it to power the engines once more. The scientist is released to examine the machinery but after long hours admits defeat, and Paul realises they cannot help. But the aliens still want escape, and plan to take the MEV leaving the crew to wait for certain death...

Part 7 - Issue 216, week ending 08 March 2069
Circuit Prisons For Zero X Crew!
Rather than kill them, the aliens use the wire arresters to immobilise them all, and the five humans are snared. Helpless, they can only watch as the two criminals steal the MEV. Garrison has an idea, and tries to kick Paul down in an effort to break the electrical floor circuit that powers the wires. There is a fantastic shock... but Paul is free, and grasps at the power switch to release the others. Now it is a race against time, and they find an automatic lift. It leads to a platform over a gigantic cauldron of boiling wax - the aliens method of attack. But as they watch the platform begins to tip, into the bubbling liquid...

Part 8 - Issue 217, week ending 15 March 2069
Out Of The Frying Pan...
The man grasp at the rails to prevent falling into the wax, and Pauls saves Pierce when he nearly slips. But they all climb back up to the lift door, and scale the cables back up to where Zero X is held. The aliens have been busy scraping the wax from the hull, and the ship is now swung round on the monorail - ready for launch. The five men charge the two criminals and overpower them, regaining control of ther ship. But Garrison's automatic system has died, so Paul and Greg take pleasure in ripping out the circuits to revert it back to manual control. Engines firing, Zero X roars up the gantry, and missiles make short work of the hatch in an explosive exit. Back in space, Garrison admits that when the unexpected happens, Zero X already has what it needs - a brave, highly-trained, efficient crew!

Notes:
• Oops - in part 1, the colonel introduces the expert as Gale Garrison, but subsequent parts refer to him as Dale.
• Bizarrely, the spherical asteroid with a single red eye is vaguely remiscent of the Triton Probe from the Space:1999 episode 'Ring Around The Moon'.
• In part 5, Greg claims the asteroid ship is bigger than the Moon, but none of the real asteroids are more than a quarter of the Moon's diameter.


Journey To The Planet Of Bones (Story Eighteen)
Writer: 'James Freeman' (Angus P. Allan).
Artist: Mike Noble. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1 - Issue 218, week ending 22 March 2069
Mystery Launch From Glenn Field!
Early this morning Zenith 4, a Starspeed space freighter of the World Space Patrol, blasted off from Glenn Field space port...

The freighter enters orbit around the planet Verspona, escorted by Zero X which is carrying Professor Leon Vatski of the World Archaeological Society. Paul and Greg take the professor down for an initial survey in the MEV, and fly over a fantastic sight - a dried up sea littered with bones! The purpose of Vatski's mission is to determine what form of life once inhabited the planet, and the freighter is guided to a nearby landing site. A temporary base is established, and the Zero X crew watch the professor co-ordinate the collecting of samples. But that night, as Vatski leads his team back to base, one straggler notices a light in a nearby gully... and is grabbed by something as he investigates...

Part 2 - Issue 219, week ending 29 March 2069
Into The Planet Of Bones
The others hear his cry, and Carson is found to be missing. Paul orders the professor and his team back to base, and takes ray pierce to investigate. Carson is found dead, draped over the bones of a vast rib cage which has pierced his suit. It does not seem to be an accident but there is no further incident that night. Vatski tells Paul his team will have loaded the necessary specimens by tomorrow evening, and while the captain has a strange feeling they are being watched, the two craft lift off on schedule thirty-six hours later. But in flight, there is an explosion on the Zenith 4, and the Zero X crew take mono-sretchers to ferry casualties from the ship. Onboard, they find they are too late for the crew, poisoned by fumes, but Vatski is alive - just - and warns them to fear the skulls...

Part 3 - Issue 220, week ending 05 April 2069
Vatski dies, and Paul can only ponder on the warning, and a sheet of paper on which is scribbled some scientific data. The Zenith 4 begins to break up, and the crew return to Zero X to witness its final fiery explosion. With the deaths playing on his mind, Paul orders a return to Verspona to try and find an answer. As before, Paul and the others find no skulls on the sea of bones, and they split up to search. Greg notices a light and follows it, but it fades as he closes, unaware that behind him a vast living skull has reared up...

Part 4 - Issue 221, week ending 12 April 2069
Greg turns just in time to see it, and fires his laser pistol. There is a blinding light again, and by the time it fades, the skull has vanished back into a cave. Shaken, Greg returns to Paul and Pierce and tries to explain. The three men return to the cave, and find loads of smaller skulls in recesses. A distant glow further into the cave leads them to a large pool of glowing liquid, like luminous paint. Pierce quickly analyses it, and finds the liquid contains a mixture of advanced lymphatic tissue and periosteum - most of the materials necessary of bones...

Part 5 - Issue 222, week ending 19 April 2069

A huge skeleton hand erupts from the surface, and tries to grab Greg. Paul blasts it with his laser, and it drops the copilot to vanish back into the depths. Pierce surmises disease or disaster overtook the primitive animals, leading to a new form of evolution - independent living bones. It was a stray skull which killed Vatski and destroyed the Zenith 4, but Paul feels they should destroy the pool to prevent further incidents. But as he speaks, the pool erupts, and a full skull and skeleton emerges. Pierce admits he is wrong, and that bones are not the end of the evolution but the beginning. A complete living skeleton is the birth of a new species, and a whole race may be spawned by the pool at any minute...

Part 6 - Issue 223, week ending 26 April 2069
Bone Monsters!
Before they find a way of sealing the cave forever, they realise they should perhaps deal with the one specimen already on the loose. It has run outside, and seems to be making for the MEV. Attempting to head it off, the crew take cover behind one of the base domes, only to see the skeleton rip it to shreds. Greg is hurt and his suit torn, so Paul tries his laser on the skull of the creature. Glowing the red hot, it is dazed long enough for Paul and Doc Pierce to pull Greg to safety. Even though Greg's suit has been resealed, Pierce notices a mark on his neck. Contact with the bones has started to turn Greg into bone as well. It is urgent they get him back to Zero X as quickly as possible, but the skeleton has recovered and is attacking the MEV...

Part 7 - Issue 224, week ending 03 May 2069

With jaws like a massive nutcracker, the skull could crush the hull of the MEV. Paul plays a dangerous game of diversion, and leads the skeleton creature off while Pierce carries Greg to the ship. Paul succeeds in doubling back, and finds Pierce has diagnosed Greg's condition as an excessive amount of lymphatic fluid, making the skin hard, like bone. He counteracts it with laseronic injections. Assured Greg is okay, Paul lifts off, and uses missiles to destroy the skeleton creature, then seals the cave and pool of bone matter - forever.

Notes:
• Hmmm... someone at the World Space Patrol seems to have nicked the nosecone of Thunderbird 1 for the Zenith 4.
• Periosteum is the dense membrane of fibrous connective tissue that covers all bones.


Story Nineteen
Writer(s): 'James Freeman' and 'Bob Reed'
'Roger James' (229) (Angus P. Allan).
Artist: Mike Noble. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1 - Issue 225, week ending 10 May 2069

Glenn Field control tower receives an emergency alarm from the alien space hospital in Sector 90, and Zero X is launched immediately to investigate. Despite radio silence from the space station, it looks peaceful enough, but inside the crew find it is completely deserted - the staff and over three thoudand sick aliens have vanished. A humming sound behind a door alerts them, and they see Doctor Ransome, the hospital supervisor, strapped to a chair and speeding past on a thin rail. Greg tries to stop it as the doctor screams for help but fails. And at the end of rail, they watch as the man is tipping onto a wide moving belt - and melts into liquid...

Part 2 - Issue 226, week ending 17 May 2069
Following the belt, Paul and the others find it leads to an exterior wall, disappearing into a slot like airlock. Racing back to the Zero X, they travel around the hospital station and find a large clear black full of belts detaching. Zero X gives chase... to find the block starts to disappear. A ship, camoflaged black against the dark of space, has collected it, and Paul uses a magnesium flare to illuminate it. But then it fires cords at the Zero X, and the controls do not respond...

Part 3 - Issue 227, week ending 24 May 2069

Paul tells Greg to fire retros on full power but the cords seem to be magnetic, knocking out the electrical systems of Zero X. The cords bind the craft helplessly, and a cutting tool clamps onto the airlock. Preparing to receive visitors, the four crew are levitated into the connecting tube to settle on a moving belt - on which they melt into puddles! The belt withdraws into the alien ship, and two rugged humanoids operate stethoscope like equipment around their necks to restore the Zero X crew back to human form. The humanoids introduce themselves as 'doctors of the universe', and show them a vast collection of samples of life from around the universe...

Part 4 - Issue 228, week ending 31 May 2069
The alien explains that two astric years ago, their planet Gorgat was exposed to intense heat following a solar explosion, destroying their intelligensia complex - the nerve centre of super-brains that ruled their planet. Now they are searching the universe for a form of life whose brain molecules can be adapted for use as the new ruling class. The crew are carried to a large dimly-lit room, and Brad has no choice but to be first - a large monitor placed over his head. But as the aliens scan his brain with their backs turned to the others, Greg sees a chance to fight and leaps at one. Throwing Greg clear, the aliens orders 'Emergency Reject!' and energy crackles around Brad...

Part 5 - Issue 229, week ending 07 June 2069
Energy pulses through the helmet, and when the process is finished, Brad sits gurgling like a child on the floor, his mental process reduced to a three-year-old. Greg and Pierce carry him as all four crew are led to a cell to await further brain tests. When the aliens are gone, Greg tells Paul that the Gorgation he tackled was not as rock-hard as he thought, and he thinks there is a hatch near their throat. It could be the granite is only a casing, and the hatch a possible weak spot. The oldest trick in the book to lure one of the aliens close enough is to fight, and Paul and Greg succeed in getting one of them in the cell with this ploy. Grappling the creature to the ground, Greg tears at the hatch, and suddenly the entire chest opens...

Part 6 - Issue 230, week ending 14 June 2069
News Flash - Aliens Taking Counteracting Steps!

Tearing apart the granite casing, Paul and Greg find... a brain-casing on top of a slender metallic body. Paul is disgusted by the creature, and he leads Greg and Pierce to find the other Gorgation. Cornered, the other creature has its chest smashed open by Greg but pulls a bomb from its casing. Threatening to destroy all the other life forms in the chamber, the Gorgation suddenly staggers... collapses... and dies. Paul catches the bomb as it drops, and Pierce guesses by opening the casing, the brain inside was susceptible to disease. Using the Gorgation equipment, Brad is returned to normal, and Zero X starts the task of escorting the three thousand frozen invalids back to the space hospital.

Tomorrow's News Today:
• Issue 225: Emergency Launch

Notes:
• "Mamma! Me want Mamma!" Angus Allan notches up the terror again.
• Bob Reed (credited as one of the TV21 newsmen) was one of the Century 21 Publishing art assistants, working with Andy Harrison under Roger Perry on the annuals. He also worked as a letterer on many of the TV21 strips.


Story Twenty
Writer: 'Eamonn Tyler' (Angus P. Allan?).
Artist: Mike Noble.
2 pages, colour.

Part 1 - Issue 231, week ending 21 June 2069
On the front page of the interstellar magazine 'Astra', a startling discovery is reported...
Deep space freighter Galactic Messenger 101 was hit by a severe meteoric storm in sector 40, and as it drifted clear, it sighted a bizarre phenomenon - twin planets shaped like rings, and linked together. The crew of Zero X have been allowed to view sketches made by the crew, which suggest a habitable region where the rings met. They will fly a government film crew out there to investigate further. Within days, Zero X approaches 'the ringers', and flies through the central gap to allow the crew to do an electronic cloe-up survey. There are signs of vegetation yet no human life. But when the film is finally ready to view, Paul spots a peculiar leaf - with a very human eye on it...

Part 2 - Issue 232, week ending 28 June 2069
The concensus is the leaf is an alien form of life, and the MEV is launched to investigate. Left on the main body, Brad lets the film crew relax and get their gear back in storage while he prepares food. But he is startled by a cry, and finds the two men struggling against their own writhing film which has come to life. He barely gets an emergency signal out, and with no further response, Paul orders the MEV to return. But as the craft approaches where the main body of Zero X should be, they find it has vanished...

Part 3 - Issue 233, week ending 05 July 2069
The MEV sweeps back and forth searching for a clue, then Pierce notices a lone can of film floating in space. Paul retrieves it, and finds it contains film of the fly-by of the ringed planets. Thumbing through the reel, he sees a close-up of the plant opening its eye. But before they can get a projector to examine it more closely, the film writhes like a snake and wraps itself around Pierce. A laser gun brings instant, utter destruction to the film, leaving the astronauts to ponder what life awaits them on the ringed worlds...

Part 4 - Issue 234, week ending 12 July 2069
Touchdown!

The answer has to lie there, and the MEV has no option but to land and investigate - but away from the vegetation areas. Suiting up, Paul, Greg and Pierce cautiously enter the vegetation belt, unaware one of the eye-leaf plants is watching them. Spotted, the plant withdraws under the ground as Paul tries to grab it. The three men tear at the soil to find nothing, but then a voice addresses them from behind some bushes. Obeying, they are shocked to be held at gunpoint by a figure in a Zero X uniform. It is Brad... his head covered by one of the eye-leaves to form a strange hybrid cyclops face...

Part 5 - Issue 235, week ending 19 July 2069
Greg steps forward to try and help but 'brad' fires a close warning shot to show he means business! The three astronauts are led at gunpoint through a narrow valley, as they try to surmise what has happened. Their destination is a green field out of which mounds of earth tremble... to reveal more of the eye-plants, each waiting to get at them. 'Brad' tells Greg to remove his helmet and kneel, and is knocked savagely to the ground when he refuses. An eye-leaf envelopes his face, and he pulls his gun out to join 'Brad'. Pierce is next to succumb, leaving Paul to fight his way clear and make a desperate bid for freedom...

Part 6 - Issue 236, week ending 26 July 2069
Paul runs and dives for cover as the three controlled men hunt for him. Concealed in the vegetation, Paul sees them pass, and doubles back to the MEV. But on the barren plain, eye-leaves burst from the ground to try to take him over. Paul fights a grim battle to stop one clasping over his face, and just makes it back to the MEV to blasts off. With at least the dead remains of the attacking eye-leaf to examine closely, Paul formulates an idea to save the others. But then an explosion interrupts his thoughts, and he sees the main body approaching. Under the control of the plants, Brad and the others are on a mission to destroy him...

Part 7 - Issue 237, week ending 02 August 2069
Paul uses a smoke canister in the airlock to fake damage, and lets the MEV drift, buying him time as Zero X moves in to investigate. Donning a spacesuit, he gets aboard the main body and confronts the controlled crew with a small tin of powder - ordinary pepper! Swinging the tin in an savage arc across the eye leaves, he blinds the parasites and is able to pull them off his friends' faces. The leaves are flung into space, as the crew of Zero X regain their senses, and Paul sets a course back to Earth to warn others of the plants. And far below on the surface, the eye plants wait for others...

Tomorrow's News Today:
• Issue 231: Space Freak! Zero X To Investigate Linked Planet!
• Issue 236: Trapped! Prisoners of the Eye Leaves!

Notes:
• Doc Pierce really shows his worth in part 2, suggesting to Paul Travers, 'I think Brad has been taken over in some way.' Well, duh!
• Oops - and in the same frame, Greg replies with Paul's dialogue.
• Perhaps we're being picky here but in part 3, the footage of the eye on the plant opening, if run in a conventional projector, would actually show it closing. Okay, artisitically and for the flow of the story, it's correct but technically it seems a bit odd.
• This story would see the return to Zero X for full front page news stories, and also be the last.


Story Twenty-One
Writer: Angus P. Allan.
Artist: Mike Noble. 2 pages, colour.

Part 1 - Issue 238, week ending 09 August 2069
Somewhere in deep space...
Zero X flies past Alpha Centauri on a mission to search for ships that have gone missing. The next planetfall is Mondor, but as Zero X approaches radio contact with Earth is lost. Attempting to change course around the planet, Paul finds the controls locked, and the ship plunges headlong on a collision course. At the last moment, the controls of Zero X take on a life of their own and the ship lands at a spaceport alongside the missing ships. Wanting an explanation, Paul leads Brad and Doc Pierce out to the control buildings, but inside they find something terrifying...

Part 2 - Issue 239, week ending 16 August 2069
A group of Mondarians seize them and, zombie-like, herd the three men into a transport which moves off. Inside the 'town hall', they find the ruler of Mondor - a green-skinned boy who calls himself Prinzan of Pzikos. Pierce has heard of the huge world but it is in an outer galaxy, beyond the reach of Earth ships. Prinzan explains his people know nothing of violence but when exploring our galaxy he was fired upon by a ship from Mondor, so he has came to the planet to teach them a lesson by taking control. The people of Pzikos are trained in the use of the will, and he now controls all men and machines there. Pierce loses his temper and pulls a gun, only to see it melt in his hand. Prinzan puts all three under his control, and in a trance, they move stiffly to join the Mondorians...

Part 3 - Issue 240, week ending 23 August 2069
Greg challenges the mind master!
Back on Zero X, Greg is getting worried and thinking the Mondorians are behind this, forcibly abducts one. When the zombie-like man fails to respond, Greg uses a knife attack to force a reaction. The spell broken, the Mondorian explains about the alien boy, who will take both of them over if he picks up their thought waves. They have to make their minds blank, and thinking over a nursery rhyme over and over, the two men set out to find Paul and the others. But when they do, Greg reacts, risking giving them away...

Part 4 - Issue 241, week ending 30 August 2069
Will Greg be able to escape the power of the mind controller?

The Mondorian rushes forward, warning Greg before Prinzan has a chance to figure out what the free thought pattern is. As the boy makes the ruling 'puppets' hold a council meeting, the two men advance on the chamber. Prinzan is puzzled by the strange thoughts but before he can react Greg dives at the man, and a vicious fight breaks out. Prinzan is overwhelmed trying to bring the two angry men under control, and breaks down - Greg's plan has worked! As the Mondorians recover and Paul finds them, Greg explains that as Prinzan's people knew nothing of violence, the boy would not be able to cope. As the planet returns to normal, Paul and the crew see about getting Prinzan back to his own people.

Notes:
• Oops - at the end of part 1, Doc Pierce cries out, 'Paul! Greg!' - but it is actually Paul and Brad who are with him.
• When asked 'What do we know about this planet?' by Paul travers, Doc Pierce consults... the Space Atlas (2069 edition). Oh my.
• Oops Two - at the start of part 4, the Mondorians dialogue is seen coming from Paul Travers.

Noble, returned to the full glory of colour from the now largely monochrome Captain Scarlet, gave the latterday Zero X stories a more cohesive look than of late. Admittedly, the stories were beginning to fall into the stock SF cliche - as witnessed by Star Trek running in sibling title Joe 90: Top Secret - of two alien races in some form of conflict, with the Earth crews caught in the middle. Be it skin aliens versus hypnoplastoids, or the pseudo Egyptian humanoids of planet 849 Emerald against the invading crab-like shellbacks, Paul Travers and co. fought bravely to unravel the mystery of the conflict, and sue for some kind of peace or victory.

Other encounters were more gut-churning, in the vein of the cruel experiments the crew had faced the previous year. Gorgation space-doctors liquify and then reform the crew, and reduce Brad Newman's mind to that of a gurgling infant, and an alien space prison nearly makes permanent inmates of the valiant explorers. But the last great adventure involved the parasitic eye-leaf plants of the strange 'space freak' linked ringworlds - a terrifying roller-coaster of a story which may not be the most logical (but then, out of the Zero X strips, which were?) but it is a gripping page turner that, as always, left you begging for more. Unfortunately, like Captain Scarlet, what would have been an excellent story to end on was followed by a damp squib for a conclusion. The final four-parter is almost an embarrassment compared to any of the previous two and a half years worth of stories, with an alien boy holding a planet prisoner. For the vast majority of its run TV Century 21 had never really talked down to its readers, but this showed whoever helmed the title, for its final issues of the original series, was a universe apart from the creativeness of the original editorship.

As artist on Zero X up to the bitter end, Mike Noble had these thoughts on the demise of TV21, 'I was sad at its demise as I had enjoyed doing the space stories. The contributions to TV21 had broken new ground and set new standards in comic production.' And of all the strips in the title, Zero X remained the only one to be presented in colour throughout in TV21 (with the exception of Lady Penelope, who spun off into her title), an outstanding achievement for a 'format' not even founded in a television series, but in one feature film appearance alone.

Zero X: Countdown, 1971

Strip One
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Keith Watson. 6 pages, b/w.
Issue 12, week ending 08 May 1971
Three days out from Venus - the "Star Trader"...
Against the concerns of his navigator, the captain of the Star Trader orders a course change to planet Avis. The planet is forbidden territoty since the unpublished report by the survey team was made, but the captain believes there is something there that will make him rich. On the misty, low gravity surface, the captain is taken by a mysterious flying something, leaving the navigator to flee back to the ship and send out a distress signal. This is picked up by Zero X, whose crew were the original survey team, and know what to expect. Entering the atmosphere, the ship comes under attack from the man-sized flying bat creatures. The laws of space say they must answer a distress signal, and despite the danger, Paul Travers orders the ship to head for the Star Trader. The ship has stopped signalling, and striking out on foot, Paul, Brad and Doc head for the nearest Avian colony. The Avians have the two Earthmen, and are planning to devour them...



Notes:
• Planet Avis is two months flight time from the normal trade routes in the Star Trader but Zero X makes the journey in just hours.
• The Avian 'batmen' are reminiscent of the 'batmen' encountered by Fireball XL5 in its first TV Century 21 strip.


Strip Two: Master of the Worlds
Writer: Unknown. Artist: Malcolm Stokes. 5 pages, b/w.
Issue 27, week ending 21 August 1971
Earth Ship XT40 - the official Presidential space craft - is on a return journey from Mars, bearing the World Vice-President back home after a series of peace talks. Suddenly...

A huge unidentified object in their path is revealed as a huge metal fist which opens, blocking their path and issuing a sinister threat to bow down before 'the conqueror of the universe' or be destroyed. Furious, the Vice-Prsident orders the skipper to open fire and, unharmed by the attack, the fist crushes the ship. The encounter is registered at Glenn Field spaceport, and minutes later the mighty starship Zero X takes off to investigate. Paul Travers finds the flight recorder among the drifting debris, and back on Earth the Zero X crew show the film to the World President. Concerned the 'Master of the Worlds' may already control some planets, Zero X is despatched to investigate the only two likely candidates - Caplin and Quesmo in the Baluvian Galaxy. Caplin draws a blank but when Quesmo does not respond, Paul takes the MEV finds the planet devestated. Landing, Paul contacts the surviving leaders and finds they refused alligiance to the Fist. The rest of the people, now in fear, are building a monumnet to the Fist, and turn on Paul who is forced to escape. As Zero X blasts out of orbit, it is grabbed by the Fist, and a warning given for Earth to destroy their Senate...

Notes:
• A possible inspiration for this - as given by the title - is Jules Verne's Master Of The World, although in the original the protagonist Robur was threatening to destroy the world's weapon for peaceful purposes.
• One also has to ponder if the 'giant hand in space' idea was inspired by the Star Trek episode 'Who Mourns For Adonais', which first aired in the UK in April 1970.
• Despite all four crew being present for the first Zero X strip in Countdown, here it is reduced by one to three - Paul Travers, Greg (Martin), and an unidentified third dark-haired member who could be either Brad Newman or Doc Pierce.
• The XT40 is another ship based on the SpaceX range of toys.

Zero X: Thunderbirds Annual 1972

Strip One (aka King Gold)
Writer: Unknown.
Artist: Brian Lewis.
8 pages, duotone.
A giant freight plane is taking off with a cargo of gold bars...but to the unsuspecting people of Earth, the cargo is machinery, destined to equip Castra's expanding construction plants...
As the craft prepares to leave orbit over the Sahara, it is attacked by a jet plane, and as the wreckage scatters over the desert, the attacker retrieves all the gold bars and enters its underground hideout. This is the sixth such robbery in as many months, and Glenn Field is baffled by the incidents which all bear the same hallmarks. Paul Travers offers to assist but there is opposition as it is considered a matter for the World Police. A trap is arranged, and a week later, a helicopter prepares to leave with a cargo of gold bars from the World Bank in Switzerland. In a quiet back street nearby, the jet plane lifts from its concealment in the trailer of a goods vehicle, and nets the cargo. Paul Travers is waiting in the MEV, and clamps the craft with flexicon clamps. King Gold is prepared, and a laser severes the cables. The chase leads to the Sahara, and the rogue fires a ball of gold film at the MEV, blinding it as he dives for his hideout. travers is in disgrace for losing the thief, and vows a second attempt by placing a homing device in the next cargo to be transferred... or he will face expulsion from the service...

Notes:
• Brian Lewis' artwork, as usual, lifts this unlikely tale above the recent fare.

But this was not the entire end of the strip. The autumn of 1970 saw the publication of the Thunderbirds Annual 1971, featuring a one-off Zero X strip. Scant months later, Countdown was launched as a successor to TV21, featuring a rotation of Anderson-based strips anchored by UFO and Thunderbirds. Two complete strips for Zero X featured in issues 12 and 27, though if you were young and knew little of the heritage of the strip, they probably would have been somewhat bemusing, lacking any formal introduction or character identification. Of the two, Master Of The Worlds is a brief and concise return to some semblance of the TV21 style. The Countdown team were responsible for the next Thunderbirds annual, published in the autumn, which again featured another complete Zero X strip but was more a solo Paul Travers adventure - the rest of the crew not even getting a mention - as he attempts to assist the World Police in capturing an eccentric renegade gold thief.

Maybe it was not the most glorious of endings - a resurrection that was not really necessary - but Zero X remains one of the most gripping strips in the original TV21, and certainly among the more fondly remembered.

The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History would like to thank:
Angus Allan
Peter Corri
Mike Noble
& Howard Elson
- for their help with this feature.

Version 1.1 - 15.04.06


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

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