Blackmail for Power (comic story)

Blackmail for Power
Main character(s):	Jeff, Scott, Virgil
Featuring:	Bandranaik, Zero, Zodiac, Alan, Gordon, John, Brains
Main enemy:	Morgan Phillips
Main setting:	Unity City, Tracy Island and the Arctic, 2066
Key crew
Publisher:	City Magazines
Editor:	Alan Fennell
Release details
Printed in:	Thunderbirds Annual 1966
Release date:	1966
Format:	1 part - 8 pages
Thunderbirds crossover stories
← Previous	Down Under!
Next →	Desert Drama

Blackmail for Power was a Thunderbirds comic story printed in TV Century 21 in 1966. It featured the Doctor Who universe character of World President Nikita Bandranaik prominently, as well as the location of Unity City, first introduced in The Daleks story Duel of the Daleks.

Summary

to be added

Characters

• Jeff Tracy
• Scott Tracy
• Brains
• Virgil Tracy
• John Tracy
• Gordon Tracy
• Alan Tracy
• Nikita Bandranaik
• Commander Zero
• Steve Zodiac
• Morgan Phillips
• Glade
• WASP member
• Guard

Worldbuilding

• The raiders use gas shells to incapacitate the midnight guards of the World Weather Control Experimental Research Sation in the Canadian Rockies.
• Phillips demands a ransom of a thousand million dollars to not use their lightning maker, but he later escalates his ambition to the takeover of the world.
• The two hundred men which the directed lightning traps in the shaft three thousand feet below ground at Sun Set Gold Mine could not survive more than a few hours wthout ventilation.
• The Mole and Thunderbird 4 travel to the disaster zone in Pod 4 of Thunderbird 2.
• Zero suggests that they could organise a listening space station and get a fix on Phillips' position if only they had a few days.
• Bandranaik requests two hours to clear the appointment of Phillips to the post of World President with the World Senate. Phillips states he will destroy one major city every ten minutes after that point, beginning with Unity City.
• After Thunderbird 2 leaves the Mole in California to help rescue the miners, Thunderbird 4 is left with just twenty minutes to make the hundred miles to the North Pole and find Philips. Virgil abandons this plan, resolving to crash land TB2 on Philips should they find him instead of dropping off Gordon and TB4 at the pre-arranged location in the ice cap.

Story notes

• As well as being a crossover with the Doctor Who universe, this story was also a minor crossover with Fireball XL5 through the cameos of Commander Zero and Steve Zodiac and with 21 through the visual reference to the USS on the newspaper which Scott reads.
• All five of the Thunderbird craft receive use in this story though Thunderbird 4 is never actually seen.

Continuity

• International Rescue again assist the World Government of Nikita Bandranaik in a rescue operation. (COMIC: Sands of Terror, Solar Danger)
• Jeff reiterates to John that International Rescue does not act as a police force, though he eventually acquiesces considering the seriousness of the situation. (TV: The Man from MI.5)