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[[File:BRGlogo.jpg|frame|The 2006 British Rocket Group logo (''Guinevere One'' website)]]
The '''British Rocket Group''', also known as the '''BRG''' ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)|chaptname=Everything Changes|chaptnum=3|page=76}}) was the [[United Kingdom]]'s [[space exploration]] [[organisation]] in the [[20th century|20th]] and early [[21st century|21st]] centuries.


The '''British Rocket Group''' was a scientific think-tank advising on space matters and the [[United Kingdom]]'s official space agency.
== History ==
=== Formation ===
The BRG was [[formation|formed]] in the [[1950s]] and their [[fortune]]s [[fluctuation|fluctuated]] for [[50 (number)|fifty]] [[year]]s. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)|chaptname=Everything Changes| chaptnum=3|page=76}})
 
After the war, the Group hired [[Heinrich Schumann]], a [[Germany|German]] professor. He was (correctly) suspected of being a [[Nazi]] war criminal by his co-workers but was never charged. ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|Threshold (audio story)}}) Other post-war staff included Professor [[Jeffrey Broderick]], Professor [[Rachel Jensen]], [[Allison Williams]], and a man called [[Bernard Quatermass|Bernard]]. ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|Artificial Intelligence (audio story)}}, [[TV]]: {{cs|Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)}}) Philanthropist Sir [[Keith Kordel]] was heavily involved in funding their early days. ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|Rise and Shine (audio story)}})
 
During the [[1950s]] and early [[1960s]], it was famous for its pioneering work on propulsion systems and rocket guidance arrays and for a serious of controversial orbital flights. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Who Killed Kennedy (novel)|Who Killed Kennedy]]'') In [[1953]], it sent an experimental three-man mission into space. Only one astronaut returned, infected with an extraterrestrial parasite. He mutated into an alien creature whom the [[Bernard Quatermass|director of the Rocket Group]] ended up defeating in [[London]] in front of [[BBC (in-universe)|BBC]] [[camera]]s; the broadcast was subsequently passed off as hyperrealistic science fiction to prevent mass panic. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Background (DWPM 7 short story)}}) One of the Group's scientists be made the scapegoat for the failure, jailed for negligence, and have his existence erased. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Analysis Bureau (novel)}})
 
In [[1955]], the British Rocket Group once again helped thwart an alien invasion, this time at a [[refinery]] in [[Essex]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Background (DWPM 7 short story)}})
 
In [[1959]] it collaborated with the [[United States of America]] on an experimental space plane, the [[Waverider]]; the project director was [[Edward Drakefell]]. The Waverider was destroyed in an encounter with a hostile parallel universe. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Loving the Alien (novel)}})
 
The Group was reduced to a skeleton crew by the 1960s. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Who Killed Kennedy (novel)}})


== History ==
In [[1963]], the [[Intrusion Countermeasures Group]] drafted Jensen and Williams to help with the [[Shoreditch Incident]]. Jensen remarked that the British Rocket Group had problems. ([[TV]]: {{cs|Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)}})
=== [[20th century]] ===
 
The group was formed in the early [[1950s]], initially as a private group, with its first rocket in [[1953]]. ([[WEB]]: ''[http://web.archive.org/web/20090412195031/http://guinevere.org.uk/aboutbrg.html Guinevere One: About the British Rocket Group]'') During this decade, Rocket Group ran rocket launches with such controversial results that some scientists decided to leave or to retire early. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Who Killed Kennedy]]'') Several of their staff were former [[Nazi]] scientists, with [[Heinrich Shumann]] being a former war criminal; everyone at the Group suspected the truth but the organisation officially denied it. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Threshold (audio story)|Threshold]]'')
In the mid [[1960s]], when the Group launched from [[Herefordshire]], the [[Light Sleeper]]s brainwashed Sir Keith into hijacking a satellite launch to send pathogens around the world. Countermeasures thwarted it but many staff were killed. ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|Rise and Shine (audio story)}})
 
During the [[Cyberman]] invasion, Britain did not have an available launch vehicle that could reach the moon. Only the Soviet Union and America were capable. ([[TV]]: {{cs|The Invasion (TV story)}})
 
=== Mars Probes ===
When Professor [[Ralph Cornish]] took over, the Group was rejuvenated and renamed the [[British Space Centre]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Who Killed Kennedy (novel)}})
 
By one account, the secret use of [[Cyberman]] technology allowed it to jump to the forefront of the [[space race]] and by [[1969]] ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Who Killed Kennedy (novel)}}) it was running the [[Mars Probe]] series of spaceflights to Mars. ([[TV]]: {{cs|The Ambassadors of Death (TV story)}}) By another account, shortly before the [[Apollo 11]] mission in 1969 and before the Cyberman invasion, Cornish's team sent ''[[Mars Probe 5]]'' in secret and [[Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart|Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart]] was unaware the Group existed at all. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Moon Blink (novel)}})
 
The British Space Centre lost contact with ''[[Mars Probe 7]]'' after it landed on Mars. The ship was believed lost until it was spotted heading back to Earth and after seven months, the Centre sent up another ship, ''[[Recovery 7]]'', to retrieve the crew. The events were followed live across the world. ([[TV]]: {{cs|The Ambassadors of Death (TV story)}})
 
By [[1970]], the name was Rocket Group again. Cornish was in overall charge of Britain's space programme and Professor [[Bernard Trainor]] ran the Group. It was instrumental in getting useful information about [[Neptune]] and [[Uranus]] from unmanned probes. Trainor was killed that year during the [[Waro]] attack. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Devil Goblins from Neptune (novel)}})
 
The Martian missions ended in the late 1970s after ''[[Mars Probe 13]]'' was slaughtered by the [[Ice Warrior]]s. As part of a peace deal with the Ice Warriors, lead astronaut [[Alexander Christian]] was framed for murder and Britain lied that Mars couldn't support life. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Dying Days (novel)}})
 
By [[1977]], [[Liz Shaw]] was working for the Rocket Group. They were considering building a [[moonbase]]. ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|The Cloisters of Terror (audio story)}})


[[Rachel Jensen]] worked there some time before [[1963]], before being drafted as the [[scientific advisor]] to the [[Intrusion Countermeasures Group]]. In the British Rocket Group, she had worked under "[[Bernard Quatermass|Bernard]]". ([[TV]]: ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)|Remembrance of the Daleks]]'')
By [[1997]], the Science Minister Lord [[Edward Greyhaven]] pushed for a new [[Mars 97]] manned mission as part of a conspiracy: to give an Ice Warrior faction an excuse to invade and occupy Britain. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Dying Days (novel)}})


During the latter half of the [[1960s]], only a skeleton staff remained when Professor [[Ralph Cornish]] took over the organisation. However, he negotiated a deal with [[Ashley Chapel]] to claim the latest cutting-edge technology available from [[International Electromatics]], after the death of [[Tobias Vaughn]]. Cornish re-christened the Group, the '''British Space Centre''' to bring its moniker in line with its new function, making Britain a force in the space race. The Space Centre was based in [[Hertfordshire]], which acted as [[Space Control]] when it began co-ordinating the [[Mars Probe]]s launched by [[Great Britain]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Who Killed Kennedy]]'')  
=== The 21st century ===
The British Rocket Group was either renamed or replaced by the [[BSP]] from 1997. ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|Dark Side of the Moon (audio story)}})


One of these probes included [[Mars Probe 7]], with the objective of sending a crew to [[Mars]]. Its crew included [[Joe Lefee]] and [[Frank Michaels]]. Shortly after landing on the planet, all communications from the crew ceased, even when the ship departed. Concerned, the British Space Centre sent [[Charles Van Lyden]] in the ''[[Recovery 7]]'' to rendezvous with ''Mars Probe 7''. Van Lyden, like Lefee and Michaels, was captured by [[Alien Ambassador's species|aliens]], who sent three of their ambassadors to [[Earth]] in the ship. However, the aliens eventually departed. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Ambassadors of Death]]'') After this Mars Probe crisis, Ralph Cornish resigned his position, and the British Space Centre reverted to its original name again. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Who Killed Kennedy]]'')
[[50 (number)|Fifty]] [[year]]s after its [[formation]], in the early [[21st century]], the [[British government]] [[decision|decided]] to [[revive]] [[United Kingdom|the country]]'s [[attempt]]s at [[space exploration]], with the first “public fruits” of this being the [[October]] [[2006]] [[launch]] of the ''[[Guinevere One]]'' [[space probe]]. The probe contained [[robot]] [[device]]s to conduct [[atmospheric analysis|atmospheric]] and [[mineral analysis|mineral analyses]] which would be sent back to the BRG. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)|chaptname=Everything Changes| chaptnum=3|page=76}})


During the 1970s, it worked closely with the [[Space Security Department]] and shared their offices at [[London]]'s Space Centre. ([[WEB]]: ''[http://web.archive.org/web/20090412195031/http://guinevere.org.uk/aboutbrg.html Guinevere One: About the British Rocket Group]'') However, the British space programme came to a brutal end when Mars Probe 13 was attacked by the [[Ice Warrior|Argyre Clan of Ice Warriors]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Dying Days]]'')
This was overseen by [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Harriet Jones]]. The satellite was launched by the British Rocket Group under [[Professor]] [[Daniel Llewellyn]]. ([[TV]]: {{cs|The Christmas Invasion (TV story)}})


During the [[1980s]] and [[1990s]], with the space programme over and the Security Department closed down, the British Rocket Group again became a small private venture. The Group moved to Harrogate and concentrated on developing new tools for the analysis of metreorites, as well as setting up a linked chain of orbital satellites for deep space observation. ([[WEB]]: ''[http://web.archive.org/web/20090412195031/http://guinevere.org.uk/aboutbrg.html Guinevere One: About the British Rocket Group]'') In [[1997]] it was reborn as a powerful government agency with the creation of the [[Mars 97]] mission, but this was part of an Argyre Clan/[[Lord Greyhaven]] plot and the mission was wiped out. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Dying Days]]'')
In the early [[hour]]s of [[Christmas Day]], the British Rocket Group received [[image]]s of an [[alien]] [[species]] - the [[Sycorax]] - from the probe, rather than images from the [[surface]] of [[Mars]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)|chaptname=Everything Changes| chaptnum=3|page=76}})


=== [[21st century]] ===
Britain's space programme had a reputation for amateurism in [[2015]]. There was a tracking station in Buckinghamshire. ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|The Eight Truths (audio story)}})
The British Rocket Group remained, however. By [[2001]] it hired Professor [[Daniel Llewellyn]] to oversee a new series of [[space probe]]s. The ''[[Guinevere One]]'' Mars probe project began in 1 August 2003 ([[WEB]]: ''[http://web.archive.org/web/20090415204250/http://guinevere.org.uk/aboutguin.html Guinevere One: Daniel Llewellyn]'') and was launched on [[31 October]] [[2006]]. This occurred during the administration of [[Prime Minister]] [[Harriet Jones]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Christmas Invasion]]'')


Some time in the early to mid 21st century, the Group was bought by space tourism billionaire [[Campbell Irons]], who moved it's base of operations to the [[Space Defence Station]] in [[Devesham]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Feast of Axos]]'')
In the early to mid 21st century, the space tourism billionaire [[Campbell Irons]] bought the Rocket Group and moved it to [[Devesham]]. ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|The Feast of Axos (audio story)}})


Later in the 21st century, British astronauts would be part of [[NASA]] rather than the British Rocket Group. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Waters of Mars]]'')
=== Alternate timelines ===
In a [[Parallel universe]] nicknamed 'the dark dimension', [[Edward Travers]] was part of the Rocket Group. The BRG managed a successful manned launch in 1952 and were publicly celebrated. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Analysis Bureau (novel)}})


== Behind the scenes ==
== Behind the scenes ==
* The British Rocket Group originated not on ''[[Doctor Who]]'' but in the [[BBC]]'s [[1950s]] horror-[[science fiction]] television serials featuring [[Bernard Quatermass]]. The first Quatermass serial, ''[[Wikipedia:The Quatermass Experiment|The Quatermass Experiment]]'', featured the grotesque transformation of a British astronaut as a dangerous alien organism took over his body. This would explain why a number of the scientists involved would have opted for an early retirement. The first (and only, in televised terms) references to the British Rocket Group (and of "Bernard") occurred as an in-joke in ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks]]''. Given the nature of the joke and the manner in which it was made, it appeared to have been a cultural reference by the characters to a television serial, not to an actual organisation which they believed to exist.
The British Rocket Group were the protagonists in the influential ''[[Quatermass (series)|Quatermass]]'' sci-fi serials. The mention of the Group and "Bernard" (Quatermass' first name) was an Easter egg reference by [[Ben Aaronovitch]]. In ''Quatermass'', they were originally called the British Experimental Rocket Group. ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' would refer to the first two serials in text features, ''The Analysis Bureau'' would refer to the third, and [[Lance Parkin]] wrote Quatermass in ''The Dying Days'' as the pessimistic, paranoid version from the final serial, which had been set in the late 1990s.
* In ''[[The Christmas Invasion]]'', the British Rocket Group does not get a direct mention, but in-[[Doctor Who Universe|universe]] websites did so.
 
''Who Killed Kennedy'' states that their name was changed by Ralph Cornish, explaining why a different name was used in ''The Ambassadors of Death''.
 
''The Ambassadors of Death'' was written to be set in the future but due to the [[UNIT dating controversy]], it can't take place far enough from 1970 to explain a series of British Mars ships. ''Who Killed Kennedy'' retconned that the Mars Probes are using post-invasion Cyberman technology to make vast leaps.
 
While the agency is unnamed in ''The Christmas Invasion'', a "British Rocket Group" logo is visible in the background. The BBC created an in-universe tie-in website for the Guinevere One which included a Rocket Group history.
 
== External links ==
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/quatermass/berg/ British Experimental Rocket Group website] (promotional website for the 2005 ''The Quatermass Experiment'' remake)
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20060404205440/http://www.guinevere.org.uk/aboutbrg.html Guinevere One: "About the British Rocket Group" archive]


[[Category:Organisations for space exploration]]
[[Category:British organisations]]
[[Category:British organisations]]

Latest revision as of 12:56, 15 July 2024

The British Rocket Group, also known as the BRG (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...{"chaptnum":"3","page":"76","chaptname":"Everything Changes","1":"The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"}) was the United Kingdom's space exploration organisation in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

History[[edit] | [edit source]]

Formation[[edit] | [edit source]]

The BRG was formed in the 1950s and their fortunes fluctuated for fifty years. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...{"chaptnum":"3","page":"76","chaptname":"Everything Changes","1":"The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"})

After the war, the Group hired Heinrich Schumann, a German professor. He was (correctly) suspected of being a Nazi war criminal by his co-workers but was never charged. (AUDIO: Threshold [+]Loading...["Threshold (audio story)"]) Other post-war staff included Professor Jeffrey Broderick, Professor Rachel Jensen, Allison Williams, and a man called Bernard. (AUDIO: Artificial Intelligence [+]Loading...["Artificial Intelligence (audio story)"], TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"]) Philanthropist Sir Keith Kordel was heavily involved in funding their early days. (AUDIO: Rise and Shine [+]Loading...["Rise and Shine (audio story)"])

During the 1950s and early 1960s, it was famous for its pioneering work on propulsion systems and rocket guidance arrays and for a serious of controversial orbital flights. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) In 1953, it sent an experimental three-man mission into space. Only one astronaut returned, infected with an extraterrestrial parasite. He mutated into an alien creature whom the director of the Rocket Group ended up defeating in London in front of BBC cameras; the broadcast was subsequently passed off as hyperrealistic science fiction to prevent mass panic. (PROSE: Background [+]Loading...["Background (DWPM 7 short story)"]) One of the Group's scientists be made the scapegoat for the failure, jailed for negligence, and have his existence erased. (PROSE: The Analysis Bureau [+]Loading...["The Analysis Bureau (novel)"])

In 1955, the British Rocket Group once again helped thwart an alien invasion, this time at a refinery in Essex. (PROSE: Background [+]Loading...["Background (DWPM 7 short story)"])

In 1959 it collaborated with the United States of America on an experimental space plane, the Waverider; the project director was Edward Drakefell. The Waverider was destroyed in an encounter with a hostile parallel universe. (PROSE: Loving the Alien [+]Loading...["Loving the Alien (novel)"])

The Group was reduced to a skeleton crew by the 1960s. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy [+]Loading...["Who Killed Kennedy (novel)"])

In 1963, the Intrusion Countermeasures Group drafted Jensen and Williams to help with the Shoreditch Incident. Jensen remarked that the British Rocket Group had problems. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"])

In the mid 1960s, when the Group launched from Herefordshire, the Light Sleepers brainwashed Sir Keith into hijacking a satellite launch to send pathogens around the world. Countermeasures thwarted it but many staff were killed. (AUDIO: Rise and Shine [+]Loading...["Rise and Shine (audio story)"])

During the Cyberman invasion, Britain did not have an available launch vehicle that could reach the moon. Only the Soviet Union and America were capable. (TV: The Invasion [+]Loading...["The Invasion (TV story)"])

Mars Probes[[edit] | [edit source]]

When Professor Ralph Cornish took over, the Group was rejuvenated and renamed the British Space Centre. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy [+]Loading...["Who Killed Kennedy (novel)"])

By one account, the secret use of Cyberman technology allowed it to jump to the forefront of the space race and by 1969 (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy [+]Loading...["Who Killed Kennedy (novel)"]) it was running the Mars Probe series of spaceflights to Mars. (TV: The Ambassadors of Death [+]Loading...["The Ambassadors of Death (TV story)"]) By another account, shortly before the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 and before the Cyberman invasion, Cornish's team sent Mars Probe 5 in secret and Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart was unaware the Group existed at all. (PROSE: Moon Blink [+]Loading...["Moon Blink (novel)"])

The British Space Centre lost contact with Mars Probe 7 after it landed on Mars. The ship was believed lost until it was spotted heading back to Earth and after seven months, the Centre sent up another ship, Recovery 7, to retrieve the crew. The events were followed live across the world. (TV: The Ambassadors of Death [+]Loading...["The Ambassadors of Death (TV story)"])

By 1970, the name was Rocket Group again. Cornish was in overall charge of Britain's space programme and Professor Bernard Trainor ran the Group. It was instrumental in getting useful information about Neptune and Uranus from unmanned probes. Trainor was killed that year during the Waro attack. (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune [+]Loading...["The Devil Goblins from Neptune (novel)"])

The Martian missions ended in the late 1970s after Mars Probe 13 was slaughtered by the Ice Warriors. As part of a peace deal with the Ice Warriors, lead astronaut Alexander Christian was framed for murder and Britain lied that Mars couldn't support life. (PROSE: The Dying Days [+]Loading...["The Dying Days (novel)"])

By 1977, Liz Shaw was working for the Rocket Group. They were considering building a moonbase. (AUDIO: The Cloisters of Terror [+]Loading...["The Cloisters of Terror (audio story)"])

By 1997, the Science Minister Lord Edward Greyhaven pushed for a new Mars 97 manned mission as part of a conspiracy: to give an Ice Warrior faction an excuse to invade and occupy Britain. (PROSE: The Dying Days [+]Loading...["The Dying Days (novel)"])

The 21st century[[edit] | [edit source]]

The British Rocket Group was either renamed or replaced by the BSP from 1997. (AUDIO: Dark Side of the Moon [+]Loading...["Dark Side of the Moon (audio story)"])

Fifty years after its formation, in the early 21st century, the British government decided to revive the country's attempts at space exploration, with the first “public fruits” of this being the October 2006 launch of the Guinevere One space probe. The probe contained robot devices to conduct atmospheric and mineral analyses which would be sent back to the BRG. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...{"chaptnum":"3","page":"76","chaptname":"Everything Changes","1":"The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"})

This was overseen by Prime Minister Harriet Jones. The satellite was launched by the British Rocket Group under Professor Daniel Llewellyn. (TV: The Christmas Invasion [+]Loading...["The Christmas Invasion (TV story)"])

In the early hours of Christmas Day, the British Rocket Group received images of an alien species - the Sycorax - from the probe, rather than images from the surface of Mars. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...{"chaptnum":"3","page":"76","chaptname":"Everything Changes","1":"The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"})

Britain's space programme had a reputation for amateurism in 2015. There was a tracking station in Buckinghamshire. (AUDIO: The Eight Truths [+]Loading...["The Eight Truths (audio story)"])

In the early to mid 21st century, the space tourism billionaire Campbell Irons bought the Rocket Group and moved it to Devesham. (AUDIO: The Feast of Axos [+]Loading...["The Feast of Axos (audio story)"])

Alternate timelines[[edit] | [edit source]]

In a Parallel universe nicknamed 'the dark dimension', Edward Travers was part of the Rocket Group. The BRG managed a successful manned launch in 1952 and were publicly celebrated. (PROSE: The Analysis Bureau [+]Loading...["The Analysis Bureau (novel)"])

Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]

The British Rocket Group were the protagonists in the influential Quatermass sci-fi serials. The mention of the Group and "Bernard" (Quatermass' first name) was an Easter egg reference by Ben Aaronovitch. In Quatermass, they were originally called the British Experimental Rocket Group. Doctor Who Magazine would refer to the first two serials in text features, The Analysis Bureau would refer to the third, and Lance Parkin wrote Quatermass in The Dying Days as the pessimistic, paranoid version from the final serial, which had been set in the late 1990s.

Who Killed Kennedy states that their name was changed by Ralph Cornish, explaining why a different name was used in The Ambassadors of Death.

The Ambassadors of Death was written to be set in the future but due to the UNIT dating controversy, it can't take place far enough from 1970 to explain a series of British Mars ships. Who Killed Kennedy retconned that the Mars Probes are using post-invasion Cyberman technology to make vast leaps.

While the agency is unnamed in The Christmas Invasion, a "British Rocket Group" logo is visible in the background. The BBC created an in-universe tie-in website for the Guinevere One which included a Rocket Group history.

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

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