Universal State Fair (short story)

Universal State Fair
Main setting:	Kahra, 2066
Key crew
Publisher:	City Magazines
Editor:	Alan Fennell
Release details
Printed in:	TV21 62
Release date:	26 March 1966
Dateline 2066 stories
← Previous	Thieves Steal Million Dollars
Next →	Scoop of the Year

Universal State Fair was a Dateline 2066 short story printed in TV Century 21 that contained elements from the Doctor Who universe.

Summary

Thousands of tourists are present in Kahra for the Universal State Fair, held on Mars for the first time. Towering three hundred feet above the exhibition halls is a monument called the Tricept, which symbolises the fair, commemerating man's achievements in colonising the planets and standing as a beacon calling visitors to the event. On the 150 stands at the fair, exhibits represent universal achievements throughout the past and for the future, dealing with every aspect of the planets' life from industry to agriculture.

Worldbuilding

• Locations in Kahra at the State Fair include Grand Avenue, Pagoda Hall (housing agricultural achievements of the century), Central Avenue, the Hall of Progress (an exhibition of space progress), Transport House (displaying transport through the ages), a mono-rail serving the exhibition, and the Tricept.
• Earth's contribution to the fair is the Leute 2 Weather Control satellite, which is shortly to replace Leute 1. It has been completely redeveloped from the current design with the main feature being a huge magnifying retro-glass which stores energy from the Sun and converts it by means of patheloty condensors into the required types of weather. It travels on a fixed orbit around the Earth.
• Venus' exhibit is the Sysmos Jetmobile which won the Universal 48 hour TT Grand Prix in 2066 which gained the title of Universal Racing Driver for its rider Tebor Vachet. It was built by the Pondo Jetmobile Corporation and is capable of travelling at over nine hundred miles per hour.
• The highlight of the State Fair is the Bubble House from Astra, the planet's dwelling of the future. The house is a product of the Plytob Space Igloo Construction firm and is suspended in the air by means of magno-dyhover jets, stored in the attic, which are also able to propel the house in any direction. There is machinery for the recycling of air and waste in the cellar and there is a greater space between the house's double transparent walls at the top for greater stability.
• Jupiter's contribution, still in the early stages of development, is the Dematerialization Centre and is said to be the travel means of the future. A person is transported by dematerilisation to any destination they require in one second. The machine works by chemical electro-magnetic reactions and is soon to be in service throughout the Universe.

Story notes

• The Universal State Fair, at least to some extent, is said to celebrate "man's achievements in colonising the planets". The inclusion of Astra, explicity not a human colony in other concurrent stories, perhaps hints to the fate of the world in the centuries to come. The Big Finish audio story The Suffering establishes Astra as a human colony at some point after the 23rd century and companion Vicki Pallister was en route to Astra when the UK-201 crashed on Dido in 2493 in the television story The Rescue.

Continuity

• Each planet of the Solar System and four from hyperspace are represented at the Universal State Fair. (PROSE: Thieves Steal Million Dollars)
• Earth has controlled weather. (PROSE: World Weather Chaos! et al.)

Gallery

• 

  Panorama of the Universal State Fair.

• 

  Leute 2.

• 

  The Sysmos Jetmobile.

• 

  The Bubble House.

• 

  The Dematerialization Centre.