Oil Drill Shipped to Crater! (short story)

Oil Drill Shipped to Crater!
Main character(s):	Sam Bendine
Main setting:	Saturn, 2069
Key crew
Publisher:	City Magazines
Release details
Printed in:	TV21 232
Release date:	28 June 1969

Oil Drill Shipped to Crater! was a Saturn Probe short story printed in TV Century 21 in 1969.

The location of Unity City, first introduced in The Daleks story Duel of the Daleks, was crucial to the framing narrative which enabled the events of the story to be reported on by TV 21, thus constituting a crossover with the Doctor Who universe.

Summary

Carrying an important prefabricated oil rig from Earth, the spacecraft Rendezvous II lands near Shindigville on Saturn. Four hours later, Captain Sam Bendine updates the Shindig I Probe Team via radio message as he progesses across the planet's sand dunes in Hovertransporter A with Hovertransporter B in tow. He states that he is approaching the dust-bowl crater and asks that preparations be made to receive the equipment. Gardner Anderson beams news of this development, which means that test drilling can shortly commence, to Unity City.

Characters

• Sam Bendine
• Gardner Anderson

Worldbuilding

• Hovertransporters A and B are newly-constructed, having been built on Saturn.
• The drilling follows a recent oil strike beneath the surface of a large dust bowl.

Story notes

• This story marked the only instalment of the short-lived Saturn Probe series to contain elements from the Doctor Who universe.

Continuity

• News is beamed to Unity City for publication in TV 21. (COMIC: Planet of Bones, The Syndicate of the Faceless Ones et al.)