TV Century 21

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference
Revision as of 21:19, 17 July 2022 by Borisashton (talk | contribs)
Real worldStub.png
RealWorld.png

TV Century 21, also known as TV21, was an English publication printing articles and tie-in comic strips to popular children's adventure series. It was published from 1965 through 1971.

Each issue of TV21 was formatted so as to pass itself off as a news magazine printed exactly one hundred years in the future. Although some stories taking place in the 20th century were presented in the magazine, they were printed in black and white, and presented as "archival documents" or footage from a time machine.

DWU contents

In accordance with its format, TV21 was written with the intent that all the stories and articles printed within describe a single fictional future history of the solar system. Although it mainly featured comic strip stories based on the puppet television creations of Gerry Anderson, the first 104 TV21 issues also subsumed several elements of the Doctor Who universe into this "merged canon", licensed not from the BBC but from individual rightsholders Terry Nation and David Whitaker.

The most famous consequence of this was The Daleks (later reprinted as The Dalek Chronicles), a comic serial written by David Whitaker. It constituted one of the earliest licensed Doctor Who spin-offs, as the Doctor did not appear in these stories.

Concurrent with the publishing of The Daleks, the rights to the character of Dr. Who were with Polystyle Publications, Ltd., the makers of TV Comic. Polystyle created new recurring antagonists, the Trods, to replace the Daleks, who would ultimately be shown being exterminated by the actual Daleks in The Trodos Ambush when TV21's license expired and the Daleks were once again allowed to face Dr. Who in comics as on television.

Taking its own path from the source material, TV21's The Daleks revealed the early history of the Dalek Empire, starting with an origin story for the species and continuing through the Golden Emperor's first wars of conquest on the universe until the start of Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.[1]

In addition to Terry Nation's Daleks and Mechanoids, another licensed DWU concept was introduced to TV21 fiction: the planet Astra, which had been created by David Whitaker in TV: The Rescue as part of the background of new companion Vicki Pallister. Astra was referenced in The Daleks and became central to further crossovers with other Anderson-based TV21 strips.

Two further unique interactions occurred between TV21 and the Doctor Who universe. The first came when Issue 28 of the magazine tied in with the release of Dr. Who and the Daleks, the first Peter Cushing feature film, by presenting a cover story and a special Lady Penelope short story which both referenced the film as existing in-universe; The Story of the Film, a short prose adaptation of the movie itself; and a parody, Film Star Wins Oscar—Misses Premier!, featuring "Doctor Da and the Humanies".

Secondly, TV21 released a special record containing the audio story The Daleks, which was based on an episode of the TV serial The Chase with new narration by frequent Dalek voice actor David Graham.

After the end of The Daleks in January 1967, TV21 underwent several mergers with other comic publications. It subsumed TV Tornado in 1968 and became known as TV21 and Tornado; it also absorbed Joe 90 magazine in 1969, following which it was known as TV21 and Joe 90 for 37 issues. The end of the TV21 and Joe 90 run coincided with the end of Gerry Anderson-based content in the magazine.[2] Finally, in 1971, after 347 total issues, TV21 was itself merged into Valiant magazine, which was temporarily known as TV21 and Valiant as a result. Valiant joined Battle Picture Weekly in 1976, which in 1988 was merged into Eagle. Eagle ultimately ended in 1994.

Cover stories

Due to its "newspaper from the future" framing device, instead of a conventional magazine cover, the cover of the publication contained prose fiction in the shape of a newspaper front-page article. These prose stories usually tied into the narratives of the ongoing comic serials; as such, many of them featured the Daleks alongside content from the Stingray and Fireball XL5 strips, essentially serving as early crossovers between the DWU and the Gerry Anderson universe.

Title Issue Released
Stingray Attacked! 2 30 January 1965
Fireball Surrenders! 4 13 February 1965
Titan Declares War! 5 20 February 1965
Marineville Waits! 7 6 March 1965
Superjet Shot Down 8 13 March 1965
Jungle Terror! 9 20 March 1965
Earth in Peril! 10 27 March 1965
Stingray Hunts Aliens 11 3 April 1965
Scoop! 13 17 April 1965
Zodiac's Rescue Bid! 14 24 April 1965
Battle in Space 15 1 May 1965
Atlanta Kidnapped! 16 8 May 1965
Fireball Mystery Flight! 17 15 May 1965
Tempest Awarded V.M. 18 22 May 1965
Kaplan Assassinated! 19 29 May 1965
Stingray Searches 20 5 June 1965
Stingray Breaks Out! 21 12 June 1965
Zodiac Sends For Stingray! 22 19 June 1965
Daleks Seek New Conquests 23 26 June 1965
XL5 Collision Course! 24 3 July 1965
Ghost Castle Mutiny 25 10 July 1965
Civil War 26 17 July 1965
Spaceship S.O.S. 27 24 July 1965
Peaceful Thals Ambushed! 28 31 July 1965
Bullion Train 29 7 August 1965
Ghost Ship Hunted! 30 14 August 1965
World Government Official Missing 31 21 August 1965
New York Blaze 32 28 August 1965
Black Forest Siege! 33 4 September 1965
Ice Planet Mystery 34 11 September 1965
Daleks Suffer Heavy Losses! 36 25 September 1965
Revolutionary Engine For XL5 39 16 October 1965
Fireball Explosion! 40 23 October 1965
FAB1 Back in Action! 42 6 November 1965
Britain Protests! 43 13 November 1965
World Weather Chaos! 46 4 December 1965
Help Plea from Planet 47 11 December 1965
World Emergency 49 25 December 1965
Daleks Hit Back! 50 1 January 1966
Time Barrier Busted 51 8 January 1966
Admiral Beatty Arrested 55 5 February 1966
Thunderbird Two 62 26 March 1966
"We Want Thunderbirds!" 65 16 April 1966
Destroy Space City 68 7 May 1966
Search and Destroy 69 14 May 1966
Space Hi-Jack 72 4 June 1966
World Navy Sub Turns Pirate 74 18 June 1966
"Come In, Tempest" 78 16 July 1966
Welsh Volcano Erupts 83 20 August 1966
Stingray Goes Overland 84 27 August 1966
Destination Sun 85 3 September 1966
Sunflare Claims TB3 86 10 September 1966
Daleks Face Destruction 87 17 September 1966
Operation Sunburst Begins! 88 24 September 1966
Suicide! 89 1 October 1966
Monster Attacks Thunderbird 3 90 8 October 1966
Thunderbird One 91 15 October 1966
Time Runs Out For Thunderbird 3 92 22 October 1966
Death-Lake Terror 93 29 October 1966
Disaster! 95 12 November 1966
XL5 on Terror Planet 96 19 November 1966
TB 4 Trapped! 97 26 November 1966
Stingray Storm! 107 4 February 1967
Ambush! 110 25 February 1967
Trackdown! 111 4 March 1967
Mars Ship Hi-Jacked 118 8 April 1967
World Mourns Dead Space Hero 119 15 April 1967
Steve Zodiac Alive! 127 24 June 1967
TB4 Trapped Under Liner 134 12 August 1967
Miami Beach Disaster 135 19 August 1967
Capt. Black Mars Expedition Lost! 137 2 September 1967
SPECTRUM is Green 140 23 September 1967
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons 141 30 September 1967
Captain Scarlet Our Only Hope 142 7 October 1967
Indestructible 143 14 October 1967
Mysterons Destroy Cloudbase? 144 21 October 1967
4 Hours to Live! 145 28 October 1967
Is Scarlet Dead? 146 4 November 1967
Thunderbirds Fail 148 18 November 1967
Scarlet Kidnapped! 149 25 November 1967
Stingray Strikes Back! 245 October 2014
Zodiac Death Sentence! 246

Footnotes

  1. "Daleks in the 21st Century - An introduction to The Dalek Chronicles", DW50Y 1
  2. The Knowledge Emporium: The Rise and Fall of TV 21