Miro Gilfor Sensation! (short story)
Miro Gilfor Sensation! was a Dateline 2066 short story printed in TV Century 21 that contained elements from the Doctor Who universe.
Notably, Unity City, a location introduced in The Daleks comic story Duel of the Daleks, reappeared here.
Summary
The Space News Agency releases the news that Doctor Miro Gilfor's expedition to the Vorex Galaxy is returning to Earth, with it being understood that Gilfor will be having talks with space security. In Unity City, speculation about the expedition is rife among the populace. The party's potential discovery of something of unrivalled importance, the possible abandoning of the expedition and the connection between space security and space exploration are all questions being asked. Jaf Perison of S.P.N. instead speculates that Gilfor's return may have something to do with the recent disappearance of his team and its subsequent rescue from the planet Advex.
Meanwhile, Uranus finds itself in the midst of a battle to restore its cities to their former glory following the worst meteorite storms in the planet's history. A correspondent for TV 21 reports that many of the cities are "a mass of rubble and choking dust" as a huge army of demolition workers toil day and night to tear down the destroyed buildings ready for re-development. A fleet of space freighters soon arrives from Venus with cargoes of machines estimated to cut down the Uranians' work by half. Watching in the evening as the nine floors of the ruined telecommunications building topple in seconds from a barrage by the Water Canon, TV 21's correspondent states their hopeful belief that Uranus will soon be back to normal.
On Pluto, the Pluto Post Office launches a competition to produce designs for stamps commemorating the planet's fifty years of space exploration.
On Mars, the second major blockage of the main Martian cargo canal within the space of a few months brings with it a wave of protests in the Martian Senate. In particular, Senator Gimpo Bofflex argues that the government should act now to modernise the canals.
On Mercury, the largest meteorite ever to land on the planet smashes down on the Garsott Plain, forging a canyon one mile long and ten thousand feet deep.
Characters
Worldbuilding
- Gilfor's expedition left Mercury six months ago and was not due to return for another three years.
- The most advanced of the demolition machines is the Water Canon which was built by U.E.I. and designed by Professor Horatio Hackenbacker. It can fire a jet of water at more than thirty thousand tons of pressure per square inch.
- Opened in 1966, the G.P.O. Tower in London is now out of date and will be rebuilt at a cost of over twenty-five million pounds.
Story notes
- By referencing that the Water Canon was built by U.E.I. and designed by Horatio "Brains" Hackenbacker, this story was also a crossover with The Investigator and Thunderbirds respectively.
Continuity
- The disappearance of Miro Gilfor's party sparked one of the biggest hunts in space history. (COMIC: The Terrorkon Harvest)
- The demolition machines are the same ones used on Venus to restore the city of Pangad after it was hit with severe earthquakes. (PROSE: Admiral Beatty Arrest Sensation, Fireball XL3 Crashes at Space City)
