Its been a long while since I read my copy of TV21 Anuual from 1969 and seeing Pauls earlier post about the role of SWORD as a mining operation made me go back to the bookshelf for a fresh look. Im glad I did now as the second installment of the 'Battle Breakdown' article (first one deals with Captain Scarlet and third with Sword) features Fireball XL5 and the Astran Affair.
Not directly connected with Project SWORD but an interesting read nonetheless, the second part of the trilogy deals with the role of the Earth space fleet in a mighty battle against the saucers of the Astran fleet. One thing which always bothered me as a kid, were the ungainly and odd looking, cruciform earth space ships. I always thought that compared to most TV21 ships, they were pretty weird. However, looking at them today with a different perspective, I recognised them for what they were. Six years earlier, Lockheed had proposed a fabulous new concept for a nuclear powered space station, which due to its outlandish nature, did not meet with much approval from NASA. Subsequently, the artist painting the Fireball strip - I think it was Ron Turner - plagiarised the old Lockheed painting as the basis of the unusual Earth space fleet.
Although the original space station design has a much more complex layout, including spider-like docking manipulators on the front and a large heat dispersal radiator at the rear, the main body is unmistakable. The Astran ships were a much simpler design of a classic flying saucer and the Astrans themselves, even more so - just a simple jellybean!
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