The civilian spaceport (with military involvement)
developed by millionaire industrial genius Greg Masterson is
called Earthport 1.
Straker's remark to Foster about civilians taking Skylark
trips into space probably references the British
Skylark sounding rocket, a rocket normally used to take
various types of instrument readings during a sub-orbital
flight. Since the rocket was only capable of sub-orbital
flights (and was fairly small), it seems unlikely it would
be useful for travelling to Earthport 1.
The general Straker deals with in this story is said to be
his usual nemesis, General Henderson, on page 4 of the
story, but it doesn't look much like the actor who portrayed
him on the TV show. On the final page, Straker refers to the
general as "Craddock" instead, so I assume the first
reference was a mistake by the writer or editor.
One of the Interceptor pilots on page 2 of the story is
called Bill. Possibly this is Bill Johnson, a pilot who
appeared in "Identified" and
"Computer Affair".
On page 5 of the story, the aliens are able to gain
telepathic control of the human truck driver. How they do it
is not explained. In some past stories, the aliens have
needed devices or hypnotic programming to take control of
humans telepathically.
A SHADO operative named Matthews is assigned by Straker to
watch the spaceport that is scheduled to launch supplies to
Earthport 1. Possibly, this is meant to be Ken Matthews,
later seen as an Interceptor pilot who is killed in a
collision with a UFO in
"Computer Affair".
The ship one of the aliens steals away on to Earthport 1
looks like a SHADO Lunar Module, but it launches from the
spaceport on Earth like a standard rocket instead of from a
sub-orbital vehicle as seen in the TV series.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Is the General Craddock of this story the same one who was
in command of an arctic base brought under SHADO control at
the end of "Arctic Affair"?
The man looks more like General Calper, who temporarily
replaced General Henderson as head of the I.A.C. in
"The New Boss" and who had a
similar anti-SHADO attitude. Frankly, I prefer to think that
the names of Henderson and Craddock used here were both in
error and it is actually Calper depicted, as it lends a
greater continuity between stories.
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