On the
former
Technodelic website, their feature on the history of the UFO
comic strips in Countdown magazine speculated that Alan
Fennell may have been the author of this
story.
Throughout the story, the Moonbase gals are seen without the
trademark purple wigs! The hairstyle is the same as the
wigs though.
Foster is referred to as a major in this story instead of
his proper rank of colonel.
On pages 5-6, the alien fires a ray gun (it is
described as such in panel 2 of pages 7-8) at Harris, though the
weapon looks like the normal projectile gun used by the aliens in
the TV episodes. The comic strips prefer the use of beam weapons by
the aliens instead. But why is no hole left in Harris' suit by
the blast? All it does is knock him unconscious briefly.
On pages 5-6, one of the Moonbase
lieutenants tells Straker that
Harris was last traced near Triplet.
This is presumably a reference to
Triplet Crater, a series of three
closely-spaced craters on the Moon
near the Apollo 14 landing site.
However, the triplet crater seen
several panels later as Harris takes
off in his Interceptor does not
particularly resemble the actual
Triplet Crater. |
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The Moonmobiles are instead referred to as Moonbugs in this
story.
On pages 9-10, we get a look at an alien missile design as they fire
upon Moonbase.

It's hard to tell exactly which spheres of Moonbase are
damaged by the alien attack. One of them appears to be
sphere #3, to the right of the launch tower from our "camera
view"; this would be the Control Sphere according to a scene in
"The Dalotek Affair". Yet, the Control Sphere is in use and
apparently undamaged in panel 4 of pages 9-10.
In panel 14 of pages 9-10, a lunar
lander similar to the one seen at
the Russian mining facility in
"The
Responsibility Seat" is seen
alongside Moonbase as repairs are
underway. |
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At the end of the story, Straker promotes Captain Harris to
Colonel. That means he entirely skips the rank of major!
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Why didn't the aliens target SID sooner? Did they not know
exactly where it was located in orbit around Earth? If so, how did they find
out for this mission? After repairing SID, did SHADO move the
satellite to a new orbit to prevent further attacks? SID is
targeted and severely damaged again in
"The Man Who Came
Back".
Even if the alien beacons have been destroyed, shouldn't the
aliens now have the coordinates of Moonbase to allow them to
attack it again in the future? (In fact, they do, in
"Survival".)
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