As the fishermen's boat tips over in panel 6 of page 1 of
the story, notice that two blobby humanoid figures
underwater are seen tipping it in the bottom right corner of
the panel.
The beginning of the story tells the reader only that the
current area of alien activity is in northern England. The
circled area on Straker's wall map on page 1 of the story,
where the burned-out alien spacecraft have been
found, looks to be the northern England coastal town of
South Shields. This would make the watercourse around which the
alien activity takes place the River Tyne.
On pages 3-4 of the story, SHADO agent Maine is dragged under the water
by aliens, who carry him to their underwater cave and seal
him up in a pod for later transport to their homeworld. But
how was Maine able to survive unconscious under the water
while the aliens carried him to the cave?!
This story depicts the SHADO Mobiles travelling
amphibiously over water, where they can make up to 30 knots. This
same ability was seen in
"The River of Death".
This capacity was mentioned in the "SHADO Defence: SHADO
Mobiles" article in the 1970 UFO ANNUAL published by
Polystyle Publications (the same publisher as
Countdown/TV Action).
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Episode Studies