"The Antarctic Menace" is a Thunderbirds comic story. It was first published as an seven-part story in TV21, between issues 155 to 161 in 1968.
Synopsis[]
International Rescue must stop a sinister plot involving a mad robotics technician trying to destroy the shipping of rare minerals in the Antarctic.
Plot[]
Trouble on the Highway[]
At the opening of the trans-organic highway, a ceremony is being celebrated as a shipment of rare minerals is being transported from Antarctica to the Australian Hungry processing plants.
However two miles away, someone's voice on a radio is talking to some penguins, whom it calls a "Penguin Strike Unit" and tells them to close in on the destination of the shipping. The Penguins are no ordinary birds as they have wheels instead of feet, use rockets to fly to the destination and take out a hidden gun muzzle concealed in their chests.
The Penguins roll down the highway with the radio voice ordering them to advance and fire at will. One of them sprays oil on the road, causing one of the hover-trucks containing the minerals to crash into the sea and damaging the bridge in the process.
A panic call gets relayed to John Tracy on Thunderbird 5, who wastes no time in reporting it to his family on Tracy Island. Jeff and Virgil receive the message by John saying that seventeen trucks have been piled up on the road and eight of them are in the sea. Virgil says that if the drivers' cabins are pressurized, there may be hope of survivors. Agreeing to this assessment and that International Rescue are the only ones who can help, Jeff then orders Virgil to take Thunderbird 2, along with Gordon in Thunderbird 4 to assist Scott in Thunderbird 1 in direction to the danger zone...
The Deadly Iceberg[]
The two Thunderbirds take off and arrive at their destination by noon. While Virgil decides to send Gordon in TB4 to make and underwater search, Scott decides to peel off past a nearby iceberg and land near the damaged part of the bridge. However as he reaches the iceberg, TB1's controls start malfunctioning and he is pulled off course into the iceberg itself. Virgil hears Scott's screams over the radio and then loses contact.
Assuming that Scott may of crashed into the sea behind the iceberg, Virgil drops Pod 4 containing TB4 into the sea and sends Gordon to investigate. Underwater Gordon sees the remains of the eight wrecked trucks, but cannot see any of the drivers or any sign of TB1. As he gets closer to the iceberg, he gets caught in the blast of two engine exhaust pipes and then a claw comes down from an opening and lifts TB4 into it. In the same way as Scott, Virgil hears Gordon's screams over the radio and then loses contact.
Suspecting some foul play, Virgil decides to go to the iceberg himself, but as he is following, he is attacked by some missiles and icy smoke screen. TB2's outer hull begins to ice up and he loses control. Virgil fights his way through but finds the iceberg has now vanished!
Extremely puzzled that something so big could just disappear, Virgil lands on the very place that he had got his latest scanning reference and leaves TB2 to investigate. He finds out that the iceberg fitted itself into an indentation of the coastline, thereby becoming part of it.
Using his laser pistol, Virgil melts a way into the iceberg which has a steel shell fifteen feet under it. He finally gets through and enters a large complex where TB1 and TB4 are being held, but there is no sign of his brothers!
As he continues to look around he runs into an army of robot penguins who open fire on him, Virgil draws his pistol and returns fire, destroying them. He continues on his way down a passage, following a transporter belt, which leads to a lift that takes him up to the surface.
On the surface, Virgil uses his binoculars and finds not only Scott and Gordon, but the eight hover-truck drivers chained to a cliff. He sets off to rescue them, but Scott warns Virgil not to come any closer. Suddenly from a cave nearby, a huge robotic bear with massive long claws appears and precedes to attack Virgil, who drops his pistol in the process, which falls off the edge of the iceberg. Grabbing a nearby icicle, Virgil stabs the mechanical monster straight through it's chest, destroying it.
Virgil then unchains his brothers and the drivers and asks what happened. Scott and Gordon explain that after they were captured by the iceberg, they and the drivers were strung up on the cliff to be killed by the robot bear as part of a Bereznik plot. Scott and Virgil decide to go back and investigate the highway, whilst Gordon makes more discoveries on the iceberg...
Investigations[]
Scott and Virgil go to the place on the highway where the road was sabotaged but can't find any clues. Suddenly they hear engines and dive for cover. They discover that a military convoy containing Bereznik troops is there and decide to follow them in a nearby Bereznik supply truck. After coming in from both sides of the truck and knocking out the drivers, Scott and Virgil precede on their way. They discover that the Bereznik government have a hideout built into the glacier as opening appears in front of them.
As they near the entrance, Scott is uneasy as there is a check before entry. Virgil assures him that they will get away with it but is proven wrong when an electronic check asks for a password and uses a flamethrower on them when they don't respond.
With no other choice, the two brothers leap out of the truck only to be ambushed by some Bereznik troops who take them at gunpoint inside the glacier hideout to the evil mastermind himself, Professor Volzac who has one of the Bereznik troops as his assistant. He explains his plan of using his robot penguins to destroy all the ore and mineral plants in Antarctica with the Bereznik troops holding down the highway to make sure no world government reinforcements get through, while he completes the task. He then turns his attention to a screen that shows Gordon and the eight drivers still on the surface of the iceberg and sends some Bereznik troops to destroy them.
Sure enough, a snowmobile containing some troops go in direction of Volzac's orders, and fire cannons at them from an overhead cliff, killing several of the drivers. Gordon and the remaining four drivers head for the lift but the iceberg suddenly begins to tilt in the range of fire from the Bereznik troops, causing great damage and killing the remaining drivers, leaving Gordon as the only survivor. With only two minutes left before the whole iceberg sinks to the bottom of the sea, Gordon clambers into the cockpit of TB1 and takes off, whilst TB4 is washed away by the sea current...
Gordon Saves the Day[]
After safely escaping from the iceberg, Gordon turns his attention to the Bereznik troops on the cliff and attacks them, avenging the murders of the drivers and heads in the direction of the glacier.
Meanwhile, Volzac and his assistant are still observing from the screen and are surprised to see TB1 directly above them. Volzac launches his guillemot flock of gas missiles that pierce through TB1's armor. Deciding not to take a chance of another attack, Gordon moves in and causes great devastation to the base with TB1's missiles.
As great chunks of rubble fall from the ceiling around them, Scott and Virgil who are now tied to metal poles, know that Gordon has come to rescue them and tells Volzac that he's finished. Volzac replies he isn't beaten yet and presses a button which extends the metal poles and takes the two Tracy brothers outside, dangling over a bottomless crevasse with acid on the poles burning through their ropes, proceeding to drop them to their doom.
After further attacks to the Bereznik base, Gordon spots Scott and Virgil and takes a massive risk by flying TB1 right underneath them just as the acid finishes burning through their ropes and they land safely on the wings.
After landing TB1, Scott and Virgil thank Gordon and explain Volzac's plan. Looking down below, they see a huge army of Volzac's robot penguins heading for one of the ore and mineral processing plants. After seeing that Volzac and his assistant are controlling the mechanic birds from an electronic impulse panel, Scott fires a shot from a long range laser rifle, destroying the panel, which cause the penguins to malfunction. They fire at each other, killing Volzac and his assistant in the process.
Afterwards, the spot where Volzac and his penguin army stood is now left as a burnt out wasteland strewn with robotic parts. The Tracy brothers conclude that Volzac's evil genius proved to be his own undoing. Gordon then asks if Scott and Virgil can help him retrieve TB4 that was last seen drifting towards New Zealand as their father would angry if it was lost. Scott laughs and tells Gordon that for a person who can fly TB1 so well, his wish is his command...
Characters[]
(in order of appearance)
- News Announcer
- Hover-truck Drivers
- John Tracy
- Jeff Tracy
- Virgil Tracy
- Scott Tracy
- Gordon Tracy
- Bereznik Troops
- Professor Volzac
- Volzac's Assistant
IR Equipment Used[]
Trivia[]
- The ending of the story is unusual in regards to standard Thunderbirds adventures, in that although International Rescue foil the villain's plans, they do fail to save the drivers they had come to save in the first place.
Reprint History[]
The story was translated into Dutch and printed in TV2000, between its issues numbered 18/1968 - 24/1968.
For an English-speaking audience, the story would next appear in Thunderbirds: The Comic from issues 14 to 16. The story would go untitled, except for part two where it was called Antarctic Menage, which is presumably a typo.
As for comic collections, it first would appear in 1992's Thunderbirds ...Lift Off! as Antarctic Menace, around the same time as its reprinting in The Comic. It would next appear as Secret of the Iceberg in Invasion in the 21st Century, the second volume of the Century 21 collection released in 2009. Following this, it would be printed once again as The Antarctic Menace in volume 1 of Thunderbirds: The Comic Collection in 2013, as well as the first volume of their smaller paperback release the following year.
Stop Press Tie-Ins[]
At the start of 1968, with TV21's abandonment of the newspaper format on its front page in favour of the first page of the Captain Scarlet strip, a one-page weekly feature titled TV21 Stop Press was created to replace it. It served largely the same function and, beginning with The Antarctic Menace, regularly reported on events from the Thunderbirds strip.
