"The Space Mirror" is a Thunderbirds comic story first published over four parts in TV Century 21, issues 137-140, 2nd to 23rd September 1967.
It was the last Thunderbirds story to occupy the centre-spread before it was moved to a two-page format, in order to make way for the magazine's new starring series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. However, Thunderbirds would find itself back in the centre of the magazine for 1968 redesign (just two stories later), from The Antarctic Menace onwards - albeit still in a two-page format rather than a true multi-page centre-spread.
In 2022, an audio adaptation under the same title was released as part of Fire and Fury.
Plot[]
Part One[]
Somewhere in the frosty austral polar seas surrounding Antarctica, the survey ship Palmerston cruises towards its base on the White Continent. Suddenly, an enormous, high-intensity beam strikes down from the sky - melting the surrounding icecap, vaporizing icebergs across a two-mile area, and setting the very seawater to boiling!
Out in space, Thunderbird 5 picks up the now-imperiled Palmerston crew's frantic SOS calls; and on Tracy Island, Jeff dispatches Virgil and Gordon, aboard Thunderbird 2. On arrival at the danger zone, Pod 4 deposits Thunderbird 4 into the unnaturally-hot seas - but then the mysterious heat-beam reappears - aimed directly at International Rescue's yellow mini-sub, and its pilot...
Part Two[]
Seeking escape from the menacing heat-beam, Gordon is forced to crash-dive Thunderbird 4 into the watery depths, and temporary safety. He aims a special magnetic clamp at Palmerston's hull, and is able to take her under tow. As Thunderbirds 2 and 4 arrive at Palmerston's Antarctic base, the unnatural heat-phenomenon dissipates - as mysteriously as it first materialized - and the frigid Antarctic cold closes in once more.
With Palmerston and her crew now safe, Virgil and Gordon discuss the unusual events... a discussion that continues after their return to base. ("I felt like a hamburger on a hotplate," Gordon tells his father.) As John undertakes a stratospheric survey, and comes across an unidentified stationary object - the heat-beam strikes yet again - with Thunderbird 5 as its intended victim!
On Tracy Island, John's cry of pain is heard - then the monitor goes dark. Alan scrambles Thunderbird 3 for a emergency launch, up and out through its hidden Round House hangar. But as he approaches TB5, all is strangely quiet; and as he hurries aboard the station, he discovers why...
Part Three[]
Alan finds Thunderbird 5 deserted - and his brother gone! The station's control room shows clear signs of a struggle - but the radarscope still registers that distant unknown object out somewhere in Sector 8 - as he reports in to Tracy Island. Jeff can only conclude that John has been kidnapped - and then watches in horror on the monitor, as the heat-beam weapon strikes anew!
He urges Alan to get off the station; and as Alan does so, a space-pursuit ensues - with the youngest Tracy using all his piloting skill to evade the lethal ray hunting down Thunderbird 3. But something else - something huge, and all as menacing - is also out there: Alan describes "a solar machine... a gigantic mirror" to his father, as a direct hit on its engines leaves TB3 unable to escape...
The crippled red spaceship is then reeled-in, by the massive mystery craft; and Alan is confronted by a squad of armed men, who take him at gunpoint deeper within the ship. Here he at last finds John - also being held at gunpoint - and the brothers are reunited.
Their captor now appears - a gaudily-clad, boastful sort who calls himself Soltan - and he has ominous plans for the massive mirror-lens he's created, capable of weaponizing the very life-giving rays of the Sun itself... plans culminating in "the greatest crime the world has seen..."
Part Four[]
John and Alan are prisoners aboard the solar-lens space platform of the criminal Soltan. As the two Tracys listen, he makes his intentions plain: to become "the richest man in the Solar System" by raiding the vault holding the World Government's gold reserves, once he's vaporized its well-guarded hiding place - Switzerland's Lake Geneva!
After the gloating Soltan departs for Earth, leaving his captives to his henchmen's tender mercies - and, realizing it's really now or never - John gambles...and he and Alan take out their guards. Utilizing their wits - and, as needed, their fists - the brothers attempt to crash the space-mirror's control room; but, finding themselves blocked, they radio Tracy Island...
"Thunderbird 1 - go... go... go!" and Scott does, to be confronted on arrival at the danger zone by the sight of an all-but-evaporated Lake Geneva - and a burrowing machine, disappearing below the now-exposed lakebed, and headed for the gold vault!
Back aboard Soltan's orbiting hideout, John and Alan finally gain access to the space-mirror's control room by smashing its electronic door-locks...and, shortly thereafter, the heat-beam materializes...for one final time. From aboard Thunderbird 1, Scott witnesses the searing ray as it pierces the desiccated remains of Lake Geneva... and beyond. Afterwards - an eerie silence falls...
Assured of his brothers' safety, Scott then prepares to head for home; and John and Alan plan on doing the same... once Thunderbird 3's had some necessary repairs!
Characters[]
Regular[]
Guest[]
.png "Skipper (Palmerston).png (139 KB)")
_Palmerston.png "Crew (2) Palmerston.png (142 KB)")
.png "Joe (Crew member).png (142 KB)")
.png "Crew (3).png (147 KB)")
International Rescue Equipment Used[]
- Thunderbird 1
- Thunderbird 2 (Pod 4)
- Thunderbird 3
- Thunderbird 4
- Thunderbird 5
- TB4's magnetic clamp and tow-line
Non-International Rescue Equipment Used[]
Palmerston
space-mirror platform
Trivia[]
- Unusually, Thunderbird 1 doesn't precede Thunderbirds 2 and 4 to Antarctica - nor is it joined by any of the other Thunderbirds later on, at Lake Geneva.
- All five Thunderbirds see action in this story - including Thunderbird 5, which comes under direct attack - twice!
- Also a very different role for John, as he and Alan team up to escape their captors and thwart Soltan's plans.
- More IR polar adventures: there's far more to the White Continent than meets the eye, in the aptly-named The Antarctic Menace; and it's all IR hands "on the ice" - and below it! - to save an imperiled military base in the Arctic, in The Big Freeze.
Cover Tie-Ins[]
Reprint History[]
- TV2000, 08/1968 to 11/1968 (Dutch language)
- Thunderbirds: The Comic, issues 14 (18th April) and 15 (2nd May), 1992.
- Thunderbirds in Space, 1992
- Menace from Space, 2011
- Thunderbirds: The Comic Collection Volume 2, 2014.
Issue 14
Issue 15
Volume 2