SPACEMAN DAN AND HIS ASSIGNED ROBOT COMPANION set out from their wheel-shaped space station orbiting Saturn on an exploratory survey of the surrounding area.

“What do you think of the view, robot?”
“I wish you wouldn’t call me robot – it makes me feel like a kind of nonentity.”

“Oh – er. Okay. How’s about if I call you Tin ribs then?”
“Funny guy! How’s about if I call you Dan-Dan-the-Toilet-cleaner-man, instead of Spaceman-Dan?”

“No, I don’t think so. Too much of a mouthful for a start. Just remember, you’re only a metalloid construct, no need to get ideas above your station – ”

IT IS THE YEAR 2150. In a run-down North London suburb, Dr Who and his granddaughter, Susan, have infiltrated Davros’ underground hideaway.

Almost breathlessly, they make their way down through a series of whispering tunnels, eerily lit by some strange green-tinged luminescence and ripe with the tang of something indescribably unearthly . . .

SOMETHING QUITE DREADFUL suddenly emerged from beyond.

It reached out with rabid sensors – probing intensely

Tendrils uncoiling – seeking fervently

Dimwid stared in abject terror at what confronted him. Too horror-struck to move, too scared not to run for his life. But who on Earth, or indeed anywhere in all Creation, wants to stand by while their mind is sucked completely dry?

Not Dimwid, he’s a sworn coward! It’s an excellent survival trait!

He needed his mind – it’s what gave him identity, made him who he was. Such as it was; it took him a long time to develop. Without it, his brain would be empty. He’d just be a zombie.

It was too terrible to contemplate.

But what could he do? The Lurgi was coming to get him . . .

THE MEKON’S FLAGSHIP DROPS SILENTLY through Earth’s cloud layer towards a corner of countryside somewhere in Southern England. It slows its descent through clear blue skies on a sunny day in mid-spring. On board with the Mekon in his control cabin, are Dan Dare and Digby, under Treen guard.

MEKON: Observe – we are coming in to land now, Earthlings. For my purpose, I have chosen a particular area and you, Colonel Dare, will be an integral part of my plan.

DAN DARE: Hey, Dig! I recognise some of the landmarks, and if I’m not mistaken, this is . . .

DAN DARE AND DIGBY are returning from a long tour of duty out in deep Space.

Oh, well, Dig! We’ve been away in space for a long spell – more than two years, Earth-time. But it’s back to dear old Earth now, at last – eh?

Aye! An’ Ah’m lookin’ forward to a reet neece spot o’ leave, too. Not t’ mention a long overdue payrise wi’ soom back pay!

Let’s watch the news, now we’re back in the Solar System and can receive it on sub-ether more or less as it happens. See what’s been going on while we’ve been away.

Good grief! Dig! Do you remember that peculiar . . .