SHADO has determined that it needs to set up bases in three
European countries to help counter the UFO threat. The
countries are not named and the map of the regions pointed
to by Straker on page 1 of the story does not seem to
conform to any nations of modern Europe of the time.
SHADO has new uniforms made at a clothing manufacturer in
Essex.
Essex is a county in England.
On page 1 of the story, the crashed automobile has a racing
stripe on the side with the name Borg inside it. As far as I
can tell, this is a fictitious brand of sports car.
It's a nice touch that the uniforms worn by Straker and
Freeman as they greet the foreign heads of government at
Harlington-Straker Studios don't have the SHADO emblem on
them yet (so as not to compromise the organization's
presence at the film studio). Once on the Moon with the
dignitaries, the two have applied the standard SHADO emblem.
Page 3 of the story seems to state that the trip aboard the
lunar module takes about four hours to get from Earth orbit
to touchdown on the Moon.
Moonbase personnel are also seen wearing the new uniforms as
Straker and Freeman take the dignitaries on a tour. The
uniforms must have been brought along on the lunar module,
because they are all apparently implanted with the tiny
alien devices that were surreptitiously planted by the
aliens during the earlier interception of the delivery van.
I guess the Moonbase crew just got dressed in them really
fast! Yet, this doesn't explain how personnel aboard the SID
satellite are also wearing the compromised uniforms!
On page 5 of the story, Foster is seen taking off in a lunar
module directly from the spaceport, without the usual
airplane host to lift it to the upper atmosphere. Maybe
SHADO has reverse engineered some captured UFO technology to
improve the lift system of their lunar landers.
Apparently the lunar modules are now armed, because Foster
shoots down a UFO that intercepts him on the way to the
Moon.
On page 6 of the story, Foster seems to dispatch the alien
sentry outside Moonbase by coldcocking him with his gun from
behind. But the alien was wearing a space helmet, so how would
that knock him out?
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