TV Century 21 (in-universe)

TV Century 21, also known as TV21 or TV 21, was a news agency and magazine active in the mid-2060s. It had connections to the Universal Secret Service and reported on a variety of restricted subjects including the exploits of the World Space Patrol and World Aquanaut Security Patrol ships Fireball XL5 and Stingray respectively, the private organisation International Rescue, the activities of the Daleks faraway in hyperspace, and the security organisation Spectrum.
The Fourteenth Doctor was aware that the Golden Emperor and his version of Skaro were documented in "children's books from the 21st century", and did not hold them to be reliable, claiming to a psychoplasmic duplicate of the Emperor that they were sensationalised accounts of distant legends, no more reliable than tabloid reports on Bigfoot. (COMIC: )
== History ==
In early 2065, when TV21 was just beginning, (PROSE: et al.) its line-up included a focus on the World Space Patrol craft Fireball XL5 and its crew, with pictures and reports gathered via a remote control Neutroni Tele-Radar Satellite, (COMIC: ) as well as the World Aquanaut Security Patrol vessel Stingray, where reports were acquired through the use of a colour Videoscan and sometimes written up by a Marineville correspondent. (PROSE: ) Also featured were reports obtained from the Undercover Screening Department of 21 about the adventures of Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, a secret agent working for herself, (COMIC: ) and updates from the Space News Agency regarding the Daleks, a species on the brink of discovering space travel. (COMIC: ) Additionally, the relationship between TV21 and the Universal Secret Service was a strong one at this time, with correspondence from agents (PROSE: ) and even assignments for Special Agents being printed within its pages. (COMIC: )
TV21 employed Lady Penelope as a correspondent in April 2065. (COMIC: )
=== Legacy ===
In 2094, a publication entitled The Dalek Chronicles recounted that, after the discovery of alien story-cubes on Earth in the early 2060s, their contents were translated by David Whitaker and Alan Fennell and visualised by Richard Jennings, Ron Turner and Eric Eden, before being printed in TV Century 21 magazine piece-by-piece. (PROSE: ) This was at odds with many other accounts which showed that TV21s reporting was sourced from the Space News Agency and other contemporary news outlets. (PROSE: , COMIC: , et al.)
During the Last Great Time War, the Time Lords' Dalek Combat Training Manual acknowledged "some of the earliest work on Dalek history" which presented "a very different origin story for the Dalek race", telling how an ordinary Dalek declared itself Emperor and had a new casing made from Flidor gold, quartz and arkellis flower sap. (PROSE: )
By 2323, TV21s account on the Daleks was dismissed as a myth from a time before the human race knew that the Daleks existed. Their texts were used as the basis for the Dalek Dome's Golden City Zone. (COMIC: )
== Specific coverage ==
=== Fireball XL5 and Space City ===
TV Century 21s first reports regarding the World Space Patrol involved Fireball XL5s investigation of a distress call from a space freighter, their discovery of a new asteroid in hyperspace, and the crew's eventual confrontation with the "dangerous" Batmen who lived there. (COMIC: , PROSE: )
=== Stingray and Marineville ===
In 2065, TV Century 21 reported on the disappearance of three WASP aircraft carriers (COMIC: , PROSE: ) which was later revealed to be Titan's preparation for an all-out attack on Marineville. (PROSE: , )
=== Lady Penelope and Parker ===
TV21s earliest reports on Lady Penelope showed her recruitment of Parker as a butler and chauffeur, their efforts to steal a Luthvian Hydromic device, and their escape from the mercenaries of Mr Steelman, who sought the device for himself. After the device was successfully disposed of TV21 followed Lady Penelope and Parker's pursuit and later rescue of Penelope's agent Roger Lyon, who Steelman had kidnapped in retaliation. (COMIC: , PROSE: )
=== The Daleks ===
After printing a historical account dating back "many thousands of years" which detailed the creation of the Daleks, (COMIC: ) TV Century 21 began covering the Daleks' current activities. Their first report of this type involved the landing of a Krattorian craft, Kest's spaceship, on Skaro. The Daleks proceeded to massacre most of the Krattorians whereas the Krattorians' slaves, led by Sala and Astolith, were able to escape Skaro in Kest's ship, though not before the Daleks obtained papers from it which bestowed upon them the secrets of space travel. (COMIC: )
== Other realities ==
=== Earth-33⅓ ===
In Earth-33⅓, TV 21 put forward the Yarvelling and Zolfian Dalek birth theory to explain the creation of the Daleks. The Fourth Doctor disproved the theory by taking Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan to see Louis Marks, the true inventor of the Daleks, tearing a copy of the magazine in two to signify this. (COMIC: )
Category:Newspapers