It’s a busy day for WASP with finance director Taylor en route to assess whether cuts can be made and Titan and Surface Agent X20 enacting their latest plan. Good thing Troy and the crew are on the case.

The lovely thing about this and the Fireball XL5 story is the way they exist in two time frames at once. The XL5 story has a couple of smart action beats that feel very 2023 through a 1960s lens and the B plot here is unusually resonant for this particular part of the century. The idea of WASP needing to tighten their budgets is both completely plausible, a wink to the current situation and also a chance to give Troy, Atlanta, Phones and Marina a new problem to solve. It’s smartly done, shifting the feel of the story just enough for it to not be pastiche. Plus Forester is great in all three roles but as Director Taylor in particular, especially in the second half of the story where Taylor becomes a de factor crewmember. The shift from pen pusher to participant keys you into how bad the situation is in a way that’s deceptively subtle. Maximum kudos too for his work as X20 where he gets some truly chewy lines.

That double jeopardy also helps the pace zip along while still feeling action packed. Marc Silk’s Troy and Forester’s Phones are classic hard pressed heroes throughout and this feels like a story that earns its format, especially in the tense opening sequence. It also gives its big cast a lot to do. Marina is, as always, the exception, but Jules De Jongh finds some welcome bite in Atlanta Shore, Nick Briggs has great fun as several characters including both Commander Shore and Titan while Ben Page’s aquaphibians are as delightfully enthusiastic as they are bubbly sounding.

Verdict: This is a jaunty addition to the WASP files that feels, like the Fireball XL5 disc, like a great story and a perfect opening for more. Witty and sincere in its love for the source material, it’s great fun and definitely a voyage worth going on for fans. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

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