The UK-201, (AUDIO: The Crash of the UK-201) or Astra Nine, (PROSE: The Rescue) was a human spacecraft which operated in the late 25th century. It bore a Union Flag on its hull.
Features[]
The ship had a ship-wide sports channel, which broadcast such events as judo tournaments, featuring beings with two or more arms or legs. (PROSE: The Eleventh Tiger)
History[]
The UK-201 left Earth in the year 2493, destined for the planet Astra. The ship was captained by Captain Odessa Grey, with the crew also including Thorpe, security officer Carmen Scheffler and engineer Lockwood. (AUDIO: The Crash of the UK-201) Passengers aboard the ship included Newton Pallister, his daughter Vicki Pallister, and Bennett. (TV: The Rescue) Vicki once recalled that there were no boys her age on the ship. (PROSE: The Eleventh Tiger)
Eight days after departing Earth, Bennett killed the engineer Lockhead in the ship's engine room and sabotaged the ship's engines, (AUDIO: The Crash of the UK-201) later claiming that it was done to save his own life. Consequently, he was arrested. Before Earth could be informed of the crime, the ship crash-landed on the planet Dido (TV: The Rescue) and the front section of the ship was destroyed. Two days after the crash, (AUDIO: The Crash of the UK-201) Bennett killed the remaining crew and passengers of the ship and the native Didoans at a meeting between the two peoples, leaving just him and Vicki alive, who was unaware of his original arrest or his subsequent genocide.
Following these events, Vicki and Bennett lived aboard the broken ship. Vicki barely left, using the ship's radio to send out distress signals. Bennett occasionally ventured out in secret to disguise himself as Koquillion, then visit the ship in this guise to confront Vicki and convince her that Bennett was keeping her safe. Bennett rigged the door to his cabin aboard the ship with a tape recorder so that when the door was opened, recordings of his voice saying phrases such as "You can't come in!" and "Go away!" were played. (TV: The Rescue)
A few months after the crash, (AUDIO: The Crash of the UK-201) the First Doctor, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright landed on Dido, (TV: The Rescue) by which time Vicki was fourteen-years-old. (PROSE: Byzantium!) The TARDIS crew visited the ship and befriended Vicki. When the appearance of two surviving Didoans caused Bennett to fall over a cliff to his death, the Doctor took Vicki away with him in the TARDIS, leaving the UK-201 empty. When the captain of the approaching rescue ship contacted the UK-201 again, asking for the homing beacon so he could find the planet, the Didoans destroyed the communications system in the hopes that the rescue ship would never arrive. (TV: The Rescue)
However, according to one account, the rescue ship did arrive, and the crew killed two of the Didoans, a male and a female, before determining that Dido posed nothing of value to explorers. (PROSE: The Rescue)
References[]
Vicki met Tobias in Byzantium in 64, and he reminded her of a man on the ship to Dido. (PROSE: Byzantium!)
