Dan Dare - Species

© Copyright Zac Sawyer 2015

ALIEN SPECIES

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Without various species of 'aliens', the Dan Dare stories would be very uninteresting - (as we have discovered - space without aliens is far from interesting).

It seems there are no little green men in the solar system - although Frank managed to populate parts of Venus with green men - and not so little.

In fact, they were seven feet tall !

Now for some reason Frank decided that Mars would be lifeless - although later he allowed for an ancient civilization to have existed on Mars (see 'Red Moon Mystery').

Venus, on the other had, had three distinct species.

This, of course is the complete opposite to present day 'scientific' belief, which suggests that Mars is far more likely to have some primitive form of life than Venus.

According to Frank, however, (who was creating these stories in the 1950s), on Venus there were the vaguely 'hippy', cool and very 'together' Therons - who, despite this, look oddly 'Aryan', like a spin-off from the 'übermensch'.

Then there were the primitive Atlantines.

In reality these guys were the descendants of captured people from earth, who had turned blue as a result of living for centuries on Venus.

The Atlantines play a relatively limited role in the 'Dan' Dare saga, with the exception of young Urb, the Atlantine space-cadet, who is undoubtedly a precursor for 'Falmer' Spry.

And then there were the Treens.

© Copyright Zac Sawyer 2015

THE TREENS

Dan Dare faced many opponents, but most often it was the Treens, led by the sinister (but some would say 'cute') Mekon.

The Treens are a race of green-skinned humanoids from the northern hemisphere of the planet Venus.

Treens and Therons 

The southern hemisphere is inhabited by the Therons, a human-like race with an obvious affinity to humanity on Earth.

The Treens share the northern hemisphere with the Atlantines, a blue-skinned people whose ancestors came from Earth 100,000 years previously.

The two hemispheres are separated by the "flamelands" around the equator which are impassable, except by specially equipped aircraft.

The leader of the Treens is the Mekon, an individual specifically engineered to have a high intelligence.

The Treens are portrayed as mostly unemotional without the usual human feelings about the sanctity of life.
In ancient times, they lived as savage jungle tribes permanently involved in tribal wars amongst themselves, until in a major war the Therons occupied the northern hemisphere by force in an attempt to civilize the Treens.

The Mekon - Treen Super Brain
© Copyright Zac Sawyer 2015

Your Average Treen
as drawn by Frank Hampson

The attempt failed and the Therons later abandoned the Treens to their own devices. 

Soon after, Treen scientists created the first Mekon as a "super-brain" to rule over the Treen race. 

The Mekon developed Treen society into a highly organized militaristic logic-based society where orders are obeyed without query, and which is usually in a state of hostility with the Therons and Earth, both of whose lands they have on occasion occupied.

Mekonta

Their capital city is called Mekonta and is on islands in a lake.
The Atlantines are usually ignored by the Treens, and live in primitive conditions.
Mekonta is the capital city of the Treens in the Dan Dare stories.
It is named after 'The Mekon'.
It is built on many islands in a lake.
It was ruined in the war in Dan Dare: The First Story, and New Mekonta was built nearby. Afterwards for a long time Old Mekonta remained uncleared ruins.
The Magnets of Mekonta are huge electromagnets on mountaintops around Mekonta
They are used to raise and lower spaceships in and out of Mekonta.

TREEN INTERCEPTOR

(adapted from 'Spaceships Away')

© Copyright Zac Sawyer 2015

__________________________

CRYPTS and PHANTS

Lero the Crypt and his Star-ship
from 'The Man from Nowhere'

The Crypts are really cute little guys, but they are not very good at dealing with the neighborhood bullies - the Phants.

The Crypts and the Phants live on planets circling a tertiary star system - three suns - Los, Mina and Minu.

Their paths cross every 10,000 years, and it is then that the Crypts are attacked by the Phants.

So - Lero comes to the earth to ask Dan to put a bit of 'backbone' into his Crypt fellow compatriots.

The Phants - looking suspiciously slim and muscular  - 'Rogue Planet'

And here are the Phants - looking suspiciously slim and muscular - it must be the little purple pills that they 'pop' all the time.

And that is the secret behind the whole wierd set-up. 

The two alien races had a what looked to be similar diets,

Purple pills for the Phants, and yellow pills for the Crypts - however, the purple pills are like amphetamines, making the Phants hyper-aggressive, while the yellow pills are like tranquilizers, making the Crypts 'spaced-out', relaxed and peaceable.

And presumably pumped up with purple pills, the Phants spend a lot of time in the gym, between invasions, which is why they like to wear those skin-tight, Lycra suits.

Phants, Crypts and Mercurians and many more are on the way - soon.....