A merchandisers dream.

When Star Wars hit the silver screen in 1977, closely followed by the re-emergence of Star Trek and several new sci-fi films, merchandisers came up with a way in which they could cash in on this. And so the action figure came into being. They were snapped up in their millions. I was one of those who did the snapping, albeit a few years late.

After playing with a small assortment of various figures I had collected, I began getting bored. I needed something, some situation I could make my figures act out. It was then that my brother Paul and I began to pen the adventures of a group known as the Defenders of the Galaxy, a group of men and women dedicated to fighting evil throughout the universe. I started off with a small cardboard spaceship called the Eagle. As my collection of figures grew, the Eagle became a larger wooden ship called the Valkyrie. Upon receiving a large amount of money for my birthday one year, the Valkyrie was replaced with the Millenium Falcon, and later joined by an Action Force headquarters, a snow speeder, an x-wing fighter and various other craft. The stories continued to flow from the pen for as long as I was interested in collecting them. The Defender’s membership included Luke Skywalker, Mr. Spock, He-Man, and even the Lone Ranger’s trusty sidekick, Tonto, horse and all. But as I grew up, I became bored with these toys, and I gave them to my two young nieces. They now occupy pride of place in their attic, gathering dust along with the super-hero annuals I gave them.
   
But I have always been fascinated by the science fiction genre. I’ve been watching Star Trek for as long as I can remember. I still find the Star Wars films very good. I also enjoy others such as Battlestar Galactica, Battle Beyond the Stars, and of course, time travel stories, such as those in Quantum Leap. It is partly because of this that the Valkyrie Chronicles came into being. They were originally written as something completely different than Anglo-Force, about a ship set in the near future. They spent most of their time fighting evil alien races, most notably, the Monstrons, but, as with the Anglo-Force stories, the ideas dried up. The Valkyrie Chronicles were consigned to the dustbin.

But it was while I was writing the Anglo-Force mark two stories that something hit men, and I don’t mean Chris Eubank’s right cross. I had always thought that I wouldn’t be able to write two ongoing stories at the same time. I was wrong. With a lot of thought, I came up with a way that I could re-introduce the Valkyrie ship and her crew through an Anglo-Force story, which I did. I made their appearance more notable by having some of the crew descended from those in Anglo-Force, most notably the captain and first officer. It was later decided to put in a constant between the two stories, a way that the two could be connected by one character, one immortal character - Phineas Magus.

So here are the first adventures of the new Valkyrie, a starship in the United Federation of Planets, in Starfleet. What we have done here is set this story in the Star Trek universe, and taken ideas from that universe. But that is not all. We have merged this universe with that used in both Star Wars and Doctor Who. We have also added a few planets of our own, as well as taking small portions from other universes. Some of these stories are original, some are based on episodes and films from various series. All in all, though this is our universe, a universe made up of several others has been created. Scientists have always said the universe is a big place. We’ve just made it a bit bigger.

So here are the Valkyrie Chronicles, which is based on a story first written in 1983, which was based on a collection of toys.

I just wish I’d never given them away in the first place!

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