Jet Morgan

Real Name: Andrew Morgan

Identity/Class: Human technology user

Occupation: Astronaut

Group Membership: Luna/Ares crew (Doc Matthews, Stephen "Mitch" Mitchell, Lemuel "Lemmy" Barnett)

Affiliations: Sit William Morgan, the Voice

Enemies: The Host, Kronos, the Overlord;
   formerly the Martian

Known Relatives: Sir William Morgan (father), Hector (great-uncle)

Aliases: Jet

Base of Operations: Dartmoor Rocket Base

First Appearance: Journey into Space: Episode 1 (BBC Radio One, 7:30pm Monday 21st September 1953);
   (prose) Journey into Space (Herbert Jenkins, 1954)
   (comic version) Jet Morgan in Planet of Fear (Express Weekly, week ending 28th April 1956)

Powers/Abilities: Trained astronaut and skilled pilot.

Height: Unrevealed
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black

Summary: Jet Morgan is a British space exploration pioneer.

History: (Journey into Space/Operation Luna) - The son of rocket research scientist Sir William Morgan, Andrew "Jet" Morgan led the first Moon landing mission in 1965, accompanied by his crew Doc Matthews, Stephen "Mitch" Mitchell and Lemuel "Lemmy" Barnett. After landing, the crew encountered UFOs, who flung the ship back in time, so that it landed on prehistoric Earth. One of the UFOs eventually helps them return to their own time, wiping their memories of the event, but carelessly overlooking Doc's diary.

(The Red Planet) - In 1971 Jet led his crew on the first mission to Mars, where they ran afoul of mind-controlling Martians and learned Mars had plans to invade Earth in 15 years time. Escaping, they returned to Earth, but with evidence of extra-terrestrials reaching Earth, planned to return to Mars via the lunar staging post.

(The World in Peril) - The Moon base proved to have already fallen under Martian influence, but the invaders proved to a single Martian, the last survivor of his race, who was persuaded to abandon his plans, and set off to find a new world to colonise with the assistance of some of the Moon base's personnel, who volunteered to go with him even after he released their minds.

(Jet Morgan in Planet of Fear) - While undertaking a now routine trip from the Moon to Mars Jet's ship is snatched across space to the planet Gamma in Alpha Centauri, where Jet and his crew find themselves caught up in a conflict between Gamma's two rival cities, the northern Kaphos, ruled by Kronos and his slavers, and the southern Terra, ruled by Jet's old acquaintance, the last Martian.

(Shadow Over Britain) - Returning to Earth, Jet's crew found their homeworld under attack from would-be world dictator the Overlord.

(The World Next Door) - When a second Earth inexplicably appeared in the solar system on an apparent collision course with the original, Jet and co. set out to save the day.

(Jet Morgan and the Space Pirates) - With instances of space pirates hijacking shipments of lunar plutonium, Jet stepped in to catch the crooks.

(Jet Morgan and the Space Castaway) - Jet and co. tracked down a missing space freighter.

(The Return from Mars) - Awakening from cryogenic suspension, the crew discovered they had been adrift in space and thirty years have passed, during which time Earth's authorities have declared them dead.

(Frozen in Time) - The crew again woke from cryogenic suspension to discover that Jet's pod failed; awake the entire time, he was now in his seventies. Despite finding that their technology was woefully outdated, the Ares crew set out to rescue endangered Martian miners.

(The Host) - Answering a distress call from a seemingly abandoned space freighter, Jet and his team encounter the Host, a digitised personality hidden within the ship's computer, that saw humanity as disposable stepping stones in its path to evolving and taking over the universe.

Comments: Created by Charles Chilton, Andrew "Jet" Morgan debuted in the radio program Journey into Space on 21st September 1953. Having recently finished writing his long-running western Riders of the Range for the BBC, Chilton was asked to provide a science-fiction series next. A keen amateur astronomer and member of the British Astronomical Association, he had a deep interest in the possibilities of interplanetary travel, and decided to use that as the focus of his new series. The first series of 18 episodes featuring a lunar voyage aired from 21st September 1953 to 19th January 1954 and proved a massive hit, prompting the commissioning of a second series, this time covering Jet and his companions on a mission to Mars. Lasting 20 episodes this time, it ran from 6th September 1954 through 17th January 1955, and, reflecting its anticipated success in light of its predecessor, the Radio Times (the BBC's television and radio show listings magazine) featured publicity shots of Andrew Faulds, the actor who voiced "Jet" Morgan in the series, in space suit costume as the character, both in an interior photo alongside the listing for the first episode of Red Planet (visible top right), and on the cover of the December 5th-11th issue midway through the run (above, left). Meanwhile Chilton also adapted the first series into a novel which was released as a hardcover by publishing house Herbert Jenkins in 1954. The 1958 Pan reissue included on the back cover the photo to the right of the main cast in character. With the second series having ended on a cliffhanger, a third series, The World in Peril, of 20 more episodes followed from 26th September 1955 through 6th February 1956.

   On 14th February 1956, very shortly after World in Peril finished airing, the Junior Express sought permission to produce a Jet Morgan comic strip, which began in Express Weekly #84 on 28th April 1956. Chilton, already experienced at adapting his radio shows to comics thanks to having turned Riders of the Range into an Eagle comic strip, wrote Jet's new adventures, Planet of Fear, Shadow Over Britain, and The World Next Door, as well as two shorter stories for two Express Annuals.

   Since per the BBC's (utterly stupid) policy of the time the recordings of the original series had been erased three months after recording, in 1958 the original tale was re-recorded with the original cast, skipping the first four episodes, a preamble set on Earth as Jet's expedition prepared to depart, since those had been less well received than the rest of the original serial, and amalgamating the original 12th and 13th episodes into a single installment, so that the new version was now only 13 episodes long; this new version of the story aired between 26th March and 18th June 1958. With both the radio series and comic strips finished, Jet Morgan seemed to be finished; Chilton novelized World in Peril in 1960, but no new tales were forthcoming, and with the BBC policy of wiping tapes after three months still in force, it seemed likely that the show might be gone forever, even the re-recorded original story.

   Then in 1981 Jet made a surprising, albeit minor, comeback. BBC Radio 4's Saturday Night Theatre was doing a series of adaptations of famous science fiction tales, and as part of the run Chilton was asked to pen a new Jet Morgan tale. The resulting 90 minute story, The Return from Mars, starred John Pullen as Morgan and aired on 7th March 1981. Despite that brief revival, Jet's days seemed over, until in 1986 BBC recording engineer Ted Kendall discovered tapes containing The Red Planet, World in Peril and the second version of Operation Luna in the BBC archives, having survived their scheduled destruction thanks to having been misfiled. Kendall painstakingly restored  them, allowing them to eventually be rebroadcast as well as released on CD and download. This in turn led to Chilton penning another one-off 60 minute story, Frozen in Time, which aired on Radio 4 on 12th April 2008, this time starring David Jacobs in the leading role. One final new 60 minute tale, The Host, this time written by Julian Simpson and starring Toby Stephens, aired on Radio 4 on 27th June 2009; the then 93 year old Chris Chilton, read the closing credits.

   Jet's surviving original radio serials have all been released on CD, while Return to Mars got a cassette tape release in 2000; the two stories from 2008 and 2009 have never (to my knowledge) been released for home purchase. His comic strips began a reprint run in Spaceship Away in 2005, and Fantom Films reprinted the three Jet Morgan novels in 2012; though the individual books are now out of print again, a collected edition remains available.

   In League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier Jet gets a very minor cameo when a newspaper depicts him as a member of the British Space Program alongside Dare and Logan, while a character mentions hoping to spot him or Hawke when they visit Birmingham Space Port.

Appearance checklist (not including reprints):

In prose:

In comics:

In audio & radio

Cameos, analogues and homages:

CLARIFICATIONS:
Jet Morgan should not be confused with:

First Posted: 17/05/2023
Last updated: 17/05/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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