Football United Starts Today! (short story)

Football United Starts Today! was a short story printed in TV Century 21 that contained elements from the Doctor Who universe. Framed as the front page of an in-universe periodical, the titular article made reference to the commencement of the TV21 feature Football United with a smaller piece tying-in to the Zero X comic story Capture, which was a crossover with the DWU.

Summary
At dawn, Zero X blasts off from Glenn Field, bound for an unknown destination in space. A tight security screen clamps down the spaceport immediately afterwards for unknown reasons. Glenn Field do not release an official statement but the consensus soon spreads that the spacecraft was launched in response to a mysterious SOS picked up on Earth that morning.

Meanwhile, TV 21 announce that they are "go[ing] football... in a big way!" by beginning a new series dedicated to football facts and records. They reveal the series has already begun inside with an "all-action" pin-up of West Ham United player Martin Peters.

Characters

 * Martin Peters

Worldbuilding

 * TV 21 will now feature an action pin-up of readers' favourite player every week, as well as information on him and the club he plays for.

Story notes

 * Notably, this story brought articles about the non-fiction feature Football United and the comic strip Zero X together. Although Football United itself was a rare example of TV Century 21 breaking the pretence that the current year was not in the 2060s, the cover story maintained the illusion and was explicitly set in 2069, thus suggesting West Ham's Martin Peters was active in this futuristic timeframe as a result.

Continuity

 * The SOS which Zero X was responding to was later revealed by TV 21 to have been sent from the Alien Space Hospital. (COMIC: Capture)