Can an Anderson Entertainment production claim legitimacy when the production in question bears no connective origins to Gerry Anderson himself? That's the question posed by First Action Bureau, a uniquely envisioned production from Jamie Anderson and Nicholas Briggs. Currently comprising of a 120-minute audio drama and a prequel novel, First Action Bureau isn't shackled to built-in familiarity of Gerry's better known worlds.

It's not based on an unmade concept of his, such as Gemini Force One, Five Star Five, or Intergalactic Rescue. First Action Bureau is a totally original venture, forged out of the identifiably classic blend of futuristic sci-fi espionage that feels so well-tuned into Anderson's visions, yet boasting its own thoroughly modern and bleakly informed depiction of the future.

Poisoned Mind

First Action Bureau centres around the darkly compelling espionage operations of Nero Jones, top agent for the organisation, which exists to battle against a variety of global criminal activities. First Action Bureau taps into hyper-modern ideas of utilising artificial intelligence, data farming and deep fakes to predict crimes before they take place. The coldly cynical Nero is a dead ringer for Ed Straker, while the clandestine nature of F.A.B. harks back to the likes of SHADO or Spectrum. Where the likes of Captain Scarlet, UFO, and Space: 1999 took place in a semi-idealised future timeline, First Action Bureau's own take on 2068 is rooted in far more contemporary anxieties. Interplanetary travel and colonisation of the Moon and Mars are commonplace, but so too is climate catastrophe, terrorism, and unchecked usage of digital technologies to commit acts of disaster.  

And then there's Nero Jones herself. Adventurous, troubled, determined, unlikable, selfish, vulnerable; this aggressive anti-heroine doesn't provoke any major comparisons with past female characters from the Anderson canon, even if her personality treads a fine line between Lady Penelope and Tiger Ninestein. Both the audio drama and the novel, Damaged Goods by Richard James, capture a pair of compellingly separate takes on the character, one providing emotional context of the other.

The audio drama, initially released as a series of ten episodes online, captures her cynicism on full display, convincingly portrayed by Genevieve Gaunt. Jones' murderous work for the bureau bears an everyday ugliness, but her latest mission proves to be her undoing - or does it? Plagued throughout by indecipherable headaches and surreal dreams, her understanding of her superior, the elusive Zero-One, unravels into shock and chaos as Nero's missions take on a hauntingly meta quality when it becomes increasingly obvious that Nero's memories lie to her. First Action Bureau delivers biting commentary on the all-too real rapidly evolving dangers of artificial intelligence and other invasive identity-sapping tech in the real world, packaged within a moodily captivating spy-fi drama.

Stepping backwards into Damaged Goods, this prequel novel details how exactly Jones came to be forcibly recruited into First Action Bureau. Where the audio drama still succeeds in nuancing Jones' character with some personable vulnerability when interacting with her colleagues (and victims), James' novel elicits these sympathies further. Damaged Goods follows her training and subsequent early missions for the bureau, spanning aerial hijacks, space satellite takeovers, data centre break-ins. Where Jones is a lone wolf in the audio drama, Damaged Goods builds her as a team player - and the emotional pitfalls that come in trusting those around you who can't be trusted.

Jones stumbles throughout each mission, appearing to catastrophically fail in stopping catastrophic horrors from erupting, only to abruptly emerge unscathed, all the while the secret surrounding her distant mother and missing father encroach around her missions. Is her grip on reality slipping? Have any of these missions actually occurred In any one of Jones' adventures, the mantra of 'nothing is true' plays on a constant loop, as incessant as Jones' unsolvable nightmares. 

First Action Bureau prioritises itself as a hyper-modern spy-fi action drama that keeps expectations twisted regarding the permanent deadly conspiracy surrounding Nero Jones' psychological state. Experiencing the audio drama prior to reading Damaged Goods carved out a deceptive portrayal of Nero Jones. Pressganged into joining the bureau from a broken family and preferring to act alone, no-one would miss her if a mission went wrong - right? Jones' misplaced memories and mental manipulation at the hands of her superiors taps into the abusive relationships we harbour with our addictions to social media and other digital technologies in our everyday lives. Jones subsequently reads like a representative capturing of ourselves, how enslaved we are to modern technology, and the desensitised online horrors that surround us in the era of digital tech giants.

Is it Nero Jones or the audience who can't be trusted to keep their grip on reality iron-tight? Not knowing one way or the other injects a deadly thrill into experiencing First Action Bureau, a world already electrified by adventurous high-octane action in a recognisably well-rounded future world.

The Truth Hurts

The First Action Bureau audio drama emerged back in 2020. Five years is a long time in tech development. Half a decade on, First Action Bureau's wary depiction of A.I. risks being outdated by the rapidly galloping pace of how technology progresses. However, at a time when artificial intelligence is abused by the world's powerful elite into a tool of aggressive misinformation, First Action Bureau remains frustratingly relevant. It's also a powerful world of trauma-informed spy-fi. Between novel and audio, we're presented with a compelling portrait of a mentally barbed individual cast into a world of shadows within shadows. 

Experience the all-star action of First Action Bureau entirely for free on the Official Gerry Anderson YouTube channel or the series' own podcast site, where you can enjoy the audio series in full. You can also experience F.A.B. as a 120-minute digital download. Follow up your deadly spy-fi missions with Richard James' thrilling prequel novel, Damaged Goods, available as both a limited edition hardback and as a digital audiobook!

Sign up to the Anderson Entertainment newsletter to receive all the latest Gerry Anderson news, exclusive releases and more transmitted direct to your inbox!