Aquila (TV series)

Lore & Background

The story begins when friends Tom Baxter and Geoff Reynolds, while digging on farmland, discover a cavern containing the skeleton of a Roman centurion and a craft named Aquila. The boys learn to fly Aquila and must find ways to hide it, prevent damage with it, and communicate with it. They eventually discover the source of Aquila – a massive abandoned spaceship orbiting the Sun, exclaiming 'a battle cruiser! You could have some serious fun with a battle cruiser!'

Reader's Guide

Aquila is a liferaft from a larger ship, built by the Yrrillians from the planet Deneb. It can fly an almost infinite distance and operate in outer space without crew spacesuits, though damage to its Oxygen Regeneration system limits it to six hours of air. The craft possesses abilities including invisibility, verbal remote control, lasers, a holographic interface, and the Core Defence Wave Gun, which can knock out everything within 191.1 metres. Aquila can be programmed to execute manoeuvres from certain signals, such as an inaudible dog whistle, and can be connected to a computer and contacted by email. In the 2010 novelization, it can also be contacted via mobile phones. The craft stores everything it sees on egg-shaped objects, recording approximately 1,600 years of data, and is equipped with a lie detector. The name 'Aquila' is Latin for 'eagle', and the craft bears the inscription 'AQVILA' on its exterior.

Did You Know?

• The first series was based on Andrew Norriss' 1997 book; the second series was novelised and published in 2010.
• Aquila is a liferaft from a larger ship built by the Yrrillians from the planet Deneb.
• The craft's Core Defence Wave Gun can knock out everything within 191.1 metres.
• Aquila stores everything it sees on egg-shaped objects, recording approximately 1,600 years of data.

Origins & Broadcast History

Aquila began life as a 1997 novel by British author Andrew Norriss before being adapted into a British children's television series for the BBC. The show ran across two series, with the first airing in 1997 and the second in 1998. The first series drew directly from Norriss's original book, while the second series was later given its own novelisation, published in 2010. The programme centred on two young friends, Tom Baxter and Geoff Reynolds, whose ordinary lives on farmland were upended when they unearthed something extraordinary while digging in a field. The show's premise blended the grounded world of British countryside with speculative science fiction, giving it a distinctive flavour among children's programming of the late 1990s. The fact that the second series received a book treatment more than a decade after broadcast suggests the story retained enough appeal to warrant a return to print form, even if the television run itself was brief.

The Ship & Its Technologies

The craft at the heart of the series is a liferaft built by the Yrrillians, an alien species from the planet Deneb. Despite its modest origins as an escape pod from a larger vessel, Aquila packs an extraordinary array of capabilities. It can travel nearly infinite distances and operate in the vacuum of space without crew members needing spacesuits, though a pre-existing fault in its Oxygen Regeneration system limits its breathable air to roughly six hours. The ship also boasts invisibility, verbal remote control, lasers, a holographic interface, and the Core Defence Wave Gun, which can clear everything within a 300 coleymort radius. Aquila can be programmed to respond to specific signals, a feature the boys exploit by linking it to an inaudible dog whistle. It can even pass through solid objects like brick walls without sustaining damage, stores visual data on egg-shaped recording devices, and carries a built-in lie detector. In the 2010 novelisation, Dunstan discovers the craft can be contacted via mobile phone, a more practical alternative to the whistle.

The Boys' Adventures

The narrative engine of Aquila is the unlikely partnership between Tom Baxter and Geoff Reynolds, two boys whose fieldwork on farmland leads them into a cavern holding the skeleton of a Roman centurion and the alien craft itself. Once they learn to pilot Aquila, their central challenge shifts from discovery to concealment: they must hide the ship, avoid causing accidental damage, and figure out how to communicate with it. One memorable complication arises when they programme the craft to home in on an inaudible dog whistle. The plan backfires when a dog owner at a stately home blows his own whistle while Aquila is in invisible mode, leaving the ship missing until their friend Dunstan locates it and returns it. The boys' curiosity also leads them to test Aquila's ability to fly through a brick wall, emerging on the other side with the craft completely unscathed. Their adventure culminates in the discovery of Aquila's parent ship, a massive abandoned battle cruiser orbiting the Sun, which Tom and Geoff greet with characteristic excitement.

Name, Myth & Inscription

The name Aquila carries layered meaning that ties the show's science fiction to classical mythology. Aquila is simply the Latin word for eagle, and the name is inscribed on the craft's own exterior in the Roman spelling AQVILA. The connection deepens with a Latin proverb engraved on the Roman centurion's safety harness: 'A man can fly where he will, if he rides on the back of an eagle.' This phrase traces back to an ancient Greek tale in which the gods held a race to determine the noblest bird. The eagle seemed to be winning the sprint to the peak of Mount Olympus, but a tiny sparrow had been perched on the eagle's back the entire time and leapt ahead at the final moment to claim victory. The story adds a wry, democratic undertone to the show's central image of two ordinary boys riding a magnificent alien craft. The centurion's skeleton, preserved in the cavern alongside Aquila, suggests the ship had been on Earth for roughly 1,600 years, a span confirmed by the volume of data stored in its egg-shaped recording devices.

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