BBC Radio 4: A documentary on Doctor Who books!

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 4Spotted in next week’s Radio Times, and soon to be found in my Radio Downloader folder, an item that should be of interest to those classic Doctor Who fans who collected and read the Doctor Who books in the 1980s [me].

Speaking of the 1980s and Doctor Who … did I ever tell you that I once got to shake 3 of Jon Petwee‘s 10 fingers?

It’s all true!

You envy me now don’t you?

On The Outside It Looked Like An Old-Fashioned Police Box
By Mark Gatiss
1 Broadcast – Approx. 30 Minutes [DOCUMENTARY]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Tuesday 23rd June 11:30-12:00
Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who writer and fanatic, explores the hugely popular Doctor Who novelisations of the 1970s and 80s, published by Target books. Featuring some of the best excerpts from the books and interviews with publishers, house writers, illustrators and the actors whose adventures the books tirelessly depicted.

In an age before DVD and video, the Target book series of Doctor Who fiction was conceived as the chance for children to ‘keep’ and revisit classic Doctor Who. They were marketed as such, written in a highly visual house style. Descriptive passages did the work of the TV camera and the scripts were more or less faithfully reproduced as dialogue.

The books were as close to the experience of watching as possible, and were adored by a generation of children who grew up transfixed by the classic BBC series. Target Doctor Who books became a children’s publishing phenomenon – they sold over 13 million copies worldwide. From 1973 until 1994, the Target Doctor Who paperbacks were a mainstay of the publishing world.

A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4.

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #029

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #029 – Jesse and Scott are joined by Julie D. of the Forgotten Classic podcast. Listen in as Julie gushes over the new audiobook of Ken Scholes’ novel Lamentation! We also talk Space Opera, libraries, and how to read a paperbook: “Breaking the spine of a book is like breaking the spine of the family dog.” Ya, it’s a Buck Roger-ish show.

Talked about on today’s show:
Hyperion by Dan Simmons, David Weber, “The Honor Harrington” series, On Basilisk Station, military SF, Audible Frontiers, John Ringo, March Upcountry, Off Armageddon Reef, Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human, Venus Plus X, To Marry Medusa, Nancy Kress, Beggars In Spain, Infinivox, Blackstone Audio, Beggars And Choosers, Beggars Ride, Children Of Men by P.D. James |READ OUR REVIEW|, BBC Audiobooks America, Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer, Doctor Who, Audible’s new format 4, radio drama, audio drama, 2000X: Tales of the Next Millennia |READ OUR REVIEW|, Spoken Books Publishing, Dr. Wasserman’s Time Chamber: Preventing Armageddon by Lee Geiger, Lamentation by Ken Scholes, Fantasy, Foundation by Isaac Asimov, George R.R. Martin, Dune by Frank Herbert, Macmillan Audio, Simon Vance, The Prestige by Christopher Priest, The January Dancer, SciPodBooks, LibriVox, The Green Odyssey, Space Vulture, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Grim Space by Ann Aguirre, the “Gap” series by Stephen R. Donaldson, ScottBrickPresents.com, The Phoenix Legacy, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Tony Smith, StarShipSofa, Trophy Wives, Twitter, Neil Gaiman, OTRcat.com, Worldcat.org, the Amber series by Roger Zelazny, Maria Lectrix, giving up blogs for lent.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7 Twilight Zone, Doctor Who, Kelly Link, John Wyndham +MORE

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 7 - BBC7 There’s actually a lot to listen to (or eventually download via radioarchive.cc) over on BBC Radio 7 this weekend and next week.

Airing under the “7th Dimension” banner for the coming week on BBC7 are…

The Twilight Zone – Free Dirt
Based on the story by Charles Beaumont; Performed by a full cast
[RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Saturday at 6pm and Midnight
Penny-pinching Luther acquires soil from a cemetery to grow his vegetables. But there’s a grim price he must pay. Starring Eric Bogosian, with Stacy Keach as the Narrator it was written by Charles Beaumont and adapted for radio by Dennis Etchinson.

Dalek I Love You Too
By Colin Sharpe; Performed by a full cast
[RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Sunday at 6pm and Midnight
A sequel to Dalek I Love You, we revisit enigmatic hero Nigel English in his quest to find a part in the new Doctor Who series, with the hope of meeting his father, who Nigel believes to be the Doctor himself. First broadcast in March 2008.

Catch My Breath
By Marty Ross; Performed by a full cast
[RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Monday to Friday at 6pm and Midnight
A contemporary horror story set in a remote Scottish country house. Another Radio 7 commission. First broadcast in March 2007.

Fantastic Journeys – The Faery Handbag
By Kelly Link; Read by Maggie Blake
[ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Monday at 6.30pm and 12.30am
A distraught young woman reveals how a magical handbag has caused her to lose both her boyfriend and grandmother. New to Radio 7.

Trouble With Lichen
By John Wyndham; Read by Joanne Tope
[ABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Weekdays at 6.30pm and 12.30am
Recorded especially for Radio 7A biochemist stumbles upon a discovery which could change the course of humanity by isolating a strain of lichen that actually slows down the aging process.

And airing under the “Crime and Thrillers” moniker is…

Above Suspicion
Based on the novel by Helen MacInnes; Read by Emma Currie
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Monday to Friday at 9.30am, 8.30pm and 1.30am
As Europe teeters on the brink of World War II, a naïve young British couple are swept into the unfamiliar world of espionage. This series was made-for-Radio-7 and first broadcast in 2007 to mark the centenary of the birth of Helen MacInnes, the Scottish-American thriller writer who was hugely influential in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. It was produced by Eilidh McCreadie.

Posted by Jesse Willis

new PC game inspired by radio drama Lights Out

SFFaudio News

BrainpipeRich Carlson, an SFFaudio contributor and the webmaster of Radio Tales Of The Strange And Fantastic (his own excellent radio drama website) has (along with a few other folks at Digital Eel Games) created new PC game called Brainpipe.

So, I’ve been playing Brainpipe all weekend!

This is one of those “casual games” – so the story is basically nonexistent – it’s an action oriented game that’s fun and highly addictive. So why am I telling you about it? Other than a vaguely science fictional premise, and terrific audio (by Rich) it isn’t exactly all that SFFaudio related.

Brainpipe looks kind of like a screensaver crossed with the old 1983 vector graphics Star Wars arcade game and it controls like a Nintendo Wii’s (it would make a great WiiWare game come to think of it). The whole production is super-slick.

The last time I played, a few hours ago, after getting to level five and achieving “dissonance” I died (I think), and the game ended. It was then that I noticed something in the credits…. a nod to “Lights Out” the old radio drama show! I asked Rich if there was any particular episode that inspired the it and Rich said: The Meteor Man (aka The Hungry One)

So, got a few spare minutes? Go have a listen to The Meteor Man |MP3| and then go try the Brainpipe demo – it’ll blow yer brainpipe!

Posted by Jesse Willis

UPDATE: In level 7 more Doctor Who-ish audio turns up too!

Max Warp

SFFaudio Online Audio
BBC Radio 7 - BBC7Doctor Who: Max Warp
Full cast audio drama
Stars Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith
Written by Jonathan Morris
Directed by Barnaby Edwards
Produced by Big Finish Productions
52 minutes

Just heard this on BBC7 and it’s really fun so I thought I’d better post it before it slips away. (Since it already aired last Sunday, oops, it’s only available until November 1, so get cracking!)

Max Warp is a sort of Agatha Christie style murder mystery (eh, well, you’ll see…hear) that crosses paths with Douglas Adams (with one or two direct references as well) and then ends up in Doctor Who’s lap. Terrible sentence I know but where this tale takes place is probably the most fun part.  Here’s the skinny from the Big Finish page:

Broadcasting live from the Sirius Inter-G Cruiser Show. Hosted by outspoken columnist and media personality Geoffrey Vantage, with spaceship-guru-extraordinaire O’Reilley and daredevil pilot Timbo ‘the Ferret’…When a test flight of the new Kith Sunstorm ends in disaster, the Sirius Exhibition Station is plunged into a web of murder and intrigue. Someone – or something – is trying to re-ignite a war between the Varlon Empire and the Kith Oligarchy…only two investigators, the Doctor and Lucie, can hope to uncover the truth.

And so it goes, and I’d love to tell you more about this story but that would be spoiling things.  Listen to Max Warp yourself.  You can do so right now by clicking here!

Posted by RC of RTSF

Dead London

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 7 - BBC7 Doctor Who: Dead London
Full cast audio drama
Airs on consecutive Sundays beginning on Sunday, October 19*
6PM and 12AM GMT
Written by Pat Mills
Produced by Big Finish

Tomorrow, BBC7’s The 7th Dimension presents another popular Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama. This time it’s Dead London starring Paul McGann (reprising his 8th doctor role) and Sheridan Smith. Here’s the word from the Big Finish website:

Someone’s playing with us. Manipulating time and space for their own ends.

The TARDIS lands in London. But which one? The Doctor and Lucie find themselves trapped in a maze of interlocking Londons from Roman times to the present day.

But they are not alone in this labyrinth: a killer is on their trail.

Sounds like dependable ol’ Doctor Who fun-o-tainment, and Big Finish always manages a superb production, so check it out. You can also listen to any BBC7 program for 6 days after it airs, so you never have to miss a show.

* Note: BBC7 has revamped their website. The 7th Dimension webpage no longer exists, and show descriptions no longer mention the number of episodes a series may contain, so watch the schedule page closely.

Posted by RC of RTSF