The SFFaudio Podcast #021

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #021 – Jesse and Scott are joined new SFFaudio contributor Carsten Schmitt! It’s a show full of participatory enjoyment and less about equipment love.

Talked about on today’s show:
Macmillan Audio, Halo: The Cole Protocol, Tobias S. Buckell, METAtropolis (now is a paperbook), Subterranean Press, Canadia: 2056 – Season 2 now on CD, The indefensible Zombie Astronaut, livejournal sucks, The unofficial podcast feed of Canadia 2056, radio drama, Steve: The First, Steve: The Second, Matt Watts, post-apocalypse, C.H.U.D., H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society‘s audio theatre At The Mountains Of Madness |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Dunwich Horror, Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, digital downloads vs. CDs, The Shadow Out of Time, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Call Of Cthulhu Role Playing Game, Yog Radio, The Dragonships Series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Dragonlance, Brilliance Audio, DoOon Mode, Piers Anthony, On A Pale Horse, George Guidall, Recorded Books, The Dolphins Of Pern, Anne McCaffrey, Phantoms, Dean Koontz, The Dean Koontz Companion (a paperbook), small towns in fiction, Salem’s Lot, German radio drama, Gabriel Burns, Vancouver, Seeing Ear Theatre, we need an unofficial podcast feed for Seeing Ear Theatre, J. Michael Straczynski, Tales From The Crypt, City Of Dreams, Neil Gaiman, Secret Army, ‘Allo ‘Allo!, WWII evasion lines, Louis de Funès, tea for two and two for tea, Yog Radio, Charles Tan (Bibliophile Stalker blog), actual play session podcasts, Wil Wheaton plays D&D 4th Edition (to Carsten’s dismay), celebrity RPG play session (Vin Diesel etc.), Fallout 3 vs. Age Of Conan, The Scarifyers, BBC 7, Rich Carlson, RadioArchive.cc, Billy Boyd, pirate radio, Sealand, what Jesse fears most (finger losses).

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7 airing Slipstream a Nazi/UFO alternate history Radio Drama

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 7 - BBC7Simon Bovey’s new SF thriller for BBC Radio 7 from March 24th to 28th, 2008. Simon Bovey is the scriptwriter for previous two Radio Drama thrillers: Cold Blood (Antarctic setting) and The Voice of God (Australia setting). In his new program, Slipstream. Bovey describes it as – “Part political thriller, part war story, part future shock.”


Slipstream by Simon BoveySlipstream
By Simon Bovey; Performed by a full cast
5 Parts – Approx. 2.5 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Mon. 24th March – Fri. 28th @ 6pm & Midnight (UK time)
March 1945 and the Allies’ victory in Europe is a forgone conclusion. But then over a hundred RAF bombers are shot down in one night by a shimmering aircraft. Is this a new terror weapon? One that could turn the tide of war back in the Germans’ favour? A misfit team of specialists are parachuted behind enemy lines, in the crucible between the attacking armies of the Russians and the Americans, to grab this technology and nip the threat in the bud. What they find is more shocking and alien than they could have ever imagined.

[via Daily Space]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7 features: Vonnegut, and Secret Weapons of WWII

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC 7's The 7th DimensionRemembrance Day PoppyAs November 11th is Remembrance Day here in Canada I thought it ok to include a war history (almost alternate history) radio drama from BBC7. The play is set in Alberta on Lake Patricia (near Lake Louise). In the middle of the lake under the clear water lies the metal frame of Habakkuk, a ship for which a secret is about to be revealed. Everyone should listen for the fascinating true story of professor Geoffrey Pyke in…

Habakkuk of Ice
By Steve Walker; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – [RADIO DRAMA]*
Broadcaster: BBC7
Broadcast: Thursday November 15th @ 11am and 5am
“There is a cold clear lake in Northern Alberta called Patricia. Take one of the two rowboats that lie beside the lake. Row out into the middle of the lake. Lean over the side. Open your eyes in the clear water and before your eyeballs freeze you will see the twisted metal skeletal remains that supported the body of Habbakuk, a battleship made of ice.”
*Incidentally you can read the script for the play HERE.

Next up is a “fast moving science fiction drama” by the team behind Cold Blood

The Voice of God
By Simon Bovey; Performed by a full cast
5 Broadcasts – [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Monday to Friday at 6pm and midnight
When a series of earthquakes rock Australia, seismologist, Sam Rideout and her outback guide Joshua Patamerri track the epicentre to a top secret facility researching the use of infrasound as a weapon. Following the mysterious death of the team’s seismologist, Sam and Joshua are asked to help.

Less interesting to myself (I’m not a super fan) is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut fiction including…

Report On The Barnhouse Effect
By Kurt Vonnegut; Read by Stuart Milligan
1 Broadcast – 30 Minutes [ABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Sunday at 6:30pm and 12:30am
Professor Barnhouse discovers a way of channelling his mind to control the forces of nature. He sees his skill as a marvellous opportunity to secure world peace. However, the American government has other ideas.

Slaughterhouse 5
By Kurt Vonnegut; Read by Robert Jezek
4 Broadcasts – [ABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Monday to Thursday at 6:30pm and 12:30am
Billy Pilgrim, is a boy soldier, an innocent abroad armed only with a pencil stub. He’s so traumatised by the experience of witnessing the decimation of Dresden by Allied bombing in February 1945 that he becomes unstuck in time, even to the extent that he experiences alien abduction.

Thanasphere
By Kurt Vonnegut; Read by Kerry Shale
1 Broadcast – 30 Minutes [ABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Friday at 6:30pm and 12:30am
A military space mission is taken over by the voices of the dead, calling back to earth. How will the generals and scientist in charge cope with this sudden confrontation with mortality?

Posted by Jesse Willis

ARTC Podcast performs Heinlein’s Solution Unsatisfactory

SFFaudio Online Audio

ARTC PodcastThe Atlanta Radio Theater Company has just completed podcasting all three parts of their production of Robert A. Heinlein’s Solution Unsatisfactory. Heinlein’s original short story was adapted by Daniel Taylor and the Atlanta Radio Theater Company. This is an archive recording of their 2001 DragonCon performance (we reviewed the studio recorded CD version back in 2004, click HERE to read it).

Solution Unsatisfactory by Robert A. Heinlein“Solution Unsatisfactory”
Adapted by Daniel Taylor from the short story by Robert A. Heinlein; Full Cast Production
3 MP3 Files – Approx 70 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: Atlanta Radio Theater Company
Podcast: October 2007
“Solution Unsatisfactory describes an American supersecret project to develop an atomic superweapon that proves vital to the Allied triumph of World War II. ‘So what,’ you say. ‘That’s old news.’ And you’d be right, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 were the final nails in the coffin of WWII. But what’s weird is, Solution Unsatisfactory was published in 1940, a full half decade before the atom bomb was even known to exists by the general public. What’s more, Heinlein’s story goes on to foresee the coming cold war with the Soviet Union and the concomitant race to arm with atomic weapons. Heinlein’s story doesn’t actually foretell the same events that happened, but the similarities are pretty eerie.”

Download the three parts |Part 1 MP3|Part 2 MP3|Part 3 MP3| or subscribe to the feed:

http://artc.libsyn.com/rss

Meta SFFaudioAlso, on Sunday October 14th SFFaudio.com will be switching over to WordPress. A technical change that should go off without a hitch and provide more functionality for readers. But, our RSS only subscribers should take note, our new RSS feed will be:

http://www.sffaudio.com/?feed=rss2

Review of Nazi Eyes On Canada Produced by J. Frank Willis

Nazi Eyes on CanadaNazi Eyes On Canada
Produced by J. Frank Willis; Performed by a FULL CAST
2 Cassettes – Approx 2 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Scenario Productions
Published: 2000
ISBN: 1894003136
Themes: / Science Fiction / Alternate History / World War II / Propaganda /

1942. From the West, from the East, the war draws near to Canadian shores. Canada is saying goodbye to her sons who are off to serve in all parts of the world. Taxes, the restrictions on unessential services, and the re-allocation of man power bring the war into the life of every Canadian. But Canadians are still living in relative luxury, and they still hold fast to the greatest of blessings – freedom. “Nazi Eyes on Canada” shows how all this would have changed in the Nazi lust for power on the North American continent had been fulfilled.

Nazi Eyes On Canada was a dramatized radio series produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC Radio) during Canada’s fourth year in World War II. Its purpose was not so much to entertain as to sell war bonds, the rationale being ‘if you buy war bonds you’ll prevent the Axis powers from winning the war as depicted in these dramatizations’. The series was inspired by a German publication (contemporary to the time) written by a Nazi spy who used the alias “Colin Ross”. Ross traveled throughout Canada in the 1930s assessing the military and industrial capacity of Canada for a Nazi think tank. The purpose was to investigate first-hand the strategic requirements for an eventual North American invasion. Based on Ross’ reports, Nazi Eyes On Canada depicts exactly what such a Nazi occupation by the Third Reich would mean for the average Canadian. Broadcast over five weeks, each week looked at a particular province under the heel of the fascist jackboot: Episode 1: Ontario, Episode 2: Alberta, Episode 3: New Brunswick, Episode 4: British Columbia and Episode 5: Saskatchewan. Scenario Productions has also included a speech by then Prime Minister of Canada William Lyon Mackenzie King which serves as an introduction to the series.

This is one of the most unusual radio drama series I’ve ever heard. It puts big Hollywood stars, CBC staffers, and regular citizens together for each episode. CBC announcer Lorne Greene works with the likes of Helen Hayes, Quentin Reynolds, Vincent Price and Orson Welles! One factoid not mentioned in the liner notes of Scenario Productions’ two cassette version is that Orson Welles showed up late to the live broadcast of episode five. Welles had been at the rehearsal but at airtime he was nowhere to be found, so producer J. Frank Willis had to imitate Welles until he showed up during the third scene – something to listen for.

I found the series on the whole deeply disturbing. It was effectively scary and fascinating at the same time. But I have many reservations about it. Nazi Eyes On Canada is poorly written, jingoistic and commercial. The real life Canadian citizens (who get tell us their responses to the dramatization of their lives under Nazi occupation) read their lines woodenly. Much repetition is made with regards to the source material – to be expected I guess as they were originally broadcast a week apart. But the worst part of the experience was the blatant racism displayed during Episode 4. That episode is set in Vancouver, which in Colin Ross’ book would be given to Germany’s Axis ally the Empire of Japan, along with all lands west of the rocky mountains. So during Episode 4 we are invited to visit Vancouver under Imperial Japanese occupation. Unlike the Nazis who though are portrayed as thoroughly evil, the Japanese are painted evil by nature and are implied to be ‘a deceptive yellow race’. Such racist filth absolutely disgusted me.

But it wasn’t just this broadcast. During the time of the live airing of Nazi Eyes On Canada in 1942, widespread anti-Japanese sentiment in British Columbia led to internment of all Japanese males between the ages of 14 and 45. In 1942 Canada set up eight internment camps in the interior of British Columbia where over a nine month period 22,000 innocent Canadian Japanese were locked up for racist reasons. Make no mistake; it was racism pure and undiluted. German Canadians were not subjected to the same treatment.

So what exactly makes this science fiction?

Well for one thing Philip K. Dick’s excellent The Man in the High Castle uses the exact same premise and if that isn’t science fiction my name is J.R.R. Tolkien. The projection into the future as depicted in Nazi Eyes On Canada is an earmark of SF too. But most importantly this vintage radio drama series does what the greatest works of science fiction do; preventing the future. It’s a good thing so many Canadians bought war bonds, because expansionist fascism was defeated in no small part because of it. It is just too bad we didn’t have more science fiction dealing with racism before the Second World War. Science fiction isn’t a cure-all, but it is the vaccination against future horrors we can foresee. But you have to hear its message to be protected.

So keep listening and never forget.

Posted by Jesse Willis