Dan Dare - The Audio Adventures - Volume Two
Just finished listening to "Dan Dare - The Audio Adventures - Volume Two" by B7 Media and released by Big Finish Productions back in 2017.
Just like my antilibraries, my tsundokus if you will, of my still yet to be read books and still yet to be watched DVDs, I do have a rather substantial collection of yet to be listened to audio dramas which are neatly stacked on top of my sister's rather massive account desk which occupies about a fifth of the space in her former bedroom.
Now it was my cousin Hannah who introduced me to Britain's answer to Perry Rhodan, Dan Dare, back in 1980 when she sent me a Doctor Who annual published by World Distributors for my birthday. She had wanted to get me a Dan Dare annual, but couldn't find one. Hannah lived in Rego Park, New York.
Hannah was a pianist and music teacher who loved to read science fiction. I was named after her father, my Great Uncle Joseph, who was killed in battle during World War One. It would probably be a safe bet to say that Mom got her love of science friction from Hannah, and I got mine both from Mom, Dad and Hannah.
So while I knew that Dan Dare existed, I didn't really know anything about him and his adventures in the universe he occupied until the Internet took off and I was able to do some good old fashioned sleuthing. Back in the dark ages, before eBay and Amazon.com people actually had to read the advertisements in the back pages of science fiction and fantasy magazines and send out orders with international U.S. Money Orders if they wanted to buy books from Britain and other places all over the world. That's how I got my first edition copies of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "The Restaurant At The End of the Universe" after learning about the original BBC television adaptation from reading the now defunct Starlog magazine.
Dan Dare's adventures were previously aired over the radio waves in Britain back in the 1960s and I would love to get my hands on CDs of those shows [sorry, I'm just not a fan of MP3 downloads because you don't physically own the copy and if the power goes out, an MP3 download can't be played on a battery-powered CD player] and Orion Audiobooks adapted the first half of "Dan Dare - Pilot Of The Future - Voyage To Venus" but never released the second half. If my hunch is correct, those original Dan Dare radio programs no longer exist because of the BBC's unfortunate habit back then of reusing and recording over previous radio shows. It's the reason why the first season of "The Avengers" doesn't exist any more along with the first two seasons of "Ace of Wands."
In their production of Dan Dare's first six adventures, B7 media decided to modernize Dan Dare and his universe. Keep in mind that when Dan Dare first took to the spaceways, it was the 1950s and while much was speculated about Venus, Mars, and the rest of the planets in the Solar System, very little was actually known back then.
Updating and making changes to a beloved science fiction franchise doesn't always work - Star Trek: Discovery and any Star Wars movie after the first original six by George Lucas.
I am curious as to why the writers and producers at B7 Media decided to make Eagle Corporation, a homage to the original Eagle Comics magazine which published Dan Dare's adventures, as a shadowy corporate villain more interested in profits than people.
"The Reign of the Robots" is a gripping start to the second box set finds Dare, Digby, and Peabody having completed their teleportation to find themselves 10 years in the future where The Mekon has enslaved the human race with the help of an indestructible army of robots. The Mekon's subjugation of Earth illustrates what an evil and dangerous threat he really is to the human race. At the same time, we are kept guessing what Digby and Peabody going to do. Are they really betraying the human race or just trying to play the Mekon?
Next up, "Operation: Saturn," in which mysterious ship re-appears loaded with killer drones. One of the scientists, a post-human named Blastco, is suspected and Dare and crew are sent after them in a new ship. When they arrive, they find him up to unspeakable evil.
In the season/series finale, "Prisoners in Space," the Mekon returns seizes a space station and then puts Dare's ship into automatic launch mode as part of an elaborately planned death trap. However, he actually ensnares Digby and a bright young cadet and it's up to Dan, Peabody, and an aging Major from the academy to come to the rescue---or is that just into the Mekon's trap?
Truth be told, my favorite adaption of Dan Dare's adventures is the aborted series by Orion Audiobooks. Updating classing science fiction with modern societal behaviors can take away from the original story.
B7 Media did do a faithful adaptation of Dan Dare's adventures, but note, while they did set up an epic stunning revelation and cliff hanger at the end of "Prisoners in Space," there wasn't a season two and it's been about six years since the release of this final set of Dan Dare's audio adventures from B7 Media and Big Finish Productions, and that might be saying something about ratings and/or licensing.
Strongly Recommended, but I do wish B7 Media hadn't modernized Dan Dare's adventures.
Five Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/178...
Just like my antilibraries, my tsundokus if you will, of my still yet to be read books and still yet to be watched DVDs, I do have a rather substantial collection of yet to be listened to audio dramas which are neatly stacked on top of my sister's rather massive account desk which occupies about a fifth of the space in her former bedroom.
Now it was my cousin Hannah who introduced me to Britain's answer to Perry Rhodan, Dan Dare, back in 1980 when she sent me a Doctor Who annual published by World Distributors for my birthday. She had wanted to get me a Dan Dare annual, but couldn't find one. Hannah lived in Rego Park, New York.
Hannah was a pianist and music teacher who loved to read science fiction. I was named after her father, my Great Uncle Joseph, who was killed in battle during World War One. It would probably be a safe bet to say that Mom got her love of science friction from Hannah, and I got mine both from Mom, Dad and Hannah.
So while I knew that Dan Dare existed, I didn't really know anything about him and his adventures in the universe he occupied until the Internet took off and I was able to do some good old fashioned sleuthing. Back in the dark ages, before eBay and Amazon.com people actually had to read the advertisements in the back pages of science fiction and fantasy magazines and send out orders with international U.S. Money Orders if they wanted to buy books from Britain and other places all over the world. That's how I got my first edition copies of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "The Restaurant At The End of the Universe" after learning about the original BBC television adaptation from reading the now defunct Starlog magazine.
Dan Dare's adventures were previously aired over the radio waves in Britain back in the 1960s and I would love to get my hands on CDs of those shows [sorry, I'm just not a fan of MP3 downloads because you don't physically own the copy and if the power goes out, an MP3 download can't be played on a battery-powered CD player] and Orion Audiobooks adapted the first half of "Dan Dare - Pilot Of The Future - Voyage To Venus" but never released the second half. If my hunch is correct, those original Dan Dare radio programs no longer exist because of the BBC's unfortunate habit back then of reusing and recording over previous radio shows. It's the reason why the first season of "The Avengers" doesn't exist any more along with the first two seasons of "Ace of Wands."
In their production of Dan Dare's first six adventures, B7 media decided to modernize Dan Dare and his universe. Keep in mind that when Dan Dare first took to the spaceways, it was the 1950s and while much was speculated about Venus, Mars, and the rest of the planets in the Solar System, very little was actually known back then.
Updating and making changes to a beloved science fiction franchise doesn't always work - Star Trek: Discovery and any Star Wars movie after the first original six by George Lucas.
I am curious as to why the writers and producers at B7 Media decided to make Eagle Corporation, a homage to the original Eagle Comics magazine which published Dan Dare's adventures, as a shadowy corporate villain more interested in profits than people.
"The Reign of the Robots" is a gripping start to the second box set finds Dare, Digby, and Peabody having completed their teleportation to find themselves 10 years in the future where The Mekon has enslaved the human race with the help of an indestructible army of robots. The Mekon's subjugation of Earth illustrates what an evil and dangerous threat he really is to the human race. At the same time, we are kept guessing what Digby and Peabody going to do. Are they really betraying the human race or just trying to play the Mekon?
Next up, "Operation: Saturn," in which mysterious ship re-appears loaded with killer drones. One of the scientists, a post-human named Blastco, is suspected and Dare and crew are sent after them in a new ship. When they arrive, they find him up to unspeakable evil.
In the season/series finale, "Prisoners in Space," the Mekon returns seizes a space station and then puts Dare's ship into automatic launch mode as part of an elaborately planned death trap. However, he actually ensnares Digby and a bright young cadet and it's up to Dan, Peabody, and an aging Major from the academy to come to the rescue---or is that just into the Mekon's trap?
Truth be told, my favorite adaption of Dan Dare's adventures is the aborted series by Orion Audiobooks. Updating classing science fiction with modern societal behaviors can take away from the original story.
B7 Media did do a faithful adaptation of Dan Dare's adventures, but note, while they did set up an epic stunning revelation and cliff hanger at the end of "Prisoners in Space," there wasn't a season two and it's been about six years since the release of this final set of Dan Dare's audio adventures from B7 Media and Big Finish Productions, and that might be saying something about ratings and/or licensing.
Strongly Recommended, but I do wish B7 Media hadn't modernized Dan Dare's adventures.
Five Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/178...
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