We return again to 19th century London, where Fleet Street is home to the “Demon Barber” Sweeney Todd, a snickering, dour man whose customers mysteriously disappear, only to reappear in pies at the neighboring pie shoppe. But when a man bringing word of Martin Gestry – a lovesick sailor – disappears along with a string of precious pearls, inquiring minds look deeper into the goings-on of Sweeney’s shop.

The sensation of 19th century London has returned in plays, film, and now, audio drama, in this masterful rendering by radio great Yuri Rasovsky.

Yuri proves that audio drama offers storytelling tools unavailable in any other medium, mixing in grisly violence, unsettling performances, and sonic interludes.

With permission from the producer, here is Blackstone Audio‘s release of Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls. If you like what you hear, find almost 2 dozen other titles by Yuri also available through Blackstone.

Part 2 of 3

Download audio file (rdr-podcast253.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 253

In modern day New Orleans, ancient gods are at work. Movie producers are dying, powerful forces strike the land and the names Shango, Oya, and Ogun are heard on the wind.

Mixing mythology and modern urban fantasy, Primordials is a boldly original, comic-book level adventure story along the lines of Highlander or Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.

In this introduction to the series, we meet the cast of characters, learn of their origins in Nigeria, and experience some angry god action. The series continues on iTunes and has a great website with character art at: http://theprimordials.com/

First up, Captain Radio reviews the space opera, Warp’d Space.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast245.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 245

OK, well the Guiness might actually be starting to run out of your system by the time you hear this, but we couldn’t help but raise a cheer for our favorite Dublin-based audio artist this week – Roger Gregg – by replaying some of his excellent work with Crazy Dog Audio Theatre.

So, we got a double feature – first, from Crazy Dog Live, “Ferdia the Druid,” about a druid con artist who gets in over his head when he is send to investigate REAL fairy folken. Followed by the first episode of The Apocalypse of Bill Lizard, a surrealist adventure into the Irish subconscious care of a sexy demon.

Also, Captain Radio is back on the beat with a review of Audie-award nominated radio drama original, “William’s Leap for Freedom” about abolitionist author Wells Brown, who was born a slave in Lexington, Kentucky in 1814.

Throughout his lifetime, Brown was a fugitive slave, a conductor on the Underground Railroad, an abolitionist, an anti-slavery lecturer, an historian, a medical doctor, and a poet. For only $5 you can grab the entire MP3 on ZBS: http://www.zbs.org/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=16_57&products_id=414 . Produced at National Audio Theatre Festivals’ 2010 workshop.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast217.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 217

This week we conclude “Sci Fi February” with another three episodes from the spectacular Witch Hunter Chronicles.

The protagonist of The Witch Hunter Chronicles is Ludlov, who is, well, a witch hunter. However, his real motivation is destroy a cult called the Black Sickle and he is willing to defy his order in his quest to fight real evil. All of this conviction is put to the test when he meets a witch who is more a healer than a child stealer.

In this week’s show, Ludlov does some ostensibly bad things, then gets a clue on how to track down the REAL evil – the Black Sickle cultists.

This week’s Captain Radio review is a snapshot of BK Turning’s Third Coast Live live radio drama experience.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast214.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 214

This week we move to the next chapter of “Sci Fi February” with the blazingly awesome gothic tale, The Witch Hunter Chronicles.

In the Witch Hunter Chronicles, we meet Ludlov, who is, well, a witch hunter. However, his real motivation is destroy a cult called the Black Sickle and he is willing to defy his order in his quest to fight real evil. All of this conviction is put to the test when he meets a witch who is more a healer than a child stealer.

What can I say? The work is well produced, brilliantly scored and awesomely gothic. One of the most exciting new shows I’ve heard in a while and what I hope is an example of a burgeoning new scene in Belgium.

This week’s review is Captain Radio who sent me into tears with his review of the BLEEP and the Ceo by Larisa Naples.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast213.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 213

This week on the show we have a Christmas treat for you… from the 5th Dimension – The Twilight Zone!

Since 2002 Carl Amari has been producing these inspired radio adaptations of classic Twilight Zone episodes, starring famous guests like Stacey Keach and featuring the infectious theme we all know so well. And for this Christmas season he was so kind as to share with us a few episodes that help us reinforce our theme – the holidays, but askant.

Today’s show is called “Snow Angel,” about an old woman who finds herself with a strange guest on Christmas Eve, while outside a storm rages and on the other side of the country her son and his family are trapped at the airport. They’re all about to experience some encounters – with the Twilight Zone.

COMMITTED TO THE RADIO DRAMA REVIVAL ARCHIVES. TO HEAR THE SHOW, VISIT TWILIGHT ZONE RADIO WEBSITE.

This awesome artwork found on FrostTLU’s deviantART page and NOT provided by production company. Buy a print if you like it

Mm… Nothing like a little bit of raw human flesh eaten by demons from the bowels of hell to help you through a pile of Thanksgiving leftovers, right?

If your holiday taste leans to the macabre, you’ll love the program this week, an adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s Pickman’s Model produced by Mutt Media LLC.

In addition to this inaugural radio drama, Mutt Media has been publishing “The Paperlessly Wallpapered I.O’U. Papers,” a blog fiction series that some readers have likened to neo-Dadaism. They’re also producing some music, check out their digital single “Tuck’s Theme” from Tuck, a musical in progress.

For now, however, a warmed up dish of the darkest kind… What happens when an art dealer gets a little too close to his favorite client, a man who paints work in a darker shade than any mortal man should draw?

Download audio file (rdr-podcast201.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 201

This week we feature a thrilling Halloween special with back-to-back horror including works from the Icebox Radio Theater and the Willamette Radio Workshop.

These are the last two stops on our Halloween penultimate event – the six-hour live radio drama fest called Transcontinental Terror.

First, Icebox introduces us to a pair of teenage girls whose relationship starts to… well, suck, in a story of teenage vampires unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

Then, Sam Mowry of the WRW renders us a spooktacular version of the classic Lovecraft tale “The Outsider,” with delicious soundscape thanks to Joe Medina and others.

Stay tuned for the main event!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast197.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 197

You may recall (and how could you forget?) Chatterbox’s award-winning mini series The Dead Girl, which we played back in . That series won a well-deserved Ogle, in no small part due to the taut and suspenseful writing of writer-in-residence Kyle Hatley.

So it’s with great pleasure I get to bring something new by Chatterbox and penned by Hatley onto the show… it’s Pinocchio! Oh, but cute little noses and brightly colored boys are nowhere to be found in this dark tale.

Just in time for Halloween, our trip of Transcontinental Terror brings us to Memphis, Tennessee. Enjoy!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast196.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 196

This week we wrap Crazy Dog Audio Theater’s series The Last Harbinger, the chilling and darkly satirical story of Moloch by Roger Gregg.

The Harbinger has been captured by the forces of authority, who are determined to reach a guilty verdict and eliminate the pesky interloper once and for all.  Meanwhile, the sea is rising, once and for all, and the land of Moloch is stuck with the results of the crisis they refused to face.

Part 5 of 5.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast189.mp3)

Download Radio Drama Revival, Episode 189 (MP3)

We continue with Crazy Dog Audio Theater’s series The Last Harbinger, the chilling and darkly satirical story of Moloch by Roger Gregg.

Clickety-clack, no going back – is the sound of a train headed nowhere at a ferocious speed.  The Harbinger brings a message of hope to the people of Moloch… but the people would rather have fat reductions and televised healings.  The government closes in to reach the only verdict they can even as it becomes clear there’s not much time left.

Part 4 of 5.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast188.mp3)

Download Radio Drama Revival, Episode 188 (MP3)

This week we’re back in the Crazy Dog saddle with a double headed from the series The Last Harbinger, the chilling and darkly satirical story of Moloch by Roger Gregg.

In the land of Moloch, an outsider comes from another dimension bringing the hope of saving a dying world… Which the Molochians respond to by trying to kill the guy. Luckily, the old beggar Beng is on this guy’s side, even as it becomes clear that there’s not much time left. Parts 2 and 3 of 5.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast187.mp3)
Download Radio Drama Revival – Episode 187 (MP3)

This week we feature two more delicious bits of audio – a new original five-minute audio short by FinalRune Productions called “The War on Poverty.” After so many successful wars on ideologies, America decides to fight its most entrenched evil – poverty.

Followed by a redux of The Last Harbinger, the chilling and darkly satirical story of Moloch by Roger Gregg. In light of all the madness in our world today, it seemed about time to feature the show again. Part 1 of 5.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast185.mp3)
Download Radio Drama Revival – Episode 185 (MP3)

Hot from Tom Lopez of ZBS comes this YouTube’ified steampunk audio drama… of Lady Windemere’s Brass Fantabulous:

A Steampunk State of Mind from ZBS Foundation on Vimeo.

Why not the French, right?

Curious what you all think of this audio story slideshow mashup.

Wow, over 100 episodes ago we featured Wormwood, what was then a promising new audio suspense series set in the odd backwater town of Wormwood that had some weird taste of the occult.

Since that time, the creators of Wormwood have delivered with a stunning first and second season, and now a three-part third season that explores backwards, sideways, and finally forward through the Wormwood universe.

We revisit the epic audio serial Wormwood, by talking with creators David Accampo and Jeremy Rogers about their experience creating and marketing the series these years… and what might happen in their lives now that Wormwood will reach its climax after nearly four years in the making.

But first! An episode from Season 2 of the series, about the curious miscreant known as “Albatross.”

Download audio file (rdr-podcast169.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 169

This week we return to and wrap up our series on ghosts – the spooky, rather than the malevolent type.

Our featured artist is Never Paid Radio, a group out of Prescott, Arizona that first introduces us to a painting of a train depot near the Grand Canyon… A place where a man had an extraordinary experience and lost someone, seemingly forever.

That’s “The Depot,” followed by “Can’t You See the Possibilities,” a story of invisibility and its potential – and downfall!

Finally, we round out this mega-episode with a moving portrait of World War I by the Wireless Theatre Company called Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast163.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival – Episode 163

This week, our stories of spooks continues with a more mischievous ghost than we encountered in last week’s tale of Sinister Properties.

At the Etheric Explorers Club, the gentlemen members are confronted with impossible things, and when it can’t all be chocked up to magnetism, their investigation discovers their building’s “Resident Member.”

Enjoy this colonial-esque, curious and comedic tale was written by Paul Marlowe, published in Something Wicked magazine, and produced by Joe Vaz as a Something Wicked podcast.

Followed by an interview with producer Joe Vaz, who talks about how he went from an actor, to a publisher, to a producer, as well as the nature of audio drama in South Africa!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast160.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 160

Part 2 of my interview with Magic Bullet producer / writer / audio dramatist Alan Stevens picks up where we left off and hits the following topics: knowing when to end stories, the creative potential and individual fulfillment to be had in writing with licensed properties, why Avon and Iago are psychopathic bastards (or are they the same psychopathic bastard?), and of course, Faustian bargains. As in part 1 of this interview, audio clips from Kaldor City are embedded throughout. Additional sound clips from Magic Bullet’s The True History of Faction Paradox audio serial can be found in my overview of that series here.  To go directly to Magic Bullet’s website, click their logo above.

Stevens is a unique voice in the field, and whether you agree with his positions or not, you can’t fault the dedication, quality, or intelligence behind his work. Whether you consider yourself a “genre fan” or “above such things”, if you value good audio drama then you need to read this interview.

CD: So at this point you don’t know what’s up next for Magic Bullet after Faction Paradox concludes?

AS: No idea at all. There might be something else, but, then again, there might not. There might be a huge gap and then something. You get that with my stuff – we did Coming to Dust and The Ship of a Billion Years, followed by this huge gap, and then suddenly we appeared again with Body Politic, Words from Nine Divinities and Ozymandias. Part of the reason for this was that I wasn’t sure how well Faction Paradox was going to sell, and the amount of sales affects the amount of money you have to spend on the series. Faction didn’t sell as well as Kaldor City initially, but then it picked up a lot, and it now sells very well. Sales are good and people like it. However, I still don’t believe you should carry on with a series beyond its natural life, just because the sales are good. I just don’t see the point of going through the motions and carrying on with something, if you think the story’s been told. Does that make sense?

CD: It makes perfect sense. I’ve often had the same feeling, that it’s a shame when stories are exhausted and carried on for pure profit beyond their natural lifespan. So it’s refreshing to hear you say that.

AS: Good. There are TV shows out there that should have ended three years ago, but are still going because the profit margins are good.

CD: I did want to ask about that – in terms of commercial audio drama production (outside of the BBC) Britain’s evolved a peculiar culture distinct from the United States and Germany. In the US, there’s original work, original serials, adaptations of novels and things like that, in Germany there’s a lot of children’s drama and work based on older pulp novels and some original serials, whereas in Britain commercial audio drama seems to be largely defined mostly by spin-offs from mostly defunct British television science fiction. I was wondering, since you’re one of the forces that has put that forward, why do you think the British market has evolved with that emphasis?

AS: In Britain the last drama to have an audience bigger than television on radio was Journey into Space in 1955. When television came along, basically, and audience stopped listening to audio drama and started watching television. I think the reason why Big Finish appeared was because Doctor Who had been off the air for seventeen years and people missed it, and probably many of them had, like me, tape-recorded Doctor Who stories off the television when they were kids, so they were primed for audio. Of course, I’m sure you know that various Doctor Who stories were stupidly wiped by the BBC, and only exist as audios now because they were tape-recorded on first broadcast by fans. And so this culture within fandom for audio developed.

Personally, I wouldn’t produce anything that isn’t in some way connected to an established series, because without a huge advertising budget, I can’t make a big enough impact on people to buy it.  Shall I buy something l know, like Doctor Who or Blake’s 7, or shall I buy something I’ve never heard of before? The fact is that the audio market is mainly aimed at fandoms, as it’s mainly fandoms who are buying audio stuff. And there’s not a lot of ‘original drama,’ if, indeed, there is such a thing, being made because people just won’t buy it. I know people who have produced their own stand alone dramas, and they have generally failed to sell any more than two hundred copies. You might take a chance on buying a film you’ve never seen before, but with audio drama, there’s this barrier now, because people think in TV terms and not radio terms. As for mainstream America, there appears to be virtually no market at all for radio plays.

CD: It’s a small market.

AS: We have a history of radio plays in Britain, but perhaps there wasn’t one in America. Germany, perhaps there was a strong history – I don’t know how well stuff in Germany sells -

CD: It sells pretty well, apparently.

AS: If it’s successful as a new series in its own right, then perhaps there’s a stronger bias toward radio than there is in Britain and certainly in America.

CD: Well, there’s a different audio drama pop culture history to all three countries. In the USA it’s currently mostly original stuff, but it’s probably mostly original stuff that doesn’t sell very well, as you were saying. It’s mostly just the hard-core audio drama fans -

AS: I’ve had people approach me saying I’ve got this great idea for a series – in fact, there’s a friend of mine who I worked with on a series called The Unworthy about a motorcycle gang who were actually the original Knights of the Round Table. It was this black, anarchic comedy, and we even wrote a script. But I’d never produce it as a direct-to-CD product, because I just don’t think it would sell. Not that I think it isn’t any good; I think it’s brilliant. But it hasn’t got that connection there. There are certain stories and characters within Doctor Who and Blake’s 7 that are highly regarded, that people are willing to buy into. But an audio series of Star Cops – would that sell? I don’t know. It hasn’t been on British TV for about twenty years. You have to be very careful choosing what you do, because it can really cost you if it fails, because audio drama is so very expensive.

CD: Especially, I think, to do it on the level that you do.

AS: If you’re going to do something, you’ve got to do it to the best of your ability. I’ve known some producers who have said, I want this out by Christmas, and they’ve rushed to hit that deadline. I think that’s just crazy. At the end of the day, I want to be proud of what I’ve done and not feel we compromised it because we had to get it out for Christmas.

CD: I think that standard is apparent in your productions.

AS: Thank you.

Download audio file (13_Kaldor_City_Clip_8.mp3)

(Robot V23 “talks” to the Chief Fixer in this surreal clip from Kaldor City Story Six: Storm Mine.)

CD: Absolutely. You wrapped up Kaldor City on a metaphysical note. Storm Mine was almost dreamlike, and seemed to appeal to an almost subconscious understanding of the characters rather than the more linear story prior to it. Faction Paradox is teeming with ideas, most of them about time. And yet, in terms of narrative structure the series is actually pretty linear. It mainly follows these two heroines who jump around in time, but once they’re set in their new time zone, they basically progress from start to finish. If there’s one disappointment I would have with the series thus far, it’s that it would be fascinating to hear what a “weapon that can rewrite history” sounds like. Narratively, sonically – these are things Lawrence Miles could surely write, and Alistair Lock could surely realize in sound – they have the skills to do that. There’s a way in which the more advanced ideas about time are never incorporated into the narrative structure – they’re more like trappings or context for the more straightforward drama that plays out.

AS: I can’t really comment, because a lot of the things you’re pointing out here are addressed in the last two episodes.

CD: I’m looking forward to them.

Do you personally have any ambitions to do your own original work in any medium, or do you feel soul-satisfied in pushing these established properties further, I think, than they’ve ever been? This is something I’ve been thinking about over the years, because more and more I’ve come to recognize that a lot of the people who work on established properties are genuine talents. It certainly seems that there are a lot of people feeling very fulfilled doing great work within pre-established universes. Is that the case for you, or do you have the urge to birth a completely original Alan Stevens world?

AS: Kaldor City has the surface elements of The Robots of Death and Blake’s 7, but there’s a lot of other stuff going on in there. New characters, new takes on older characters as they face different situations. Kaldor City was something more than a pastiche of old glories, it was trying to do something different. It was a Magic Bullet – it had a surface coating of Blake’s 7 and The Robots of Death, but the core of it was something else. If I had just done a series without the Blake’s 7 and Doctor Who trappings, then no-one would have bought it. But working within that coating allowed me to say a lot of things and do a lot of things that I wanted to say and do.

You have to sell some CDs or you’re not going to be able to fund the project. If you’re going to do a six-part series, you effectively have to ensure it sells, because it costs thousands and thousands of pounds to produce. If Coming to Dust had just sold two hundred copies there wouldn’t have been any more Faction Paradox CDs after that one, because the finance wouldn’t have been there to do it. So it has to sell.

CD: Between that statement and the work that you’ve done you’ve provided the most compelling argument I’m aware of in the audio drama field for the vitality of working creatively within that coating, as you describe it. On the other hand, I think you would agree that what you do is quite different from taking the safest route: producing work as close as possible to what came before. To really emulate the original shows and their plot lines to the point where you could slot them into a preceding TV season. I’ve never watched Blake’s 7 so I can’t speak to that. But my impression of what you do is that you always push these concepts and characters into new territory, and you inject a literate, intellectual component that isn’t always there in the original source material.

AS: I’m not sure how true that is. Chris Boucher once told me that anyone who tells you they’ve come up with a completely original idea is either a liar, or insane, and probably both. If you look at an episode of anything, you can crack it back to something else. And if you forensically take most stories apart, you can often find some interesting ideas within them. They may not have been consciously put in by the author, but they’re there, and part of the process of analyzing a story is to find those elements and bring them out.

Also, it’s a case of seeing what a writer’s done, how the audience reacted to it, and working with that. For example, one of the things that annoyed the hell out of me concerning Blake’s 7 was the treatment of Avon by certain fans. Yes, there was this setup within the series where the audience frequently didn’t know whether he was doing something for selfish, or for altruistic reasons, but generally, and Paul Darrow, the guy who played him, says this, Avon was a bastard. In fact such a bastard, he shot and killed Blake, the show’s title character. Even the programme’s producers have described Avon as a psycho. And yet, often you’d find articles by people trying to justify his more extreme acts. “Oh well, he may have killed Blake, but Blake should have explained himself more clearly.” So when Iago appeared, also played by Paul Darrow, I didn’t want to fall into the same trap, and so really tried to push the character as far as I could, to make his actions appear shocking. There’s a scene in Hidden Persuaders where Iago tells Blayes that he can get her out of this dangerous situation, but first the hostages will have to be dealt with, as they can identify who she is. He then goes over and shoots them. And they are terrified, and he’s clearly getting a kick out of it.

Download audio file (Kaldor_Clip_9.mp3)

Now, you can understand that sort of behaviour, but you can’t excuse it. Some people say, “I don’t believe Iago is Avon, because Avon wouldn’t do things like that.” Well, I don’t care whether you believe he’s Avon or not, but what I certainly don’t want you doing is looking for excuses to justify murderous and sociopathic behaviour. So when you’re writing, you’re thinking “What did the writers/producers originally intend, where, if at all, did it go wrong, what was the audience reaction, and, if it did go wrong, how can I avoid falling into a similar pit?”

Another idea I like very much is having an authority figure come along and say, “this and that has happened”, where, in fact, no such thing has happened at all. In Occam’s Razor, Carnell comes up with a self serving motivation to explain the Firstmaster killings, but in reality, nobody really knows why Iago went off and killed all those people. And it’s the same for the Shakespearean Iago, why the hell did he behave that way? There are a number of motivations assigned to him in Othello, and he even assigns some to himself, but we don’t really know why he did what he did. Maybe the character didn’t even know himself.

Download audio file (Kaldor_City_Clip_10.mp3)

(Iago tests the limits of Landerchild’s grasp of reality in this philosophical clip from The Prisoner, a short Kaldor City play included on MJTV’s The Actor Speaks 4: Paul Darrow.)

People are very susceptible to being told what to think by authority figures, and that such and such is the current state of affairs, where in fact the real situation is most probably completely different. For instance, I’ve read a number of reviews of Taren Capel, where it’s been stated that, “in this episode Iago discovered that the Tarenists were trying to get hold of a special trigger phrase to activate the killer robots”. But in actual fact, Iago made that up. The trigger phrase existed, but the Tarenists didn’t know anything about it. Iago’s primary intention was to discredit Carnell and get him killed, and he was willing to say anything to achieve that. And yet, because Iago is an ‘authority figure,’ and he has a deep voice and he says all of this, and Uvanov, another ‘authority figure,’ believes him, people think, “well, then it must be true”. But I don’t think it’s true. In fact, I know it isn’t true. I bloody wrote it!

So in Kaldor City there are competing narratives and everything is subverted. A lot of the things you are told are completely wrong. Some of the things Carnell said were lies. And Iago by definition is a liar. Paullus was deluded, and Uvanov was a paranoid, who had various ideas and conspiracies in his mind that were just plain fantasy. They were the architects of their own destruction, because they failed to comprehend what was going on around them, preferring instead to just carry on fighting their own personal and petty little wars. So as with the real world, in Kaldor City we have people who are deluded, people who are fantasists, people who are just plain liars, and people who, for their own various reasons, want to believe them.

CD: Oh, absolutely. The need to believe invented premises, I feel, has been the American story under Bush.

AS: There was an unfortunate coincidence, when Occam’s Razor came out; it had been recorded in 2000, but was released in early September 2001, and the first review I read of it tied 9/11 to a scene where a flyer crashed into a building. There was no way I knew that was going to happen – it was written perhaps seventeen or eighteen months before those events took place. And yet, because I was fishing in the same pool, because we were dealing with terrorism and fanaticism, the story strangely started to mirror things that were happening in real life. It’s weird that, isn’t it? If you think like a terrorist … I think Alan Moore was exploring this in V for Vendetta, when he had this guy, who was trying to get into the mindset of V, taking the same drugs V had been forced to take, and wandering around the same camp where V had been experimented on, so he would start to think like him, and would perhaps know what he was going to do next. It was quite shocking when I realized, “Good grief, we are fishing in the same pool as Bin Laden.”

As for George Bush, there are again parallels with Kaldor City in that people have plans, but these plans usually go horribly wrong. I’m sure in Bush’s head there were a number of very good reasons for invading Iraq, but he’s never going to tell us what they were and the result was a terrible disaster. In Kaldor City, Uvanov would have a plan, and Carnell would have a plan, and Landerchild would have a plan, and in fact everyone would have a plan, and you don’t even know what all the plans were, and then they’d all go horribly wrong. So what you ended up with was a mass of mistakes and errors caused through stupidity and misunderstanding, with no one knowing what the hell was going to happen next. And that’s what life is. Life’s frequently like that for me. I think: “What the hell was that about? Why did I do that?”

Download audio file (Kaldor_City_Clip_11.mp3)

(Uvanov watches his plans, power, and understanding go up in smoke as the ineluctably calm Carnell pursues a cryptic game of chess in this clip from Kaldor City Story Four: Taren Capel.)

CD: (Laughs) That sounds like a sane approach to life… Are there other audio dramatists working today that you particularly admire?

AS: I think Rob Shearman is a very good writer. I think he’s an excellent writer.

CD: I would agree with that.

AS: And Daniel O’Mahony of course, and Jim Smith, and there are also several others I could name. Paul Dale Smith is a very clever chap, and Lawrence Miles is an excellent writer as well. I don’t often agree with Lawrence Miles, I’ve had several arguments with him, but never over his scripts.

CD: You’ve touched on this in your comments already, but could you sum up the state of your business?

AS: I’ve been told by other audio producers that there is a limited shelf life to their products. They produce a story, it comes out, and then after a few months it stops selling and they never sell any more. But I’ve never had that with Kaldor City, or Faction Paradox. They’ve sold solidly. Occam’s Razor came out in 2001 and I’m still selling it.

CD: Is that due to advertising or word of mouth?

AS: It must be word of mouth. Since Doctor Who’s come back it’s very difficult to get advertising anywhere in the Doctor Who media. They’re too busy reviewing the latest Cyberman-Voice-Changer-Helmet to find room for anything else. But it doesn’t seem to make any difference. I think the CDs sells because they’re good, and people recognize that. I’ve certainly been sent some lovely emails over the years, which is all very encouraging. I was expecting a drop in sales when Doctor Who came back on TV, but as Kaldor City and Faction Paradox are clearly spin-offs, then I suppose you have to be in a spin-off frame of mind anyway to buy them, so the return of Doctor Who hasn’t knocked our sales at all. They’ve all sold very well. In fact sales have gone up. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s my Faustian pact. I have this pact with Satan. He’s the one working on my sales promotion at the moment.

CD: I hope you made your Faustian pact in the tradition of Goethe rather than Marlowe. You know he gets off the hook in Goethe’s version?

AS: That’s right. He gets off the hook through the love of a good woman. I prefer bad women, myself. That’s probably why I’m doing Faction Paradox.

CD: Alan, thanks for talking with me today.

AS: A pleasure.

Today I present part one of the Malleus interview with Alan Stevens of Magic Bullet, audio dramatist, writer, and producer of the Kaldor City and The True History of Faction Paradox audio drama serials. In this installment, Stevens discusses what drew him to audio drama and how Magic Bullet came to be, why he recast the Faction Paradox audio dramas, and what makes sound designer Alistair Lock a genius. Alan has an engaging wit and an interesting approach, and the article is embedded with sound clips from both the Kaldor City and The True History of Faction Paradox serials that illustrate why Magic Bullet is a force to be reckoned with in the British audio drama scene. Don’t pass this one by. 

(You can go directly to Magic Bullet’s website by clicking on their logo above. Further sound clips from The True History of Faction Paradox can be found in my overview of the series here. Part 2 of the interview can be found here.)

CD: How did Magic Bullet get started?

AS: It got started because I had an idea for an audio series loosely based on a film called Yojimbo. It was by Akira Kurosawa, and it was about this Samurai who had gone into a town and had set about playing two powerful families off against one another as a way to make a lot of money. It was remade by Sergio Leone into a Western called A Fistful of Dollars, with Clint Eastwood, and again into Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis but this time set in the 1930′s. And I thought, it worked as a Japanese samurai medieval film and it worked as a cowboy film and as a 30′s gangster flick, so I had this idea of an unnamed character, probably played by Paul Darrow, coming into a town or city and playing one side off against another. I had already done some not-for-profit Blake’s 7 audios, a drama-documentary called Travis: The Final Act and two plays, The Mark of Kane, and The Logic of Empire, with sound designer Alistair Lock, and Logic had starred Paul Darrow as Avon, so you can see the connections coming together; in fact a lot of the people who later appeared in Kaldor City originally worked with me on those audios.

Download audio file (kaldor_clip_1.mp3)

(Avon sets course for a fateful rendezvous with Blake in this excerpt from The Logic of Empire.)

At the same time that I was thinking about this, Chris Boucher released a Doctor Who book called Corpse Marker, which, as well as being a sequel to his 1977 Doctor Who story The Robots of Death, was also a Blake’s 7 / Doctor Who crossover, because Carnell from Blake’s 7 appeared in Kaldor City, where the story was set. So I called up Chris Boucher, and I said to him, would you be interested in doing a (audio drama) CD series called Kaldor City? And he said, “What’s your idea?” And I told him about the Yojimbo scenario, and he said “You go away and write a script, and if I like it we’ll proceed from there.”

Also at this time, Jim Smith had held a drunken conversation with Paul Ebbs from BBV about the possibility of doing an audio series with them, and he seemed to think BBV would be willing to do it, so I went away and wrote this script with Jim and came back to Chris, and he liked the script. But when we got back to BBV with the script and the cast we wanted, they weren’t too interested; I think they thought it would be too expensive. Big Finish then showed some interest, but eventually I thought, “why don’t I just do it myself?” So I set up my own company called Magic Bullet. The name Magic Bullet came about because my Blake’s 7 audios used to feature a variation of the Season 4 Blake’s 7 logo, which is a crosshairs, on the spines.

CD: So you weren’t just trying to profit from an American tragedy, then? (laughs)

AS: Well, as Kaldor City’s all about conspiracies, then that also kind of fits. So Kaldor City was a six-part series, and as I was coming towards the end of it, Lawrence Miles sent me an email saying “would you be interested in taking up Faction Paradox, because BBV don’t want to do it anymore?”  They’d produced six CDs beforehand. I’d heard of Faction Paradox, but I hadn’t ever read any of the books or listened to any of the audios. So I borrowed the audios from Daniel O’Mahoney, who I was working with at the time on the last Kaldor City, Storm Mine, and the books from my girlfriend Fiona Moore, and thought, I could work with this. So I got back to Lawrence and said “I’ll do Faction under the Magic Bullet label!”

Download audio file (01_-_Occams_Razor_Track_1.mp3)

(The opening track of Kaldor City 1: Occam’s Razor. Iago’s arrival, terse and sharp like the character himself, leads directly into the theme.)

CD: Before we proceed with Faction I want to talk a little bit more about Kaldor City. Small start-up companies usually begin with less ambitious, less expensive casts, less experienced sound designers, and even when they can afford top-quality people they usually have more kinks to work out learning the art of writing for audio. Occam’s Razor, the first Kaldor City release, was an extremely polished and professional work right off the bat, with a first rate cast, a tight script, a kicking theme tune, and one of Britain’s best sound designers in the person of Alistair Lock. To be blunt, how did you do it?

AS: Part of it was luck. I met Alistair Lock in 1986, and we’d worked together on Travis: The Final Act, The Mark of Kane, and The Logic of Empire, so obviously when I decided to do Occam’s Razor he was the first person I went to. I had the template of Yojimbo and Chris Boucher’s Corpse Marker book, so I knew the actors I needed to cast, and I already had casting connections from the three Blake’s 7 audios I’d done before. I knew Paul Darrow and got on with him, Trevor Cooper was in The Logic of Empire as well, and Brian Croucher and Peter Miles were in The Mark of Kane. I contacted Russell Hunter through a friend of mine who knew him, and I’d met Russell Hunter myself in 1990 at a convention. Carnell, played by Scott Fredericks in the Blake’s 7 episode Weapon, was difficult to track down, as he now lives in Ireland! I eventually got in touch with him through BBC Residuals, who kindly forwarded on to him a script and accompanying letter- thinking back, it was ridiculous, really, as I’d written a script with Carnell in before I’d even contacted the actor. It would have been a terrible mess if he’d decided not to do it! But he got back to me, “Yeah, sure, I love playing Carnell!” and he rang me up and was a very nice guy indeed. 

When you write a script, you write with specific actors in mind. I wrote Iago specifically for Paul Darrow, however, there were a few other people I had in mind if he couldn’t do it. One of them was Alexis Kanner from The Prisoner, I thought he was a fabulous actor. Though interestingly, in retrospect, I think Alexis Kanner wouldn’t have been a good choice because he was a bit too similar, vocally, to Scott Fredericks. But Paul Darrow agreed to do it full-stop, so I was quite lucky on cast.

I think the reason I had a good idea of how to write a script for radio was down to me being a big fan of Blake’s 7 when it came out, and I used to tape record the stories off the screen. This was before I got a video recorder. And because British television couldn’t afford splashy effects, it relied on plot and character and good dialogue, so effectively it did translate very well to audio. Especially if you’d watched the episode and then immediately listened to it, because then what was going on was cemented into your brain. Whereas, I remember there was one episode that I’d missed on first viewing, but my father taped it for me, called Power. Since I hadn’t seen it, I couldn’t always tell what was going on from the audio tape, so I think it kind of taught me unconsciously that certain kinds of visual information have to be communicated otherwise in audio.

And also, doing Travis: The Final Act was a great help. That effectively was going through Blake’s 7 and picking out the character Travis and how he developed and how he worked, and you would find very, very clever infodumps. There was a great scene in Star One where Servalan effectively tells the plot of what’s been happening up to that point to Durkim to refresh the audience. And it was so cleverly, so brilliantly done by Chris Boucher that you don’t realize it’s a huge infodump. So doing Travis: The Final Act really taught me how to write.

CD: How many scripts had you written before Occam’s Razor?

AS: Travis: The Final Act in a way was a script, because I had to amalgamate all these interviews and segues into a documentary. But the first drama I wrote was The Mark of Kane. So Occam’s Razor was my third proper dramatic script. 

CD: Big Finish productions recruit a lot of their script writers from people who work in other media – novels, for example. Some of them take to writing for audio right away, and some of them don’t.

AS: There’s an art to writing audio, as with writing for all media. I don’t know if I could write a novel. I’ve done guidebooks. I’ve written guidebooks to Blake’s 7 and The Prisoner with Fiona Moore, and we’re working on one for Battlestar Galactica now. 

CD: Did you learn to analyze stories through this fascination and hobby of yours, or were you pursuing this academically in college or graduate school?

AS: Not academically. If I’m interested in something I will move Heaven and Earth. If I really, really want to do something, then I will do it. If I’m not interested, you can’t make me. I didn’t learn to read until I was about nine years old. I was a late developer. The reason I learned to read was I discovered they were doing Doctor Who stories as novels. Doctor Who stories I’d never seen with Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell (the second and first actors to play the Doctor.) So I thought, “I like Doctor Who on T.V. and I want to know what these stories are about, so I will learn to read.” So I think if you’re really interested in something you can really push yourself and do it. 

I have an H.N.C. (Higher National Certificate) in radio production, but that came after. I was doing the Mark of Kane and I thought perhaps I should do a course, so I went on the course and I was doing more than they expected or the course required. So the qualification came after, it didn’t come before.

As for the reviewing, you’ve got to understand what a story’s about, so by reviewing an episode of Blake’s 7 or whatever, by deconstructing someone else’s work, you can actually see how it goes together and then hopefully do your own thing.

CD: I certainly understand what you mean by being motivated by passion. Let’s shift gears and talk about Faction Paradox. Could you give a brief description of Faction Paradox, and describe what the Magic Bullet Faction Paradox audios have to offer?

AS: Faction Paradox came about because Lawrence Miles wrote some Doctor Who novels for Virgin Books and the BBC, featuring them as characters. They’re a kind of time-travelling voodoo cult who cause a lot of trouble by creating paradoxes. At the start, they lived in the Eleven-Day Empire, the eleven days left over when England went on the Gregorian calendar. So it shouldn’t really exist, but it does exist, because they’re in there. It’s a paradox. It’s conceptually absurd, but it’s funny. Lawrence then spun it off into, among other things, an audio series for BBV where Faction gets wiped out by the Sontarans who are working with a character called Lolita. Two of the Faction survive: one of them’s called Justine, the other is Eliza. They go off and have loads of adventures. And in the series that I’m dealing with, they’re involved with the Egyptian god Sutekh, who appeared in the Doctor Who story, Pyramids of Mars.

(The enigmatic Sutekh, lurking in the shadows as only he can.)

CD: Sutekh is another name for the Egyptian god Set, correct?

AS: That’s right. If you do a completely original show, it won’t sell. Because people think, “What’s this? I’m not going to take a chance on this.” And even if it has got actors from Doctor Who it won’t really sell, because people think, “Well I want Sarah Sutton playing Nyssa, not Sarah Sutton playing Cathy, or whatever.” And so with Kaldor City I got Scott Fredericks back to play Carnell, and Russell Hunter to play Uvanov, and I sweated blood to get back Taren Capel himself, David Bailie. He’d actually given up acting and had only started up again just a few months before I contacted him, which was enormous luck. 

So I said, “What sort of hook have we got on this Faction?” And Lawrence said, “I’ve got an idea of bringing in Sutekh.” I said, “I’m glad you said that, because I actually know Gabriel Woolf, who played Sutekh in Pyramids of Mars.” So I contacted Gabriel and asked him, and he said, “Yeah, I’ll come back as Sutekh.”

Download audio file (13_Track_13.mp3)

(Sutekh takes vengeance on the followers of his brother, Osiris, in this excerpt from The True History of Faction Paradox vol. 4: Words from Nine Divinities.)

So a lot of it takes place with the Egyptian gods: Upuat, Anubis, Horus, and Sutekh, and it’s jolly fun. It’s political – Lawrence Miles really does think through his plots. He really, really knows his series – he’s a very coherent plotter. 

CD: The Osirians and the Egyptian mythology that Magic Bullet’s series brought in is a bit of a shift in emphasis from the earlier BBV releases. BBV would bring in Doctor Who related concepts and monsters – the Sontarans, the Peking Homunculi, the prison world patterned after Shada – for one chapter each. (Two CDs constituted a single unified chapter of the BBV releases.) Lawrence Miles is obviously more invested in the Egyptian mythology now, with Sutekh in particular becoming a major ongoing character for 6 CDs. Was this consciously decided to give the Magic Bullet audios a new identity?

AS: Lawrence Miles said to me that he’d always wanted to write a science fiction series based on the Egyptian pantheon since he’d been a kid. I think he saw Faction as a way of doing it. So he had an idea of doing a six-part series with Sutekh, and the various Faction characters also representing figures from Egyptian myth.

There were some changes from the BBV series. I didn’t use Nigel Fairs, who had originally produced the Faction audios. I have nothing against Nigel Fairs, it’s just that A: I didn’t know him, B: He was off to do Sapphire and Steel for Big Finish, and C: I had worked with Alistair Lock, and I couldn’t very well then turn to Alistair and say, “I’ll just go use Nigel.” Especially as we did the first two Factions back-to-back with the last Kaldor City, so it would have been quite expensive, not to say confusing, to have Nigel Fairs there with Alistair Lock: “You’re directing this bit, and you’re directing that.” Ridiculous.

The reason I recast the Faction audios was because if I wasn’t using Nigel, I didn’t feel that I could then poach his actors. We all have certain groups of actors we use again and again, and I observe that a number of the people who have appeared in the original Faction have appeared in Sapphire and Steel and other things Nigel’s done before and since. And also I wasn’t really very happy with this accent that the actress playing Justine had adopted. Because when I was asked to produce the show I went back and read the books, and Justine was this upper-class Victorian girl. And so I didn’t quite understand why she was talking with this Lancastrian accent. Lawrence Miles also wasn’t keen on it. He didn’t really have any involvement with the original CDs – he’d just send a script out and didn’t hear back until he got the CD. So there was a general feeling that the accent was wrong. So even if I did get the original actress back, I’d be saying “could you please change your performance?” So I just recast them. And some fans didn’t like it, but tough. (Laughs)

Truthfully, the last thing I wanted to do was annoy the Faction Paradox fans by recasting the entire series. I thought the best thing to do was minimalize the recasting as much as I could, and in fact I asked Lawrence if we could do the new audios with a completely new set of characters. But he said, “No. Justine and Eliza are going to be in it.” So we compromised, and left out a lot of the characters from the original BBV series, like Lord Sandwich and the transsexual French swordsman, swordswoman, whatever, but kept in Justine, Eliza and Lolita.

CD: In your FAQ, answering this question, you said you wanted to play to Magic Bullet’s strengths and style. What do you feel these are?

AS: One film I was very impressed with was Pulp Fiction, which effectively was a pulp gangster movie with some European art film snuck into it. I like that juxtaposition, and again, Blake’s 7 was also a kind of pulp show, but with some intelligent ideas behind it. I like action-adventure, but thoughtfully done and well worked out. I also like good dialogue and strong characters, and I think that’s what Kaldor City has, and it was these elements that also attracted me to Lawrence Miles’ work. 

Download audio file (Kaldor_Clip_3.mp3)

(In this audio clip from Occam’s Razor,Kaston Iago informs Stenton Rull that he is “not a patient man”.) 

And I also like a six-part story where you have time introduced into a show. For example, although The Caves of Androzani is one of the best Doctor Who adventures ever made, at the end of the story, Peri has all these terrible weeping sores on her legs. And the next episode they’ve all gone and she might as well not have been dragged through caves by a deformed maniac while suffering from spectrox toxemia. Because the reset button has been pressed. I’m never a big fan of the reset button. So I think after story one, story two has to reflect what has happened in story one, and the characters have to reflect that as well. The BBV series had self-contained two part releases, whereas our series is a six-part story, and characters come and characters go, but the ripples of what has happened run strongly through it all. Does this make sense?

CD: Yes, it does.

AS: You explain it to me then, so I can find out what I’m talking about.

CD: Generally I would say you have an affection (which I share) for the pulp serial, but mature ones in which the characters evolve over time. There’s some extraordinary examples of this in current German audio drama, Gabriel Burns being a notable example. I think in a way it’s generational. You have children who were brought up in the 1970s on these British TV shows or German audio tape dramas or American comic books, and now those children have grown up and still want to follow those stories and characters, or those types of characters, but on a more sophisticated level. 

AS: I think that the reason British TV in the 60s and 70s had strong characterization and strong plotting and clever writing was because they didn’t have a lot of money to spend on elaborate effects, and so that’s the kind of stuff that appeals to me. A 50 minute T.V. script is about 5,000 words long. A 50 minute radio script is about 11 to 12,000 words long. Because you can’t do chase sequences very well on audio, you have to fill up the space with talk. So it fits in perfectly with what I like – I like strong characterisation, good dramatic dialogue and intriguing plots, so audio is perfect for me, because that’s all you can really do on it. There’s a scene in Kaldor City: Checkmate where Blayes goes back and has a shoot-out with Iago. If I’d been doing that as a T.V. production, or a film, I would have done it as a huge Scarface-style shoot-out, with security forces storming the house and Iago fighting them off with automatic weapons and all that stuff, but that wouldn’t transfer to audio. It’s a good idea not to have more than two or three characters in a scene, because it can be very confusing for the audience. You’ve got to be more intimate and clever when you’re writing for audio.

CD: For me the purest example of this from your work is a small piece, Kaldor City: The Prisoner, featuring Iago and Landerchild that you did for MJTV’s The Actor Speaks 4: Paul Darrow. It’s just a philosophical discussion, and it’s carried entirely through the dialogue and the actors’ intensity and it’s absolutely compelling. But basically it’s two people talking in a room.

Download audio file (Kaldor_Clip_2.mp3)

(The Actor Speaks vol. 4: Paul Darrow, featuring an original short Kaldor City play, The Prisoner, by Alan Stevens. Click the image above to visit the MJTV website.)

AS: Yeah, I said to Mark, “How many actors have I got?” And he said, “Well, two.”

CD: (Laughs)

AS: Of course, there was a lot of stuff in the news at the time about the Abu Ghraib interrogations, so I thought I’d explore that. But also, in the Chris Boucher Doctor Who story,Image of the Fendahl, there’s some quite interesting stuff in there about how we all know the world is round, but in the old days they believed it was flat and they acted as if it was. I remember there was an old lady I saw years and years ago, and she was losing it a bit, and she was convinced that there was a well outside in the garden. And there was no well there, but the people who were looking after her told me there was a well back in 1937. Do you see what I’m getting at?

CD: Yes, interesting. These things have a conceptual life.

AS: That’s right. So I was basically extrapolating from Image of the Fendahl and The Robots of Death when I wrote The Prisoner. And also I had to fill up 20 minutes. (laughs)

CD: Were you able to record the casts ensemble?

AS: In Faction, from episodes three onwards, the actress who plays Justine and the actress who plays Eliza don’t meet. They were recorded several weeks apart. It’s only through Alastair’s skill as an editor that they appear to be in the same room talking to one another. Also, Chris Tranchell never appeared with any of the characters he talks to, he was recorded separately in a different studio. Neither did Peter Halliday. 

CD: Were the Kaldor episodes also recorded like this?

AS: Well, it varies. For instance, Russell Hunter was available on the same days as Scott Fredericks in Occam’s Razor and in Death’s Head, but Paul Darrow was not. But when Russell came back for the next three, Scott Fredericks wasn’t available on the same days he was available, but Paul Darrow was. So in the first two stories, Russell Hunter was in the same studio reacting back for all the scenes he does with Scott Fredericks, but not with Paul Darrow, and for the next three, it was the opposite. 

Download audio file (Kaldor_City_Clip_6.mp3)

(Paul Darrow (Iago) and Russell Hunter (Uvanov) recorded together. This scene is from from Kaldor City vol. 3: Hidden Persuaders.)

Download audio file (Kaldor_clip_replacement.mp3)

(Paul Darrow (Iago) and Russell Hunter (Uvanov) recorded separately and mixed together later by Alistair Lock. This scene is from Kaldor City vol. 2: Death’s Head.)

The fact is you’re following a script, and there’s only a certain way you can do most lines, plus, you have to have good stage directions, so you don’t have someone whispering “we’ve got to go over there, now” and his companion saying “OK MATE, I’ll FOLLOW YOU!” You’ve got to make sure that the stage directions are clear and you know what you’re doing. But as long as you direct it right, you can tie it all up together. And also, another good thing about audio is that if you have a performance which is poor you can cut it right out. There were a couple performances in the past where someone’s come in and done something and I’ve just thought, “that wasn’t very good at all”, and we just snipped them out and replaced them with another actor. In fact, if you have an actor and he does two or three takes, you can take a line from the first take and put it with another line from the second take, and then can carry on with the rest of the third take. Apparently on another production Alistair was working on, an actress mispronounced a word. And he and William Johnston were able to edit it so that she pronounced it correctly. Alistair himself pronounced a “sh” noise and when it was edited in it just sounded perfect. There’s a lot of great stuff you can do with audio.

CD: It surprises me that you recorded Kaldor in this way, because you had really wonderful chemistry between the actors, and yet they weren’t actually in the same room all the time.

AS: It’s scripts, you see. If an actor knows the character they’re playing, and they’re directed as to what the previous person said or how they said it, then there’s only a particular way you can say a certain line. For example, on one day we got Brian Croucher and Trevor Cooper together, and we recorded all of their lines for three CDs, with me reading in the lines for the missing actors. It’s always a good idea to do CDs back-to-back, you see, it saves a lot of money. Occam’s Razor and Death’s Head were done back-to-back, and Hidden Persuaders, Taren Capel, and Checkmate were all done back-to-back. So on one day we’d record all the scenes involving one set of actors, and on the next, another set of actors. Also, you never do any recordings in scene order, it’s just too time-consuming. It’s not unusual, Big Finish do the same thing as well.

CD: Yes, I know.

AS: Although to be honest, I think they nicked the idea off me (laughs). But it’s very very helpful, because to get all of those actors in the studio on the same day is a logistical nightmare. It really frees stuff up, because you can have someone come in next Tuesday and do it, as opposed to having to be there on the day Philip Madoc is there. Because they’re actors who are working all the time, you’d be very lucky to get them all available on the same day. Alistair Lock is a genius really, a lot of artistry goes into it.

CD: I’ve long been impressed with his work.

AS: I’ve got a good ear for edits. When I listen to other productions, I can often hear if a breath has been edited or cut short. But I can’t hear edits in Alistair Lock’s stuff – it’s seamless, his partner William Johnston does a brilliant job on the dialogue edits. And Alistair’s very very careful about levels, meticulously goes through them and makes sure everything is balanced. He sweats blood literally over it. I’m enormously lucky to have just met him by chance in Cardiff in 1986. 

CD: There’s a richness to the soundscapes he does. They have a kind of aural texture and density that is often lacking in the work of other designers. Two different moments that impressed me were the scene with the sun god Ra, a living Sun inside the Ship of a Billion Years, where he somehow communicates the sun’s immensity and ambient power. In Kaldor City, I was always struck by how carefully he constructed the explosion of the company central building in Taren Capel. People often use a single large “boom!” to represent a building exploding, but that isn’t usually how it happens – different parts give out at different moments, setting off other areas in a series of smaller bangs that crescendo.

Download audio file (23_Kaldor_City_Clip_7.mp3)

Getting back to the Faction, you keep saying Magic Bullet’s Faction Paradox line is a six-part Faction Paradox series. Are more planned after that?

AS: It’s written as a six-part series, there are currently no plans to continue it beyond that.

CD: So the two you’re releasing this year are the finale?

AS: Yeah. Retailers told me when I ended Kaldor, “you’re insane, why don’t you do more?”  And I replied, “well, it’s a six-part series and now it’s finished. There isn’t any more to say.” In fact, people sent scripts in for Kaldor City 7; Fiona and I even wrote Kaldor City 7 ourselves, and then threw it away, because it just proved to us that the show had come to a natural end with Storm Mine.

There’s this good film called Candyman by Clive Barker. It was a hit, and so the studio insisted on doing a sequel. There should never have been a Candyman 2.

CD: (Laughs)

AS: There was even a Candyman 3, and someone on the internet was saying, “Please, God, no more!” I think every story has its course to run, and if you continue beyond its natural end, it will become just a vague, hollow shell of itself. In the last episode of Blake’s 7 there was a huge great shoot-out and they were all killed, and that was it. As much as people protested and asked for the show to come back, it never did, and I think that was absolutely the right decision, because effectively the programme had run its course. And as far as I’m concerned, the Faction storyline concerning the Egyptian gods will have run its course by episode six. 

CD: Ever since the first release, the Eleven-Day Empire by BBV, this has been the story of Eliza and Justine. Justine in particular seems to be the Joan-of-Arc heroine who ties it all together. Is this the end of their story as well, or will it continue in other media?

AS: I can’t tell you that because it would spoil the end.

CD: (Laughs) Fair enough. Is this the end then of Magic Bullet, or do you have other productions in mind?

AS: I have no idea. Magic Bullet was formed to do this six-part Kaldor City series. And Faction Paradox came about simply because BBV no longer produce audios, and Lawrence contacted me. So if within the next nine or ten months someone comes along and says, “Hey, I’ve got this really good idea for a series!” and I look at it and think, “Yeah, okay, I’ll go with that”, then that’s what I’ll be doing next. 

Lots of people approach me for series. But I only do what I want to do. I’m not in it for the money; if a series breaks even, I’m happy. Sometimes you’ve got an itch and you need to scratch it. It may cause me a great deal of effort and stress, but I have to do it. And that was Kaldor City. And the Faction series, I was really taken with it and wanted to go with it. And Lawrence himself really, really wanted to do this. I think the audience appreciates that. I think they can tell when something’s done with a lot of love, really. Lawrence certainly writes these scripts with a great deal of love and I think that comes over.

Next time: In part two of this interview, Stevens talks frankly about the commercial imperatives and creative opportunities of working with licensed properties, comments on the similarities and differences between Paul Darrow’s Avon and Iago, and explains why you should never trust authority figures. 

This week I’m pleased to post my interview with Nigel Fairs, who cast, directed, composed and mixed the Faction Paradox Protocols published by BBV. Many know Nigel from his work on the Sapphire and Steel and Tomorrow People audio drama serials from Big Finish productions. In this interview Nigel gives a good-humored, at times surprisingly frank account of his work on the first Faction Paradox audio series. You can learn more about Nigel Fairs at his website.

How did you get into audio drama in the first place?

NF: I’ve been making audio drama since I was about 5 or 6. The very first one I made was called ‘The Green Ghost’ and starred me, my grandmother and my teddy bear (which I voiced). When I was about 11 I started bullying my school-friends into making ‘radio serials’ (some sci fi, some kitchen sink dramas) – two of these poor friends (Linda and Chris) ended up being in the FPs – and carried on making those whilst I was at drama school. When I was a full-time actor I was asked to be involved with the Audio Visuals company (run by Bill Baggs and Gary Russell) which is how I met them, and worked with them professionally later.

Do you listen to audio drama as a pastime as well as a vocation? Are there creators in the field whose work you find particularly inspiring or challenging?

NF: I always have Radio 4 on, yes, so I do hear the odd play and am an avid fan of ‘The Archers’. I’ve had to stop the car on occasions because a scene has reduced me to tears. There was a particularly vivid rape scene a few years back which I think is probably one of the most disturbing pieces of audio drama I’ve ever heard. In my teens I loved listening to a late night adventure serial, I forget what it was called but it started with a gunshot. And later on there was a wonderful fantasy serial called ‘Hordes of the Things’ which I think starred Frank Middlemass (?) and had a magnificent theme tune.

How did the Faction Paradox Protocols series come to be at BBV, and how did you come to be involved?

NF: I’ve no idea how they appeared at BBV I’m afraid – you’ll have to ask Bill that – but, having edited audio drama for about 25 years by then I was keen to do some for Bill and he gave me ‘Faction Paradox’ as an “audition” of sorts. To be honest I had no idea what they were about, really – I’m not a huge sci fi fan and I had NO IDEA they were all about the Time Lords etc (though of course I recognised the Sontarans and tried to do an impersonation of the brilliant actor who played Lynx for the first two). But I thought they were well-written and quirky audio dramas. Sadly the first couple overran and Bill decided we should cut quite a lot of my favourite sections (all of which are on cd somewhere); mostly character monologues which gave them a bit of style, made them stand out I think. But he was the producer and it was his choice, quite rightly, to push the story on.

You wore many hats for the BBV Faction Paradox protocols, directing, casting, acting, composing music, and doing sound design. While this may have been a budgetary necessity, it also gave you carte blanche to put your stamp on the Faction Paradox universe. What was your vision for the series?

NF: To be honest, it wasn’t my vision at all, that was the scriptwriter’s. I used to get the scripts and try to make them good pieces of audio drama. And yes, the budgets were tiny, so that’s why I got to do all the work once Bill and the writer had finished the scripting process!!

Do you have a favorite “hat“? Do you think of yourself primarily as an actor, director, writer, composer, etc?

NF: That’s an interesting question. I think I probably think of myself as a creative person who can turn his hand to all of those things. When I’m doing any particular job I tend to give 100% to it, whichever hat I’m wearing…which can be exhausting, particularly if you’re also cooking lunch for the cast at the same time!

Let‘s take a closer look at your many roles:

Sound design: Lawrence Miles gave you highly visual ideas to convey with sound. How did you decide what a talking tattoo would sound like, or a lethal shadow-weapon? Can you describe how you created the iconic sound of the “sombras que corta“ (shadows that cut), the Faction‘s trademark armament?

NF: Oh crumbs. At the time I was doing FP, I had VERY limited equipment and effects, so I was literally hitting things and twiddling knobs and seeing what they sounded like! The shadow weapons were me bashing an oven tray and a frying pan together and then putting a reverse echo on it!!!! As for the talking tattoo, was that in one of the later ones, the one set on a prison planet? I think that was just me turning the treble up to make the voice sound tinny and small!! The scripts were very very filmic, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. I thought the best thing about them was the character interaction and the overall character storylines. But that interests me more than monsters and space battles anyway!

Music: You also composed the Faction theme music, a witchy mix of harpsichord and calliope. What inspired this sombre-yet-playful tune? It underwent a few iterations over the course of the series, ranging from soft-rock to a later dirge rendition. What occasioned the changes?

NF: I changed the theme because nobody liked the original version!! I think Lawrence thought it sounded too jolly, which, on reflection, is quite right. I think, because of the quirky nature of the monologues and Ellis Pike’s character (Morloch?) in the first episodes, I thought it was meant to be a ‘Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy’-style thing. I mean all that stuff with the swearing witch woman and the Sontarans and the Servalan-type character was all a bit camp!! Of course I later understood that it was meant to be darker than that and tried to change the music accordingly.

My favourite score was for the last two. It was all based round a piece of classical music that was written in the year the flashback (to Justine’s childhood) was set. I remember a bit I was really pleased with when the girls were romping in the fields at the beginning. And also another cue at the end – by then I’d understood that the whole thing was meant to be a sweeping epic and intended to slowly take the style and scores into more filmic territory (like I eventually tried to do with ‘The Tomorrow People’).

Casting: I have the impression that BBV budgets for casting were limited, as casts were small and there were fewer “big-name” stars relative to similar productions from Big Finish and Magic Bullet. However, the casting for the series was effective, with engaging leads and solid performances from even minor characters such as mad King George (Eric MacLennan) and Mary Culver (Jackie Skarvellis). Did you hold auditions for the roles, or were the casts of the Protocols drawn from actors you had worked with before?

NF: There was hardly any casting budget at all. I had to rope in friends I’d worked with in the theatre, promising them that though the money was rubbish I’d cook them a nice lunch and we’d have a drink afterwards! Eric had been my assistant director when I ran a youth theatre in Kent and Jackie had done two or three of my plays in the Brighton Festival. She’s bonkers, a real eccentric lady. I did hold some auditions alongside a theatre play I was casting, which was how I found Suzanne, whom I’ve worked with many times since, and Emma. Both of whom are adorable, and were very enthusiastic about the whole project, though neither of them could pronounce ‘Sontaran’.

On a personal note, I was particularly taken with Ellis Pike‘s performance as Godfather Morlock and Suzanne Proctor‘s as Justine. Any news of what these actors are doing now?

NF: I directed Suzanne in a theatre production about a terrorist suspect last year. She’s fantastic. I think she’s just done some telly and is expecting her second baby sometime soon. She also sings in a brilliant trio. Ellis I haven’t seen for a while, though I know he does quite a bit of theatre. I’m told he also plays the Prince Regent sometimes at Brighton Pavilion! I originally worked with him in the actors’ company at MOMI back in the early nineties.

Direction: This may be more of a compliment than a question, but in reading Lawrence Miles‘s character notes in the scripts, I was struck by how closely the actors realized the nuances of their roles. For example, Miles wrote of the Demetra Kine character from Movers:

Demetra Kine. The villainess of the piece, although she’s not a villain in the sneering, sadistic sense of the term (i.e. she’s not like Lolita from the previous Volumes). Demetra is quiet, controlled, determined and most of all professional: she comes from a culture in which assassination’s an everyday event and empire-building’s a way of life, so as a leading member of a self-made semi-aristocratic family she knows about being clinical and detached. Actually you could say she’s a lot like Michael Corleone, but in fact the closest historical parallel is probably Lucretia Borgia. She always speaks in a slow, measured fashion, and what’s most notable is that she’s always so reasonable, even when the things she’s saying seem bizarre or unacceptable. The underlying sense is that she might, if treated properly, be an ally instead of an enemy.

Kate Dyson did such a superb job that I was getting that “underlying sense“ long before I read this description. While giving Kate her due, you consistently got solid performances from your actors that were faithful to Miles‘s scripts and subtle character notes. In audio drama, with the pressures of limited studio time and often no rehearsals, what do you find effective directing comes down to?

NF: Kate is a superb actress and she was also in the terrorist play I directed last year. Always a pleasure to work with, and a fascinating lady who does a lot of work for human rights. 

Effective direction ALWAYS comes down to casting. If you cast the right person who knows how to do their job, then you’re laughing; they do it!? I always say that the most important part of the studio day is the twenty minutes at the beginning, when everyone’s sitting around having a coffee. That’s when I get to suss how each actor works and relates to each other. It’s invaluable time; my job is to put them at their ease and ensure that a professional working atmosphere is created. This applies to theatre work as well of course.

Acting: You had a few supporting, enjoyable character roles in the Protocols series: Lord Ruthven, an effete time-lord (and reference to Polidori’s Byronic vampire?), and General Kine, a bull-headed yet somehow sympathetic Sontaran officer. After the first two episodes you were largely absent from the casts until the fifth release, where you had a brief walk-on role as the unnamed Reverend. After a notable presence in the first two stories, did you deliberately recuse yourself from the casts?

NF: Not at all!! Again it was a budgetary decision. In the second and third cds there were fewer characters so we could afford to use that number of actors. In the first and last couple we couldn’t so I had to fill in!! I really enjoyed playing the Sontaran, though it was all in post production, as was Lord R. I can’t remember who read it in on the day. Suzanne probably!!

Do you have a favorite Faction Paradox Protocols release?

NF: I liked the middle two the best I think. I loved all those gambling scenes and the clockwork robot things. I think I’d settled down a bit by then and had a bit more of an idea of what I was supposed to be doing. I was pleased with the score – a lot of harpsichord I think, and a Chinesey-kind of theme for the robots. And the cast was wonderful, we laughed such a lot recording that one. Saul Jaffe and Jo Castleton in particular are terrible gigglers. My cat was in it too!!

You‘ve come a long way as an audio drama producer and director since your days at BBV. Looking back at the Faction Paradox Protocols series, what are you most proud of? What would you do differently if you could?

NF: It would have been nice to have recorded it in a proper studio rather than in my bedroom! I can’t bear to listen to them now really, as the quality of dialogue recording is so poor. But they were invaluable to me as far as experience went and I really enjoyed the scripts, I thought they were very different. I’d love to have known what happened next, and had something to do with them, but I understand Alistair Lock did a superb job, so that’s brilliant. I used him several times on ‘Sapphire and Steel’ and love his work.

Magic Bullet‘s later Faction series took a dramatically different stylistic direction. Have you heard any of them? What do you think of them?

NF: Alistair did give me the first one but I’m sorry to say I haven’t listened to it. It’s really difficult hearing someone else make a better job of something you put your heart and soul into with limited money, equipment and resources! But when I was listening to the final edit of one of Alistair’s ‘Sapphire and Steel’s he did play me an excerpt and I thought it sounded brilliant. So I’m glad it has an ongoing life.

So far you have mostly been associated with licensed properties in audio drama, such as Faction Paradox (BBV), Sapphire and Steel, the Tomorrow People, and Dr. Who (Big Finish productions). Do you have any interest in writing or producing original audio drama stories or properties? Or do you believe this is financially impractical for commercial audio drama in the UK today (as Magic Bullet producer Alan Stevens does)?

NF: Oh my goodness OF COURSE I’d rather be producing original drama!! It’s very frustrating indeed being tied to the various limitations of ‘licensed properties’. I think possibly my takes on the ‘Tomorrow People’ and ‘Sapphire and Steel’ series were a little radical for some people – straying too far from the original series for them, maybe – but my main interest lies in making good quality drama and working with talented people. It can be VERY frustrating when you’ve sweated blood and tears over these things and they get dismissed as “rubbish” by people who don’t share your vision; it really hurts, which, if I’m honest, is one of the reasons I’m stepping away from the medium at the moment. Too much pain for too little money!!

I’m working on several original projects at the moment, and also a novel, none of which are paying much, if anything, but are very, very fulfilling creatively.

Generally speaking, with the worldwide economy experiencing a downturn, do you see the British (or larger English speaking) market for commercial audio drama holding steady, growing, or shrinking?

NF: I’ve no idea I’m afraid! I know that in times of recession, ‘feel-good’ drama becomes more popular, so I’m hoping that good theatre will flourish, and good drama with it.

What‘s up next for Nigel Fairs in the world of audio drama? What would you like to do that you haven‘t yet had the opportunity to do? Any dream projects?

NF: My dream project is to write and perform in a theatre two-hander with Lou Jameson. I’ve learnt so much from her as a performer over the years. We’ve had an idea, but that won’t happen until other things have happened (that I can’t talk about!! Listen to me being all mysterious!).

I have another ambition, which is to hear a piece of music I’ve composed being played by an orchestra. If I ever win a vast amount of money I’m going to try to make that happen! But at the moment it’s a pipe dream.

As for audio, I’m enjoying doing post production on the ‘Dark Shadows’ series at the moment, particularly composing the music; it’s all very ‘Interview with a Vampire’, very atmospheric. And I’ve also enjoyed my work on the Dr Who Companion Chronicles, I wouldn’t mind doing a few more of them. 

My biggest regret is that I never got to finish the ‘Tomorrow People’ series – I had a two year story arc set up and the series got cancelled halfway through, which broke my heart. Especially as I met the creator of the original series (which I so loved as a kid) last year and he said I’d done a better job than he had!! I don’t believe it but what a compliment!!

Welcome to the Malleus critical overview of the Faction Paradox audio drama serials, The Faction Paradox Protocols (BBV) and The True History of Faction Paradox (Magic Bullet). Before we discuss the Faction’s past, let’s take a brief glimpse at its future. Courtesy of Alan Stevens and Magic Bullet, I’m honored to present the web premiere of this exclusive clip from The True History of Faction Paradox #5: Ozymandias.

Download audio file (01_Osirian_Charm.mp3)

Guided by a recurring vision and a fragment of poetry, two adventurers take the first steps onto a journey which will lead them to an alien world of nightmarish architecture, insect civilisations and strange women who are much more than they seem…

For on this planet, a tribunal is assembling– a tribunal which will decide the final contest between Horus and Sutekh, and with it, the fate not only of the Osirian Court and Faction Paradox, but of the universe itself.

Click below for more clips from the entire Faction Paradox range, and a frank look at a fascinating and uncompromising science fantasy series unlike anything you’ve heard.

BBV’s Faction Paradox Protocols and Magic Bullet’s True History of Faction Paradox are not light fare. If you’re looking for another stale George Lucas / Joseph Campbell “hero’s journey” or a reductive morality play a la Star Trek, you’d do better going to the local cinema. Let’s not mince words: as charming as they can be, neither of these famous franchises will ever produce anything nearly as smart as The Book of the War. If on the other hand you get a mental rush from fascinating ideas, lush soundscapes, and layered characters, then you are absolutely in the right place. The Faction Paradox audio drama serials published by BBV and Magic Bullet are complex, flawed, difficult, inspired, and well worth your time.

I hope this essay will be of use to Doctor Who fans, but Faction Paradox is just too provocative and too good to be confined to Who fandom any longer. Accordingly, you won’t need any foreknowledge to follow this argument, and what little foreknowledge you require to enjoy the audios I intend to provide here. Although there is some critique, this is less a review than a commentary on the two serials. It’s lengthy, so for user-friendliness I’ve divided it into three parts. Part one provides the basics: the backstory, the central characters, and important themes. Part two makes the case for why the series is worth your time, arguing that it has considerable ashe, prana, funk, chi – whatever you want to call that elusive spark of life that “commercial spin-offs” aren’t supposed to have. Part 3 looks frankly at the strengths and weaknesses of the two Faction Paradox serials. Courtesy of BBV and Magic Bullet productions, I will be illustrating my comments with audio clips from both the Protocols and True History releases.

Part one: What is Faction Paradox?

Faction Paradox is a darkly playful science fantasy universe developed by Lawrence Miles, with contributions from other authors. It currently encompasses several novels, an abortive comic book series, and two linked audio drama serials, The Faction Paradox Protocols (BBV) and its successor, The True History of Faction Paradox (Magic Bullet).

If this sounds overwhelming, don’t despair: the audio dramas are the most grounded and accessible of the Faction Paradox offerings. Rather than a tangent, the audio drama serials constitute the (more or less) linear narrative spine of Faction mythos. That narrative is driven by two capable, intelligent, and dangerous women – Cousin Eliza and Cousin Justine. We’ll return to them in a moment.

Faction Paradox writ large is about the nature of time, or rather, having intellectual fun with the nature of time. In Faction mythology a race of technologically advanced beings organized into Great Houses imposed a new temporal reality on the universe. They anchored Time itself in a lineal chain and set themselves up as its overseers. By using timeships (Tardises), the members of these Great Houses (Time Lords) could travel through time and space to anywhere and anywhen. Strict protocols were imposed to govern what, when, and where they could exert influence, so their construct of Time would not be endangered. Essentially, the Houses established themselves as temporal technocracies.

These Houses are currently embroiled in a War with an unknown Enemy, a war that takes place in and through time itself. As Miles puts it, the conflict is ultimately between “Cause” and “Effect”. The whole thing smacks more than a little of postmodern critiques of how the West constructs ideas of progress and history, only in this case those critiques have been weaponized. The Houses, pressured by the Enemy, are forced into new alliances and even genetic unions with “lesser” (non time travelling) races. Basically, the unchanging Houses are being forced by the War to adapt in ways beyond their ability to predict or control. As they say in Akira Kurosawa’s epic film Kashemuga, “the mountain has moved.”

Download audio file (Lord_Mortega_and_the_War_King_discuss_politics.mp3)

(Audio Clip: Lord Mortega and the War King, military leader of the Great Houses, discuss Lolita and the state of the War. An excerpt from The True History of Faction Paradox #3: Body Politic.)

Faction Paradox, a fallen House, is a third party. Anarchic, playful, and unpredictable, the Faction revels in violating the codes of other Houses, hence their fallen status. The War between the Great Houses and the Enemy impacts and influences the Faction’s activities, but rather than choose a side they play the powers against one another to their own advantage.

Just as the Doctor in Doctor Who or Ellegua in Yoruba mythology are trickster figures, Faction Paradox is a trickster society. (The fact that tricksters, by definition, do not belong to societies is one of the many paradoxes this series delights in.) Not surprisingly eccentrics of every stamp swell the Faction’s ranks, but Doctor Who fans should not expect a nation of Doctor clones. For one thing, the Doctor’s heroic moral code is not in much evidence, and while the Faction do help people on occasion, they do so out of self-interest. They also hurt and kill others out of self-interest. Miles substitutes a grey moral web for the Doctor Who T.V. show’s “twinkle-in-the-eye” magical optimism. (And arguably, for its “twinkle-in-the-eye” patriarchalism.) Listeners are never allowed to commit to the Faction characters carelessly or entirely.

The shadow of the Doctor does touch the Faction scripts. Unconventionally brilliant, droll, and outlandish mentor figures recur throughout the series. In the Protocols, Godfather Morlock and Mary Culver fulfill this function, while in the True History, Egyptian Gods Anubis and Upuat do. None of them have the selfless heroism or youthful brio of the Doctor, masking their nobler acts with wry humor or affected detachment. If anything, the problem is not that they resemble the Doctor too much, but rather each other.

The biggest departure from the Doctor archetype, however, are the heroines of the series. The Faction Paradox audio dramas focus on three characters: protagonists Cousin Justine and Cousin Eliza, and their enigmatic nemesis, Lolita. Lawrence Miles describes them in his character notes for The Eleven-Day Empire:

Cousin Justine. Main protagonist. Faction Paradox recruit. Young, probably early twenties. Recruited from nineteenth-century England, and it shows. Polite. Demure. Tends to be overly formal, and therefore an unusual candidate for a time-travelling voodoo cult. Probably quite uncertain about her new role in life. Nineteenth-century upringing means that she’s ashamed and embarrassed by the fact that she comes from a family of witches, even though it’s the reason the Faction’s interested in her. Actually capable of being quite aggressive, but only when she’s sure of what she’s doing. At the moment, she isn’t.

Cousin Eliza. Another twentysomething Faction recruit. Born and raised in the twentieth century, so more relaxed than Justine (but probably just as messed-up). London girl. Closer to Justine than anyone else, although that isn’t saying much. Seems to have very little faith in the Faction’s methods. Goes along with them anyway. Unwilling to risk stepping out of line, despite a noticeable cynical streak.

Lolita. Villainess. Aristocratic, but with no respect for tradition. Dangerous. Utterly amoral. Apparently in her thirties (though she’s not human, so her actual age is open to debate). Political. Manipulative. Believes herself to be superior to most other life in the universe – as it turns out, there’s a good reason for this – and regards everybody else with quiet amusement. Hard to imagine her taking anything seriously: everything she does is pre-planned, and therefore there’s never any reason for concern. Gives the impression of being “untrustworthy” rather than “slimy”. Doesn’t really care one way or another.

The conflict between these three characters centers around Lolita’s quest to extinguish Faction Paradox, and the odyssey Justine and Eliza undertake to redeem or avenge it.

What’s Lolita’s motivation? Much of the fun of Faction Paradox is putting together the pieces for yourself. However, some pieces of the plot – Lolita most of all – are arguably missing or incomplete if you have no background in Doctor Who lore. For those without that knowledge, I offer my take on Lolita below. For those who want to discover it for themselves, skip down to “SPOILERS OFF”. (And keep in mind, I may be entirely wrong.)

“SPOILERS ON”

Lolita’s goal, it seems to me, is attaining the ultimate conflation of being and time. It is never explicitly stated, but Lolita is a sentient timeship. If a Time Lord is a person who can use a timeship to travel through time, a sentient timeship that can travel through time and space of its own volition is an evolutionary advance. Not content with that, Lolita wants to take it a step further: becoming time and space, attaining complete temporal and spatial omnipresence. Becoming sentient history, if you will.

BUTE: You talk of history as if it were a thing?

LOLITA: Well, of course I do. I’m going to be one, when I grow up. Myself and all my bloodline.

- from In the Year of the Cat, The Faction Paradox Protocols IV

The fusion of genetics and time is a running theme in the Faction Paradox audio dramas, most notably in the concept of biodata. Biodata encompasses not only a person’s genetic code, but their entire historical timeline. A person with an incomplete genetic code will have potentially lethal physical deformities; a person with incomplete biodata will fade in and out of existence throughout their lifetime.

“SPOILERS OFF”

For reasons not yet given, Lolita has determined that only Faction Paradox could upset her grand ambition. Her first attack isolates and exiles Cousins Justine and Eliza, sending them on an odyssey of self-preservation, salvation, and revenge.

Justine, a young “Cousin” (low-ranking Faction initiate), is forced by Lolita’s actions to quickly evolve from foundling to Joan-of-Arc style messiah figure. These audio dramas are ultimately her story. Eliza, introduced as a foil to Justine’s mysticism, has functioned mainly as a cynical Sancho Panza / Dr. Watson commentator. She’s been our anchor in the Faction universe, providing a grounded perspective even as Justine becomes more driven and remote.

Neither Justine or Eliza are very emotive characters, but they draw you in just the same. Justine’s uncertainty and air of innocence makes her sympathetic when she first appears, while the indomitable sense of purpose she develops lends her a magnetic quality later. Eliza’s world-weary, almost slacker perspective is laced with an enjoyable mix of humor and pragmatism. Although “messiah” fits Justine pretty well, it isn’t easy to use the word “hero” to describe either her or Eliza. In fact, Justine and Eliza’s antagonists frequently display more of the raw human feeling that we associate with “goodness”.

Download audio file (09__O.K._Bring_Her_Down…_.mp3)

(Audio Clip: Eliza tortures the Malakh soldier, Jalal, to coerce information from his commander, Merytra (Isla Blair). An excerpt from The True History of Faction Paradox #2: The Ship of a Billion Years.)

Lawrence Miles has made Justine and Eliza associates of convenience rather than friends or rivals, and their emotional reserve towards others extends to their own relationship. Miles seems to prefer noncommittal ambiguity to overwrought hero/sidekick cliches. This tactic has kept Justine’s and Eliza’s ultimate roles in the saga – even their ultimate dispositions towards each other – hard to predict. It has also rendered their relationship inert, at least until very recently. Justine and Eliza’s most colorful interactions typically occur not with each other but with supporting characters. Only in the latest Magic Bullet episode, Words from Nine Divinities, has the status quo between Justine and Eliza shifted dramatically.

Part two: An artistically vital “spin-off”

Faction Paradox is time-traveling science fantasy with a dark, intellectual edge. It is also a “Doctor Who spin-off”. “Science fantasy with a dark, intellectual edge” sounds generic and the word “spin-off” carries the unfortunate (but often true) connotation that a work is aesthetically derivative and / or moribund. And this is where Faction Paradox is exceptional, making it worth my time and yours: it is uniquely, vibrantly alive.

I can defend the uniqueness of Faction Paradox, on a superficial level, in terms of simple mathematics. Miles brings at least five times as much new material to the table as he borrows from Doctor Who. To take one example, consider the sombras que corta (“the shadows that cut”), the Faction’s unique weaponry. These are living shadows, able to act independently from the bodies they are attached to. Every Faction agent’s shadow is bonded with a specific weapon, a weapon that the agent’s actual body does not carry. Thus even while physically unarmed, Faction agents can wield their shadows with lethal swiftness. This conceit is interesting enough. But Miles isn’t content to let the idea go as a simple sci-fi fetish, and through Justine in particular, takes it much further:

Download audio file (Godfather_Morlock_and_Justine_deal_with_a_bomb.mp3)

(Audio clip: Cousin Justine and Godfather Morlock attempt to defuse a Sontaran bomb in a tensely wrought moment from The Faction Paradox Protocols #1: The Eleven-Day Empire.)

There is of course a larger question at stake, in terms of Faction Paradox’s claim to genuine artistic life, than its “spin-off” relationship to Doctor Who. Namely, does it work as effective drama, or is it just more clever sci-fi claptrap? I admit it feels strange to be typing this essay so soon after Fred Greenhalgh’s wonderful interview with Crazy Dog’s Roger Gregg, whose approach and style seem almost antithetical to the notion of commercial art as art. Gregg’s work strikes me as Dionysian in the best sense, celebratory, fecund, erotic, generative and unpredictable. He brings a wild energy to his plays that, by comparison, makes the grey deadness of most commercial dramas all the more apparent. In short, Gregg seems like all you could wish for in an artist’s artist, a bacchic saxophonist.

To borrow further from Nietzsche and Paglia, Lawrence Miles’s work is in many ways textbook Apollonian: intricately plotted, classically controlled, and almost mathematically poised. Eros? There isn’t any. The only love you’ll find in the Faction Paradox audios is maternal, paternal, or platonic. And the author’s work, like (I suspect) his life, is saturated with a geek’s love of the fantastic and its eruptions in popular culture. Miles is probably less concerned with challenging the boundaries of what we consider dramatic art than he is with challenging the canon of British science fiction.

Yet the effect of Miles’s surfeit of Apollonian control is very much the domain of the Greek god of wine: intoxication. His blend of the meticulous and the phantasmagoric places Miles within the literary tradition of intellectual fantasists like Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino. Like them, Miles goes well beyond the boundaries of genre with playful explorations of the nature of time, narrative, and being. Consider the inventively absurd notions of using a “tracking knife” to slice into a corpse’s personal timeline or looking through Big Ben’s clock face to dissect a battle in progress.

Download audio file (Cousin_Eliza_and_Godfather_Morlock_discuss_the_ongoing_assault.mp3)

(Audio clip: Cousin Eliza and Godfather Morlock discuss the ongoing Sontaran attack on their home in The Faction Paradox Protocols #1: The Eleven-Day Empire.)

Miles is very much representative of what comic book writer and journalist Steven Grant calls the British school of “mad ideas,” the origins of which Grant traces to 60′s new wave science fiction. Miles’s scripts are dense with ingenious, absurdist inventions, some of which advance the plot, many of which are just there to delight and provoke the mind. This is, in my opinion, his greatest strength as a writer and the best reason to check out these audio dramas. Faction Paradox succeeds most because it is fascinating and entertaining to think about.

If I have one complaint about Miles’s scriptwriting, it is that he doesn’t unleash his wildest conceptual experiments in his audio dramas nearly as much as he does in his books. It would be fascinating, for example, to hear what “a weapon that can rewrite history” sounds like, and how it impacts the way the story is told. Miles, Stevens, and Lock certainly have the talent to pull it off. But beyond a few tantalizing moments here and there, Miles opted to keep the narrative structure of his audio dramas predominantly linear. This traditional approach certainly helps make the audio dramas accessible, and I can’t fault Miles for wanting to do that. However, in a series that is largely about questioning the nature of history and narrative it still feels like a missed opportunity. (In our upcoming interview, Alan Stevens hints that we may see this change dramatically in the final releases.)

Part 3: A Tale of Two Audio Serials

So you’re intrigued. Now comes the loaded question: where should you start? If you want the whole story, start with BBV’s The Eleven-Day Empire. But is that the best answer? Let’s look more closely at the continuities and differences between the two serials.

BBV: The Faction Paradox Protocols

The first 6 Faction Paradox audio dramas were released by BBV under the Protocols line. These plays were directed by Nigel Fairs and featured Suzanne Proctor as Cousin Justine, Emma Kilbey as Cousin Eliza, and Caroline Burns-Cook as Lolita. The episodes were released in pairs, so that every two CDs delivered a complete chapter of the ongoing story. They are:

The Eleven-Day Empire / The Shadow Play: The story of Lolita’s first attack and Justine’s rite-of-passage, set in the Faction’s home territory (the titular Eleven-Day Empire). The Sontarans, a militaristic race of clones from numerous Doctor Who episodes, are featured.

Sabbath Dei / In the Year of the Cat: Justine and Eliza visit London in 1762, becoming embroiled in court politics, the Star Chamber, the Hellfire Club, and Lolita’s more than royal ambitions. The Peking Homunculi from the Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang are featured.

Movers / A Labyrinth of Histories: Eliza attempts to rescue Justine from a prison world of the Great Houses, and Justine experiences flashbacks of her first encounter with the Faction. The prison world is very likely a take on Shada from the unfinished Tom Baker story from Doctor Who, Shada.

Each 2-cd chapter has a different historical setting, period style, and cast of supporting characters. Only Justine, Eliza, and Lolita appear in all three chapters. Each chapter also incorporates an element of Doctor Who lore to draw fans: Sontarans in the first pair, Peking Homunculi in the second, and a thinly-veiled Shada in the third. The Protocols were discontinued prematurely in 2004 when BBV shelved its entire audio drama line.

The BBV productions were diamonds in the rough. The scripts were written to Miles’s usual high standard, with innovative concepts, dry wit, and an epic scope. Nigel Fairs, who cast, directed, and scored the dramas, threw himself into his work. With a few minor exceptions, the cast was strong and gave inspired performances.

Why then diamonds “in the rough”? Fairs was working with limited means, which had audible consequences for the series. Since his budget did not allow for casting established stars, Fairs drew primarily on emerging talents. Budget pressure also kept casts small and necessitated double-casting.

That said, good casting doesn’t require stars, it requires the right people in the right roles. With few exceptions, that’s what Fairs got. I want to make special mention of Suzanne Proctor and Emma Kilbey, who originated the roles of Cousin Justine and Cousin Eliza. Proctor played both sides of Justine’s personality – the self-doubting acolyte and the driven messiah – with grit and intelligence. More than anyone else, it was Proctor’s performance that first riveted me to the series and kept me coming back. Some have contested the appropriateness of Proctor’s accent (a beautiful Lancastrian lilt) to the role of a 19th century witch. As an American, I confess I have no idea of how fitting Proctor’s accent was for the role. What I can say is that both Proctor’s voice and accent carried a bewitching folk flavor that really suited Justine. I have to confess I was completely smitten. I’m happily married to my soulmate, a Thai woman from exotic New Jersey. But in my next life, let me wed a Lancastrian.

Download audio file (05_Eliza_meets_the_Faction_for_the_first_time.mp3)

(Audio clip: Eliza encounters Godfather Morlock and Faction Paradox for the first time while on a youthful ramble with her friend in rural England. An excerpt from The Faction Paradox Protocols #5: Movers.)

Emma Kilbey arguably had the harder task in bringing Eliza to life. A “straight man” supporting character whose primary role is to provide the listeners a foothold in a strange world, Eliza’s narrative purpose often threatens to overwhelm her dramatic potential. Kilbey avoided this by leavening Eliza’s scripted cynicism with savvy and world-weary gravitas.

Download audio file (02_Playing_For_Time.mp3)

(Audio clip: Eliza matches wits with the enigmatic Sabbath over a game of tarot cards. An excerpt from The Faction Paradox Protocols #3: Sabbath Dei.)

Other noteworthy performances included Ellis Pike as the meticulous, grandfatherly Godfather Morlock, an actor and a role that were pivotal in launching the audio dramas and contributed greatly to their arcane yet humous tone. I was very sorry to see both the actor and the role vanish from the series. Jackie Skarvellis is a hoot as Mary Culver, a saucy mix of extra-dimensional power, prophet, and salt-of-the-earth prostitute. And Kate Dyson’s calm, calculating Demetra Kein is a genuine antagonist to be reckoned with. The actor who surprised me most, however, was Saul Jaffe as Sabbath. Given the character’s enigmatic and imposing name, I was expecting an actor more along the lines of a Magic Bullet star: Gabriel Woolf or Philip Madoc, say; someone with an imposing, cultured, and deep voice. Jaffe’s voice is pitched high and youthful, but he gives Sabbath a thoughtful cunning that leaves you with little doubt as to who is the smartest man in the room. I began a doubter, but was completely won over by the end. A pleasant surprise, and another character I’m sorry to say has not been retained into the Magic Bullet run.

The roles I was least taken with were the double-cast ones. In the interest of full disclosure, while I recognize double-casting is often a financial necessity, as a listener I loathe it. In my experience, very few actors can disguise their voices to the point that they are unrecognizable. And unless you are doing comedy, where knowing the different voices are coming from one actor is part of the joke (a la many a Firesign Theatre or Monty Python sketch), it can really destroy the fourth wall. Emma Kilbey was called upon to voice both Eliza and Godmother Quelch in the first two BBV releases, which she carried off brilliantly on both counts. She was less successful playing Eliza’s aged Aunt Fiora in the last two BBV plays. For whatever reason, young women voicing old women, whether on the radio, T.V., or in the movies, never convince me. Having Linda Bartram play so many supporting roles with cartoonish dispositions (Shuncucker, the Lady / Annabel) also made the Faction Paradox universe seem that much smaller.

As the director / musician / sound designer, Nigel Fairs did more than anyone else to give the first Faction Paradox audios their distinctive sound. As a director, Fairs got rock solid performances from his players, keeping them closely in tune with Miles’s character descriptions. Fairs did play up the farcical elements of the first two BBV releases, The Eleven-Day Empire and The Shadow Play, more broadly than he would in the sequels. The reasons behind this will be detailed in my upcoming interview with Fairs, but the change in tone that followed was welcome.

As a musician, Fairs provided Faction Paradox with its most memorable theme, a haunting calliope / harpsichord melody that captures the series’ dark carnival feel. It too underwent some significant changes over the course of BBV’s 6 releases. I would agree with general opinion that the first soft-rock iteration wasn’t successful, but the somber dirge in the final two episodes remains, for me, the definitive Faction anthem. I like Alistair Lock’s theme for the Magic Bullet series, which calls up vistas of desert wasteland under alien skies. But as good as it is, Lock’s intro / outro music could just as easily be used for an episode of Stargate, or any other Egyptian-tinged sci-fi epic. There’s nothing particularly “Faction Paradox” specific about it, whereas Fairs’s witchy tune couldn’t be used for anything else.

Fairs’s sound work on this series isn’t flawless. Proctor and Kilbey overload their microphones while screaming in an Eleven Day Empire sequence. Lolita’s infant child sounds like a canned sound effect, since the same baby crying track is looped for every appearance. A woman says “Oh” in a background murmur loop from Sabbath Dei so loudly and regularly that anticipation of it becomes a form of Chinese water torture. Generally speaking, Fairs’s scenes never achieve the layered aural richness that gave Alistair Lock’s later work on the series such epic sweep. But as Frog-mouth said in ZBS productions’ Ruby 3, sometimes “low tech does the job”. What Fairs’s sound work lacked in polish it made up for in inspiration, and I mean that sincerely. His shadow weapon sound effects, created by reversing clanging kitchen pans, have more visceral bite than Lock’s synth versions. (Alan Stevens has since written to inform me that Lock’s shadow weapons effects are derived from the sound of a whip-crack.) His jangling Peking Homunculi, stirring like broken clockwork, are hilarious and eerie.

Download audio file (07_Verbal_Jousting.mp3)

(Audio clip: Justine uses her shadow weapon to dismantle a self-effacing yet self-assured Peking Homunculus that is doing its level best to kill her. An excerpt from The Faction Paradox Protocols #3: Sabbath Dei.)

Rough-hewn it may be, but Nigel Fairs’s sound work has real character, and in this respect it sometimes surpasses Lock’s. It is largely due to Fairs’s hard work and smart innovations that the Faction Paradox Protocols, for all their rough edges, still sound so compelling.

BBV’s Faction Paradox Protocols are not the slickest or most lavish productions. But there’s an undeniable spark to them, and while their delivery is a bit patchwork, their content is always effective and enjoyable. My recommendation would be not to skip them.

Magic Bullet: The True History of Faction Paradox

In 2004, Magic Bullet released their first entry in The True History of Faction Paradox, Coming to Dust. And there was great rejoicing. It hadn’t been at all clear that the audio dramas would continue in any form after BBV ceased production. I actually considered the possibility that Big Finish or Magic Bullet could pick up the series, and even suggested it on the old Outpost Gallifrey message boards. I never expected it to happen, though. We owe Alan Stevens a debt of thanks for taking a chance on the property and giving it a second life.

Although it followed on from the events of the first series and kept the Protocol’s “two CDs per chapter” format, the True History series was set up to stand on its own. So far the following chapters have been released:

Coming to Dust / The Ship of a Billion Years: British occultists summon Justine and Eliza to the Naples of 1763 to investigate a demonic Ape being exhibited there. They are soon swept up in a search for Faction Paradox genetic banks and into a confrontation with the Osirian court, a race of space-faring Egyptian gods. In the shadows, Sutekh (Set) is ready to strike . . .

Body Politic / Words from Nine Divinites: Sutekh claims the ship of Ra with disastrous consequences, Lolita expands her powerbase among the Great Houses, and Eliza lives the myth of Set and Osiris.

Ozymandias / ????: The forthcoming conclusion to the series, which Alan Stevens promises will be apocalyptic.

Whereas the Protocols were open-ended until cancellation, the True History is scripted to be a finite 6 CD series. As such it is less episodic in nature than the Protocols were, with its overarching villains and themes (Sutekh, Egyptian mythology, resurrection) remaining stable over the course of the 6 CDs rather than shifting every 2. Essentially the Magic Bullet series has taken an “Osirian turn”, with the space-faring race of Egyptian gods assuming an important ongoing role. If you are familiar with the classic myth of Set’s murder of his brother Osiris, you are in for a retelling like none you’ve heard before.

Download audio file (08__The_Door_Is_Opening…_.mp3)

(Audio Clip: Sutekh lays claim to what is rightfully his in The True History of Faction Paradox #2: The Ship of a Billion Years.)

The change of production house had significant consequences for the Faction Paradox audios. The most obvious one was the recasting of Justine (Wanda Opalinska), Eliza (Jane Lesley), and Lolita (Jet Tattersall), and the scuttling of nearly all other recurring characters from the BBV run. The reasons behind the recasting will be addressed by Alan Stevens in our upcoming interview. Here the point is qualitative – how did recasting impact the listener’s experience?

Hearing a new voice take on a familiar role always takes getting used to. There are two ways a director can approach the problem. 1. Cast people who sound as close as possible to the originals or 2. cast people who sound different, but capture the spirit of the character in their own way. To my mind, there is only one right answer to the problem. As Brandon Routh discovered in the ill-fated Superman Returns, portraying Superman in the manner of Christopher Reeve doesn’t recreate Reeve’s Superman or pay homage to it: it results in a not-quite Reeve’s Superman. (Routh am Reeve Bizarro!) As French philosopher Gilles Deleuze would say, “make maps, not tracings”, or create, don’t imitate. If the new actors playing Justine, Eliza, and Lolita were to succeed, they would have to do so on their own merit. Fortunately for us Alan Stevens recognized this, and he didn’t cast sound-alikes.

Wanda Opalinska brings a new level of steely poise to Justine. An actress with the uncanny ability to convey stature through her voice, Opalinska does full justice to the harder persona Justine has evolved into. She convinces from the moment you first hear her. Download audio file (08_Eliza_is_summoned.mp3)

(Audio clip: Cousin Justine, summoned by the Society of Sigismondo di Rimini, makes her debut in the True History of Faction Paradox #1: Coming to Dust.)

Given her later entry into the series, Opalinska does not have the opportunity to portray the younger, less assured Justine that Proctor originated. Justine has evolved beyond that phase, having already adopted the mantle of avenging angel. This is hardly Opalinska’s fault, but the fact remains that the older Justine just isn’t as accessible as her younger self. Despite Opalinska’s strong performance, I would find it difficult to care quite so much for Justine if I hadn’t heard Proctor portray her beginnings. Those who come into the True History without knowledge of The Eleven-Day Empire will also be at a loss to understand the source or meaning of Justine’s strange powers.

Where Opalinska quickly made Justine her own, Jane Lesley as Eliza grew on me more slowy. In Coming to Dust she lost the world-weariness that enriched Kilbey’s performance of the character, becoming more quippy sidekick than laconic narrative foil. In The Ship of a Billion Years, however, she enriched her portrayal of Eliza with some nice emotional nuance, after tragedy rendered the character more empathetic than she’d ever been. It wasn’t easy to go from Kilbey to Lesley, but now that I have, I do like where Lesley is taking the role.

Of the three characters, Jet Tattersall’s Lolita sounds and acts most like the original version (Caroline Burns-Cooke’s). Tattersall’s delivery is less arch and more lambent than Cooke’s, and so unaffected that any similarity of interpretation should be put down to synchronicity rather than mimicry. To be perfectly frank, I found her performance even more natural than the original actor’s. Only the most anal-retentive will be put-off by this particular recasting; others may not even notice it.

The move from BBV to Magic Bullet also resulted in noticeable qualitative changes. To get down to brass tacks, it’s evident that the True History worked with a larger budget than the Protocols. Alan Stevens of Magic Bullet was in a position to hire a larger cast bolstered by many veterans of British sci-fi television. This lead to a number of memorable performances, particularly from actors with commanding baritones. Gabriel Woolf reprises his role as Sutekh from the Doctor Who classic, Pyramids of Mars, and his voice drips with all the old sibilant menace. Philip Madoc, another Who veteran, does a fine turn as the War King, a decadent schemer and tactician who finds himself out of his depth. Isla Blair (Ellainya / Merytra) gives an impassioned, surprisingly empathetic performance as the half-demonic leader of the ape-like Malakh. Peter Halliday’s Anubis effectively blends whimsy, scientific curiosity, and quiet dignity with a Jackal’s head. Julian Glover makes Upuat the Oscar Wilde of Egyptian mythology: gossipy, vain, fashionable, and witty. Peter Miles . . . but you get the idea. There’s really an embarrassment of riches here. None of these stars reinvent themselves, all playing character types they mastered long ago. But that mastery is very much in evidence. And if you don’t know these actors by name yet, you will realize why they are stars when you hear them.

One name I didn’t recognize but want to make special mention of is Patricia Merrick as Astarte Marne. This is a small role, defined by quiet defiance and fierce maternal longing. But although Astarte never so much as raises her voice, Merrick gives her an emotional weight even the gods of the series don’t possess. Performances like these impress on me all over again the care with which Magic Bullet puts their casts together.

It’s true that not every supporting role is outstanding. Francesco Calabretta’s (Don Escuro) frantic attempt at ethnic comic relief falls flat in Coming to Dust, and Chris Tranchell (Mortega), though gifted with a classically handsome voice, sounds more like a classically handsome BBC news announcer than a Time Lord in Body Politic and Words from Nine Divinities. Tranchell’s neutral baritone makes me feel like the play will be interrupted for a breaking story every time Mortega makes an appearance. But these are, I admit, minor quibbles.

Magic Bullet also brought greater sophistication to sound design in their Faction Paradox audios. Or rather, they brought in Alistair Lock, which is pretty much the same thing. Lock is one of the most accomplished sound designers ever to work in British commercial audio drama, and he is much beloved by connoisseurs for his early work at Big Finish. The phrase “cinema for the ears” gets abused quite a lot, but in terms of Alistair Lock’s work the term is apt. Lock brought a level of craftsmanship, nuance, and a sense of epic scale to the series that it hadn’t previously witnessed. When Lock conjures up a miniature sun at the heart of a spaceship, or has the winds of the desert force open the gates of the gods, you believe it. My favorite sound effect to spring from Lock’s mind, however, was the Royal telepathic speech of the Osirian court. Authoritative divine gibberish that flies past your ears like a dense stream of code, the effect is surprising when it hits you and weirdly credible.

Download audio file (05__Dont_You_Think_Cat-Heads_Are_So_Passe__.mp3)

(Audio Clip: Justine and Upuat attend the royal court of the Osirians in The True History of Faction Paradox #2: The Ship of a Billion Years.)

The result of Lock’s work is that the stakes seem higher, the scope broader, the threats more credible, and the tale more vivid than ever before. There is a majesty and richness to what Lock does that is hard to match.

In conclusion, you can certainly enjoy the True History, with its distinctive Egyptian stylings, impressive cast, and technical excellence, all on its own. It is the most impressive iteration of Faction Paradox on audio, and for pure professionalism I can recommend it without reservation. But I do have a weakness for the Protocols. The BBV releases are rougher, but what they lack in polish they make up for with imagination and verve.

Of course, this is a false problem. There is no reason to choose one series over the other. I strongly advise you to treat your ears and your mind to both.

Next week: An interview with Nigel Fairs, director / actor / sound designer / composer for the BBV Faction Paradox Protocols audio dramas.

Download audio file (01_Scene_One.mp3)

Audio track 1 from The Faction Paradox Protocols: The Eleven-Day Empire (the first episode of the first series) appears courtesy of Bill Baggs of BBV media, copyright 2001. Click the CD cover to go directly to the BBV website.

Download audio file (01_Chapter_One.mp3)

Audio Track 1 from The True History of Faction Paradox: Coming to Dust (the first episode of the second series) appears courtesy of Alan Stevens of Magic Bullet, copyright 2005. Click the CD cover to go directly to the Magic Bullet website.

How to introduce Faction Paradox?

On the one hand it’s best to discover and unravel its mysteries yourself, on the other without some knowledge of its parent series, Dr. Who, you are at a disadvantage – one that a short field guide could easily remedy. Neither approach is entirely sufficient, so why not have both?

Today’s post is for the Romantics, detectives, and explorers. I’m reprinting Lawrence Miles’s “Faction Paradox – As Much as It’s Known”, an introduction which captures the cryptic poetry and subversive humor of the series. I’m also putting up the first tracks from each of the audio drama lines, BBV’s The Faction Paradox Protocols and Magic Bullet’s The True History of Faction Paradox. No context or backstory today – just let the opening lines engulf and enchant you the way only beginnings can, as in Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler.

Next week I’ll post a rough guide for the practically-minded. It will lay out some basic history of the series, highlight important themes, characters, and concepts, and comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the audio dramas. You can think of it as a thread leading you through Miles’s lexical labyrinth. Or if you’re not a fan of Theseus, you can think of it as a crude form of cheating.

(I will, however, try not to spoil major plot elements of the series.)

Later weeks will feature interviews with Nigel Fairs, director / composer / sound designer / actor for BBV’s The Faction Paradox Protocols, and Alan Stevens of Magic Bullet, producer of The True History of Faction Paradox.

Finally, a brief primer on Dr. Who audio drama spin-offs can be found in last week’s post.

Now read on for series author Lawrence Miles’s introductory essay:

Faction Paradox, as Much as It’s Known

(Series introduction by Lawrence Miles, originally posted on the now-defunct Faction Paradox website, factionparadox.co.uk. Don’t link there – the domain has been taken by spammers.)

Reprinted with permission.

Primer for the Spiral Politic (Post-War Edition)

1: Faction Paradox

Era: Non-specific

Technology: Post-linear (subtle), time-active

It’s never easy, explaining Faction Paradox in a single line. It’s been described as a criminal syndicate, with agents operating in every civilisation from the first to the last; as an all-purpose guerrilla organisation, intent on overthrowing the order of history-in-general rather than any specific government; as a fetishistic death-cult, whose members remain utterly unaware of its founder’s true intentions; as a secret army, preparing for the day when it can launch a mass crusade against any other bloodline that stands in its way; even as a conspiracy of monsters, whose purpose is to stir up a War in Heaven and then pick over the ruins. And none of these descriptions are entirely untrue, although all of them fall short of the mark.

If the aims of this group/ cult/ organisation are vague, then at least its roots are well-known. The Faction started life as the bastard offspring of one of the Great Houses – the Houses being those aristocratic bloodlines which have, since long before the rise of the “lesser” species, seen it as their duty to oversee the structure of causality – and in human terms even describing the Houses is a challenge. To call the members of these bloodlines “another race” or “another species” seems to miss the point, somehow: the continuum has depended on their presence for so long that thinking of them as “just a different kind of people” is like thinking of gravity and entropy as different kinds of people. More than anything, the Great Houses have to be considered a force of nature, their roots intertwined with the roots of the Spiral Politic itself. And as for Faction Paradox- reviled and rejected by the other Houses, its members regarded as subhuman by beings who already regard humanity as beneath contempt, it’s hardly surprising that the “lesser” species should have such trouble trying to make sense its methods and principles.

Even before the outbreak of the ‘War in Heaven’, Faction Paradox was regarded as the most unpredictable (and opportunistic) of the time-active powers. Aware of the precarious nature of history – but under no obligation to protect it – while the other Great Houses were still attempting to uphold a ‘universal order’, the Faction was following its own, far more ambiguous, protocols. Ruthless, secretive and at times difficult to understand, it’s hardly surprising that the Faction should have eventually found itself under siege from its rival powers…In essence, though, this is how things stand. The Great Houses consider themselves to have jurisdiction over the length of linear time, to be above the “lesser” species in virtually every respect and to act according to age-old protocols which have very little to do with any human sense of morality. At its most basic level, Faction Paradox is the “fallen angel” among Houses, a cuckoo-bloodline whose purpose is to defy, corrupt and subvert the authority of the ruling elite wherever possible. So depending on whom you believe, this corruption is either a bold revolutionary statement or merely a way for the elders of the Faction to fulfil their own ambitions. Certainly, it’s undeniable that among the “lesser” species the Faction has a tendency to recruit the criminal, the dispossessed and even the insane- and has no qualms about this at all.

How much of the Faction’s work is actually meaningful, and how much of it is sheer posturing, remains unclear. The Great Houses believe themselves to be immortal: therefore the Faction surrounds itself with overblown death-imagery, dressing itself up in blood and bone in a manner that’s almost carnival-like, and all just to spite its opponents. The Great Houses believe themselves to be set above all other civilisations: therefore the Faction recruits its new members from the “lesser” species, committing the ultimate sacrilege by granting them equal status with the offspring of the pure bloodlines. The Great Houses believe themselves duty-bound to keep history neat, clean and linear: therefore the Faction aims to throw the whole of the continuum into a state of paradox.

Sometimes it seems as though the Faction’s simply playing a game, or perpetrating an enormous practical joke against the will of the Houses. Sometimes it seems as though the organisation’s just biding its time while its builds up its forces, ready for the day when it can launch its grand assault against the Houses and overthrow the protocols forever. The truth, if there is any, remains vague- and vagueness has always been the Faction’s area of expertise.

8 out of 10

A literate literary patricide.

Written by Joe Hill

Read by Stephen Lang

Published by HarperAudio, February 13, 2007

9 CDs, 11 hours and 6 minutes.

Availability: in print.

Language: English

“Hell is talk radio – and family.”

Joe Hill’s debut novel Heart-Shaped Box is accomplished, polished, and hauntingly familiar. Although a malevolent ghost stalks the hero, a more powerful shade looms over the author: his father, Stephen King. I approached Heart-Shaped Box with sympathetic curiosity: how do you forge your own path when you’re the son of the world’s most famous horror writer’ Well, you might try and write something King wouldn’t or couldn’t, like a comic book (Hill has) or an academic work of history (hasn’t). (Hey Joe, I don’t think King ever wrote an original audio drama . . .)

Or if you’re Joe Hill, you could stare down the master of the Dark Tower and beat him at his own game. You might even do it with a story about rebellion against powerful, over-reaching fathers. Perhaps Joe Hill deserves to have his work critiqued without reference to his father’s oeuvre; perhaps he doesn’t. I’ll leave that question to others wiser than me. For better or worse, this longstanding King reader can’t ignore the connection. Guess that means I’m haunted too.

Heart-Shaped Box relates the tale of one Judas Coyne, an aging, jaded heavy-metal rock star. Coyne is an appealingly gruff misanthrope. He’s as contemptuous of his poor upbringing (son of a pig farmer) and his sycophantic public as Gene Simmons or Ozzy Osbourne, but not nearly as ostentatious. It’s impossible to imagine the reclusive Coyne creating a reality show about his life, because unlike those real-life rockers he’s never had a family. Childless, the once-married Coyne has gone through a succession of young goth lovers whom he refuses to call by name, labeling them by home state. The story revolves around two: current flame Georgia (Mary Beth), and Florida (Anna), who committed suicide after a break-up with Coyne.

Like a raven with a disinterested interest in glittering trash, Coyne keeps a collection of macabre items as trappings for his Heavy Metal nest. He owns the skull of a medieval peasant, trepanned to release the demons inside, the signed confession of a witch, and a snuff film, among other things. The story opens when Coyne’s assistant Danny brings his attention to an online auction for a ghost embodied in an old suit. Intrigued and compelled, Coyne orders it on the spot. The suit arrives – you guessed it – in a black heart-shaped box. It is soon revealed that the ghost is quite real, and that Coyne’s purchase was part of a diabolic revenge plot involving his deceased lover. Now he and his friends are stalked by the spirit of Anna’s grandfather Craddock McDermott, a former soldier, hypnotist, and dowser who mesmerizes with his glittering razor.

Stephen Lang reads Hill’s words at a measured pace with gray baritone gravitas. He gives Jude a dead seriousness and terse growl that mask the rocker’s conflicted affection for others, and invests his supernatural opponent Craddock with a Southern lilt that glides from courtly to craven. Craddock is so well realized in all his moods and cadences that the audio springs to life whenever he manifests. Lang’s female characters are sometimes interchangeable, but read with an empathetic conviction that makes you forget you’re listening to a low-voiced man. As a narrator Lang supplies the frankness Hill’s economic text requires, leavening it with a hint of foreboding. Between them, Hill and Lang paint a landscape that is overcast, introspective, and raw.

There is much of Hill’s father in the text. True, Randall Flagg doesn’t flit through these pages, Craddock doesn’t have hands without lines on the palms, and familiar King catch phrases like ‘you don’t get to win’ and ‘that’s not in the script’ are mercifully absent. But the Southern villain does strongly recall the politely murderous, implacable John Shooter of King’s Secret Window, Secret Garden, scribbles over the eyes are kissing cousins to palms without lines, rock and roll references abound, and evil once again boils down to inexplicable meanness for its own sake. In King stories, the most frightening motive is not to have one, and here too we never really find out what drives McDermott to his crimes. Most significantly but hardest to describe, Hill’s style of wrapping personal with actual demons betrays his bloodline.

The similarities between father and son are so strong it sometimes feels like King might have written this book. That is, on his best day. The young Hill is a better wordsmith and craftsman than his veteran father. Much better. King seems to write novels on the fly, burning up pages with feverish imagination, letting tales take him where they will. This often gives his novels a freshness, as if both reader and writer are discovering the story for the first time. But spur-of-the-moment invention doesn’t always lead to great resolutions, and King’s endings fail spectacularly as often as they succeed, trailing a welter of unresolved plot points behind them. (Ever read Gerald’s Game or The Tommyknockers, or even the finale of Dark Tower‘ Don’t. Hell, even King himself advises you not to read the final pages of Dark Tower.)

Hill writes with deliberation and poetic economy, wasting nothing. There is not a phrase or idea in this book that doesn’t serve his larger narrative purpose. This makes for a tighter read than Hill’s more prolific father usually provides. It also gives his characters more substance and weight. Many of King’s characters never shed the taint of stereotype – even his most famous creation, Roland Deschain, is more idea than person. Hill begins with stereotypes (disaffected aging rockstar, overeager flunky, lost and depressed goth girl) and builds genuine people upon their foundation.

Finally, Hill has that rare gift of putting subtle sensations into words that you wouldn’t think could be articulated. He surprises you, as great authors like Italo Calvino or Herman Melville do, by aptly describing things we’ve all felt or thought but never thought about. Hill is no Calvino or Melville yet, but the gift is surely there. Here too, he has already surpassed King.

Hill’s debut novel may well have been his own heart-shaped gift to his father. It carries a poison promise: I can do your craft, your genre, and even your own style better than you. But sons become fathers, and Hill should take care that this box doesn’t become his own coffin. (‘Heart-Shaped Coffin’ was Kurt Cobain’s original title for the Nirvana song that gives this book its name.) He has revealed by doing that King’s style is a formula that can be learned and mastered. Done once and done well, that is a fascinating achievement. Done again and again, it will make Hill rich. But like all successful formulas, it comes at a price: confinement.

I’d like to think that Hill has laid his father’s shade to rest by invoking its voice so eloquently. In his next novel, I hope Hill will find his own.

9 out of 10

An audio drama adaptation of Bram Stoker’s little-known prelude to his famous horror novel. The Good, the Bad, and the Vlad face off in one of old Germany’s forgotten valleys for the soul of a very foolish Englishman. Ironically, only the use of classical music mars Titania Medien’s otherwise classic production.

Adapted from the short story “Dracula’s Guest” by Bram Stoker, published posthumously in Dracula’s Guest and other Weird Stories in 1914.

Written by: Marc Gruppe.

Directed by: Stephen Bosenius and Marc Gruppe.

Titania Medien, 2007.

Language: German.

Availability: In print. Draculas Gast can be purchased either singly or as part of Titania’s 4 CD box set of Dracula. Amazon.de is a good source for German-speaking U.S. citizens and Canadians, since they accept credit cards and ship to the U.S.A. and Canada. (Many German sellers do not.)

Over 45 minutes.

Try before you buy: A short excerpt featuring Jonathan Harker making his colossally stupid decision to tour a spooky, abandoned town on Walpurgisnacht can be heard at the link below.
Dracula’s Gast Homepage

Es ist Walpurgisnacht! Bedenken sie! Walpurgisnacht!

It’s Walpurgis’ Night! Think about it! Walpurgis’ Night!

- Johann the coachman, to an unbelieving Jonathan Harker

I’ll be frank: I’m tired of Dracula audio dramas. There have been plenty of English and German productions already, and I’d bet my not-very-sharp canine teeth that more are on the way. Sigh. The only thing less original than adapting Dracula is reenacting, “modernizing”, or parodying Orson Welles’ one trick pony, The War of the Worlds. It’s been done, folks. Hell’s bells, even I did one for my local station back when I was a teenager. I have nothing against amateurs doing War of the Worlds riffs – I have nothing against amateurs doing whatever they want, so long as they don’t charge for it – but for professionals, it’s well past time to move on.

But Dracula’s Guest? Now this is more like it. Bram Stoker’s neglected little gem relates the story of what happened to Jonathan Harker en route to his fateful first meeting with Count Dracula. Some scholars believe this short story was supposed to be the first chapter of Stoker’s famous novel, others disagree. Titania Medien has sided with the first group, making Dracula’s Gast the opening act of its Dracula adaptation. In doing so they’ve finally given this short, atmospheric work its due.

Stopping in Munich on his way to Transylvania, Jonathan Harker (Simon Jaeger) decides to take a day off to enjoy the German countryside. Innkeeper Dellbrueck (Heinz Ostermann) nervously assents, assigning Harker his faithful coachman Johann (Christian Rode), and urging that he return before night falls. There’s a hint of snow in the air, you see. It also happens to be Walpurgisnacht, that Pagan holiday when the dead rise from their graves.

Things go well until Harker notices a charming path leading down into a picturesque valley. Enticed, Harker asks his coachman to take the detour. The affable Johann strangely refuses. When Harker presses him, the coachman tells him that the trail leads to an abandoned town. It seems the former residents fled seeking a new home where “the Living live and the Dead remain dead and not something frightfully different.”

Harker responds with a young man’s impetuousness and an Englishman’s skepticism. He dismisses Johann’s backwoods superstitions, saying he’ll tackle the valley on foot and return in his own good time. Reluctantly the coachman takes his leave, asking God and Mary to watch over Harker. Someone is indeed watching over Harker, but it isn’t God. A dark silhouette observes him from afar, and a strange white wolf tracks his every move through the valley.

Of course, things get worse from there in this cautionary tale. The weather turns, and the sky darkens with the onset of a sudden winter storm. Harker is haunted by disembodied female laughter. Seeking shelter from the cold, he makes his way into the abandoned town and is inexorably driven into the mausoleum of Countess Dolingen. Her malevolent presence teases and drives him on, and Harker seems doomed to reawaken the Countess and become her first meal. But Harker is working for an extraordinary patron, and Dracula is not one to cross.

Titania Medien has set out to create the definitive hoerspiel library of horror classics through its Gruselkabinett line, of which Dracula’s Gast is the 16th release. I’m fond of the line for its high standards and its willingness to tackle titles that are off the beaten path (like Dracula’s Gast) in addition to more well-known material. Although not every production has been stellar, Dracula’s Gast has all the hallmarks of Gruselkabinett’s strongest releases.

The casting is rock-solid, filled in the German manner with actors known and advertised by the American and British Hollywood stars they dub. The CD’s back cover tells us that the all-star cast of Dracula’s Gast features the German voices of Heath Ledger, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Christopher Lee, Michael Caine, and Scarlett Johansson. Simon Jaeger (the Heath Ledger guy) gives Jonathan Harker, a vanilla character at the best of times, the bravado and vulnerability of youth. This is really Harker’s story, saved from being a monologue only by numerous flashback scenes that detail the origin of his business trip and his relationship with Mina Murray (Tanja Geke). Everyone performs well in these supporting roles, but Juergen Thormann’s (the Michael Caine guy) Peter Hawkins was particularly memorable for the naturalness of his fatherly warmth for Harker. Joachim Hoeppner’s courtly, hard voice makes him a fine Dracula, but those wishing to hear the Count in action would be better served by Gruselkabinett’s full Dracula adaptation. The Count’s appearance in Dracula’s Gast accomplishes all it needs to, but fans are duly warned that it is brief.

If the production has one flaw, it is its use of classical music. Bosenius and Gruppe opt to use Paul Dukas’ well-known “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” as a leitmotif, weaving snatches of it throughout the drama, right up to the famous BUM BUM BUM BUM! of the finale. The supernatural aspect of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” would seem well suited to a play about vampires, and Paul Dukas is almost certainly a more accomplished composer than Titania could have hired. So why doesn’t it work?

Audio dramatists would do well to remember that music is a storytelling device, not just an atmosphere generator. This is particularly the case for works like “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, which was written as a musical adaptation of Goethe’s 1797 poem, “Der Zauberlehrling”. The true genius of “Apprentice” is how Dukas caught the spirited, macabre humor of Goethe’s poem and put it into his music. Walt Disney’s Fantasia segment with Mickey Mouse didn’t put any comedy into the “Apprentice” that wasn’t already right there in the musical notation. Quite the opposite; Mickey’s battle with the brooms works because it draws its jaunty horror straight from Dukas’ score.

Unfortunately, Goethe’s / Dukas’ humor really has no place in the humorless Dracula’s Gast. Placing the wry concluding beats of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” at the end of Stoker’s tale makes it sound as though Bosenius and Gruppe are winking at the audience, turning the macabre tale into a weird jest. Since the dark events of Dracula’s Gast immediately precede those of Dracula, a chill of foreboding would have been more appropriate. Gruppe and Bosenius didn’t overlook this problem entirely, because they used dark, synthesized tracks for the play’s more overtly sinister scenes. While this original music is aesthetically unremarkable, unlike Dukas’ famous work it fits the story Dracula’s Gast actually tells. In short, Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is musically superior but dramatically out of context.

I’m hardly the first person to say this: many German fans have complained about the jarringly inappropriate use of classical music in the Gruselkabinett line. And in all fairness, Dracula’s Gast is more successful in its implementation of classical music than other releases have been. In Titania’s Dracula adaptation, for example, the vampiric resurrection of Lucy Westenra is accompanied by Claude Debussy’s 1894 Pr?lude ? l’apr?s-midi d’un faune, which, like “Apprentice”, was based on a poem (by St?phane Mallarm?, c. 1876) with a very different theme. Although both works concern supernatural creatures and have sexual overtones, the horror of Lucy’s return fits poorly with the benign wonder of Debussy’s light reverie. Quite simply, the script and score tell different, incompatible tales. Rather than lending their dramas a patina of class, Gruselkabinett’s line-wide use of classical music feels unnecessary, distracting, and ingratiating.

Classical music aside, ultimately Dracula’s Gast succeeds on sheer atmosphere. Stoker’s tale is as much about Winter’s sudden power to transform the familiar into the foreign as it is about the undead. As such, Dracula’s Gast is genuinely “unheimlich”. This German word literally means “un-home-like” (as homes are what are most familiar to us, and most disturbing when they are rendered alien), but it is generally translated in English as “uncanny”. In the later pulp circles of Lovecraft this kind of story would be coined “the weird tale”. Dracula’s Gast may not have the same strong characterization, clever plotting, or even stark chills of Stoker’s more famous novel, but it still appeals to our terror of what is both ever-present and ever-strange: the land of the dead we coexist with every day.

Later this week (sorry for the delay): What would be an even more unlikely, uncanny audio drama adaptation than Dracula’s Gast? How about Erik Bauersfeld’s 1982 production of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis? (English)

7 out of 10

An?audio drama?adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s beat love letter to the Shadow, crusader of dimestore novels and old time radio.? If you share Kerouac?s love for the?dark corners?of boyhood fantasy, you could do worse than meander through?the alleys of Lowell?with his jazz angel, Dr. Sax.?

Mwee Hee Hee Ha Ha Ha!

Written by:? Jack Kerouac

Produced by:? Jim Sampas

Music by:? John Medeski

Illustrated by:? Richard Sala

Gallery Six, 2003

2 CDs and an illustrated screenplay in a handsomely designed fold-out box.

Availability:? Out of print, but easy to find at heavily discounted prices at the time of this writing.? Try Amazon or Abebooks.

Try before you buy:? On October 31, 2003 NPR ran a?Bob Edwards feature?on Dr. Sax that featured excerpts from the production.? You can listen to it here:? http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1486389.

Language:? English.

I’ll be dingblasted – the universe disposes of its own evil!

- Dr. Sax

The back cover of the 1994 Grove Press edition of Dr. Sax quotes?this line from a?1959 New York Times review:? “Kerouac’s peculiar genius infects every page.”? Here’s another?line from?that review they didn’t cite:? “Dr. Sax is not only bad Kerouac; it is a bad book.”??There’s a nice lesson in selective quoting.? Critics never?embraced Dr. Sax with the same enthusiasm as On the Road, dismissing it as garbled juvenalia.? But the book has its fans, including Kerouac’s nephew Jim Sampas, who discovered an unpublished screenplay version of the story and decided to publish it as an audio drama.? And why not???Deeply inspired by?the Shadow and dime-store adventures, Dr. Sax is rooted in the era and ethos of old time radio.

The story of Dr. Sax is a phantasmagoric mish-mash of syrupy childhood memoir and wild romp through pulp apocalypse.? Kerouac?s youthful alter-ego Jacky Duluoz prowls the streets of Lowell, Massachusetts as the ?Black Thief?, stealing his friends? toys and leaving?cryptic calling cards.? The enigmatic Dr. Sax skirts the boundaries of Jacky?s imagination, blessing the boy?s mischief.??After Jacky is exposed and his masquerade as the Black Thief brought to an end, Dr. Sax?steps from the shadows?to pull Jacky into his phantasmagoric realm.??It’s?a world?filled with?vampires, wizards, gnomes, and the embodiment of evil itself, the Great World Snake that sleeps beneath nearby Snake Castle.? The Wizard Faustus intends to awaken the Great World Snake from its slumber and plunge the world into darkness, and only the heroic alchemist Dr. Sax stands in his way.? Although the story veers sharply from golden childhood memoir to the end of the world, Kerouac?s jangling, rhythmic prose somehow weaves it all together.? As Kerouac writes, ?Memory and dream are intermixed in this mad universe.???So Jacky?s happy childhood is strangely haunted, and Dr. Sax?s Gothic realm is at once perilous and innocent.?

That’s not to say the story is entirely coherent.? Portions of the?tale and many of the characters seem pointless:? there is a subplot involving “Dovist reformers”, for example, that goes nowhere.??But Dr. Sax sweeps you through?the cul-de-sacs?of its?meandering plotline with?an infectious,?boyish?verve, transforming narrative?dead ends into picaresque escapades.?

At it’s best, Kerouac’s prose?channels the beginnings of philosophy through?Jacky’s young and grasping mind.? Consider?his complaint?in the face of?mortality:? “Why can’t we have another, why can’t we have some more, why do we have to go through all this?”?These half-formed thoughts from a child?run as true and deep as Hamlet’s “Alas, poor Yorick!”.

Jim Sampas? cast is unlikely, imperfect, and uniquely fitting.? Poets and musicians, many of whom knew Kerouac in life,?make up its core, supported by actors in minor roles.? Robert Hunter of the Grateful Dead performs Dr. Sax with noble gusto and a touch of humor, bellowing fractured wisdom.? He plays this more philosophical version of the Shadow to perfection and gives his ultimate failure touching humanity.? Rock musician Graham Parker and singer Kate Pierson (the B-52?s) each steal the show in all-too-short appearances as merrily sly Oscar Wilde clone Amadeus Baroque and effusively sinister Vamp Contessa, respectively.? Baroque has my favorite line from the play – and there are many, many good ones:? “Simply . . . Divine!? It’s so refreshing . . . We need any kind of revival, my dear, because you know it’s got great yoiky elements of Coney Island Christian in it . . . “? The late poet Robert Creeley?smoothes over?Kerouac’s choppy?stage directions and scene descriptions with his grandfatherly voice.? Since Creeley’s lines were intended to provide stage direction for a film?rather than be spoken as narration in an audio drama, be warned that?they take some getting used to.? Ultimately it is poet / musician Jim Carroll who breathes life into the play as Jacky Duluoz past and present, savoring the rhythm of Kerouac?s words as he rolls them off his tongue.? The swoops and dives of his riffing tie the story together and unleash its beat texture.?

You?re going to have to suffer to get to the good stuff though, as the first half of Dr. Sax showcases its weakest performances.? It isn?t easy for grown men to play young boys convincingly (contrary to popular belief in the animation industry, women don’t do it well either), and Bill Janovitz (Dicky), John Keegan (GJ), and Ellis Paul (Lousy) don?t pull it off?with their falsettos.? As difficult as it is to find decent child actors, I think Sampas made a real mistake in not casting actual children?for these roles.? And amidst the rich?hues of the children?s Lowell accents the voice of Ma, played by Kristina Wacome, has all the colorless,?sweet neutrality?of a television advertisement.? It doesn?t help that Kerouac gave?her the most insipid lines of the play.

In many ways, this production stands and falls more as a reading or ?poetry slam? than a dramatic performance.? In the accompanying screenplay Sampas writes,??To record readings and music we seldom went beyond the second or third take, and in fact used mainly first and warm-up takes for the final cut.?? Like it or not, this is fully evident.? Several players stumble through lines, seemingly encountering them for the first time.? Poet and long time Kerouac defender Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a cackling?delight as the reedy, scheming Dr. Faustus, and?his final tirade against Dr. Sax is hilarious.? But he trips over so many words that the brio of his performance is muted.? Granted, there is an argument to be made that this rough quality suits Kerouac?s improvisational style.? Listeners will have to decide for themselves whether?it works, but those expecting polished delivery?are going to?be disappointed.? Despite all the lost opportunities, however, there are moments when everything clicks and the text soars.?

Many of those moments happen when jazz musician John Medeski?s accompanying score kicks into high gear.? Whether?drumming the surging Merrimack river?into?life with a frantic trap-set or?breathing period spookiness into?a graveyard with a warbling organ, Medeski?s score plays alongside Kerouac?s words as an equal partner.? Best of all are the scenes where Medeski?s bluesy saxophone plays counterpoint to Jim Carroll?s rapping, telling its own syncopated story.? The effect is magical, like hearing two separate tales told at once that somehow jive into?simultaneous clarity.

The CDs come with Kerouac?s unabridged screenplay of Dr. Sax, lavishly illustrated by alternative comics artist Richard Sala.? Sala has an impressive body of neo-pulp Gothic graphic novels to his name, including the phantasmagoric Mad Night and The Chuckling Whatsit, both of which I highly recommend.? He?s currently working on Delphine, a creepy re-visioning of?Snow White which boasts some of his strongest work to date.? In the Dr. Sax screenplay Sala?s pen and ink drawings use Caligari angles and sly wit to bring out Kerouac?s playfully haunted sensibilities, arguably outshining the audio production.? All in all, for lovers of Kerouac or just good illustration, Sala makes the screenplay worth the price of admission all by itself.? Sala illustrated the CD box as well and did a damn fine job:? this is one of the most atmospheric, alluring?packages I’ve seen in awhile.? The curious can check out Sala’s work at www.richardsala.com.

There?s no denying the passion or intelligence producer Jim Sampas brought to this project.? Even if the final product is uneven, many of his casting, music, and design choices were frankly brilliant.? If he?d had an extra day to rehearse and record, this production would be a modern?beat classic.? As it stands, those willing to listen through the frequent incoherence of Kerouac?s baroque script and its sometimes stilted execution will start to hear the?music in it.? If you share Kerouac?s love for the shadows of boyhood fantasy, you could do worse than meander through Lowell?s alleys with his jazz angel, Dr. Sax.?

Next week:? Learn the secrets of syzygy in Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theater’s The Buoy, a frightening maritime tribute to Edgar Allen Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum.? (English)

7 out of 10

Brimming with Gothic atmosphere, Larry Brent’s first audiobook adventure is a nostalgic reminder that as good as dramatic adaptations can be, an author?s original text has a charm all its own.

Dan Shocker?s Larry Brent #1: Das Grauen schleicht durch Bonnards Haus
(Dan Shocker?s Larry Brent #1: Horror creeps through Bonnard?s House)

Written by Dan Shocker (J?rgen Grasm?ck)
(23. Januar 1940 in Hanau; ? 7. August 2007)

Read by Rainer Schmitt.
Produced by Lausch for Europa

3 CDs

Language: German

There?s something about a hero named ?Larry? that kills me. The name is so salt-of-the-earth that one of the minor characters in the movie?Pee-Wee?s Big Adventure, ?Amazing Larry?, was funny mostly because his name sounded like an oxymoron. Don?t get me wrong ? I love the Larrys in my life, including one of the sweetest and most honorable elderly men I?ve known and a college buddy with the most infectious laugh I?ve ever heard. But Larrys are sadly neglected when it comes to hero names. Well, Larrys of the world, take heart: in Germany your name is the stuff of legend.

That is, the legend of PSA secret agent Larry Brent, investigator of the paranormal. What, another German occult detective? Not another one, my friends: the first one. Dan Shocker?s (J?rgen Grasm?ck) square-jawed, laser-gun toting adventurer debuted in 1968 in Das Grauen schleicht durch Bonnards Haus, spawning a long-running series and inspiring a new horror-themed genre of German pulp publishing. This audiobook production of Das Grauen carries some historical interest then, since Larry Brent?s first adventure kicked off the occult detective trend that still defines a large segment of the German audio drama market.

What?s most unusual about the character Larry Brent in this day and age is his nationality: American (United States). German pulp writers, as a general rule, steadfastly avoid creating German heroes, generally preferring English-speaking protagonists (John Sinclair, Gabriel Burns) and exotic locales like Britain or Canada. Americans aren?t all that popular in Germany now, and it?s rare to see an American hero in a new German serial. Back in the 60?s and 70?s, though, West Germany was generally very positive about Americans (One German fellow pursued my mom for over a year with no success, poor guy) and American heroes were more prevalent in German pulps.

Larry is introduced to us as an FBI agent on vacation in France, but he never gets to enjoy the quiet charms of the Maurs district. Rumors are flying about giant bats attacking the local populace, strangely singling out those possessing blood type A. Shortly after arriving Brent discovers the corpse of one of their victims, a man whose self-destructing ring identifies him as the agent of a secret organization. His curiosity piqued, Brent investigates the horrific experiments of Dr. Canol and ultimately pursues the case to the forbidding manse of Egyptologist Dr. Bonnard. Are vampires plying their unholy trade in France, or is something even more bizarre at work?

Originally published in 1968, Das Grauen has its share of dated spy novel trappings. When else but the sixties could you get away with codenames like X-RAY-18? Nostalgia is definitely a selling point of this new audiobook series, which was made with long-time fans in mind. Europa produced 15 much-loved, bloody but very campy Larry Brent audio dramas back in the 1980s and has re-released them on CD as part of its ?R?ckkehr der Klassiker? (?Return of the Classic Writers?) line. Rainer Schmitt, the reader of this audio book, played hero Larry Brent in those productions.

Although Europa?s 1980?s audio dramas anticipated and inspired much of the contemporary work coming out of Germany, Europa itself hasn?t aged well as a producer of adult audio drama. (They still publish the popular children’s?series Die Drei ??? / The Three Investigators.)? Europa attempted to get into the newly rejuvenated adult audio drama market with two new Macabros recordings, but these were poorly produced by modern standards and weren?t well received. Wisely they?ve opted for the cheaper, less creatively demanding option of releasing Larry Brent as a series of audio books, and contracted production out to Lausch, one of Germany?s hottest young audio drama companies.

So how does it sound?

Rainer Schmitt ? considered THE voice of Larry Brent by German fans due to his audio drama portrayals of the hero back in the 80s – turns out to be a superlative reader. He breathes vibrant life into Shocker?s stock characters, giving the stolid French police chief grumbling presence and the morally conflicted Dr. Canol a delightfully anemic rasp. Schmitt has that rare ability to make you forget you?re listening to one man rather than a cast, and his versatility and verve makes this production compelling from start to finish. For this reviewer, Schmitt has become a name to watch out for.

Some German commentators have complained about Schmitt?s pacing, which is relentlessly fast. A more relaxed tempo wouldn?t hurt; it sometimes seems as though Schmitt is racing through Shocker?s text to squeeze it onto 3 CDs. But while Schmitt?s?rapidfire delivery?would have ruined Wuthering Heights, it?gives this pulp?adventure story a fitting rush of adrenaline.

The choice of music is interesting: Lausch opted to create a soundscape that evokes the 60?s / 70?s trappings of the original Brent novels. The music sounds like a basement Jazz combo, with a drum, piano, and some strumming violins added for Gothic tension. It?s a different approach than WortArt took with its modern, cinematic production of Jason Dark?s John Sinclair audiobook, Die R?ckkehr des Schwarzen Tod (Return of the Black Death). The music, like the story, is never really scary, but its exaggerated menace fits the material. Synthesized high-pitched bleats work particularly well in evoking the cries of giant bats and the pain of their piercing bites. The introductory / closing theme with its over-the-top maniacal laughter is, well . . . very, very German. I?ll leave it at that.

It is disappointing that Lausch has opted to use the same music tracks for both of their initial Larry Brent audio book releases instead of giving each its own soundtrack and individual feel. But I suppose this is a cost-cutting measure, and 14,95 Euros for 3 CDs is a tough price to beat.

There are few sound effects in the production outside of a well-placed thunderclap.

As supernatural detective stories go, I found this one surprisingly inventive. The plot doesn?t proceed in the direction you?d expect, and the characters, while 2-dimensional, all entertain. This is an origin story, and thus there are two interweaving plots ? the evil goings-on and the story of Brent?s first encounter with and adoption into the PSA, a paranormal investigative branch of the FBI. Shocker lays out some of the serial?s principle players such as the shadowy, blind director of the PSA and his gangly assistant, Bony. Brent himself is a likeable enough square-jawed type, although his introduction suffers from the principle ill plaguing German pulp-horror: a Deus-ex-Machina resolution. This is, in fact, the most literal Deus-ex-Machina ending I?ve ever heard. In a series named for its hero, you might expect Brent to resolve the situation through the application of his singular skills and intelligence. Not this time.

But if you want clever resolutions you should probably stick to straight mysteries. Occult detective stories, like horror tales, thrive more on generating a haunting atmosphere than ratiocinative logic. In this Larry Brent succeeds, after a fashion. You?re unlikely to be frightened, but as with a classic black-and-white horror film, you?ll likely fall under the spell of its outdated Gothic charm anyway. I don?t know if Bela Lugosi?s Dracula really scares people anymore, but he?s still a captivating presence onscreen.

All in all, ?Larry Brent? is a nice addition to an audio drama field crowded with occult detectives. Das Grauen schleicht durch Bonnards Haus is a welcome reminder that as good as audio drama adaptations can be, an author?s original, unedited text has a charm all its own.

Next Week: Malleus takes an exacting look at Highbridge audio?s Star Wars universe spin-off, Crimson Empire (English). Is the force with this audio drama?s charismatic anti-hero, or does his story choke on the stale ideas of an outworn franchise?

8?out of 10

A welcome interlude in the Middle Ages vampire serial for longtime fans and an accessible, self-contained starting point for newcomers.?

Blutkrieg ? Die Edition
Blood War ? the (collected) Edition

(This series was previously released on 5 individual CDs.? Although the stories are all self-contained, they are interconnected and build on one another.? I recommend this collected edition, which is considerably cheaper than buying the 5 singly.)

An audiobook by Wolfgang Hohlbein.? Read by the author.?
5 CDs, 377 minutes
ZYX music, 2007.

Blutkrieg is situated between books 8 and 9 of the dark fantasy series Die Chronik der Unsterblichen (Chronicle of the Undying.)?

Language:? German.

Try before you buy:

The first chapter of Blutkrieg, Die Schwarze Gischt, was premiered in segments on the German ?Neurotainment? podcast and is still available.? Use the links below to download this free and fully authorized broadcast.

http://www.audioads.de/files/254/np00004.mp3
http://www.audioads.de/files/255/np00005.mp3
http://www.audioads.de/files/256/np00006.mp3
http://www.audioads.de/files/257/np00007.mp3
http://www.audioads.de/files/258/np00008.mp3

Perhaps we are dead.? And this is Hell.

? Abu Dun

Germany?s horror novelist Jason Dark / Helmut Rellergerd is sometimes compared to American author Stephen King, but for emotional resonance, stylistic range, and page-turning eloquence I find Wolfgang Hohlbein a better analogue to the American master.? Hohlbein is an interesting hybrid:? he has roots in pulpy German grusel-serials (Der Hexer, Raven) but seems equally comfortable penning more sophisticated fantasy / horror novels (Unheil, Der Inquisitor, Dunkel.)? Of the many German authors who have tried to bridge these genres, Hohlbein has been the most successful, particularly with his middle-ages vampire serial Die Chronik der Unsterblichen.? Chronik began in 1999 with solid fantasy novels featuring elaborate plots and sizable casts.? With Blutkrieg, Hohlbein pauses his epic narrative for an interlude of elemental pulp fare.?

Die Chronik der Unsterblichen series currently rests on the shoulders of two protagonists:? haunted swordsman Andrej Del?ny and his comrade-in-arms, stolid ex-pirate Abu Dun.? Both are vampires, which in Hohlbein?s world means they regenerate quickly, have above-average strength, age slowly, and are subject to a demonic thirst for blood, something Andrej and Abu Dun choose to resist.

Abu Dun?s grim assessment,? ?Perhaps we are dead.? And this is Hell?, sums up Blutkrieg?s bleak Waiting for Godot / Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead atmosphere.? After being tricked into slaying a ship?s innocent crew, a repentant Abu Dun and Andrej set out to do the only decent thing left:? return the corpses to their Northern homeland for burial.? But the vampires soon find themselves alone and out of their depth in a frozen landscape that threatens their very survival and renders their physical and moral progress pyrrhic.? As their Scandinavian Odyssey becomes a personal hell the companions are forced to fight or make devil?s bargains with a host of malign powers, including werewolves, zombies, witches and dreamspiders.? The frigid wastes themselves are arguably the vampires? worst foe, perpetually threatening to swamp their lives and souls in a vast grey limbo.

The companions? saving grace turns out to be their devotion to each other, which not only gets them to watch each other?s backs but gives them heart and purpose.? In this sense Blutkrieg is a true ?buddy? narrative not unlike the bi-racial ?buddy cop? Hollywood films of the 1980?s.? Movies like Lethal Weapon steadfastly avoided contemporary racial schisms with a ?pass the popcorn? ethos of straight action and camaraderie.? Chronik adapts this approach to religious difference, with European Christian Andrej and Nubian Muslim Abu Dun regularly engaging in the teasing banter of their cop movie counterparts.? They maintain what anthropologists call a ?joking relationship?, defusing potentially schismatic differences through friendly one-upmanship.? It?s not hard to read a contemporary German wish to rise above the country?s sometimes nervous relationship with its large Turkish minority into Andrej and Abu Dun?s playful, empathic bickering.? Regardless, Hohlbein invests his characters with enough human depth that the selfless commitment beneath their mocking repartee remains credible and moving throughout.? Blutkrieg is ultimately a dark paean to fraternal love.

As in the first Chronik audiobook, the author himself narrates this release.? Although Hohlbein lacks an actor?s baritone timbre, his voice has the sincerity and urgency of a young priest?s.? He doesn?t so much perform these morality plays as testify them, drawing listeners in with his mesmerizing, quasi-confessional undertone.?

Hohlbein?s narration is supported by the series? infectiously melodramatic theme song and quieter musical passages featuring an erhu.? While this traditional Chinese instrument might seem out-of-place in Chronik?s European setting it somehow works, giving the story an otherworldly, melancholic air.? The recording?s sparse sound effects are less impressive:? canned metallic clangs and horse whinnies occasionally disrupt Blutkrieg?s potent spell.

For this long-time fan, hearing Hohlbein spin new tales of Andrej and Abu Dun feels like returning to a desolate but beautiful homeland.? Hohlbein puts out a new chapter of Chronik der Unsterblichen every year, but so far only the first two books and Blutkrieg have been produced as audiobooks.?

Here?s hoping for many more.

Next week:??Cleanse the pallet of angst and moral ambiguity with?the high impact Malleus?review of Graphic Audio’s post-apocalyptic adventure, Deathlands #73:? Labyrinth.? (English language.)

Below – The vampire Andrej returns home in the comic book adaptation of the first novel in the Chronik der Unsterblichen series.

This week we take classic fairy tales and turn them on their heads with a compelling piece produced as part of the Willamette Radio Workshop‘s Writer’s on the Air radio writing workshop help every summer. “Next Year’s Girl” tells about a small village held under the thumb of a beast which requires a yearly sacrifice of their young girls. But as one daring young girl finds out, there is beauty in the beast, and more beasts than one easily sees…

Download audio file (rdr-podcast063.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival – Episode 63

If you don’t know what the phrase “Welcome to Wormwood” means, you’re missing out on one of the greatest audio mystery series out there — being produced today, being produced ever. Wormwood is everything you love about the serial — gripping, nail-biting, intriguing, hilarious, and most importantly, it keeps you egging for the next episode.

So it’s with unbridled enthusiasm that I had the opportunity to speak with the show’s creators, David Accampo and Jeremy Rogers, as well as the multi-talented voice actor Rob Grindlinger. Learn about how these Habit Forming Film creators turned audio producers collaborated in a wild idea that has become massively successful.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast051.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival – Episode 51

The tales of audio terror continue with the conclusion of the tale of Frankenstein’s monster… The creature, repelled by men, seeks out his creator to plea for a companion — but will Frankenstein allow his creation to have peace?

Download audio file (rdr-podcast040.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival Episode 40

Horror fans delight! Today the terror continues with a tale driven by the depths man will go to in his reckless need to explore what should be left unexplored — in this case, the boundaries of life and death.

Mary Shelley’s “Modern Prometheus” never sounded better than in this stunning, true-to-the-text audio theater adaptation of Frankenstein, put together by the massive talent of Quicksilver Radio Theatre. Adapted and Produced Craig Wichman, Directed by Jay Stern, and starring a suite of New York’s finest actors. Enjoy!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast039.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival – Episode 39

Art by Pierre of Frankensteinia