Woohoo! I got a preview of the first three episodes of CBC Radio One‘s new Comedy Science Fiction radio drama series Canadia 2056. This show is absolutely hilarious! Its a satirical look at Canada/US politics, the Canadian inferiority complexes, American obliviousness, universal bureaucracy, internet culture, Star Trek, CBC inside jokes, plenty of toilet humor (literally) and Iraq, Iraq, Iraq!
The viewpoint character, Midshipman Max Anderson, is an American (or at least as American as a Canadian stereotype of an American can be). He’s been saddled with the responsibility of being the USA’s liaison aboard the only Canadian ship in an otherwise all American invasion fleet headed towards an alien planet. It seems the planet “Ipampilash” refused to allow some galactic inspectors to land on their planet so the United States and its loyal friends in the Great White North declared war!
You can hear the first episode on Friday! Tune in…
April 20, 2007, 11:30 a.m on CBC Radio One (in Canada) and streaming online – worldwide.
Episode 1: Getting the replacement parts to leave Earth orbit is harder than getting episodes of the hot TV series Foxy Chalet (“the best Canadian show the American’s ever made”).
Episode 2: The stressed out crew of the Canadia has broken the speed of light barrier to catch up with the American fleet. Safe and secure, they’re now high on stress pills and low on brains. There’s a sequence between a homesick Midshipman and his ex-girlfriend that laugh is out loud funny.
Episode 3: A month into deep space and Midshipman Anderson has passport problems. The rest of the crew is also embroiled in a fight for supremacy with another maintenance ship – who gets to clean up the spill? He also learns a thing or two about the Canadian delicacy known as “poutine.”
It certainly is…. satirical. :-)
~Dani
Do we have any idea why they’ve buried it at 11:30 am on a weekday, or is it just so they can point to the numbers later and say that nobody listens to audio drama?
Seriously though, thanks for plugging this, I would never have even known it was happening if it weren’t for SFFAudio, and I listen to CBC every day.
Actually I think that isn’t as much of a burial as any other time in the CBC radio schedule! The only thing that’d be better is to have it repeat. AND a podcast feed too (not much chance of that though). :(
Yeah, a re-run would be nice. Something for us working stiffs in the eastern time zone who will be stuck behind a desk at every time the show airs across the country.
It’s enough to force a fella to make three or four not-at-all IT-approved modifications to his work computer to allow him to record the program for later listening. Not that I endorse that….