Escape Pod X is a new podcast audio drama series. Despite the title, the website indicates no affiliation with the long running Science Fiction podcast magazine “Escape Pod.” It therefore seems likely that Escape Pod X is merely using EP‘s cachet in order to ride some prestigious coat-tails in google and iTunes searches. Clever, but perhaps not clever enough. Escape Pod uses creative commons licensing, Escape Pod X is “© 2009 by Stefan Claypool. All rights reserved.”
Says Stefan Claypool:
“I am the founder and president of a performing arts ensemble called the Interstellar Broadcasting Corporation. We are a group of young adults with a shared passion for classic radio theater and contemporary audio drama. We have performed together for years under the moniker of the Middlebury Radio Theater, which remains active at Middlebury College. Since we have graduated, however, we decided to embark upon a new endeavor in the hope that we might have something else to offer the world of audio drama.”
Their first podcast episode, The Man Who Stole a Planet, is a re-working of an episode of the Mutual Broadcasting show Quiet Please. The OTR Plot spot calls this episode “One of the best of the series. ” I agree, the script is solid. This production however is not perfect. While the acting is descent, the sound effects are virtually non-existent. Music runs throughout, some of it too familiar, the mic balance is also very poor. This is near ruinous, I can’t hear one of the two actors in the piece.
Have a visit to the site, listen |MP3| to the first episode or subscribe to the podcast feed:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/EscapePodX
Posted by Jesse Willis
They must be kidding…
Addressing the Escape Pod issue: Escape Pod X was conceived and developed before we knew of Escape Pod’s existence. The name came out of discussions about the story that we were crafting and is both a reference to PODcasting and a homage to trashy sci-fi/horror tales like “The Return of Dr. X” (Bogart’s greatest film?… no.) We were well into our process before discovering EscapePod.org, and simply decided that given our premise and the story we had structured, Escape Pod X remained the best name for our product.
We are not attempting to deceive anyone, nor are we trying to siphon off Escape Pod’s audience for our own nefarious purposes. Our goal is provide an old-fashioned radio theater experience. We are not a podcast magazine. There is now a disclaimer on our “About” page stating that we are not affiliated with Escape Pod. We apologize for any confusion. Thanks very much.
Sincerely,
The Interstellar Broadcasting Corporation
Well put IBC.