Doctor Who – Page 9

new PC game inspired by radio drama Lights Out

SFFaudio News

Rich Carlson, an SFFaudio contributor and the webmaster of Radio Tales Of The Strange And Fantastic (his own excellent radio drama website) has (along with a few other folks at Digital Eel Games) created new PC game called Brainpipe.

So, I’ve been playing Brainpipe all weekend!

This is one of those “casual games” – so the story is basically nonexistent – it’s an action oriented game that’s fun and highly addictive. So why am I telling you about it? Other than a vaguely science fictional premise, and terrific audio (by Rich) it isn’t exactly all that SFFaudio related.

Brainpipe looks kind of like a screensaver crossed with the old 1983 vector graphics Star Wars arcade game and it controls like a Nintendo Wii’s (it would make a great WiiWare game come to think of it). The whole production is super-slick.

The last time I played, a few hours ago, after getting to level five and achieving “dissonance” I died (I think), and the game ended. It was then that I noticed something in the credits…. a nod to “Lights Out” the old radio drama show! I asked Rich if there was any particular episode that inspired the it and Rich said: The Meteor Man (aka The Hungry One)

So, got a few spare minutes? Go have a listen to The Meteor Man |MP3| and then go try the Brainpipe demo – it’ll blow yer brainpipe!

Posted by Jesse Willis

UPDATE: In level 7 more Doctor Who-ish audio turns up too!

Max Warp

SFFaudio Online Audio
Doctor Who: Max Warp
Full cast audio drama
Stars Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith
Written by Jonathan Morris
Directed by Barnaby Edwards
Produced by Big Finish Productions
52 minutes

Just heard this on BBC7 and it’s really fun so I thought I’d better post it before it slips away. (Since it already aired last Sunday, oops, it’s only available until November 1, so get cracking!)

Max Warp is a sort of Agatha Christie style murder mystery (eh, well, you’ll see…hear) that crosses paths with Douglas Adams (with one or two direct references as well) and then ends up in Doctor Who’s lap. Terrible sentence I know but where this tale takes place is probably the most fun part. Here’s the skinny from the Big Finish page:

Broadcasting live from the Sirius Inter-G Cruiser Show. Hosted by outspoken columnist and media personality Geoffrey Vantage, with spaceship-guru-extraordinaire O’Reilley and daredevil pilot Timbo ‘the Ferret’…When a test flight of the new Kith Sunstorm ends in disaster, the Sirius Exhibition Station is plunged into a web of murder and intrigue. Someone – or something – is trying to re-ignite a war between the Varlon Empire and the Kith Oligarchy…only two investigators, the Doctor and Lucie, can hope to uncover the truth.

And so it goes, and I’d love to tell you more about this story but that would be spoiling things. Listen to Max Warp yourself. You can do so right now by clicking here!

Posted by RC of RTSF

Dead London

SFFaudio Online Audio

Doctor Who: Dead London
Full cast audio drama
Airs on consecutive Sundays beginning on Sunday, October 19*
6PM and 12AM GMT
Written by Pat Mills
Produced by Big Finish

Tomorrow, BBC7’s The 7th Dimension presents another popular Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama. This time it’s Dead London starring Paul McGann (reprising his 8th doctor role) and Sheridan Smith. Here’s the word from the Big Finish website:

Someone’s playing with us. Manipulating time and space for their own ends.

The TARDIS lands in London. But which one? The Doctor and Lucie find themselves trapped in a maze of interlocking Londons from Roman times to the present day.

But they are not alone in this labyrinth: a killer is on their trail.

Sounds like dependable ol’ Doctor Who fun-o-tainment, and Big Finish always manages a superb production, so check it out. You can also listen to any BBC7 program for 6 days after it airs, so you never have to miss a show.

* Note: BBC7 has revamped their website. The 7th Dimension webpage no longer exists, and show descriptions no longer mention the number of episodes a series may contain, so watch the schedule page closely.

Posted by RC of RTSF

Quickie Freebie Fun List

SFFaudio Online Audio

Quickie Freebie Fun List

Hey groovy guys and groovy gals, just in time for the weekend, here’s a quick selection of freebies available for download from BBC 4 and Big Finish. (applause) One, Lost Souls, is a Torchwood spin-off running around 43 minutes. The other, The Coup, is a spin-off from Doctor Who (aren’t they all?) and clocks in at 23 minutes or so. –That means over an hour of full-cast science fiction audio drammer fa nuthin’. Ain’t free stuff great?!

Here’s the scoop direct from the respective websites:

BBC Radio 4 - Torchwood: Lost Souls

FREE Torchwood audio drama: Lost Souls (Available until next Tuesday.)

“The Torchwood Institute was founded by Queen Victoria in 1879 to protect the British Empire against the threat of alien invasion. By 2008, all that remains of the organisation is a small team based in Cardiff. And now, following the tragic deaths of two of their colleagues, the remaining three – Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones – have to protect the human race against another unknown force from the darkness.

“Martha Jones, ex-time traveller and now working as a doctor for a UN task force, has been called to CERN – the world’s largest particle physics laboratory in Geneva – where they’re about to activate the Large Hadron Collider. The LHC is a particle accelerator, which has been built deep underground in a 27 km tunnel under Switzerland and France. Once activated the Collider will fire beams of protons together recreating conditions a billionth of a second after the Big Bang – and potentially allowing the human race a greater insight into what the Universe is made of. But so much could go wrong – it could open a gateway to a parallel dimension, or create a black hole – and now voices from the past are calling out to people and scientists have started to disappear…

“Where have the missing scientists gone? What is the secret of the glowing man? What is lurking in the underground tunnel? And do the dead ever really stay dead?

“Lost Souls stars John Barrowman, Freema Agyeman, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd, Lucy Montgomery and Stephen Critchlow.”

Written by Joseph Lidster
Produced and Directed by Kate McAll

FREE Big Finish audio drama: U.N.I.T. – The Coup (Available indefinitely.)

Big Finish - UNIT: The Coup “To wet your appetite for the full UNIT mini-series, we are giving away the introductory UNIT story, The Coup, absolutely free for you to download and enjoy! Originally available only as a free CD with Doctor Who Magazine, this drama stars Nicholas Courtney and sets the stage for the new UNIT adventures.

“The UK division of the UNIT prepares to cede its authority to a new organisation… But who is attempting to sabotage the hand-over?

“The Coup stars Nicholas Courtney (reprising his well-known role) as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart with Siri O’Neal, Nicholas Deal and an appearance by David Tennant in the fourth story as Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood.”

Written by Simon Guerrier
Directed by Ian Farrington

Posted by RC of RTSF

BBC7: The Scarifyers – The Nazad Conspiracy

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Scarifyers: The Nazad Conspiracy (2006)
3 episodes beginning on Sunday, September 7 at 1800GMT
Starring Nicholas Courtney and Terry Molloy
Written and directed by Simon Barnard
Produced by Cosmic Hobo Productions

Detective Inspector Lionheart, veteran (don’t say old!) crime-fighter based at Whitechapel police station, and Edward Dunning, professor of Ancient History at London University (and prolific writer of ghost stories), become, somewhat unwittingly, paranormal investigators for the “very new” MI-13.

Dunning & Lionheart Aided by, among others, Aleister Crowley, “the wickedest man in the world,” Lionheart and Dunning must follow enigmatic and often ghastly clues, infiltrate mysterious secret cults and foil the darkest of diabolical plots against England and humanity.

But not without a grand sense of British humor. The Scarifyers, set in the late 1930’s, combines deadpan wit and Lovecraftian themes with the result being nothing short of hilarious. The writing is charming, delicious, surprising and never cornball, and the character performances are superb. Indeed, it’s my favorite audio play series in years.

The Nazad Conspiracy is the first Scarifyers adventure.

Christmas 1936.

Professor Dunning (Terry Molloy) doesn’t believe in the supernatural. So he’s more than surprised when an invisible winged demon appears in his drawing room.

The Metropolitan Police’s longest-serving officer, Inspector Lionheart (Nicholas Courtney), doesn’t believe in the supernatural either, wings or no wings. So he’s less than impressed when Russian emigres begin dying impossible deaths all over London.

Together, Lionheart and Dunning must face quarrelsome Generals, sinister clowns and Russian demons as they unravel THE NAZAD CONSPIRACY.

The first episode of The Nazad Conspiracy will air on Sunday, September 7 at 1800GMT in the 7th Dimension time slots. Episodes 2 and 3 will follow on consecutive Sundays. Listen to the trailer for the show here.

The Scarifyers is produced by Cosmic Hobo Productions and stars Nicholas Courtney as Lionheart and Terry Molloy as Dunning. Many will remember Courtney as Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (The Brigadier), and Molloy as Davros (creator of the evil Daleks), both from the Doctor Who TV series (and the occasional Big Finish production). Also, David Benson, “man of a thousand voices,” appears as the reoccurring character, Aleister Crowley, always giving a memorable and “spirited” performance.

For more information about The Scarifyers, including actor bios, character and story info, announcements, downloadable content, and series ordering info –3 adventures so far: The Nazad Conspiracy, The Devil of Denge Marsh (2007) & For King and Country (2008)– be sure to stop by the Cosmic Hobo Productions website.

And if you want to hear the best radio show theme song since Dick Barton: Special Agent, check out The Scarifyers theme by Edwin Sykes here!

Posted by RC of RTSF

Torchwood: Lost Souls

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 4 Torchwood: Lost Souls
Time: Wednesday 10th September, 2:15PM
Writer: Joseph Lidster
Producer/Director: Kate McAll

As part of BBC 4’s Big Bang Day, celebrating the activation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Lost Souls, a specially-commisioned audio drama spin-off from the Torchwood television series, is being presented on September 10 at 2:15PM GMT.

Here’s the skinny from the Lost Souls webpage:

The Torchwood Institute was founded by Queen Victoria in 1879 to protect the British Empire against the threat of alien invasion. By 2008, all that remains of the organisation is a small team based in Cardiff. And now, following the tragic deaths of two of their colleagues, the remaining three – Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones – have to protect the human race against another unknown force from the darkness.

Martha Jones, ex-time traveller and now working as a doctor for a UN task force, has been called to CERN – the world’s largest particle physics laboratory in Geneva – where they’re about to activate the Large Hadron Collider. The LHC is a particle accelerator, which has been built deep underground in a 27 km tunnel under Switzerland and France. Once activated the Collider will fire beams of protons together recreating conditions a billionth of a second after the Big Bang – and potentially allowing the human race a greater insight into what the Universe is made of. But so much could go wrong – it could open a gateway to a parallel dimension, or create a black hole – and now voices from the past are calling out to people and scientists have started to disappear…

Where have the missing scientists gone? What is the secret of the glowing man? What is lurking in the underground tunnel? And do the dead ever really stay dead?

Intriguing, and since I worry about most of these questions myself every day, I’ll be tuning in. All I wonder is, should we celebrate turning on the LHC? You saw the movie The Mist, right? Yikes!

Posted by RC of RTSF