Journey #67 - Space Patrol: The Lady From Venus, plus Buck Rogers

Commander Buzz Corry faces the lady from Venus and Buck Rogers and Friens run up againt Killer Kane.

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The success of the Space Patrol TV show on ABC spawned an almost instant radio version, which ran from 4 October 1952 to 19 March 1955 producing approximately 129 episodes. The same cast of actors performed on both shows.


Buck Rogers is a fictional character who first appeared in Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories as Anthony Rogers. It was later adapted the story into a the first ever science fiction comic strip. Philip Nowlan, with the help of editorial cartoonist Dick Calkins as the illustrator, and the syndicate John F. Dille Company, adapted the first episode from Armageddon 2419, A.D. and changed the hero's name from Anthony Rogers to Buck Rogers. The strip made its first newspaper appearance on January 7, 1929.

In 1932, the Buck Rogers radio program, making history again as the first science fiction program on radio, hit the airwaves. It was broadcast in four separate runs with varying schedules. Actors Matt Crowley, Curtis Arnall, Carl Frank and John Larkin all voiced him at various times. The beautiful and strong-willed Wilma Deering was portrayed by Adele Ronson, and the brilliant scientist-inventor Dr. Huer was played by Edgar Stehli.

Buck Rogers was also featured in a television series from 1979 - 1981, starring Gil Gerrard as Buck Rogers, and Erin Grey as Wilma Deering.


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Journey #65 - Knock by Frediric Brown (presented by X-Minus One)

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door...

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Fredric Brown (October 29, 1906 – March 11, 1972) was an American science fiction and mystery writer. He was born in Cincinnati.  He is perhaps best known for his use of humor and for his mastery of the "short short" form—stories of 1 to 3 pages, often with ingenious plotting devices and surprise endings. Humor and a somewhat postmodern outlook carried over into his novels as well.

The famous pulp writer Mickey Spillane called Brown "my favorite writer of all time".  Science fiction and fantasy writer Neil Gaiman has also expressed fondness for Brown's work, having his novel Here Comes A Candle narrated by the character Rose Walker in the collection The Kindly Ones of The Sandman.  Brown also had the honor of being one of three dedicatees of Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.

X Minus One was a half-hour science fiction radio drama series broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various timeslots on NBC.  Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts.

Realated Links:

The War Of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, and its many adaptations
Signs
The Day if the Triffids
Independence Day
Mars Attacks!
The Twilight Zone - Hocus-Pocus and Frisby
Marvel's The Avengers
Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phontom Menace
 

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Journey #64 - Fire Watch by Connie Willis (presented by Seeing Ear Theatre)

Young Bartholomew is a graduate student in history from a future Oxford who is assigned to travel back in time to join and study the famous Fire Watch Brigade-the volunteer corps whose brave members kept St. Paulâs Cathedral from being burned to the ground by Nazi incendiaries.

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Connie Willis was  born on 31 December 1945 is an American science fiction (SF) writer. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards. Her first published story, "The Secret of Santa Titicaca," appeared in Worlds of Fantasy in 1971. After receiving an NEA grant in 1982, she left her teaching job and became a full-time writer.

Willis has written several pieces involving time travel by history students at a faculty of the future University of Oxford.   It all started with  short story "Fire Watch" (found in the collection of the same name) and the novels Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, as well as the two-part novel Blackout/All Clear. All of the Oxford Time Travel stories have won the Hugo Award, and all but To Say Nothing of the Dog have won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award.

She lives in Greeley, Colorado with her husband, Courtney.


SEEING EAR THEATRE was an extension of the SCI-Fi Channel, and produced audio dramas between 1997 and 2001.  Dozens of Science Fiction and Fantasy stories were produced by a dedicated and talented crew of multimedia artists, writers, actors and musicians and delivered “radio” drama via streaming audio. It managed to capture some of the top living SF writers of today, like Harlan Ellision, J. Michael Straczynski, Connie Willis, Neil Gaiman, and Kim Stanley Robinson. It also produced some classic stories, from the likes of Fredric Brown, Poul Anderson, and William Tenn.

Cast and crew:

Sebastian Roché as Bartholomew
Rika Daniel as Frieda
Ian Reed as Langby
George Holmes as Professor Dunworthy
Nicky as the cat
also Rita Ben-Or, Anthony Ferguson, Nicholas Haylett, Gideon Juvenal, Ron Keith, Giovanni Pucci, John Rainer, Dieter Riesele, Vicki Stuart, and Felix Van Dyke

Produced and Directed by George Zarr
Story adapted for audio by Tony Daniel
Sound Design by John Colucci
Vocalists, Paul Amadeo and Cheri Leone
Guitars, John Colucci and Robert Legault
Original lyrics by Tony Daniel
Original music by George Zarr

Realated Links:
SFF Audio
The London Blitz
Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Blackout, and All Clear by Connie Willis
Doctor Who on Netflix
Dr Who S1E9 - The Empty Child
Barrage Ballons

Music used in this production:
"Largo" by Dvorak
Doctor Who Theme

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Journey #62 - Lieutenant Hornblower: Court of Inquiry by C.S. Forester (presented by BBC)

Upon overtaking the Spanish fort on Haiti, Lieutenant Hornblower and his fellow officers are in a position to negotiate surrender and to bombard any attempted escape.  However, a court of inquiry awaits them when they return to the British shores of Jamaica.

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The radio series "The Hornblower Story" (1968-69) was adapted from four of the Hornblower books by C.S.Forester. Dramatised into 20 half-hour parts by Val Gielgud, it was produced by Trevor Hill, and directed by Trevor Hill and Christopher Hayton Webb. Music by Johnny Pearson, special effects by David Fleming-Williams, Jack Hollinshead in conjunction with the Sea Training Association.


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Journey #60 - Space Patrol: Commander Corry

This is how Commander Buzz Corry received his position.

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The success of the Space Patrol TV show on ABC spawned an almost instant radio version, which ran from 4 October 1952 to 19 March 1955 producing approximately 129 episodes. The same cast of actors performed on both shows. The writers, scripts, adventures and director had some crossover between the radio and TV incarnations however; the radio broadcasts were not limited by the studio sets and became more expansive in scope and story than the television version.  Although there was seldom any deliberate crossing-over of storylines, some of the television villains regularly appeared on the radio (notably Prince Bacarratti).

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Journey #55 - The Other Wise Man by Henry van Dyke (presented by Family Theater)

Artaban is seeking to behold the King of Israel and finds instead the compassion and charity within his own heart.

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Family Theater Productions, an extension of the Family Rosary Crusade founded by Father Patrick Peyton, CSC, as a way to promote family prayer. The program had no commercial sponsor, yet Father Peyton, CSC arranged for many of Hollywood's stars in film and radio at the time to appear. In its ten-year run, well-known actors and actresses, including James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Shirley Temple, and more appeared as announcers, narrators or stars.  A total of 540 episodes were produced. The program featured not only religious stories but half-hour adaptations of literary works such as A Tale of Two Cities, Moby-Dick and Don Quixote.

Other related links:
New Media Expo - January 6-8 Las Vegas
Renne Chambliss' Panel
CBC Radio As It Happens plays "The Shepherd" on Christmas Eve
"The Shepherd" on Youtube


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Journey #54 - It's A Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed (presented by Lux Radio Theater)

George Bailey is at his wits end, and only divine intervention can help him recognize that he has led a wonderful life.

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Lux Radio Theater was  a long-running classic radio anthology series. Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences. It became the most popular dramatic anthology series on radio, broadcast for more than 20 years and continued on television as the Lux Video Theatre through most of the 1950s.

Other related links:
New Media Expo - January 6-8 Las Vegas
Renne Chambliss' Panel
Synthetic Voices podcast


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Journey #53 - The Black Door (presented by Suspense)

An archeologist is lead to the lost City of the Fire God, but what awaits him beyond the Black Door.

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Suspense is a radio drama series broadcast on CBS Radio from 1942 through 1962.  One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era. Approximately 945 episodes were broadcast during its long run, and more than 900 are still in existance.


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Journey #51 - Lieutenant Hornblower: The Landing by C.S. Forester (presented by BBC)

After being nearly defeated near the isle of San Domingo (Haiti), Horatio Hornblower has come up with a plan to make a surprise landing on the seaward side.

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The radio series "The Hornblower Story" (1968-69) was adapted from four of the Hornblower books by C.S.Forester. Dramatised into 20 half-hour parts by Val Gielgud, it was produced by Trevor Hill, and directed by Trevor Hill and Christopher Hayton Webb. Music by Johnny Pearson, special effects by David Fleming-Williams, Jack Hollinshead in conjunction with the Sea Training Association.


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Journey #49 - The Fog Horn by Ray Bradbury (presented by Mind Webs)

The beacon of light and the sound of the fog horn call out to more than just helpless ships.

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Mind Webs was a 1970's series out of WHA Radio in Wisconsin that featured weekly semi-dramatized readings of science fiction short stories performed by Michael Hansen.  It aired stroies by some of the genre's best writers like Norman Spinrad, Arthur C. Clarke, Gordon R. Dickson, and Ray Bradbury. Many of the readings were enhanced by music, periodic sound cues, and the occasional character voice, however they are not completely dramatized.

Ray Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He was an American fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and for the science fiction and horror stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951), Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers of speculative fiction. He also inspired generations of writer and readers. Many of Bradbury's works have been adapted into television shows or films. He died, earlier this month, on June 5, 2012.


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Journey #47 - The Repossession by Arthur Samuels (Nightfall)

Robert's brother Douglas died when they were separated as conjoined twins. Or did he?

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Nightfall is the title of a radio drama series produced and aired by CBC Radio (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) from July 1980 to June 1983. While primarily a supernatural/horror series, Nightfall featured some episodes in other genres, such as science fiction, mystery, fantasy, and human drama. One episode was even adapted from a folk song by Stan Rogers. Some of Nightfall's episodes were so terrifying that the CBC registered numerous complaints and some affiliate stations dropped it. Despite this, the series went on to become one of the most popular shows in CBC Radio history, running 100 episodes that featured a mix of original tales and adaptations of both classic and obscure short stories.

Related Links:
Facts about conjoined twins
The Nightfall Project
Eng and Chang Bunker
Abby and Brittney Hensel

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Journey #46 - Lieutenant Hornblower: Sealed Orders by C.S. Forester (presented by BBC)

With Captain Sawyer incapacitated after his mysterious fall, the indecisive Lieutenant Buckland is in command and must, with the help of Bush and Hornblower, execute the sealed orders from the admiralty.

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The radio series "The Hornblower Story" (1968-69) was adapted from four of the Hornblower books by C.S.Forester. Dramatised into 20 half-hour parts by Val Gielgud, it was produced by Trevor Hill, and directed by Trevor Hill and Christopher Hayton Webb. Music by Johnny Pearson, special effects by David Fleming-Williams, Jack Hollinshead in conjunction with the Sea Training Association.


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Journey #44 - Night Watch with Don Reed

Those noisy elderly neighbors, liquor-mixing kids, and chasing a suspected car thief.

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CBS brought Night Watch to the air for its short run on April 2, 1954 to Apr 21, 1955. Night Watch was the first show to bring live police drama to the air. Police Reporter Don Reed accompanied Officer Ron Perkins, bringing with him a tape recorder to capture the action. Don Reed actually carried a dry-cell powered reel to reel tape machine on his back and had a concealed microphone inside a flashlight casing. Reed went on to be one of the first traffic helicopter reporters, and Perkins eventually was elected Mayor of Culver City


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Journey #42 - Skylab, Are You There with Rod Serling and William Shatner (presented by Zero Hour)

Houston has lost contact with the astronauts on Skylab.

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The Zero Hour  was a 1973-74 radio drama anthology series hosted by Rod Serling.  With tales of mystery, adventure and suspense, the program aired in stereo for two seasons. Some of the scripts were written by Serling.  Originally placed into syndication on September 3, 1973, the original format featured five-part dramas broadcast Monday through Friday with the story coming to a conclusion on Friday. Including commercials, each part was approximately 30 minutes long.   In 1974, still airing five days a week, the program changed to a full story in a single 30-minute installment with the same actor starring throughout the week in all five programs. The series ended on July 26, 1974.  See more on Wikipedia.

Thanks (I guess) for the "special appearance" of Big Anklevich and Rish Outfield from the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine.

Dunsteef episodes produced by Marshal:
All The Cool Monsters At Once by James Alan Gardner
Must Have Own Weapons by Edward McKeown
Anakoinosis by Tobias S. Buckell
Out Of The Storm by Rick Kennett
The Alarm by Harris Tobias

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Journey #40 - Lieutenant Hornblower: The Peculiar Captain by C.S. Forester (presented by BBC)

Horatio, as Lieutenant aboard the H.M.S. Renown, discovers that all ships are not the same, nor their captains.

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The radio series "The Hornblower Story" (1968-69) was adapted from four of the Hornblower books by C.S.Forester. Dramatised into 20 half-hour parts by Val Gielgud, it was produced by Trevor Hill, and directed by Trevor Hill and Christopher Hayton Webb. Music by Johnny Pearson, special effects by David Fleming-Williams, Jack Hollinshead in conjunction with the Sea Training Association.


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Journey #38 - A Tribute to Ray Bradbury

Three amazing stories by master speculative fiction writer, Ray Bradbury.

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Ray Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois.  He was an American fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and for the science fiction and horror stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951), Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers of speculative fiction.  He also inspired generations of writer and readers.  Many of Bradbury's works have been adapted into television shows or films.  He died, earlier this month, on June 5, 2012.

Other Bradbury links:
Ray Bradbury's latest work in the New Yorker
"The Veldt" as read by Stephen Colbert
"Homecoming"
"The Sound of Thunder"


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Journey #36 - The Body Snatchers by Robert Louis Stevenson

Fettes, an anatomy student, learns first hand where all those bodies come from.

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Robert Louis Stevenson, born 13 November 1850, was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Nightfall is the title of a radio drama series produced and aired by CBC Radio (see Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) from July 1980 to June 1983. While primarily a supernatural/horror series, Nightfall featured some episodes in other genres, such as science fiction, mystery, fantasy, and human drama. One episode was even adapted from a folk song by Stan Rogers. Some of Nightfall's episodes were so terrifying that the CBC registered numerous complaints and some affiliate stations dropped it. Despite this, the series went on to become one of the most popular shows in CBC Radio history, running 100 episodes that featured a mix of original tales and adaptations of both classic and obscure short stories.

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Journey #35 - Cloak and Dagger: Direct Line to Bombers

A secret mission into Berlin to guide bombers to key targets.

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Cloak and Dagger was an NBC radio series adapted from the book Cloak and Dagger by Corey Ford and Alastair MacBain.  It ran from May7 to October 22, 1950.


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Journey #33 - Midshipman Hornblower: The Dutchess and the Devil by C.S. Forester (presented by BBC)

Horatio finds honor and heroism despite imprisonment.

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The radio series "The Hornblower Story" (1968-69) was adapted from four of the Hornblower books by C.S.Forester. Dramatised into 20 half-hour parts by Val Gielgud, it was produced by Trevor Hill, and directed by Trevor Hill and Christopher Hayton Webb. Music by Johnny Pearson, special effects by David Fleming-Williams, Jack Hollinshead in conjunction with the Sea Training Association.


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Journey #30 - A Logic Named Joe by Murray Leinster (X-Minus 1)

What happenens when the logics start using their vast databases of knowledge to "help" mankind?

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Murray Leinster (June 16, 1896 - June 8, 1975) was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.

Suggested Podcast Episode: "Soulmates" by Mike Resnick and Lezli Robyn on Escape Pod

Related Links
Eliza text-based psychotherapist program

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