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

Theme music: Liberator by Man In Space

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