Audio drama

[DoctorDodge]

Couldn't find a previous thread on this, and wasn't even sure where to put it. We have a thread on audiobooks, but that's never been my cup of tea. As a medium for drama though, especially science fiction or horror, I think audio's excellent, probably one of my favourites. It allows the imagination to come up with something that might've failed on screen, removing the problem of special effects (especially if it's a British drama), or even have stories that could only work in the audio medium, such as an entire story being told from the perspective of someone who's blind (trust me, one of my favourites involved two blind people do nothing but talking and walking blind). Unlike a book, however, or even an audio book, it also allows for a variety of great performances when done perfectly.

Having just listened to the entire fourth series of the excellent Jago & Litefoot, I thought of setting up this thread. Any other lovers of audio drama on this board? Any favourite series at all to recommend? After all, I'm always keen to try out more.

[OchrisO]

SciFi/SyFy used to have some awesome audio drama called Seeing Ear Theater on their website. They eventually stopped doing them and took it off their site. Now you can find a description of a good deal of it here: http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=19883 , but the links no longer seem to work.

You can download or stream most of them here for free: http://otrarchive.blogspot.com/2010/05/seeing-ear-theater.html

Some of them are excellent. Some of my favorites from that series:

Snow Glass Apples (Neil Gaiman penned Snow White audio drama)

Neil Gaiman's Murder Mysteries (a really great mystery noir set in heaven’s City of Angels before the fall, where the first crime has been committed)

The History of the Devil( penned by Clive Barker)

City of Dreams (a J Michael Straczynski series that was supposed to go for 13 episodes, but only eight got made. Each episode is stand alone, though.)

Tales From the Crypt ( audio dramas from the Crypt Keeper)


There is also a group called GraphicAudio that does some very audio drama like versions of a number of books. http://www.graphicaudio.net/

There are some very well done ones on there.

I also enjoy Wormwood: http://wormwoodshow.com/
"Doctor Xander Crowe was a formidable psychologist until a terrible tragedy sent him spiraling down the dark pathways of the occult. Now, a strange vision leads Doctor Crowe to the hidden town of Wormwood, where shadows lurk in every corner and evil stains the souls of the inhabitants. Welcome to Wormwood."

[DoctorDodge]

Thanks for the recommendations, Chris! All sound rather brilliant, especially Wormwood. I'll check that one out asap!

And may I recommend, if you haven't started listening to them already, the series of Jago & Litefoot? It features an 'odd couple' pair of investigators of supernatural cases in Victorian London. Wonderful stuff. Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter really are a joy to listen to. 16 episodes made so far, and my least favourite eps are, at worst, only quite good. The rest are nothing short of brilliant.

[OchrisO]

That sounds right up my alley. I'll try to check it out soon.

I just downloaded the Seeing Ear Theater stuff again, which I haven't listened to in a bunch of years. It is all really well done stuff, with high production value. That link up there actually has a link where you can download all of them in one 700mb zip file. Fans basically archived and saved the series when SciFi just decided to take the site down and I am sooo glad they did.

It has been a while since I have checked in on Wormwood, so I am probably behind on it. I will have to fix that soon.

[DoctorDodge]

Both sound like an excellent divergence from much of my tv watching. I've really begun to appreciate the medium since discovering Big Finish Productions, who've gone on to make a wide range of audios based on licensed properties, including Doctor Who, Dark Shadows, and an audio adaptation of graphic novel The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. A bit pricey to get at times, as they're only a small company, but worth every penny. So many great series, with a real effort to get the original cast involved as much as possible. But their Jago & Litefoot stuff has, for me, probably been their best work so far. Here's a link:
http://bigfinish.com/Jago-and-Litefoot

[mikeC]

Awesome, that you started this. I was actually going to start an audiobook thread and have these in there. Maybe we could merge the two.

Chriso, those are awesome! I downloaded all those many years ago and still get great enjoyment from CoD and the history of the devil.

Although the stories vary in quality, the production is excellent for these
http://talesfrombeyondthepale.com/
Seat and Ledge are 2 of my favorites.

Fangoria has some too but haven't listened yet
http://www.fangoria.com/index.php/home/dreadtime-stories

[Heather19]

SciFi/SyFy used to have some awesome audio drama called Seeing Ear Theater on their website. They eventually stopped doing them and took it off their site. Now you can find a description of a good deal of it here: http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=19883 , but the links no longer seem to work.

You can download or stream most of them here for free: http://otrarchive.blogspot.com/2010/05/seeing-ear-theater.html

Some of them are excellent. Some of my favorites from that series:

Snow Glass Apples (Neil Gaiman penned Snow White audio drama)

Neil Gaiman's Murder Mysteries (a really great mystery noir set in heaven’s City of Angels before the fall, where the first crime has been committed)

The History of the Devil( penned by Clive Barker)

City of Dreams (a J Michael Straczynski series that was supposed to go for 13 episodes, but only eight got made. Each episode is stand alone, though.)

Tales From the Crypt ( audio dramas from the Crypt Keeper)


There is also a group called GraphicAudio that does some very audio drama like versions of a number of books. http://www.graphicaudio.net/

There are some very well done ones on there.

I also enjoy Wormwood: http://wormwoodshow.com/
"Doctor Xander Crowe was a formidable psychologist until a terrible tragedy sent him spiraling down the dark pathways of the occult. Now, a strange vision leads Doctor Crowe to the hidden town of Wormwood, where shadows lurk in every corner and evil stains the souls of the inhabitants. Welcome to Wormwood."

Those sound really good. I'm going to have to look them up.


Do you guys listen to any of the old radio shows? I love them. You can find a bunch online.

Here's a link to Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre and Campbell Playhouse
Mercury Theatre on the Air (http://www.mercurytheatre.info/)

[DoctorDodge]

I love daleks. Can't get enough of them. When they're written well, at least. They're like zombies: the appeal is difficult to explain to people who don't like them, but really, usually, it's less to do with them and more of the kind of story you can create around them, as long as it's a particular type of story and all the elements in place. In both cases, among the very best stories, they're unstoppable, a force that just won't stop wiping out humanity and just keep. On. Coming. They can't be reasoned with, they don't want to negotiate, they just want to kill you.

It's just that, with one force eating people and the other shooting with egg whisks, it's harder to justify fandom for the latter sometimes. Especially when a number of stories can paint them less as calculating villains and more pantomime pepperpots.

However, I'm currently listening to audio series Dalek Empire, and fucking hell. I'm just loving this. A serial in 4 parts (at least), it's a dalek invasion on a grand scale. Usually, no matter how bad things got, there'd be a guarantee that the Doctor would come in and save the day. But these stories aren't about the Doctor. He's nowhere to be seen, or rather, heard. It's not even about Daleks, really. It's about human beings. It's a cliched thing to say, but that's what it comes down to. A close examination of how different people react differently to something truly terrible happening on a massive scale, of what people will do to survive, to fight back. The more I listen, the more I suddenly realise that, over time, how attached I've grown to these brand new characters. That's a huge plus for me.

If you're a Doctor Who fan or not, I definitely recommend this series. Dark, grim, but very satisfying, this is just brilliant epic scifi. And with the first 70 minute chapter costing only a fiver, it doesn't hurt too much to try. http://bigfinish.com/Dalek-Empire-I

[mikeC]

http://archive.org/details/FantasticFour-10Episodes

Fun!
Bill Murray plays the human Torch.
Found it through here:
http://badassdigest.com/2012/05/31/that-time-bill-murray-played-the-fantastic-fours-human-torch/

[mikeC]

I'm pretty psyched for the studio version of season 2 but this is pretty cool:

Glass Eye Pix, the fiercely independent film company behind STAKE LAND, THE INNKEEPERS and I SELL THE DEAD, in association with Clay McLeod Chapman’s FEAR-MONGERS: FIRESIDE CHATS ABOUT HORROR FILMS, is taking its successful audio dramas TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE out of the studio and onto the stage.

A new twist on the vintage radio shows of yesteryear, Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid’s TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE has already thrilled fans of the macabre with it’s first season of creepy dramas released last year. Now they are upping the ante and recording 8 original audio shows before a live audience.

Journey beyond the pale the first four Tuesdays in October as Fessenden and Co. present a double-bill of original genre stories performed by an exciting cast of special guests, and featuring live music, live foley, and live sound effects by a team of audio artisans. A feast for eyes and ears.

Each performance will be recorded and made available online to fans who can’t attend the live events. Plans to produce new studio-based Tales are also underway; the live and studio recordings will be collected and made available as Season 2 of Tales from Beyond the Pale. Season 1 is already available at Amazon, Audible, and iTunes and features such genre luminaries as Ron Perlman, Angus Scrimm, Vincent D’Onofrio and Michael Cerveris; Season 2 promises to keep up the tradition of esteemed voice talent, but who will show up to perform, for now, remains a closely guarded secret.

[needfulthings]

http://imageshack.us/a/img826/9328/img202f.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img805/1120/img204y.jpg

[DoctorDodge]

Impressive, needfulthings: you seem to know of merchandise of everything so obscure, you have actually shown me a piece of Dr Who merchandise even I didn't know exist. I didn't actually think that was possible. :O

Speaking of which: fuck, have I been listening to a lot of Who lately! (By my standards, anyway. ;)) Big Finish, the guys behind classic Doctor Who audios have been releasing a shit ton of cool stuff over the past few days. These have included a 4 hour 7th Doctor epic called UNIT: Dominion, Love & War, a full-cast adaptation of a 90s 7th Doctor novel, and one that has made me really keen to check out more, and a crossover story between the 6th Doctor and Jago & Litefoot, which I'm listening to right now. This is all on top of their usual monthly ranges, too! Brilliant!

[Tik]

Yeah, Big Finish are brilliant at audio stories. As well as the ones already mentioned, I also really enjoy the Gallifrey audios and the Iris Wildthyme audios (I wish the character of Panda would meet the Doctor at some point).

A few other audios to recommend are the BBV Productions and the Magic Bullet Productions series of Faction Paradox audios. Both series are really good to listen to, starring two members of Faction Paradox against the back drop of a Time War and including the odd recognizable faces from Doctor Who.

Magic Bullet Productions also does an audio series called Kaldor City. This audio series features characters from the Doctor Who story Robots of Death and also the Blakes 7 characters of Carnell and an older, far more cynical and ruthless, Avon going under the name of Kaston Iago. The latest special episode (the series proper is complete) had someone interviewing Iago where he details the entire events of Blakes 7 in hilarious fashion. And how he survived the end of Blakes 7's infamous ending is priceless.

And my last recommendation is something everyone should enjoy because you can download it for free from the website! The Minister of Chance is a Doctor Who spin off featuring the Time Lord character of the Minister (from the DW audio Death Comes to Time). It's funded by contributions from listeners and although this set up sounds like a fan production it is actually official and professionally produced with names such as Paul McGann, Paul Darrow, Tamsin Grieg, Sylvester McCoy, etc. Here's the site:

http://www.ministerofchance.com/The_Minister_of_Chance/Home.html

Just click on Episodes and download at your leisure :smile: .

[DoctorDodge]

Downloaded the first ep ages ago, still haven't gotten around to listening to it yet. Just too much Big Finish to listen to every month. (Not that I'm complaining. :D)

Speaking of which: less than a month to go before the fifth series of Jago & Litefoot is released next month! I've enjoyed the hell out of every single story so far, and I really enjoy the direction they take with each individual series. (My favourite is the introduction of Claudius Dark at the end of series 3, what a wonderful "WTF?!" cliffhanger to end the series on.) The latest cliffhanger, which wasn't the end of the last series but at the end of two specials, has me curious over whether it'll have quite the same charm that the first 4 series had.

[Bryant Burnette]

I've listened to a handful of the Big Finish Doctor Who stories, and I was very impressed by them. I don't have the money to buy them all, or the time to listen to them even if I did ... but it warms my heart to know they're out there.

I think it's a terrific medium, personally, and -- this probably goes without saying but I'll say it anyways -- I'd love to see Stephen King create a story specifically for that medium at some point.

[DoctorDodge]

Hey, glad to know someone else out there knows the awesomeness of BF! If I'm really honest, quality wise, I think they're better than the tv stuff. Not that I don't enjoy the tv series, but I do appreciate that audio can more realistically go places that the tv series can't do as convincingly, either due to budget or the age of actors, or purely for the unique advantages of audio.

Agreed that it'd be great for Stephen King to write something exclusively for the medium. Question is, what kind of story would he do if he did have the chance?

(Btw Bryant, if you wanted to get at least one or two of Big Finish's audio stories cheap, there's currently a sale on the Eighth Doctor stuff on their website until March 2nd: http://bigfinish.com/ranges/released/eighth-doctor-adventures)

[DoctorDodge]

Listening to right now...

http://merchandise.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/jago-litefootseries-5.jpg

The bros are back! :D

[DoctorDodge]

http://www.bigfinish.com/img/release/dark-eyes-3-3d-coverb_cover_large.jpg

Halfway through this series. While it hasn't quite reached the highs of the first series of Dark Eyes just yet (which is an epic, epic listen, a great jumping on point, and McGann gives a brilliant performance in it), it's still a great listen. Alex MacQueen especially is great as the main villain, and it's great to see him in a larger role. I'll be curious to re-listen to it when Dark Eyes 4 is released next year and finishes the arc off. There's a nice grand story with this one, and it's great to see how the Doctor develops across this arc.

And have I mentioned how much I love Paul McGann? :D

[Jon]

Wonderful Thread!