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Dan Dare: The Audio Adventures, Volume Two
Three further adventures based on the Eagle comic strip Dan Dare created by Rev. Marcus Morris and Frank Hampson
Episode 4 - Reign of the Robots by Simon Guerrier
Dan Dare and his crew finally return to Earth. Landing in central London, they find the city deserted - or that's how it seems at first. But soon Dare faces an army of ruthless machines, robots who have conquered the planet and placed the surviving humans in slave camps. The robots are too powerful and too numerous to be resisted, and their invasion is complete. With limited resources, Dare, Digby and Peabody face their greatest challenge yet - to liberate planet Earth. But the task becomes more desperate than ever when Dan discovers the alien force behind the robot invasion...
Episode 5 - Operation Saturn by Patrick Chapman
As work begins to rebuild planet Earth after the devastation of the robot invasion, Dare and his friends in Space Fleet remain vigilant, certain that it is only a matter of time before the Mekon launches a fresh attack. When the wreck of the Nautilus - an experimental ship lost over a decade before - appears in orbit of the moon, Dare, Digby and Peabody are sent to investigate. They find the ship and its crew were destroyed by advanced alien weapons. All clues lead them to Saturn’s moons. With Earth still vulnerable our heroes must journey to an unknown world - to discover who sent the Nautilus back, not realising that for once the source of their latest conflict comes from a lot closer to home. Not all would-be conquerors of planet Earth are alien...
Episode 6 - Prisoners of Space by Colin Brake
After a sequence of near non-stop adventures Dare, Digby and Peabody find themselves in a strange limbo of paranoid calm. Whilst there’s been no sign of the Mekon anywhere in the solar system, Dare is certain Earth hasn’t seen the last of the evil alien. Mysterious spaceship disappearances near Venus, an Academy student accidentally launching a prototype new spacecraft, and a floating prison cell in space... reveal themselves as all part of the Mekon’s latest plan to defeat his arch-enemy Dan Dare once and for all. The first season of Dan Dare concludes with daring space action, fearless heroics and the revelation of devastating secrets concerning Space Fleet...
A fourth bonus disc contains a documentary about the making of this series.
Episode 4 - Reign of the Robots by Simon Guerrier
Dan Dare and his crew finally return to Earth. Landing in central London, they find the city deserted - or that's how it seems at first. But soon Dare faces an army of ruthless machines, robots who have conquered the planet and placed the surviving humans in slave camps. The robots are too powerful and too numerous to be resisted, and their invasion is complete. With limited resources, Dare, Digby and Peabody face their greatest challenge yet - to liberate planet Earth. But the task becomes more desperate than ever when Dan discovers the alien force behind the robot invasion...
Episode 5 - Operation Saturn by Patrick Chapman
As work begins to rebuild planet Earth after the devastation of the robot invasion, Dare and his friends in Space Fleet remain vigilant, certain that it is only a matter of time before the Mekon launches a fresh attack. When the wreck of the Nautilus - an experimental ship lost over a decade before - appears in orbit of the moon, Dare, Digby and Peabody are sent to investigate. They find the ship and its crew were destroyed by advanced alien weapons. All clues lead them to Saturn’s moons. With Earth still vulnerable our heroes must journey to an unknown world - to discover who sent the Nautilus back, not realising that for once the source of their latest conflict comes from a lot closer to home. Not all would-be conquerors of planet Earth are alien...
Episode 6 - Prisoners of Space by Colin Brake
After a sequence of near non-stop adventures Dare, Digby and Peabody find themselves in a strange limbo of paranoid calm. Whilst there’s been no sign of the Mekon anywhere in the solar system, Dare is certain Earth hasn’t seen the last of the evil alien. Mysterious spaceship disappearances near Venus, an Academy student accidentally launching a prototype new spacecraft, and a floating prison cell in space... reveal themselves as all part of the Mekon’s latest plan to defeat his arch-enemy Dan Dare once and for all. The first season of Dan Dare concludes with daring space action, fearless heroics and the revelation of devastating secrets concerning Space Fleet...
A fourth bonus disc contains a documentary about the making of this series.
Audio CD
First published January 1, 2017
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About the author
Colin Brake
50 books33 followersColin Brake is an English television writer and script editor best known for his work for the BBC on programs such as Bugs and EastEnders. He has also written spin-offs from the BBC series Doctor Who. He currently lives and works in Leicester.
Brake began working on EastEnders in 1985 as a writer and script editor, being partly responsible for the introduction of the soap's first Asian characters Saeed and Naima Jeffery. From there, he went on to work as "script executive" on the popular Saturday night action adventure program Bugs, before moving to Channel 5 in 1997 to be "script associate" on their evening soap Family Affairs.
In the early 2000s, Brake wrote episodes of the daytime soaps Doctors and the revival of Crossroads.
Away from television, Brake had his first Doctor Who related writing published as part of Virgin Publishing's Decalog short story collection in 1996. He then had his first novel Escape Velocity published by BBC Books in February 2001 as part of their Eighth Doctor Adventures range based on the television series Doctor Who. At the time, Brake was quoted as saying how appropriate it was that he was now writing for Doctor Who, as he was briefly considered as Eric Saward's replacement as script editor on the show - a job that eventually went to Andrew Cartmel instead.
Brake followed Escape Velocity with the Past Doctor Adventure The Colony of Lies in July 2003, and then with the audio adventure Three's a Crowd from Big Finish Productions in 2005. His Tenth Doctor Adventure The Price of Paradise was released in September 2006. He has also written an audio for their Bernice Summerfield range, and a short story for their Short Trips range.
Brake began working on EastEnders in 1985 as a writer and script editor, being partly responsible for the introduction of the soap's first Asian characters Saeed and Naima Jeffery. From there, he went on to work as "script executive" on the popular Saturday night action adventure program Bugs, before moving to Channel 5 in 1997 to be "script associate" on their evening soap Family Affairs.
In the early 2000s, Brake wrote episodes of the daytime soaps Doctors and the revival of Crossroads.
Away from television, Brake had his first Doctor Who related writing published as part of Virgin Publishing's Decalog short story collection in 1996. He then had his first novel Escape Velocity published by BBC Books in February 2001 as part of their Eighth Doctor Adventures range based on the television series Doctor Who. At the time, Brake was quoted as saying how appropriate it was that he was now writing for Doctor Who, as he was briefly considered as Eric Saward's replacement as script editor on the show - a job that eventually went to Andrew Cartmel instead.
Brake followed Escape Velocity with the Past Doctor Adventure The Colony of Lies in July 2003, and then with the audio adventure Three's a Crowd from Big Finish Productions in 2005. His Tenth Doctor Adventure The Price of Paradise was released in September 2006. He has also written an audio for their Bernice Summerfield range, and a short story for their Short Trips range.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 1, 2023
This is the second half of a collection of six radio episodes based on the Dan Dare comics of the 1950s. While I enjoyed the first volume, I should mention that it seems to have been very unpopular with fans of the original. I suspect this is due to a less optimistic vision of the future, giving a darker tone than the ‘50s comics probably had; trying to copy the source material too directly likely wouldn’t work with modern readers/listeners. Either way, this is an updating and, if it still has a distinct retro-feel from my perspective, it might not do the same for those more familiar with the original. And, honestly, this isn't quite as good as the first volume.
Reign of the Robots – The first story is the only one in the collection that’s out of sequence compared with the comics. It’s taken from the third part of the trilogy that followed “Prisoners of Space”, meaning that it was originally the eighth storyline. While that necessitates a different explanation of how Dare and the others got into this situation in the first place, the plot from then on does at least approximate the original, with the Mekon having conquered the Earth in Dare’s absence using an army of robots. The comics apparently didn’t dwell too much on what this implied (concentration camps being, one suspects, far too recent a memory even if they’d been suitable for a children’s comic) but this presents a distinctly bleak picture, albeit not in any great detail.
The plot, at least of this version, isn’t entirely plausible and involves a fair bit of skulduggery that the comics apparently lacked, although the conclusion does involve a suitable degree of heroism. I’ll also note that Peabody is more positively portrayed than she was in the first volume, even if Dare is often slow to twig what she’s getting at. 3 stars.
Operation Saturn – This story begins promisingly, with a spaceship that had long been thought lost turning up in Earth orbit and transmitting an alien signal. Dare and Digby go to investigate, escape a perilous situation, and eventually find themselves heading off for Saturn. The resulting plot has little to do with the original, using similar themes and some of the same characters, but otherwise striking out on its own. That may be because the original comic book story – the first not to be fully written by creator Frank Hampson – is apparently not very popular with fans, as well as being a little hard to swallow in this modernised take. But it’s not obvious to me that what we get here is much better. The villains are just evil for the sake of it and the story is predictable, lacking in any real inventiveness once we reach Saturn.
The final segment, setting up the next story, sees Dare ruminating about humanity’s potential for evil and whether things can ever get better, which isn’t necessarily bad, but must be one of things that upsets the fans of the techno-optimism espoused by the ’50s comics. There are some good moments in the story, many of them courtesy of Digby, who is well-written here, but the feel of adventure is more lacking in the second half than I suspect was the intent. 3 stars.
Prisoners of Space – The final story in the set borrows from the fifth one in the original comics and, in doing so, introduces ‘Flamer’ Spry, a space cadet sidekick who would go on to become a regular. Or, at least he did in the comics; here he plays only a minor role in the latter parts of the episode and, anyway, there are no further episodes for him to become a regular in. That aside, the story starts out following that of the comics, albeit with adjustments made to suit the changes in the larger plot arc, and with a lot less running down corridors and hiding in ventilation ducts. This means that it’s essentially a revenge plot with the Mekon (he denies being motivated by revenge, but he’s fooling absolutely no one) trying to lure Dare into an inescapable trap.
Once that bit’s over, though, the ending is entirely different, making reference to historical events that hadn’t happened when the comics were written and based on technology that’s a common SF trope these days but had barely been conceived of in the ‘50s. There’s a fair chunk of exposition at this point, dealing with darker elements of the audio backstory that have absolutely nothing to do with the comics… I can well understand why fans might find them nothing less than an affront. If, however, like me, you have no attachment to the original, they work well enough, even if they aren’t exactly treading new ground in SF. The story does have a proper conclusion, but it’s open-ended, leaving room for a second season that was never commissioned. 4 stars.
Reign of the Robots – The first story is the only one in the collection that’s out of sequence compared with the comics. It’s taken from the third part of the trilogy that followed “Prisoners of Space”, meaning that it was originally the eighth storyline. While that necessitates a different explanation of how Dare and the others got into this situation in the first place, the plot from then on does at least approximate the original, with the Mekon having conquered the Earth in Dare’s absence using an army of robots. The comics apparently didn’t dwell too much on what this implied (concentration camps being, one suspects, far too recent a memory even if they’d been suitable for a children’s comic) but this presents a distinctly bleak picture, albeit not in any great detail.
The plot, at least of this version, isn’t entirely plausible and involves a fair bit of skulduggery that the comics apparently lacked, although the conclusion does involve a suitable degree of heroism. I’ll also note that Peabody is more positively portrayed than she was in the first volume, even if Dare is often slow to twig what she’s getting at. 3 stars.
Operation Saturn – This story begins promisingly, with a spaceship that had long been thought lost turning up in Earth orbit and transmitting an alien signal. Dare and Digby go to investigate, escape a perilous situation, and eventually find themselves heading off for Saturn. The resulting plot has little to do with the original, using similar themes and some of the same characters, but otherwise striking out on its own. That may be because the original comic book story – the first not to be fully written by creator Frank Hampson – is apparently not very popular with fans, as well as being a little hard to swallow in this modernised take. But it’s not obvious to me that what we get here is much better. The villains are just evil for the sake of it and the story is predictable, lacking in any real inventiveness once we reach Saturn.
The final segment, setting up the next story, sees Dare ruminating about humanity’s potential for evil and whether things can ever get better, which isn’t necessarily bad, but must be one of things that upsets the fans of the techno-optimism espoused by the ’50s comics. There are some good moments in the story, many of them courtesy of Digby, who is well-written here, but the feel of adventure is more lacking in the second half than I suspect was the intent. 3 stars.
Prisoners of Space – The final story in the set borrows from the fifth one in the original comics and, in doing so, introduces ‘Flamer’ Spry, a space cadet sidekick who would go on to become a regular. Or, at least he did in the comics; here he plays only a minor role in the latter parts of the episode and, anyway, there are no further episodes for him to become a regular in. That aside, the story starts out following that of the comics, albeit with adjustments made to suit the changes in the larger plot arc, and with a lot less running down corridors and hiding in ventilation ducts. This means that it’s essentially a revenge plot with the Mekon (he denies being motivated by revenge, but he’s fooling absolutely no one) trying to lure Dare into an inescapable trap.
Once that bit’s over, though, the ending is entirely different, making reference to historical events that hadn’t happened when the comics were written and based on technology that’s a common SF trope these days but had barely been conceived of in the ‘50s. There’s a fair chunk of exposition at this point, dealing with darker elements of the audio backstory that have absolutely nothing to do with the comics… I can well understand why fans might find them nothing less than an affront. If, however, like me, you have no attachment to the original, they work well enough, even if they aren’t exactly treading new ground in SF. The story does have a proper conclusion, but it’s open-ended, leaving room for a second season that was never commissioned. 4 stars.
Displaying 1 of 1 review