Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

Riding high on a recent surge in audiobook downloads, (2billion hours of audio downloaded in the last year, from 1billion in 2014) and with the critical and popular success of Alien: Out of the Shadows, Audible laid on a unique special event to preview their latest full cast audio drama set in the Alien universe. Greg D. Smith reports…

There can be few more appropriate places to hold such an event than the Planetarium. Sitting slightly reclined beneath the spectacular dome, with a starlit sky projected above you in the darkness, the atmosphere was perfect for listening to a tense sci-fi adventure.

In charge of proceedings was the Planetarium’s resident Astronomer Tom Kerss, who took some time to set the mood, giving a brief tour of the night sky and several major constellations, how to spot the Pole Star (not the brightest star in the sky, as many assume) and then zooming us in on Zeta Reticuli, the actual binary star system in which the fictional LV-426 can be found, explaining the desire of the original writers to ground their nascent extra-terrestrial horror story in as real a world as possible.

Mood set, the audience was treated to a selection of samples played from the drama itself. Three short scenes were heard, two of which served to set up some of the new characters we meet in this story sandwiching one which re-acquaints us with an old friend. The combination of the slickly produced audio and the atmospheric slow rotation around LV426 and its accompanying planet on the dome above combined for an immersive listening experience.

Following the sample, we were treated to a little more information about the specific stars 55 Cancri (part of the Cancer formation of stars) and their five known ‘exoplanets’ – these would be the target of the ‘space beaming’ of the audio drama at the end of the evening.

A brief video showed interviews with director Dirk Maggs, known for his work on the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Neverwhere for BBC (among others), and some of the impressive cast, as well as brief glimpses of them at the mic, and then we were led outside for the final spectacle – the live dedicated space transmission of the drama to the stars, where in around 40 years’ time, any aliens living there with the equipment to pick it up will get an idea of just how scary and gribbly we assume that they are.

Watching the transmission, complete with spotlights and dry ice adding extra atmosphere to the cold evening, it felt like a fitting end to this first-of-its-kind event. Audible are clearly heavily invested in moving forwards with this exciting new market, and for fans of the Alien franchise, this can only be a good thing.

Alien: River of Pain is released on April 26 from Audible.