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

After all the love and enthusiasm shown for the first two volumes of Dan Dare: The Audio Adventures, B7 Media have never stopped planning to round off the series with Volume 3 – and it’ll launch to coincide with Dan Dare’s 70th anniversary net year.

Given indie audio production can be quite a challenge to fund, especially with a large cast of regular characters, the company has decided to launch a ‘Crowdfund’ campaign on Indiegogo to help cover the cost of producing a new series of 3 x 75-minute audio adventures.

The key cast members have agreed to return: Ed Stoppard (Dan Dare), Geoff McGivern (Digby), Heida Reed (Peabody) and the Mekon himself, Raad Rawi, plus the original writers and production team are all signed up. The new series has been storylined by Colin Brake (Bugs, Doctors, EastEnders). As next year marks the 70th anniversary of the Dan Dare ‘s debut appearance in the Eagle, it would be a crime not to have Colonel Dare and his team back in the air – and on it – for this milestone.

The pre-launch campaign via Indiegogo is being officially announced at the Lakes International Comics Festival today (click here for more details) and the full Crowdfunding campaign will become active in late November 2019 with lots of  collectible perks only available via the campaign,  including an exclusive opportunity for three key investors to be an extra in each new episode. There’ll also be a limited edition 70th anniversary 12 CD booklet (for investors only) and of course, passes to the Launch Party!

Director and producer Andrew Mark Sewell told Sci-Fi Bulletin, “I had an absolute ball directing the first series of Dan Dare and can’t wait to get back in the cockpit of the Anastasia for another thrilling series of stories. As I’ve always said in an era of such uncertainty we are certainly in need of a hero like Dan Dare to lift our spirits.”

Series producer Helen Quigley added, “Sci-f and audio drama are two of my passions, so to be part of the team behind Dan Dare’s audio adventures is an absolute honour. The first two volumes were epic and exciting to listen to, so I’m very much hoping fans of audio, comics and Dan Dare agree to help us with the third and get him off the ground yet again!”

Script editor and writer Colin Brake explains further:

Dan Dare is the exemplary British adventure hero. Like his aviator predecessor Biggles, he represents the best of British qualities: courage, determination, stoicism and a wry sense of humour. At our first writers’ meeting for the new Dan Dare Audio Adventures we had a fantastic time talking through the first six adaptations that would make up Volumes One and Two but that was just part of our discussion. We also spent hours talking through the details of the wider Dan Dare fictional universe, about ambitious plans for future episodes and new challenges for Dare and his friends.

When Ed Stoppard, Geoff McGivern, Heida Reed, Michael Cochrane and Raad Rawi came together in the studio – alongside our other talented actors – their enthusiastic and pitch-perfect realisations of the scripts brought Dan and the other characters to vibrant life. Being present at the recording I know that this is a team that need to have more adventures…

Volume Two concluded with Dan defeating and capturing the Mekon, but this was merely a chapter ending, not the end of the story. Even when writing that epic finale, I was thinking about, and seeding, story possibilities for sequels. Building on the events chronicled in Volumes One and Two, in the proposed third volume of adventures Dan and his friends will travel further than ever before: to the edge of known space, where they will face their greatest challenges yet…

The first adventure – All Treen Must Die – opens with the preparations for the trial of the Mekon, but after an audacious prison break Dan and his crew find themselves in a race to catch their alien nemesis before he can reach his old home on Venus.

The second adventure – Operation Dark Star – reunites Dan with his Uncle Ivor, who leads Dan and Digby on a mission to a space station hidden near Pluto. This Dark Star station guards a stable Einstein-Rosen bridge: a wormhole through space/time. But an old enemy has taken charge of both the space station and the wormhole…

Meanwhile, Peabody is on a voyage of discovery of her own. Tasked by Sir Hubert to investigate a power struggle in the boardroom of her employers Eagle Corporation, she uncovers a series of shocking secrets that threaten to change everything…

In the final adventure – Terra Nova – the crew of Anastasia travel though the Dark Star wormhole and reach the alien planet Dan’s father found years ago. Terra Nova is revealed to be a battleground; the last planet holding out against the alien Vora’s apparent unstoppable advance across the known universe. With all the planets of our Home Solar System at risk, can the Mekon and Dan find a way to work together to stop the Vora once and for all? Or will it take the ultimate sacrifice to carry the day?

In these dark and troubled times, we need heroes like Dan Dare more than ever, to inspire hope for the future. In 2020 we celebrate seventy years since Dan’s first appearance in the pages of the Eagle. Surely now is the time for Dan, Digby and Peabody to continue their new audio adventures? Time for the Anastasia to launch again into the unknown? Time for Dan Dare to venture to the edge of our solar system – and beyond…

Spaceship Away!

You can read our reviews of volume 1 and volume 2 here as well as our interview with Andrew Mark Sewell here