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

The legendary Pilot of the Future returns in three new adventures courtesy of B7 Media…

Dan Dare is, along with Biggles, Professor Bernard Quatermass and Doctor Who, one of the four pillars British TV genre fiction is built on. There are others of similar importance (Blake’s 7, Survivors and Star Cops all continue to cast a very long shadow) but those four are, for me, the elementals of the field. There’s interesting ground to draw between them too; two soldiers, two scientists, four men who would much rather talk their way out of situations than fight. And, in the case, of Quatermass and the Doctor, two men who wear their years, and the choices that shape them, especially heavily.

Of the four, Dan Dare, legendary Eagle comic character, is the one most commonly overlooked and this first boxed set of audio dramas seeks to redress that balance. It’s a smart idea, building on the previous, also great, also overlooked reboot written by Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine eight years ago. There, the main drive was the exploration of Dan as an old lion, the embodiment of a set of values that have been overlooked but may still be the key to salvation. Here, the focus is far more on the original comics and Colonel Dare’s younger days.

Which isn’t to say it’s staid or dull. This is a slick, streamlined trilogy of stories that takes one of the all-time greats, puts him in a newly kitted out and streamlined world and lets him and his colleagues soar.

A lot of that lies in the casting. Ed Stoppard’s Dan is, at first, a little off the shelf. He’s Maverick in a better uniform, Hal Jordan without the grey streaks and tendency towards sociopathy. But as the three plays unfold you get a really good sense of just who Dan Dare is. The brilliant pilot is the front. What lies behind it is a man driven by perceived familial shame and a painful sense of his own limitations. This Dan needs the people around him, possibly more than any incarnation prior to him.

That’s especially true of Heida Reed’s Professor Jocelyn Peabody. Peabody is the Daniel Jackson to Dan’s Jack O’Neill and all three plays do an excellent job of showing just how vital each character’s viewpoint is to the other. The way they learn from one another and become a cohesive team across the first season is subtle, understated and fun, evoking the Watson/Holmes friendship on Elementary in particular.

Peabody and Digby are traditionally the two hardest characters to get right. Peabody’s original job was to explain the plot and scream. Digby’s was… actually pretty much the same. Both of them get retooled here, with Peabody the representative of an aerospace corporation both vital to the mission and with its own agenda. That feeds back into the overall tone of the series, positioning it in a more complicated, and morally complex, universe than you might be expecting. That in turn clever protects the core concept but doesn’t leave anything feeling outdated.

Which is especially true of Digby, played by the always excellent Geoff McGivern. The perma-victim of old has been replaced by a delightfully laconic and very Northern badass. McGivern plays him as unflappable and just as Peabody is the brain to Dan’s brawn, Digby is the experience to his enthusiasm. He’s a career soldier, perhaps a little more experienced with deniable operations than he’s letting on and at the same time, completely genuine. He’s a pleasure to hear and gives every episode here the exact comic relief and bone dry humour it needs.

Elsewhere in the cast, Bihan Daneshmand is excellent as Treen revolutionary Sondar while Raad Rawi gives a wonderfully buttoned performance as the Mekon. Normally, the Mekon is the only villain able to defeat Davros in a shriek-off. Here, he’s a measured, calm, intellect. A spider at the centre of a web the width of the solar system and far more patient, and ruthless, than he first seems.

The three adventures collected here build on all this and act as a fun, smart, exciting entry point to this world. Voyage to Venus, adapted by Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle is a pacey and incident heavy pilot episode with the biggest incident count of the season. It’s epic scale stuff but the writing, performances and production never make it feel forced or too expansive. Plus, the linking conceit introduced here is a really smart way of tying the stories together and adding a little extra urgency.

The Red Moon Mystery, adapted by James Swallow, is the standout of the set. Dan, Professor Peabody and Digby investigate something very odd going on at a Mars research facility. Along the way, they confront ghosts from Dan’s past, the divided loyalties Professor Peabody is starting to worry she has, and a vitally important and ethically complicate decision. The dialogue crackles, the plot is thematically chewy and complex and the scientist/soldier dichotomy is front and centre. This is an immensely strong, entertaining and hopeful episode of audio drama and should be the blueprint for the series. It’s really that good.

Marooned on Mercury adapted by Marc Platt, drops the crew on Mercury and under the gun. Separated from each other and the ship, they must help the Mercurians rise up, defeat the Mekon and save an old friend. Fast paced, idea heavy and fun this is another strong entry but is brought down a little by the Mercurians themselves. If ever a series was going to have ‘What is this thing you call… friendship?’ style dialogue it’s Dan Dare, and this episode has it. It’s still great fun but it’s also slightly harder work than the previous two episodes.

The set is rounded out by a disc of Imran Ahmad’s excellent music. It’s subtle, clever, emotive work that fits this fantastic reintroduction to Dan Dare like a glove.

Verdict: One of the all-time greats is back and judging by this set, he’s in very safe hands. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart