Familiar Faces New Adventures series
"Zygons: Homeland" by Paul Dearing
The UN Military and their scientific adviser Guy Dean find an international conspiracy with ties from England and Colombia, and somehow it is linked to a name familiar from their files: 'Zygon'.
Directed by Nicholas Briggs, there's some nice twists, some predictable, some not. A large mystery is hinted at for the main character, who seems to know more than the average human and delights in irritating the Colonel, but that is never resolved.
This story was hard to listen to without trying to insert a particular Doctor and a companion who also had initials of JG. It did get to the point where I was accepting Guy Dean as a sort of Doctor/Jason King character...until the end where the writer, after using fairly standard Zygon props, seems to forget the listeners might remember the Zygon ship from the series, and opts for depressing rather than action.
The CD has one major production problem in that the initial release has no tracks--no breaks/chapters/bands. I have learned that later releases will have the tracks reinserted, but this release is difficult to listen to, because the listener cannot stop at any point and go back to where she/he left off. Whenever you stop, you have to relisten to the entire CD FROM THE BEGINNING to get to the spot where you left off. And there are a number of times when the reaction is what just happened? but you can't go back and listen again.
The cast includes John Albasiny as Guy Dean, Andrew Fettes as the Colonel, Kirsty Yates as Julie, Nicholas Briggs as the Captain, Susan Travers as Morag, Andrew Molton as Daniel Gabriele, and David Sax and Arthur Wallis (Nicholas Briggs) providing Zygon voices. Music and post production is by Harvey Summers.
Approx. 60 minutes
Recommended, but you might want to wait for the
version with tracks.
Adventures in A Pocket Universe
"The Search" by Mark Duncan
Archaeologists from the planet Herta, surveying star systems for signs of 'The Ancients' happen upon a deserted Dyson sphere. Meanwhile, The Mistress and K9 are still working on their time/space travelling vessel. A test run of the vessel brings them to the same Dyson sphere, which they decide to explore for needed parts. But were the two landings coincidence? Is K-9's odd behavior due to the radiation level within the sphere or something else?
The ideas start out large and vast, but I found myself wondering why there were corridors within a Dyson sphere and how convenient it was that both parties managed to pick the same entry portal out of all that huge amount of space. Otherwise, the story has good science details, some nice 'day in the life of Mistress and K9' elements, an interesting mystery but an overdone 'archeologist possessed by religious fervor'. The Mistress and K9 are still a great team to listen to.
The cast includes Lalla Ward as The Mistress, John Leeson as K9/Zorin, Graeme Du-Fresne as Kimmel and Vulich, Mike McCormack as Caloyer, and Bryonie Pritchard as Jora. Post production and music by Michael Neilson, and Bill Baggs directed.
60 minutes.
Recommended.