Quarter 4 Reviews - 12/13

015 Speculative Fiction – Old 

I found Aliens of the Mind from 1977 immensely enjoyable.  Vincent Price was more or less playing himself, as he did in The Price of Fear, but he made an excellent double act with Peter Cushing (whom I’m not sure I’d ever heard on radio before).  The writing could be at times extremely witty, making the most of Price’s American-ness.  Dr John Cornelius, the eminent brain surgeon, and Professor Curtis Lark (whose line is more into telepathy, etc.) meet in the remote isle of Luig in Scotland to investigate the death of their friend who died mysteriously.  They meet the sinister Reverend Scholar (pronounced Schooler; like many things Scottish in this play, a bit suspect!), the equally sinister housekeeper Molly Kyle, and the mentally ill Flora Kerrie.  After escaping a murder attempt, they realize, based on their deceased friend’s notes, that the island is full of mutants.  They are controlled mentally by a Controller, who can make them do anything.  There are two Controllers on the island, they realize, Flora and Molly; Flora lets Molly die in a fire that was intended for Curtis because Molly killed Flora’s mother.  Lark and Cornelius decide to take Flora to London for further tests.  This had some excellent effects, sounding very ‘70s Doctor Who, and while the Scottish accents were, as I indicated, a bit all over the place, overall it could not have been said to lack ambition!  Perhaps it moved a bit slow by today’s standards—and the way Flora was bullied by the two investigators verged on abuse—but overall it was a worthy entry in the annals of radio sci fi. I wonder if the Lark and Cornelius double act was ever repeated?  If not, it should have been.  By the way, it had nothing to do with aliens.  It was written by Robert Holmes and Rene Basilico and directed by John Dyas.

Black Queen to King’s Castle was a delicious story of Anne Boleyn’s ghost returning unknowingly to her childhood home of Blickling Hall when she thinks she has woken up the night of her execution in the Tower.  She recalls her life, her return from court in France where she is immediately sent to Henry Tudor’s court to fill in where her sister Mary has failed, after having already slept around at the French court (due mainly to her extremely ambitious father, determined to sacrifice his children on ambition’s altar).  Henry does eventually take notice of Anne, as she has been placed as Catherine of Aragon’s lady-in-waiting, but Anne is insistent that she will not yield her favors until Henry divorces.  Naturally, Anne’s triumph is short-lived after the birth of Elizabeth and a miscarried baby.  Her former allies, such as Thomas Cromwell, desert her.  She is heartened, however, upon returning to the twentieth century as a ghost, that her daughter Elizabeth was queen.  Well-written, this hinged on the tremendous performance by Katherine Pogson as Anne.  David Troughton was also quite convincing as the self-important Henry.  It was also rather spooky!  Written by Peter Wolf, it also starred Christopher Godwin, David Timson, Stephen Critchlow, Suzanne Heathcote, Peter Darnley, and Marlene Sidaway.  It was directed by Cherry Cookson in 2002.

Returning to the quarter’s theme of Australia, I adored The Voice of God by Simon Bovey.  The crusading Col. Walker (played with appropriate fanaticism by Geoffrey Beevers) has secretly been testing sonic warfare in remote Western Australia, sonic warfare that destroys all organic life in its wake—with the result being seismic disruptions, earthquakes all over Australia.  Unbeknownst to him, seismologist Sam Rideout (Claire Corbett), based in Australia, is teamed up with half-Aboriginal Joshua Pattamarrie (Matthew Ditinsky), who discover the secret base in the Australian desert and are forced to help with the testing—until the magnitude of the situation becomes apparent.  Written tautly and with some superb cliffhangers, the drama allows a lot of debate to flourish on whether Weapons of Mass Destruction, even if they’re only sonic, are ever justified—if the ends ever justify the means.  Furthermore, Joshua’s beliefs make it opaque as to whether the results are related to the ending of the Dreamtime or not.  I found it extremely enjoyable to listen to. Originally from 2006, it also starred David Thorpe, Beth Chalmers, John Cummins, Nick Sase, and Sophie Roberts.  It was directed by Marc Beeby.