James Swallow talks TrekLit

danjamesb · November 3 2009, 07:29 PM

Unreality-SF.net has interviewed the ever-busy James Swallow about some of his upcoming projects. He talks about Titan: Synthesis and Seven Deadly Sins: The Slow Knife, as well as some forthcoming Doctor Who and Stargate stories.

“Star Trek audio [plays] are certainly an idea that has been on my mind for a long time,” he sighs. “A few years ago, Gary Russell [then the executive producer at Big Finish, who produce the ongoing Doctor Who audios] and I discussed concepts for an original Trek series set aboard a new starship with a new crew, in the mould of the New Frontier and Starfleet Corps of Engineers stories, but Gary left to work on the Doctor Who TV series and it never went any further.” Another possible way to launch the idea of Star Trek audios was shot down for other reasons. “Some time later, I pitched a different concept to StarTrek.com for a webcast audio series, but changes among the site’s management and at CBS meant that it too fell through the cracks.” That hasn’t diminished James’ enthusiasm, though. “I still think it’s a great idea, and I’d love to make it happen.”

Read more here: http://unreality-sf.net/interviews/jmswa.html

Deranged Nasat · November 3 2009, 07:43 PM

Thank you for the link

Paris · November 3 2009, 09:04 PM

Great interview, and thanks for the link danjamesb. I too would absolutely love to listen to trek audioplays. Hopefully Mr. Swallow will succeed in spearheading the trek audioplay line one day

.

ChristopherPike · November 3 2009, 09:18 PM

It can't hurt to try... especially in the current climate. Better to go with one half or more cast members from an existing TV crew, alongside new creations that substitute actors who don't want involvement. Audio adventures with an all-new crew, one derrived from just the novels... that's a harder sell outside the fanbase. That's like Bernice Summerfield or Iris Wildthyme in the Doctor Who Big Finish range. Interesting, but of limited appeal outside the ultra hardcore.

Their emphasis is on expanding past eras and stories around classic series Doctors like Colin Baker or Paul McGann... both decent examples of never having reached their full potential onscreen but finally doing so beyond it.

JD · November 4 2009, 01:16 AM

Nice interview, thanks for sharing. I've never actually listened to any Audio Dramas, but I would definitely give them a try if some Trek ones to come out.

Turtletrekker · November 4 2009, 02:49 AM

^If you enjoy Star Wars as much as Trek, I highly recommend NPR's Star Wars radio dramatizations of the original trilogy written by the late, great Brian Daley. A New Hope was particularly good and is over six hours long, and features the voice talent of Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels. The Empire Strikes Back is "only" ten hours long, and adds Billy Dee Williams to the cast. Return of the Jedi is the only entry that's a little disappointing. It's only three hours long, so it doesn't add much, and the only original actor in it is Anthony Daniels. John Lithgow does a decent Yoda in Empire and Jedi, and Ed Asner does Jabba the Hut in Jedi completely in Huttese!

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Comp...09/ref=ed_oe_a

Also, if you're a fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the original radio play is also worth picking up.

http://www.amazon.com/Hitchhikers-Gu...7299197&sr=1-1

Christopher · November 4 2009, 03:47 AM

^Another highlight of the radio adaptations of Star Wars and TESB (and maybe RotJ, I don't know) is Brock Peters as Vader.

Turtletrekker · November 4 2009, 04:13 AM

^Oh, absolutely! I can't believe I forgot to mention him. And, yes, Peters does Vader in Jedi as well.

JD · November 4 2009, 05:32 AM

Sweet. If I've asked this before I apologize, but with these kind of audio dramas, do they usually have narration, or is it pretty much just like a TV show/movie only with out the visual elements? It doesn't make any difference to me either way, I was just curious.

Turtletrekker · November 4 2009, 05:47 AM

With Star Wars, there is a narrator at the beginning and end of each episode, but the bulk of the episode is just the actors acting (augmented by music and FX sounds). With Hitchhiker, the narrator is like a character just like in the books.

Steve Roby · November 4 2009, 02:01 PM

JD wrote:

Sweet. If I've asked this before I apologize, but with these kind of audio dramas, do they usually have narration, or is it pretty much just like a TV show/movie only with out the visual elements? It doesn't make any difference to me either way, I was just curious.

Depends. With Doctor Who, some stories are like TV shows without the visuals (in other words, like a lot of radio shows were, back before TV), some are stories read by a narrator, and a few are sort of in between.

tmclough · November 4 2009, 04:10 PM

Count me in as someone who would love a Star Trek audio drama.

Before getting into ST, I used to listen to OTR (Old Time Radio) recordings, mostly in MP3 format. Among the shows I would listen to regularly were a couple of SF series--Dimension X and X Minus One. Considering these shows came out in the 1950's, there were a lot of episodes about "World War III" or "The Nuclear War" and its aftermath. Almost like ST's Eugenics Wars, except ST shows much hope for the future than those two series ever did. That said, they were a lot better than your typical, SF, B Movie from the 1950's.

JD · November 4 2009, 06:06 PM

I've listened to some of the old radio shows too. Back when I was in grade school one of my teachers used to play them once or twice a week. It's been so long I don't really remember them though.

Paris · November 4 2009, 07:02 PM

JD wrote:

I've listened to some of the old radio shows too. Back when I was in grade school one of my teachers used to play them once or twice a week. It's been so long I don't really remember them though.

Doctor Who radioplays at school

? Those are some wicked-cool teachers you had

.

Christopher · November 4 2009, 07:18 PM

No, I think he's referring to old-time radio dramas such as those mentioned in the post above his. Shows from the '50s and thereabouts.

James Swallow · November 4 2009, 09:21 PM

There's plenty of Star Trek fan audio out there (Star Wars too), but as with a lot of amateur productions the quality can vary. Doing an officially-licenced Trek audio series is something that I've talked about many times with many people involved in different audio/radio productions, but I think the rights issue is pretty complex - for one thing, I'm not even certain if Simon & Schuster Audio have dibs on all Trek in the audio format, or just talking books...

Julio Angel Ortiz · November 4 2009, 11:33 PM

I've been wanting to see this for a while. A Star Trek full cast audio dramas series from Big Finish? Oh, man...

Come on, someone, make it happen!

Turtletrekker · November 5 2009, 07:22 AM

Turtletrekker wrote:

The Empire Strikes Back is "only" ten hours long, and adds Billy Dee Williams to the cast.

Correcting myself-- TESB, was ten episodes long equalling five hours. Sorry.

James Swallow wrote:

for one thing, I'm not even certain if Simon & Schuster Audio have dibs on all Trek in the audio format, or just talking books...

Didn't S&S do some original Captain Sulu audio adventures?

James Swallow · November 5 2009, 11:35 AM

Turtletrekker wrote:

Didn't S&S do some original Captain Sulu audio adventures?

Yup, that would be these:
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Captain_Sulu_Adventures

Fifteen years on, I'd like someone to try again...

Turtletrekker · November 5 2009, 11:41 AM

^I'd buy them!