Hi folks, Starting this Friday, I will once again be presenting TBRN with some great sci-fi and fantasy audio drama. Tune into the Rejected Realms from 5 AM eastern, 8 PM QLD (local time) to either start your day or end it with tales of the unknown and the unseen, of dreams, prophecies and lies and all the times, places and people that might exist, someday, somewhere. Yes, that was as much of a cheesy call-back to the 50s as it looked like.
We're starting with something that isn't so unknown to most people, but was writte, for the most part, before the 50s, though the radio adaptation we're playing wasn't made until 1981. Tolkien's epic "the Lord of the Rings" with its poetry, its depth and the power of its story, redefined fantasy forever. Perhaps the best and most faithful adaptation made, this series is also one of my personal favourite productions of all time, largely thanks to the amazing performances by a very believable and surprisingly recognizable cast. After that, we'll be following up with a very different kind of fantasy from another era. Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy were some of my favourite books of all time immediately upon my having read them. I've been waxing lyrical (so to speak) about them plenty in my Live Journal already, but what we will be playing is the very rare 2003 radio adaptation of the trilogy. If you didn't like the Golden Compass, or even if you did, this will be a fascinating alternative, and probably very interesting in its own right. Some of Pullman's concepts do not lend themselves well to audio, so I am quite apprehensive about how they can be translated without a lot of awkward dialogue, but such things have been done very well before. Of course, there are always in depth discussions, in which everyone will hopefully be able to have their say, and that's a large part of what makes this all so interesting. The more people who get involved, the more interesting it is. Audio drama is a medium of entertainment that is often perceived to be superfluous now that TV is around. It has lost a lot of popularity in the last couple of decades, but the picture is missing for a reason and I think, from any vantage point, that kind of entertainment is still very necessary. Ironically, science fiction especially and fantasy also, two of the genres which because of the imagination that goes into them anyway logically work best on audio are slipping into an unpopular niche market and being taken less and less seriously. The Rejected Realms is my little platform with which I hope to prove to at least some new listeners both that audio drama can be just as good and sometimes better than any other form of entertainment, and that sci-fi and fantasy are really just stories like any other stories about real people, of whatever kind, put into situations that are possible rather than probable. I know it's very very early for some people, but if you are awake, please check it out. I'll be broadcasting every Wednesday and Friday mornings, same time, same place, in an infinite number of universes from this Friday on. Jonathan, AKA JDX
