Dan Dare: The Audio Adventures, Volume Two

This is the second half of a collection of six radio episodes based on the Dan Dare comics of the 1950s. While I enjoyed the first volume, I should mention that it seems to have been very unpopular with fans of the original. I suspect this is due to a less optimistic vision of the future, giving a darker tone than the ‘50s comics probably had; trying to copy the source material too directly likely wouldn't work with modern readers/listeners. Either way, this is an updating and, if it still has a distinct retro-feel from my perspective, it might not do the same for those more familiar with the original. And, honestly, this isn't quite as good as the first volume.

Reign of the Robots – The first story is the only one in the collection that's out of sequence compared with the comics. It's taken from the third part of the trilogy that followed “Prisoners of Space”, meaning that it was originally the eighth storyline. While that necessitates a different explanation of how Dare and the others got into this situation in the first place, the plot from then on does at least approximate the original, with the Mekon having conquered the Earth in Dare's absence using an army of robots. The comics apparently didn't dwell too much on what this implied (concentration camps being, one suspects, far too recent a memory even if they'd been suitable for a children's comic) but this presents a distinctly bleak picture, albeit not in any great detail.

The plot, at least of this version, isn't entirely plausible and involves a fair bit of skulduggery that the comics apparently lacked, although the conclusion does involve a suitable degree of heroism. I'll also note that Peabody is more positively portrayed than she was in the first volume, even if Dare is often slow to twig what she's getting at. 3 stars.

Operation Saturn – This story begins promisingly, with a spaceship that had long been thought lost turning up in Earth orbit and transmitting an alien signal. Dare and Digby go to investigate, escape a perilous situation, and eventually find themselves heading off for Saturn. The resulting plot has little to do with the original, using similar themes and some of the same characters, but otherwise striking out on its own. That may be because the original comic book story – the first not to be fully written by creator Frank Hampson – is apparently not very popular with fans, as well as being a little hard to swallow in this modernised take. But it's not obvious to me that what we get here is much better. The villains are just evil for the sake of it and the story is predictable, lacking in any real inventiveness once we reach Saturn.

The final segment, setting up the next story, sees Dare ruminating about humanity's potential for evil and whether things can ever get better, which isn't necessarily bad, but must be one of things that upsets the fans of the techno-optimism espoused by the '50s comics. There are some good moments in the story, many of them courtesy of Digby, who is well-written here, but the feel of adventure is more lacking in the second half than I suspect was the intent. 3 stars.

Prisoners of Space – The final story in the set borrows from the fifth one in the original comics and, in doing so, introduces ‘Flamer' Spry, a space cadet sidekick who would go on to become a regular. Or, at least he did in the comics; here he plays only a minor role in the latter parts of the episode and, anyway, there are no further episodes for him to become a regular in. That aside, the story starts out following that of the comics, albeit with adjustments made to suit the changes in the larger plot arc, and with a lot less running down corridors and hiding in ventilation ducts. This means that it's essentially a revenge plot with the Mekon (he denies being motivated by revenge, but he's fooling absolutely no one) trying to lure Dare into an inescapable trap.

Once that bit's over, though, the ending is entirely different, making reference to historical events that hadn't happened when the comics were written and based on technology that's a common SF trope these days but had barely been conceived of in the ‘50s. There's a fair chunk of exposition at this point, dealing with darker elements of the audio backstory that have absolutely nothing to do with the comics... I can well understand why fans might find them nothing less than an affront. If, however, like me, you have no attachment to the original, they work well enough, even if they aren't exactly treading new ground in SF. The story does have a proper conclusion, but it's open-ended, leaving room for a second season that was never commissioned. 4 stars.