audio

The success of Doctor Who in the U.K. has made the genre very sexy for actors and the BBC is cashing in with a season of radio dramas. The shows are just getting underway and promotion for them has begun in earnest.

The list of original dramas is quite impressive and you will be able to listen to them for 7 days online after they are broadcast, although they might live longer on Radio Archive.

Speaking of Doctor Who, he's not only a television character, but has also appeared on the radio. In 1985, there was a long gap between seasons and a special radio drama was produced to fill the gap. Because of budget problems, the following TV series aired fewer episodes. The ones that were never produced are now going to be brought back to life as audio adventures and will be voiced by original cast members.

In what seems to be a weekly exercise on TWATEOTU, here is a round-up of recent interviews with science fiction authors. The writers who spoke to the press are:

• Iain Banks
• L.E. Modesitt
• Maureen McHugh

In other novelist news, Larry Niven has a new writing project, but this time he's creating a video game universe, one that is not based on any of his previous writing. I guess SF authors are good at world-building for their novels so it makes sense that they'd be able to do it for games.

Iain Banks,who was mentioned above, is most famous among science fiction fans for his Culture novels. One of those books, The State of the Art, is being adapted as a radio play on BBC. It would be great if all of his Culture books got similar treatment.

One of the great things about the internet is that it is resurrecting old media once thought dead, such as radio drama.

While there are plenty of old-time genre-related series to explore online, we're also seeing new-time radio shows being produced. One example worth discovering is Decoder Ring Theatre. It's the perfect thing to add to your playlist when you get bored of listening to the same old tunes on your MP3 player.

Something else to add to your library are genre-related podcasts. One relatively new addition to that scene that will interest book readers is the Tor podcasts. Take the time to listen to these recordings of a panel at the last Worldcon that discussed the effects of blogging on the science fiction community.

But audio is getting old and we're seeing more and more video designed to be consumed on portable multimedia players. One video podcast that's making itself is Galacticast which is produced right here in Montreal. It's lots of fun and at only 5 minutes per episode is the perfect length for when you're on the go.