Earthsearch is a little-known but very good radio drama series, that was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the early eighties. As stated in the opening of each episode, it is a "Ten Part Adventure Serial in Time and Space", but unlike that other big 1980's radio drama set in space, "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", this isn't a comedy.
I listened to Earthsearch many times whilst growing up, on tape cassettes that my Dad had recorded the show onto from the radio. I remember loving the adventure aspect of it, and though when I was younger I did not understand some of the more complicated aspects, I still enjoyed it a lot. I haven't listened to it for a few years now, but I've heard it so many times that I have full confidence in my memory for the purposes of this review!
**Background**
The radio drama series was written by James Follett, and was originally broadcast between January and March 1981 on BBC Radio 4. There are ten episodes, each half an hour long. Earthsearch II, the sequel, also comprising of ten half hour episodes was first broadcast a year later, between January and March 1982.
There are also novel versions of the series, written by Follett, and I have read these too. They differ slightly from the radio series, but not so much as to become unrecognisable. There was also a prequel written, "Mindwarp", which I believe was made into a radio series, however I have never heard this.
**Characters**
I'll talk about the characters first, so that I can refer freely to them in the plot section without inferring too much confusion. In Earthsearch, there's a cast of six main characters, with others on the sidelines. The four main characters are humans, friends, but as far as we know not related.
They are Telson, Sharna, Astra and Darv. The names alone give us an indication that this is set in the future; they are not commonplace names at all. Telson is the Commander of the spacecraft they all live on, and is the strong silent type. He's more serious than the others, more a stickler to the rules. Sharna is his counterpart, she's clever and resourceful, and likes to stick to the rules as well. Astra on the other hand is her complete opposite. We get the impression that she is slightly ditzy and naive, though the latter trait is not really a fault of her personality, more of the situation. Finally, there's Darv, who is my favourite character. He's headstrong, rebellious,
likes to break rules and generally seems to have more fun than the others.
Now, I mentioned that there were six main characters, and this is where it might become confusing as we're out of context. The final two characters aren't tangible, they're, as Darv puts it "disembodied voices". They are ANGEL One and ANGEL Two. Telson, Sharna, Astra and Darv have always considered them to be 'guardian angels', looking out for their health and growth. In reality, they are simply organic computers, "Ancillary Guardians of Environment and Life", who are power hungry megalomaniacs and crave immortality.
We have a few minor characters coming in a few of the later episodes; such as Thorden, the ruler of the planet Zelda 5 and Lenart, an excitable girl they find on the wreck of their sister ship.
In series two we're introduced to two further characters, Elka and Bran, however if I reveal who they are it will give too much of the plot away.
**Plot** (Spoilers!)
The plot is quite hard to get your head around, as you have to suspend belief slightly and put your faith in the fact that in the future there will be the ten-mile long spaceships and suspended animation chambers, such as the ones that are described in Earthsearch. However, I believe the first time I listened to Earthsearch I was around seven or eight years old, and I found it perfectly understandable. The characters are finding out what happens as we are, and so it does not become overly confusing.
Twenty-five years before the story begins, the crew of the starship Challenger were all killed in a Meteor Crash - all the crew but four babies. These babies were Telson, Sharna, Astra and Darv. Ninety years before, the first generation of the Challenger set out to search for an Earth-like planet for colonization, because the Sun in our solar system was near to becoming a supernova.
Throughout their childhood, the ship's onboard computers, the Angels, raised the four survivors. Angel One and Angel Two led Telson, Sharna, Astra and Darv to believe they were real guardian angels, and for the most part they accepted that, believed them and trusted them implicitly. We learn that the Angels have restricted the onset of puberty for the characters, to prevent any sexual relationships that may happen. They did this by feeding them only food that had been laced with drugs. When they reach twenty-five, the Angels show them a recording of what happened the night the rest of the crew were killed, and ask them if they want to continue the mission of searching for Earth-like planets, or to return to their home Solar System and Earth.
The four choose to return to Earth, unbeknowingly playing into the Angel's hands. For there is a fault in the computers that control them: they have become power hungry and megalomaniac and want to return to Earth so that they can rule it.
For twenty-five years, the Challenger travels back to our Solar System, and the four characters go into suspended animation, so they remain ageless. However, when the ship reaches our Solar System, they find that the Earth has gone and the Earth's moon is now orbiting in its place...
This is the catalyst of the "Earthsearch" in the title. Somehow, the crew must find out what has happened to the Earth, and the first stop is the Moon. There is a large 'citadel' on the Moon, and upon entering we learn that it is called "First Footprint City". The Moon's sentinel explains that whilst the Challenger has only been away for 115 years, one million years have passed in Earth time. When the Challenger (and its sister ships) failed to return from their missions, technology had advanced sufficiently that it was now possible to move the entire planet to a new solar system. Sounds impossible and slightly implausible? Yes, but for Science Fiction a fair amount of belief is needed, no matter how skeptical you may be.
From the Moon, they set off in a search for the Earth, encountering many problems along the way. There's the at-first unfriendly Zelda Five, a human colony ruled by Thorden. It is here that our four characters realise that they look different from normal humans, due to the suppression of puberty by the Angels. Unbeknownst to Telson et al, Thorden brings the unfriendly killer robot Fagor aboard; whose presence could prove disasterous.
They also encounter the wreck of Challenger Two, seemingly abandoned, but which has developed a strange world of its own. There are two groups of people on the ship (which you have to remember is ten miles long, so plenty of room for separate colonies), "The Underworld" - who are all women, and who creepily keep their men in suspended animation, only using them when they want to have a baby. They see Telson and Darv as 'new blood' and so there is a fight when they try to escape. The other group is "Holocaust City", who see Telson and Sharna as 'Gods' who must be sacrificed.
I won't ruin how the series ends, but rest assured it is a very good ending which leaves it wide open for the sequel, Earthsearch Two!
This is a wonderful series to listen to. The plot is fantastic, and though it sounds complex, the way it is presented to us is actually very understandable. None of the actor's voices are unpleasant; all are clear and well spoken. Angel One and Two have a "computer" sounding voice, and in the original recording, Angel One's voice came out of the left speaker, and Angel Two's out of the right. The Angel's voices are very creepy, and you have to wonder how the character's trusted them so implicitly.
The actors all have very distinctive voices, and as there are so few characters, there's no chance of getting any of them confused. There is no narration - it is all dialogue and sound effects. Speaking of sound effects, as this was the early eighties, they are not as wonderful as they would be now, but are perfectly sufficient and get the job done.
The entire series has a running time of five hours, but as each episode is only half an hour long, it's easily broken up and so could be listened to over a series of days. However - there is quite a nasty cliffhanger at the end of every episode, so you may very well listen to it all in one go!
**CD Version**
The only way you can get Earthsearch nowadays is to purchase the Special Edition CD's released in 2004. This is comprised of the ten episodes from series one, and the ten episodes from series two as well as a short introduction by its writer, James Follett. I myself do not have this version; my copy of the first series is on cassette tapes recorded from the radio, and the second series the official cassettes released by the BBC in the nineties, and so I cannot comment on the sound quality of this new version.
However, I have thought about replacing the cassettes, mainly because I no longer have a cassette player in my room, but when looking on Amazon I found that the CD set costs £65, which I think is ridiculously expensive! If I have interested you with this review, I would recommend looking on ebay instead of purchasing new.
**Extra Information**
-Cast- Commander Telson - Sean Arnold Sharna - Amanda Murray Darv - Haydn Wood Astra - Kathryn Hurlbutt Angel One - Sonia Fraser Angel Two - Gordon Reid
-Series One Episodes- 1. Planetfall 2. First Footprint City 3. Sands of Kyros 4. The Solaric Empire 5. The Pools of Time 6. Across the Abyss 7. New Blood 8. Marooned 9. Star Cluster: Tersus Nine 10. Earthfall
Several of the cast also appeared in the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings, also broadcast in the eighties. So you can hear Angel One (Sonia Fraser), playing Arwen. I found this to be quite odd; having listened to her voice and known her as the harsh, cruel Angel One, it was quite odd to hear her playing the graceful, sophisticated Arwen!
**Overall**
When I was younger I listened to a lot of BBC Radio Drama's (thanks in part to my Dad) and I have to say that Earthsearch is by far my favourite. It is a fantastic adventure in space, and so will appeal to fans of science fiction, but it is also about more than that; it's about the relationships of the characters, who over the course of the twenty episodes in both series, you really come to care about. The ending of Earthsearch Two is relatively ambiguous - all seems safe, the Angel's freewill destroyed, when Darv asks "They're just mindless, disembodied voices, isn't that right, Angel One?" And Angel One replies "Of course that's all we are Darv...disembodied voices..." This leaves the listener with the questions - did the Angels lose their freewill? What will happen to the characters if they haven't?
The series is well acted, the voice-actors have a lot of expression and although at times seem a little overly dramatic, I think this is needed for a radio drama, where there are no visuals. In many ways a radio series has to work harder than a book, where there is narrative to provide us with a description of surroundings etc. Here, all of the description has to come from the dialogue and the sound effects, and I know that I myself have a perfectly-formed view of how each character looks, how the Challenger looks and what the planets they visit are like.
Overall, I thoroughly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of sci-fi, and even those who aren't. If you can get your hands on a copy that doesn't cost the earth (no pun intended!), it's definitely worth a listen, and if you love it just as much as I do it will become a firm favourite.
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