Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Space Opera

When Earthman Arthur Dent learns that first his house and then his planet are about to be bulldozed, it’s the beginning of an interplanetary adventure for him and his friend, Ford Prefect. After fleeing Earth they hitch a lift with hoopy frood Zaphod Beeblebrox, who hurtles from one improbability to another - literally. With Trillian and Marvin the Paranoid Android in tow, the answer to life, the universe and everything is soon revealed: 42. But what was the question?

London, England, 1952. Meet the mercurial genius Professor Quanderhorn (James Fleet) - a maverick scientist with absolutely no moral compass. Join him and his rag-tag crew on their frontal-lobe-knotting escapades as they battle insane hybrid creatures: the Gorrirrel and the Squirrilla, to the death; become gods to a Stone-Age tribe; are engulfed in a Martian invasion of Earth; escape shipwreck on the Moon in a spacecraft powered by anger; and evade multiple fiendish traps in the Alien Ziggurat of Death. Will our crew of Brave Boffins survive?  

The year is 2099 and planet Earth is in crisis. A change in its orbit has resulted in days being 25 hours long (except Thursday, which hasn't existed for over a decade) and the extra months of Janril, Febtober, and Marchuary. In a post-apocalyptic England, the cattle-clasm has wiped out the majority of livestock and climate change has formed the drizzly season of Hamble. However, hope is at hand for the planet in the form of Professor Nebulous.

The first human colony on Mars is destined for destruction in a nuclear explosion. This tragedy is a fixed point in history. The laws of time dictate that it cannot - must never - be changed. But as the Doctor's darkest hour comes calling, he resolves to break the rules as he never has before.

Novelist, playwright and screenwriter James Follett wrote over 25 novels, more than 50 radio dramas and numerous TV scripts, including several episodes of Blake’s 7. He was one of the most borrowed authors in UK libraries, and his works have been translated into over a dozen languages. This anthology includes his finest radio plays and series – including many that have never previously been available before. Framing the collection is the special BBC7 programme Men, Martians and Machines, in which Follett himself introduces us to several of his most popular pieces.

From a problematic meeting with an alien princess to a horde of space tourists on a holiday from hell, life on the cruiser is never less than eventful. Indecisive Captain Taylor is faced with disaster when another of the fleet’s spaceships, The Indestructible III, suddenly explodes; relentlessly nice Communications Officer Karen embarks on a forbidden romance with ship’s engineer Stuart; and medical scientist Clive 55 causes chaos when he is arrested for murdering his 136 clones, and experiments with dark matter to catastrophic effect.

Written by veteran radio producer Charles Chilton, Journey into Space kept Light Programme listeners enraptured between 1953 and 1958. Almost eight million people tuned in to the interstellar adventures of Jet Morgan and his intrepid crew, making it the last UK radio drama serial to beat television in the ratings. This audio collection contains the complete Series 3 of the groundbreaking trilogy, as well as the special 90-minute sequel The Return from Mars.

The Doctor and Sarah arrive safely back on Earth—or do they? Why does the mysterious solder march straight over a cliff, and then reappear unharmed? Why are they attacked by sinister mechanics with built-in guns for hands? Why is a picturesque country village at first deserted, then filled with mindless zombies? And why are the Doctor and Sarah's best friends trying to kill them? Will they be in time to defeat the deadly Kraals and their terrifying android invasion of Earth?

Following an encounter with the Cybermen, the Doctor's life appears to hang in the balance—until, before the eyes of his companions Ben and Polly, his physical appearance is transformed! Disoriented after his regeneration, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to the Earth colony planet Vulcan. Ben and Polly are disturbed—the Doctor isn't the man he used to be. The Doctor is also worried; the colonists have found the remains of two Daleks, which they plan to revive! 

David Tennant, Anthony Head, Don Warrington and Shaun Dingwall read these five original stories featuring the Tenth Doctor. Also included in this collecton are behind-the-scenes conversations with the book's authors and readers.

‘Planet B’ is a virtual world with the slogan 'where you can be whatever you want to be.' Users can download themselves into it and play as a life-size avatars in a 3-D world. When Lioba Fielding dies in the real world, her boyfriend John Armstrong downloads himself into Planet B in an attempt to find her avatar. As he travels between various worlds he becomes entangled in an array of strange scenarios, teleporting from each adventure to the next with his companion Medley, a 'rogue avatar' who has no human controller.

Sci-fi comedy about the bizarre city of Undone - a weird parallel version of London. Edna Turner has moved to London to start a new job at entertainment magazine Get Out! When she arrives, she meets the strange Tankerton Slopes, who claims to come from a parallel version of London known as 'Undone'. Undone is 'where the weirdness comes from': where you can find pet tricks shows, medication designed to make you paranoid and the Undone delicacy ‘troubled eggs’. Weird things flow into London, and mundane things flow into Undone, making them the peculiar places they are. 

Arthur Darvill, Olivia Colman, James Albrecht and Nicholas Briggs read these four original stories featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

The Wheel. A ring of ice and steel turning around a moon of Saturn, and home to a mining colony supplying a resource-hungry Earth. It's a bad place to grow up. The colony has been plagued by problems. Maybe it's just gremlins, just bad luck. But the equipment failures and thefts of resources have been increasing, and there have been stories among the children of mysterious creatures glimpsed aboard the Wheel. Many of the younger workers refuse to go down the warren-like mines anymore. And then sixteen-year-old Phee Laws, surfing Saturn's rings, saves an enigmatic blue box from destruction.

In the great maze of the Powe Complex dwells the dreaded Nimon, a fearsome monster with immense scientific powers. The Nimon has promised to restore the Skonnan Empire to its former glory. But first it demands sacrifice - youths and maidens from the peaceful planet Aneth. The TARDIS collides with the spaceship delivering the victims, and the captured Romana is condemned to be sacrificed to the Nimon. Aided by the faithful K-9, the Doctor goes to the rescue. In the heart of the maze he confronts the Nimon and uncovers a terrifying plot to enslave the galaxy.

Four original stories featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory: In Hunter's Moon, the travellers visit Leisure Platform 9, where gamblers and villains mix with socialites and celebrities. In Touched By An Angel, the Weeping Angels are using history itself as a weapon - and the Doctor, Amy and Rory must stop them. In Paradox Lost, an ancient android is dredged from the Thames, with a message that can only be delivered to the Doctor. In Borrowed Time, by Naomi Alderman, the three friends go undercover at a bank where time is the commodity on offer for loan.

Landing on an apparently devastated planet, the Doctor and Romana make a horrifying discovery. The planet is Skaro, home-world of the Daleks. The Daleks are excavating in order to find and revive Davros, the scientific genius who first created them. They hope that he will give them the scientific superiority to break the deadlock with their Movellan enemies. Faced once more with the deadly and seemingly indestructible Daleks, the Doctor's wits and strength are stretched to their very limits.

On the serene planet Deva Loka, an expeditionary force from Earth is dangerously out of control. It's not only the peaceful race of the Kinda who are at risk. A gentle stroll in the lush jungle leads the Doctor and Adric to an unexpected confrontation - and puts them at the mercy of a maniac. But it is Tegan, lulled to sleep by mysterious wind-chimes, who comes closest to a danger than threatens not only her sanity but the existence of the whole planet.

In Daleks: The Chase the First Doctor and his friends must flee from the path of a Dalek execution squad. The Macra Terror awaits the Second Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie within an apparently idyllic Earth colony, whilst in Doctor Who and the Web of Fear the Yeti have colonised the London Underground, at the behest of the Great Intelligence. Doctor Who and the Mutants relates the oppression of the Solonian people at the hands of Earth authorities, and in Doctor Who and the State of Decay the Doctor, Romana, Adric and K9 encounter the terrifying Great Vampire.

Nine exclusive adventures featuring a multitude of Doctors and companions. The collection opens with a trilogy of stories set in the First World War—Men of War, Horrors of War and Fortunes of War—in which the First, Third and Sixth Doctors are pitted against a rogue element in time.