Dan Dare A Brief History

Produced to celebrate the launch of the new #audio adventures from B7 Media and Big Finish Productions, "A Brief History" takes a detailed look at one of Britain's most celebrated comic book creations, Dan Dare. From his first adventures in the Eagle, through reboots and reimagining, to adventures on television and radio, Dan Dare has adapted to his times, but always captivated audiences young and old.
Narrated by Geoffrey McGivern, produced by Andrew Mark Sewell and directed by Daniel Fox for B7 Media/Chat Noir Productions Ltd
Synopsis
Three audio adventures based on the Eagle comic strip “Dan Dare” created by Rev. Marcus Morris, written and drawn by Frank Hampson
Episode 1 - Voyage to Venus by Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle
Brilliant test pilot, Dan Dare, is chosen to fly the Anastasia - a new experimental spacecraft - on its maiden voyage to Venus. This isn’t exploration - it is to make first contact with a mysterious civilisation that has sent technological secrets as a goodwill gesture.
However, what Dan, Digby and Professor Peabody find on Venus isn’t goodwill, but a terrifyingly intelligent, cold-hearted ruler, the Mekon. A creature destined to become Dan Dare’s nemesis - and Earth’s greatest threat…
Episode 2 - The Red Moon Mystery by James Swallow
Unable to return to Earth, Dan Dare and the crew of the Anastasia head to the desolate planet Mars, where Dan's estranged Uncle Ivor is part of a research team working on a top-secret archaeological dig; but when they find the base wrecked and the scientists missing, Dare, Digby and Professor Peabody soon discover that the Red Planet is not nearly as dead as everyone thought and that Ivor’s expedition has woken an army of deadly insect-creatures that threaten to swarm and engulf the Earth… Dare must stop the aliens, but can he really resort to genocide in order to save the human race?
Episode 3 - Marooned on Mercury by Marc Platt
When a distress call summons the crew of the Anastasia to the burning wilderness of Mercury, they are reunited with their old ally, Sondar. He tells them of the beleaguered Mercurians who are held in thrall to a cruel new taskmaster - the Mekon! The exiled Mekon is rallying his forces, plotting a desperate revenge against his former homeworld of Venus and his hated enemy, Colonel Dan Dare!
A fourth disc, entitled New Worlds, presents music by Imran Ahmad from Dan Dare and a variety of other B7Media productions.
Written By: Richard Kurti, Bev Doyle, James Swallow, Marc Platt
Directed By: Andrew Mark Sewell
Cast
Ed Stoppard (Dan Dare), Geoff McGivern (Digby), Heida Reed (Professor Peabody), Michael Cochrane (Sir Hubert), Raad Rawi (The Mekon)
Bijan Daneshmand (Sondar), Amber Aga (Treen General), David O’Mahony (Flight Engineer), Kelly Burke (Flight Control/Ergulux), Dianne Weller (Onboard Computer), Hugh Fraser (Ivor Dare), Jake Maskall (Sergeant Scott), Jalleh Alizadeh (Corporal Dajani), Alistair Lock (Crewman Galloway/ Treen Captain), Greg Keith (Doctor Harlan Stoll), Diane Spencer (Teacher), Ryan Sewell (Flamer Spry), Nicholas Briggs (Garlock)
Associate Producer Fiona McAlpine
Development Producer Patrick Chapman
Series Script Editor Colin Brake
Executive Producer Simon Moorhead
Producer/Director Andrew Mark Sewell
Executive Producers for Big Finish Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
A B7 Production in association with Big Finish
order now from:
www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/d...
find out more information at:
www.bigfinish.com
/ bigfinish
/ thebigfinish
kzbin.info...

[@jerrycornelius2261]

I'm surprised by the inaccuracies in the commentary. The Eagle did not come out to counter American horror comics because in the 1950s American books and magazines could not be imported. Morris planned a 'Christian' alternative to existing comics in the UK. Hulton was one of the largest and best periodical publishers in the UK, already known for the quality of their production and content. They saw the commercial possibilities of the comic produced in gravure (like Mickey Mouse Weekly) and did an extraordinary and expensive publicity campaign to launch it with vans topped by giant eagles going around the country giving away copies of Number One and creating a buzz amongst us little boys so that we all asked for The Eagle to be delivered with the family papers. Dads got into it as well so the circulation was massive. Hilton were bought by Odhams, I think. Morris was soon squeezed out and Hampson, it was said, was fired after he had produced months of work for them. Bellamy had been drawing the back page religious strip and was brought in to do Dare. Far from influencing Science Fiction it was rather the culmination of a kind of SF being written in ASTOUNDING or NEW WORLDS AT the time. It was however a massive influence on other comics which followed like SUN, COMET. LION and TIGER. Captain Condor in LION was almost as successful as Dare!

[@melcomepay6668]

Yes ,I had Eagle! I also remember Journey Into Space..on the radio.

[@StopFear]

I know Dan Dare from the little crappy games on Speccy where the big head alien was the most memorable character.

[@dambaek.]

Superbly made little exposé!

[@1965bhm]

I knew nothing about this. Through the last week I had been listening to Elton John‘s “rock of the Westies“ album and he has a song on there called Dan Dare. Then this morning as I woke up and started brewing my morning coffee and opened KZbin, this showed up. Now it all makes sense and knew his inspiration for the song.

[@brutusmuerto]

This was pretty awesome! Only starting to understand the epicness of the forementioned Sci-Fi - era

[@j.dragon651]

The first I ever heard of Dan Dare was from Pink Floyd off UmmaGumma in Astronomy Domain. I could never quite get the lyric. I had to wait years for the CD to come out that had the lyrics with it. Then I had to research who Dan Dare was. My reaction was kind of like the reaction to the decoder ring in "A Christmas Story".

[@mikesmith2905]

Late to the party here but yes Dan Dare was pretty seminal to my generation. I make up sets of toy soldiers to give away and occasionally get asked for a sci-fi set. I was a Dan Dare fan in the 1960s and the Anastasia makes a good basis for an easy to model (the Zylbat is rather more of a challenge). It is a pity Airfix never did a Dan Dare figure set (with say a dozen 'troopers', a dozen 'treens' and a set of character figures).

[@charlesnorton8729]

Actually, there's 3 surviving episodes of the radio series, not 2. They were broadcast 5-days a week, not once a week and they were recorded onto tape and not wax disc. Apart from that, spot on.

[@lamportnholt9509]

Dan Dare....Radio Luxemburg...and did you know Rev Marcos originally wrote it as Dan Dare Vicar of the Future...

[@5cloudwalker]

Sadly Dan Dare slowly got diluted, the artists wandered away from the original style until it became almost unrecognizable.

[@IsaiahGBY]

Until 1975

[@stephenbaker7079]

Yes, the new reincarnation of Dan Dare in the 1990s reissue of the Eagle was nothing like the original and was a complete disaster!

[@aldadebater]

Netflix, I know what your next series should be!

[@scannaunderscore1]

This will be a movie next

[@MonsterHobbieShow]

I'm from Latin America and I just got to read Dan Dare a few days ago and I became an instant fan of the original work, it's been lots of fun to read and the design work was quite inventive and on point and the art itself is just really great and masterfully done. The later modern versions completely lack character charm and visual appeal, I think that is quite the wrong approach for it since it doesn't make much sense and feels disconnected or quite uninspired overall.

[@andrewparkerlarocca8591]

Was there a Dan Dare adventure in the 2000AD comic where he and his crew met Captain Kirk et al of the USS Enterprise?

[@Glasairman]

You inserted graphic illustration of Frank Hampson's team in the early DD style. Do you have a Photoshop macro for this style and if so, where can I get it?

[@amirtajer3687]

یادش بخیر ۱۰ سالم بود کیهان بچه ها زمان شاه داستانهای مصور خلبان بی باک منتشر میکرد و خیلی دوست داشتم❤❤❤❤❤❤💛💛💛💛💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

[@StopFear]

I wonder why is it that comics and comic book characters that are made in England for the English audiences just didn’t seem to take as much cultural root as American comics did in America?

[@skaizun]

"Dan Dare" was an "alternative to the American horror comics with their gruesome depictions of death." Uh, there was Superman, Batman, to name, but two, that had nothing to do with either horror or death, which most parents did not approve of. Horrible hyperbole made me stop watching the rest of the vid.