Kaldor City - Kaldor City Audio Plays

Kaldor City Audio Plays

In 1999, Magic Bullet Productions approached Chris Boucher to discuss the possibility of creating a range of audio plays based on the characters and concepts from his previous work relating to Kaldor City. Boucher gave his permission, working closely with producer Alan Stevens in creating a vision consistent with all that had gone before whilst also creating a new and interesting ongoing story. Boucher also wrote the second of the releases, the play Death's Head.

The plays feature a cast headed by Paul Darrow, Scott Fredericks and the late Russell Hunter, with, among others, David Baillie, David Collings, Philip Madoc, Peter Miles and Gregory de Polnay. They feature sound design, effects and music by Alistair Lock, and are co-directed by both Stevens and Lock.

The first three CDs can be heard on their own as standalone stories, but the final three form a serial, and should be listened to in order. From the early releases, it seemed that the series was telling a story of political intrigue and manipulation that was gearing towards the use of the robot workforce as a means of revolution, as shown previously in The Robots of Death and Corpse Marker. However, the fifth play Checkmate by Alan Stevens takes the theme of manipulation to a higher level, introducing the Fendahl from Boucher's Doctor Who serial Image of the Fendahl as the series' major villain, manipulating events in Kaldor City to ensure its own emergence. Once the Fendahl's involvement was made known, it was possible to return to the series' earlier installments and see the emergence foreshadowed: for example, Uvanov is given a painting of a Fendahleen, and Carnell muses about the existence of an alien grand manipulator whose goals and methods would be unknowable.