Black Box : An Audio Drama : Part One: Ithaka

Alternative Stories and Fake Realities

Season: 3 Episode: 15

Published on Nov 27th at 6:00am

In Black Box, based on the novel by Kevan Manwaring, mankind is looking to the stars to find solutions to the failing climate on planet Earth.  We follow Captain Lake and Commander Boone on their missions.  Content warning; Swearing, drug references, peril, sexual references.

Black Box Part One : Ithaka, was written by Dr Kevan Manwaring, adapated from his original novel. 

In this episode you can hear:
Danyelle Ellett as Sentience
Lewie Watson as Captain Lake
Charlie Richards as Butler
Maisie Armah as Lake's wife
Chris Gregory as Salovar ("The Suit")
Kelli Winkler as Ultima Thule crew member
Other voices were by members of the cast

The presenter is Kelli Winkler
The original theme and incidental music are  by Chris Gregory
Sound effects are from freesound.org
Direction, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory

Thank you to Kevan Manwaring for beta listening this edition and to our actors for going above and beyond in the recording of their parts for this production.

You can follow Kevan Manwaring on twitter here
https://twitter.com/bardicacademic

 And read his regular blog posts here 
https://thebardicacademic.wordpress.com/

 You can hear Kevan speaking about his writing, about Black Box in particular and on the topic of climate fiction in our recent edition called “Climate Fiction”  Alternative Stories Series 3 Episode 13

We have made 3 pilot episodes of Black Box, the drama,  based roughly on the first 3 chapters of the novel.  We’ll be assessing the possibilities of dramatizing the whole story at a later date.  In the meantime we’d love to hear your thoughts on Black Box and particularly on whether you’d like to hear more.  You can drop us a note via office@alternativestories.com or tweet us with your thoughts 

 If you’re an audio drama producer and have ideas about how we could take Black Box into full production we’d be very grateful for your views.

 If you would like to check out more Science Fiction on Alternative Stories please look for our dramas A Memory of Robin by David Green,  The Ark by Madeleine F White, The Bomb by Emily Inkpen and Backdrop by Anna Orridge.  You’ll be able to find them by searching our content on any podcast platform

Content warning:  The character of Captain Lake is depicted as a drug user in Black Box.  In one scene within this episode Lake is heard taking drugs or "shooting up". If listeners are likely to be offended by this please do not listen to this episode. 

 Next week on Alternative Stories and Fake Realities we’ll continue Black Box and introduce you to the character of Commander Boone.