Tag Archives: science fiction

His Majesty’s Starship Derbyshire: A Science-Fiction Story with Spotify Soundtrack

Towards the end of 1980, His Majesty’s Starship Derbyshire, the pride of the British Space Agency fleet, blasted off into Outer Space on a mission of imperial urgency. The Derbyshire was crewed by six of Britain’s finest astronauts, hastily trained to prepare for a task of extraordinary circumstance. Jodrell Bank had detected an alien spacecraft briefly entering the inner solar system before retreating to an orbit around 90377 Sedna, the distant red dwarf planet that theoretically belongs to humanity. This attack on British soverign space could not be tolerated by the ruling Earth empire of the day, and so the Derbyshire mission was devised.

The HMS Derbyshire launched covertly on the 23rd November, 1980. All seemed well until it passed Saturn, when all radio communication was lost. Its crew were never heard from again. This is their story.

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My Top 10 Favourite Podcasts

I have my HTC Desire wired up to listen to in the car when I’m commuting to and from work each day. I’m often not in the mood for music until later on in the day, so to keep me entertained I subscribed to a selection of podcasts (a podcast is a kind of radio show you can subscribe and listen to whenever you want). I was initially overwhelmed at the sheer volume, variety, and quality of podcasts out there: most bad, some good, and a few essential selections. After checking out many different podcasts over the past few months, I’ve whittled it down to what I think are the very best technology, media, science, comedy and sci-fi podcasts around. Read on for my pick of the Top 10 Best Podcasts!

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Audio Drama on Spotify: Blake’s 7

On 21 December 1981, the BBC aired the last episode of cult science-fiction show Blake’s 7. This dark SF drama was originally written by Terry Nation (of Dr. Who and Dalek fame) and featured a band of rebel outlaws on the run from the totalitarian Federation. It had aired for four series before coming to a fateful conclusion that left its millions of fans (including me) with the mother of all unresolved cliffhangers. To this day Blake’s 7 remains my very favourite televisions series, so I was delighted to hear that a company called B7 Productions had been set up to release audio dramas based on the show. Their “radical new re-interpretations of Terry Nation’s original series” are now on Spotify, along with their continuing series “Blake’s 7 – The Early Years.” If you enjoy science-fiction and haven’t heard these before, you’re in for a treat!

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