Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

Julius Harper was kind enough to send me a press release for a new science fiction podcast that he is helping to produce. The Silent Universe is an audio drama delivered via podcasting. I can’t tell you much about it beyond what is in the press release itself, but from the look and sound of the audio teaser on The Silent Universe website, I’d definitely recommend you checking this one out come February 15th.

January 2, 2006–in June of last year, when Apple decided to integrate podcasting into iTunes, it touched off an explosion in talk-format shows. But check the front page of their podcast directory for “drama” and you won’t find it. The Silent Universe podcast aims to change that by putting an innovative spin on a very old idea; by bringing audio theater to the iPod. On February 15th, http://www.silentuniverse.com will prove that podcasting is not only good for talk, but for entertaining drama as well.

Something like a mix between “24″ and the new “Battlestar Galactica,” the Silent Universe portrays a future haunted by nuclear proliferation, rogue dictators and terrorism. Fans will be able to listen to the series and also participate in its development by providing feedback to the production team in the “backstage” forums.

The premiere on February 15th is a high tension character-driven drama that makes no bones about portraying some of the darker aspects of the human psyche, including racism. Still, it can be upbeat enough to poke fun at pop scifi and make the occasional quip about cyberculture, while its heroic cast struggles to keep the solar system from erupting into war.

But as much as the Silent Universe is about entertainment, it has another crusade to fight: showing that grass-roots “fanboy” media is capable of producing quality and entertaining content outside of the corrosive influences of Hollywood. The podcast’s producer, a young writer who goes by the pen name “J. Marcus Xavier,” was twice rejected by the University of Southern California’s film program. Now he aims to prove that the convergence of creativity and technology can form a healthy relationship between producers of content and its fanbase.

Link: The Silent Universe Science Fiction Podcast