Ray Gunn & Starburst is a British made audio drama that follows the adventures of a pair of 'heroes' travelling across the galaxy and righting wrongs.
I don't normally review podcasts, and when I have in the past I've found it to be a difficult thing to do. You're able to talk about the tone of a show, the people who host it, and the kind of thing that they do, but you can't ever really delve too deep into it as they tend to be ongoing things that are always evolving and doing new things. Ray Gunn & Starburst proves to be different from these other shows, however, by presenting an audio drama, rather than a standard podcast.
The series tells the story of Ray Gunn, a man who begins the tale down on his luck, having just lost his wife in a surprise divorce, left with barely anything to his name. Ray deccides to buy himself a ship and travel out into space to find a new life for himself, and whilst he does achieve thins, I don't think it's in the way he really imagined it going. Getting into a bar fight by mistake, he finds a teenage girl, Starburrst, latching onto him, getting him into all kinds of trouble. The two of them are forced to flee together, and find even more trouble waiting for them.
Aided by Starburst's AI, S.U.I.T., the two of them manage to get from one adventure to another, slowly building a name for themselves as an eminent heroing duo. Whilst this fame and fortune might be good for business, and for making friends, it also attracts the attention of Castelan Lar, the head of Darkley Empire, a mega corporation that wants to rule the galaxy. Despite the Castelan being something of a strange man-child, he proves to be a dangerous foe, and set his sights on doing away with the two heroes.
One of the things that became pretty apparent when listening to this show is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It uses sci-fi tropes, but isn't afraid to poke fun at them. It will highlight how ridiculous certain scenarios are, it'll start down expected paths before suddenly subverting your expectations, and it's not afraid to make its cast look a little silly. It's not an out and out farce, it never mocks things or goes too far, instead it has a sense of whimsy; one that reminded me a lot of the world of Douglas Adams, especially the old Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy radio drama, and Adams' work on Doctor Who in the 80's. I think part of that is also because the show is very clearly British, filled with the weird irreverent humour that Britain does so well, that other countries fail to really emulate.
The cast also help to make the series an enjoyable listening experience, and whilst you do get the sense that these are not professional voice actors, they're people who are really enjoying what they're doing and bring a sense of energy to proceedings. These aren't people here to record lines because they're being paid to, they're people who care about the project, who bring that love for the material and that sense of passion to their performances and really elevate things.
The two stand out stars of the production for myself were Dominic Westerland and Georgia Humphrey, who play the two leads. Over the course of this first series they both seem to get more comfortable in their roles, and by the end they're great characters that have been brought to life really well, thanks in large part to the chemistry the two of them have developed over the course of the series. Even at the start, when it's still clearly new to them and they're not quite at their best they manage to breath a lot of life and character into the roles.
Whilst the voice acting is a big part of the success of the show I can't not mention the writing, done by Holly Rose, who also lends their voice acting talent to S.U.I.T.. I've seen a lot of people try and emulate the weird and wonderful science fiction of Douglas Adams over the years, to try and bring a level of humour and strangeness to a genre that is more often than not taken very seriously. This seems to be something that is easier said than done, as there are a lot of sci-fi comedies that kind of fall flat and never go anywhere; yet Rose is able to make it work here. Yes, there are some jokes that work better than others, and I prefer those moments where they've allowed the humour to fall by the wayside to focus on the characters and their emotional journey's, but it's never bad. There's always something that's making you smile, or grabbing your attention and keeping you hooked to find out what happens next.
In a world where podcasting is becoming the home to big name stars, where celebrities are coming into a space that was made popular by regular folk trying to share their passions and have fun, it's nice to find something that's good, quality listening that isn't relying on big names or ready made fan-bases to gain attention. Instead, it's relying on talent and real quality work from a small group of creators who believe in their project, and only want to make people happy.
If you like your science fiction but haven't really listened to many audio dramas before I'd definitely say that Ray Gunn & Starburst is a show that will help you get into the medium, that will make you realise that there's another way to get your fun story fix. And if you have but have never heard of this show why not go out of your way and give it a try? It might just prove to be your new favourite.
Review of series two of Ray Gunn & Starburst coming soon!
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