Closed Planet
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Delia created effects and backgrounds for a 1962 science fiction radio drama Closed Planet by John Hynam[1] for the BBC Light Programme.[2]
On one of her papers for Closed Planet, Delia notes an idea for Time On Our Hands,[3] which is also from 1962.
In January 2016, it turned up in an enthusiasts' archive of American radio programmes when it was rebroadcast as episode 49 of "SciFi Friday". The announcers say it is from 1962 and produced by John Hynam.
Contents
Plot
A spaceship far from Earth is hit by meteors, one engine is damaged, and they obtain special permission, given the circumstances, to land on a planet where visit are not allowed from other civilizations
While the crew is on the planet, a black african member of the crew steals one of the alien guard's vehicles, drives into town, complains about the drinks that they serve there, is arrested, runs from the police and is shot. The rest of the crew have to repair their vessel and make a hasty retreat into space.
Meanwhile, one of the crew members has a baby.
The Radio Times entry described it as:
Time: Somewhere in the future
In the New Age interplanetary travel has become an everyday occurrence. and Time rather than Distance now sets the only limit on man's exploration of the universe. It seems, however, that Outer Space. like our own familiar world, also has secrets to hide, frontiers to guard, "security" zones to protect. Such a place is the "closed" planet, and only dire necessity may excuse the deliberate infringement of its astral neutrality by visitors from Earth.
Structure
It was constructed from four makeup tapes[3] on the TR90 and other equipment.
Roughly:
- Band 1: Intro and meteor hit to the spaceship (Spaceship interior background)
- Band 2: Working on the engines (Engine room background)
- Band 3: Spaceship landing and planet surface
- Band 4: Alien speech, spaceship takeoff and outro
Extracts
Opening
"Very high and eerie, desc. semitones, down to steady far mar[?]. Moving forward - higher and further."[4]
Meteor warning and strike
Chords "This is understood"
Ship landing
End of shift hooter
Arrival of the flycar
Good Night
Takeoff
Landing
Ship takeoff and outro
Papers
- DD161912 DD161932: Two pink pages of notes, paperclipped together
- DD162002 DD162024: Two yellow pages of notes and diagrams, stapled together
Availability
- Broadcast on 24 October 1962 at 20.31 on the Light Programme.[1]
- Its rebroadcast as episode 49 of American radio series "SciFi Friday" is archived in the OTRR Library, from which the following is cropped.
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