Mach 5; destroyed … Emerald Knight; depowered … and a looming plot to infiltrate Beta Flight appears to be on the horizon. Only one question remains to be asked–who’s idea was it to let Corsair on the team again??
Featuring the voice talents of;
Matt Burden as OTOKO
Rich Frost as MAINFRAME
Donny Salvo as PHILL (and SVEN)
Rachael Styner as An-JELL-is
Adam Legend as ARC
Damaris Mannering as SHADOWSWORD
Paul Mannering as CORSAIR
Ted Ricka as BLUESTREAK
MJ Cogburn as WOLF-GIRL
Robin Carlisle as DRAGONRYDER (and ELIZABETH)
Mike Sims as ROUTER
Mike Winters as MACH5
Ashley Yule as UPLOAD
Laura Freshette as JESSICA
and
Tanya Miloshevic as INGA
Post-production by Alan White
The original scores for this episode are by
Victor Stellar; “After The War”
David Beard; “Record and Erase 1”
SKiFfle; “Spacey” “Arpeggio 7”
Guardian Mix Mind; “Asian Sea”
“Tech Support Theme” by David A Krause
and
“No Compromise” by Pitbull Daycare
Permission obtained by Ken McLaughlin
The following Audio Drama is rated PG-13 (Persons Younger than 13 Should be Accompanied by an Adult). For more info:
http://theaudiodramadirectory.com/ratings/
First and foremost, welcome back Beta Flight. It’s so nice to see you back where you belong.
I have always had more trouble clicking with Beta Flight than with its parent series, Feedback: A Hero’s Calling. This latest episode gives me a chance to talk about pros and cons in a way that, I hope, will invite discussion with creators and other fans.
One (unavoidable) problem with the latest episode we might call the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 problem. As a middle episode in an extended arc, it lacks the kick of the Act 1 set-up of problems and conflicts but also lacks the payoff of the Act 3 resolutions. It isn’t quite the endless chase sequence that DH1 is, but it’s close. Hopefully, once the following episodes are up and on the record, it will seem better as an essential part of a strong multi-part story.
I’ve said before that part of my problem is that so many of the Beta Flight actors are males of a similar age and similar voice playing characters with similar roles in the stories. The voices that jump out of the mix for me are Corsair and Wolf Girl, plus CPU when he visits and, to a lesser extent, Main Frame. In the multi-part Beta Flight story about a dystopian alternate future revolving around Wolf Girl, I was drawn into the story because Wolf Girl is such a distinctive character with such a distinctive voice. The current story revolving around Donny Salvo doesn’t give me the easy hook.
Here we have someone who looks like Emerald Knight but doesn’t act like Emerald Knight and says he isn’t Emerald Knight but someone else who has somehow been dropped into EK’s body. Compare and contrast to the late season 2 Feedback story about someone who didn’t look like Reboot to the person who knew him best but said and thought he was Reboot. The Feedbackverse seems to be developing an affinity for these variant identity-in-question stories. In the same vein, there would seem to be room for an imposter mole story or two, say, if Death Match were to infiltrate as CPU or as Alexander Forthright III, both positions that would give him the power to create considerable chaos. Think of the Season 2 Evil Stan bit in Who Wants to Be a Super Hero, but imagine it done right, with some of the contestants figuring out that something was amiss and then figuring out what it was. Or what if Spectre came in pretending to be Feedback, as he briefly did in the episode that introduced Outsource?
I’m mentioning these options because I felt that the Reboot story in Feedback did a lot right but missed some opportunities to show from start to finish how each of the main characters reacted and acted to the situation. There was a period when I thought that new Reboot was part of a conspiracy including an evil Blackthorne — based on how he was treating Pre-Fetch and talking about Pre-Fetch when only Pre-Fetch was voicing doubts — and although that did not turn out to be the case, I didn’t feel as if there was a complete wrap-up to all that.
Here in Beta Flight, I don’t know how much to care about the EK situation, because I’m listening to some characters who always seem to be calm talking to some characters who always seem to be agitated. The mood changes that would cue me to something important and abnormal don’t seem to come through the line readings to me as much as I would hope. If Corsair or Wolf Girl were to take an active interest in this situation, I can see them conveying to the listener a clearer guide to the importance (or lack thereof) of this twist, but Corsair seems more wrapped up in the black hole part of the story. Now if, as one might speculate from a couple of the lines in the episode, this black hole means the resolution of Wolf Girl’s awful alternate future story is not so resolved after all, then I am in all the way in and eager for my next story helping.
So that’s my take after a few listenings, with and without the help of listening again to Part 1. Thanks to all for the great entertainment, and looking forward to the next.
— John Hall