What an interesting amalgamation the title of this post would make. Unfortunately for the curious, it refers to two different things.

This evening, I went out with a friend to see 28 Weeks Later, that new zombie film which is a sequel to 28 Days Later. While I had seen the first film, I can’t say I loved it — it was good, but nothing I felt I needed to have in my collection. Interestingly, I liked the sequel even better. It was excellent, well-paced, not overlong, had good effects, and was good and bloody violent. Low-flying helicopter with its nose down + a field full of zombies = mega bloody fun! I recommend it for any zombie/slasher fan.

We also saw trailers for Live Free or Die Hard (better known as Die Hard 4.0) — which I still think is going to be excellent despite the PG-13 rating — and Resident Evil: Extinction, the setting for which looks intriguing if nothing else. I never saw the second Resident Evil, but the first one was okay. The third might be worth a rental or something. (Overall the games are still better than the films — in fact, the 28 series feels more true to the classic zombie theme.)

On to the second point of tonight’s post — Kaldor City, the radio plays based on Chris Boucher’s The Robots of Death serial that he wrote for Doctor Who in 1977, and the subsequent novel, Corpse Marker. Kaldor City picks up after the events of that novel, and focuses on the urban city center where “The Company” has its headquarters. After being reminded of these radio plays recently, I went searching for them, found a set of the first three, and picked them up.

Simply put, they are extraordinary. Radio plays have largely gone out of style, but here are some absolutely phenomenal examples of the medium at its best — intriguing plots, excellent voice work, beautiful sounds and spatial positioning that makes you feel like you’re really in the room with these people. Even better, some of the original cast members from The Robots of Death reprise their roles, namely Commander Uvanov (now chairperson of The Company), Poul and even Dask/Teran Capel (in a future episode that I don’t yet have). I have listened to the first three discs in the six-disc series, and they are all wonderful.

Sadly, Russell Hunter — the man who played Uvanov — passed away in 2004, so there will be no knew episodes of Kaldor City with his voice talent. That’s unfortunate, because Russell is definitely one of the biggest stars of Kaldor City. It’s hilarious to hear Uvanov repeatedly kicking the corpse of a man whom he thinks tried to assassinate him, while yelling in his Scottish burr: “You chinless…founding family…prick!” David Collings (as Poul) on disc three is barely there, but he sounds exactly like his old self — and according to the website, he figures more prominently into volumes four and five. No Miles Fothergill, unfortunately — in fact, the infamous robots don’t get much screen…er, speaker time — but there is another voice to be recognized for you old hats. It’s Brian Croucher, who originally played Borg, doing the voice of bumbling security officer Cotton!

So now, naturally, I want to get the remaining three installments. The most recent, Storm Mine, was recorded after the death of Russell Hunter, but features a mystery story set in a storm mine like the one featured in the original The Robots of Death serial. Sounds fascinating.