Kaldor City (audio series): Difference between revisions

[[Alan Stevens]] had the idea for an audio series loosely based on a film called {{w|Yojimbo}} by Akira Kurosawa. The film is about a Samurai who plays two powerful families off against one another in order to benefit himself. Around this time, [[BBC Books]] published a ''[[Doctor Who]]'' novel titled ''[[Corpse Marker (novel)|Corpse Marker]]'' as part of its line of [[BBC Past Doctor Adventures|Past Doctor Adventures]]. Written [[Chris Boucher]] it served as a sequel to his 1977 ''Doctor Who'' story ''[[The Robots of Death (TV story)|The Robots of Death]]'' and was also a crossover with ''[[Blake's 7]]'' due to the inclusion of Carnell, a character originating from that series. Stevens contacted Boucher and proposed the idea of an audio drama using the setting established in ''[[Corpse Marker (novel)|Corpse Marker]]'' named Kaldor City. Boucher encouraged Stevens to write the script, which he wrote the script in collaboration with [[Jim Smith]]. Pleased with it, Boucher gave his full approval to proceed with the concept.<ref>[http://www.kaldorcity.com/aboutus.html About Kaldor City and Magic Bullet]</ref> Stevens initially approached [[BBV Productions|BBV]], an audio and video production company specializing in [[Doctor Who]] related productions, with the script but weren’t interested in the idea. [[Big Finish Productions|Big Finish]], a prodcution company licensed by the BBC to produce ''Doctor Who'' audio drama, also showed interest the idea. However, Stevens decided to produce it himself and so set up a company called [[Magic Bullet Productions|Magic Bullet]].  

In assembling the key players, Stevens hired sound designer [[Alistair Lock]] whom he previously worked with on a series of ''Blake's 7'' audio productions; ''Travis: The Final Act'', ''The Mark of Kane'', and ''The Logic of Empire''. Stevens created the character of [[Kaston Iago]] specifically for [[Paul Darrow]], best for the role of 'Kerr Avon' in ''Blake's 7''. {{w|Alexis Kanner}} from the ITC television series ''{{w|The Prisoner}'' was also considered for the role should Darrow prove unavailable. Using his casting connections from the ''Blake’s 7'' audios, Stevens contacted Darrow who agreed to play the role. Series regulars [[Trevor Cooper]], [[Brian Croucher]] and [[Peter Miles]] were also known to Stevens from those audio productions. [[Russell Hunter]] was contacted through a friend of Stevens and agreed to reprise the role of [[Kiy Uvanov|Uvanov]] from ''[[The Robots of Death (TV story)|The Robots of Death]]''. [[Scott Fredericks]] who originally played the role of [[Carnell]] in the ''Blake’s 7'' episode ''Weapon'' proved more difficult to track down as he resided in Ireland. Stevens eventually got in touch through BBC Residuals, who kindly forwarded a copy of the script. Stevens later recalled: ''"I’d written a script with Carnell in before I’d even contacted the actor. It would have been a terrible mess if he’d decided not to do it."''<ref>[http://www.radiodramarevival.com/the-true-history-of-magic-bullet-an-interview-with-alan-stevens-producer-of-kaldor-city-and-faction-paradox-part-1-of-2/ The True History of Magic Bullet: An interview with Alan Stevens, producer of Kaldor City and Faction Paradox. (Part 1 of 2)]</ref>