GeminiApes

In this alternative history tale which takes place over two decades, President John F. Kennedy survives the assassination attempt in Dallas, Texas, 1963 - and continues with his vision to see a man walk on the moon by 1969. At this time our heroine Natalie York is a young geology student with an unhealthy fascination for Mars (a Mars Nut, as she is often called). After the success of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Kennedy (now ex-president) throws down a new challenge to the world. He proposes that America will be the first nation to send a manned mission to Mars. Natalie is excited and somewhat desparate to obtain some Mars rock for her thesis.

When work begins on the Ares Project, an argument rages over the preferred propulsion system. Professor Dana advises a Venus swing-by using proven chemical fuel, but he is ridiculed and shouted down in favour of nuclear power and all its dangers. After the disasters involving Apollo 13, there is a danger of the space program being cut back to the space shuttle only. Eventually, a compromise is reached between NASA and the White House to abandon the Apollos in favour of the Mars Ares Project. Meanwhile, Natalie York is invited to apply for entry into the Astronaut Corps. She attempts to teach rudimentary geology to the established astronauts, with very little entusiasm from the men.

There is a major rethink when the nuclear reactor powering the Apollo-N blows, exposing the core and killing the three-man crew, including Professor Dana's son Jim and Ben Priest, a close friend of Natalie - before Houston can guide the craft back home. Mike Conlig, with whom Natalie had recently had a relationship, goes to pieces and Natalie is forced to take over the talk-down. Professor Dana is persuaded to help with a revised version of the chemical rocket he had proposed ten years ealier. New president Ronald Reagan confirms the continuation of the Mars Project, but with only five preparatory flights to get it right. Natalie is announced as being on one of the flights, but as a geologist all she yearns to do is be on the Mars lander. When the news comes through, Natalie is devastated to learn that she will not be on the Mars landing team, particularly when she is ordered to teach the confirmed astronauts more rudimentary geology, so that they can bring her back specimens.

As Natalie loses her temper over the decision, she is advised to continue carrying out her duties to the best of her ability, and reminded that anything can happen in the time leading up to the launch. When one of the three-man crew is disagnosed by the doctor as having accumulated too much radiation poisoning, it is decided that the project can not risk the man falling ill en route to Mars. It's 1986 and quite suddenly Natalie finds herself the replacement. It is both a dream realised and a frightening prospect. She experiences sickness in zero gravity, backache, and the forgotten problems of using the toilet facilities. However, the advantages greatly outweigh the relatively minor inconveniences. The trio are the first human beings to travel such vast distances, and there is an all too brief highlight of witnessing the last moments of the Venus module before it disintegrates in the inhospitable atmosphere ("Okay, folks, it's official: Venus is a shithole!"). 371 days into the journey the Ares is cleared for Mars orbit insertion. After several nailbiting critical manoeuvres, and the very real possibility of aborting the mission, the craft finally sets down on the surface of the Red Planet - after passing over a "radio dark area." We leave the story as Natalie is allowed to be the first to set foot on Mars and lay a diamond marker.

Voyage began when Dirk Maggs was approached by the agent of Stephen Baxter, one of England's most respected writers of science fiction. A mathematics degree from Cambridge University and a Ph.D from Southampton means Baxter is one of the foremost novelists of realistic technological - or hard science. Negotiations went well, and left Dirk with the daunting task of turning a 600 page epic into only five exciting half-hour episodes for radio. The book covers several years and is packed with information based on Baxter's research carried out at NASA, which included the original plans for a proposed Mars landing, passed-over in favour of a shuttle program.

In an admirable effort to create another unique Audio Movie experience Dirk had his voice actors crawling around the cramped confines of mock

Apollo capsules and Martian Excursion Modules, which were specially created in the studio to capture specific acoustic environments. Dirk himself explains in the sleeve notes that he tried to create a three-dimensional experience which places the listener at the centre of the action. In this respect he has more than succeeded.

Voyage was recorded at The Soundhouse studios, London, and as we've come to expect from Dirk now, mixed in high-
quality Dolby Surround Sound, with complete attention to fake location ambience. The music was composed and performed by Wilfredo Acosta, who had previously turned-out some stirling work for the Judge Dredd serials. The five 30-minute episodes were first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 11:00pm between 12th April and 10th May 1999.

Personally, I prefer my science less fact and more fiction. I'm fascinated by the idea of forward-thinking, speculation on how we will do things in the future; what will become mundane and what cutting edge. How will we travel, eat, think and relate to others? I enjoy hard science fiction, but I found Voyage to be too close to where we are now. The atmosphere is also extremely dark and gloomy, with very little humour (which should creep into all situations - even if it's gallows humour). There are a couple of light comments. When a space capsule returns to the ground there is a rap on the hull and a voice which asks, "Did somebody order a pizza?", and later on the Ares flight there is the comment, "Okay, folks, it's official: Venus is a shithole!" However, these moments are few and far between. I'm not a fan of the American space program, such as it is, and feel that the stories of Brian Aldiss or Peter F. Hamilton (both also English SF writers) would have provided far more suitable tales for public consumption on radio. But what we have to remember here is that Dirk was approached by Stephen Baxter, which must have directly removed half of the heartache and stress with clearing rights, etc. Also, Dirk managed to get this very American concept past the BBC - a gargantuan task at the best of times, a feat which deserves a lot of credit. I'm certain my mixed feelings about this well-scripted and performed production will not concern Dirk, who won a 2000 Sony Bronze Award for Best Drama, and the 1999 Talkie Award for Best Use of Music.

"I had not read the book but Stephen Baxter's then-agent got in touch having heard Independence Day: UK, I think. As soon as I read the novel though I realised this was a monster idea, and a chance to get into the whole NASA Space Program thing, a subject which fascinated me from childhood, when I followed the entire space race from Gagarin to Apollo 17. Getting an American cast was kind of incidental to the project except that I did get to work with Rolf Saxon and Laurel Lefkow, two terrific and very underrated actors.

"I wish I could negotiate direct with authors because when they are like Stephen they are charming and civilised people, but in our business generally speaking there's lawyers, agents, rights holding companies, and although the vast majority are charming and civilised it's often a much less enjoyable part of the process.

"The Time Ships [Stephen Baxter's own highly-popular sequel to The Time Machine by H.G. Wells] would have made a wonderful series but in the event we were lucky to get Voyage onto BBC Radio 4 before they effectively shut down the idea of book adaptations as serials in general and science fiction (even excellent science fiction) in particular. I think the subject matter won through in this case [against the heavy American theme].