Tales from The Early Years – Achieving ‘Escape Velocity’
It’s a snow-speckled day in December, and I’m arriving at The Soundhouse, a recording studio off Goldhawk Road. I have, in no uncertain terms, been told to arrive before script editor Ben Aaronovich, because of the experience he had during the recording of our Jenna Early Years stories. I decide that when I arrive, I’ll tell all the actors to bombard Ben with as many questions as possible, because, well, it amuses me to torment him; but the icy weather conspires to make me – and everyone else – late. My plan is foiled.
Studio control room, with the poised director...
The Soundhouse is a mix of IKEA-slick décor and massed ranks of audio technology, depending on what room you enter. Our first trilogy of Blake’s 7 stories came together here, and last time I was in the studio, it was to work on Point of No Return, my Travis Early Years story.
Studio recording - Zoe Tapper, Alistair Lock and Jason Merrels
Today, Zoe Tapper, Jason Merrels, Tracy-Ann Obermann, Pamela Banks and Sam Woodward, along our resident sonic guru and artificial intelligence Alistair Lock, are speaking my words. Despite delayed trains, a couple of dud mikes and the cold seeping into the studio, we get under way.
This is a story of starships and talking computers, so there’s a fair bit of technobabble here; lines about ramscoops, hyperspace, discorporated molecules and wormholes can be challenging for some actors, but our cast handles them with aplomb. We decide on the day to present Sci-Fi BAFTAs to everyone for all their hard work. Later the category is expanded to include Space Kissing and Death BAFTAs – and I get my Alfred Hitchcock moment playing a hapless crewmember perishing from a radiation blast.
“How does one die from that?” asks one of the cast. “Oh, it’s a melty, boiling kind of death,” I explain, in what I hope is a helpful fashion.
On cue, everyone screams horribly.
James Swallow
Tags: Blake's 7, James Swallow, Zen
