Prometheus Radio Theatre Preps Latest Podcast
Prometheus Radio Theatre has been performing live since October, 2000 at Baltimore Science Fiction Conventions. Its largest project is an the award-winning episodic series called The Arbiter Chronicles, created eight years ago by Steven H. Wilson (who also wrote the tie-In novel, Taken Liberty.) The stories center on a group of young midshipmen (and women) who take their name from their first posting in the space navy – the patrol ship CNV Arbiter.
The first Arbiter Chronicles episodes were released on CD in 2003. Since 2005, they’ve produced over 100 episodes of their podcast, including 15 serialized episodes of the Arbiters, six of SuperHuman Times, a couple of ghost stories, and a reading of the Arbiters novel, Taken Liberty. Along the way, they’ve won the Mark Time Silver Medal for excellence in science fiction audio drama, and the Parsec Award for best Audio Drama (Long Form.)
The story is set hundreds of years in the future, after the human race has all but abandoned an Earth which has been devastated by war, poverty and disease. It is an embarrassment to its descendant worlds, and its people are considered the cast-offs of humanity. As the series starts Captain Jan Atal of Rigel V is one of the Confederate Navy’s most-decorated officers, but is despised by his superiors due to his opinions and success. He is sent on a punitive assignment to command the CNV Arbiter and takes with him four misfit proteges:
- Terry Metcalfe and Kevin Carson, two of the few Terrans ever to graduate the Academy
- Cernaq, a telepath from a world of extremist intellectuals
- Atal’s daughter Kaya, whose phenomenal IQ is matched only by the chip on her shoulder
An elderly Wiccan doctor, and a Boatswain who’s an escaped slave join them as they protect Confederate borders from denizens of the violent Qraitian Empire. The situations they deal with highlight the human condition in a darker future than you might expect. Four of the past 15 episodes are available on CD through Amazon.com.