Each episode is five minutes long, and we get a recap with each one. I've mentioned that following the format so closely can be to the audiobook's detriment, and I think that really shows in the episode / chapter format. The adaptation gets through the episodes pretty rapidly (the original comics put out 5-6-page episodes, one episode a week, which does set a fast pace) but the effect is more of a story not given space to breathe, rather than the breakneck, clock's ticking, bodies-are-piling-up urgency of the original. The voice actors do as well with the script as they can. The sound of Judge Death sticking his hand into people to squeeze their hearts was particularly satisfying, and whoever designed it should be pleased with that at least. Now, don't get me wrong - there ARE good sound effects and music. I think everyone's just erred on the side of caution, and being a little bolder with this adaptation might have helped the whole thing to come together. As a comic script, it's great - gives the artist plenty of scope for interpretation (was it Cam Kennedy who described his scripts as 'a series of exciting postcards?) - but for audio drama. I suppose this is where John Wagner's famously terse scripts don't help. But where the listener could do with a bit more description,a bit more atmospheric noise, we don't get very much at all. In the comic they have to be short, because you don't want to obscure all the artwork with boxes and balloons. The narration is particularly brief, pretty much reading the captions. Here and there we get the sort of description which probably works better as narration rather than character speech. Relying mainly on the spoken word, one can't help but hear the flaws in the dialogue - which in the first three episodes, based as they are on something more than 40 years old, is going to sound a little stilted.
Problem is, since this is sound-only, one doesn't have Brian Bolland, Brett Ewins, Robin Smith, and Cliff Robinson's visuals. I can understand wanting to preserve as much of John Wagner and Alan Grant's original script as possible, not wanting to add too much and definitely not wanting to take anything away from it. I think it might be because they were trying for too close an adaptation. (edited to remove a couple of points which, on a second listen, I figured were a bit unfair of me and to add something about the five-minute episode format) I'm not sure what I expected, going in. Faithful adaptation, but a little unsatisfying.
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