Audio Drama // Strontium Dogs: Down to Earth
It's time for an almost impossible-to-find Big Finish audio; I enjoy the production and, of course, the themes on these, so it is hugely disappointing not to be able to buy them. For today’s adventure, we travel to the Strontium Dog universe.
Name: Strontium Dog: Down to Earth (2000 AD Audio #3)
Author: Jonathan Clements
Cast:
Simon Pegg as Johnny Alpha, Toby Longworth as Wulf Sternhammer, Jacqueline Pearce as Elizabeth Weisser, Francis Clarke as Val the Bar Girl, Nicholas Briggs as Sick Squid, John Wadmore as Officer Jowett, Mark Donovan as Officer Tomlin, Mark McDonnell as Middenface McNulty and Patricia Merrick as Gronk.
Director: John Ainsworth
Writer: Jonathan Clements
Commercial Fluff: Times are tough for the Search/Destroy agents. With criminals in short supply, the bounty hunters compete for the left-overs. Johnny and his partner Wulf Sternhammer are down on their luck, and looking for trouble.
Sick Squid doesn't follow the bounty hunters' code. He looks after number one, even if it means ratting on a friend. When a private citizen posts a huge reward for the capture of Wulf Sternhammer, Squid turns kidnapper.
Johnny must find Squid before the trail goes cold. If he wants to save Wulf, he's going to have to break the law. He must risk his freedom… face his past… go back down to Earth!
Chronological Placement: This story takes place in 2176 AD, in the 'classic' Strontium Dog continuity.
Review
The tale starts in the Doghouse - Where the Bounty Hunters discover new bounties and cases to work on. Here, the characters all talk and complain about a lack of jobs, but suddenly, a new bounty pops up. Looks like Wulf Sternhammer has pissed off someone and now has a bounty on his head! Suddenly, the collective group ambushes Johnny Alpha and Wulf; while Johnny is distracted by the masses, Wulf is attacked by Sick Squid and heads to earth with the Viking Bounty Hunter.
Realizing he has been tricked, Johnny Alpha is soon on Squid's heels and tracks him down to Milton Keynes, UK. Of course, nothing goes according to plan, and soon Johnny Alpha is in jail. Here enters one of my favourite characters, Middenface McNulty, who pretends to be a lawyer and secures Johnny's release. We are also reintroduced to the Gronk character, and soon, the team is back on Wulf's trail. They follow the thugs and Wulf into the deepest, darkest Essex. The mastermind behind the kidnapping was Weisser the Splicer, aka Johnny Alpha's Aunt Lizzie! It seems like Lizzie is a norm and has been connecting experiments to solve the mutant problem within Britain. She believes she can create a nano-virus that once spread would repair all the genetic damage caused by radiation in the atmosphere, all it needs is Wulf's brain and spinal column! Of course, Wulf would prefer this not to happen, and soon, a fight breaks out. Wulf is freed, and the bounty hunters are soon heading away from Earth again, happy to escape Britain.
I found the tale very easy to listen to, and the acting and sound play were high quality, as I've come to expect from Big Finish.
Have you read Strontium Dogs? What are your thoughts on it? Let me know below, please.
