AUDIO DRAMA
Colony

Narrator: Mark Williams
Penguin Audiobooks
RRP £8.99
ISBN 0-14-180243-X
Available now


The generation ship Willflower is on a mission to colonise the stars. The crew on board represent a collection of nutballs. The ship is out of control and on a deadly collision course with a planet. Their only hope is an engineer who is not who he says he is...

Before I get underway reviewing Colony properly there are a few things I want to get off my chest. Firstly, alarm bells should start to ring when the name of the author appears at the top of the cassette cover in bold letters only to be followed with the words "by the creator of Red Dwarf". And secondly he was a co-creator of Red Dwarf anyway! Doug Naylor was also responsible for creating the series.

But those minor niggles aside Colony is a mediocre idea that was obviouls thought up down the pub. My God, it so obviously borrows heavily from the aforementioned Red Dwarf and if Douglas Adams were alive he would be screaming at his solicitors to send Grant a rather nasty letter for nicking his only good idea that became The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

There is not an original idea in here! Futurama, Hitchhiker's Guide and Red Dwarf have all trod this board before. Douglas Adams was always seen as a one trick pony - he had one half funny idea and span it on for years (from Doctor Who right through to Dirk Gently) and it seems that Grant is no better.

The story isn't all that bad, but oh look. Take away the character's names and replace them with Arnold Rimmer, the megalomaniac captain from Futurama (whose name escapes me) and Arthur Dent and you have pretty much discovered Grant's ploy.

The only redeeming quality is that this sham of a story is read by the talented Mark Williams... which is nice.

Pete Boomer

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