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Wanted: Dredd or Alive | |
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Big Finish Productions audio drama | |
Series | 2000 A.D. |
Release no. | 1 |
Written by | David Bishop |
Directed by | Nicholas Briggs |
Length | 1 hour 3 minutes |
Release date | March 2002 |
Judge Dredd: Wanted: Dredd or Alive is the first full-cast audio drama produced by Big Finish Productions based on characters from the British comic 2000 AD . Released in March 2002, it features the character Judge Dredd, created for the comic in 1977, and introduces Amy Steel, a BritCit-born Judge living in Mega-City One. The two team up in other subsequent audio dramas, becoming trusted allies. The story stars Toby Longworth as Judge Dredd and Claire Buckfield as Amy Steel and is directed by Nicholas Briggs. [1] As with the standard 2000 AD stories of Judge Dredd, Wanted: Dredd or Alive takes place 122 years in the future of when the story is released (unless otherwise specified).
In 2124, it is exactly one year after the death of Flabby Broccoli, boss of the "Frendz" crime syndicate in Mega City-One, a metropolis governed by the judges and spanning much of the North American East Coast. The Frendz syndicate is now under the control of "the Boss." Brisco is the third Wally Squad judge (the undercover division) to be killed while trying to infiltrate the Frendz.
Reports hit the newsfeed that some judges who overuse sleep machines (technology that allows them to experience several hours of rest in minutes) are now experiencing "sleep machine psychosis" (SMP), also loosely referred to as "mad Judge disease." The result is in an unbalanced mind and then death. A source tells reporter Enigma Smith that SMP seems strongest among clone judges (such as Judge Dredd who was cloned from Eustace Fargo, the founder of the Judge System). Despite these reports, Dredd uses a sleep machine again after working for 24 hours straight. After waking up, he attacks a technician, then leaves.
A former native of BritCit (the mega-city occupying England), Amy Steel is a cadet at the Academy of Law in Mega-City One and on her way to becoming a full street judge after thirteen years of training. On her 18th birthday, she is given a rookie half-eagle badge by Chief Judge Hershey and assigned to the supervision of Joe Dredd for a final 12-hour assessment on the streets of MC1. Dredd and Steel come across a wild gunman and Steel kills him before he can harm others. Seeing Steel is unsettled by her actions, Dredd assures her she did the right thing. As the day continues, Steel notices Dredd having bouts of unprovoked aggression. After he attacks a citizen without good cause, Steel concludes he is suffering from SMP. Dredd seems confused and escapes.
After making more attacks and seemingly contemplating suicide, Dredd forces the staff of a face-change clinic to alter his appearance. He later calls Judge Hershey, having known her since their space mission together to find The Judge Child, and demands safe passage out of MC1. The Boss intercepts the call and sends Frendz hitman Cosmo Jones to find Dredd. Steel sees Cosmo and Dredd leaving and reports it. Despite being told not to intervene, she follows.
Cosmo offers Dredd to be cryogenically frozen before SMP kills him, allowing him to wait for a cure, in exchange for information on the Judges and the city's top security codes. Dredd is taken to Frendz headquarters, a large hover ship, and discovers the Boss is the 13-year-old daughter of Flabby Broccoli. Dredd attacks, revealing he never intended an alliance. To his surprise, she fights back effectively, thanks to cyborg enhancements.
Steel arrives at the hover ship and is immediately fired upon. She is told to hold her ground and wait for back-up, but believes she will be killed before that happens. Pretending not to hear Hershey's objections, she uses Cosmo's van to ram through the hover ship hull, then kills Cosmo. She confronts the Boss and Dredd, realizes the situations, and shoots the Boss. Dredd willingly lets Steel arrest him.
Amy learns there is no such thing as sleep machine psychosis. It was all a ruse to help Dredd infiltrate the Frendz and find the Boss after losing so many Wally Squad judges. The people Dredd seemingly attacked were undercover operatives. Hershey and Dredd both think Steel's refusal to follow orders endangered the case, but Dredd still recommends she will make a good judge. Steel officially graduates as a street judge with a full eagle badge. Dredd, his face restored, tells Steel he would be honored to ride alongside her in the future but warns she should not disobey orders and procedure again.
Wanted: Dredd or Alive was David Bishop's first time writing an audio drama, but he continued to write more stories for Big Finish and develop the character of Amy Steel. Claire Buckfield felt that understanding the world and character of Judge Dredd was something she was "struggling with a bit" at first because she was unfamiliar with the comic. Adding to this was the fact that the production schedule for the episode meant she and Toby Longworth were recorded separately. But Buckfield quickly came to enjoy the stories and appreciated having more freedom to "invent" some of the character and personality of Amy Steel since she had no established history in the comics, particularly as the audios soon developed Steel into a confident, trusted Judge whose personality contrasted with Dredd's. [2]
In a behind the scenes discussion included with the audio drama Judge Dredd: Get Karter!, Toby Longworth said that recording Wanted: Dredd or Alive was a different experience for him since he was very familiar with the character, having been a fan of 2000 AD since its first issue. While this gave him the advantage of knowledge, he said it also made adapting the role intimidating because he was aware that many fans already had their own imagined version of Judge Dredd's voice. He hoped that even if his voice was different from what they imagined, his performance would grow on them, and noted that he saw a similarity between Dredd and Clint Eastwood's characters of the Man with No Name and Dirty Harry (the latter of whom has been said by Dredd creator John Wagner to have been an influence). Longworth found the idea of adapting the visual medium of comic books into an audio format to be challenging and interesting. In the same discussion, writer David Bishop joked that an advantage in adapting Dredd to audio was that the judges were constantly in conversation with others via radio and had voice-activated guns requiring them to verbally clarify what kind of round they were firing before they fired.
Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. He first appeared in the second issue of the British weekly anthology comic 2000 AD (1977). He is the magazine's longest-running character, and in 1990 he got his own title, the Judge Dredd Megazine. He also appears in a number of film and video game adaptations.
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic magazine. As a comics anthology it serialises stories in each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. Since 2000 it has been published by Rebellion Developments.
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on science fiction properties. These include Doctor Who, the characters Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog from 2000 AD, Blake's 7, Dark Shadows, Dracula, Terrahawks, Sapphire & Steel, Sherlock Holmes, Stargate, The Avengers, The Prisoner, Timeslip, and Torchwood.
Mega-City One is a fictional city that features in the Judge Dredd comic book series and related media. A post-nuclear megalopolis covering much of what is now the Eastern United States and some of Canada, the city's exact geography depends on the writer and artist working the story. From its first appearance it has been associated with New York City's urban sprawl; originally presented as a future New York, it was retconned as the centre of a "Mega-City One" in the third issue.
Jack Point, also called "the Simping Detective", is a character in the British comic anthology Judge Dredd Megazine, a spin-off from 2000 AD. He was created by Simon Spurrier and Frazer Irving.
Toby Longworth is a British actor. He has appeared on film, radio, and television and is best known for his role in Not Going Out as Paul. He is originally from Somerset, where he attended King Edward's School, Bath. However, he has worked most often as a voice actor, notably in several science-fiction projects, audiobooks, and video games.
David James Steven Bishop, also known as D. V. Bishop, is a New Zealand comic book editor and writer of comics, novels and screenplays. He lives in the United Kingdom.
Judge Dredd is a 1995 American science fiction action film based on the 2000 AD comicsJudge Dredd. It is directed by Danny Cannon and stars Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd, a law enforcement officer in the crime-ridden futuristic metropolis of Mega-City One. Armand Assante, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Joan Chen, Jürgen Prochnow, and Max von Sydow appear in supporting roles. It was filmed entirely at Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom, and released by Buena Vista Pictures on June 30, 1995.
Dave Stone is a British science fiction writer.
Low Life is a science fiction comics story published in British anthology 2000 AD. Set in the world of Judge Dredd, it was created by Rob Williams and Henry Flint.
"Origins" is one of the longest Judge Dredd storylines to run in the pages of British comic 2000 AD. Making extensive use of flashbacks, it tells the story of how the Judges of Mega-City One rose to power. It was written by John Wagner and illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra, who between them created Judge Dredd in 1977. The story ran to 23 episodes and was published from 2006 to 2007 to mark thirty years of the Judge Dredd strip. It is set in 2129, Dredd's debut story having been set in 2099.
2000 AD crossovers are crossover stories appearing in British comic 2000 AD, its sister title the Judge Dredd Megazine, and other related output, such as novels, audio plays, films and role-playing games.
Armitage is a science fiction series appearing in the British comic anthology the Judge Dredd Megazine, created by Dave Stone and Sean Phillips in 1991. The protagonist is a Detective-Judge in Brit-Cit, a British mega-city in the universe of Judge Dredd. He has also made occasional appearances in the main Judge Dredd series in 2000 AD, as well as two spin-off novels and an audio drama.
Paul Neal is a British comics writer. He has worked for Fleetway Publishing on Judge Dredd Megazine and the long running science fiction anthology 2000 AD in the late 1990s. Much of his work was created in collaboration with the artist Marc Wigmore.
Adrian Salmon is a comic book artist and illustrator from England.
Jamie Robertson is an English film score composer.
"Trifecta" is a Judge Dredd story arc published in British comic 2000 AD in late 2012, following on from the earlier strip Day of Chaos. The story was an unannounced crossover between Judge Dredd and its spinoff strips The Simping Detective and Low Life.
This is a list of audio plays based on the long-running British comic series 2000 A.D., produced by Big Finish Productions. Twenty-two plays have been released to date.
Judge Dredd: Death Trap is a Big Finish Productions audio drama released in April 2002 and based on the character Judge Dredd in British comic 2000 AD. It stars Toby Longworth as Judge Dredd, Claire Buckfield as his ally and former mentee Judge Amy Steel, and Mark Gatiss as the undead Judge Death.