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| Down to Earth | |
|---|---|
| Big Finish Productions audio drama | |
| Series | Strontium Dog |
| Release no. | 1 |
| Written by | Jonathan Clements |
| Directed by | Nicholas Briggs |
| Release date | June 2002 |
Strontium Dog: Down to Earth is a Big Finish Productions audio drama, a spin-off from its successful series featuring Judge Dredd in the British comic 2000 AD . [1]
Johnny Alpha returns to Earth, the planet from which he was exiled long ago, to rescue his kidnapped partner, Wulf Sternhammer. A few days earlier, Johnny and Wulf were aboard the Doghouse, orbiting above Earth, to view the new bounties being posted. To their shock, the third and last one posted was for Wulf, a private bounty of 400,000 credits. Johnny tried to distract the other bounty hunters while Wulf escaped, but bounty hunter "Sick Squid" tricked Wulf into climbing into a re-entry capsule and firing him down to Earth.
Johnny confronts Squid in a bar in Milton Keynes and they quickly come to blows, causing them both to be arrested and thrown in jail. Johnny is released when Middenface McNulty, posing as his attorney, arrives and threatens the local police. At first, Johnny is upset to hear McNulty use Johnny's real name to the police, since Johnny is officially exiled from Earth. McNulty surprises Johnny by telling him that, officially, Johnny doesn't exist - his family erased all traces of him. Johnny understands that his father, Nelson Kreelman, built his reputation on crusading against "mutant threat," and was ashamed when people learned his own son was a mutant. McNulty chuckles and says Johnny is only seeing half the reason: Johnny was the leader of the mutant resistance that finally succeeded in getting some legal rights for mutants, and the authorities in New Britain erased his identity out of fear that someone might track him down and convince him to return to Earth and issue a new call to arms.
After returning to the Gronk's hotel room, they check the fine print of Wulf's bounty sheet, and realize that the "crimes" he is accused of are false, and someone has arranged for Wulf to be kidnapped.
McNulty accosts Squid as he is released from jail, and persuades him to tell McNulty where Wulf was delivered to: Essex, a toxic no man's land. Johnny, McNulty and the Gronk go to the planned meeting in Squid's place, and narrowly escape a sniper attack by two armed thugs; whoever hired Squid clearly never intended to pay him.
The Strontium Dogs follow the thugs' trail back to an abandoned oil derrick, where they confront Wulf's kidnapper: Elizabeth Weisser, a.k.a. "Weisser the Splicer," a.k.a. Johnny's Aunt Lizzie. Weisser was a close cohort of Johnny's xenophobic father, conducting horrific scientific experiments in an attempt to solve Britain's "mutant problem." She explains that, after two centuries of radiation exposure, the entire human race is mutated to some degree, but Wulf, who was born in the 8th Century, has the purest human genes in the galaxy. After extracting his brain and spinal column, Weisser can create a nano-virus that will "reprogram" and restore the human race to purity - though those with the most extreme mutations will die in agonizing pain, "but you have to break a few eggs..."
Weisser's explanation is interrupted when the Gronk sneaks into the room and releases Wulf from his bonds, and the three bounty hunters are able to overpower Weisser's security robots. Weisser takes a non-fatal gunshot wound in the crossfire, and McNulty plans to turn her in for kidnapping. Johnny declines any part of the "collar" or the bounty, telling Wulf that he wants to get off Earth before anyone realizes who he is. He adds, portentously, "this time," indicating that if and when he does come back to Earth, it will be with revolution in mind.
Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. He first appeared in the second issue of 2000 AD (1977), which is a British weekly anthology comic. 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.
John Wagner is an American-born British comics writer. Alongside Pat Mills, he helped revitalise British comics in the 1970s, and continues to be active in the British comics industry, occasionally also working in American comics. He is the co-creator, with artist Carlos Ezquerra, of the character Judge Dredd.
Strontium Dog is a long-running British comics series starring Johnny Alpha, a mutant bounty hunter who lives in Earth's future. The series was created in 1978 by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra for Starlord, a short-lived weekly science fiction comic. When Starlord was cancelled, the series transferred to the British science fiction weekly 2000 AD. In 1980, Wagner was joined by co-writer Alan Grant, although scripts were normally credited to Grant alone. Grant wrote the series by himself from 1988 to 1990. Wagner revived the series after a ten-year hiatus in 2000. After Ezquerra's death in October 2018, the series was put in indefinite hiatus with no current plans for its continuation.
Alan Grant was a British comic book writer known for writing Judge Dredd in 2000 AD as well as various Batman titles from the late 1980s to the early 2000s. He was the co-creator of the characters Anarky, Victor Zsasz, and the Ventriloquist.
Carlos Sanchez Ezquerra was a Spanish comics artist who worked mainly in British comics. He is best known as the co-creator of Judge Dredd.
Andrew J. Cartmel is a British script editor, author and journalist. He was the script editor of Doctor Who during the Sylvester McCoy era of the show between 1987 and 1989. He has also worked as a script editor on other television series, as a magazine editor, as a comics writer, as a film studies lecturer, and as a novelist.
Jonathan Michael Clements is a British author and scriptwriter. His non-fiction works include biographies of Confucius, Koxinga and Qin Shi Huang, as well as monthly opinion columns for Neo magazine. He is also the co-author of encyclopedias of anime and Japanese television dramas.
Starlord was a British weekly boys' science fiction comic published by IPC Magazines from 13 May to 7 October 1978, when it merged with 2000 AD after 22 issues. The comic was created by Kelvin Gosnell, and was originally intended as a fortnightly sister title for 2000 AD with higher production values and an older audience, but late changes in production saw it converted into a weekly.
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.
Durham Red is a British comics character, originally created in 1987 as a female sidekick and lover for Johnny Alpha in the long-running comic book series Strontium Dog in 2000 AD. She is a bounty hunter with a mutation that gives her a vampiric lust for blood.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures is an American comic book series that was published from August 1988 to October 1995 by Archie Comics. The series, which was aimed at a younger audience than other Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics at the time, ran for 72 issues. In addition, there were numerous annuals, specials, and miniseries.
Archibald "Middenface" McNulty is a fictional character from the series Strontium Dog appearing in the British comic anthology 2000 AD, as well as his own spin-off series. He is a frequent companion of the series' star, Johnny Alpha.
"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.
The Dead Man was a science fiction strip in the British comic 2000 AD by writer John Wagner and artist John Ridgway, published in black and white in 1989–90. Although it was not billed as a Judge Dredd story, it featured Dredd as the amnesiac protagonist known only as the Dead Man. It was part of a series of stories that set the scene for the main Judge Dredd story of 1990, "Necropolis".
Day of the Dogs is an original novel written by Andrew Cartmel and based on the long-running British science fiction comic strip Strontium Dog.
Judge Dredd: Pre-Emptive Revenge is the 16th audio drama produced by Big Finish Productions based on the character Judge Dredd in British comic 2000 AD.