Politics and Science: Mad Mel and The Marradians

2 min read

Politics, Science, and Comedy

Mad Mel and the Marradians is a science-fiction audio drama full of social commentary, alien languages, and great sound effects. It stars Melvin Worthington, a writer, trying to save Earth from the evil Marradians, who plan on taking over the galaxy, with the help of his spicy girlfriend Anita.

The first thing audiences will hear is the lovely jazz music background. The opening theme to the show is superb and pumps the listener up for the adventure ahead. It’s zany and rhythmic style also mimics the show’s tone, making a great combination. The overall sound and vocal mixing is superb. The sound effects and filters do a wonderful job of adding layers to characters. The comedic timing is good and the editor(s) did a wonderful job overall.

The actors are pretty good and they take their jobs very seriously. One can easily tell they are trying their best because they are doing their passion project, a trait that almost everyone can greatly admire.

However, there are a few problems. The narrative flow isn’t great, as they seemed to have spent most of their time on the sound effects and sound quality instead of the script. In fact, the writing is a little cliched. The aliens speak in jargon that no-one but them understands and most of the humor is derived from zany satire of common Earth things (for example, a pillow is called a skullcrusher). They don’t do a great job describing the strange and new creatures or concepts. When one is building a foreign world, even minor details like this can either make or break it. The verisimilitude is shattered whenever they do things like that and for most of the time, it pulls me out the fictional world they’ve created.

It is labeled as a science-fiction political comedy – apparently making numerous references to politicians, the government, and the power of writing. Although, most of the references are debatable as to whether they’re political at all. The show’s villain, Imperial Chancellor Do-Nald, was one of the few, more obvious references from the entire season.

The world building is a little more limited than it should have been. The first episode has more questions than answers when it comes to how their universe actually operates. Even after listening to all of season one, there’s still confusion. Is planet Earth the main setting? Or was its purpose in the narrative being used for a few, slightly annoying one-liners.

While this is obviously a low-budget audio drama when compared to some others, it’s overall production quality is magnificent. It is a testament to producing an audio piece with few resources and shows that anyone who wants to badly enough can make anything.

3.5/5 Stars