DEATH TRAP

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Death Trap starts with the commemoration of the end of the NECROPOLIS. The historian Dr Nigella Gaiman is interviewed along with Jake Black as opposing sides of what actually happened. Judge Dredd goes to check on the only inmate of ISO Block 99, that inmate is Judge Death. Meanwhile Sylvia Plath Block is the scene of many psychic occurrences, much to the dismay of landlady Mrs Gundersen and her ‘under probation’ house ‘wobot’ Walter

In the second of Big Finish’s 2000AD audios the greatest device in drawing customers has been used, bring back the most famous bad guy. In this case Judge Death.
As a forty eight year old mother of three and grandmother of one I suppose I never expected to be reviewing an audio play like this until I was asked by scifind.com to listen to Judge Dredd in Death Trap.

Judge Dredd was just how I imagined himin the comic books all those years ago, completely macho but with a caring side, seen here fleetingly. The character of Enigma Smith as an over the top type of Sky News reader was brilliant. The star of the show was Judge Death (played by ‘The League of Gentlemen?’ Mark Gattiss) was very menacing and completely uncompromising, here there are parallels to Hitler and Stalin. Gattiss, now a big cult name, wanted the part and it could have been easy for this part to be given out to him just for the fact he is a big name. But it is great that he actually lends a very good interpretation of a character that could have been, incorrectly, portrayed comically and the integrity of the play destroyed by populist casting.

All the storylines ran together wonderfully and ‘Walter the house Wobot’ stole the show with some of the best lines. I won? give away the ending but I will just go to qualify it with one word, masterpiece

All my respect goes to all involved, especially the writer (David Bishop) and director (Nicholas Briggs) this is a tricky time, the scene is still being constructed for the listener. I hope that the next play moves things along though.

Again production quality is very good. The, first class, sound design, makes you believe that you are in the Big Meg. The music, while you probably wouldn’t want to buy this on CD, does suit the futuristic environment.
David Bishop (writer) has seeded the play with nods to various people, including sci-fi authors and serial killers (the in jokes can be quite dark). It is always good to have the ‘spot the reference’ game as long as it doesn’t distract the audience from what is actually going on, I feel that the balance has been preserved here.
I look forward to the next Dredd CD, and to see how the series will develop’. It will be interesting to see how the introduction of Johnny Alpha differs in the first ‘Strontium Dog’ play that is the next to be released. After this I hope to return to a refreshed Dredd

]]>

More to explorer