"The Voyage of the Scarlet Queen"

[leo knight]

I discovered this recently. It's an old radio drama from the 1940s. According to Wikipedia (would they steer us wrong?) this may have been a precursor to "Star Trek". I listened to the first episode, and immediately thought, "Traveller!"

The 'Queen' is a 75' ketch captained by Phil Carney. His first officer has just been murdered, apparently tortured for information. The authorities revoke his sailing orders, keeping him in port until the murder is solved. Carney has a patron, a man named Kang, who wants him to sail the South Pacific in search of... something big. A rival of Kang's named VanGort, also wants the... big something, and seems to have ordered the torture of first officer. These two off-stage rivals use others as their pawns.

The "Trek" connection comes from the opening and closing, "Captain's Log" voice-overs, and the setup. The 'Queen' hops from island to island, the captain and his new first mate Red Gallagher get into adventures along the way. The captain usually meets a beautiful woman, there's usually a mystery to be solved, and at least one fight. I don't know if the captain's shirt gets ripped, or if the rest of the crew wear red shirts.

But doesn't this sound like a great Traveller campaign? Set it in the Spinward Marches, a free trader or subsidized merchant instead of a ketch, and you"re off.

Here's Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_Scarlet_Queen

Here are the episodes: http://www.otr.net/?p=vosq

"Stand by to make sail!"

 

[selunatic2397]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Another one would be the old Bogart/Bacall radio drama, Bold Venture. As a matter of fact, that would make a nice name for a Free Trader.........

(It was the name of Bogart's boat in the series. And, the plots are similar to what you describe, with a different "grand game" going on.)

 

[Thanos]

A local college station plays Bold Venture Sundays at 8. Or maybe it's WFMU. I'll have to check.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Very cool. You can also find a lot of the episodes online.

 

[sayatmenace]

Thank you for sharing this info! I've been listening to the series (from the Web Archive site) and enjoying it. The sound quality is a bit rough, especially with the Dramatic! Orchestral! Music!, but it's an entertaining series.

Possibly not entertaining to me in the way it was originally conceived or received, but very entertaining nonetheless The incredible, relentless, jaw-dropping TESTINESS of our narrator-hero is something to behold. The few occasions where he gets soft and maudlin (i.e., only sour and ornery) notwithstanding, you get the impression he goes around ready to punch someone in the face at any second.

In so many ways, inspirational for Traveller!

 

[Timerover51]

Your initial quote reminds me of a TV show from the early 1960s called "Adventures in Paradise" which centered on Tahiti, and had a trading schooner sailing around the islands. Nice show actually.

Also, there are tons of good ideas if you search science fiction on the Project Gutenberg website. They have a fair number of Amazing and Astounding magazines from around 1930.