Dodge Intrepid is hammy and satirical, following the adventures of a Beaver County librarian and his Sancho-like intern. The mode is decidedly retro, and the company has eschewed any kind of seriousness. If there’s a blue note, Rubino says it’s this: “My ulterior motive is to promote the library system, really.” —Radio Serials Revived Via Podcast (Back Stage)
I’ve gotten a big kick out of Dodge Intrepid, a retro podcast that pokes fun at — and does a great job recapturing the fun of — 40s radio serials.
One of my favorite bits is when Dodge gets punched, and has to deliver a line that tells the audience what happened. He’ll shout “My square jaw!” I burst out laughing while listening to that one in an airport. Other characters with different physiques will deliver variations of that line.
In one scene, our heroes have been captured by an Italian Futurist, who leaves them to be executed by a Rube Goldberg contraption (the operation and progress of which has to be conveyed through dialogue).
I do feel that in places the pace could be tightened, and the story is starting to run into the same problem that science fiction shows have when a technological plot device (in this case, time travel) is used inconsistently. But the point of the series is to have fun with the adventure genre, so I’m not about to start geeking out on the time travel plot holes. (I did take an undergraduate elective course on the philosophy of time travel… Nooo! Must… resist… urge… must… not… parade… obscure… knowledge….)
Okay, I’m feeling better now.
The characters are developing nicely, and that’s what’s the read draw for me. Oh, and the fake commercials that break up the action (most of them featuring characters from the show enjoying the various fake products) are themselves worth the download.
Avid SHU blogger Mike Rubino is the narrator and voices most of the recurring characters (other than Dodge himself, that is).
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Thanks for the entry, Dr. Jerz! Hope you're enjoying all the new episodes we've been putting out this summer...
Remember, as Dodge always says, "We're librarians first and time travelers second." When we first started writing the show, James and I decided we had to set a few ground rules about time travel (rules that are very different from what would actually happen if one did time travel). The biggest issue is that because we're on the radio, the characters could never run into themselves in the past, it would just be too confusing with the voices. But, we always make sure to check our history, and observe the slight reverberations that may echo through time... for the most part.
As a side note, my science-oriented brother has adamantly disagreed with our definition of time travel in the show (but thankfully, he still does our sound effects for us.)