Not all of the shows offered by Darker Projects are still active; many projects have been cancelled due to an overload of work, a lack of interest, or countless other little problems that have combined to deal a death blow to shows such as The Falcon Banner, Sword of Windsor, Dark Matter, and, until recently, Far Horizons and Night Terrors.
Just because these shows got cancelled or drifted into obscurity, however, doesn’t mean they are completely meritless and should be ignored. With that in mind, here’s the series review of The Falcon Banner…
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As with other fan adaptations from Darker Projects, The Falcon Banner is loyal to the source material (what I’ve read of it, at least), and overall is a fun, exciting SciFi epic.
The Falcon Banner is based on a series of novels by Christopher Patrick Lydon, and tells the story of humanity’s resistance after they are conquered and subjugated by an alien race called the Amsus. The main character, Darien Taine (voiced by Seth Adam Sher), is a former police inspector who is forced to flee the Earth after killing one of the Amsus in self-defense, a crime punishable by death. Inadvertently and unwillingly, he becomes caught up in the Resistance movement after he finds an abandoned starship dating back to before the fall of the human empire; the ship, named Excalibur, turns out to have been commanded by Admiral VonGrippen, the man who supposedly betrayed Earth by disabling its defenses and retreating with the entire fleet of starships. Even though Taine wants no part of the rebellion, people begin to rally behind him and the ancient falcon emblem of VonGrippen and begin to fight to regain their rightful place in the universe.
The show features an all-star cast: Seth Adam Sher, Chris Snyder, Laura Post, David Ault, Eric Busby, Mark Kalita, Clym Angus, and many, many more bring life to the characters. The show’s theme and other musical peices were composed specially for this production by Kai Hartwig, whose brilliant music has been used before in a variety of other DP shows.
Since I’ve unfortunately heard complaining about this on the forums, in reviews, and from people I’ve referred the show to, I feel I should throw this out there: two of the characters are gay. It doesn’t bother me personally, but everyone’s entitled to their views. Whatever those views are, however, please remember to respect the material and the author.
Unfortunately, The Falcon Banner ended before any sort of conclusion, and despite hopes and rumors that a revival is in the works, the official word is that the series is dead, and isn’t likely to be revived any time soon. Still, fans don’t have to lose hope entirely…
OTHER OPTIONS:
The novels can be purchased from Amazon.com : http://www.amazon.com/Falcon-Banner-Christopher-Lydon/dp/B0025UU3KA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251738597&sr=1-1 ,
or at the author’s official site: http://christopherlydon.gayauthors.org/
There used to be sites where it was possible to read the entire novel online, and perhaps they’re still out there somewhere and I just couldn’t locate them. Still, your best bet is to legally aquire the book(s) from one of the two sites listed above so you can support Mr. Lydon, who self-publishes his work.
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Listen to The Falcon Banner here: www.darkerprojects.com/falconbanner.php
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Another option for grieving Falcon Banner fans is the short-lived spinoff series/prequel Sword of Windsor, set centuries before the events of its parent series.
The series only lasted for two episodes. It tells the story of a crew of deep-space explorers who return to Earth after a 12-year mission to find their planet under attack, its defences decimated, and its hope nonexistant. They must try to survive under the Amsus order, and try to find a place in this new world, beginning the fight for freedom from Amsus tyranny that would be taken up generations later by an unassuming man named Darien Taine…
The first and only episodes seemed promising, even though at the time I was a little uncertain about a Falcon Banner spinoff. The fact that I listened to it after it was obvious that no new episodes were forthcoming probably didn’t help matters. Overall, I’d recommend Sword of Windsor to fans of The Falcon Banner who want to take one more short trip into the fascinatingly deep world explored in the main series, or to people like me who trawl through the DP archives, determined to listen to every single episode of every single show just because it’s there. (There…are other people out there besides me who do that, right? Right? I’m not the only one, right?)
The cast includes Elie Hirschman, David Ault, Damaris Mannering, Chris Snyder, Gareth Preston, Jim Barbour, Tom Davis, and others.
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Listen to Sword of Windsor here: www.darkerprojects.com/swordofwindsor.php
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NOTE: Again, thank you to everyone who’s been visiting the site; a few days ago, the number of views reached 66! I know that might not seem like a lot, but it more than doubled the total number of views for the two previous days, and quadrupled the average number of hits.
Also, if anyone knows a way for me to make my links shorter and less messy, could you let me know? I’m getting a little annoyed by the long strings of gibberish cluttering up the page.
Leviathan Dances 