I received an e-mail today from the producers of The Minister of Chance audio drama to announce the release of a short movie trailer.
Before we get to the movie trailer, what exactly is The Minister of Chance? I have a hunch that many of you reading may not have heard of this.
Well, it’s an audio drama by Dan Freeman. A decade ago, Freeman wrote and produced Doctor Who: Death Comes to Time for the BBC, a five-part audio drama about the Doctor’s ultimate adventure. I discussed it in this long-ago blog post in the context of pre-release material for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek film. (Yes, this actually makes sense.) Death Comes to Time is steeped in the mythology of the Time Lords, and one of the Time Lords in the audio drama is The Minister of Chance, a friend of the Doctor’s portrayed by Stephen Fry. Frankly, I liked the character of the Minister a lot; he offered a different perspective on a “friendly” Time Lord.
It was rumored for a while that Freeman wanted to do a Doctor Who spin-off centered on the Minister, and a year ago Freeman released on the Internet the first part of a new story about The Minister of Chance, this time with Julian Wadham (best known to me from The English Patient) in the role. Other parts were played by Doctor Who actors Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann, both in very non-Doctorish roles.
Here’s what the Minister of Chance website says about the production:
Now in his fourth incarnation, defrocked Time Lord The Minister Of Chance finds himself saddled with ‘Kitty’, an ‘assistant’ he apparently cannot get rid of — and perilously entangled in the court intrigues and military politics of a forest planet on the brink of war. Jenny Agutter, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann and Paul Darrow join Julian Wadham (The Iron Lady) and Lauren Crace (EastEnders) in a mould-breaking audio adventure that will take you to a spectacular world where science is heresy and magic is law…
A prologue and two episodes have been released, and they’re availble for free from iTunes.
Freeman is attempting to crowdfund the third episode, “Paludin Fields,” and I made a contribution towards its production.
And today they released this movie trailer to garner more support for future Minister efforts:
What makes The Minister different from Doctor Who? Besides being more adult in language? (Seriously, if you ever wanted to hear Sylvester McCoy curse like a sailor… 🙂 ) I struggled with the right comparison, and here’s what I came up with — Doctor Who is to The Minister as Captain America is to Thor. Both items in each pair take place in the same universe, but the latter is more mythic and more cosmic than the former.
Check out the movie trailer, and download the episodes. You certainly can’t go wrong with free. And if you like it, consider funding the next episode.
I’ve enjoyed the two Minister episodes thus far. The writing is crisp, the characters are nicely drawn, and the production values are top notch. I for one would like to hear Dan Freeman make more.