t. Nancy Coy (Sirtis, of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame) is only
too happy to postpone her vacation to take on a "covert" mission, her first
for the Amalgamation high command. But she must enlist the help of drunken,
disgraced starship Cmdr. Kurk Manly (Fish), who has been trying to use
space "nectar" to forget how he left his last crew to die.
It seems Maynard (Cardie Mortimer), head of a band of rebels, has
kidnapped Chief Mocca (Larry Weiner) of the planet Quatro Cinco and taken
control of the planet's uranium mines. Neighboring planet Quatro Quatro,
aligned with the Amalgamation's arch enemy, the evil Consortium, is behind
the raid. Admiral Pidgeon wants Manly to take his ship, the Bumble Bee, on
a mission with Coy to rescue Mocca and destroy the rebels.
Why? "Even drunk, you're the best damn spaceship commander in the
galaxy. Besides, you have no dependents. If you're killed, no one will miss
you." Their crew also includes Jekyll-Hyde split personality Dotty/Dorothea and
space pirate Sydney Australia.
But unbeknownst to Coy and the crew of the Bumble Bee, they have been
set up for a suicide mission by traitors in the Amalgamation. Manly is only
too willing to give up and let a Quatro Quatro battle cruiser blow them away.
But Coy appeals to Manly's innate heroism, and he rises to the occasion by
outflying the battle cruiser and saving the ship.
When Coy and the Amalgamated First Fleet head back to Quatro Cinco to
mop up, they are ambushed and destroyed. Only Coy and a handful of
Amalgamation officers survive. Can Coy get through to Manly one last time?
Will Manly put away the "nectar" long enough to rescue Quatro Cinco and
defeat the Consortium? And can Coy and Manly uncover the conspiracy before
they themselves are assassinated?
Ten minutes to death?
Flight of the Bumble Bee, one in a series of audio dramas put out
by the Radio Repertory Company of America, is a tongue-in-cheek send-up of
old-time SF space operas. As a space story, it's a mildly amusing satire in
the tradition of Airplane. There's the requisite double-entendres,
pop-culture references and wisecracks ("When am I ever gonna get some
peace?" "I hear there's a sale on peace down on Oregano Prime.").
The characters are similarly an amalgam of SF radio archetypes (the
stalwart lieutenant, the disgraced captain, the lusty space bimbo and the
oleaginous narrator).
But in a time of Austin Powers, the jokes in Bumble Bee
seem pretty tame, and most of the humor falls flat. And without it,
Bumble Bee is pretty wan space drama.
There's some funny stuff ("Commander, wake up!" "What time is it?" "Ten
minutes to death!" "That's funny, I've got eight minutes to...did you say
ten minutes to death?!?"). And there's some humor in Sirtis' pollyanna
character trying to keep a straight face while everyone around her is
making jokes.
The voice characterizations work for the most part, with the actors
mimicking the style of old-fashioned radio drama. And the nicely produced
sound effects and orchestral score help paint an aural picture of space
ships and extraterrestrial mining colonies. Even so, Bumble Bee, at more than two hours, seems to go on much
longer than necessary.
