I divide my podcast listening between audio drama and music discussions. Currently, we’re into the third and final season of The Strange Case of Starship Iris, one of the best of the SF audio dramas going.

It’s a combination of great storytelling and characterization – these, of course, being the keys to much great audio drama. We can’t see the characters, so we’re dependent on how they talk to one another, right? How well do they do it. There are even two characters in this drama with the same name, and we don’t confuse them. Technically good work, but the storytelling is key.

So what’s it about. In the first episode, Violet Liu is the only survivor of a sabotaged spaceship (the titular Iris). I hope this isn’t a spoiler – we learn pretty early that it was doomed to failure. In Violet’s last minutes, she’s rescued by a team of smugglers operating in the aftermath of a war between Humans and an alien race called the Dwarnians. The crew of the ship, the Rumour, is mostly human, save for the pilot, Krejjh, who is a Dwarnian. The ship’s translator/cook, Brian Jeeter is Krejjh’s partner. Brian studied Dwarnian literature before the war, knowledge that more than once comes in very handy.The crew is also mostly female and there’s a healthy dose of queer.

The first season has the crew running a variety of contraband and trying to keep out of sight of the Earth government. We slowly learn that everyone on the ship has something to hide related to the war. Or reasons to hide (such as: no one was supposed to survive the destruction of the Iris). Eventually we learn how close Krejjh is to the Dwarnian hierarchy (very, but her engagement to a human makes that tenuous).

From very early on we care about this cre and what happens to them and appreciate their qualities and shortfalls and fears.

Also: Did I mention the theme song?: Fear for the Storm always gets to me. It’s refrain, When I go to sea, don’t fear for me, fear for the storm encapsulates the themes of the story: Going up against elemental forces and with the self assurance to say, ‘we’ve beaten unbeatable situations before and we’ll do it again.

Midway through season 3, and we’re totally engaged with all the features of great pulp – the heroes are this close to death in each one and cheating it again and again, as the crew is on an impossible mission to rescue one of their own.

Joe Sam says: Check it out.