Dagon: War of Worlds
Previous episodes of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre have all been adaptations of a single classic Lovecraft story. As the series expanded, we knew we wanted to adapt some of HPL’s shorter works, and yet still provide full feature-length episodes of audio drama. “Dagon” was on the list of favorite and often-requested stories, but being only five pages long, and having only one character and no real plot, we realized we’d need to rework it substantially to make it fit the Dark Adventure line. Written in 1917, “Dagon” was one of HPL’s stories which was directly inspired by a dream. It was also one of his first returns to writing fiction after a nine-year hiatus. This brief story foreshadowed the theme of great undersea horrors that would reappear in his greater works “The Call of Cthulhu and “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”.
Lovecraft incorporated elements from “Dagon” into “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.” We had already done a Dark Adventure episode of that story, but the tale ends with many questions unanswered. Old Zadok Allen hints that the Deep Ones have a master plan for world domination, and that they are in league with Shoggoths. He also says that the old Kanaky islanders knew of certain symbols that could drive Deep Ones away. The town has been raided and no one really knows what has become of the Marsh family and the other members of the Esoteric Order of Dagon. And in the closing lines, the protagonist Robert Olmstead declares his intention to bust his cousin out of the insane asylum and join the Deep Ones in Y’ha-nthlei. We saw an opportunity to pick up where Innsmouth left off, incorporate “Dagon”—and maybe even more than that—and create an exciting new adventure unlike anything our audience has ever heard.
Get it now!Props
To enhance your listening pleasure and take you deeper into the story, as always we include bonus prop documents. But to reveal too much detail about them would spoil certain surprises in the plot, so we won't give away too much. The CD version of the episode comes with:
Track Listing
1. Opening 3:50
2. The Bay 10:49
3. The Navy Yard 12:23
4. Opean Ocean 13:56
5. Treacherous Currents 11:09
6. The Island 12:40
7. The Turning Tide 10:53
8. Closing 1:55
Total Runtime 77:35
Cast and Crew
Aidan Branney...Raleigh Radioman
Sean Branney...Walter Davis, Raymond Roquelo, Nathaniel Ward
Dan Conroy...Erskine Blackwell
Mike Dalager...Mare Island Dispatch, Alcatraz, Petty Officer Hobbs
Lucas Dixon...Charlie Tower
Matt Foyer..."Dagon" Actor, Dr. Chapman, Robert Olmstead
Andrew Leman...Nathan Reed, Barnabas Marsh
Jacob Andrew Lyle...Ensign Isaza
Barry Lynch...Admiral Brookstone, Palos Captain
John A. McKenna...Captain Craig
Grinnell Morris...Radioman 3rd Class Dalager
Kevin Stidham...Clark Holloway, Portland Dispatch, New Zealand, WWN Assistant
Josh Thoemke...Announcer
Time Winters...David Merlin, Bert Philips
Ruth Horne, Logan Loughmiller, Tobias Nilsson, Tom Woodger...Additional voices
Inspired by the stories "Dagon", The Shadow Over Innsmouth" and "The Temple" H. P. Lovecraft
Radio adaptation by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman
Original music by Reber Clark
Dark Adventure Theme and WWN Fanfare by Troy Sterling Nies
"Bub-L-Pep Jingle" written by Andrew Leman
arranged and performed by Harald Lindell and Kathleen Demarest
Raymond Roquelo & his Orchestra play "Little Dutch Mill" (1934) by Ralph Freed and Harry Barris; "Midnight, the Stars and You" (1934) by Jimmy Campbell, Reg Connelly and Harry Woods; "Don't Give Up the Ship" (1935) by Al Dubin and Harry Warner; all tunes arranged by Reber Clark
Audio engineering by Daniel McMains
Engineering assistance by Adam Pardee
Cover and disc illustrations by Darrell Tutchton
Bonus props by Andrew Leman and Sean Branney
German translation by Eddy Will
Produced by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman
Script, Liner Notes & More
The story in this episode was so big, that just one newspaper clipping couldn't do it justice. So we created an entire 8-page broadsheet size newspaper as a special bonus prop. The front page alone is full of spoilers, so we won't show you a picture of it here, but you can find it in the HPLHS online store.
If you find you have a Deep One problem yourself, you might be interested in the set of Deep One Summoning Stones, sent by Nate Ward to Charlie Tower along with a lengthy handwritten letter describing how he acquired them and four sketches of their use.
For your enjoyment, we present free PDF downloads of the final recording script and liner notes of Dagon: War of Worlds. Note: this script is only for use for reading along with Dark Adventure Radio Theatre; no performance of the script may be made without written consent of the HPLHS.
