The Audio File: Regina Prime

I have said, on many occasions, that sometimes it takes me a bit before I get to certain audio dramas. Other times, I make a point of listening and reviewing as quickly as possible. Today, we are taking a look at an example of the second scenario. Without further preamble, here is my review of Regina Prime.

Regina Prime begins in the form of an urban exploration vlog. We follow a woman named Regina who is exploring an abandoned research laboratory. Everyone starts of pretty normal, but then strange things begin to happen. It also becomes clear that Regina is hiding something. Or perhaps she’s being forced to hide something. Oh, but we aren’t done yet. Each episode is split between Regina’s adventures, and the happenings of another woman. Well, multiple women, and they all have very similar voices to Regina. These women have been kidnapped by a shadow organization that is seeking Regina Prime. Just what is going on here?

Regina Prime is created by Jessica Berson, who also created the audio drama Echoes (in) Between. It was an audio drama that was very much about slowly peeling back the layers of the central mystery like an onion. Regina Prime is very much cut from the same cloth. In fact, I’d argue that it is even more so. Most episodes of Regina Prime are only about half the length of a typical Echoes (in) Between episode. So, I had to be a bit coy with the summary. I will do my best to keep things spoiler-free for as long as I can.

Now, back to the subject of Echoes (in) Between. Those of you who read my review will know that I felt immense guilt for putting off reviewing Echoes (in) Between. This is due to the tragic way in which the show came to an end. To make a long story short, Jessica Berson had a pretty nasty falling-out with her production partner. It is highly doubtful a review from me could have prevented this. All the same, I felt bad after I learned about what happened. However, towards the end of my review, I also expressed confidence that Jessica would one day rise from the ashes like a phoenix.

My confidence was certainly not misplaced. Jessica has, in addition to Regina Prime, also started an anthology audio drama called Blue Rose Stories. I’m waiting til it has a few more episodes before I review that one. I will say that the episodes that Blue Rose Stories has out so far are really great.

I first became aware of Regina Prime when I got followed by the show’s Twitter account. I was very pleased to see that Jessica was making another serialized audio drama. I made a note that I was going to be proactive and not drag my feet this time round. I had to take care of a few personal matters first, but here we are now. It seems that Jessica is taking a back to basics approach with Regina Prime. As I have previously noted, the episodes are about half the length of a typical Echoes (in) Between episode. Jessica also provides the voices for all of the characters. She manages to give them all distinct personalities, and that’s no small task, given how similar most of the characters sound. As for why that is, well, that’s something for the spoilers section. One of the characters is a computer AI. Jessica considered using an AI voice for the role, but ultimately decided against it. She felt it wouldn’t be the right thing to do. And speaking of AI…but that’s another thing for the spoilers section.

I hadn’t really given urban exploration much thought before listening to Regina Prime. I’ve seen a couple YouTube videos, and of course I remember when the Tomb of the Burger King was discovered. Easily the greatest archeological discoveries of our times. That was a joke about some urban explorers who discovered an almost perfectly preserved Burger King from the 1980s. I know urban exploration isn’t the main point of Regina Prime, but it still made me want to learn more about it.

Okay, I’ve put it off for as long as possible. It is time to get into the spoilers section. So, if you don’t want any of that, turn back now.

Last chance, you sure you want to continue?

If everyone who wants out is gone, let’s get into it.

I’m going to go on a slight tangent for a moment, but just bare with me here. There was this show I remember briefly watching once called New Amsterdam. It was about this guy, named John Amsterdam, who was an immortal living in New York City. Oh, and it was also a detective show. As the title suggests, John’s been around since when the Dutch owned Manhattan. They had another show called Forever, which had basically the same premise, but I personally liked Forever better of the two. Ironically, both shows got canceled after only one season. Quite a shame really.

I bring this up because of something I found interesting about New Amsterdam. John has to keep a detailed list of all his descendants so that he doesn’t accidentally wind-up committing incest. I should probably mention that he’s looking for his true love, who will be the one to cure his immortality.

I’d never really considered it, but that would be a concern for someone who is immortal. But what happens when you have multiple immortals running around? And let’s assume these immortals can reproduce. Oh, nothing too bad would happen at first. Slowly but surly, however, the gene pool would start to get shallower and shallower. Iceland has had to deal with a variation of this problem. They’ve had little to no immigration over the years. Most Icelanders are descended from the original handful of Viking settlers. So, accidentally hooking up with a distant cousin is a reasonably legitimate concern. In fact, there’s an app that cross references two people’s family trees using government records. The app works when two people bump their phones together, and its slogan is “bump this app before you bump in bed.”

Okay, where am I going with all of this? Well, Regina Prime takes into consideration the ramifications of having a bunch of immortals running around and having kids. Well, that, and the effects of widespread cloning. Remember that part about the people being held captive? I initially believed it to be concurrent with Regina’s own adventures. As it turns out, I was wrong. The second segment actually takes place hundreds of years after Regina’s adventures. In that time, cloning has become very wide spread. Many people choose to have their kids cloned from donated tissue cultures. Regina’s sample proved very popular, but she had a genetic mutation that made her biologically immortal. All of her clones share this mutation, but they can still be murdered.

Hmm, a sample of immortal cellular tissue? Could that be a reference to the HeLa cells? They are a sample of cancer cells that have continued to divide long after the point they should have died. They were controversially harvested from Henrietta Lacks, who died of cervical cancer. The HeLa cells proved invaluable in numerous cancer treatment studies. However, the Lacks family didn’t learn about this until many years later.

People turning to cloning to ensure their kids are smarter, faster, stronger, and better might seem far fetched to some. However, I’d argue it isn’t too different to what is going on in the here and now. Think about all those people who pursue artificial insemination. Oh, they might claim to be opposed to things like eugenics. But when you get down to it, they’d probably prefer a tall, blonde hair, blue-eye, athletic college professor as their donor. They probably aren’t going to go for a short, flat-footed, perpetually anxious, autistic guy who writes audio drama reviews.

Obviously, all of the prisoners are clones of Regina. But why have they been captured? More importantly, who has captured them? I’ll leave all of that for you to discover. I will, however, reiterate that Jessica does a great job of giving the clones all distinct personalities. I helped that Epsilon, the clones are all referred to by Greek letters, has a British accent. Jessica does refer to herself as a committed Anglophile on her Twitter account. Hmm, going by that, I wonder if we’ll eventually see a clones who is obsessed with baseball?

I think we’ll wrap it up here. Season one of Regina Prime was really great. It is excellent to see Jessica Berson making audio dramas again. I can’t wait for season two to come out. And I have full confidence that there will indeed be a season two. If you enjoyed Echoes (in) Between, you won’t want to miss out on Regina Prime.

Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.

The Audio File: Echoes (in) Between

I have often spoken about how sometimes it takes me a bit to get around to certain audio dramas. I’ve also spoken about those unfortunate audio dramas that die after only one season, despite their high quality. Well, today’s review covers an audio drama that ticks off both boxes. It was an excellent show, it only lasted one season, and I took way too long to listen to it. So, without further ado, onto the main event. We’re taking a look at Echoes (in) Between.

Echoes (in) Between starts with an in-universe podcast of the same name. It is hosted by Gemma Avots and Thomas Fonte. They are exploring the concept of memory. More importantly, how we might retrieve memories. They are assisted by Dr. Adrian Thorne. The good doctor has developed a series of sound waves capable of stimulating people’s memory. At first, it seems to work remarkably well. Gemma, Thomas, and their listeners all begin to recall memories that were either hazy or completely lost. Then strange things begin to happen. Gemma and Thomas start remembering each other’s memories, and they begin to hear voices. Gemma and Thomas are going to do whatever it takes to uncover the truth behind the recordings. But what they will discover is beyond anything they could have imagined.

I’d known about Echoes (in) Between since before the first episode even came out. The show’s Twitter account followed me, and they were always really good about liking my posts for Audio Drama Sunday. I wasn’t really sure what to expect based on the description and the trailer. There were mentions of things such as past life memories and parasitic twins, but where was this all going. Well, time went on, and I got sidetracked. Several people requested that I review their shows. I also took time for myself. Sometimes, I need to be able to just listen to a show without taking mental notes, or immediately reviewing it after I finish it. Of course, I usually wind-up reviewing such shows later on, but I digress.

Eventually, much as I did with The Call of the Void, I decided that it was time for me to review Echoes (in) Between. Series creator Jessica Berson followed me on Twitter, and I took that as a hint. Probably should have taken the hint back when Echoes (in) Between first followed me. It was around this time that I learned some troubling news. There had been issues behind the scenes, and Jessica had a falling out with her partner Bronson Metcalfe. Bronson decided to leave Echoes (in) Between, which was a bit of a problem given that he voices Thomas. Ultimately, Jessica decided to end Echoes (in) Between after only a single season.

I doubt it would have made any difference if I hadn’t dragged my feet. Still, hearing how hard all of that was for Jessica made me feeling incredibly guilty. So, here we are; too little, too late. I’m not going to say that we should be thankful for what we got. I’m not going to say that at least Echoes (in) Between will lead to new opportunities for Jessica. Though I have no doubt that this is far from the end of her audio drama journey.

You know what? Screw it all. Sometimes life is unfair. Bad things happen to good people. A good audio drama dies a bad audio drama’s death. You do everything right, and things totally beyond your control prove to be your downfall.

I will now get into my formal review of Echoes (in) Between. I’m just going to warn you that there will be some pretty serious spoilers later on. It will be a bit like the review I did of season one of SINKHOLE. For now, however, I will stick to the non-spoiler stuff.

Echoes (in) Between starts off with an interesting question. What if you could enhance any of your memories? Be able to perfectly recall anything you wished? We all have at least a few things we desperately wish we could remember. What were the lyrics to that one song? What was that interning TV show you randomly came across? What color was the neighbor kid’s dog again? Seems harmless enough. Still, I don’t know if I’d do it if I could.

Autistic people are often noted for having exceptional memories. I bring this up because I’m on the autism spectrum, and that’s certainly true for me. I am noted to have exceptionally good recall. It is certainly helpful when writing audio drama reviews, or remembering random tidbits. I still haven’t full grasped the notion that normal people have trouble recalling events from only a few years ago. But I can’t really control my recall. So, for example, I still had to study for tests. And having such good recall also makes it even harder to forget bad things. My parents have remarked that, at times, it seems like I only remember bad things. There are times I’ll be minding my own business then something, a sound, a taste, a random thought, will summon a bad memory.

Maybe it was a time my parents screamed at me, or a time I did something embarrassing, or a million other things. And it will be just as sharp and painful as when it first happened. Sometimes, I just want to scream for the bad memories to shut up already. As you can imagine, this has caused anxiety and depression to be my constant companions. As screwed up as I am, I’m not sure I’d want to mess with something that could affect my brain.

I wondered if this might be the big twist. That is, that the recordings would give everyone perfect memory, and it would slowly drive them insane. But no, that wasn’t it. As for what it actually was, well, we’ll get into that in the spoilers section. I will say that Echoes (in) Between was one of the scariest audio dramas I’ve listened to in a while. I knew, intellectually, that it was all just a fictional show. All the same, I’d still sometimes get nervous and tense-up whenever the sound tapes were played. I know that probably sounds stupid, but I guess that makes Echoes (in) Between effectively scary.

Though, speaking of bad memories, I was initially wary when I listened to the first couple episodes of Echoes (in) Between. I’ve gotten burned by one too many bad Parcast podcasts, and the banter between Gemma and Thomas reminded me of that. Granted, I’m pretty sure that this was done deliberately. And I will say that it didn’t last long, and I found Gemma and Thomas’ non-podcast host dialog to be well-written and enjoyable to listen to. I got a better feel for the sort of audio drama that Echoes (in) Between was trying to be as I continued listening. I found it to be a very enjoyable audio drama.

So, let’s now talk about our characters. Gemma and Thomas met when they were in college. Gemma was an upperclassmen assigned to show Thomas the ropes. They developed a reputation for investigative journalism. In particular, they managed to bust a professor for forging his credentials. As a result, they refer to each other as Woods and Burnsy, in reference to Woodward and Bernstein, the reporters who broke the Watergate scandal.

Gemma is snarky, driven, and outspoken. Also, her real name is Gemini, but she thinks that sounds too much like a hippie name. Hey, at least it was better than the alternative. Gemma’s mom wanted to name her Tamzin. She and Mr. Avots did a coin toss to pick their daughter’s name, and Mr. Avots won. I looked it up, and apparently Tamzin means twin in Aramaic. So, I guess that kind of makes it an equivalent of the name Gemini. Gemma had been living in New York, with dreams of becoming a hotshot journalist, but she had to moved back to Minneapolis to take care of her father. Still, she’s making the best of things. Gemma is voiced by series creator Jessica Berson.

Thomas, by contrast, has always been soft-spoken, cautious, and a bit reserved. Thomas freely describes himself as bland, but he has his moments of spice. He’s been in therapy for the last few years, but he’s working through his problems. Thomas is voiced by Bronson Metcalfe.

The dialog is edited so that it often slightly overlaps. Jessica says that this is so that it mimics natural speaking. That is true, people often interrupt each other, or talk over each other, in real life. I also really love the intro and outro music for the in-universe podcast, which also serves the same function for the out of universe Echoes (in) Between audio drama. The audio drama does a good job of building a growing sense of mystery and creating an atmosphere of suspense.

Okay, I’ve put it off for as long as I could, but we have to talk about spoilers now. So, if you don’t want any of that, turn back now.

Last chance, you sure you want to continue?

If everyone who wants out is gone, let’s get into it.

There’s one very crucial bit of information I’ve been leaving out until now. You see, the universe of Echoes (in) Between isn’t quite our own universe. There was an event that occurred many years ago, back when Gemma and Thomas were just kids. It involved all adults basically turning into zombies for a day. It was like their brains ran on autopilot; they went about their normal routines, but with no obvious signs of emotion or consciousness. Thankfully, the adults were back to normal by the next day, but it severely traumatized all of the kids. This event became known as The Blackout, and nobody knows what caused it. Though, several hypotheses cropped up over the years.

Dr. Thorne had his own take on the matter. He called it the Chimera Universe Hypothesis. Dr. Thorne proposed that The Blackout was caused when a parallel universe got absorbed by our own universe. The other universe got destroyed, but the consciousnesses from that universe got thrust into our own, and took up residence in the brains of their counterparts in our universe. Children’s minds are yet fully developed, so they were better able to accommodate the other consciousnesses. Adults weren’t able to assimilate the consciousnesses so easily, hence why they blacked out for a bit. If you’re wondering, chimera refers to how, sometimes, one twin will absorb the other in-utero. The surviving twin develops normally, but will now have two sets of DNA.

Okay, so now all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. The words from the teaser trailer suddenly make sense. I did not see that coming, but that was the point where Echoes (in) Between set itself apart from that crowd. Oh, I was enjoying it before that, and it certainly managed to hold my attention. But this was the point where Echoes (in) Between proved that it was something truly special.

Believe it or not, there is a grain of truth to the idea of a Chimera Universe. Some scientists believe that parallel universes travel around the multiverse. Occasionally, they will bump into each other. Some scientists believe that the Big Bang might have resulted from the collision of two universes. It is theorized that sometimes the universes bounce off each other. However, other times, one subsumes the other, or they merge into a composite universe. These reactions can become especially volatile if the universes have different laws of physics. Though, given that the mind is a byproduct of the brain, I doubt consciousness could survive a universe collision. Still, it does make for an intriguing premise for an audio drama.

I see a lot of interesting implications in the scenes where Gemma and Thomas finally contact the alternate versions of themselves. I see a lot of Jungian shades. In particular, the confrontation with the Shadow. The Shadow is the aspects of ourselves that we like to deny, particularly negative emotions, and project onto others. According to Jungian Psychology, denying your Shadow leads to your mind becoming unaligned. Therefore, you must confront your Shadow, and accept/embrace those suppressed aspects of yourself. Some Jungians believe that it is possible to encounter your Shadow via a dream or vision. In other words, not too dissimilar to the trance that the later recordings are capable of putting people in.

Thomas has a pleasant experience when he confronts who doppelgänger, who he names Tom. So, you could see them as an example of someone who has made peace with their Shadow, and is in a state of alignment. Gemma also confronts her counterpart, who is known as Tamzin. Apparently, their mom won the coin toss in the other universe. This suggests the other universe was very similar, but not completely identical, to our universe. Hmm, Gemini and Tamzin both mean twin, and Echoes (in) Between is set in Minneapolis/St. Paul, which are known as the Twin Cities. Huh, the foreshadow was there from the start.

Well, anyway, Gemma’s encounter with Tamzin is far less cordial. I saw that coming; things with Thomas and Tom seem to go a little too smoothly. I wondered if another shoe was about to drop. Of course, the result was still incredibly chilling, and quite effective. Tamzin makes several sharp remarks claiming that Gemma is selfish, hurts Thomas, and is wasting her life. Gemma denies this, of course, but you get the feeling that she worries that this is all true on some level. However, it is often said that we ourselves are our harshest critics. For example, Gemma could have thrown her dad in an assisted care facility, but she moved back to Minneapolis to help take care of him. She did this even if it meant having to make sacrifices in her own life. Of course, Tamzin would say this was a bad thing. 

I must say that Tamzin is a well-written villain. She’s clearly in the wrong, but a lot of what she says has a grain of truth to it. It is unfair that she, and everyone else from the other universe, had to be trapped in the minds of their doppelgängers. What she went through was horrifying beyond comparison. However, that doesn’t give her the right to take over Gemma’s life. Who is she to pass judgment on Gemma’s choices? I suppose it shows that you can be a victim, and still be a horrible person.

Or here’s a thought. Tamzin was a child when she got stuck in Gemma’s head, and was only recently awakened. She has access to all of Gemma’s memories, but still pretty much only has the lived experience of a child. So, mentally, Tamzin might still essentially be a child, albeit, more akin to a child prodigy. Or maybe she aged, but at a slower rate? That does raise the question of how a mind would develop with the input of hormones. Of course, a mind can’t exist without a brain, and yet here we are…hmm, I’m probably overthinking it.

Getting back on track, I liked the way Jessica voiced Tamzin. In particular, the parts where Tamzin pretends to be Gemma. Tamzin gets ballpark correct, but is off just enough to come across as creepy and disconcerting. Almost a vocal equivalent of the uncanny valley. Tamzin is too cold, too reserved, and a bit too formal to pass as Gemma.

And then there was that ending, after the final tape was played. Just who, or what, were all of those voices? Well, going back to Jungianism, Carl Jung believed that humanity has a collective subconscious. Might the final tape allow listeners to access the collective subconscious? But here’s another thought. We know that the other universe was very similar, but not totally identical, to our own. What if there were people in that universe who lacked counterparts in our universe? What would happen to their minds? Or what if that wasn’t the only universe that got merged into ours?

All are interesting ideas, but sadly, it seems they shall remain unanswered. It is certainly unfortunate that Echoes (in) Between had to end as it did. But there is a light in the darkness. When Jessica Berson next commits to making an audio drama, and I have no doubt that she will, I know it will be absolutely fantastic. Jessica has proven to be a very talented writer, and an excellent voice actress. This isn’t the end for her, it is only the beginning. I look forward to what she will bring us in the future.

My only regret is that I didn’t get to Echoes (in) Between sooner. It is a fantastic science horror audio drama with some strong psychological themes. It joins the ranks of Lights Out and The Hermes & Hekate Road Show as an audio drama that was tragically slain well before its time. Don’t make the same mistake that I did. I strongly encourage all of you to give Echoes (in) Between a listen as soon as possible. And best of luck to Jessica in all her future endeavors. I’ll try not to wait so long next time.

Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.