This is the story of Edwardian-era European explorers traveling to the north pole in an airship, only to find a strange land unknown to mankind, and populated by an alien yet advanced race of intelligent non-human beings. The encounter holds up a mirror to western society, colonialism, and the dark side of human nature, and things go badly for the protagonists. It's such a perfect encapsulation of this "Vernean" subgenre, so self-aware about its tropes, and so much in sync with modern day critiques of classical adventure fiction, that you'd swear it was a modern-day pastiche, but no: the book is The People of the Pole, written in 1907 by Charles Derennes. It's a great lens through which to talk about classic "exploration" SF.
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Theme song by Jack Feerick
Additional music: "In the Hall Of The Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg
(c) 2023 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.
Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.
S4E115 -Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen: Whot's All This Then?
S4E114 -Chapter One Hundred and Fourteen: A Fool And His Money!
S4E113 -Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen: Get a Life!
S4E112 -Chapter One Hundred and Twelve: Sharna Pax and Get the Poal!
S4E110 -Chapter One Hundred and Ten: Culture War!
S4E109 -Chapter One Hundred and Nine: Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On!
S4E108 -Chapter One Hundred and Eight: The Maiden, The Mother, The Other One!
Chapter One Hundred and Seven: The Harrowing of Hell!
Chapter 107 Promo
S4E106 -Chapter One Hundred and Six: The Soldier of Light!
S4E105 -Episode One Hundred and Five: The Cyclone Country!
S4E104 -Chapter One Hundred and Four: Knower of the Many Worlds!
S4E103 -Chapter One Hundred and Three: Life on Mars!
S4E102 -Chapter One Hundred and Two: One Thing After Another!
S4E101 -Chapter One Hundred and One: Second Star To The Right, and Straight On Until Morning!
S4E100 -Chapter One Hundred: Empire of Bronze!
S4E99 -Chapter Ninety-Nine: The Boy Who Bought Old Earth!
S4E98 -Chapter Ninety-EIght: To Catch a Thief!
S4E97 -Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Means Of Production!
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