Subsonic Radio

it lacks jeremy iron's ethereal magic and wonder or walter cronkite's gravitas

listening to judie dench you feel like you are getting a school lecture

snore

the main problem is not Dame Judi Dench...it's the horrible script she was given to read

I dare say Irons or Cronkite would have sounded just as dumb had they been forced to read her script.

You have different look-and-feels going on with each one of them as well. Cronkite was used because he had a familiar voice that people trusted...and it was very much an "informational" style. Irons has a soft and poetic voice...which made the attraction much more of a "reflective" look back on advances in communication. Dench has a light-hearted tone to her voice similar to David Attenborough...which works very well for happy narration. It's obvious that Siemens wanted to "lighten up" the attraction a bit with a new script and by using Dench. I think had the script been better written, most people wouldn't have a problem with Dench.

theBIGyowski wrote:the main problem is not Dame Judi Dench...it's the horrible script she was given to read

I dare say Irons or Cronkite would have sounded just as dumb had they been forced to read her script.

You have different look-and-feels going on with each one of them as well. Cronkite was used because he had a familiar voice that people trusted...and it was very much an "informational" style. Irons has a soft and poetic voice...which made the attraction much more of a "reflective" look back on advances in communication. Dench has a light-hearted tone to her voice similar to David Attenborough...which works very well for happy narration. It's obvious that Siemens wanted to "lighten up" the attraction a bit with a new script and by using Dench. I think had the script been better written, most people wouldn't have a problem with Dench.

I agree, it is the script rather than the narrator. I am already looking forward to the next version though!

I think it's a combination of both script and the reader. The script is obviously not the best, but Dench's inflections at certain points just sound wrong. She reads the script too fast, almost tersely, which is off putting. Combined with her more light hearted tone it just sounds like someone trying to get through the script as fast as possible.

The change in script definitely made the attraction lose some of its grandeur, but it's surely also partly Dench's fault. A key example of it actually being the narrator is compare Dench to Irons in the "Like a grand and miraculous spaceship, our planet has sailed through the universe of time. And for a brief moment, we have been among its many passengers." opening; it's the exact same line both use but Dench's reading is just very shallow sounding. And I guess that's what I'm ultimately feeling when I hear it- Irons' reading has depth while Dench's is just this shallow, hollow, reading.

When did the Judy Dench narration replace Jeremy Irons' ? The last time I rode was in Oct '04, and I don't remember who the narrator was then

Her voice is too calming...almost puts me to sleep! lol

I don't mind her although I don't really remember the Jeremy Irons SSE. I will have to YouTube that one!

I don't mind her either. I'm too busy having a good time too care

Sharonofwindham wrote:When did the Judy Dench narration replace Jeremy Irons' ? The last time I rode was in Oct '04, and I don't remember who the narrator was then

The refurb done in 2007 changed a good bit in the attraction...which required a rewrite of the script. Seimens chose to have Dame Judi Dench do the narration. Just look it up on YouTube.

It's not really all that bad as the main things are the music and AAs...both of which are fantastic. The main gripe is the script...which is extremely light-hearted and sometimes borders on disrespectful. One example...after Rome burns you see that not all was lost because there were Jewish and Islamic scholars who had copies of a lot of the books and writings that were burned in Rome. The new version explains this as the "first backup system"...which is an odd way to say it.

I agree... the Dench version is a thumbs down! Her voice is annoying, the script is bad....
However, I love Spaceship Earth and will always continue to go on it. I have a good idea that I will try in a couple weeks, I will put in earphones as loud as I can with the Jeremy Irons version while I go through the ride! Do you think it'll work??

cousininmiami wrote:I agree... the Dench version is a thumbs down! Her voice is annoying, the script is bad....
However, I love Spaceship Earth and will always continue to go on it. I have a good idea that I will try in a couple weeks, I will put in earphones as loud as I can with the Jeremy Irons version while I go through the ride! Do you think it'll work??

You can try...it depends on if they sped up or slowed down the attraction at all too.

If you sliced up the version into the original sound cues and then just hit next track as you reached each scene, it would sort of work. But they also changed at least one scene with for the present version, right?

Wizzard419 wrote:If you sliced up the version into the original sound cues and then just hit next track as you reached each scene, it would sort of work. But they also changed at least one scene with for the present version, right?

Yes...and I think the "theatre" scene from the Irons version was changed to a Greek scholar teaching math to some kids in the Dench version.

theBIGyowski wrote:

cousininmiami wrote:I agree... the Dench version is a thumbs down! Her voice is annoying, the script is bad....
However, I love Spaceship Earth and will always continue to go on it. I have a good idea that I will try in a couple weeks, I will put in earphones as loud as I can with the Jeremy Irons version while I go through the ride! Do you think it'll work??

You can try...it depends on if they sped up or slowed down the attraction at all too.

I will report back on this in a couple weeks, I'm for sure trying it! My husband might think I'm crazy but I will take the risk for scientific Mouseka-purposes!

theBIGyowski wrote:

Wizzard419 wrote:If you sliced up the version into the original sound cues and then just hit next track as you reached each scene, it would sort of work. But they also changed at least one scene with for the present version, right?

Yes...and I think the "theatre" scene from the Irons version was changed to a Greek scholar teaching math to some kids in the Dench version.

Wasn't the Silicon valley scene where they had a guy that sort of looks like present day Woz, which looked nothing like 1980's Woz, added in as well?