Planet Retcon

Planet Retcon is a now defunct audio drama company by Wesley Clifford that produced a number of original audio drama comedy series including Stargate Cafe and Tales of the Crimson Lien as well as a few individual one-shot shows. The shows all tend to have a "sit-com" meets "sci-fi" tone of light humor. There are some suggestive situations but for the most part, the shows are AD-PG. Many of the cast are reoccuring  in a variety of the episodes. The last of the show feeds was in February 4th, 2008, however there was a blog post from Mr. Clifford suggesting that an unwritten novelized version of Crimson Lien may be forthcoming. Mr. Clifford was the host of a series called Volcanicast which is now also defunct.

Website
The website of Planet Retcon is very rudimentary. Kudos for an attempt at a "planet" theme however the circles and black background reminds me more of the early days of pre-Internet Bulliten Board Systems instead of a website that had even entered the end of the 21st century. There is some rudimentary art as well, and kind of mismatched embedded shows to listen. While I recognize that having links on a website and embedded widgets is still a requirement for most people, I have to question how many people still use them as opposed to the rest of us who at the very least download the files and place them on some kind of portable device. However, if I am sitting in front of a computer to listen to an audio drama, I would expect a whole lot more content to help feed my eyes. This website has precious little.
A look even through the feed gives no credits at all to the actors or anyone involved in the production.
The "Contact" circle sends a direct email without any information as to people involved either. The News link presents us with the "Planet Retcon Blog" which at least has a familiar scrolling feature going through the past entries.
All the other "moon" circle icons also reference the blog, so one has to ask. "Why not just use the blog as the homepage?"
I can appreciate if your skill do not go towards website development, or even an interest in creating a website- this site here is nothing to write home by- however this is all the more reason to pick any of the free templates from wordpress and keep to functionality and passable interfaces instead of primitivism.
It's doesn't come across as retro. My advice is to please retcon the website.
Rating: 1/5

Audio Drama Style- Modern with a nod to the OTR
Mr. Clifford is arguably one of the first folks who have experimented with a regular comedy series with an in-house group of actors. His original schedule was maybe gruelling for most people and often fell behind, but the concepts  that we all take for granted in an audio drama production for podcasts are there. Music introductions, simple comedic set ups, and easily portable stories are indicative of early comedies on radio as well as the format made popular in television sitcoms.

Acting- Amateur
With the relative "newness" of the "Stargate Cafe" series and the actors involved the acting is startlingly good at times. There are weaker characters, but even they are stronger than some of the weaker acting in other shows. Without a written copy of the central players in Planet Retcon, I'm going to refer to them by their character names. I would say of the regular actors, Emma is the weakest. Her lines come across more like reading with inflection at times, although she does improve as the series goes on. The best characters are John and Katie. I haven't heard either actor in performances since Planet Retcon, and that's a real shame. They exude warmth, likeability, and uniqueness. Uniqueness of voice is something that cannot be emphasized enough. There are too many voices with similar timbre and inflection, but Mr. Clifford has done a great job of balancing the voices in Stargate Cafe. Even Pete who isn't super different tonally from John has his own way of attacking lines that make him endearing to the audience.
As for the alternate shows, the acting is still passable for most, but nothing beats the kind of instant interaction that Stargate Cafe brings. Even the Log of the Crimsin Lien which has its own same kind off-beat likeable characters just doesn't have enough time to develop itself with the three scant episodes compared to SC.
Rating: 4/5

Production: Minimalist
The earliest Stargate Cafe's had some pretty terrible voice recording with microphone peaks and popping sounds. This got better as time went by, and it was only because of the strength of the shows that you could learn to ignore them. As for sound effects, they are sparse and that works well, especially for SC. After all, you don't really need a lot of sound effects for inside a dirty bar in the middle of the void. I could hear some background bar sounds, and that helped set the tone as did the clinking of the glasses. Footsteps were rare, and most sound effects are placed for very specific script-driven reasons. This is takes a controlled hand, and kudos to Mr. Clifford for his emphasis on telling the story, as opposed to showcasing the sound effects. Another rare element is his use of the teaser at the beginning of the shows that lead into the familiar Stargate Cafe theme music. A good strategy as it sets up the rest of the show and breaks the dialog up with the musical interlude setting the listeners on their edge if you have an appropriate cliffhanger to start. Top marks for improvement!
Rating: 4/5

Writing
Once again, Mr. Clifford proves my theory that a good story told at least somewhat ably with decent actors can push through even the simplest of production values. Some OTR shows never bothered with theme music or stings and let the dialog tell the story. Mr. Clifford recognizes that in Stargate Cafe as well as Log of the Crimson Lien, his greatest assets are his colorful characters. The wackiness of the stories nearly write themselves when the characters are faced with a problem. Antagonism, general good ribbing, and old rivalries all encompassed by sexual tension and/or the frustration of goals are the life ink at the end of Mr. Clifford's quill. The plots are not unique, but they don't have to be. Good comedy relies on classic set ups with great timing and fun characters. All of these Mr. Clifford knows and does well.
Similarly with some of his one-shot shows (which were hard to dig for in the archives) showcased some of his other skills. Anthology stories tend to be more plot than character driven and Mr. Clifford does a good job in taking an idea and exploring what that could mean. For my money, I selected U.M.P.I.R.E. as my favorite in his original extra shows, with  The Hoff coming up close behind.  Great stories and good opportunities to stretch outside of the series. Ideally, I believe any good long running series should also have an anthology series to allow the writer/producer to play outside of the lines once in a while. It sharpens his wits to go back into the circle and fight again.
Rating: 5/5

Additional Notes
Mr. Clifford is extremely talented in Planet Retcon. He writes and produces the shows. His direction is very apparent in getting the best from his actors, having them hit their marks, and holding the same level of professionalism to himself. When listening to his voice recently in Space Casey, I was reminded of how much we had lost when he let Planet Retcon die. While there was hope from a single blog entry in February, it looks like its going to be an audio book. This is disappointing. While I enjoy audio books, they are never as much fun as good audio drama and a whole lot easier to produce. I've also got to say, that when producers leave audio drama to make regular spoken word podcasts, I die a little inside.
Spoken word podcasts, for me, tend to be little more than background noise. There's a thousand of them out there now because they are cheap and easy to produce. Unfortunately, the amount of time they remain in collective memory ends up being just as short.
Years from now what will people talk about most- The Tyra Banks Show or LOST?
We may have guilty pleasures to listen to DJ's and podcast jockeys, but its stories that really captivate us.
That's the end of my personal plea to Mr. Clifford to get back up on the horse and reopen his audio drama production company again.

Over All
Planet Retcon was a beacon in the slowly burgeoning world of modern Audio Drama. It set new records for interest in the early podcasts for a mixture of science fiction and humor, and its absence even to this day is sorely lacking.
Planet Retcon is not Shakespeare or Twin Peaks. It's not intended to be dark or even extraordinarily deep most of the time. It was a company with a couple of series that were made for fun.
Would that we all could learn a little of that.
Rating: 4/5