The Future Boys Trilogy
The Future Boys are Tyler Smith and Gary Patches, the lead characters from Steve Jordan's science fiction comedy plays "Dead Static", "Pilgrim Shadow" and "King Chaos". The plays make up a theatre series known as The Future Boys Trilogy, The plays are produced by Bad Bat Productions (previously ManMoth Productions), and star Cliff Chapman as Tyler and Adam Joselyn as Gary. Audio Series. In 2016, writer and director Steve Jordan revealed that the team would be crowd-funding a pilot for a new audio series based on the Future Boys. In 2017, the live recording  and digital release of 2 episodes of 'The Future Boys', a new audio sitcom, was successfully crowd-funded on Kickstarter. The episodes were released as a free download on iTunes in June 2017. Fiction. In 2018, a novella entitled 'Empire of Monsters' was released featuring Tyler and Gary as secondary characters, set within their universe. In 2019, an eponymous novel was released telling the entire Future Boys saga, including the stories of the original plays. Critical reception. "Dead Static" received mostly positive reviews from critics during its two theatre runs. James Bacon, writing for "Forbidden Planet International", described the play  as ‘a splendidly thoughtful and hilarious production’. Gareth Alexander described writer Steve Jordan as ‘a comedy writer brought up right, learning from the best, but allowing himself his own spin on things’ in his 4 star review for "Views from the Gods". "Snipe London" described the play as ‘certainly even funnier a space comedy than Red Dwarf’ and had 'the makings of a classic series'. "Pilgrim Shadow" also drew praise from critics during its 2013 run. Tessa Hart described the sequel as ‘a hilarious, unusual Sci-Fi excursion’ in her 4 star review for "Remote Goat". Some reviewers called for  the pairing to move on to television. Gareth Alexander said that ‘if on TV ... their pairing I suspect would be seen as one of the greats’ during his 4 star review for "Views from the Gods", and "Camden Fringe Voyeur" described both plays as ‘mini-sitcoms’ that ‘could be as good as anything on BBC Three’. The play also drew many comparisons with classic British comedy sitcoms, such as "Blackadder", "Red Dwarf", "Bottom" and "Black Books". "King Chaos", the final play of the trilogy, also drew praise from its debut run in 2015. The team of creatives and actors were  described as a ‘seriously hot talent in sci-fi’ comedy’ by "Views from the Gods" in their 4 star review, and its style of humour labelled ‘wonderful, clever comedy’ by "Remote Goat". The plot and world-building were also praised. "Female Arts" said that ‘the arguments made for 'pragmatism versus idealism when in power' make a lasting impression, especially as Tyler and Gary are essentially Trinculo and Stefano (from "The Tempest")’ in their 4 star review, and "Camden Fringe Voyeur" said the setting of the play was a ‘wonderfully silly and comic sci-fi universe that, with all its nods  and winks to other works, stands very much on its own two feet.' "A Younger Theatre" remarked that the play would ‘make a great television show ("Blackadder" meets "Dr Who")’ in their review.