September 23, 2024 • 40 mins
For this episode, we’re diving into the world of the one and only Judge Dredd, where one man stands between order and chaos – and he’s got a killer jawline!
Morgan is taking Tom through a mini history lesson of the famous franchise, from its comic book beginnings to its big screen adaptations starring Sylvester Stallone and Karl Urban.
We discuss everything from Stallone's amazing delivery as Dredd, a surprising British tabloid newspaper's connection to the series, its inspiration from a crude reggae star and much more.
And a big shoutout to our latest Patreon supporters: Bill Gudde and Tom Rye!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:37):
Hello, and welcome to a newepisode of Two Geeks, two beers,
andzero awards.
Yeah, we're a little bitbitter this afternoon.
Tom's mad. Why are you mad, Tom?
Well, like, we know we're nottaking over the world with this podcast.
We've been doing it for nearly ten
years now.
Yeah.
And we know you guys love us.
(00:57):
Yeah. But, like, all five ofyou. Yeah.
So years ago, we submittedourselves for, like, the british
podcast awards.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it was a stupid, loftyambitions because that was, like,
proper podcasts with money behind
itand stuff. But there's a thing called
the Independent Podcast Awards.
Surely in with a shot of those.
(01:18):
And we looked at last year'swinners and nominees at least. We're
like. We're easily amongst that brigade
of podcasts that ilk.
Yeah.
And so we submitted ourselvesfor several categories announced
today.The nominees.
Oh, yeah.
Not one nomination. No, no.And it's like. I know, I know. We're
not doing it for that.
(01:38):
It's not why we do it. It'snot why we do it.
Even so, it'd be nice to havea little bit of recognition. Ten
years of doing this bloody fucking
podcast.
The wire never won an Emmy, so.
But it at least had a nomination.
It had a lot of nominations, actually.
So if you can just at leastgive us just a little bit of love
onsocial media or an email or something,
just to make myself feel better,
because it's so pathetic. It is.
But, you know, fuck it. We've got
nothing else. Yeah, nothing. Nothing
atall. We submit ourselves to several
awards, tv and film, culture, comedy,
nothing.
(02:12):
So welcome back.
Anyway, onto episode 133 ofthe nomineeless podcast. After ten
fucking years, the unnominated.
The unnominated podcast.
Okay.
But who needs it when you'vegot the support of your listeners?
Yeah. All five.
All five of you. We love allfive of you. The quintet we call
you. And I have good news.
(02:36):
Oh, yeah.
Which is that alcohol is notoutlawed in Mega City one.
Nice. Don't know what thatmeans, but great. I'll explain. Okay,
good.
So this episode, we're divinginto the world of the one and only
Judge Dredd, where one man stands
between order and chaos. And he's
got a killer jawline. Tom, what do
you know about Judge Dredd?
(03:01):
What do you think?
I think you have a. To call itencyclopedic, maybe overstaying it,
but I think, you know all the ins
and outs, the canon, the mythology.
Ithink I'm gonna feel foolish, because
I'm gonna try and give you something
of abeginner's guide to Judge Dredd.
Andyou'll be like, well, I knew that.
Iknew that. I know all of it. In fact,
you should be hosting the. In fact.
(03:28):
Should we swap?
Should we swap? Yeah. Shouldwe? No, no. Yeah. So that's.
Well, I think I've realizedwhy we haven't got nominated for
anything.
Why?
Because I know nothing aboutjudge Dredge.
Because we haven't beennominated for award. Because you
know nothing about judge Dredds.
Pretend that we're geeks onthis podcast. The whole point is
that you're meant to be teaching
me.
Yeah.
And vice versa. But, yeah, Idon't know anything about it. I've
seen.
(03:51):
If you knew more about JudgeDredd, we might have gotten an ominous
book.
I've seen. I think I've seen abit of the recent ish one with. What's
his name?
Carl Oban.
That's the one. Yeah. Neverseen a Stallone version.
Hughie homelander. Done killme wife and took me bloody son.
Are we pretending his accentis good in that?
(04:12):
No. No. I think it's so bad,it's meant to be shit. I think it's
so. I don't think it's meant to be,
but I think it's so bad. It's good.
Yeah. It's up there with VinnyJones being like, oh, I need a pee.
That's actually how Vinny Joe.
I know him, but still. Yeah.
I don't know what point you're making.
It's like Russell Brand didthe worst accent ever when he was
trying to be a Brummie in Rock of
ages. He's like, you're british.
Youshould be able to be able to achieve
that.
(04:34):
His greatest crime.
But, yeah, no, I know whatJudge Dredd is. I know the absolute
basics.
What do you know?
He's set in the future.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
He looks a bit like robocop,but isn't.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually,that'll come up. Sort of.
He's human, right? He's human,but he's got, like, robotic stuff.
(04:58):
No, well, yeah, actually, yes. Yeah.
And he's the law and order ofthe town. He's law and order in the
town. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. That's it.
All right. Well, coming up,the origins of an octogenarian action
hero, the surprising link between
theHuman League and the metal band Anthrax,
and how a reggae artist fanned by
the BBC inspired a comic book legend.
(05:24):
I didn't expect so much musicrelated to.
It is weird that two of thoseare music related. Not intentional.
Okay,so, Judge Dro. Judge Joseph Dredd
wascreated by the writer John Wagner.
It's Judge's name.
What?
I thought he was just JudgeDredd. Like he judges people.
Yeah, he is. That's his judge.
That's his name.
What do you mean? Is it. Whatdo you mean?
(05:45):
All right, I thought youmeant. Okay, fine. So he's. He's.
No,but he's officially a judge? Yeah.
No, I thought it was a nickname.
Ithought it was a nickname. I thought.
What do you mean, a nickname?
I didn't think he was, like, ajudge with a fucking wig and all
that. I thought he was.
Well, he's not.
No, but I thought he was, like.
Do you think that Judge JohnDeeds. Do you think that was his
name? Like, he's. Like. He's Martin
Shaw. Like, he was born. He was born
judge Deeds. What am I gonna do for
a living?
(06:11):
Right? Bear in mind, we've hadtwo points. My brain went, I knew
hewas a judge, but I didn't think that
he was officially a judge. Like,
he'dbeen bestowed the judgeness. And
Iread that the judge Joseph Dredd,
andI sort of thought. Was that his first
name? Well, obviously he was gonna
bea judge. Yeah, but it's not his first
name.
(06:32):
Nominative determinism.
His name is Joseph.
His name is Joseph or JoeDredd, but he is a judge. I'll explain.
Bye.
So, Judge Dredd was created bythe writer John Wagner and the artist
Carlos Escuera, who sadly passed
awayin 2018. The stories are set in a
dystopian future earth damaged by
a series of international conflicts.
Muchof the planet has become a radioactive
wasteland, with populations aggregating
into enormous megacities. Dredd's
homeis megacity one, on the east coast
ofNorth America. Dredd is the most
famous of the street judges that
patrol mega city one. He is a law
enforcer, empowered to arrest, convict,
sentence, and execute criminals.
(07:11):
So who put him in charge?
Well, they set up a wholesystem of judges and the justice
system. But that happened before
Dredd. Yeah, he was sort of born
into it. Fine. Or was he? We'll get
onto that.
Okay.
His iconic helmet obscures hisface, except for his mouth and jaw,
and his entire face is never shown
inthe comic strip. John Wagner explained,
itsums up the facelessness of justice.
Justice has no soul. So it isn't
necessary for readers to see Dredd's
face, and I don't want you to. Dredd
is armed with a lawgiver, a pistol
capable of firing six types of ammunition,
including standard bullets, armor
piercing heat seekers, and high explosive
shells. And he rides a lawmaster
motorcycle equipped with machine
guns,a laser cannon, and artificial intelligence
capable of responding to orders from
the judge and operating itself. So,
the origins of Judge Dredd. In 1976,
comics editor Pat Mills was developing
anew british weekly anthology comic
2000 AD, and he hired writer John
Wagner to develop characters. Wagner
wanted to take the idea of a dirty
Harry style tough cop to its logical
extreme. The name came from a horror
strip that Pat Mills had previously
developed with the title Judge Dredd,
but Dredd being spelt d r e a d.
That name was taken from the stage
name of a british scar and reggae
artist, Alexander Minto Hughes. Wow.
You know who this guy is?
(08:44):
Yeah.
The first white recordingartist to have a reggae hit in Jamaica.
Yeah. The BBC apparently really rude
banned more of his songs than those
of any other recording artist because
of his frequent use of sexual innuendo
or double entendres.
So weird. So I. Because Iknew, always knew Judge Dredd, the
artist existed, but I thought it
was. He ripped off the other one.
Oh, you thought it was theother way around?
Yeah.
(09:04):
No, no, no. What? Yeah, he'snamed after the reggae guy.
Wow.
Who I'd never heard of. Butapparently he sold several million
albums throughout his 25 plus year
career and was second only to Bob
Marley in uk reggae sales during
the 1970s.
Yeah, a lot. His songs arereally like, you never hear them
now. They're too rude.
Right? Oh, the BBC was rightabout him. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(09:26):
Wow. Blow my mind there. Wow. Okay.
So the task of visualizing thecharacter of Judge Dredd was given
tothe spanish artist Carlos Escuera.
Wagner gave esquera an advertisement
for thefilm Death Race 2000, showing the
character Frankenstein, played by
David Carradine, clad in black leather
on a motorbike. To use as inspiration,
Esquera added body armor, zips, and
chains, which Wagner initially objected
to, feeling like the character looked
like a spanish pirate, though the
design for a dreads helmet was actually
inspired by the corinthian helmets
ofancient Greece. So don't tell me
this podcast is nothing civilized
and sophisticated.
(10:01):
Nomination.
Judge Dredd was originallysupposed to be set in the near future,
but the hardware and cityscapes Esquera
drew were far more futuristic than
originally intended, so the stories
ended up being set further into the
future. However, even though Judge
Dredd was developed for this new
comic 2000 AD, he did not debut in
the first issue, which was published
inFebruary 1977 for a variety of reasons,
one being that the original launch
story, written by Wagner and drawn
bye Squera, was vetoed for being
tooviolent. He got a violence veto instead,
he made his debut in issue two, or
prog two, as it was known, and has
appeared in almost every issue since.
He's the magazine's longest running
character, and in 1990, he got his
own spin off title, the Judge Dredd
magazine. So, to give you a taste
ofwhat 2000 ad is all about, if you're
not familiar, which I'm guessing,
I'mguessing you're not just taking a
pump, here's a trailer for the 2014
documentary Future Shock, the story
of 2000 AD.
(11:00):
Nice.
In the late seventies, it wasa troubled country, to say the least.
When 2000 ad came out, it was the
biggest hit comics had had for a
very long time. We were this gang
ofreprobates dropped.
(11:21):
Right down in the middle of this.
Totally conservative comicgroup. What 2000 ad did was just
kick it in the face. We were the
lunatics who had taken over the asylum.
People thought because we were a
science fiction comic, we were going
to be rather nice and middle class,
and boy, were they in for a shock.
All my craziness I wasactually getting from 2018.
(11:43):
People tend to think of comicsas being very kind of throwaway entertainment,
but this was some deep political
stuff.It was talking to kids and turning
thisall into our generation.
Anarchists, you've just gotexit wounds all over the page.
Comics have got a terriblehistory for treating people really
badly. Hang on, you mean I don't
ownany of this at all? Very soon, these
artists were being headhunted.
(12:06):
I was a bit of a shit toseveral people. Fuck off.
How much you gonna pay me? Andthat's the way you gotta deal with
these people. Robocop, stolen dread,
outrageous.
Hey, yeah.
Monastery is the worst ideaever. I was determined to present
something that was authentic, and
the breath of popular culture has
caught up with what 2000 ad was doing
30 years ago. 2000 ad has probably,
onsome level, influenced everything
I'veever written. The british comics
landscape now would be a wasteland.
2008,it's the Sex Pistols being signed.
(12:38):
To the major label kind of thing.
Still getting away with it.
It can be considered a britishsuccess story. Anyone can make a
comic. There's only one two person
ad.
I love that guy who onlyspeaks in really dramatic sentences,
sohe's like basically the generation
ofanarchists. And the comic Lansky
wouldbe an absolute wasteland. I thought.
2000 Ad, he's like, really chill.
Really like Scott, really scottish,
really chill, but only says things
that are like, absolutely. Like,
hiswife's like, want for breakfast?
And hewas like, oh, if I could have some
shreddies, that'd be absolutely fucking
phenomenal. Fucking blow my mind.
(13:18):
You obviously couldn't see itthere, but unless you're watching
theYouTube version.
Oh, yeah. So you obviouslycouldn't see it because no one does.
Oh, yeah. You definitelyhaven't seen it. But the animation
justlooks so cool. They're just so hardcore.
And great artwork. Yeah, yeah.Famously kind of, like, visceral
andviolent and dark is why people loved
it. So Judge Dredd's stories often
satirize american and british culture
with a focus on. I don't know why
I've given myself so many long words
to say, give it authoritarianism
and policebrutality. In addition to his long
runs in 2000 Ad on the Judge Dredd
magazine, Dredd has also appeared
intitles published by DC Comics, although
this version featured a different
continuity and history to the original.
You're annoyed. You're annoyed by
that.
(14:02):
Why?
Why? Dread comic strips? This.This blows my mind. It's like, I
feel like it was a different. Obviously,
it was a different time because it
was. It was not now, but. But, like,
Dread comic strips were also published
inthe Daily Star from 1981 to 1988
forseven years. But imagine picking
up theDaily Star and being like, oh, yes,
my latest judge Dredd comic strip.
AndDredd comic strip was published in
the Metro Metro from January to April
2004.
(14:28):
So if you're nothing from theUK, the metro is quite a. It's a
pithy little, like, daily free newspaper
that you get on the tube.
Yeah.
The idea of Judge Dredd beingthat for a few months doesn't make
any sense whatsoever.
I'd love it.
Well, great. I'd get it.
I'd actually read it. Yeah,it's free. I still don't want to
read it. Launched in the wake of
the first Judge Dredd movie, of which
more later, there was also Judge
Dredd, lawman of the Future, from
the same publishers 2000 Ad, but
aimed at younger readers. Here, Dredd
was prohibited from killing anyone.
Asone reviewer put it. Years later,
thiswas judged Dredd with two vital ingredients
missing his balls. Judge Dredd, lawman
of the Future, ran fortnightly for
23 issues from 1995 to 1996. Now,
not well regarded, not very popular
amongst, you know, dreadheads, but
that was actually how I first encountered
the character was I picked up a.
Iwas. Cause I was a kid. Picked up
an issue of Judge Dredd, lawman of
the future. Loved the character and
have since graduated to reading 2000
AG, Judge Dredd magazine. So I think
people shouldn't be so sniffy. I
think it's a nice gateway drug. This
is interesting. Time passes in the
Judge Dredd strip in real time. So
as a year passes in life, a year
passes in the comics. It's not like
the Simpsons or, you know, anything
else.
(15:47):
We must be dead now then.
Well, no. So the first judgeDredd story, published in 1977, was
set in 2099, 122 years in the future.
So, stories published in 2024, as
we record this, are still set, 122
years in the future, in 21 46. Dredd
has been going for about 50 years.
Sohe was 38 when he first appeared.
Sostill younger than Judge Dredd. Just
about. But he is now 84 to 85 years
old, having undergone a rejuvenation
processthat restores him to his physical
prime.I think we could all do with a bit
of that. Dredd is, in fact, a clone
born in inverted commas from the
DNA of Chief Judge Fargo, the founder
of the judge systems. There you go.
His origin story saw a cadet Dredd
and his clone brother, Rico, like,
okay, what's this one? Joe. Joseph.
What about this one?
(16:42):
Rico?
Rico feeling a bit fancy?Yeah. His clone brother, Rico. They
both distinguished themselves at
the Academy of Law, with Rico graduating
top of the class and Joe graduating
second. Joe later discovers that
Rico has embraced corruption, engaging
in multiple crimes, including murder.
Joe arrests his brother and sentences
himto 20 years of hard labour on the
penal colony on Saturn's moon Titan.
(17:07):
Shit.
Rico. Shit. Rico later returnsfor revenge after serving his 20
year sentence, and Joe shoots him
dead in self defense in a duel. That's
one of the early just Dread stories.
Other notable characters in the Dread
saga include Judge Anderson, who
shared a close but uneasy friendship
withDredd, which briefly ended when she
abandoned the law. After her return,
they reaffirmed their bond. Dredd
respects her abilities, but finds
herplayful attitude annoying at times.
Judge Hershey, who was originally
Dredd'sjunior colleague and later chief
judge, she was one of the most enduring
characters in the strip, appeared
from1980 until her death.
(17:41):
Shit.
Just last year, in 2023, theykilled off Hershey fuck, yeah. Judge
Logan was Dredd's assistant, later
promoted to chief judge.
Never got the same first name.
I know. That's weird, isn'tit? Dredd's protege, Judge Beanie,
Judge giant, who was a longstanding
ally whosaved Dredd from execution and was
killed in the line of duty in the
story block mania, and Judge Decker,
who is Dredd's second cadet trainee,
whodied in 1990. Two's Judgment Day
story. Most of the characters other
than Dredd died. It was a recurring
theme. Recurring adversaries for
Judge Dredd include the Dark Judges,
agroup of undead judges from another
dimension who believe that since
allcrime is committed by the living,
lifeitself should be a crime. Their leader
is Judge Death, who is often considered
Dredd's arch enemy. Death was first
introduced to the series in 1980
andis featured in many stories since,
opposite Judge Dredd and in his own
sort of spin off stories, there's
alsoMean Machine, angel, the third son
of the notorious angel gang. Mean
Machine is a large, hulking man with
cybernetics, including a dial on
his head, which controls the power
ofhis cybernetically enhanced headbutts.
Some of the most notable Judge Dredd
storylines across almost 50 years
ofstorytelling include the Cursed Earth
from 1978, which follows dread on
a perilous cross country mission
through the radioactive wasteland
outsidemega City one. The apocalypse war
from 1981 to 1982, which sees East
Meg one launch a full scale nuclear
attack on Mega City one, playing
intocontemporary cold war paranoia and
fears of a nuclear attack. Judge
Death in 1980. You can guess which
character debuted in that story and
then its sequels. Judge Death lives
in 1980, and Necropolis in 1990,
andAmerica, which is another storyline
in1990. A more political story that
shifts focus from Dredd to the character
of America. Jarrah, who grows up
to become a freedom fighter opposing
thejudge's authoritarian rule. This
story questions the morality of dred's
world and the cost of law and order.
(19:38):
So I love that. Obviously,normies like me will look at this
and go, Judge Joseph's couple of
films. Yeah, but I love that there's
this whole world that's sort of existing.
So dense.
It's been going 50 years, 50years, and it's still going, and
it's sort of living in its own little.
The fact that 2000 ad is stillpublished, I think, is remarkable
andamazing. Like, I'm so glad, but I'm
sort of stunned at the same time.
Butgreat. Still going good. Love it.
Dredd has also appeared in crossover
stories with other iconic characters,
including 1990 one's Batman. Judge
Dredd judgment on Gotham, which is
great. She's judge death. Used dimension
jump technology to breach the DC
Universe and attack Gotham City.
(20:23):
So is he technically in the DC universe?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, well,it's multiverse now.
Oh, yeah.
And 2000 three's Judge Dreddversus aliens, in which Dredd faces
the xenomorphs. Yeah. Now onto familiar
territory for you. Judge Dredd made
his live action debut in the 1995
movie Judge Dredd. In the film, Dredd
is framed for murder by his own half
brother, the psychotic Rico, who
plots to take over mega City one
with an army of superhuman clones.
Here's the trailer. Where there is
crime in society, there is no justice.
Opening with a Plato quote.
(21:15):
There.
Is that.
Max.
Max. Max. Boy. Max. One sider.Judge. This quits. Adjourned. Dredd,
you're a legend. You are my finest
student. Get Drake. Drake Dread,
you're under arrest. What's the charge?
Murder. The evidence has been falsified.
Guilty as charged. I am not the law.
I am the law. Do I chaos the sentence?
Shelby? Life imprisonment. And the
chaos train. Very crushing paw.
(22:09):
Excuse me.
We're not together. It's notfor this console to play God. Who
says politics is boring?
(22:33):
Rob Schneider.
We're going to war.
You're a lot of fun to be with.
Right, Mister Hyand? We got alot in common. I'll be the judge
ofthat. Very good.
Deadline.
(22:56):
That was a lot.
Yeah. I mean, it's one ofthose films. It's probably rubbish,
but.
Oh, it's bad.
It looks like a lot of fun.
Yeah, it's quite fun. And bothcan be true. Both can be true. So
the Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Oh yeah.
Was considered for the title role.
Funny that it's always one orthe other.
I never broke the law. I amthe law. Gonna work. The power of
dread ultimately went to Sylvester
Stallone. The film received generally
negative reviews.
(23:22):
You sound like droopy then.
Oh, dear. The film receivedgenerally negative reviews with a
22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I've
heard worse. Only a bit worse than
hook, apparently.
I started.
Fans also disliked the factthat Dredd removed his helmet and
felt that the film lacked the humor
of the original comic, as well as
ignoring important aspects of the
dread mythology.
(23:50):
It feels like, you know, likeRyan Reynolds in the original appearance
of Deadpool.
X Men. Wolverine. Yes.
Where?
Moore.
Yeah, it's like I get. Youwant to see Stallone's face?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But. Nah. Sorry. If you don'twant that, get fucking Peter Weller.
Back. Yeah, he'll do it.
Weller was happy to do it.
Imagine if he did both.
It would have been good.
(24:10):
Yeah.
Yeah. John Wagner said, Ihated that plot. It was Dredd pressed
through the Hollywood cliche mill,
adynastic power struggle that had
little connection with the character
weknow from the comic. So Wagner was
not a fan. Although in retrospect,
it hasgone on to earn a cult following.
Thisfilm having received some praise
forits depiction of Dredd's city, the
costumes, and its larger than life
characters. I think fans now, at
the time, was just hated. Now they
look back, they go. It got aspects
ofthe larger than life world right.
Thatdepiction was good, but it got the
character of dread wrong. So another
adaptation, just called Dread, this
time presumably to differentiate
itself, wasreleased in September 20. Twelve
to amuch more positive critical reception
rating of 80%, which is serviceable.
It wasdirected by Pete Travis, written
byAlex Garland. And it stars oi Carl
Urban as Judge Shred and Olivia Thirlby
as Judge Anderson.
(25:05):
Okay.
In the future.
Thanks.
No worries. One city is addicted.
Addicted.
We can find out. Desire.
Ah, Belarus. Larouze dates itto a new substance. Was that.
(25:29):
Yeah. To a new substance.Makes the brain feel as if time is
passing at one percent's normal speed.
One woman controls it. It's Lena
Headey. She's a mess. But judgment
iscoming. 800 million people living
inthe ruin of the old world. Only one
thing fighting for order in the chaos.
The men and women of the hall of
justice.
(26:11):
Peace trees is themanufacturing base for all the slo
mo in Mega City one.
You know how often we get ajudge up in peace? Treaty? Please.
Well, you got one now. She has control
of everything. Levels one to 200.
This is Mama. Somewhere inthis block are two judges.
(26:31):
That's not good.
I want him dead.
We're gonna have to go throughhim. Rookie, you ready?
He's getting the ChristianBale route then. Yeah.
Not quite. Not quite that bad.Judgment time.
Let's finish this.
(26:53):
Mama's not the law. I'm thelaw. Negotiation's over.
(27:21):
Yeah.
His death.
Yeah. I mean, I've heardnothing but good things about.
Yeah, it's real good. It'sreally good.
But it's one of those oneswhere like, should I come back? But
for whatever reason didn't.
We'll get onto that.
Yeah.
Funnily enough. Yeah. So JohnWagner, not a fan of Stallone version?
He said he did like this one. He
said it's high octane, edge of the
seat stuff and gives a far truer
representation of Dredd than the
first movie. So, yes, there were
plans for a Dredd trilogy, the second
film exploring the origins of Judge
Dredd and megacity one, and a third
film introducing Judge death in live
action and the Dark judges, would
have been great. However, in a 2016
interview, Karl Urban said the film's
mishandled marketing strategy. Maybe
he means Leroux on the soundtrack.
I don'tknow. And unfortunate box office
performance meant that it was problematic
to try to make a sequel.
(28:15):
Actually, by now, it's donewell enough in.
Well, yeah. Home theaters.
Yeah.
Home media.
Home media.
Well, in May 2017, atelevision series named Judge Dredd,
Mega City one, was announced to be
in development, and Urban was later
revealed to be in discussions to
star in the series, though it's 2024
and the show has yet to materialise.
(28:40):
But surely it's one of thoseones where. Because he's now become
abigger name because of the boys.
Well, the boys is about to wrap.
Up, and so maybe it's one ofthose things where his presence alone
is enough to book it in, sell it,
book it in.
Can we get some time to filmthis, please? Well, we've got Carl,
so. Oh, have you got Carl? You can
book us. Yeah. It's not like getting
atable at a busy restaurant, but,
yeah.
(29:01):
I don't want a tv series,though. I want a sequel. I don't
want. It's too much.
No. Well, also, this tv serieswas apparently, it was more like
anensemble drama about other judges,
andJudge Dredd would be like a supporting
character. Do you know what? We should
do a judge Dredd show, but without
judge Dredd or, like, with. He's
notthe main character.
Yeah. Blade film was meant tobe like that, where, like, blade's,
like, the fourth main character in
it, even. It's called Blade. No one
wants it. Just give us what I get
Wesley snipes back. Give us what
we want.
(29:32):
Give us. Just give us. Give uswhat we want. There were also two
judge Dredd adaptations broadcast
on BBCRadio one in 1995. Again, Radio one
again.
I don't remember that.
Again, this whole thing of,like. Yeah, there was a judge Dredd
stripping the Daily Star and, like.
And then the metro radio one who
commissioned that. But I think we
have a very, like, maybe, like, millennial
idea of what Radio one is.
(29:57):
A chart show and stuff. Like,the idea of obviously happened.
Yeah.
I can't believe.
But I just, like, betweenBruno Brooks and I just. I love the
idea.
Chris Evans.
I just love the idea. It'slike yeah, that was a new one from
do a leaper. Anyway, what's up next?
I'll tell you what. Is Judge Dredd
ready for Mega City? Like, what?
That's like what? We're goingback to the broom covers?
Yeah.
Fucking hell. Weird.
(30:18):
Yeah. And between. We haven'tdone this for a while. Between 2002
and 2004, Big finished produced a
2000 ad range of audio dramas featuring
Judge Dredd, who was voiced by the
actor Toby Longworth. Radio player
Mark Gatiss voiced judge Death, and
Simon Pegg featured as another 2000
ad favorite, Johnny Alpha of the
strontium dog comic strip. I wanted
toplay maybe like a clip from these
ora trailer.
(30:46):
Sounds great.
The Judge Dredd seriesactually had a great theme song.
Sadly, these are no longer available
topurchase due to the license having
expired and appear to have been scrubbed
from the Internet.
Why didn't they scrubbed fromthe Internet?
I wanted to play a clip, butfuck it. No, I can't. I can't. They
fucked it. It's just gone.
See, it's gone. If one was to torrent.
I don't.
It's understandable.
(31:07):
No, literally. I try. I look,I tried to find it through, like,
other means. I literally scrubbed
from the.
Did it even happen?
It did even happen. Now I'vegot some cds. Oh, yeah. I should
like,sell them at the back of my. Back
ofthe van or like, pass them around
likein a pub or something. But yeah,
no,I couldn't. I wanted to play a clip.
No, it's been.
Can't be asked. Get the cd out.
Scrubbed from the Internet.What am I gonna do? Like, rip a cd?
The kind of people who rip cds and
then play those clips, they win awards.
(31:34):
They do.
That's what they do.
They put the effort in. Yeah,they have six listeners.
You say that's what sets themover the edge. Maybe that is what
qualifies you. Six?
Yeah.
Come on. Come on, number six.
Come on.
Tell us. There were two judgeDredd video games released for Commodore
64 and ZX Spectrum in 1986. And then
1990, and in 1995, a game based on
the first live action film was released
for Genesis SNES Game Boy and Game
Gear. And in 2003, Judge Dredd. Dredd
versus Death was a first person shooter
released for PC, PS, two, Xbox and
GameCube, and featured many of the
cast from the big finish plays. Toby
Longworth, reprising his role as
judge Dredd team up.
(32:19):
Nick Briggs.
Yeah, he voiced Judge death.We just eliminated the last of the
vampires from sector five. The regen
infestation is over.
Good.
Work Dredd.
Rest assured that we'restepping up security on the dark.
2003.
Huh?
2003. Terrible strain on her,but she's doing fine. Thank you very
much. Joe.
(32:45):
You weren't worried about me,were you? Control the drag rock war
in progress.
Corner of Reeves and Hopper.
On my way. Control dread out.
I guess we'll never know.
(33:07):
Yeah. It's quite wellregarded, that game. Yeah. Bit of
an oddity, but yeah. There have also
been judge dread novels, role playing
games, board games, and even a pinball
machine released in 1993. And in
2012, Dredd was one of ten british
comic characters commemorated in
aseries of stamps issued by the Royal
Mail. The metal band Anthrax and
the Human League have both written
songs about Judge Dredd.
(33:31):
What?
Not the reggae artist. Bothtitled I am the law.
Okay. Yeah, the Human League.
Yeah.
For Loki just went, you knowwhat? Love a bit of fucking judge.
I love it. I'm a regular 2018subscriber. Yeah. And a magazine.
I getthe bundle. Will judge Dredd live
forever? While regarding the possible
death of the character, in an interview
with Empire in 2012, John Wagner
said,there could be many ways to end it,
but the probability is that I won't
still be around when it happens.
I wouldlove to write it, but I can't see
it happening. I'll leave the script
inmy will. We put the call out for
fan comments and thoughts and memories
about Judge Dredd. I have one here
that I wanted to read out from Alex
Windsor, who said, I used to eagerly
await every Jar jazz prog of 2000
Ad. Jar Jazz being an invented slang
word, 2000 Ad, which means excellent,
hesaid. Everything about Dread is summarized
in this exchange between him and
Judge Fear, who is one of Judge Death's
minions, an undead horror whose face
will quite literally frighten the
life out of you. Maybe we'll share
this on social, but effectively,
Judge fear.Yeah, he's terrifying. Stares into
Judge Dredd's face. He has this paralyzing,
terrifying stare and says, gaze into
the face of fear. And Judge Dredd
punches his fist through his head.
Through his head and says, gaze into
the fist of dread.
(34:53):
Can help.
Perfect. Yeah, sums it up. So,yeah, that's it. A beginner's guide
to Judge Dredd.
Yeah.
Thoughts?
Great. I mean, I feel like hehasn't had the jew he deserves in
terms of adaptations, at least. Clearly
the comics are great, and they've
had.They live the life it's lived.
Yeah.
For everyone else, I feel likewe've been robbed of. I mean, dread
the film, 2012.
(35:14):
Yeah.
Seems great, but I feel like,for whatever reason, it's not had
the.
No. And that feels a legacy. Ifeel it's a strange thing to say
when it's had. Yeah.
It's clearly very popular.
Two films and books and audioradio plays, but it's not on the
level of, like, Batman.
No.
And it probably should.
And you look at something likeGuardians of the Galaxy, which was
nothing. And because it's Marvel,
theymade it into this ridiculously mainstream
thing, whereas I feel like Judge
Dredd deserves that sort of. And
Ifeel like we're crying out for this
kind of new era of, like, sort of.
It's still comic books, but it's.
Wesort of get sort of done with superheroes
in the way that we've been having
itfor, like 15 years. Whereas this
islike a different source of superhero.
(35:57):
Yeah.
And I feel like it's comic books.
But it's not superheroes. It'sdirty cops in space.
I feel like we're crying outfor this kind of. Yeah, I wouldn't.
Butagain, I wouldn't bother trying from
scratch. I think. Just bring back.
Bring back.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You've already got a fan base there.
I'm the law.
But, yeah, great. I love thestyle. Love the. Yeah, the violence.
Ilove the violence. I choose violence.
(36:21):
Yeah, yeah.
Great.
Yeah. Good. Well, for morenostalgia packed retrospectives,
includingother jaunts into british comic book
history covering off Banana man and
the Beano, head to twogeekstobeers.com.
plus,there's more outings covering off
classic tv shows, films, video games
and more.
You can also follow us on allthe socials who geechscast on Facebook,
Instagram, and X. We're also on YouTube
and TikTok. You'll find clips from
episodes old and new, as well as
full length episodes.
(36:49):
And please also rate andreview the podcast via your podcast
outlet of choice, where you can also
subscribe. Please do. It's the only
support. Support, feedback.
We get knowledge that you likeus in any way whatsoever.
Well, that's not true, Tom,because there's another way you can
do that.
Oh, is there?
Yeah. You can also become atwo geek supporter on Patreon.
Oh, great.
(37:09):
Patreon. Patreon.com.togeekscast. You can sponsor the
podcast, and in return, what do you
get? You get exclusive Patreon only
minisodes. You get outtakes. Get
personalized thank you. Videos. You
get merch. Tom. You get so much more.
It's such a good deal.
Did you know you can alsoemail us?
I didn't know, tell me more.
(37:31):
If you send an email topodcastwogeeks. Two beers.com.
Oh, yeah.
And that's two, not the digit.Yeah. You know, you could get in
touch and say any thoughts, feedback,
orsuggestions, future episodes, or,
you know, just the fact that you
think we should have been nominated
foran award and she wanted to send us
your love.
I'm going to do that rightnow. I'm going to send us an email
saying, I think you should be nominated
for an independent podcast award.
Yeah, I will. All right, citizens,
that'sit for today's ride through megacity
one. Until next time, I'm off duty.
Back to the pub. Yeah. So before
wewrap up, I'm sure people are fuming.
They're like, that's it. You talked
about the Stallone judge Dredd movie.
He didn't talk about the most iconic
scene.
(38:17):
Is that other one?
No, but I didn't talk aboutthe most iconic scene. And I'm. And
I'm gonna. Yeah, but I wanted to
save it till the end as a little
treatfor the real fans who listen all
the way to the end. So this, I would
say, is the most iconic scene, or
at least the most memed scene in
the 1995 film Judge Dredd. This is
where Dredd and Rico going up against
each other, mano a mano. And I'm
looking forward to seeing your reaction
to this powerhouse of performance.
Allright. You can never control yourself.
What makes you think you can control
these things? You're in control.
(38:58):
Kiss you, be head of the council.
You choose, and you choosequickly, too. I should have put you
down myself, personally. You know,
Inever understood that. Why did you
judge me? Why did you judge me? You
killed, and it's a peer. The means
toan end. You started a message. I
caused a revolution. You betrayed
thelaw. I betrayed this. Can we go back?
I want to watch it one more time.
Iwant to watch it one more time. That's
good. That's good. Why did you judge
me? You killed, and it's a peer.
Themeans to an end. You started a mess.
I caused the revolution. You betrayed
the law. Betray this. Your council's
experiment, which failed. I feel
like. Like Stallone just went. He
betrayed the law and he just went.
(39:53):
It just had enough of his shit.
Yeah, just like. I feel likeit was almost taking the piss. And
they just kept it. They just kept
inthe final film.
Very funny.
Why did you judge me? Youkilled, and it's a piece. The means
to an end. You started a mess. I
caused a revolution. You betrayed
thelaw. Great, great. The best. The
best scene in the whole brain. Yeah.
(40:14):
Okay.
Yeah. So, I mean. I mean, givethat film a sequel.
Yeah.
More of that. Yeah, yeah.
Well, multiverse.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good.
All right.
All right. See you next time.
Cheers.
Bye. Cheers.
Hello, and welcome to a newepisode of Two Geeks, two beers,
andzero awards.
Yeah, we're a little bitbitter this afternoon.
Tom's mad. Why are you mad, Tom?
Well, like, we know we're nottaking over the world with this podcast.
We've been doing it for nearly ten
years now.
Yeah.
And we know you guys love us.
(00:57):
Yeah. But, like, all five ofyou. Yeah.
So years ago, we submittedourselves for, like, the british
podcast awards.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it was a stupid, loftyambitions because that was, like,
proper podcasts with money behind
itand stuff. But there's a thing called
the Independent Podcast Awards.
Surely in with a shot of those.
(01:18):
And we looked at last year'swinners and nominees at least. We're
like. We're easily amongst that brigade
of podcasts that ilk.
Yeah.
And so we submitted ourselvesfor several categories announced
today.The nominees.
Oh, yeah.
Not one nomination. No, no.And it's like. I know, I know. We're
not doing it for that.
(01:38):
It's not why we do it. It'snot why we do it.
Even so, it'd be nice to havea little bit of recognition. Ten
years of doing this bloody fucking
podcast.
The wire never won an Emmy, so.
But it at least had a nomination.
It had a lot of nominations, actually.
So if you can just at leastgive us just a little bit of love
onsocial media or an email or something,
just to make myself feel better,
because it's so pathetic. It is.
But, you know, fuck it. We've got
nothing else. Yeah, nothing. Nothing
atall. We submit ourselves to several
awards, tv and film, culture, comedy,
nothing.
(02:12):
So welcome back.
Anyway, onto episode 133 ofthe nomineeless podcast. After ten
fucking years, the unnominated.
The unnominated podcast.
Okay.
But who needs it when you'vegot the support of your listeners?
Yeah. All five.
All five of you. We love allfive of you. The quintet we call
you. And I have good news.
(02:36):
Oh, yeah.
Which is that alcohol is notoutlawed in Mega City one.
Nice. Don't know what thatmeans, but great. I'll explain. Okay,
good.
So this episode, we're divinginto the world of the one and only
Judge Dredd, where one man stands
between order and chaos. And he's
got a killer jawline. Tom, what do
you know about Judge Dredd?
(03:01):
What do you think?
I think you have a. To call itencyclopedic, maybe overstaying it,
but I think, you know all the ins
and outs, the canon, the mythology.
Ithink I'm gonna feel foolish, because
I'm gonna try and give you something
of abeginner's guide to Judge Dredd.
Andyou'll be like, well, I knew that.
Iknew that. I know all of it. In fact,
you should be hosting the. In fact.
(03:28):
Should we swap?
Should we swap? Yeah. Shouldwe? No, no. Yeah. So that's.
Well, I think I've realizedwhy we haven't got nominated for
anything.
Why?
Because I know nothing aboutjudge Dredge.
Because we haven't beennominated for award. Because you
know nothing about judge Dredds.
Pretend that we're geeks onthis podcast. The whole point is
that you're meant to be teaching
me.
Yeah.
And vice versa. But, yeah, Idon't know anything about it. I've
seen.
(03:51):
If you knew more about JudgeDredd, we might have gotten an ominous
book.
I've seen. I think I've seen abit of the recent ish one with. What's
his name?
Carl Oban.
That's the one. Yeah. Neverseen a Stallone version.
Hughie homelander. Done killme wife and took me bloody son.
Are we pretending his accentis good in that?
(04:12):
No. No. I think it's so bad,it's meant to be shit. I think it's
so. I don't think it's meant to be,
but I think it's so bad. It's good.
Yeah. It's up there with VinnyJones being like, oh, I need a pee.
That's actually how Vinny Joe.
I know him, but still. Yeah.
I don't know what point you're making.
It's like Russell Brand didthe worst accent ever when he was
trying to be a Brummie in Rock of
ages. He's like, you're british.
Youshould be able to be able to achieve
that.
(04:34):
His greatest crime.
But, yeah, no, I know whatJudge Dredd is. I know the absolute
basics.
What do you know?
He's set in the future.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
He looks a bit like robocop,but isn't.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually,that'll come up. Sort of.
He's human, right? He's human,but he's got, like, robotic stuff.
(04:58):
No, well, yeah, actually, yes. Yeah.
And he's the law and order ofthe town. He's law and order in the
town. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. That's it.
All right. Well, coming up,the origins of an octogenarian action
hero, the surprising link between
theHuman League and the metal band Anthrax,
and how a reggae artist fanned by
the BBC inspired a comic book legend.
(05:24):
I didn't expect so much musicrelated to.
It is weird that two of thoseare music related. Not intentional.
Okay,so, Judge Dro. Judge Joseph Dredd
wascreated by the writer John Wagner.
It's Judge's name.
What?
I thought he was just JudgeDredd. Like he judges people.
Yeah, he is. That's his judge.
That's his name.
What do you mean? Is it. Whatdo you mean?
(05:45):
All right, I thought youmeant. Okay, fine. So he's. He's.
No,but he's officially a judge? Yeah.
No, I thought it was a nickname.
Ithought it was a nickname. I thought.
What do you mean, a nickname?
I didn't think he was, like, ajudge with a fucking wig and all
that. I thought he was.
Well, he's not.
No, but I thought he was, like.
Do you think that Judge JohnDeeds. Do you think that was his
name? Like, he's. Like. He's Martin
Shaw. Like, he was born. He was born
judge Deeds. What am I gonna do for
a living?
(06:11):
Right? Bear in mind, we've hadtwo points. My brain went, I knew
hewas a judge, but I didn't think that
he was officially a judge. Like,
he'dbeen bestowed the judgeness. And
Iread that the judge Joseph Dredd,
andI sort of thought. Was that his first
name? Well, obviously he was gonna
bea judge. Yeah, but it's not his first
name.
(06:32):
Nominative determinism.
His name is Joseph.
His name is Joseph or JoeDredd, but he is a judge. I'll explain.
Bye.
So, Judge Dredd was created bythe writer John Wagner and the artist
Carlos Escuera, who sadly passed
awayin 2018. The stories are set in a
dystopian future earth damaged by
a series of international conflicts.
Muchof the planet has become a radioactive
wasteland, with populations aggregating
into enormous megacities. Dredd's
homeis megacity one, on the east coast
ofNorth America. Dredd is the most
famous of the street judges that
patrol mega city one. He is a law
enforcer, empowered to arrest, convict,
sentence, and execute criminals.
(07:11):
So who put him in charge?
Well, they set up a wholesystem of judges and the justice
system. But that happened before
Dredd. Yeah, he was sort of born
into it. Fine. Or was he? We'll get
onto that.
Okay.
His iconic helmet obscures hisface, except for his mouth and jaw,
and his entire face is never shown
inthe comic strip. John Wagner explained,
itsums up the facelessness of justice.
Justice has no soul. So it isn't
necessary for readers to see Dredd's
face, and I don't want you to. Dredd
is armed with a lawgiver, a pistol
capable of firing six types of ammunition,
including standard bullets, armor
piercing heat seekers, and high explosive
shells. And he rides a lawmaster
motorcycle equipped with machine
guns,a laser cannon, and artificial intelligence
capable of responding to orders from
the judge and operating itself. So,
the origins of Judge Dredd. In 1976,
comics editor Pat Mills was developing
anew british weekly anthology comic
2000 AD, and he hired writer John
Wagner to develop characters. Wagner
wanted to take the idea of a dirty
Harry style tough cop to its logical
extreme. The name came from a horror
strip that Pat Mills had previously
developed with the title Judge Dredd,
but Dredd being spelt d r e a d.
That name was taken from the stage
name of a british scar and reggae
artist, Alexander Minto Hughes. Wow.
You know who this guy is?
(08:44):
Yeah.
The first white recordingartist to have a reggae hit in Jamaica.
Yeah. The BBC apparently really rude
banned more of his songs than those
of any other recording artist because
of his frequent use of sexual innuendo
or double entendres.
So weird. So I. Because Iknew, always knew Judge Dredd, the
artist existed, but I thought it
was. He ripped off the other one.
Oh, you thought it was theother way around?
Yeah.
(09:04):
No, no, no. What? Yeah, he'snamed after the reggae guy.
Wow.
Who I'd never heard of. Butapparently he sold several million
albums throughout his 25 plus year
career and was second only to Bob
Marley in uk reggae sales during
the 1970s.
Yeah, a lot. His songs arereally like, you never hear them
now. They're too rude.
Right? Oh, the BBC was rightabout him. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(09:26):
Wow. Blow my mind there. Wow. Okay.
So the task of visualizing thecharacter of Judge Dredd was given
tothe spanish artist Carlos Escuera.
Wagner gave esquera an advertisement
for thefilm Death Race 2000, showing the
character Frankenstein, played by
David Carradine, clad in black leather
on a motorbike. To use as inspiration,
Esquera added body armor, zips, and
chains, which Wagner initially objected
to, feeling like the character looked
like a spanish pirate, though the
design for a dreads helmet was actually
inspired by the corinthian helmets
ofancient Greece. So don't tell me
this podcast is nothing civilized
and sophisticated.
(10:01):
Nomination.
Judge Dredd was originallysupposed to be set in the near future,
but the hardware and cityscapes Esquera
drew were far more futuristic than
originally intended, so the stories
ended up being set further into the
future. However, even though Judge
Dredd was developed for this new
comic 2000 AD, he did not debut in
the first issue, which was published
inFebruary 1977 for a variety of reasons,
one being that the original launch
story, written by Wagner and drawn
bye Squera, was vetoed for being
tooviolent. He got a violence veto instead,
he made his debut in issue two, or
prog two, as it was known, and has
appeared in almost every issue since.
He's the magazine's longest running
character, and in 1990, he got his
own spin off title, the Judge Dredd
magazine. So, to give you a taste
ofwhat 2000 ad is all about, if you're
not familiar, which I'm guessing,
I'mguessing you're not just taking a
pump, here's a trailer for the 2014
documentary Future Shock, the story
of 2000 AD.
(11:00):
Nice.
In the late seventies, it wasa troubled country, to say the least.
When 2000 ad came out, it was the
biggest hit comics had had for a
very long time. We were this gang
ofreprobates dropped.
(11:21):
Right down in the middle of this.
Totally conservative comicgroup. What 2000 ad did was just
kick it in the face. We were the
lunatics who had taken over the asylum.
People thought because we were a
science fiction comic, we were going
to be rather nice and middle class,
and boy, were they in for a shock.
All my craziness I wasactually getting from 2018.
(11:43):
People tend to think of comicsas being very kind of throwaway entertainment,
but this was some deep political
stuff.It was talking to kids and turning
thisall into our generation.
Anarchists, you've just gotexit wounds all over the page.
Comics have got a terriblehistory for treating people really
badly. Hang on, you mean I don't
ownany of this at all? Very soon, these
artists were being headhunted.
(12:06):
I was a bit of a shit toseveral people. Fuck off.
How much you gonna pay me? Andthat's the way you gotta deal with
these people. Robocop, stolen dread,
outrageous.
Hey, yeah.
Monastery is the worst ideaever. I was determined to present
something that was authentic, and
the breath of popular culture has
caught up with what 2000 ad was doing
30 years ago. 2000 ad has probably,
onsome level, influenced everything
I'veever written. The british comics
landscape now would be a wasteland.
2008,it's the Sex Pistols being signed.
(12:38):
To the major label kind of thing.
Still getting away with it.
It can be considered a britishsuccess story. Anyone can make a
comic. There's only one two person
ad.
I love that guy who onlyspeaks in really dramatic sentences,
sohe's like basically the generation
ofanarchists. And the comic Lansky
wouldbe an absolute wasteland. I thought.
2000 Ad, he's like, really chill.
Really like Scott, really scottish,
really chill, but only says things
that are like, absolutely. Like,
hiswife's like, want for breakfast?
And hewas like, oh, if I could have some
shreddies, that'd be absolutely fucking
phenomenal. Fucking blow my mind.
(13:18):
You obviously couldn't see itthere, but unless you're watching
theYouTube version.
Oh, yeah. So you obviouslycouldn't see it because no one does.
Oh, yeah. You definitelyhaven't seen it. But the animation
justlooks so cool. They're just so hardcore.
And great artwork. Yeah, yeah.Famously kind of, like, visceral
andviolent and dark is why people loved
it. So Judge Dredd's stories often
satirize american and british culture
with a focus on. I don't know why
I've given myself so many long words
to say, give it authoritarianism
and policebrutality. In addition to his long
runs in 2000 Ad on the Judge Dredd
magazine, Dredd has also appeared
intitles published by DC Comics, although
this version featured a different
continuity and history to the original.
You're annoyed. You're annoyed by
that.
(14:02):
Why?
Why? Dread comic strips? This.This blows my mind. It's like, I
feel like it was a different. Obviously,
it was a different time because it
was. It was not now, but. But, like,
Dread comic strips were also published
inthe Daily Star from 1981 to 1988
forseven years. But imagine picking
up theDaily Star and being like, oh, yes,
my latest judge Dredd comic strip.
AndDredd comic strip was published in
the Metro Metro from January to April
2004.
(14:28):
So if you're nothing from theUK, the metro is quite a. It's a
pithy little, like, daily free newspaper
that you get on the tube.
Yeah.
The idea of Judge Dredd beingthat for a few months doesn't make
any sense whatsoever.
I'd love it.
Well, great. I'd get it.
I'd actually read it. Yeah,it's free. I still don't want to
read it. Launched in the wake of
the first Judge Dredd movie, of which
more later, there was also Judge
Dredd, lawman of the Future, from
the same publishers 2000 Ad, but
aimed at younger readers. Here, Dredd
was prohibited from killing anyone.
Asone reviewer put it. Years later,
thiswas judged Dredd with two vital ingredients
missing his balls. Judge Dredd, lawman
of the Future, ran fortnightly for
23 issues from 1995 to 1996. Now,
not well regarded, not very popular
amongst, you know, dreadheads, but
that was actually how I first encountered
the character was I picked up a.
Iwas. Cause I was a kid. Picked up
an issue of Judge Dredd, lawman of
the future. Loved the character and
have since graduated to reading 2000
AG, Judge Dredd magazine. So I think
people shouldn't be so sniffy. I
think it's a nice gateway drug. This
is interesting. Time passes in the
Judge Dredd strip in real time. So
as a year passes in life, a year
passes in the comics. It's not like
the Simpsons or, you know, anything
else.
(15:47):
We must be dead now then.
Well, no. So the first judgeDredd story, published in 1977, was
set in 2099, 122 years in the future.
So, stories published in 2024, as
we record this, are still set, 122
years in the future, in 21 46. Dredd
has been going for about 50 years.
Sohe was 38 when he first appeared.
Sostill younger than Judge Dredd. Just
about. But he is now 84 to 85 years
old, having undergone a rejuvenation
processthat restores him to his physical
prime.I think we could all do with a bit
of that. Dredd is, in fact, a clone
born in inverted commas from the
DNA of Chief Judge Fargo, the founder
of the judge systems. There you go.
His origin story saw a cadet Dredd
and his clone brother, Rico, like,
okay, what's this one? Joe. Joseph.
What about this one?
(16:42):
Rico?
Rico feeling a bit fancy?Yeah. His clone brother, Rico. They
both distinguished themselves at
the Academy of Law, with Rico graduating
top of the class and Joe graduating
second. Joe later discovers that
Rico has embraced corruption, engaging
in multiple crimes, including murder.
Joe arrests his brother and sentences
himto 20 years of hard labour on the
penal colony on Saturn's moon Titan.
(17:07):
Shit.
Rico. Shit. Rico later returnsfor revenge after serving his 20
year sentence, and Joe shoots him
dead in self defense in a duel. That's
one of the early just Dread stories.
Other notable characters in the Dread
saga include Judge Anderson, who
shared a close but uneasy friendship
withDredd, which briefly ended when she
abandoned the law. After her return,
they reaffirmed their bond. Dredd
respects her abilities, but finds
herplayful attitude annoying at times.
Judge Hershey, who was originally
Dredd'sjunior colleague and later chief
judge, she was one of the most enduring
characters in the strip, appeared
from1980 until her death.
(17:41):
Shit.
Just last year, in 2023, theykilled off Hershey fuck, yeah. Judge
Logan was Dredd's assistant, later
promoted to chief judge.
Never got the same first name.
I know. That's weird, isn'tit? Dredd's protege, Judge Beanie,
Judge giant, who was a longstanding
ally whosaved Dredd from execution and was
killed in the line of duty in the
story block mania, and Judge Decker,
who is Dredd's second cadet trainee,
whodied in 1990. Two's Judgment Day
story. Most of the characters other
than Dredd died. It was a recurring
theme. Recurring adversaries for
Judge Dredd include the Dark Judges,
agroup of undead judges from another
dimension who believe that since
allcrime is committed by the living,
lifeitself should be a crime. Their leader
is Judge Death, who is often considered
Dredd's arch enemy. Death was first
introduced to the series in 1980
andis featured in many stories since,
opposite Judge Dredd and in his own
sort of spin off stories, there's
alsoMean Machine, angel, the third son
of the notorious angel gang. Mean
Machine is a large, hulking man with
cybernetics, including a dial on
his head, which controls the power
ofhis cybernetically enhanced headbutts.
Some of the most notable Judge Dredd
storylines across almost 50 years
ofstorytelling include the Cursed Earth
from 1978, which follows dread on
a perilous cross country mission
through the radioactive wasteland
outsidemega City one. The apocalypse war
from 1981 to 1982, which sees East
Meg one launch a full scale nuclear
attack on Mega City one, playing
intocontemporary cold war paranoia and
fears of a nuclear attack. Judge
Death in 1980. You can guess which
character debuted in that story and
then its sequels. Judge Death lives
in 1980, and Necropolis in 1990,
andAmerica, which is another storyline
in1990. A more political story that
shifts focus from Dredd to the character
of America. Jarrah, who grows up
to become a freedom fighter opposing
thejudge's authoritarian rule. This
story questions the morality of dred's
world and the cost of law and order.
(19:38):
So I love that. Obviously,normies like me will look at this
and go, Judge Joseph's couple of
films. Yeah, but I love that there's
this whole world that's sort of existing.
So dense.
It's been going 50 years, 50years, and it's still going, and
it's sort of living in its own little.
The fact that 2000 ad is stillpublished, I think, is remarkable
andamazing. Like, I'm so glad, but I'm
sort of stunned at the same time.
Butgreat. Still going good. Love it.
Dredd has also appeared in crossover
stories with other iconic characters,
including 1990 one's Batman. Judge
Dredd judgment on Gotham, which is
great. She's judge death. Used dimension
jump technology to breach the DC
Universe and attack Gotham City.
(20:23):
So is he technically in the DC universe?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, well,it's multiverse now.
Oh, yeah.
And 2000 three's Judge Dreddversus aliens, in which Dredd faces
the xenomorphs. Yeah. Now onto familiar
territory for you. Judge Dredd made
his live action debut in the 1995
movie Judge Dredd. In the film, Dredd
is framed for murder by his own half
brother, the psychotic Rico, who
plots to take over mega City one
with an army of superhuman clones.
Here's the trailer. Where there is
crime in society, there is no justice.
Opening with a Plato quote.
(21:15):
There.
Is that.
Max.
Max. Max. Boy. Max. One sider.Judge. This quits. Adjourned. Dredd,
you're a legend. You are my finest
student. Get Drake. Drake Dread,
you're under arrest. What's the charge?
Murder. The evidence has been falsified.
Guilty as charged. I am not the law.
I am the law. Do I chaos the sentence?
Shelby? Life imprisonment. And the
chaos train. Very crushing paw.
(22:09):
Excuse me.
We're not together. It's notfor this console to play God. Who
says politics is boring?
(22:33):
Rob Schneider.
We're going to war.
You're a lot of fun to be with.
Right, Mister Hyand? We got alot in common. I'll be the judge
ofthat. Very good.
Deadline.
(22:56):
That was a lot.
Yeah. I mean, it's one ofthose films. It's probably rubbish,
but.
Oh, it's bad.
It looks like a lot of fun.
Yeah, it's quite fun. And bothcan be true. Both can be true. So
the Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Oh yeah.
Was considered for the title role.
Funny that it's always one orthe other.
I never broke the law. I amthe law. Gonna work. The power of
dread ultimately went to Sylvester
Stallone. The film received generally
negative reviews.
(23:22):
You sound like droopy then.
Oh, dear. The film receivedgenerally negative reviews with a
22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I've
heard worse. Only a bit worse than
hook, apparently.
I started.
Fans also disliked the factthat Dredd removed his helmet and
felt that the film lacked the humor
of the original comic, as well as
ignoring important aspects of the
dread mythology.
(23:50):
It feels like, you know, likeRyan Reynolds in the original appearance
of Deadpool.
X Men. Wolverine. Yes.
Where?
Moore.
Yeah, it's like I get. Youwant to see Stallone's face?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But. Nah. Sorry. If you don'twant that, get fucking Peter Weller.
Back. Yeah, he'll do it.
Weller was happy to do it.
Imagine if he did both.
It would have been good.
(24:10):
Yeah.
Yeah. John Wagner said, Ihated that plot. It was Dredd pressed
through the Hollywood cliche mill,
adynastic power struggle that had
little connection with the character
weknow from the comic. So Wagner was
not a fan. Although in retrospect,
it hasgone on to earn a cult following.
Thisfilm having received some praise
forits depiction of Dredd's city, the
costumes, and its larger than life
characters. I think fans now, at
the time, was just hated. Now they
look back, they go. It got aspects
ofthe larger than life world right.
Thatdepiction was good, but it got the
character of dread wrong. So another
adaptation, just called Dread, this
time presumably to differentiate
itself, wasreleased in September 20. Twelve
to amuch more positive critical reception
rating of 80%, which is serviceable.
It wasdirected by Pete Travis, written
byAlex Garland. And it stars oi Carl
Urban as Judge Shred and Olivia Thirlby
as Judge Anderson.
(25:05):
Okay.
In the future.
Thanks.
No worries. One city is addicted.
Addicted.
We can find out. Desire.
Ah, Belarus. Larouze dates itto a new substance. Was that.
(25:29):
Yeah. To a new substance.Makes the brain feel as if time is
passing at one percent's normal speed.
One woman controls it. It's Lena
Headey. She's a mess. But judgment
iscoming. 800 million people living
inthe ruin of the old world. Only one
thing fighting for order in the chaos.
The men and women of the hall of
justice.
(26:11):
Peace trees is themanufacturing base for all the slo
mo in Mega City one.
You know how often we get ajudge up in peace? Treaty? Please.
Well, you got one now. She has control
of everything. Levels one to 200.
This is Mama. Somewhere inthis block are two judges.
(26:31):
That's not good.
I want him dead.
We're gonna have to go throughhim. Rookie, you ready?
He's getting the ChristianBale route then. Yeah.
Not quite. Not quite that bad.Judgment time.
Let's finish this.
(26:53):
Mama's not the law. I'm thelaw. Negotiation's over.
(27:21):
Yeah.
His death.
Yeah. I mean, I've heardnothing but good things about.
Yeah, it's real good. It'sreally good.
But it's one of those oneswhere like, should I come back? But
for whatever reason didn't.
We'll get onto that.
Yeah.
Funnily enough. Yeah. So JohnWagner, not a fan of Stallone version?
He said he did like this one. He
said it's high octane, edge of the
seat stuff and gives a far truer
representation of Dredd than the
first movie. So, yes, there were
plans for a Dredd trilogy, the second
film exploring the origins of Judge
Dredd and megacity one, and a third
film introducing Judge death in live
action and the Dark judges, would
have been great. However, in a 2016
interview, Karl Urban said the film's
mishandled marketing strategy. Maybe
he means Leroux on the soundtrack.
I don'tknow. And unfortunate box office
performance meant that it was problematic
to try to make a sequel.
(28:15):
Actually, by now, it's donewell enough in.
Well, yeah. Home theaters.
Yeah.
Home media.
Home media.
Well, in May 2017, atelevision series named Judge Dredd,
Mega City one, was announced to be
in development, and Urban was later
revealed to be in discussions to
star in the series, though it's 2024
and the show has yet to materialise.
(28:40):
But surely it's one of thoseones where. Because he's now become
abigger name because of the boys.
Well, the boys is about to wrap.
Up, and so maybe it's one ofthose things where his presence alone
is enough to book it in, sell it,
book it in.
Can we get some time to filmthis, please? Well, we've got Carl,
so. Oh, have you got Carl? You can
book us. Yeah. It's not like getting
atable at a busy restaurant, but,
yeah.
(29:01):
I don't want a tv series,though. I want a sequel. I don't
want. It's too much.
No. Well, also, this tv serieswas apparently, it was more like
anensemble drama about other judges,
andJudge Dredd would be like a supporting
character. Do you know what? We should
do a judge Dredd show, but without
judge Dredd or, like, with. He's
notthe main character.
Yeah. Blade film was meant tobe like that, where, like, blade's,
like, the fourth main character in
it, even. It's called Blade. No one
wants it. Just give us what I get
Wesley snipes back. Give us what
we want.
(29:32):
Give us. Just give us. Give uswhat we want. There were also two
judge Dredd adaptations broadcast
on BBCRadio one in 1995. Again, Radio one
again.
I don't remember that.
Again, this whole thing of,like. Yeah, there was a judge Dredd
stripping the Daily Star and, like.
And then the metro radio one who
commissioned that. But I think we
have a very, like, maybe, like, millennial
idea of what Radio one is.
(29:57):
A chart show and stuff. Like,the idea of obviously happened.
Yeah.
I can't believe.
But I just, like, betweenBruno Brooks and I just. I love the
idea.
Chris Evans.
I just love the idea. It'slike yeah, that was a new one from
do a leaper. Anyway, what's up next?
I'll tell you what. Is Judge Dredd
ready for Mega City? Like, what?
That's like what? We're goingback to the broom covers?
Yeah.
Fucking hell. Weird.
(30:18):
Yeah. And between. We haven'tdone this for a while. Between 2002
and 2004, Big finished produced a
2000 ad range of audio dramas featuring
Judge Dredd, who was voiced by the
actor Toby Longworth. Radio player
Mark Gatiss voiced judge Death, and
Simon Pegg featured as another 2000
ad favorite, Johnny Alpha of the
strontium dog comic strip. I wanted
toplay maybe like a clip from these
ora trailer.
(30:46):
Sounds great.
The Judge Dredd seriesactually had a great theme song.
Sadly, these are no longer available
topurchase due to the license having
expired and appear to have been scrubbed
from the Internet.
Why didn't they scrubbed fromthe Internet?
I wanted to play a clip, butfuck it. No, I can't. I can't. They
fucked it. It's just gone.
See, it's gone. If one was to torrent.
I don't.
It's understandable.
(31:07):
No, literally. I try. I look,I tried to find it through, like,
other means. I literally scrubbed
from the.
Did it even happen?
It did even happen. Now I'vegot some cds. Oh, yeah. I should
like,sell them at the back of my. Back
ofthe van or like, pass them around
likein a pub or something. But yeah,
no,I couldn't. I wanted to play a clip.
No, it's been.
Can't be asked. Get the cd out.
Scrubbed from the Internet.What am I gonna do? Like, rip a cd?
The kind of people who rip cds and
then play those clips, they win awards.
(31:34):
They do.
That's what they do.
They put the effort in. Yeah,they have six listeners.
You say that's what sets themover the edge. Maybe that is what
qualifies you. Six?
Yeah.
Come on. Come on, number six.
Come on.
Tell us. There were two judgeDredd video games released for Commodore
64 and ZX Spectrum in 1986. And then
1990, and in 1995, a game based on
the first live action film was released
for Genesis SNES Game Boy and Game
Gear. And in 2003, Judge Dredd. Dredd
versus Death was a first person shooter
released for PC, PS, two, Xbox and
GameCube, and featured many of the
cast from the big finish plays. Toby
Longworth, reprising his role as
judge Dredd team up.
(32:19):
Nick Briggs.
Yeah, he voiced Judge death.We just eliminated the last of the
vampires from sector five. The regen
infestation is over.
Good.
Work Dredd.
Rest assured that we'restepping up security on the dark.
2003.
Huh?
2003. Terrible strain on her,but she's doing fine. Thank you very
much. Joe.
(32:45):
You weren't worried about me,were you? Control the drag rock war
in progress.
Corner of Reeves and Hopper.
On my way. Control dread out.
I guess we'll never know.
(33:07):
Yeah. It's quite wellregarded, that game. Yeah. Bit of
an oddity, but yeah. There have also
been judge dread novels, role playing
games, board games, and even a pinball
machine released in 1993. And in
2012, Dredd was one of ten british
comic characters commemorated in
aseries of stamps issued by the Royal
Mail. The metal band Anthrax and
the Human League have both written
songs about Judge Dredd.
(33:31):
What?
Not the reggae artist. Bothtitled I am the law.
Okay. Yeah, the Human League.
Yeah.
For Loki just went, you knowwhat? Love a bit of fucking judge.
I love it. I'm a regular 2018subscriber. Yeah. And a magazine.
I getthe bundle. Will judge Dredd live
forever? While regarding the possible
death of the character, in an interview
with Empire in 2012, John Wagner
said,there could be many ways to end it,
but the probability is that I won't
still be around when it happens.
I wouldlove to write it, but I can't see
it happening. I'll leave the script
inmy will. We put the call out for
fan comments and thoughts and memories
about Judge Dredd. I have one here
that I wanted to read out from Alex
Windsor, who said, I used to eagerly
await every Jar jazz prog of 2000
Ad. Jar Jazz being an invented slang
word, 2000 Ad, which means excellent,
hesaid. Everything about Dread is summarized
in this exchange between him and
Judge Fear, who is one of Judge Death's
minions, an undead horror whose face
will quite literally frighten the
life out of you. Maybe we'll share
this on social, but effectively,
Judge fear.Yeah, he's terrifying. Stares into
Judge Dredd's face. He has this paralyzing,
terrifying stare and says, gaze into
the face of fear. And Judge Dredd
punches his fist through his head.
Through his head and says, gaze into
the fist of dread.
(34:53):
Can help.
Perfect. Yeah, sums it up. So,yeah, that's it. A beginner's guide
to Judge Dredd.
Yeah.
Thoughts?
Great. I mean, I feel like hehasn't had the jew he deserves in
terms of adaptations, at least. Clearly
the comics are great, and they've
had.They live the life it's lived.
Yeah.
For everyone else, I feel likewe've been robbed of. I mean, dread
the film, 2012.
(35:14):
Yeah.
Seems great, but I feel like,for whatever reason, it's not had
the.
No. And that feels a legacy. Ifeel it's a strange thing to say
when it's had. Yeah.
It's clearly very popular.
Two films and books and audioradio plays, but it's not on the
level of, like, Batman.
No.
And it probably should.
And you look at something likeGuardians of the Galaxy, which was
nothing. And because it's Marvel,
theymade it into this ridiculously mainstream
thing, whereas I feel like Judge
Dredd deserves that sort of. And
Ifeel like we're crying out for this
kind of new era of, like, sort of.
It's still comic books, but it's.
Wesort of get sort of done with superheroes
in the way that we've been having
itfor, like 15 years. Whereas this
islike a different source of superhero.
(35:57):
Yeah.
And I feel like it's comic books.
But it's not superheroes. It'sdirty cops in space.
I feel like we're crying outfor this kind of. Yeah, I wouldn't.
Butagain, I wouldn't bother trying from
scratch. I think. Just bring back.
Bring back.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You've already got a fan base there.
I'm the law.
But, yeah, great. I love thestyle. Love the. Yeah, the violence.
Ilove the violence. I choose violence.
(36:21):
Yeah, yeah.
Great.
Yeah. Good. Well, for morenostalgia packed retrospectives,
includingother jaunts into british comic book
history covering off Banana man and
the Beano, head to twogeekstobeers.com.
plus,there's more outings covering off
classic tv shows, films, video games
and more.
You can also follow us on allthe socials who geechscast on Facebook,
Instagram, and X. We're also on YouTube
and TikTok. You'll find clips from
episodes old and new, as well as
full length episodes.
(36:49):
And please also rate andreview the podcast via your podcast
outlet of choice, where you can also
subscribe. Please do. It's the only
support. Support, feedback.
We get knowledge that you likeus in any way whatsoever.
Well, that's not true, Tom,because there's another way you can
do that.
Oh, is there?
Yeah. You can also become atwo geek supporter on Patreon.
Oh, great.
(37:09):
Patreon. Patreon.com.togeekscast. You can sponsor the
podcast, and in return, what do you
get? You get exclusive Patreon only
minisodes. You get outtakes. Get
personalized thank you. Videos. You
get merch. Tom. You get so much more.
It's such a good deal.
Did you know you can alsoemail us?
I didn't know, tell me more.
(37:31):
If you send an email topodcastwogeeks. Two beers.com.
Oh, yeah.
And that's two, not the digit.Yeah. You know, you could get in
touch and say any thoughts, feedback,
orsuggestions, future episodes, or,
you know, just the fact that you
think we should have been nominated
foran award and she wanted to send us
your love.
I'm going to do that rightnow. I'm going to send us an email
saying, I think you should be nominated
for an independent podcast award.
Yeah, I will. All right, citizens,
that'sit for today's ride through megacity
one. Until next time, I'm off duty.
Back to the pub. Yeah. So before
wewrap up, I'm sure people are fuming.
They're like, that's it. You talked
about the Stallone judge Dredd movie.
He didn't talk about the most iconic
scene.
(38:17):
Is that other one?
No, but I didn't talk aboutthe most iconic scene. And I'm. And
I'm gonna. Yeah, but I wanted to
save it till the end as a little
treatfor the real fans who listen all
the way to the end. So this, I would
say, is the most iconic scene, or
at least the most memed scene in
the 1995 film Judge Dredd. This is
where Dredd and Rico going up against
each other, mano a mano. And I'm
looking forward to seeing your reaction
to this powerhouse of performance.
Allright. You can never control yourself.
What makes you think you can control
these things? You're in control.
(38:58):
Kiss you, be head of the council.
You choose, and you choosequickly, too. I should have put you
down myself, personally. You know,
Inever understood that. Why did you
judge me? Why did you judge me? You
killed, and it's a peer. The means
toan end. You started a message. I
caused a revolution. You betrayed
thelaw. I betrayed this. Can we go back?
I want to watch it one more time.
Iwant to watch it one more time. That's
good. That's good. Why did you judge
me? You killed, and it's a peer.
Themeans to an end. You started a mess.
I caused the revolution. You betrayed
the law. Betray this. Your council's
experiment, which failed. I feel
like. Like Stallone just went. He
betrayed the law and he just went.
(39:53):
It just had enough of his shit.
Yeah, just like. I feel likeit was almost taking the piss. And
they just kept it. They just kept
inthe final film.
Very funny.
Why did you judge me? Youkilled, and it's a piece. The means
to an end. You started a mess. I
caused a revolution. You betrayed
thelaw. Great, great. The best. The
best scene in the whole brain. Yeah.
(40:14):
Okay.
Yeah. So, I mean. I mean, givethat film a sequel.
Yeah.
More of that. Yeah, yeah.
Well, multiverse.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good.
All right.
All right. See you next time.
Cheers.
Bye. Cheers.
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