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30: All Systems Red Part One
30 Plays17 days ago
In this episode of BookWatch, the crew travels beyond the reach of The Company to follow the adventures of a wayward Security Unit robot with a penchant for soap operas in Martha Well’s All Systems Red which was adapted into the 2025 AppleTV+ show Murderbot. Exploring a new format, your BookWatchers will be going through the cast and the first 5 episodes of the season in this episode.
Join hosts Chris, Jordyn, and Sarah-Daye as they break down what worked, what didn’t, and whether this adaptation does the book justice.
Tell us your thoughts! Did you love or hate this adaptation? Let’s discuss in The Book Watch Lounge on Facebook
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Transcript
Introduction to Book Watch Podcast
00:00:17
Speaker
On this episode of book watch, we are watching all systems read by Martha Wells. This novella is one of seven and counting originally published in 2017. And we are comparing it's 2025 Apple TV adaptation.
00:00:29
Speaker
This show is adapted by Paul witt wheats and Chris wheats. Um, and the audio book is narrated by Kevin are free. And there is also a graphic audio I listened to that has all the different actors, which was a lot of fun.
00:00:42
Speaker
I'm Chris. I'm Sarah day. And I'm Jordan. And we'll get started after these messages.
Exploring Book-to-Screen Adaptations
00:00:57
Speaker
Welcome to Book Watch, the podcast where pages meet screens. Each week we dive into the world of adaptations, comparing beloved books with their cinematic counterparts. From faithful retellings to bold reimaginings, we'll break down what worked, what didn't, and what made each adaptation unforgettable. Whether you are a bookworm, a movie buff, or both, grab your bookmark. Grab your popcorn. And let's watch some books.
00:01:22
Speaker
So I really enjoyed this one. um where're I didn't get the summary up here. Let me see. So it's a self-aware security android secretly frees themselves into from his corporate control and would prefer to spend his time binge watching soap operas. Assigned to protect a group of scientists. I can get...
00:01:42
Speaker
You just react react to that? Yeah. Yes. um A sign to protect a group of scientists in a small remote planet. It is uncovered. It uncovers evidence of corporate sabotage and escalating danger.
00:01:53
Speaker
Despite insisting it does not care about humans, Murderbot repeatedly risks itself and saves them, revealing an uncountable truth. Autonomy comes with responsibility. Just kind of a little summary I pulled up just second ago, which is about right.
Moral and Ethical Themes in Sci-Fi
00:02:09
Speaker
What do you guys think of this?
00:02:11
Speaker
It's a really fun little short sci-fi show. And I'm really excited to keep on reading and keep on watching the show. Yeah, I liked it a lot too. I think there's a lot of interesting um questions on morality and ethics and like, where do we get our sense of morality and right and wrong? um And like the question of freedom and what does freedom mean? And they talk about the, you know, indentured servitude and like,
00:02:40
Speaker
robots and they're like sentience so I thought all of those questions were really interesting because you know most of my sci-fi is like Star Wars sci-fi and they like kind of touch on it but also like it's very clear like droids are droids and they're not humans at all so to have this kind of blurred line was really interesting R2-D2 has got to be the most sentient being in the Star Wars universe i don't know what you're talking about I mean he is more human than any of them Probably
Debate on Sentience in Star Wars Droids
00:03:09
Speaker
a little bit. I mean, in some of the war crimes, some of the war crimes that these droids are committing in Star Wars is a lot, but you know, it's all, it's all fun and games. Specifically Chopper, you know, his war crimes, but you know. Hey, all right I got ah i got a sticker of Chopper on my water bottle. that says I caused problems for fun and yeah. i found I found a thing the other day that I sent to a friend when he was having a rough week that said, be the person chopper wants you to be, whatever that means.
00:03:36
Speaker
I was like, I'm pretty sure that was a threat. Pretty sure that was a threat. literally um So the way I separated out our characters with this one is I put the main characters in the president, like the team he's with in the first ah
Performances and Character Portrayals
00:03:50
Speaker
part here. And then our second part will review the characters in these the drama, his in the ah fake show, the rise and fall of Sanctuary Moon characters.
00:04:01
Speaker
Right on. Because those are also great. So um coming into this, we have obviously Murderbot played by Alex Skarsgård, which I was super down for that. He did a great job playing a non-human character there. Yeah, he did really well. And just like that.
00:04:21
Speaker
sense of like confusion and um like learning about the humans and the narration that he had. I thought he really nailed the role.
00:04:33
Speaker
Yeah, his sense of humor was really, really funny. It's just so dry and like stiff. I thought it was hilarious and he was great. And I really like his like subtle facial expressions where yes you can see him starting to kind of like develop emotion just as a concept. And so these little like smiles and like little like he looks like he's about to laugh, but he doesn't like he did a really great job of sending all those little messages through his face.
00:05:02
Speaker
It's crazy to me. I didn't know before watching this show just how many Skarsgårds were in Hollywood. I didn't, I wouldn't really pay attention, but he's got like seven brothers plus his dad are all actors. And so you really got to be specific with those guys apparently, but they're all pretty great. So um next we've got Dr. um ah Ada Mensah and she's played by Noma Dumswin.
00:05:31
Speaker
Duma's Winnie? Duma's Winnie? Duma's Winnie. Names are not my strong suit ever, so. Duma's Winnie. We're doing our best. So sorry to Miss Noma. We're doing our best.
00:05:42
Speaker
Come on and tell us how it's done. Yeah, please. I was happy with her. i think that for the character she was playing from the book, I think she accomplished that role of the lead lead ah of her team and the sovereign of her world.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah, she really had a like a a steady presence. And I really believe that like in a crisis, she's the one that I'm turning to out of everybody on the team. so i think she And she carried a lot of the heart of the show, especially. Because a lot of the other characters, like sometimes they were fine and funny. And sometimes i was like, these people are annoying. And I was like totally on team sec unit. like these These humans are insufferable. But she was pretty consistently like she's she's doing her best out here. She's not prepared in any type of way for this situation that she's in. She's doing her best and she's, you know, she's got integrity. And so I really thought that Miss Noma Dumaswini really captured that.
00:06:47
Speaker
Yeah, I don't have any much more to add to it. She's probably my least favorite character in the show, i just because she doesn't have as much of the comedic relief as some of the other characters do.
00:07:02
Speaker
um But that does not like that's not to say her acting was horrible or anything like that. I thought she did um well as the leader, like you were saying. And like she's the one that kept kind of kept the team together and calm.
00:07:16
Speaker
um But I'm excited to talk about some of these other other characters and their bigger roles. Yeah, she kind of guides, allowing sec unit to have his autonomy and everything once she gets to that point in the story. But she isn't definitely isn't one of the more interesting characters in the story, just kind of a guiding hand. Yeah.
00:07:38
Speaker
There's Arada and she's played by Tatiana Jones. I should probably pick up pull up some pictures these people so I actually remember which ones are which because I know um Dave Delmanchin's character, but otherwise the them I don't think I could name and see the faces. um Is there any specific ones you were really enthralled by?
00:08:09
Speaker
I thought the dynamic between Penley
00:08:19
Speaker
and i think it's Rothy and Arada have the threesome contract. Yes, the throuple contract. um i thought that was a really fun added piece to the story um and I thought the three of them handled it really well. That's what I'm talking about. like The comedic timing, they all had really fun interactions with each other and with the murder bot and the murder bot like spying on them basically. um And so I think out of the like character arcs that we'll get into, there was probably my favorite, but we have to talk about David Smokian because he's such like he's in everything right now. um He's been in the DC stuff. He's been in the Marvel stuff. um So it's always fun. You always know you're going to get a good performance from him.
00:09:07
Speaker
Yeah, and his character being so big from the in the book as well, that character being suspicious of him as an augmented human, he ah really dials in quickly that there's something off about this character and or this this bot, and they he's the one that's just most suspicious throughout and probably benefits the most from Murderbot as he
Character Tensions and Dynamics
00:09:30
Speaker
self-proclaims himself. Yeah.
00:09:33
Speaker
That was one of the funnier parts to me was when it says he calls himself Murderbot. Damn, they weren't supposed to know that.
00:09:40
Speaker
Yeah, I. Garothan is such a fascinating character because like. you Because Murderbot is our like protagonist and POV character, we're with him the most, you like want to be on his side. But I think about like if I was a member of this team, I'm probably going to be more like Garathen. This is not safe. This is dangerous. like We need to follow a procedure. like I see myself... like I identified a lot with Garathen. Even though like on the one hand, I'm like, dude, you're being so mean to Murderbot. He's actually trying to protect you guys. But also...
00:10:14
Speaker
I totally get where he's coming from and he's making a lot of sense at the same time. Um, so he, I think he did a really good job of balancing, like he does really care about his people and his team and like, you know they're all a family in a lot of ways. Um, and he's just trying to keep them together, but he has that, like that some of his delivery is tough just cause he's like, you guys are, you know, we see the flashbacks, you know, he's a you're naive and yeah, they all are. um So I really thought that that he nailed all all of those like intricacies of his backstory that got added in the show was really interesting. All
00:10:55
Speaker
right. And so... The other ones were all just kind of, in a lot of ways, psychers. They all had their own little um storylines, but nothing that's overly significant to our um we are conversation. um There was ah Rati played by Akshay Khan.
00:11:16
Speaker
Akshay Khan. Akshay Khan. Akshay Khan. I'm going to butcher every single one of these, so maybe I should just move on. But Pinley, played by Sabrina Wu, and then... ah I forget the how to pronounce the even full name of that one.
00:11:33
Speaker
Bardwatch. And played by Tamara Podomiski. um and So, yeah, I think that they were an interesting crew um of this family almost crew versus a lot of the other crews he's worked on. seemed like they were more um just jobs.
00:11:51
Speaker
And this one was more individual being from a mining colony that cares more about their family group than they do their work sometimes.
00:12:03
Speaker
I thought everybody had good chemistry together. I believe that they like all knew each other from, you know, life beforehand and that they, you all really cared about each other um beyond the Threpple situation, which made me deeply uncomfortable. I really was team murder bot during that scene. I was like, i don't like this at all.
00:12:21
Speaker
I was not ready for this. This did not happen in the book. I don't like it. um That's just, that's just me being uncomfortable with that stuff though. Yeah. But yeah, i was I was like me and Murder Bob both. or i was like, oh, my God, drown me in acid, please. um But all of the actors did a really great job of portraying like their connections with each other. And like that, like you said, like that familial comfort with each other while they're out here on their little expedition. So great job to everybody.
00:12:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think that novellas do make for the great for the best ah adaptations because there's so little to actually get to in the book that you're able to really expand on storylines and grow from there.
00:13:06
Speaker
um so I really ah have grown to like these smaller adaptations. And they're going to do a whole lot. They've done a whole show out of this one. So clearly they had enough content to do a lot but and more to come.
00:13:19
Speaker
But I need a full produced version of ah Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon to hit Apple TV soon. i need I need like all 5 million episodes or whatever it is. I found myself more interested in Sanctuary Moon and whenever would come back to the main story, I'm like, wait, i want to know what happens. Yeah.
00:13:35
Speaker
We'll get into the actors and stuff later too, but the show did such a good job with its actors too that I'm like, oh man, I would totally watch this like nonstop. This would be a soap I would totally get into. yeah I, again, i would turn into Murderbot and just like, fine, I got to go do something and just be watching the show. Absolutely.
00:13:52
Speaker
Yeah. On the background at work. That's that's absolutely
Plot Developments and New Elements
00:13:56
Speaker
right. That absolutely makes sense to me. just All right. Getting into episode one, we got free commerce and it was on a fresh assignment. Murderbots newfound free will leads to odd behaviors, barking spec, uh, suspicion from the preservation ox team.
00:14:17
Speaker
I thought that it did a really good job of following the book and that its introduction and how you had this giant monster swallow up one of the scientists um and how, you know, we're cutting back and forth from him watching his TV show. And then he's like, oh, no, there's like a monster. And he's kind of dealing with the fact that.
00:14:36
Speaker
And forgive me if I'm wrong, but feel like he's dealing with the fact that he like he wasn't on. He wasn't paying attention 100 percent. And that's why the monster got through. So he's kind of dealing with that guilt as well.
00:14:48
Speaker
um But, yeah, I thought the CGI of the monster was great. I thought the desert setting was really great. I thought they did a really good job, you know, um taking this page to screen.
00:15:01
Speaker
Yeah. yeah With Bardwaj being the one who gets like almost eaten by the monster and then Arada goes into shock and he has to... like that That whole segment of him like taking his helmet off and like, where are you from? Do you have any kids? And like trying to like talk her out because he can't carry both of them was pretty faithfully adapted. So I appreciated that, especially because I i went into this thinking like it's a novella and this is a TV show. they're going to hit every single point exactly as it was written. and then they like added so much stuff. So whenever they did have exact scenes or exact lines from the novella, I got me really excited. So I'm glad that it at least started off doing that. um So that way I wasn't like, ah you know, stumbling, you know, trying to get my bearings right from the get go.
00:15:53
Speaker
Yeah, it jumped right in where I expected it to be, and I was i was really happy to see that they were just going for it the way it was written. Apple's become kind of the sci-fi leaders in a lot of these sorts of things, so I was glad to see they put the budget into something even this small and intimate feeling. But I remember the buzz around this when it first came out, and this show was given all the acclaim by everybody who watched it. So I was pretty happy with it how they're doing it here.
00:16:19
Speaker
Episode 2. is eye contact. ah Menza and Bodwaj risk everything to investigate a mysterious region. ah Garathan goes toe to toe with Murderbot. When is Garathan not going toe to toe with Murderbot? That's very true.
00:16:41
Speaker
When he's going computer board to computer board. Yeah. So this is one of the scenes that um was added, like they go on this extra mission to another place and they discover like the alien remnants on the on the planet. and This is one of those things that like wasn't, I don't believe happened in the novella, or at least not. like They come to this conclusion later that there must be something happening. on the planet that these other entities are seeking, but they don't actually like go and see it with their own eyes. But I thought that was a good addition just to make it because the novella, like I admit again, like I read it very quickly because it's only 150 pages. And when I read it,
00:17:22
Speaker
too fast like some details got left behind and i was a little confused so taking the extra time to like show instead of just like tell or like leave it up to the imagination was i think the right choice um for the showmaker so i appreciate the extras the extra scenes here i think in this one he came out of his medical like healing himself and it was part of where the conversation happened it might have been in the first one as well but yeah There was the comment about how I didn't know it had a face. That made me laugh because they he keep they keep their masks on so often that it's weird to see this machine with a human face. So I really liked ah the exploring exploring that concept more of he looks more human than we thought.
00:18:07
Speaker
Next episode was risk assessment.
Suspense and Moral Dilemmas
00:18:11
Speaker
Episode three, the preservation ox team heads to a new base to search for answers. Murder bot gets tangled up in a sec unit showdown.
00:18:21
Speaker
yeah um Again, great CGI. um or i mean, there's that's probably practical, them in suits or maybe like a little bit of both. But even him going into... ah Wait, is this the one they go into the the other sec unit that's been... Other base. Yeah, that's been like... Delta Fall.
00:18:41
Speaker
Everybody is like gone and dead. Yeah. yeah yeah um And this ends, I think, in the cliffhanger of the other robot like shooting him. um But yeah, it really rolled out. I really liked, again, the settings. that Apple really puts a lot of money into these shows and you can really tell with all the settings and costumes and everything that goes into it.
00:19:04
Speaker
Yeah, this part, again, was pretty accurately adapted um from the store from the book. He goes in and it's just pure chaos and gore and destruction.
00:19:18
Speaker
And that like horror element of like the suspense of like every corner, you don't know what you're going to find. And then you know you think it's a dead sec unit on the ground, but then jumps up and attacks him. All of that was really, really well done. And it it it got me. i was wo I was jumping a little bit.
00:19:36
Speaker
But at this point, it really starts, i feel like, drawing the the watcher in. You're like, oh, something's happening here that I want to keep watching. I want to keep seeing what's happening. This was really where it gets a little tension. Like, wait, is Murderbot dead? What happens next in in the Sanctuary Moon? Yeah. Because each episode had a little bit of that, too.
00:19:56
Speaker
Yeah, which I which i like because it does get intense in in these scenes. And so to have that little bit of levity sprinkled throughout was nice. Yeah, I was supposed to go to bed after watching episode three and i was like, well, i gotta like I already read this book, so I know what happens. But like I still got to see it. like I got to watch the next episode. So again, it does a good job of like like keeping you locked in on it.
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah. right. And then episode four, we get to escape velocity protocol. As an enemy takes aim at Murderbot, an ally tries to orchestrate a getaway. The team grapples with leadership shakeup and a shocking ultimatum.
00:20:38
Speaker
We should have gotten rewatch all these because they're all in. I can think of how these scenes were, but I didn't get to rewatch it right recently. I watched it when it came out new. So some of these things are what happened.
00:20:50
Speaker
Yeah, and I just read the the book. I just finished it today. So like the book is more in my mind than the show is, even though I kind of pictured everybody as I was reading. But I'm like, I don't really remember what happened in this exact episode, but i know it was good.
00:21:05
Speaker
Lucky, lucky. I just watched this literally this morning before recording. So I do know what happens. All of the episodes kind of blurred together, but I can tell you what happens in the show. So this episode, Mensa opens with the other security unit trying to install the the other module into him, the combat module, to make him go like go rogue and kill his team of humans, basically. And his wires are getting crossed, robot pun. um And he is...
00:21:40
Speaker
caught between what's real and Sanctuary Moon. So as he's, ah him and Mensa are trying to escape the Delft Fall habitat, he thinks he's in a Sanctuary Moon episode. So he's like flashing back and forth between dr mensa and what she's saying to him and the captain of the sanctuary moon ship um which in this episode was agent colson clark greg from uh marvel so that was really fun like because he has so much sanctuary moon content downloaded just because he again he doesn't care he's trying to waste time and just watch his show um to have it like
00:22:20
Speaker
cause problems in this emergency situation I thought was a a fun way to bring some lightness to a life or death chase through this habitat. And then it ends, the episode ends with him um Like recognizing that the combat module is being downloaded and we've got like 10 seconds before I start killing all of you guys. So he shoots himself. He, you know, his governor module, which controls that he is the thing that makes him have to follow orders of humans. He has already hacked it. so he can make that executive decision himself to choose to basically commit suicide in order to protect these humans that he's grown to care for yeah um so it's a it's it's an emotional scene and they come in they're trying to save him and he's like no i'll make the hero move and i'll shoot myself to protect you guys so that's that episode
00:23:11
Speaker
Which is ah kind of a sweet thing for a robot to make the choice to save his people. you know That shows the the humanity starting to poke through a little bit. exactly Or at least you know what what um what counts as humanity on TV for in his world. Right. And like he's been saying the whole time how annoyed he is with these humans and how he just wants to finish his mission so he can be done with these humans. But like yeah obviously he's caring for these humans and he doesn't want them to die. And by the end of it, he like he's know really formed attachments and relationships with each of them which that's a um a key point that continues on throughout the series of um in the next one he kind of leaves that group and he's uh away from them for a while and i think it takes a an episode or two or a book or two before he gets back to them but he keeps thinking about them i believe so i think the later ones has that yeah
00:24:05
Speaker
The next one has some of the best characters in it, though. So I can't wait to talk about that one when it comes out. And I really, really hope they don't cut my favorite character when they do the show. I don't think they will. I have been planning on what reading it, reading the next one before season two comes out so that I don't get influence. Because i saw the show first and then I read the book and um i like to read the book first and kind of see what's added and changed before seeing the show.
00:24:30
Speaker
Absolutely. All right. So episode five is, um, rogue war traffic, infinite, infinite rogue war, traffic,
Trust Issues and Group Dynamics
00:24:40
Speaker
tracker, infinite. Sorry. Um, preservation ox pulls out all the stops to forge a path forward. Tentons mount when trust is tested and a Delft, Delft, Delft fall survivor joins the fold.
00:25:00
Speaker
this one we kind of get to watch what happened played back through like security feeds after sec unit kind of like gets woken up and we get to watch and Dr. Bardwaj and Garathen pull the command module the combat module out and like reboot him and you know fix him and save him from from having to do what the module would tell him to do and then yeah they find this survivor from don't fall who immediately i was like oh yeah it's not right here very suspicious it didn't happen in the book and so immediately i was like something suspicious and then she was super weird and like talking about like him having genitalia and like he's kind of hot and i was like i don't want any part of this you're weird you gotta to go
00:25:50
Speaker
like please so i'm like you're very suspicious and you're very odd i'm like maybe she's just weird in a different way because like these humans are weird like they come from like a commune planet so like murder bot calls them like weird hippie humans and they like they're not like the normal human the normal humans that he's used to interacting with like in the corporation room so i'm like maybe she's just like a really weird human if these are are like regular weird she's like really weird but then then I kept watching like something's not right here something's very very suspicious and you guys are too trusting they are so trusting yeah bless them I wish I could just have that kind of faith in humanity but I don't I know um you can't I'm very again like I keep saying I'm joking but not joking like I'm very much like
00:26:41
Speaker
identifying with murder bot like don't trust anybody like nobody is safe well we come from the corporation room so i guess yeah we we we know to be cynical of this of the system so yeah okay yeah so i mean they get we get through that episode i think does the twist happen at the end of that one with uh what happens to I don't think so because I feel like she was there for two episodes. Yeah. It's the like the beginning slash middle of the next episode where we have the twist.
00:27:17
Speaker
And this one, she's just being weird. Like we were watching, trying figure out like is she herself ah a robot and that's why she's weird? Is she herself sex I think I was thinking the same thing. Is she a sex bot and that's why she's so fixated on like sec unit and his potential of having genitalia? Like what is going on here? Like this is very, very odd. um But no, she's just a weirdo.
00:27:42
Speaker
but Similar situation to that concept happens in the second book. So ah with there being a sex bot you get to interact with. Oh, okay.
00:27:53
Speaker
So I'll just be uncomfortable the whole time. You can look forward to that, Jordan. Yay. Thanks. But not like interact with, interact with. It's just another character you'll have to, you know. Yeah. okay Well, that'll be interesting to see like all the like moral and ethical conversations you have around that one.
00:28:09
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Cause how do you, like if they're a robot program for that, like how do you figure out consent and then anything like that? Like that's, that we'll get there when we get there, but that that's the first thing that comes to mind. But exactly we'll we'll ask an AI what the consent situation is.
00:28:27
Speaker
but
Conclusion and Invitation to Engage
00:28:29
Speaker
All right. Well, that's our first five episodes um gone through. We'll be back next episode to talk about the last five episodes of this. And so we'll see you next week, everybody.
00:28:43
Speaker
Bye.
00:28:47
Speaker
That's a wrap for this week's episode of Book Watch. We hope you enjoy diving into the world of page-to-screen adaptations with us. If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a rating and review wherever you listen, and share it with a fellow book and movie lover.
00:29:01
Speaker
If you prefer to watch along, you can check out the show on YouTube, youtube.com slash at bookwatchpodcast. You can follow the show on Instagram at bookwatchpodcast. And you can follow me, Sarah Day, on Instagram at captain.mcd. That's M-C-D-E-E.
00:29:21
Speaker
And you can follow me, Jordan, on Instagram at jjcorrito. That's C-A-R-R-I-D-O. And you can follow me, Chris, at cyborgnight404. That's night with a K.
00:29:33
Speaker
You can also join the conversation in the Bookwatch Lounge on Facebook at facebook.com slash groups slash bookwatch lounge. If you'd like to support the podcast, you can join the Patreon at patreon.com slash bookwatch podcast. Tiers start at only $4 a month, and we would love to have you over there. Have a favorite adaptation you'd like us to cover or a book you think deserves a screen adaptation or just want to let us know of any feedback. Send us an email at bookwatchpodcast at gmail.com.
00:30:02
Speaker
Until next time, keep reading, keep watching, and we will see you next week.