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Ep 2.13-Boldness is All!
25 Plays3 months ago
There's a place beyond the wormholes... we haven't found it yet but come search with us! We have reached the Murderbot TV show! We talk visual decisions, casting, story adaptation, throuples, tentacles, and our love of practical effects! BIG ANNOUNCEMENT COMING NEXT EPISODE! Stay tuned!
Covers episodes 1-6 of the AppleTV+ show "Murderbot" (2025)
Recommended
Transcript
Stranded with the Kraken: A Festive Romance
00:00:00
Speaker
i just started reading a very festive new holiday romance called Stranded with the Kraken, obviously.
00:00:14
Speaker
it is really more of a novella. The audiobook is only like four hours long, but it does take place during Christmas for some reason. it just happens to. I assume, I haven't finished it, but I assume that they will be snowed in And then just continue having to bone and then that's the that's the setup. But, you know, it's your pretty standard woman meets shifter monster.
00:00:40
Speaker
But this is a society where monsters are known to exist, but they all have to be in hiding for some reason. And so if you want to find a monster to have relations with, there is an extensive vetting process for on an exclusive monster dating app to be matched with them. But even then, you don't even know what kind of monster they're going to be. So it's a surprise. So this lady rolls up to this giant mansion. Of course, he's rich. And this guy welcomes her into his pool house. That's weird. A pool house? It's Christmas time. What are we doing out here?
00:01:16
Speaker
Turns out he's a kraken, which, you know, whatever, that's normal. But the piece of absolute innovation, the thing that AI could never in a million years do, pure human creativity. So of course he is the kraken, so he needs to be in the water, so he has a big pool in his house.
00:01:35
Speaker
but he needs to have sex with this lady in the pool. And so to accommodate that, the pool water has been magically... He hired a witch to magically turn the pool water into lube.
00:01:49
Speaker
And I didn't know what to do with that. It is still saltwater-based, which seems like it may present some challenges.
00:02:01
Speaker
But so far, they seem to be enjoying it. But yeah, happy holidays, I guess. This lady's getting her stocking stuffed. And also the other absolutely deranged... Happy holidays.
00:02:13
Speaker
The other absolutely deranged thing about this book is the cover art, which is not good. And features the lady sort of cutely dangling her feet into the pool. And you see the Kraken man from behind. And the top half of him is a sexy man. And the bottom half is a sexy Kraken.
00:02:30
Speaker
But... The outfit that she is wearing, she is just fully sticking her jeans in the water. She is fully clothed, long pants on, shins down, soaking wet in the magical saltwater lube. Why?
00:02:46
Speaker
Why could you not have illustrated her even just rolling her pants up a little bit? I don't know. But this is presented a lot of questions.
00:02:57
Speaker
Yeah, but it's it's very festive. So that's how I'm celebrating the reason for the season, as it were. Yeah, we are recording this um well before December. It is mid-November currently, but you know, it's never too early to keep cracking in your heart all year round.
00:03:21
Speaker
Crackin' Miss. um This is also a world in which it is explicitly Christmas. It's not just winter festival time, which means Christianity exists in this world.
00:03:33
Speaker
Which has a lot of theological implications. And I would like to know what sort of monster Jesus was. It's like having the Pope car in the Disney Cars franchise. There's just a lot.
00:03:45
Speaker
But it doesn't seem to bother the lady and the kraken. Was was car Jesus crucified on like one of the like the tow trucks that has the crucifix-esque
Introduction to the Fandom Apprentice Podcast
00:04:00
Speaker
tow thing? Oh yeah, they have like sort of the crossbar shape. Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:05
Speaker
Did they pop his tires?
00:04:10
Speaker
Tire stigmata. Yeah.
00:04:15
Speaker
This is kids. This is how to break a ah former pastor's kid. Mm hmm. Listen, I was any sort of theological bullshit. I was broken a long time ago, but and now my brain is going to There's a lot of very erotic imagery about the stigmata. This is a very common theme. in art there's holes people are going to do stuff with them but people always have viewed them this is like an established artistic historical thing so now tying that to the car situation fascinating what kind of car was jesus was he or was he like a carriage like a chariot before they had cars or does that then get into car evolution which car christians don't believe in
00:05:01
Speaker
Model t ah Something steam powered. It has been a long time since we've recorded. yeah we've been fucking busy, but there's been a lot going on. We're here. We're queer.
00:05:15
Speaker
We're ready for Murderbot. Should we get into it?
00:05:36
Speaker
I just had another vision. So I was like anticipating, okay, we're going start the episode. Rin's going to say hello, everyone. And then I was just thinking about being in poll class yesterday and the move, the hello boys. And I was imagining like, hello, everyone. Yeah.
00:05:51
Speaker
Which is very... Our listeners should be so lucky. They honestly... They should.
00:05:59
Speaker
he We haven't forgotten how to be bizarrely horny. So that's a good start. I'm so glad.
00:06:13
Speaker
it Hello, everyone. And welcome back to another episode of the Fandom Apprentice.
Murderbot Diaries Adaptations and Visuals
00:06:20
Speaker
For all of you, it hasn't been that long for us. It's been a hot fucking minute.
00:06:25
Speaker
My name is Rin. I'm one of your hosts. I'm a lifelong nerd who consumed a lot of sci-fi and fantasy as a youth and has spent my life trying to find other random friends to foist these fantasy and sci-fi stories onto so that I have somebody to yell about it with.
00:06:48
Speaker
Hello, I'm Sam. I'm the other one. i have had this series thoroughly foisted upon me. And now we are at the last stage of our journey with Murderbot.
00:06:59
Speaker
Oh my god, I haven't thought about that in forever. Beginning to cover the TV show. And then between this and the next episode where we wrap up the current season, that's going to have covered all of the Murderbot stuff, which is wild.
00:07:14
Speaker
All of them are about stuff that's currently out. We will be getting a season two of the show and I believe three more books. Yes. So we'll return to this, but I think we'll make our big announcement about what follows next time. Oh yeah, for sure.
00:07:27
Speaker
So today we are discussing the first six episodes of the Apple TV Plus science fiction action comedy television series, according to ah Wikipedia, which just feels like...
00:07:43
Speaker
you know, playing genre roulette, and they wanted as many options as they could get. The adaptation of Martha Wells's books, Murderbot. We have spent the last several months going through the written Murderbot Diaries content, um which actually I do have commentary about the word content as we get into this. Oh yes, I'm sure.
00:08:05
Speaker
So if you have read the books, have not read the books, have listened to our other our other episodes, this season of the show pretty closely mirrors all systems read.
00:08:17
Speaker
We will be discussing some of the significant changes that they made. um But by and large, this season of the show, it's 10 episodes long, covers the same story as All Systems Red. So we probably won't get like too deep into the story. We'll spend a lot more time talking about visuals and sound and how they've adapted this for screen. Yes, we will be going into this with the assumption that you, our listeners, know who these characters are and vaguely know the plot of All Systems Red. If you don't know or are not familiar, i would find a way to brush up because we will probably not be explaining in super great detail who Murderbot is and who Dr. Mensa is, etc., But there are definitely, like Rin said, some big changes that we will get into the details of. Some new friends, some friends who are missing.
00:09:05
Speaker
So is there anything else that we want to frame it with before we begin? or do we want to go right into the episodes first and then other opinions after?
00:09:17
Speaker
i think we can go right into the episodes and we'll scatter in things along the way.
Characters and Cast in Murderbot Diaries
00:09:21
Speaker
Okie doke. Cool. So in terms of plot summaries for the episodes I didn't because they are so very very short if you cut out the title sequence and the credits each one is like 17 minutes so I just have kind of a quick vibe line for each one so episode one we meet the cast and we start our mission that's basically it basically
00:09:48
Speaker
So things that I noticed for this one, we start getting to see SecUnit hacking its governor module, which is very cool. We don't see that in the books. It's in the midst of a mining thing, expedition, mining contract, mining something. It's supervising miners.
00:10:06
Speaker
And so we get to see all of the humans around it being miserable, get some good set dressing, see the grand moment of freedom happen. Very cool. And then cutting to the opening credits, they are positively delightful. It's so fun and playful and colorful, which the first time that I watched it, I was really excited about because I was afraid that we were going to be getting a very kind of sterile, gray, boring sci-fi environment, just because that's what I've come to expect. But it's cute. It has kind of a little...
00:10:43
Speaker
claymation vibe almost everyone is like these little toys and they're floating around in space it's very cute very fun Yeah, little little action figures. Yeah. um I do notice it starts, the intro sequence starts on the gun port.
00:10:59
Speaker
m True, true, true. Which feels weirdly symbolic. But the other highlights of the intro sequence are Murderbot running away from a group hug. Yeah.
00:11:12
Speaker
And also a bunch of other sec units. Mm-hmm. But it is it is delightful. But the music behind that intro sequence, I feel like, was was my first hint. I thought we were going to be getting more of like a drama.
00:11:27
Speaker
Mm-hmm. I didn't kind of realize it was going to be a comedy. Yeah. Until you get the really bouncy intro sequence. Because that music is, it feels like the intro to a comedy. Mm-hmm.
00:11:40
Speaker
Yeah, but there's just enough tension to it to show you, like ah like, we're still going to be, you know, dramatic and a little bloody at times. Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's definitely some hard tone shifts at various points. But I think the intro kind of sets up that it's going to be layered. It's going to be a layered experience.
00:12:04
Speaker
Then post-title sequence, we get to meet Prezox, a slightly reduced crew. We don't have an Oversay or Valescu in this iteration. Are we missing anyone else?
00:12:17
Speaker
not that i think no and cool so we so we have all the others i love the casting i think they're all great they're so adorably cringy and this continues to be a they're just the most over the top space hippies you know pin lee brought a drum with them to the survey site for some reason a cashon Is that the type of drum? it is it's ah it's a type of It's a drum block. Very nice.
00:12:48
Speaker
The other piece, the other instrument that Rothy's playing at some points is definitely just um in otomatone, which is like those little, like, they look like an eighth note with a squishy mouth and you slide. Yeah, and it makes the noises.
00:13:07
Speaker
It's definitely one of those. Just like... with a with you know a little skin on it yeah and we see them just dancing and painting their habitat and we are very much getting sec units impression of them as a bunch of bumbling stupid kind of embarrassing hippies but they're also so endearing Well, and you mentioned you were afraid of a sort of sterile gray environment.
00:13:41
Speaker
And the reason we don't have it is because of them. Because they paint over this sterile gray, beige, universal, pre-printed habitat.
00:13:54
Speaker
m Of which a lot of that is actually practical set, I learned. Oh, very nice.
Production Insights and Effects
00:13:59
Speaker
Yeah. They did do quite a bit of CG work and digital effects work, but most of the Habitat set and most of the Hopper is actual physical set.
00:14:11
Speaker
I love that. Alexander Skarsgรฅrd, who plays Murderbot and was one of the executive producers, um did say that they they were trying to use practical effects wherever possible.
00:14:22
Speaker
Oh, I didn't know he was an executive producer. That's cool. He was. We'll talk more about production, I think, next episode, um because we have so many like cast intros to do. But I guess now is a good time to talk about the actors playing Prezox. Yeah, sure.
00:14:38
Speaker
Our titular character is played by Alexander-Johann Hjalmar Skarsgรฅrd, who is a Swedish-American actor. He ah is known for a lot of different things. The things I recognized from his ah his resume include Zoolander, Tarzan, Godzilla vs. Kong, Bound and Down, True Blood. He was in 76 episodes of True Blood. Oh, damn. I've never seen True Blood, but 76 episodes, that's a lot.
00:15:16
Speaker
He was a main cast member in True Blood. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, What We Do in the Shadows, ah Succession, and a number of other things that because I don't watch a lot of ah movies, I have not seen.
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, i remember the internet reaction, and which we can talk about, maybe put a pin in that for slightly later. But people being, oh, they got Skarsgรฅrd. I don't know who this fucking guy is. To me, he's just Murderbot. But apparently, he's very famous. So good for them. he He's definitely the biggest name in this cast. He is part of the Skarsgรฅrd family.
00:15:55
Speaker
He is the son one of the sons of Stellan Skarsgรฅrd, who is... Has been in fucking everything. ah He's been in Star Wars, Hunt for Red October, Mamma Mia. He was one of the potential dads in Mamma Mia. He's been in ah the MCU. He was in Chernobyl. He's been in Everything.
00:16:21
Speaker
He also, Stalin has a number of other sons, including Gustav Skarsgรฅrd, Bill Skarsgรฅrd, and Walter Skarsgรฅrd, who are other actors and have appeared in a number of other films. So it's a it's a large acting family.
00:16:40
Speaker
If you need a tall Swede, you're likely to end up with a Skarsgรฅrd. That sounds like some kind of folksy saying. I'm not really sure what it would represent, but that sounds like something you would hear someone say.
00:16:55
Speaker
You need Swede.
00:16:59
Speaker
he is he is our He plays our titular murder bot. I definitely was a little bit disappointed when I heard about you know him playing murder bot.
00:17:11
Speaker
But one of our friends mentioned to me that like that's definitely... Because Murderbot is a genderless character, there was a lot of internet desire for like non-binary actors to play Murderbot or to cast a woman as Murderbot just...
00:17:29
Speaker
you know So we're not assuming that Murderbot is, quote unquote, man shaped. And then one of our friends pointed out to me that that is exactly what like a security company would want a killing machine to look like.
00:17:46
Speaker
Yeah. You know, big, giant man guard thing. And honestly, Alexander Skarsgรฅrd did a great job.
00:17:57
Speaker
Yeah. he He had a lot of fun with this. He apparently is a fan of the book series. Aww. And just just got to have a lot of fun with the character.
00:18:08
Speaker
Dr. Mensa is ah played by Noma Dumezweni, who is a South African British actress. She's been in less than Skarsgรฅrd, but she was in Only Murders in the Building, law and Order SVU, Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, Midsummer Murders, Fallout, The Color of Magic,
00:18:37
Speaker
Mary Poppins Returns, that the live action Little Mermaid. But she's her biggest, I guess, one of the biggest things she's known for is her role as Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the West End.
00:18:55
Speaker
Oh, did not know this. Yes. I was going to ask if she was a theater actor because she kind of has that gravitas that sort of serious actorly vibe but the harry potter of it all kind of oh i mean listen she started playing she was on stage from 2016 to 2018 in harry potter and the cursed child okay i didn't realize it came out that long ago oh it's been out for a long time i am so blissfully out of touch
00:19:29
Speaker
But cool, cool. She's also been in some of her theater credits listed on her Wikipedia page. She's also been in Antony and Cleopatra, Henry V. Yeah. um So she is she is a classically trained stage actress. I very much get that from her.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah, she worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She was in Macbeth um and Much Ado About Nothing played some ah bit parts in La Morta Arta and Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar.
00:20:01
Speaker
So she's been on stage and on screen for quite some time. Garothan is played by David Desmalkin, who I recognize mostly from Ant-Man, where he plays Kurt, one of the ah but like team hacker characters. Essentially, he was also in Suicide Squad.
00:20:24
Speaker
He was in The Dark Knight. Is he Armenian? He, according to his early life background, his father was Iranian-American.
00:20:37
Speaker
Ah, okay. I was just looking at that last name like, hmm. Hang on a moment. He does a fantastic job. Oh my god, he's incredible. He was not how I imagined Garothan, I think, in my
Performances and Character Dynamics
00:20:50
Speaker
head. I imagined Garothan as a little bit older Like brown or blonde hair for whatever whatever reason, a little bit thicker. i don't know, less dry. Yeah.
00:21:04
Speaker
But David Desmalkian does a really excellent job with Garothan, especially because they kind of choose to bring Garothan forward as a character. Mm-hmm. feel like the the other three Prezox characters are sort of your your secondary lineup and then you have Murderbot, Mensa, and Garrothin as your sort of primary trio. Absolutely yeah.
00:21:26
Speaker
And then I'm just forgetting about Baradwaj entirely. Oh I was also gonna say uh David Desmalkian when he's not in his Garrothin makeup super hot very goth looks cool he's got great style.
00:21:38
Speaker
Honestly, he really does. Pin Lee is played by Sabrina Wu, who is a actor and comedian. They've been in Abbott Elementary, and they were one of the co-presidents of the Harvard the harvard University Stand-Up Society.
00:21:54
Speaker
Ashke Kana plays Rati. ah He has been in ah Red, White, and Royal Blue. He played he played Sean. Oh my god!
00:22:04
Speaker
i cannot believe I didn't realize that. this is The best thing ever. I need to go rewatch Red, White, Real Blue now. Oh my god. He was also in The Doll Factory and a Critical Incident and Andor, which are, I've watched Andor, I haven't watched the other two.
00:22:22
Speaker
Tamara Podemski plays Bardwadge. She has been in The Legend of Vox Machina, New Amsterdam, The Res, Reservation Dogs, Heartland, Coroner, Youngblood. Again, a lot of things that I haven't watched but that I've heard names of.
00:22:43
Speaker
She's a Canadian and Jewish and First Nations. Hell yeah. Anishinaabe. And also her other sisters are also actors and appeared alongside her in Reservation Dogs.
00:22:55
Speaker
Oh, that's fun. Little family, family project. Tatiana Jones plays Arada. I recognized her immediately and couldn't remember from where.
00:23:07
Speaker
And it's because she plays Winnie Camden in 51 episodes of Flashpoint, which is a Canadian police procedural that ran from 2009 to 2012 that i watched all of. Amazing.
00:23:21
Speaker
ah She's also been in The Handmaid's Tale, for which she was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. She's been in The Expanse, The 100, and Orphan Black. So this is not her first sci-fi.
00:23:35
Speaker
Oh, who was she in Orphan Black? I watched a lot. I didn't watch the entire series. Orphan Black Echoes, specifically. So I was going to say, I didn't watch the entire series, but I watched a lot of it. Yes, she was, I guess, in the follow-up series.
00:23:49
Speaker
And then I guess we'll get into the the cast of Sanctuary Moon when we get to Sanctuary Moon. That was my Because got a whole other cast. That was my next note was about Sanctuary Moon because we're just getting, you know, little vignettes of all the characters doing their stuff, settling into the habitat.
00:24:05
Speaker
We get a little glimpse of Mensa's family. She has a little family picture. It's kind of just like a GIF or like a live photo where they're just sort of all smiling at the camera. Very cute. Very fun.
00:24:18
Speaker
And then we get clip of Sanctuary Moon where I just, the first time I saw it, absolutely lost it. I love Sanctuary Moon. If Star Trek was a telenovela, that's what we're dealing with here.
00:24:31
Speaker
It's got these bright neon colors, super slick visuals. It's just ridiculous. And I love it. I think when they were dressing and doing the hairstyles for all the characters, especially the, um I don't remember which guy, one of the guys was like, give him the mayor of Whoville special.
00:24:53
Speaker
And then that's just what they did to all of them. Which side note, I was Googling or duck duck going. So I don't use Google anymore. the mayor of Whoville to sort of check his vibe and make sure that I was recalling him correctly. I was.
00:25:05
Speaker
um But the second result under a picture was an article titled How to Dress Like the Mayor of Whoville. So do you have any tips to share? No, I didn't read it because I was busy doing actual work for the podcast, but I may go back because, fair you know, gay fashion tips, how to dress like the mayor of Whoville.
00:25:25
Speaker
But it's just ridiculous. Boldness is all. I think we can agree. Boldness is all. It definitely doesn't quite match with some of the descriptions from the book. And Martha Wells has mentioned that how to get away with murder was her inspiration for Sanctuary Moon. Mm hmm.
00:25:49
Speaker
So, you know, putting it as sort of like Star Trek meets Outer Worlds meets Outer Worlds? Outer Wilds? Outer Worlds. Outer something.
00:26:00
Speaker
Outer Worlds was the sci-fi game I played that has the like diesel punk vibes to it. Yeah, meets Whoville, basically. Yeah, and there's a bunch of big recognizable names there, too.
00:26:16
Speaker
Later on, we get an intro sequence from The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, which gives us the names of the actors and who they're playing. oh does it have their actual names?
00:26:26
Speaker
No, it has ah like fake. Oh, like their in-universe actor names? Yes. That's cute. So the cast of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, we have John Cho, who who plays Ekney Jeff Chem, who is playing Captain Hussain. hope you're keeping up, listeners. Take notes.
00:26:50
Speaker
Jon Cho's been in a number of things. Again, also other sci-fis. He played Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek reboots. So this is, again, not even his first faux Star Trek.
00:27:04
Speaker
He was Spike Spiegel in the live-action Cowboy Bebop. Oh my god! i didn't watch the live-action Cowboy Bebop, but I have seen the animated version. Yeah, it bombed. Oh no. oh Cry. But, you know, not because of Cho. Yeah, no, the anime was great. I'm sure he did his best.
00:27:22
Speaker
Jack McBrayer plays Briller Mockjack, who plays Navigation Officer Hordoop Sklanch. Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha.
00:27:33
Speaker
Jack McBrayer has been in a lot of comedies. He was in Arrested Development. key and He did a number of roles in Key and Peele, The Big Bang Theory, Milo Murphy's Law, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Star Trek Lower Decks. a number He was in one episode of Grey's Anatomy.
00:27:55
Speaker
He's been all over the place. Clark Gregg plays... it His actor name is Arletty. Just Arletty. Who plays Lieutenant Kulerv.
00:28:09
Speaker
um And this is this is the person they put the Mayor of Whoville mustache hair onto. Clark Gregg, I mostly recognize...
00:28:21
Speaker
From the West Wing, he was FBI Special Agent Mike Casper oh look me in the West Wing. And also he was Phil Coulson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Oh, damn.
00:28:33
Speaker
You know, in every Marvel movie, he's the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent that shows up. And also in the long-running series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., he was a primary cast member. Mm-hmm.
00:28:44
Speaker
Dewanda Wise plays Pordron Bretany III Roche, ah playing Navbot 337 Alt 66. And then finally, colony solicitor Ken Ronald, who is listed as subcontracted actor playing colony solicitor Ken Ronald, is played by Ron Kennel.
00:29:16
Speaker
but Who's been in Star Trek Strange New Worlds... Law and Order Toronto, and has done a number of voice roles in Assassin's Creed games, Starlink.
00:29:31
Speaker
Ooh, he was in an episode of Lost Girl. That was something I watched a lot of in high school. But yeah, that's our that's our cast. Amazing. I know that was quite a lot of going through things.
00:29:45
Speaker
they They all have very impressive resumes. I just don't watch a lot of TV. i mean, same. That's kind of my whole shtick on the show is that I don't know media. So I'm going, okay, this is great.
00:29:57
Speaker
But I do hope that they had as much fun as it looked like they were having. Because for all these big, serious actors to do just the stupidest fucking show within a show...
00:30:09
Speaker
it looks like it was an absolute blast. So for their sake, I hope that it was delightful. it It seems like it was a lot of fun. I wonder sort of how much freedom they had to just come up with shit.
00:30:21
Speaker
yeah Everything in Sanctuary Moon is very purple and very pink and very bright. And it has a very diesel punk vibe to it. But it is it is very Star Trek.
00:30:32
Speaker
Yeah. Speaking of visuals in this first episode, I thought port-free commerce was really visually interesting. Yeah, it was sort of this organic kind of combination of a hive and
Visual Style and Setting
00:30:46
Speaker
like the structure of an ant colony tunnel sort of thing in space. Yeah, so I found ah an interview with one of the effects supervisors, the digital effects supervisors, who was saying that what they were kind of going for, because you sort of see this
00:31:04
Speaker
organic looking structure that has all of the buildings then built inside of the organic looking structure. They were kind of looking for something that would look like it was three d printed by like robots in space o and like assembled as like a framework and then you built off of that framework inside. The other big visual that I noticed right away was the clothing for the Corporation Rim people and then the clothing for Preservation Ox.
00:31:32
Speaker
except for Garothan. Did you notice all of the the Corporation Rim people are wearing like hoodies and like blazers over them like they're tech bros in a, you know, Silicon Valley tech company?
00:31:43
Speaker
And know the Preservation Rim folks are definitely wearing like their own personal style. There's not really any consistency to it.
00:31:54
Speaker
Garothan is wearing a hoodie with a blazer over it like the corporates, except his has color to it. The corporates are all sort of like beige pastel colors.
00:32:07
Speaker
I also saw a Tumblr post that I wish I had saved when I first saw it that was pointing out how that outfit in particular of Garathans has some visible mending on it.
00:32:18
Speaker
So it's sort of visibly tying him more to the preservation people who have a lot of very cool, very fun visible mending on their clothes. But yeah, Garrothin's position is immediately set up as being sort of set apart from the rest of preservation.
00:32:38
Speaker
But I don't want to spoil spoil the details because that's going to be next episode, I think. That is next episode, I believe. But we do have, you know, Garrothin doesn't go immediately to the consensus circle.
00:32:52
Speaker
When they have that, that's a great little moment. When they're, you know, having to agree to take a sec unit along, Mensa says she wants consensus and they all get up and hum, holding hands in a little circle. And Rothy's like, Garothan, get in here.
00:33:08
Speaker
just You can tell that, yes, they do in fact govern by consensus, but they're absolutely doing this to make the corporates uncomfortable. Yeah, for sure.
00:33:19
Speaker
One of the pieces that they changed, and this is minor, but it is also, it was the most infuriating piece to me, I think, actually, out of anything, was they changed the word media to content.
00:33:33
Speaker
hmm. We've talked before on the show way, way, way way back hack in like episode like 10 11 of our Lord of the Rings coverage. It's somewhere really early on. um This is not content, but I am content with Faramir.
00:33:48
Speaker
If you want to go find that episode, our intro banter there is how I hate the term content. Yes. And granted, it is, you know Murderbot uses the term media in basically the same way throughout the books.
00:34:05
Speaker
But I still feel like to Murderbot, it's less consumption focused, right? It is watching this media to ground it, not to sort of consume it and move on.
00:34:19
Speaker
Yeah, it's really connecting with it and internalizing it and incorporating the things that it learns into its worldview and into its perspective in a conscious way.
00:34:31
Speaker
And it does talk about enjoying using media as a distraction, but it's not just completely numbing out. It's not doom scrolling. So right although I do think that if you are new to the Murderbot universe and you're watching the show for the first time, I think that using the word content will immediately convey something effective to a new viewer. I think you do get a vibe from it that does work.
00:35:02
Speaker
But it loses some modern world it loses some of the subtlety and some of the nuance of the term media and what it means to Murderbot in sort of a big way.
00:35:14
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. The other big visual points that I noticed from the first episode, because the first episode is basically right out of the book with the exception of us getting to see Murderbot hacking its governor module.
00:35:28
Speaker
the the The other piece that we get is that conversation on port free commerce, which we learn about in the books, but not until later. So we get that in chronological order here.
00:35:39
Speaker
I noticed Bardwadge's little tattoos around her eyes. That was super pretty and just really fun to see. like It added an extra little sci-fi element.
00:35:51
Speaker
Yeah. Garothan's nails are painted. Yes, we love it. The company logo is a bunch of C's interlocking with each other and surrounding each other. Which I think is very clever. And we don't get a name for the company. Everyone just calls it the company, which is kind of fun. It's a little bit of a divergence from the book canon because obviously in the books, the company has a proper name and everyone is saying it And it's SecUnit retroactively going in and editing it out.
00:36:22
Speaker
But I like that they committed to, we are not saying the name of the company. We are not giving the company a name. That's good. I like it. I like the detail of Rati's obviously homemade necklace. Mm-hmm.
00:36:34
Speaker
ah being on, you know, 10 minutes after Murderbot says that Rati makes his own jewelry. I really love Arata's like little tunic vest, ah which Bardwatch is also wearing the same thing.
00:36:48
Speaker
And I also really love Rati's sweatshirt and I want both of them. Yeah, they look very comfortable. It's functional, you know, it's gear for going out on a new planet and But it's also stylish and expressive and fun. And I feel like there's just so much to take in in this first episode of the show, which is why we spent like 45 minutes talking about it. Because it's like adding this whole new dimension that we don't get. And I had saved this point for my general notes at the end, but I think I'm actually going to put it in here. Because it's related to the company censorship. Because we know canonically that the books are sec units,
00:37:29
Speaker
edited account of events and in the show we do get a lot of sec units perspective and there's some fun stuff with camera angles so we know when we're seeing through murder bot's eyes versus when we're seeing just sort of an objective view but we get to hear its narration combined with seeing what's actually happening and getting to draw our own conclusions and Secunit going, Garofen's so creepy. This guy sucks. He's the worst. And he's just nicely comforting Bardwash or whatever. you know And you can see how very clearly Secunit is editorializing, misunderstanding, misinterpreting different situations.
00:38:13
Speaker
So there's a lot of layers to perceive, which is very fun. and then we get a full frontal Ken doll view of Murderbot. Yes. The repair cubicle is not what I imagined. No.
00:38:27
Speaker
It's fine. It's whatever. It's sci-fi. I was expecting a just kind of depressing closet or box that it climbs into because that's how it's described in the books. But I understand if you want it to be interesting for a TV show, it's fine.
00:38:41
Speaker
Whatever. Yeah. It's not so much a cubicle as it is a platform. Yeah. But that's okay. Was there anything else specifically for episode one? Because we do have five more episodes to get there.
00:38:53
Speaker
No, and most of my most my notes for the other episodes are like short. Cool. So now that we are up to speed, episode two, the survey begins. Oh, no, wait. I'm so sorry. That's okay. Hit me. I did forget the one. There was one thing, which was my immediate thought on seeing the hostile fauna was who let Arthropleura loose on this alien planet?
00:39:14
Speaker
Arthropleura is an extinct genus of myriapod in what is now Europe and North America between 344 to million years ago.
00:39:27
Speaker
Myriapod, meaning many feet. That's kind of cute. it was it Lots of feet. It was a giant, potentially eight plus foot long armored millipede.
00:39:39
Speaker
o Which is more or less what jumps out of the ground to attack Bharadwaj. Yeah. Except it has much bigger mouth parts and teeth.
00:39:51
Speaker
The teeth are uncomfortable. There are very many of them. And two mouths. Mm-hmm. Okay, that's all I have for chapter one. Now we can go on to chapter two. Cool. Episode two, the survey begins in earnest. We get some more detailed group dynamics among Prezox and the vibes kind of start to shift. The first thing that I noted was Rati is the king of the nickname. He has a nickname for everyone and everything, whether they want it or not.
00:40:18
Speaker
Calling Gaurathan Gugu inspired. I love it. A plus. So perfect. plus for Gugu. Like everyone calls him Gura, but Gugu, perfect. it's It's so endearing. We love it.
00:40:31
Speaker
Bardwaj having recovered a little bit from her hostile fauna incident comes into this secret meeting that everyone is having high as fuck and very traumatized it's like hello are we having a secret meeting i love secret meeting these stimulants are very effective it's like oh babe go back to bed it's okay everything is fine I did notice, again, looking at their clothing, their clothing is all modular.
00:40:58
Speaker
So that's sort of that jumpsuit that Garofan and Mensa wear. There's little zippers on the sleeves. There's a zipper at the waist. There's zippers at the knees. So there's a couple of scenes where Mensa is wearing her jumpsuit as shorts.
00:41:17
Speaker
And sometimes she's got the pant legs on. Um, Garofen always has the sleeves on his off. Mensa has hers on. Pinli just wears theirs as a vest.
00:41:28
Speaker
Um, so they don't have the, like, pants section and they don't have the sleeves. And then Rati is clearly wearing the pants but has kept the body section so he can tie that around his waist. And then he has his clearly, like, handmade sweatshirt.
00:41:45
Speaker
And then clearly the the like sweater tunic dress thing that Arada and Baradwaj also wear is clearly like a separate piece, but also looks like you could somehow possibly add sleeves onto that if you wanted to. to Yeah.
00:42:03
Speaker
They really do a lot to personalize the generic materials that they've been given. But also, i really like the fact that, like, the clothing is so clearly designed for, I guess, minimalism in some ways. Like, you know, if you don't know what the planet's weather is going to be like...
00:42:24
Speaker
Or you don't really know what the needs... You know, if you're doing an initial survey on the planet, and so, like, nobody's actually been there before, or you might have initial scans, but you don't know what you're walking into, it makes total sense to have a, like, completely convertible piece of clothing isn that you can adjust based on your needs in the moment. Because then also you only kind of have to bring the one piece of clothing. Yeah. Yeah.
00:42:49
Speaker
As opposed to like, yes, I have to pack shorts and pants and a sweatshirt and a jacket and a... did to Yeah. That's all I got for episode two, to be honest with you.
00:43:00
Speaker
couple more things. So there is a tense kind of confrontation between Garothan and Secunit. And Garothan tries to do a dramatic swivel in his chair when he's looking at all the... data on the big screens and he's trying to turn around to confront sec unit but it's not a swivel chair but he's just awkwardly he's already committed to the movement so he's just awkwardly scooting this big heavy plastic chair until it turns around good and he scoots it the long way around too like if he because that's how he was going to be dramatic but if he was just going to scoot he could have scooted the other direction and it would have been
00:43:41
Speaker
three ticks on the clock instead of nine. Yeah, he's he's trying. And so there's this turbo eye contact off where Gharathan knows something's up with Murderbot, but he doesn't know what. And so he's trying to be intimidating and it's not working.
00:43:58
Speaker
But it also kind of is working, but not in the way that he's expecting. He's making Sec Unit stare at him. But then we realize as the audience that Gharathan also doesn't really like eye contact. And so has just gotten himself into a situation that sucks for both of them. And...
00:44:15
Speaker
You can tell even from this first sort of individual interaction that Sekhuna and Garothan are actually really in sync. They are very similar and they hate it They do not want to be friends.
00:44:31
Speaker
Well, and that's, I think that's why Garrothan is so suspicious of Secunit, is because he sees himself in it. Oh, absolutely. Right, and Garrothan kind of knows that he can't be trusted.
00:44:44
Speaker
And so instinctively is like, well, we also can't trust Secunit either. This is, reminds me of how I felt when we were reading All Systems Red, because I think about Garrothan as our friend our buddy Garroth and and I forget how much of a jerk he is in the first book and how sec Unit just fucking hates him and I feel like he's not quite so harsh in the show i think again because we're seeing a more rounded view of him everyone obviously really likes him and in this big confrontation he's saying i care deeply about my friends and I don't want you to hurt them it's very sweet
00:45:25
Speaker
But he is he's an interesting and funny guy. And speaking of people caring about each other and having close bonds, we also get Pinley and Arata having a relationship discussion because we don't have oversay in the show. Pinley and Arata are married and they are discussing opening their relationship to include Rati because kids remember Adding a third will always fix your relationship.
00:45:55
Speaker
Because they're talking about how they've been in a rut and Arada really wants to. And Penley's obviously not as into it, but willing to give it the old college try. On the one hand...
00:46:07
Speaker
It is kind of amazing to see non-monogamy being explicitly and calmly negotiated and treated as totally normal ah on a mainstream TV show. That's really cool. But on the other hand, it's like, oh God.
00:46:22
Speaker
as As we have said before, non-monogamy doesn't mean that you're good at relationships. No. This is not a good choice, but it is a funny choice. And it is very, very entertaining. Yeah.
00:46:37
Speaker
I do love the fact that Sekyun is watching them through the cameras.
Tonal Shifts and Plot Development
00:46:42
Speaker
And then is like, oh, they're about to exchange fluids. I'm going elsewhere. And then in, I don't know whether it's this episode or the next episode, as they're all getting on the hopper to go to Deltfall.
00:46:53
Speaker
Pinley and Rati are doing the whole, after you, no, after you, after you. And Arata just walks by them and goes, I'll go first, as I usually do.
00:47:07
Speaker
Personally, i was against this whole trip. Last thing I wanted was to be stuck with these people and their pheromones in a small craft. After you? Oh, no, no, after you, I insist.
00:47:18
Speaker
Oh, I'll go first. As per usual... I don't have a stomach, so I can't throw up. But if I did, I would.
00:47:32
Speaker
That was just wonderful. So good. um Other things from this episode, we are seeing Mensa's anxiety early on as a core part of her personality, not as a reveal later on like it is in the books.
00:47:48
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Because in the beginning of the book, she is just this totally calm, cool, collected leader. And this is another example of how getting the fuller picture, not just Sekhuna's perspective, changes the way that we see her as a character. I think that's really cool.
00:48:02
Speaker
Then we try to contact Delft Fall, of course, no response. And then we get the first huge tone shift where we get a shot of the Delft Fall habitat and there's just bodies everywhere. There is so much blood. There's so much gore in this show in a way that's really jarring. It's effective. It really hits because it's so unexpected.
00:48:27
Speaker
But contrasted against all the bright colors and positive hippie vibes suddenly seeing just fucking carnage yeah that's my official yeah that was that was definitely a because by the end of episode two you're like ah this is a comedy we we've we're we're in a comedy and then you suddenly get all of the shots of blood and bodies and core and you know the blaring alarm mm-hmm
00:48:58
Speaker
And you're reminded that the title of the show is, in fact, Murderbot. Mm-hmm. We're not just having happy fun times and screeching non-swivel chairs as they turn around.
00:49:13
Speaker
And a healthy dose of prolonged eye contact. Eye contact. Moving on. I don't really get the Threpple storyline. Yeah. It doesn't really add anything for me.
00:49:24
Speaker
doesn't. I guess we're trying to show that Ratsi's kind of a Casanova. I guess. Yeah, it's, it's very funny. It's entertaining. I think that there are definitely other ways that they could have established, you know, that we're in a world where non-monogamy is the norm. We could have, we hear Mensah talking a lot about her kids, but not about her partners. I think that could have. She does say at one point, my spouses did not want me to come.
00:49:50
Speaker
But like she doesn't talk about them at length in the way that she does about her kids or the way that we really linger on the thruple storyline. Maybe just it's like sillier, more entertaining. I don't know.
00:50:01
Speaker
But probably whatever. It's creative, creative differences. That's fine. Episode three. Episode three is basically an extended fight scene. Yeah, we are seeing what's up with Deltfall.
00:50:14
Speaker
Everyone's dead. Something is off. When Sec Unit approaches the Delft Fall habitat, they land in the hopper sort of a good ways away from the Delft Fall habitat as they do in the books. And then Sec Unit approaches alone.
00:50:27
Speaker
And when it's approaching the Delft Fall habitat, I don't remember whether we were watching this together or whether we were talking about it right afterwards. And both of us commented on like the weird kind of like fisheye aperture setting, strange aperture settings that left kind of the edges of every shot very, very blurry. Mm hmm. Yes.
00:50:48
Speaker
And I noticed they kind of do that pretty much whenever they are outside in any environment that is not just like the crater, the completely bare crater that the habitat is in.
00:51:01
Speaker
hmm. And i I was trying to read a fair amount about the visual effects. They filmed this in, think it's Allura in Ontario, Canada.
00:51:12
Speaker
A lot of the filming on sets took place in Toronto. And then filming outdoors took place in that sort of Allura area around an old granite quarry.
00:51:26
Speaker
Granite? I think it was granite. North America, granite's usually a pretty safe bet. Yeah. I have to wonder if the weird settings are to kind of distract from the fact that it's just Canada. Yeah.
00:51:41
Speaker
I was trying to see if it was some kind of storytelling of are we getting a warped perspective because it's reflecting internal state? Nah, because I did notice in some of the shots where the trees were like extra crisp.
00:51:55
Speaker
Oh, this is just a pretty standard somewhere in North America. there were There were the, like, little trees in the first episode where Sekyunet walks out and is staring at the rings of the planet.
00:52:09
Speaker
And that one I tried to find so desperately, if those were real trees. And I found a shot in which pre-effects, those were actually on the set, those trees.
00:52:21
Speaker
Whether or not they are real life trees, I'm not sure. They bear, the bark itself was white, so it's similar to sort of birches, but they bear a lot of similarities to either the Dendrosychios genus of tree or to various types of bottle trees and baobab trees that have sort of that thick rounded trunk and that little leaves at the top.
00:52:47
Speaker
And then they all had straight up branches that were growing up from their very little branches coming out to the side at the top of this little bottle shape.
00:52:59
Speaker
And that is similar to the Japanese technique of Daisugi, which it uses one trunk of a of a cryptomeria conifer tree.
00:53:14
Speaker
to create very, very straight, very, very tall, multiple branches of these trees that then can be cut for lumber. But the tree then continues growing those because you still have the main trunk and root structure in the ground.
00:53:29
Speaker
So I don't know if those are like some sort of ornamental birch that have been pruned and shaped like that, or if that was just, they went, hey, these are some actual real shapes that we can do, and then we just paint it white and it's fine. Yeah. but They've also got these kind of Dr. Seuss truffula trees things. There are some very out there silly plants as well.
00:53:53
Speaker
Yeah. Those are practical effects. The um like the like round little things that are sticking out the side of the path as Secunit walks past them. They're cute. I like them. I'm glad they're real.
00:54:06
Speaker
And I found a shot, a pre-effects shot of Secunit walking past the hoppers going into the Delft Fall habitat. It's just of Secunit walking by the quarry lake.
00:54:17
Speaker
And you can see in the final shot that there's green trees in the background, but they just like color shifted the trees in the front row to be like purple and red and yellow.
00:54:32
Speaker
yellow and orange and there's one that's like silver and it's green yeah which i thought was clever and well done but then and then it sort of made sense that they like blurred it all so you can't just tell like ah yes those are just conifers that's just canada Yeah.
00:54:51
Speaker
Other things from this episode, we have some spying on Garothan. He obviously has some very intense unrequited feelings for Mensa because this cast just has to be very incestuous, I guess.
00:55:07
Speaker
There's some more fun, cringy handholding with Rati trying to force Murturbot to participate, which does not go well. There is also a huge... plot divergence from the book's reason that the survey is happening, which is that preservation needs to be economically independent. So they want the resources from this planet.
00:55:29
Speaker
And according to Mensa, there are some people on preservation who want to join the corporation rim. So she has a very strong interest in this survey working out because she needs to prove to them that they shouldn't sacrifice all of their values and sell out to the corporation. So having preservation be, if not in peril necessarily, but having its status be in question adds a lot of tension and adds a lot of good motivation as opposed to we are just scientists doing this because this is what we do.
00:56:07
Speaker
It definitely also opens up room for like major plot divergences later down the line that can still, I guess, build off of the worlds of the book.
00:56:17
Speaker
World of the books. That was how I wanted that to sound. All right. I get you. It's fine. They have such a great cast here. And we know that Murderbot has been renewed for season two. But as we all know, in book two, Prezox doesn't appear.
00:56:32
Speaker
So the the choice to either, you know, if they want to keep this cast and keep doing stories around Prezox, I can see how they might insert like a little, like a secondary storyline with Prezox until Murderbot rejoins them, you know, surrounding this economic situation.
00:56:53
Speaker
Yeah. this is This is where Mensa mentions her spouses, yeah plural, which is wonderful. But episode four. Yes. So in this one, Sec Unit goes down to the habitat, gets the combat override module inserted, and the Prezox crew just kind of starts to unravel.
00:57:13
Speaker
In the opening of this one, we get a couple scenes on a company factory floor, the Threshold Pass Fabrication Center, and we see Sec Units being made. And the conditions of the indentured workers and the shoddy manufacturing.
00:57:30
Speaker
It was kind of unclear to me because there was there's a scene at the end of that intro bit where there's a bunch of sec unit heads in jars. And one of the worker is like, stop staring at me, creepy little jar head.
00:57:44
Speaker
Was that one supposed to be Skarsgรฅrd's head? It was really hard to tell because it was so warped. Yeah, I couldn't tell. i It was not clear to me if we were literally seeing our sec unit being made or if it was just sec units in general. But it was really cool to see that extra little little bit and to be introduced to the idea of indentured workers in this world, which we know is very important.
00:58:14
Speaker
We come back. I liked the little, like, dropping performance reliability floating by a sec unit's head and then eventually climbing back up as it sings a little song to distract the other sec unit enough to get its shit back online.
00:58:29
Speaker
This is where we get that Sanctuary Moon intro. And we are introduced to, I'm sorry, subcontracted actor Con Ranel as Colony Solicitor Vegas. Yeah.
00:58:42
Speaker
played by real-life actor Ron Kennel. Amazing. Which brings up some fascinating implications, actually, in episode five. Yeah. And we'll get to that in a minute. Okay. Well, the thing I want to say about Sanctuary Moon in this episode is we get, as we're having this catastrophic performance reliability drop, we get a Sanctuary Moon fever dream in which...
00:59:04
Speaker
The sec unit is inserting its own OC into Sanctuary Moon and just drifting in and out of consciousness and imagining itself on the set, on the not as an actor, but in the world as a character.
00:59:20
Speaker
And all of the other characters are turning to it and saying, execute the procedures. And it's saying, I don't know how to do it. But the pure glee on Sec Unit's face when it opens its eyes and realizes that it is in the world of Sanctuary Moon and it's so happy to be there. And then Mensa's also there and she's got like a cool outfit, cool hairstyle. And they're being intrepid galactic explorers together.
00:59:45
Speaker
Oh my god, it was so fun. It was delightful. It was so stupid. i i loved it. I loved every second of it. And it kind of cuts in and out throughout the episode. It was so good. As Sekyu sort of slowly works itself back together and also the combat override module starts to slowly take it over.
01:00:04
Speaker
That's kind of ah a shift from the book a little bit. Instead of that immediately changing things, it takes like 10 minutes to download, which creates tension over the course of the episode.
01:00:17
Speaker
Yeah. And when it's singing the Sanctuary Moon theme song to distract the other sec unit, the narration is, it was completely hypnotized by my beautiful voice. Very, very good.
01:00:30
Speaker
There's lots of like flesh horror in this episode and in the in the next one as well i think and it grosses me out massively just all of the slicing and inserting and squishing and fucking with flesh bits grosses me out a lot especially with flesh bits is usually how that works not always but like usually I mean, there's all kinds of materials that bits can be constructed from. But in this case, there are very pointedly none.
01:01:10
Speaker
yes we get Mensa with a steel chair I mean mining drill when she fucking that was excellent ob obliterates the other sec unit and that I think was the first scene that really showed me that sort of classically trained actor vibe because she was selling the fear but also determination and disgust with herself at the act she had committed oh it's so good she is she's a layered character We get a very tame thruple scuffle, which is a term that I just really wanted an excuse to say because I thought it sounds fun. Thruple scuffle. It sounds great. Rachi is being very stupid, insisting on going out to save Mensa and Sekhya, even though he hasn't had weapons training. And he knocks himself out with his own gun. And in the in the whole next episode, all throughout episode five, he has a giant red like spot on his head from where he whacked
Rescue and Conflict Resolutions
01:02:06
Speaker
himself. Yeah.
01:02:07
Speaker
It's so funny. Pinley calls him out for insisting on being macho, as if, like, that is the worst possible insult. And you can kind of see when when Pinley calls him that, he visibly deflates a little bit, and then is like...
01:02:24
Speaker
No, you know what? I'm still going to go. i'm going to go do it. He's honestly, he's pulling a sec unit because he slept through his weapons training because he was hung over. But he and Pin Lee have both played what sounds like hundreds of hours of some shooter game that I should have written down the name of because it was very stupid and very funny.
01:02:45
Speaker
But they're both hardcore gamers. And he's like, I totally got this. Like, I'm really good at this game. And Arada obviously didn't know that Pin Lee plays this game and obviously disapproves because I assume just because it's so violent, it's like blood shooter 69 something. Not exactly that, but that's like the vibe.
01:03:05
Speaker
But he's like, I've played enough video games. This is fine. And then he's calling Arata and Pinley on the comm. ah Which one is the on button? Which end does the thing come out of? Very, very silly. And he keeps like waving the gun around in the direction of everybody else. And they're like, stop it.
01:03:22
Speaker
Get that out. Could you not, maybe? But then we get a big rescue. where big rescue. Arata and Pinley come to the rescue. Yeah, they... stomp the other sec unit like a bug with the feet of the hopper, the little landing pads. They just squish it, which was kind of fun to see them have some agency in this situation. And also, I feel the same way about this as I felt with other moments with Arata in the books, seeing her have...
01:03:52
Speaker
some agency and do something cool because she risks coming off as just a little airheaded. And so it's nice to be reminded that she is an equal part of the team. She can come up with plans. She can kill sec units as good as anybody else.
01:04:08
Speaker
Did Erotic come up with this one or did Pin Lee? Because I thought Pin Lee was the one who grabbed the controllers. I think Erotic comes up with it, but then we see Pin Lee in the window of the hopper when the camera pans up. So they're obviously doing it as a team.
01:04:21
Speaker
Right, because Pinley goes to grab the gun and then Erada goes, hang on, no way. Yeah, I got these, which is very fun. And then, you know, sec unit says, you know, you have to kill me to prevent me from murdering all of you.
01:04:35
Speaker
And ends up shooting itself. Episode five. Episode five. My summary for this is the Labibi of it all.
01:04:46
Speaker
So arguably one of the biggest changes that they make yeah in this series is the introduction of a Delft Falls survivor. it's Air quotes around that. Quote unquote. She is introduced as a Delft Falls survivor named Labibi.
01:05:01
Speaker
And she just immediately has kind of an uncomfortable aura about her. The way she acts, the way she talks is very provocative But not in like the intellectually stimulating or sexy meaning of provocative. Just that she's really immediately under everyone's skin. One of the first things she says about Sec Unit is, do you think it has a pee-pee?
01:05:30
Speaker
Ma'am, you're a grown woman. why First of all, ew, why are you asking that? Second of all, why are you saying pee-pee? Are we two? Like... Yes.
01:05:42
Speaker
Yeah. And then she spends a solid like 30 seconds waxing poetic about Secunit's hypothetical dick, whether or not it could be prehensile or vibrate potentially. And we're just flashing around to the faces of everyone in the hopper in just varying shades of horror. hmm.
01:06:07
Speaker
It's it's pretty egregious. I guess we can we'll talk more about Levy B at the conclusion of her arc. But she she is a lot. And I hope that actress had fun playing her because she is just a complete agent of chaos and is very uncomfortable to watch. But in a way that's like obviously this actor is doing a good job.
01:06:27
Speaker
So Labibi is played by Anna Konkle, who is a comedian. She's been on Robot Chicken, Big Mouth, Shameless.
01:06:42
Speaker
She was one of the creators and writers for the the show Pen15 or Penis. Mm-hmm.
01:06:53
Speaker
and then was in 25 episodes of that. So this sort of slightly uncomfortable, slightly funny, but like funny because you're not sure what other emotions to have about it is her wheelhouse. Yeah, she is executing it very well.
01:07:12
Speaker
Speaking of funny, uncomfortable moments, I had forgotten that Rati, and remember canonically they have been together for maybe 48 hours maximum raj is telling pinley that they should have a child and name it sec unit chef's kiss that's it's so good and pinley's like ah who said anything about having a kid yeah i just said i think we should name it sec unit what sir what are you talking about
01:07:44
Speaker
We get Garothan plugging into Secunit's brain and doing the big reveal to the crew about the governor module. I like how they do his augments as this little sort of port behind his ear. i think this is very cool. i like it.
01:08:00
Speaker
It's a great way of saving on makeup costs. Yeah, just slap a thing on him. Yeah, both both makeup and effects, because we don't actually really see him messing around in the feed all that much. You just kind of see him sitting there making different facial expressions and occasionally different hand movements while there's a wire dangling from behind his ear.
01:08:20
Speaker
Yeah. Easy peasy. After the big governor module reveal, Mensa does not manage to extract this promise from SAC unit, but she wants it to promise to protect Garothan equally as much as the rest of the crew.
01:08:36
Speaker
Because she can tell that they fucking hate each other. There's plans about launching the hopper, whatever, plot. the Launching the beacon. can Fuck. Yeah. There's plans about launching the beacon from the Hopper plot. Mostly I was focused on Labibi being so, so, so weird to Sec Unit, giving it the most uncomfortable kiss of all time for some reason.
01:09:01
Speaker
Oh, Labibi. It was deeply, deeply strange. I don't really understand the purpose of Labibi. I don't either. I don't understand why she behaves the way she does. And once we once we cover episode six and we have more context, we can continue to get into that. But even knowing her endgame, I don't understand why she's like this.
01:09:28
Speaker
Maybe she's just like this. There's one piece of the direct line from the book about the colony solicitor killing the terraforming supervisor who was the secondary donor for her implanted baby, which has fascinating implications here because we know who the colony, or at least...
01:09:43
Speaker
a colony solicitor is, a colony solicitor Vegas, who is played by Conranell, aka Ron Kennel. aka If you Google a picture of Ron Kennel right now, you will find a man in his mid-50s with gray hair and a fantastic jawline.
01:10:01
Speaker
And I, for one, absolutely love she-her-pregnant Conranell. Yeah. With gray hair and a fantastic jawline. ah Amazing.
01:10:13
Speaker
ah But that's an absolute lie. She was framed by bookkeeper Wittenmark, that little snake. Yeah, Labibi, even beyond the kiss, is just deeply rich. She'll lean over Garothan and then changes her tone of voice when she's talking to and asks, What is all this data? Do you mind?
01:10:37
Speaker
problem. Yeah. It's very strange. And she also you know offers Garrothan stimulants, which we'll learn more about in later episodes with Garrothan's history and backstory.
01:10:52
Speaker
But anyway, the beacon explodes. Yeah, that doesn't go so so hot. Episode six? Episode six. Episode six, Murderbot does a murder.
01:11:03
Speaker
Finally. So the beacon explodes, Murderbot and Mensa crash, Mensa is pissed that SecUnit deleted its copy of the Hopper repair manual to make room for media.
01:11:16
Speaker
Which I don't think that anyone ever confronts it about that in the books. I don't know if anyone knows about the times when it's going, oh shit, I had a module for this and now I don't. But She goes off on it and says, this was incredibly selfish of you to endanger all of us by getting rid of this important information so you could watch a show.
01:11:39
Speaker
You know, go fuck yourself. It was nice to see her say, hey, this is actually not not okay, my friend. so it also It also is definitely a manifestation of her anxiety. Because we see her jump to, she starts in confusion, and then she jumps to anger, and then she jumps to panic attack.
01:12:02
Speaker
Yeah. We get a lot of back and forth in this one between Sekhuna and Mensah and everybody else back at the Habitat. Labibi's just touching everyone all the time. she needs to stop it.
01:12:14
Speaker
She's needling people for information, making everyone just as uncomfortable as possible. She is getting lots of details from Bardwaj about the attack from the monster and sort of weirdly kisses her hand at the end of it.
01:12:31
Speaker
deeply strange i i don't know back on the hopper mensa has a panic attack which second it helps with with an episode of sanctuary moon which it insists is a soothing episode it's very nice that it picks out a soothing episode for i thought that was cute then back to the habitat and Labibi talking about her indenture and this story about how she wants to buy a license to have a child, which absolutely sounds like something the corporation rim would do.
01:13:03
Speaker
She's also now said her indenture is owned by three different companies. it's it's There is a notable inconsistency in her story. we have She mentions InterTRAV Mining Solutions. She's contracted from InterTRAV Mining Solutions to Deltfall.
01:13:18
Speaker
And this episode, she says that Deltfall bought her indenture from her previous company, which had a different name. you know, something something Controllers Limited or something like that. And so we're we're seeing that She's beyond being weird. She's not trustworthy. Yeah.
01:13:37
Speaker
And in case we needed any confirmation of that, she does pull a gun on all of our friends and demand access to hub system. And barred watch.
01:13:48
Speaker
alex I love this this interaction between Bardwaj and Garoth and Labibi is Bardwaj is trying so hard to be very, very nice. Labibi is trying so hard to get under their skin.
01:14:02
Speaker
And Garoth is just like simultaneously both the straight man and the punchline. isn't it You know, they're talking about who pays for raising children, Labibi asks.
01:14:13
Speaker
But where does the money come from? And Garoth just without turning goes... Debt. But where does the money come from? Debt. Scientific endeavor, hence this mission. To which Bardwad immediately tries to soften that. And when Labibi pulls the gun, Bardwad goes, Labibi, what is that?
01:14:38
Speaker
It's a gun. Don't make me use it. I adore him. And then she's, I forget who's asking, is your story even true about the child license? She goes, no, I hate babies. Which is such like a cartoon villain thing to say. Like, I hate babies and puppies and kittens and birthday parties. Like, I love it.
01:14:57
Speaker
It's very stupid. But she really wants their fucking data and she does shoot Garofan to try and get it. In the kneecap. Yeah, she is ready to back up her words with actions.
01:15:12
Speaker
While this is happening, Mensa does this spine surgery on SecUnit because they're trying to use some of its, but I don't know, materials to fix the hopper. I fast forwarded through it because it was too gross for me. It really, just like something about like the explicit slicing and poking around in there grossed me out so viscerally. I didn't watch it the first time and I didn't watch it the second time. So I don't know if anything else happens in there because I didn't see it.
01:15:41
Speaker
Again, we sort of have the one the you know the one character showing all of the emotion and the other character being perfectly stoic. Murderbot murder bot is you know sitting on the chair, walking Mensa through this procedure.
01:15:57
Speaker
And one point just goes, puts up its hand and goes, scalpel. And Mensa puts the scalpel in its hand, it puts it down and then it picks up.
01:16:07
Speaker
wrench. but Hands meant so the wrench and then things happen and it goes wrench. Puts that down. Scalpel. Just entirely straight faced.
01:16:21
Speaker
Doesn't seem to care. um But we do get the drop that here that human cloned neural tissue is used in transports. Yes. Yes.
01:16:33
Speaker
So some nice foreshadowing for certain future characters that may or may not feature in season two. I have such, I'm going to have such high expectations for season two. I have to just have an open mind and let it be whatever it is because this season surprised and delighted me. I'm sure season two will surprise and delight me, but they've got to, they've got to fucking deliver on art.
01:17:00
Speaker
I really hope they deliver on art. I'm, but speaking of blood and things being uncomfortable, Yes. So this spine surgery, the hopper repair thing does work.
01:17:14
Speaker
They get back. Murderbot and Mensah stumble into this hostage situation where Labibi has now gotten the thruple down. And so everyone is in this room freaking out. And on site, immediately, Murderbot shoots Labibi. She's decapitated. She's dead.
01:17:30
Speaker
And the humans, would you believe it, are so ungrateful. They don't appreciate this nice thing that Sec Unit has done for them. And we get all of Prezok's just absolutely fucking losing their minds.
01:17:48
Speaker
Garrothan was right next to her and he's going, you could have killed me. Murdochbuk goes, yeah, I didn't. And so they're all deeply traumatized. And we get a monologue voiceover about how the humans got too comfortable with with sec unit too quickly they forgot what it is what it is made for and it kind of enjoyed reminding them that it's not part of their little team it's not their friend it is their contracted sec unit and it has no regrets about what it did but it doesn't mind putting that wall up between them for now that is all i have do we want to circle back to labibi
01:18:35
Speaker
Yeah, let's circle back to Labibi. She reveals that she's working for another company. She was never working for Deltfall. She was never a Deltfall survivor. I feel like the massive shift in her personality once she pulls the weapon suggests that like her previous weirdness was kind of an act.
01:18:57
Speaker
Almost entirely an act. To what end? I'm not 100% sure what she was going trying to use that for. if If she makes them all super uncomfortable, what does that get her?
01:19:10
Speaker
Yeah, especially stuff like the weird kiss with Sec Unit. Like, she can't get anything from Sec Unit. At least, I don't know, the other humans could maybe think, oh, she's misguided, but she's nice. But she makes them uncomfortable. And when she's having the whole pee-pee discussion, yeah. their bard wash says hey where we're from we don't talk about constructs like that like what you're doing is disrespectful and uncomfortable please stop and so if she's trying to get access to their information why not behave in a way that would make them like and trust if not still underestimate her instead she's just going for maximum weird i think
01:19:58
Speaker
This is similar to in System Collapse.
Character Motivations and Thematic Conflicts
01:20:04
Speaker
Supervisor Leonid not understanding the the Prezox, the joint Prezox University group, and seeing every interaction as transactional.
01:20:17
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think Labibi is seeing, doesn't see, doesn't understand preservation and doesn't understand like their desire to help people. I think she's just sort of maybe assuming that she will be annoying enough that they will like leave her alone and then she can go about her spy work.
01:20:44
Speaker
But they don't leave her alone. Yeah. They assume she's traumatized. And so then they try to help her. And she just fundamentally doesn't get it. Even at the very end, even after she shot Garoth and Bardwash is saying, you know, we can get you out. You don't have to be in the situation. We can take you home to preservation with us. You can be free. You could do whatever you want. She's saying, yeah, but will that get me millions of credits? I just want money. And they're just so fundamentally misaligned.
01:21:14
Speaker
with what they value, but they just keep trying to connect with her anyway, which is kind of sad. Do you have other thoughts from this first batch of episodes? any any Any more thoughts on visual adaptations, story adaptations?
01:21:31
Speaker
We basically touched on everything that I had in my notes. The only other little thing was the feed in that we don't really see other characters using it.
01:21:43
Speaker
We see Garroth in the feed a little bit, but mostly when we're seeing the perspective of the feed interface, it's from SecUnit's point of view of these little floating information bits and bobs, which is pretty similar to how I pictured it, which is cool.
01:21:57
Speaker
But mostly when we're seeing the humans communicate with each other, it's via the comms, which are a physical little, well kind of the size of like a cigar, I guess, item that they hold and talk into like a little microphone, which is kind of cute. I imagined the comms as being somehow kind of like a Star Trek comm badge, like integrated into their environments in such a way that it wasn't something they needed to physically hold like a walkie talkie.
01:22:24
Speaker
But it's kind of fun just for visual storytelling reasons to see, okay, they are talking into this thing and holding it. It is clear what they are doing as opposed to yeah they're just speaking into the void.
01:22:35
Speaker
That's very, very Star Wars. Yeah, I wouldn't know. yeah The other piece that's very, very Star Wars, I thought, was the language, the written language that we see on screen.
01:22:46
Speaker
The very angular written language resembles, I did not see if it's, I don't think it's actually Orabesh, but it resembles really closely the Star Wars language, Orabesh.
01:22:57
Speaker
I did recognize that because, i don't know if I've talked on the podcast before, about my deep anthropological fascination with Disney World. I am not a Disney adult. I do not.
01:23:12
Speaker
have positive feelings about the Disney family of companies. I have no desire to go to Disney World ever. But during the height of the pandemic, I consumed hundreds of hours of travel guide content about Disney World. And I know so much about Disney Galaxy's Edge.
01:23:33
Speaker
And so I've seen so much of their, you know, Orovesh space writing. that I did recognize it from hundreds of hours of Disney food v blog videos.
01:23:44
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think it was actually Orobash. But it looks like it. But it looked, it was very similar in design. It seems to be a nod, perhaps. Perhaps.
01:23:56
Speaker
I really enjoyed the hopper design. Apparently they built a drone design. Oh, that's fun. So they could practically fly the hopper. And then otherwise they had two hopper sets they had in two separate locations that would like be like leapfrogged around. They'd finish filming in one location and then they'd go to another location where they'd set up the other hopper. And then at that first location, the team would deconstruct that hopper and move it to the next location they needed it So the like, i can't call them propellers because they're just rings. They said they modeled it after like a Dyson Airblade.
01:24:36
Speaker
Like the the like fans that are just that yeah yeah circle. Yeah. Yeah, the the not a propel not a propeller, but a propeller housing, essentially. yeah I get you. um That's all digital.
01:24:48
Speaker
um And the cockpit, the front cockpit is digital. But the like body of the hopper is is a physical set. I love that. I feel like you can really tell just the the tactile nature of the physical sets. That makes me happy.
01:25:07
Speaker
Physical effects always look better. that's that is my That is my opinion as we are doing visual media. my My opinion is practical effects are always better. Can we make that a law of something? We haven't really revisited our laws of fantasy, laws of sci-fi in a hot minute. That might be something good to do at the end of next episode. But I think we can make physical effects always look better.
01:25:32
Speaker
a a rule for just all visual media. Yes. Fandom Apprentices rules of visual media rule number one. Practical effects are always better. I also do love the little bit of irony of this being an entirely audio medium that we as the people who are not doing any visual effects are just going to we're just going to decide what's objectively true about visual media. I love that. Clearly. Yeah, this is this is our challenge as critics. is Neither of us have any skill in filmmaking, ah digital media, ah you know digital effects. I can you know do some basic photo editing and like very, very basic 3D modeling type stuff that I've done in the past, but I am...
01:26:21
Speaker
By no means an animator. So you know, more power to these people with incredible skills. But to, you know, have an actor actually interacting with a practical effect, I feel like you get a better performance from the actor and a better response from the audience.
01:26:41
Speaker
And practical effects change. Like, our perception of practical effects changes. You know, if you watch, like, James Cameron's Blue People Avatar movie now, like, at the time it was released in, what it was it, 2004 or something ridiculous like that? It was 2014?
01:27:00
Speaker
twenty
01:27:03
Speaker
Wow, I was off by a decade. We were in high school. Okay, I was off by a decade. Whoopsie. It was like the height practical of, it was the height of like CGI animation.
01:27:17
Speaker
You watch old like Star Trek like TNG stuff.
CGI vs Practical Effects in Film
01:27:23
Speaker
where they had like early, early CGI things. Or you watch like the the prequel trilogy in Star Wars, um where they used a lot of of CGI effects.
01:27:38
Speaker
And you can now see the CGI effects. We talked about it when we were talking about the um the Lord of the Rings movies and the green screen that they had Pippin and Merry in front of when ah they were walking, sitting on Treebeard's shoulders.
01:27:55
Speaker
And Treebeard was a practical effect. Treebeard was a model. But you could see the halo of the green screen around Merry and Pippin, which, you know, audiences might not have noticed, you know, in the days before 4K, Ultra HD televisions, And also before, you know, we got so used to those kinds of effects, that that was things that like high schoolers were doing now in their Photoshop classes.
01:28:26
Speaker
So the pace of CGI advances so, so quickly. And now we have AI generated things that that can pass for real for now that, you know, when you go back to these older CGI effects, they just simply don't hold up.
01:28:42
Speaker
Yeah. But, you know, and, know, there are times when you're, when, like, I'll rewatch, you know, The Empire Strikes Back and all of that's practical effects. And yeah, sure. something You can tell, like, that's a miniature. They're definitely, you know, that's a stop motion miniature movement that they're doing there.
01:29:02
Speaker
But it's still like, it's, but it doesn't stand out as jarring to the environment as ah as a CGI effect could. You mean as, yeah, yeah.
01:29:13
Speaker
as ah As a CGI effect, the CGI effect would stand out as like much more yeah jarring in yeah get in the in the space. yeah But i think I think they did a good blend of practical sets and CGI effects here.
Podcast Future and Listener Engagement
01:29:28
Speaker
And we can talk more about production and things next time. Next time we will cover the last four episodes of the season and we will make our big announcement about what's happening for season three. yeah Can you believe we have a show that is going to go into its third season?
01:29:47
Speaker
Isn't that wild? Not that our seasons are any sort of consistent length, but yes, yeah that's ridiculous. It's just, it's cool for us. It's a cool milestone.
01:29:58
Speaker
Yeah, I think, I mean, this is our current plan. Obviously, our next episode comes out on December 23rd. And following that, our next episode would be in the new year.
01:30:12
Speaker
We're considering taking a very short break. couple ah Couple of episode cycles. And you should see us no later than February in your feed. The new content that... There I am using my own word that I despise.
01:30:28
Speaker
But that is the word that we use now. When you're getting ready for Valentine's Day with the Kraken boyfriend that you met over Christmas, you can listen to the Fandom Apprentice together in your pool.
01:30:41
Speaker
Being horny about new characters. Yeah. That we can be horny about again because we won't have Murderbot as our main focus.
01:30:53
Speaker
But anyway, thank you for listening. This is our sign off for now, I guess. Whether you are listening when this comes out in dis december in early December or whether you you are listening far later down the line, we hope you are staying warm or cool if you're listening later or from the Southern Hemisphere somewhere.
01:31:11
Speaker
And you are enjoying... fact one of these One of these days, this is this is my goal for season three. Okay. My goal for season three is a consistent intro and a consistent sign off.
01:31:29
Speaker
I love that for you. i think you're doing amazing. love the doubt I see in your face. I like the variety. I like all the stuff that you say. But if it is important to you to be consistent, then I support that goal.
01:31:43
Speaker
If you would like to hear my journey towards consistency... You can subscribe to our podcast on whatever podcast platform you're currently listening on and on any other podcast platform you may have access to.
01:31:56
Speaker
Just pump up our numbers a little bit. yeah You can also follow our social media on any social media we are on. We are on there as at fanappod, F-A-N-A-P-P-P-O-D.
01:32:10
Speaker
You can always send us an email at thefandomapprentice at gmail.com and we will get back to you within three business days. that's That's the most likely way you're going to get a response. I check the other social medias infrequently. i do check them, but infrequently.
01:32:24
Speaker
Our Tumblr is really good, if you're still on Tumblr. are in this Our Tumblr is actually great. It's great. it's There's good stuff on there. Anyway, we will see you next time with the last four episodes. And we'll talk about more production and effects and the production team and maybe the music a little bit next time around. So that's what you've got to look forward to.
01:32:47
Speaker
But in the meantime, we hope you have a wonderful two weeks. And we will see you next time. See you next time. bye The Phantom of Brentis is produced and edited by Rin and Sam. Our music is composed and performed by James.
01:33:00
Speaker
You can find more of his work on Spotify and Bandcamp under Bayruz, B-A-E-R-U-Z. Our art is by Casey Turgeon. You can find more of her work at KCT Designs on Instagram.
01:33:12
Speaker
The content discussed is the property of the original copyright holders and is used here under fair use.
01:33:55
Speaker
Oh, what a perfect man. He's so sleepy. Yeah, he's just snoozing.
01:34:02
Speaker
Oh, a man. If he's evil, he'll go in his crate. But I figure it's in terms of sound exactly the same for him to be there as it is to be in the crate. And if he's just sleeping, then it's fine.
01:34:16
Speaker
But if he starts farting loudly or something, then anything's possible.