Murderbot - S01E01-02 - FreeCommerce & Eye Contact

[00:00:16] Welcome to The Lorehounds' first Murderbot Rampage. I'm Jon, and if I tune out, it's because I'm busy binging Sanctuary Moon. Hi, and I'm Alicia, and just because I can't look you in the eyes doesn't mean I don't care. All right, well, we have a lot to get through today because they did a double drop on us. Only 30 minute episodes though. So, I guess we'll start off with our spoiler-free hot takes and give some background info and then we'll give a spoiler warning. Yeah. And Alicia, what's your background with this franchise?

[00:00:48] So, I've done some of the reading now. Basically, I learned about it because of this TV show and then all these people are talking about the books. And then you looked into the books and you're like, oh, well, the novellas, most of them are only like 100 pages. I was like, well, I can do that. Yeah. So, I read, we'll run through what is included, but I read a related short story first. Then I watched these first two episodes and then I went back and read the first novella.

[00:01:17] So, I'm going to keep reading as the season goes on. But of course, no future book spoilers. Yeah. For anything that hasn't happened in the show. And we are not watching ahead of the drop dates. Nice. Yeah. Well, I read maybe a third of the first novella and then I started reading more of the Heir to the Empire series and I was like, I want to read that more. And then when you said you were reading, I was like, maybe I'll be the non book reader.

[00:01:45] That way we have one person who can yell about speculation. Okay, good. If you want to keep reading. I don't know. But yeah, we've got a lot to talk about today. So, as you've outlined here, we've got two episode initial drop and then we're going to have a weekly for 10 episodes. And the titles are free commerce and eye contact. And do you want to go through the rest of this? Yeah, so they are going to 30 minute episodes each.

[00:02:12] So quite short, which I guess fits with the length of the novellas as well. And the log line is in a high tech future, a rogue security robots played by Alexander Skarsgard secretly gains free will to stay hidden. It reluctantly joins a new mission protecting scientists on a dangerous planet, even though it just wants to binge soap operas. Hmm. I do. I love the premise of this.

[00:02:41] I love the premise of this whole thing. This idea that this, this murder bot has gotten the ability to do anything and is like, I feel like Netflix is the move. Hmm. What do you mean? You know, like this, this murder bot got the ability to just completely have free will and chooses to just be a binge. Yeah.

[00:03:09] Just binge and lounge and not do anything with that power. Just, you know, it's the opposite of with great power comes great responsibility. It's with great power comes a lot of vegging out with a group. With great freedom comes the ability to watch space. Right. So what did you think of these first two episodes overall? I thought they were great.

[00:03:32] I, you know, I, I had a very busy week, so I had to watch this like on my laptop when I had a minute, but the visuals from what I see, it's basically just foundation with comedy. It's, it's got a lot of great visuals. What's the, what the highlight of it though is the characters and the characters have great chemistry. I think they're interesting characters. I don't think their character archetypes we often see in, in sci-fi and I'm really enjoying this ensemble crew.

[00:04:02] Also, I was really skeptical of Alexander Skarsgård going in because you know, it's, it's a robot who's supposed to be asexual, no genitalia completely, not even non-binary, but just a gender. Right. Mm-hmm. And, and I was like, well, this is a very like clearly masculine presenting act. Right. And so I was like, are they going to sell it? And the voice is great. The, his portrayal, his awkwardness is great. I have no issues with his performance.

[00:04:32] And you know, the, they were going to have trouble finding an actor, fitting all the criteria of murder bot. So I, you know, they had to pick someone. I think Alexander Skarsgård is doing as good a job as anybody could. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know that, um, it's funny because so I intentionally watched the first two episodes before reading the full-froats novella, because, uh, I just wanted to, I didn't want to come in with the book baggage. You know, I wanted to give the show a chance first.

[00:05:00] And then, so then I went back and read murder bot's own voice. And I, I was seeing a lot of reviews from people online who were saying that if anything, they thought murder bot leaned female, but I think that was just a bias because the author of the books, Martha Wells is a woman. Um, I, I too thought murder bot leaned female, but now that I've seen the show, I think it's fine. I think it's fine to have Alexander Skarsgård. I'm and, and like, we're not going to change it now. So I'm just going to live with that.

[00:05:26] No, I mean, but what I want to say is that, uh, when I read after watching, of course, then I'm just seeing, you know, murder bot as Alexander Skarsgård and every line fit perfectly. And that has to do with, you know, his delivery and also has to do with the writing of the character. But I do think it is more truly a gender than people. Um, yeah, then people realize, and, and this really pointed it out to me. Uh, but I, I have to admit, I'm going to do my best.

[00:05:54] We're going to refer to Alexander Skarsgård, the actor as he, uh, but murder bot is definitely it. I might slip and say he sometimes, but I mean it. Yeah. Yeah. We can't even go. They, this is, this is a treated like an object and maybe, maybe eventually murder bottle choose some pronouns, but for now we got an it here. Murder bot. Yeah. Does not want to be seen as human as the same as the other humans. Um, right. Which, yeah.

[00:06:22] So this is, uh, something that a lot of people really like about this series is that murder bot is very, uh, neurodivergent coded. Um, there's of course, there's the asexual and aromantic elements, uh, that make people feel seen, but also as coded as, as likely on the autism spectrum. And Wells, the writer, she said herself, I didn't realize how ND I was until I started writing this character. Oh, that's funny. That's funny.

[00:06:50] Well, it's good to, you know, writing can be an exploration in ourselves too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, overall, I'm, I'm so glad to be talking about this show now. I mean, of course we've been talking about the and or, which is a masterpiece. You guys have been talking about the last of us and we've been talking about the wheel of time before that. And these are all fantastic, uh, shows with a lot of depth and emotion, but, oh, I just need a little, I need some space hippies.

[00:07:16] And, you know, some feel good vibes. This is a palate cleanser that I need right now. Um, yeah, but there is surprising depth, uh, you know, in addition to the fact that, you know, the murder bot character makes a lot of people feel seen. It's just, it's not such a relief to find a story where there's plenty of drama, but it's not because the characters are horrible to each other. Like the characters are good to each other because life throws enough obstacles your way as it is.

[00:07:46] Right. Yeah. They don't have time to be mean to each other. Right. Yeah. And, but it's also just like, they take a moment, like even in these two episodes, this is not really spoiler, but in these two episodes at one point, Mensa is mad at another character and she just like gives him a look and then she, you know, stops, opens the door again. And she's like, I just need to take a shower. Okay.

[00:08:05] And it's just that, that just taking that beat to be like, listen, this is just, um, I just need a moment and everything will be fine. Um, yeah, I, and I also love how there's a theme throughout where we find out that murder bot is learning empathy through the entertainment that it consumes.

[00:08:28] And how that models positive behavior. And, you know, because murder bot starts to care about fictional characters, uh, murder bot can translate that into caring about the real people around it. So I just, yeah, I love everything the show stands for. And so far two episodes in I'm having a great time.

[00:08:47] Yeah. I want to go back to what you said about stories, teaching empathy, because that's something that I think about a lot with, um, you know, people, people kind of treat speculative fiction. And when I say people, I mean the general public or academia treat speculative fiction, like science fiction and fantasy is sort of a lower grade. Um, literature than, you know, realistic, let's say fiction. Yeah. So called literary. Capital L literature. Right. Yeah.

[00:09:15] And to me, I think that speculative fiction is better at teaching empathy than literary fiction here, here. And the reason is it lets you let go of your biases and your preconceptions of your world.

[00:09:33] And it lets you see things one level removed so that you are, you are challenged to take that and empathize with a character who has a situation that might be analogous to you, but it gives you the freedom to explore how, how that character feels and how they reacted and how other characters reacted. And so I, I think as, as much as you can get value out of literary fiction, I'm not degrading literary fiction.

[00:09:59] I think that you get true empathy and emotional intelligence out of speculative fiction. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, what's great about speculative fiction is, you know, fantasy and science fiction in particular is that it, um, allows you the space to create like a new framework to sort of try out, um, um, mental experiments about, well, what if this key, there were this key difference in the world? You know? Yeah. Um, and that gives you, gives people the space to look at like, well, would that be better? What would be the problems there?

[00:10:29] And how does that translate back to what we experience in our world? I've heard that Martha Wells, the writer, um, she has a degree in anthropology, by the way. I think that shows in her writing. Um, I've heard that her other series are the same. Um, she, she's done some Star Wars and Stargate writing, by the way, but, uh, her most popular series other than Murderbot are Il Rien and, uh, the books of the Rascura. Oh, sorry. Raksura. Raksura.

[00:10:55] So I'm definitely, I think I'll be dipping into probably starting with Raksura. That's the one I've heard the most about, uh, after this, because it's, yeah, it's really refreshing to see someone who writes in this way. Um. You've been well-spilled. I've been well-spilled, yeah. So I'm, I'm going to try to, as the season goes on, I'm going to try to read through all the books. Luckily, most of them are novellas or short stories. Mm-hmm.

[00:11:18] Um, I already read, she released this short story, uh, called Obsolescence, and it's part of this book called Take Us to a Better Place. She released it May of 2020, and you can find it online as a free e-slash audiobook. And it's set in this world, but, uh, closer to our timeline than to Murderbot's timeline. And it's kind of, uh, it shows.

[00:11:42] So at some point, they're colonizing space, and before they had these sec units, they would have humans, people who were born, you know, as humans, and they would volunteer to become rovers. And then they would be, like, their form would be changed, and they'd be fitted with parts, and these are the people who first explored the, uh, first colonies before, you know, they got this new system. So that's, it's a short story about that. Um. Spooky. Yeah.

[00:12:12] Apparently they refer to it later in the series, like he's watching a documentary on it or something. This sounds like the Cybermen conversion. Right. Right. But they still have empathy. They still have empathy and everything. Okay. All right. Yeah. All right. All right. Let's say the Dalek conversion of, uh, of a certain character. They're not murder. Well, one of them, it's a murder mystery, Obsolescence, the short story. Okay. All right. But it's a short story. Well, there's a little murder, but who, who among us hasn't seen a little murder?

[00:12:41] It's, um, okay. So that one is, it's only loosely related. It's like, like 30 pages long. So it's kind of like a mini novella. Um, I absolutely love, there's a flash fiction short story, only five pages long called Compulsory in Wired Magazine. And that one, uh, is about Murderbot itself. About a, uh, moments from a previous mission. I'm actually going to bring that up later. But yeah.

[00:13:06] So, uh, but the first book is All Systems Red, which won the 2017 Nebula for Best Novella and 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella, which for anyone doesn't know, these are like two of the biggest, most important, uh, sci-fi awards. You started this one. You said you got like halfway through? Maybe like a third through. I, I'm pretty much got through a little bit further. Like probably by the end of next episode, I'll finish what I, what I read.

[00:13:35] So then I'll be, then I'll be clean and I can speculate freely. Okay. Okay, cool. All right. I'm going to keep going. So there's apparently the first four Nova novellas are one overarching plot. So I'm wondering how much of that will feed into the seasons and the next three. There were all, these first four were all published in, uh, 2018 and artificial condition, rogue protocol and exit strategy of the next three.

[00:13:59] And then there's this short story that's between the books called home habitat range niche territory, um, which was in reactor magazine. You can find that online for free too. Uh, by the way, the other short story was in wired magazine from January 19. You can find that online for free. Um, and then there's, and then there's three more books that have been published after that at this point. So network effect is the only full length novel.

[00:14:25] It was the fifth released, but it's actually sixth chronologically after fugitive telemetry, which is a novella. And then the final novella is system collapse, which was released much more recently, November, 20, uh, 23. And there's apparently at least two more coming, uh, because there's a deal with tour for that. So, okay. Tours everywhere. They, they have all my favorite book. I know Abby said she wishes that it would stop after book five. So I'm like, okay, I'm curious.

[00:14:55] I'm curious now. Yeah. Some, sometimes serious. They overstay their welcome. We know that. Yeah. I don't know. I'll see what I think when I get there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, as a sequel trilogy start defender, I think, I think maybe you, you have a better shot of enjoying it than that. It's true. Um, but yeah, so the, uh, Apple and Paramount, this is a joint production.

[00:15:18] They optioned from Wells and, uh, the entire first season was written by Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, uh, who are known for tons of stuff, including American pie about a boy, Mozart in the jungle, uh, rogue one. Uh, they also contributed to that or one of, I forget which is which. And I think Paul Weitz directed this episode. I'm not sure. I think they might be directing the entire season as well. So far. So good. Now these were the people who were on rogue one and then Tony Gilroy came in because they didn't like what the director.

[00:15:47] Uh, well, so it was with Gareth Edwards was the director of rogue one before Tony Gilroy came in. And I have a feeling that the bad blood that we've heard tell is between Gareth Edwards and Tony. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, so we won't blame them. Yeah. I'm David was just suggesting this, um, this podcast. It's a goes deep into the history of the rogue one production. So I just added it to my listen list. Yeah. That sounds really interesting.

[00:16:17] I'm going to check that out. Yeah. Before we do our rogue one round table next week, I think. But these aren't the droids we're looking for. We need our droid. Right. We need murder. Right. Yeah. I have to say, so. Okay. So I've read through the entire first novella and those other two short stories. And I think that the adaptation aspect feels quite faithful to me, but like they have slightly remixed how certain events play out.

[00:16:43] And I think maybe also amping up some of the drama in certain cases or bringing certain drama forward. Um, it seems pretty faithful though, to be honest. Okay. Yeah. I mean, from what I read, it does seem pretty close. I mean, I think they're probably bringing forward certain character moments, certain drama, but I mean, I, I haven't even read that drama. That's why I think they're bringing it forward. Either that or they added it, but it seems very natural for the world.

[00:17:11] Uh, we can talk about that once we get into spoilers, but I, uh, I think it is pretty faithful on like main plot beats. Yeah. I agree. I agree. All right. Should we do spoilers? Spoilers. Is that a decent enough river song? Yeah, that was very good river song. Spoilers, sweetie. Do we want to take a break? Oh, sure. Let's take a break. And then we'll talk about those spoilers.

[00:17:53] We're back and, uh, I'm not doing my impression again. You can rewind 30 seconds if you want to hear it. Yes. This is spoilers begin now. Um, I thought we could talk about the characters first, starting of course, with murder bots, AKA sec unit two, three, eight, seven, seven, six, four, three, one. Um, so the sec units are part cloned quote unquote organics and the rest is machine.

[00:18:18] And how would you describe the difference difference between a sec unit and an augmented human? An augmented human was born a human and enhanced themselves with certain mechanical pieces. And a sec unit was 3d printed, right? This is first and foremost, a machine that is wearing a costume of human. It's kind of the opposite, right? That's true. That's true. But definitely with like a human brain. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:18:48] I mean, yeah, they, I think that's one of the questions is what really is the fundamental difference other than the fact that what is enslaved? Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And, and yeah, they're supposed to be bound by a governor module, but murder bot secretly jail broke itself. Um, and we see throughout wiped memory from a prior mission as glimpses of a lot of screaming.

[00:19:16] Um, I think this one is one where you might be freer to speculate on than me. On, on what exactly? On what those glimpses of a lot of screaming. Oh yeah. That's wiped memories are. Yeah. Yeah. The, I, I don't know anything about that. That seems very fun. I wonder if murder bot has, I wonder if murder bot has done this before. Right. And maybe they're like, ah, he's not going to hack himself. Oh man. I'm already doing the gendering of Alexander Skarsgård. I know.

[00:19:45] And, uh, they're like this murder bot, it's not going to hack itself again. You know, that's impossible. It's a one in a million shots. So let's give it another shot. Uh, and maybe this murder bot wasn't meant to be assigned again. Maybe that that's why they were like, why is that even there? I know that that was in part when they were trying to sell it because they just wanted to upsell, but maybe part of it was, we don't know if that's safe. And then they didn't want to say, you know, in public, they don't want to be like this murder

[00:20:14] bot is unsafe because then that, that will undermine their whole credibility. Plus they're like, ah, this is the poor crew. If they die, they die. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, murder bots afraid of being found out for jailbreaking, uh, it's governor module because like we keep seeing that was great. Just throwing the visuals of like, and then you get melted. Right. Right. Like we understand where murder bots coming from on this.

[00:20:41] Um, and, and, you know, there's this tension also, and this is so reflective of our real world that of course television sensationalizes everything. So sec units tend to go rogue and kill their clients in TV shows. Uh, so I can imagine we'll talk about Gaurathan in a bit, but I could imagine why he's like, I don't know about these memories. And, but also I think that Gaurathan, and this is what I mean is we're, we're asking these interesting questions of like, what's the difference?

[00:21:10] Gaurathan is also very much in his own world and, and tapped into the system. And so I think he sees a kindred spirit. Right. In murder bot. And therefore he goes, why are we kindred spirits right now? You should be basically a drone. Hmm. Yeah. I mean, I do. So Gaurathan's an augmented human murder bot is a sec unit. And I wonder if there definitely like when you see the, the whole group, the whole

[00:21:39] preservation ox survey team, um, you see the Gaurathan is well loved by the group, but it is also the odd one out in terms of like, doesn't want to do the harmony circle. You know, the one who's like kind of just dancing in the corner to what murder bot. You can, I can hear the way you're describing him. I could hear sister Michael from dairy girls going, you will go far in life, but you will not be well liked.

[00:22:05] And that's why it's great that his group does like him, but, um, it seems like, but he's just obviously not as comfortable with the, the group and the groupiness of the group as the rest of them. And, you know, that puts him, uh, a bit between them and murder bot in terms of disposition. And also obviously in terms of, of skills, I like, like murder bots description of like, I can feel them in the feeds. Like, it's kind of like saying like, it tickles a little bit.

[00:22:35] Yeah. That's funny. That's funny. And, and I just love how much disdain murder bot has for Gaurathan. He's like, come on, you think, you know, better than me. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think this is the case of like, because they are more similar than everyone else in, in this cast. Um, it kind of puts them at odds in a strange way, or maybe Gaurathan doesn't want to, he doesn't want to acknowledge their similarities or he's jealous of the fact that murder bot

[00:23:04] is, you know, because murder bot is more, more tech, uh, murder bot's better at all the tech stuff. So, yeah. And I, you know, I can do anything you could do better. You can do better. I think that's where we're kind of at here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, and, and of course, so this is a new, I like that they started by, there's a slight change from the book showing like him or sorry, it being abused by previous clients,

[00:23:31] um, with the burning, but there is references in the novella of like the humans forcing them to fight each other and things like that. And I like that they established that. So when, then you land on this planet with this group of, of hippies, it's really nice to you. It's like, Oh, Oh, maybe not all humans are that terrible. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it is really interesting. He, Oh my God, I'm never going to get this.

[00:23:56] I'm never going to get calling a being it, but it, it really struggles with this, right? Because it's watching the feeds all day and actually sees that there is beauty in human life, but then it still has this bias of like, okay, but I have been a slave for an untold amount of time. And most of the humans I've seen, I mean, uh, presumably most of the humans that murder

[00:24:24] bot has seen have been like the richest people have probably not been very nice to them, to him, to it. And, uh, it's, it's going to be tough to shake that. I totally understand that. Yeah. I mean, but still you, we already, we see glimpses that murder bot is protective, you know, jumps. It keeps talking about like, Oh, I just want to watch TV.

[00:24:51] But then as soon as something happens, it's, you know, Oh, he's humans. Don't get yourself stupidly killed. And then says it's part of that is, is self-preservation, right? Is if you get killed, they're going to figure out something went wrong with me. Right. Right. And they do give us glimpses of these murder fantasies. Like what if I just killed them all? Um, but, and it's also, it's interesting that they note that murder bot are, uh, they're

[00:25:18] known, they are corporate property and part of their systems that they're running is spyware. And so they are recording and sending back things to the corporation, you know, conversations and things like that. And, and of course that's going to make everyone extra iffy around their sec units. Yeah. And, and I think there was a quote in the book that was like, everybody knows what's going on, but they don't realize to the extent, which probably is reflective of our real world.

[00:25:48] With spyware, right? Like we're probably all being monitored at all times by various corporate parties and government parties. Yeah. I mean, I do have an L E X A that's listening right now, you know? Hmm. Um, yeah, I do like also that they, they emphasize it both in two ways. We'll, we'll talk about sanctuary moon in a minute, but there's a navigation unit, uh, there who's like, I'm not a sex bot. And murder bots also like, I am not a sex bot.

[00:26:17] Those are things that exist. Not me. Um, definitely a, not even remotely interested in, in that side of things. And, um, as we said, generally said to be coded on the autism spectrum, but you know, we have, doesn't want to be forced to conform to people. Doesn't, you know, once, uh, the needs, the alone time to recover hates to be forced to make eye contact. So that was one of the cruelest things that Garoth and did in these two episodes. It's like, you must look me in the eyes.

[00:26:47] Yeah. Yeah. But, but I understand why I grew up, like as much as we are, you know, maybe a little mad at Garoth and because we're empathizing with murder bot. Yeah. So if I were with a killing machine that might be going rogue and one of the only ways to test it is if they will follow a direct order. Sure. I might make it do something. It's uncomfortable with like that too. Right. Something that's not going to harm it, but something that, you know, it's not going to want to

[00:27:17] do, but it has to do. Yeah. Like that was honestly very smart. That's fair. Yeah. But I also understand just wanting to hide behind its helmets and stuff. I like the detail. I noticed on the second watch that they there's, they make the tinnitus sound whenever murder bot starts to get anxiety. And I only recently learned I have tinnitus. So like a lot of people and I have anxiety, like a lot of people. And I only recently learned that actually the two are linked.

[00:27:44] I mean, not, doesn't have to be, but it is often when people are experiencing anxieties when they have the tinnitus strongest. So I thought that was a really cool production detail that they're doing that. Hmm. That, that is really interesting. I didn't realize there was any, any link there. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, I, I like, yeah, just, just the way Alexander Skarsgård is playing all of this. I think that that's why at the end of the day, it's like, okay, could they have found someone

[00:28:13] more androgynous perhaps, uh, most likely. But I just think at the, it's about the performance and, and he's selling this performance with, with like, you were forced to give a speech like direct order. Uh, yeah. Speech your ass at Beth, speech your ass at Beth. It is my job to secure. Oh, I should have gone for the ass at Beth. Yeah. That's it. It's great comedy in this. Like there is, I, it took a minute for me to get into the mood of it because again,

[00:28:43] we've been doing all these serious dramas and then there's this. And there is this sort of slapsticky tone to it. Right. It's not, it's not smart humor. Most of the time it is very like silly humor, but that's okay because there's a serious story underneath it too. Yeah. Yeah. And like I said, I need this palate cleanser. Yeah. And I like how they're showing that murder bots learning empathy through these TV shows. Um, that short story compulsory is a lot about this.

[00:29:11] I won't go into that too much, but we do see it in this show where, so in the book, it was this character of Valescu who didn't make it into the show. I I'm glad they cut two characters, honestly, from the novella to the show because I was having trouble keeping all of them straight. Um, so Arada in the show version is the one who goes into shock when the megafauna first shows up. And we see murder bot like had watched on sanctuary moon, its favorite show.

[00:29:40] Um, someone, how they distract someone who's in shock by asking them personal questions and starts modeling this behavior. And this is one of the things where they're, they start to realize there's something quote unquote wrong with their sec unit, but wrong in a way with like, it's being too empathetic. Right. Right. Because, because that's not it. It's programming. So does that mean there's something wrong? But also what I love is this is a team that's not that familiar with them.

[00:30:09] So they're like, is that in the normal range? Right. Whereas as people who, again, we're like more wealthy and we're more used to dealing with sec units, they might be like, call the corporation. Let's go. Like, you know, shut it down. Right. Yeah. Cause they're, so this group, they're from preservation Alliance, which is a tiny non-aligned planetary commune or freehold in the middle of nowhere. And they're uncomfortable with having sentient, uh, you know, Mensa go, comes out and says slaves.

[00:30:37] And, um, yeah, I, I, this is interesting, uh, dynamic because they're like more primed to see murder bot as human, because that's, that's how things are in their worlds that they are still, they do not have, uh, the slave status, although I don't think, yeah, I shouldn't say too much about that, about the status in their world. But so, so can I say though, didn't Garrothan say that he wasn't from free, uh, what was it?

[00:31:07] What was it called? He moved there. He, he. Preservation Alliance. Yeah. I, he moved there, um, five or about six years ago, a new Mensa and was pulled in because of that. So I think, well, these other people were raised with this idea of like sentient life all deserves respect. He comes in and he's like, I don't know about this. Yeah. I mean, because it's interesting for him, especially to take that stance considering he's

[00:31:33] decided to, um, become augmented himself. So question, if you lived in this world, or I guess this is our world in the distant future, would you get augmentations? Oh, probably. Yeah. You know, like as much as I want to be like, no, I'd want to be natural. Like, no, it would be very cool to, to interface with a computer. I mean, come on. Yeah. No, I, I think the most nerd answer is, is yes. Yes. Yeah.

[00:32:03] And you too. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Another important question. So murder bot is addicted to binging, as we said, and we've learned that there's shows in this world, like world hoppers, med center, our gala, and especially we get to see the show within a show sanctuary moon, which first of all, the cast of that John Cho, Clark Gregg with some of the wildest mutton chops I've ever seen. Jack McBrayer, DeWanda Wise.

[00:32:33] It's yeah. Insane show within a show. Would, what would you be binging in this world? I'd probably find out whatever happened with Dr. Who first, you know, how long did it go on? How long did it go on? Is this what, what doctor number are we up to? This like the 647th doctor. It's, it's new, new who to the 25th power. We've actually cloned Tom Baker and he's been seven doctors now.

[00:33:03] It's, it's now, um, what is it? Penta generation splitting into five. We we've just cloned all of the classic doctors and they all have their own show. I mean, that's a world I wouldn't mind living in. Yeah. Right. No, I wouldn't be able to keep up actually. But maybe if you were augmented, you could just have it, you know, shot right into your brain. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

[00:33:31] So what, what do you think of the, would you want to be part of one of these free holds, like the preservation Alliance, even though they have as murder bot rightfully put it truly upsetting music. Um, I mean, you know me, I, I get pretty on, on my social justice train. I think I'd probably be preservation Alliance kind of person. Yeah. I mean, I, I would, I'm definitely all into their vibe.

[00:33:58] And when I went to port free commerce, you know, we saw that that's where they picked up murder bot. It's like, that seems like a cool place to visit, but honest. And I say, this is someone who's lived most of my life in cities, but I don't know at this point in my life, I'm like, yeah, give me the space commune. I'm in. Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go to the space commune. So they're on this mining survey and the edge of corporation rim.

[00:34:25] And I realized this show, and I have to say the entire first novella novella does not yet at least identify what their goal is being there. And I think that's something that murder bot just doesn't care about, which I understand because it's from, you know, its perspective. Um, what do you think that they're doing? I mean, it's a mining survey, but like, I, I guess they want to set up a mining colony.

[00:34:55] Um, I don't really know. I mean, maybe, maybe they explained it and I was watching sanctuary moon, but I don't know what they want to do at this point. Again, I have not, I have not watched or read ahead of this. So I don't know, maybe make a new commune, maybe get something a little closer to the base. I don't know. Yeah. But they do talk in episode two about alien tech, right? Can they, can they get alien tech? Maybe it's just gathering resources for their people.

[00:35:23] Well, but they said that if there is alien, uh, remnants or then they have to stop their survey immediately and only archeologists can go there. Yeah. But they also, it sounded like they were debating, like doing it anyway. And so, right. Well, I think Garothan was, of course, of course, Garothan was the one who pointed out, like, um, not everyone respects that role. So, yeah. And that's a good question, right?

[00:35:49] Because, you know, we, we know that these people are on the poorer side of the scale of who are buying these expedition packages. And so the question is, will the corporation look the other way for this low tier package? Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I love Dr. Mensa, by the way, she's quickly become one of my new favorite characters.

[00:36:15] I wish we would, could see more, more leaders like her in literature. Um, I think this is something added, or at least it's not in the part that I've read, but they show her having private panic attacks. And I like that added dimension for her. She's not just a perfect person. She's also dealing with her own stuff and fighting through it to still be a decent human to others. Yeah. And, and I do like, you know, it's funny. I, I watched, I watched her, you know, do her shower thing.

[00:36:44] Like I have to go take a shower just to calm down. Uh, I watched that right after I did like a professional development course and they were, they were like, you know, if you, if you find yourself needing to calm down, try taking a short breath in and then a slow breath out. And I was like, that's so funny that I'm like, just, just hearing like how to calm yourself down in a business situation. And I'm, and I'm watching Dr. Mensa be like, I need my minute. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:37:12] I mean, especially in that situation where they all care about each other, obviously, but they are living together in a small space. That's the thing about these science, uh, research missions. And I'm sure their ship isn't huge either. They've probably been living in an enclosed space for a long time. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I'm curious. Okay. So about their mission itself, uh, apparently Dr. Mensa has expertise in terraforming.

[00:37:39] So I'm like, is that going to play a role or does that play a role in what they're trying to do here? Um, I also, we find out in the show, she has seven children. I think in the book, they mentioned that she has like two partners and stuff. So this is definitely a world where polyamory is just a normal thing that people don't really. As we learned in the episode two, right? Right. Yeah.

[00:38:07] And I love when Murderbot makes him uncomfortable by like, oh, you want to poke around and what I'm looking at? Fine. I'll look at this. Yeah. Here you go. This is, here's the throuple signing there. Okay. So the throuple is a little different in composition versus the books because we're missing two characters over said and Valescu. And I can't even remember which one of them was in the throuple with Rothy and Pinley. Um, but in the show it's Arada's and a Rothy who's into Pinley and Pinley wants Arada to be happy.

[00:38:35] So says, okay, let's do a throuple. But what kind of, and we find out that they, uh, Arada and Pinley had tried to do a throuple before and it didn't go well. Cause well, first of all, she was crazy. Okay. She was dysregulated. Second off, we didn't have a contract, but I already drafted one up. So it's like a very nice thing to do that I'm Pinley does not seem happy about, but also that's nuts that as soon as you're like, it's not, do you want to go on a date?

[00:39:04] It's like, do you want to sign a contract? Uh, you know, you, you make things official, right? Hmm. Um, what do you think about the, the rest of the crew? I can't, I can't even name them yet. You know, like I'm, I'm watching them and I'm, I'm like, I have not fully absorbed their names, but, uh, who was the one who got wounded? That was a Rado. Barge Wash. Oh, that was okay.

[00:39:32] Rado is the one who, uh, had the shock where Murderbot was walking her through. Oh, okay. So Baradwaj. Yeah. I like Baradwaj, especially after she, she got injured and she was on space cocaine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was going for is that plus, um, you know, just the insistence of like, yeah, I'm going, I'm going, I'm fine. Yeah. Yeah. That was fun. That was fun. Cause I think in the book they leave whoever got injured behind. Right. And, and that was, that was a whole thing. Yeah.

[00:40:01] I mean, she was in recovery in the books as well for a bit. I think they kind of sped through her recovery a little more in the show, which I think makes sense. Yeah. Get her back. Well, yeah, I should clarify. They left her behind at the base to keep her. Right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So we've got on the team, we've got, uh, so Mensa is terraforming. Garothan is, you know, the tech expert, obviously. Pinley is the lawyer. Arata is a biologist. Rothy's a wormhole travel expert slash jewelry maker. That's important.

[00:40:32] And barred watch. She's making jewelry now. Do you know that reference? It's from a commercial. Is that from like, it's a fake jewelry. It's a fake commercial. It's from Portlandia. Oh, I've never watched Portlandia. Oh, it's so many good, so much good millennial humor. The zoomers will hate it. But, uh, it's, it's, there's a whole thing about like somebody lost her job and then she's like, I'll just start an Etsy store. And then they go, she's making jewelry now. And they, she has a whole theme song and everything.

[00:41:03] Well, Rothy's jewelry making aside, I'm wondering, I mean, I guess wormhole travel expert check. That makes sense. Uh, lawyer. Okay. I guess you need all your bases covered. So terraforming biologist and geochemist. Interesting. Yeah. Hmm. Hmm. Well, well, maybe they need the lawyer to set up like the legal structures to start a new commune. Yeah. I mean, with all the stuff with the corporation, I'm not sure they have, I'm not surprised they have a lawyer with them. Right.

[00:41:33] Right. I'm sure the corporation will, uh, dance circles around you with paperwork. Right. Well, um, I like the conversation. So we've given Garothan a hard time, but I do like the conversation where he asks the murder bot, what's it like to be you? And murder bot says, I don't know what it's like to not be me. Fair. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I think that this, this is going to be a really fun character to explore with like the nonverbal language between technology is so cool.

[00:42:04] Um, yeah. Yeah. I'm into it. Me too. I, I am really liking the characters so far. I think once I learned their names better, I'm going to enjoy them even more. Yeah. I'm glad they cut too, to be honest. Yeah. It's, it's hard to keep up with these, especially the sci-fi made up names get, although this one's not that bad. No, no. This one's not that bad comparatively. Yeah. All right. Do you want to summarize a plot so far? Sure.

[00:42:32] A team of space hippies strike a deal with one of the galaxy's super corporations for a package to survey a mysterious planet. They're forced to choose a security unit rental to take with them. So they choose the cheapest option. The secretly self-named murder bot at their destination. They start to notice their sec unit appears to be behaving more autonomously than detected. Which, for which they're grateful. Once some unexpected megafauna begin attacking them during their survey mission.

[00:43:01] While they, mostly Gaurathan, debate whether they can trust a sec unit with a mind of its own, they investigate one of the mysterious patches of the planet erased from their maps. There they discover more of the giant centipede creatures congregating around a giant whirlwind force field that blows up a drone. They decide to contact the other survey team, Deltfall Survey, that they know is on the other side of the planet.

[00:43:31] But no one picks up the call because, unbeknownst to our heroes, that other team is dead. Mensa decides they should go check it out. So I have to ask you, is this, you have to explain for those who don't know your definition of good cliffhanger versus bad cliffhanger, and which one is this? I don't know if I have a firm definition. It's a vibe check. But, I mean, I go with, I think the general rule is, you know, don't make me ask what's going to happen.

[00:43:59] Make me ask what's going to happen next, you know? Is, you know, don't leave the person hanging on the cliff. But I don't think that that's what's happening here. The cliff, they've already fallen off the cliff. The question is, is this character group that we're now enjoying going to fall off that same cliff? And how are they going to react to it? And are they going to be able to protect themselves based on this? And those are interesting questions. So I think this is a good kind of cliffhanger.

[00:44:27] A cliffhanger should be more of a tease of plot lines to come than it is, you know, literally just like hanging on a cliff, which we get in plenty of shows. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so that whirlwind force field thing, it does, they do talk about alien remnants in the books. And they say the same thing they said in the show, where you have to stop surveying immediately.

[00:44:54] Though some people do exploit, you know, ignore that and just try to get money off of the remnants. But as far as I've read, they haven't really described it. And so this is interesting to see on screen. I don't know if they're like amping it up for the show or if this comes from later books. Yeah, I don't know. And yeah, I don't know.

[00:45:17] I am actually enjoying not being a book reader in this because it's allowing me to wonder about this world more. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, there's still questions. And also, yeah, I haven't gotten that far in the books yet. So it was cool how they showed the self-repairing armor stitching itself back together in the show. And of course, we see that Murderbot can just like regrow entire body parts. But especially because it has like a mechanical inside, you know.

[00:45:47] But still, with clone printed parts, it's also how they do the organics, how they regenerate the organics. So my question is, can humans also regrow limbs? And that's not a question I have an answer to yet. Yeah, I don't know. No, I would think so because they have some way to interface it with the mechanical nerves, right? Like there is some way to interface this.

[00:46:09] I would assume they can either do that with real human nerves or they have a Star Wars kind of mechanical hand with, you know, with organics on the outside. Yeah, yeah. I like that Murderbot is like, whoa, they actually left behind their equipment because it's not as important as lives. Like that's new. Oh, gosh. Goes to show you, if you want to survive the robot uprising, show empathy.

[00:46:39] Right, yeah. For sure. Yeah, I think, I hope we get to explore more of this world. I'm very much looking forward to reading more of the books for this. So we have this example of this one Freeport and this one corporation, but what are the differences with the others? Right. What's the rest of this whole galaxy like? I mean, I'd be okay if we had a discreet story.

[00:47:05] If the characters are interesting, the relationships are interesting, the worlds that they go to are interesting. I think that's fine to not expand the political environment. I do love that stuff. I would love to see more of it. But I also, I know that not every world needs to be that, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's, I mean, I'm expecting this season so far.

[00:47:30] I don't know anything, but I'm just guessing the season will be focused on this group on this planet. But then I'm hoping that there will be more seasons in the works because I'm already into it. Yeah. Yeah. I hope so. Apple's pretty good about renewing. So hopefully we get a renewal soon. Yeah. Yeah, I hope this does well. And I think that it's great for the show that it is coming out.

[00:47:52] Like, we just had this crush of content leading up to, at the end of the month is the deadline for Emmys consideration. So for this show, the first four episodes will be up for Emmys consideration. But I doubt that's what they're going for. Right. But it's not. It's going to have breathing room now because we're wrapping up everything else. A bunch of people, like the biggest shows are wrapping up now. This show is going to have breathing room to get more attention, I think. Yeah.

[00:48:21] How does that work since you're the awards expert? If the show is between two years, do the other episodes qualify for next year? Yeah. But episodes that are released this early into next year are generally forgotten about. So that's why you'll see that crush of content in May, April and May. Yeah. Okay. All right. That makes sense. Question. What did you think of the monster and the fight?

[00:48:53] Visual treat. You know, I thought it looked good. I liked it when Murderbot was involved. And, you know, there was a whole, you know, it's got two mouths. And I love it. Luckily, I have a big gun. That was good. That was good. Yeah. It was just fun. And I think the visuals were well done, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it's kind of forgettable in the end. Like, it's not the main point of this. No. But it keeps you entertained while you're there. Yeah.

[00:49:23] And it does do a job of showing you that Murderbot is competent. Right. Even if Murderbot is sarcastic, has disdain for the humans, Murderbot can go and kill monsters. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Yeah. Although, I guess I shouldn't so callously call it a monster because they are on its territory. It's just an animal doing animal thing. Yeah. But, yeah, indeed, this is a show that's really about the relationships between the characters, which I love. Yeah.

[00:49:51] And Murderbot creepily spying on everyone more than they realize through the cameras. Which, again, like, you know, are devices. You don't even, you know, people make fun of people for having, you know, these smart home things in their house. And they're like, oh, well, they're listening to you. And I'm like, my phone's listening to me just as much as those are. Yeah. Like, honestly, have whatever devices you want. Yeah. I know. I know. And it is quite useful to me.

[00:50:17] But I can understand where if there is a point where, I mean, the point, the question is, will you be get into trouble for, you know, like, will people be monitoring you to try to catch you out for saying something politically or something like that? That's when it becomes a problem. Right. Hopefully we're not there yet. Oh, it's definitely a problem. I'm just saying that it's not a solution to remove your Echo Dot. No, I agree. I agree. Yeah. Because I have my phone right next to me.

[00:50:45] And if I say, hey, in the G word, it's going to bling. Yep. Yep. All right. Well, we did the episode, didn't we? Yeah. Both of them. Good job. Thank you for the outline, Alicia. Yeah, sure. No eye contact needed. No anxiety was harmed in the making of this podcast. And now we get one episode at a time for eight more weeks. So we can savor these little nuggets. Isn't that insane?

[00:51:15] It's going to be on more than twice the amount that Andor was. I know. And Andor is so much more like content in terms of hours and like the amount it needs to be dissected and stuff. So I'm looking forward to this. Yeah. I think we're going to have a lot of fun. Yeah. And we definitely want to hear feedback from anyone. What do you think about the show? Whether or not you've read the books, please send your feedback to lorehounds at the lorehounds.com.

[00:51:43] And also you'll find in the show notes, the link tree, which has amongst other things, a link to the discord where we have a forum with spoiler chats per episode under current shows right now, which is already starting to get some buzz, even though as we're recording, the new episode doesn't come out until tomorrow. Yeah. Thanks, Apple, for the screeners. It's a big help. It's a huge help. Yeah. It's hard not to keep watching. It was hard to not press play in the next episode. Yeah, I know. I know.

[00:52:11] Well, for me, it wasn't hard because I was very busy. And to be honest, I finished the second episode this morning before we were. Okay. So that's the kind of week I'm having. But I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot. And I'm looking forward to next week when I don't have to watch all of Andor. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So we're wrapping up Andor season two. It's a lot of season twos right now. The Last of Us, You and David, season two, there's two more episodes left? Yeah. It's seven episodes this year? Seven episodes season. Okay. Okay.

[00:52:41] We've got Doctor Who season two. Also two more episodes left. Three, right? Okay. Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, this week. Yeah. And then two more after that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And Supercast and Patreon. What's going on there? We're finally going to do A Real Pain, our 11thies. And it's going to be super fun. Except it's not. It's going to be very sad. But we're going to be entertained anyway.

[00:53:11] Darkly humorous. Yes. Yes. There is humor in the movie. You will have fun with it too. But there's a lot of drama and sadness too. Yeah. But we're finally going to do it. And then we're going to do a second 11thies this month because we kind of missed April. We really tried to get it in. And with Andor in the last month, we just could not do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's been a lot. And do check out all the affiliates. Nevermind the music where psychology meets music. Radioactive ramblings. They're getting back into Fallout lore.

[00:53:40] We got a season two date for Fallout in December, which they'll be covering weekly. Ooh. Yeah. Rings and Rituals properly, Howard. Movie reviews. I think they're starting a Kevin Bacon season two season soon. We'll shift dust and the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast. Very nice. Plenty of stuff going on. There's no shortage of podcasts coming out. Mm-mm. No. I just looked at our website. There's stats on our website now for the podcast.

[00:54:10] Uh-huh. And we funnel all our feeds and the affiliate feeds through. And I don't think there's many duplicates because I don't put any of our specific Star Wars and things like that feeds in it. Mm-hmm. And it was over 700 episodes between us and our affiliates. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Well, I'm looking forward to it. And I'm sure listeners are also looking forward to a slight slowdown now after this huge crush of spring content, as we were saying. Yeah. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. We're going to have real fun with it.

[00:54:39] We're going to murder about all over the place. Yeah. And then there's more room to do other stuff, too. Like, we just did that Sinners episode. Check it out if you haven't. And there's going to be Thunderbolts coming up this weekend as well. I want to do a one-shot on the rehearsal with you. Okay. Because you talk about palate cleansers. Yeah. I have to catch up. But I'm only a couple episodes behind. Season 2, Episode 3 made me think that this is going on my top 10 list for the year. This is what people keep saying. All right. I need to. Hopefully, I can watch that later today.

[00:55:09] Like, all the other episodes are great. But this episode was like peak cinema. It was. Okay. It blew my mind. The entirety of Nathan Fielder's career led to this moment. Okay. I feel like I need to go back and watch his old show, Nathan, for you. I haven't seen that. Have you? I've only seen clips. Okay. It's funny every time I see it. I did plan to watch it at some point. We'll see. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see. I'm still working my way through the Sarah Jane Adventures. Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh. Yeah.

[00:55:38] What I do is when Doctor Who is on the air, I get really excited about it. And then I'll watch the classic Who. And then it's off the air. And then I'm less excited. And then I take a break. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Well, I'm going to go through. I mean, the Sarah Jane Adventures, they are short episodes. And there's only four and a half seasons. Nice. Nice. All right. Well, you want to do the thank yous? Sure. Thank you to our Discord server boosters. Aaron K. Tiller the Thriller. Dork of the Ninjas. Doove 71. Athena Adjalea.

[00:56:08] Tina Listu. Nancy M. Ghost of Partition. And Radioactive Richard. And thank you to everyone who's listening. If you enjoyed this, please share it with anyone else who's enjoying Murderbot or you think should be enjoying Murderbot. Positive reviews wherever you're listening are also deeply appreciated and more helpful than you know. Thank you especially to our subscribers because you make it possible for us to do this. Most of all, our highest tier, the Lore Masters.

[00:56:34] And that is Samarshan, Michael G., Michelle E., Brian P., SC, Peter O.H., Adam S., Nancy M., Doove 71, Brian 8063, Frederick H., Sarah L., Gareth C., Matthew M., Sarah M., Andra B., Kwong Yu, Dead Eye Jedi Bob, Nathan T., Alex V., Sub Zero, Aaron K., Dally V., Mothership 61, Gnarls, Kathy W., Lestu, Jeffrey B., Elisa Yu, Neil F., Ben B., Scott F., Stephen N., Julia F., Collie S., Ilmariel, forward slash Tim, and always last, Adrian.

[00:57:06] Thank you, everyone. You're all lovely people. Now I'm going to fantasize about murdering you. Well, no, we're not, Alicia. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. No, we're not. I'll just watch Sanctuary Moon. All right. We'll see you after another binge fest of Sanctuary Moon. Bye, everyone. The Lorehounds podcast is produced and published by The Lorehounds. You can send questions and feedback and voicemails at thelorehounds.com slash contact.

[00:57:35] Get early and ad-free access to all Lorehounds podcasts at patreon.com slash thelorehounds. Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities. Thanks for listening.