Beacon 23: S1-E1&2 – Double-premiere explained

[00:00:00] Okay, David, this is where we're supposed to choose a side. Green or black? John, my soul is as black as night. Your turn. I am black for life. So, we're not fighting? I thought this is where HBO wanted us to, like, pick sides and fight and stuff.

[00:00:24] Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find plenty to disagree about on the pod, but we seem to agree on one thing. We both really like the show. The politics, the drama, the lore! It was made for the Lorehounds.

[00:00:36] And since we just finished recapping Season 1, we couldn't be more ready to defend our black queen in the Dance of the Dragons. And with the Season Pass option and Supercast, listeners can get early, ad-free access to each weekly, scene-by-scene deep dive,

[00:00:50] plus our custom show guide with all the characters and connections. See you in the Lorehounds podcast feed each week for our Dragonfire Hot, but probably positive, takes. The Lorehounds House of the Dragon covers is also safe for teen green consumption.

[00:01:03] Side effects may include a deeper understanding of Dragon Lore, a hardened conflict with itself, and an inescapable urge to read the book fire in blood by George R.R. Martin. Dragon seeds may experience burning. Hi everyone!

[00:01:44] We'll shift dust as back to break down the first two episodes of Beacon 23, the new space-based thriller just beginning its first two seasons on MGM+, the streamer formerly known as Epicx, and the latest entry into the Hugh Howey adaptation verse after Silo earlier this year.

[00:01:59] Although, do keep in mind that I'm using the word adaptation more loosely in this case, because this show so far departs wildly from that book. As I mentioned in our Beacon 23 intro episode, it seems like not a single character name has been carried over.

[00:02:13] So yes, hi, I'm Alicia and I have read the book, but I promise not to be annoying about it, and also not to spoil anything that hasn't been revealed in the show yet. We'll handle it the same way we did the Silo coverage,

[00:02:24] because I also have to protect the innocence of my show-only co-host, right Luke? Yes, I am once again the fountain of ignorance. Although I was following you on social media Alicia, and you were I think quite shocked at just how far this had departed from the book,

[00:02:41] because like we said in the previous podcast, it's more inspired by than adapted from, but even with that being said, you seem surprised by just how far it had drifted away from the source material.

[00:02:52] Yeah, although you know I went in expecting that from the trailer and from you know, what I'd heard from her, but then I found that as I was you know, looking at it, watching it, especially when I was looking into a deeper, you do see the threads.

[00:03:07] You see where they're pulling from in the book, but it is curious that they for instance changed all the characters. So yeah, we'll talk about that more as we go. But I think I'm going to be talking a lot more about I'm going to bring up

[00:03:19] when it has things from the book rather than the differences so much because it's mostly differences. OK, oh, something I noticed that really excited me that we didn't get to in the preview episode

[00:03:32] is one of the producers on it is Ira Stephen Bear of Star Trek, Deep Space Nine. So yeah, the guy really loves himself a space station. Oh good, good. Yeah. I think someone at least I called it Dark Star Trek.

[00:03:48] I think yeah, that's that's not a bad description of it to be honest. Yeah. So what were your spoiler free thoughts on the first two episodes? I liked it. Um, I think you can definitely tell that like we're saying the the intro podcast

[00:04:06] that the source material was originally short stories because these are very self contained. Episodes. Well, this was like a yeah, a two first. Yeah. Um, it very much kind of reminded me of Firefly, which I think we talked about in a little bit in the last episode.

[00:04:27] This idea of a sort of used industrial future. It's not bright. It's not shiny. These are sort of working class people doing working class job. They just happen to be doing it in space. Yeah.

[00:04:41] I was a little bit worried and I think we'll get to it later on. The the script in a couple of cases might be writing checks that the budget can't cash. Okay. I'm thinking particularly of the zero gravity fights. Oh, yeah.

[00:04:57] Episode two that was if we've been terrible about this a little bit ropey. Yeah. No, that's that for me was the visual weak point too. Yeah. So I am a little bit concerned that the script might be writing checks that the effects budget can't cash.

[00:05:15] Um, I thought there was good chemistry between the two leads, which is going to be important. Right. Definitely. This is a two-hander. Um, just a slight moan that these are people in deep space that have perfect teeth and perfect hair. And yeah, but this is the future.

[00:05:32] They have like medical patches. They just of course they have perfect everything. Yeah. This is this is true. But I do love the fact that that lean ahead comes out of like stasis. Yeah. Perfect hair and perfect teeth. Yeah.

[00:05:47] I mean, okay, there's no way that they wouldn't have perfect teeth. But as far as the hair at least in stasis, you're not, you know, rolling around like in bed. That's true. That's true, I guess. But yeah, on the whole, I enjoyed it.

[00:06:00] I have to say it didn't grab me the way that silo did because it didn't. Okay. And I think it didn't grab me in the sense that this is not a mystery show. I don't think this is not a puzzle box.

[00:06:13] Well, I actually was going to say the opposite. Okay. They've added again, a lot of mystery elements that aren't in the book. And I mean, a lot of teases about well, what is what is this agency? What are those things? Yeah. So I mean, I enjoyed it.

[00:06:29] I'm looking forward to the next episode. Um, yeah, I thought I thought it was. Is it a show that you would recommend to friends? Yes, I think so. And I can think of specific friends who would get a lot out.

[00:06:40] Oh, and it would enjoy this to be honest. So yeah, of course, I can't recommend it to friends because, um, it isn't streaming in the UK yet. So that is the other thing to say. So when we are talking about the visual effects,

[00:06:55] I think it's only fair to bear in mind I am watching this on the whole laptop screen. So it's probably not the best way to watch it. But maybe that's actually better for, you know, if you're trying to minimize what you called ropey visual effects. That's true.

[00:07:09] But I think they did okay with like the space stuff, you know, that looks I'm willing to squint a little bit. Okay. Um, what was your favorite episode one or two? Ah, I really enjoyed one more than two because I thought two was sort of it was good.

[00:07:24] I think they executed it well, but I thought two was a little bit formulaic like if you had shown me the first 10 minutes and then stopped it and asked me to write the rest of the episode, I think I would have got, I would

[00:07:36] have more or less got there. Okay. Now that's not to say that it's bad. You know, there is a certain pleasure to be gained in watching all the cogs and pieces fit together. But you prefer one. I can say. Yeah, I've just because I've seen episode two before

[00:07:55] I've seen that story play out in other. Okay. In other show. I feel the opposite for the record. I preferred episode two to episode one. There was more of a sense of fun and there was even though it was all different characters, there is like a similar thing.

[00:08:08] I'll talk a little bit more about it. I guess when we go through the episode, but there is a similar sort of set up in the books and just the kind of comedy of errors of it all they yeah, they leaned

[00:08:20] into it more than I dared to hope not as much as the book. I said, I'll stop doing that. Without story spoilers yet. Any favorite characters or tech? I think my favorite character so far has got to be Bartholomew. Only Solomon is allowed to call him Bart.

[00:08:41] I like myself assassin emotionally damaged AI. Yeah, and actually I think both of the AI's are good characters and speaking of somebody who was given an A-L-E-X-A for their birthday. I'm starting to empathize with dealing with artificial intelligence the whole new way.

[00:09:01] Yeah, the AI characters are also my favorites. Those are our show only invention by the way, but yeah, they bring because what is what otherwise be as you say it to hand or they bring a little more interactivity someone other entities to play off of. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:09:18] So Hugh Howie he said publicly that again, it's very different from his book which he said is his favorite book he's written, but he loves him both. I do hope for his sake and for you know book lovers that

[00:09:31] there will be one day a more accurate maybe movie adaptation of the book because the book is on the shorter side so it would be perfect for a feature length film. For anyone who wants to know more about the book check

[00:09:44] out the book club link in the show notes. Abby and I broke down that episode. You'll find that there and yeah, Luke are you ready to get into what exactly happened in these first two episodes? Yeah, let's do it. All right, spoilers incoming right after this quick

[00:09:59] commercial break. Research request granted spoilers unlock. So one thing they definitely did take from the book by the way is the setting. So we're on a beacon in an outer sector of space manned by one person and the goal of the beacon is

[00:10:20] to guide spaceships through well in the book is an asteroid field here it seems to be like a what would would they say dark matter or yes dark matter normally right exactly but yeah, the idea is to get spaceships through so they don't crash.

[00:10:37] They're a lighthouse in space and the book has a first person protagonist never says his name in the show that person or the equivalent's name is Helen Kai Nelson played by Stephen James and what they do have in common

[00:10:53] is they're both soldiers suffering from PTSD in the book he was stationed there by NASA. He actually requested that posting himself. He wanted something similar quiet and here he seems to have gone AWOL and ended up there doing the job of the mysteriously dead former beacon keeper Solomon

[00:11:10] Smith played by Stephen root. So Luke, do you like Halon? Do you trust him? What are your Halon feelings? I mean, until we know what happened to Solomon, you can't say that you trust him. I thought the other character asked her that we've been

[00:11:27] going to meet in a minute might have been a projection of how subconscious that clearly got massively wrong. I do like the sequence where he's trying to warn off the ship but I did think it's kind of a law in procedure

[00:11:41] that you don't need to hit the ship apparently doesn't need to hear the beacon keepers voice in order to just keep. Wow, straight through dangerous area of space. Yeah, you should you would think that they would need confirmation that's a good point.

[00:11:54] They would need some kind of confirmation but okay, but they did to be fair. They did. He saw the red light and then he saw the white light flash which showed him that's the I guess so so yeah, I

[00:12:08] thought the but I did think it shows you something about Halon's character that he is doing the job of the beacon keepers not just hiding out. He actually is right to navigate ships through dangerous space and yeah, I thought this was a really nice opening

[00:12:25] scene because it does it gives you a lot of information about how long and it gives you a lot of world building information as well. Yeah, absolutely. All right, so it's a set up Episode one. It's called Corbettic by the way, which is a word

[00:12:38] that's never used in the episode. I did search the transcripts to double check. Yeah, it's based on this word comes from Arthurian legend. So Corbettic is a name of the castle where the Holy Grail is kept by the Fisher King and it's a castle full of

[00:12:52] fantastical things held by a king with a crippling wound who waits for the one who can heal him and his kingdom. So the name may also come from cornucopia which is you know the horn of plenty. Luke, do you think the rocks are the Grail in this analogy?

[00:13:08] Yeah, that's the instant thing that popped into my head. As we'll talk about when we get to the second episode, there are a lot of people after these particular rocks. So clearly somebody thinks they're valuable for some reason. And does that mean Hale-in the Fisher King or Aster?

[00:13:25] Or I guess Hale-in because he has a crippling wound, which is the PTSD and he's waiting for someone who can heal him in his kingdom. I guess or maybe it's either going to be Hale-in or Solomon, one of the two. Yeah. Oh yeah. Wow. RIP Solomon.

[00:13:42] We barely knew you. Oh, maybe. But you were a jerk to Bart so. And so anyway the director of the episode is Daniel Percival. He's a BAFTA and other award-winning director. He worked on like The Man in the High Castle, Death Comes to Pemberley, The Walking Dead.

[00:13:57] Those are the ones I care about but a bunch more. And writer as we said last episode, Zach Penn is the season one showrunner. And so he was the head writer in this episode and Allison Moore was also credited.

[00:14:09] She's written for various shows that I have to admit I haven't watched but she also wrote the upcoming screenplay for Wish. So I'm looking forward to that. Okay. So this starts, the episode starts in media res with the camera zooms in on the Space Lighthouse

[00:14:23] known as Beacon 23 floating in outer space on the edge of a field of debris from a recent crash. A small ship zooms toward the beacon and Hale-in calls for Astor Calyx, Lena Headey, who watches him in captivity on a monitor with Harmony, Natasha Mumba,

[00:14:39] who we will find out as her personal AI. And a very rapey looking maneuver, the invading shiplet grabs onto the docking bay of the beacon plunging its gangway into her. And though Astor is in denial, the invaders are able to force the doors open

[00:14:54] cut to black before we jump back to earlier. Luke, do you like when a show or movie starts like this, like throwing you into the middle of the action before jumping back? Yeah, no. I mean, it's a pretty well worn throat.

[00:15:07] I didn't mind it in this particular sequence. I hadn't thought about it being rapey until you mentioned it, but actually thinking about it, it really, really is. It struck me, especially in my second watch. Yeah, no, it really is.

[00:15:19] Yeah, no, I thought I thought this was a good start. Yeah, they don't give you, unlike the book, they don't give you a moment to linger in the loneliness of Hale-in's existence. But then we do hear at the end of these two episodes that he was lonely.

[00:15:33] So I don't know, we maybe will get flashbacks to that, but I feel like we could have started quiet and then, you know, that's and then have this sudden crash and that kick starts everything. Yeah, I think that's a nice way to ramp up.

[00:15:47] But I understand why they did it this way, like new show, new network, got to hook the eyes real quick. So yeah, so then we jump back to earlier and a more sports car looking ship zooms across space,

[00:15:58] leaving a rainbow wake, which we see envelops the entire ship in a sort of bubble. The ship is traveling toward the white light of the beacon and identifies itself by radio as the crest. It's carrying five years worth of supplies for the issue colonies inside the beacon.

[00:16:13] Hale-in, who is currently alone, sees that there's a warning for a dark matter hazard in the way of the ship, but he's unable to warn the crest or turn off the beacon light. He tries a manual override,

[00:16:25] essentially jamming a staff into the machine to try to stop it, but it's too late. The crest crashes in an explosion of purple lights and the last thing this ship says is maybe we'll stop by for a beer or nine months.

[00:16:38] So, Luke, what do you think of the space travel design so far? There are some flaws in the space travel plan. Like I said, I think it's a faulty procedure that you don't have to get like voice confirmation from the beacon keeper. But I mean like the ships.

[00:16:52] Yeah, the ship, the sports car looking ship is nice. The sort of bubble of light it's in is really well done. Is that are we supposed to take that to mean it's traveling faster than the speed of light? Is that like a steel sheet?

[00:17:04] Put out by and I guess they must be in order to it's, you know, in order to have gone. But if they are, what good is the big if they are what good is a beacon because by the time you see it, you're already impressed.

[00:17:18] The beacon is a gravity wave broadcaster. So the gravity waves guide the ship through. So the light is actually just kind of like a visual flourish for the show. Okay. I don't admit a light. Yeah. Okay. Because yeah, if you're traveling faster than the speed of

[00:17:35] light by the time you've seen the light, you've already hit whatever you were supposed to avoid it. Right, right. Yeah. No, it's not. It's about the gravity waves. Okay. But what do you think of the ship design? I thought the ship design was very pretty.

[00:17:47] I like the design of the of the beacon because it's sort of functional, industrial also sort of very neat tidy and sterile, which I think sort of speaks to the Helen's love, you know, sort of Helen's love. Right.

[00:18:04] So I think like the set design is actually quite a bit of work in communicating the character state of mind. State of being really, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. And this is a this crash is a similar setup to the book,

[00:18:18] but in the book it's that he can't turn the beacon on and he knows that there are two ships coming shortly and though the first cargo vessel with eight onboard does crash, he's able to get the beacon back online

[00:18:32] just in time to save a cruise liner with 5000 passengers. Okay. So it's yeah, it's interesting in the book when they do that and you know, they have eight versus 5000 that becomes especially interesting later in ways that I am not going to elaborate upon.

[00:18:46] But yes, you mentioned I think in the intro episode there was a trolley problem element to the show. So yeah, that makes sense. Right. And yeah, this running up and down that he does through the beacon is straight from that.

[00:19:00] But like silo, the beacon looks much larger than the book version. Like that seems like a lot of space for one person. What do you think? I just yeah, I just assumed that you know, the actual mechanics of the beacon must take up a lot of space.

[00:19:15] I have to say though, you know, I think I might quite like life as a beacon keeper. Yeah. It looks like quite a comfortable game. You can just do research. Yeah, compared to silo, it looks like quite a comfortable game.

[00:19:28] You've got all the soy sauce and ramen you could want to eat. So we're good. So if that's going to ask you this later, but let's ask it now. So if you were had lost your appetites and we're not eating solid foods, what one condiment would get you

[00:19:45] to eat again? Would it be soy sauce or ketchup? I think you might actually be soy sauce. Yeah. I would ask to hear it doesn't like soy sauce. No, it's true. It's got that like nice zing to it, but also nice to mommy flavor. Yeah.

[00:19:59] And there's some protein in there. So how long do you think Halen's been on the beacon? They don't really explicitly state that he seems to know how it all works. Yeah, I'd say well anywhere between anywhere between six months and a few years to be honest. Yeah.

[00:20:16] I don't know. I'm doubting years, but I could see like six months. Yeah. Because I'm wondering. Yeah. I'm wondering also like how long did he in Solomon overlap? We don't know. I get the sense. No, I get the sense not very long. Um, yeah. Yeah.

[00:20:32] I think we'll probably find that out in coming episodes or I hope. Yeah. No, definitely. That's one of the central mysteries of setting up. So the crest, the ship that crashed it was ID'd as a data hauler and later Aster says 200 years

[00:20:45] ago, we used to be able to beam data across space. So I'm wondering what changed if it's like because they're further distances or because there was a downgrade in the technology or if they are protecting, you know, because they're protecting their data because

[00:21:01] people are intercepting it or yeah. It could be any of that. And I kind of cure this comes up in the second episode as well. Why you need to haul all these supplies to the colonies? Because surely if you're establishing a colony on

[00:21:15] another planet, the first thing you do is build like a big hydroponics. But yeah, that's what I was wondering too. Yeah. Like what kind of world is this where they can't farm or and set up their at least produced local food and supplies that are. Yeah.

[00:21:31] It's like you should be thinking if you can't do that on a particular world, it's not a particularly good candidate for colonization. I don't know. Yeah. Or maybe I mean, maybe this is a statement upon the fact that they are trying to the central whatever

[00:21:47] if this is Earth, I guess the central government is trying to keep everyone dependent upon them. And so they intentionally don't set up so that they are self-sufficient. Yeah. I mean, I like I say it was getting sort of strong firefly serenity vibes with you know, with the

[00:22:03] parliament and the packs and everything. It's sort of space space colonization but sinister space colonization. Yeah. And I have to call out a visual effect that's cool, but I think inaccurate is you know when he looks out the window, you can see these swirls of galaxies

[00:22:19] which is gorgeous. But I don't think it's realistic. You'd have this clear view of a bunch of galaxies with your bare eyes anywhere in space, but anyone with more astrophysics knowledge, please feel free to correct me. It sure is pretty though. It is pretty.

[00:22:36] The explosion was also lovely. But after the explosion, Haleen sees that there's a sleep pod floating in space with someone still alive inside. So he goes out to haul it in giving us a chance to see his local ride, the Picker with its handy

[00:22:50] arm attachments once safely inside after an opening credit sequence that takes us on a visual tour of the beacon out pops Aster detaching glowing tubes from the sides of her neck as she sits up gasping in disorientation. Haleen tries to comfort her greeting her with

[00:23:06] water and some sort of patch that is absorbed into her skin, making her feel instantly better physically at least because he also has to tell her the crest crashed and everyone else died. He thinks he's been hacked. So the beacon keeper in the book does go out

[00:23:21] for rescue after receiving signs of life at this point, but it's not after he comes back with and yet very interesting med tech. This derma patch looks different from the Prince we see later, but still internet points for you, Luke. Yeah, internet points for me.

[00:23:35] I have to say everybody is tripping balls on this. Everybody's. It comes up with the in the next scene, but Lena Heady is not just feeling better. She is high as a. Yeah. Hi. Well, I was talking about my friend was

[00:23:51] saying her daughter gets this and I also have this effect when I have ibuprofen or another like non-steroids, a painkiller like that, I get hyper like it gives me like euphoric feeling. That's what it looks like with her. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[00:24:05] Also, is this just me or did you have to do like a slight double take because I've gotten that used to seeing Lena Heady with the Cersei Lannister blonde hair that it just didn't. Okay. For a second. Oh, for me was like why they're both great

[00:24:21] actors, both beautiful people. But for her, I was like, okay, stop seeing her as who she is and start seeing her as a new character. You see, I've actually got a name for that. I call that Idris Elbison, bro. Okay. Um, because there comes a point and like

[00:24:37] Amelia Clark, um, surface from this as well. Mm hmm. There comes a point where you see people outside of being a character so much, you know, they're on adverts, talk shows, they're on whatever that your brain just goes, what's Lena Heady doing in space? Yeah.

[00:24:53] Why is Idris Elbison on this plane? Yeah. It's like it's not, it's not to say they're doing bad performance. Something is broken in your brain where you can't see your character. But I'm really enjoying by the way, I mean Lena Heady is doing a great job

[00:25:07] as I would expect, but I'm loving Stephen James and finding him very interesting to watch and uh, yeah, curious about his character. He's got whatever that X thing is that people talk about with actors. The camera just likes it. Like he's got visual presence. Yeah.

[00:25:24] It's not just, he's got a very pretty face obviously, but it's not just that. It's a, yeah, presence. So looping back around to talking about them all getting high. Did you notice that when he was sitting against the Gravity Wave broadcaster,

[00:25:38] the GWB, sometimes he calls it the Gwib in the book. This, he gets kind of a buzz off of it. Yeah. You see that expression on his face. So yeah, everybody is tripping bowls in this universe. And also, is that because after Lena

[00:25:54] Heady's recovered a bit, she's sort of eating something. Is that supposed to be hummus? I did look like hummus. Yeah. That's what I thought too, but I think he called it something else, but now I don't remember what, but I thought to myself, I think that on set

[00:26:07] that's just hummus. Yeah. But yeah, so the two of them get a bite in a surprisingly well-kitted dining area for an intended party of one and enjoy the sweet view. A floating bot enters the room. A beta series apparently beeping and booping and Halen introduces himself as Solomon.

[00:26:25] Aster says she knows she was already headed there. She pretends to be working for ISA, the intergalactic space agency. She's been sent to investigate reports sent months ago about mineral deposits with isotopes unlike anything she's ever seen before. Alan pretends to know what she's talking about,

[00:26:43] but angrily refuses to let her access any data because of malfunctioning stuff and protocols or whatever. And Aster, of course, totally not suspicious after all this agrees to go rest wink making sure to palm a kitchen knife as she leaves.

[00:26:58] And Luke, how are you feeling about Aster at this point? Do you trust her? I mean, just before yet to ask her, I've got to say Helen is one of the most unconvincing liars. She calls him out on that later. It's like, yeah, reports things.

[00:27:12] Yeah, I remember that. Okay. I know you were thrown. I know you weren't expecting that but seriously do have more of a poke face. Yeah, she says so to Harmony later. She's like, he's a terrible liar. Yeah. So I don't know what to make of Aster.

[00:27:28] I'm not sure what her motives really are. I think the one thing that connects her and Helen then is probably a through line in the entire story is loneliness because I think she talks later on in the episode about how much time she spent

[00:27:44] in suspended animation and that means that you know, her mother's dead. She's never going to see her sister again because they're kind of out of sync of each other into time. So I think I got the sense of like Aster is trying to

[00:28:03] this is like, you know, one big last score for her to get out of this particular line of work, whatever it happens to be. But I think that's what's going to bring Helen and Aster together is they're two profoundly lonely people. No, exactly.

[00:28:20] I do have a logistics question. So if she was headed here, why did the crest say see you in eight months or nine months or whatever? It's I assume that they were like, she was going to like leave in the pot.

[00:28:33] We assume they were just going to like launch her in a pod or something. We assume that that was like a lifeboat. But maybe she was leaving the crest via the pod anyway. Maybe that was no, yeah, no, but that's that like

[00:28:46] coffin like thing she was in wasn't supposed to be floating in space. That was only because of the crash. Oh, okay. I thought she would have died if he hadn't rescued her. Okay. I thought they might use that as like a another version

[00:28:58] of the picker basically is like a short range. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Transport. There was just a yeah, no, that is a bit of a logistical goof then because. Yeah, just but she couldn't have come from anywhere else as far as I know.

[00:29:11] No, I don't think so. So how much do you think that the two of them are bluffing each other? Because we find out later. She's not working for the ISA either. Oh, they're both lying through their teeth. Yeah. She's just better at it. Yeah.

[00:29:26] She's just she's just much better at it and you get the strong sense this is not her first rodeo. This is not the first time he's had to bluff a way out of a difficult situation. Yeah. So yeah, she's clearly a much better liar than

[00:29:41] how long it is. Yeah. And by the way, so ISA is a change from the book from NASA's the one who runs all this in the book, but it makes sense to me that they would have an intergalactic name. Yeah, it makes sense.

[00:29:54] And I love that line about I've never seen this side of Orion before because it's just like a nice little negative dialogue to give a sense of how far we are from Earth and like how casually she says it shows how common this kind of travel is now.

[00:30:07] Yeah. It's like if you know, you go to South America, it's special, you know, and you look up and you say, oh, I've never seen this sky from the Southern Hemisphere. It's special. It's an experience, but it's not unheard of.

[00:30:18] You know, the first person to have done it. Yeah. So in the other room, Aster pools her personal AI device out of her pocket and wakes Harmony who is feeling out of sorts, but senses that Aster is also all Aster says she's concerned.

[00:30:32] She can't trust quote unquote Solomon. Harmony says she needs time to recover herself and then with clearly no intention to rest feeling good from her Dermapatch Aster goes exploring. She sees that all the controls are labeled with stickers while Halen accuses the floating

[00:30:48] bot will soon find out as Bart of withholding information about Aster coming. He tells Bart it'll be the bot's fault if Halen has to get rid of Aster. Bart approaches Aster as he's looking through a scientific journal. She's found approaches Aster as she's looking through a scientific journal.

[00:31:05] She's found apparently impressed by what's inside. She can't understand Bart's beat bops, but follows him to search for the rock samples. She notices a bullet mark on Bart's casing that there are records of someone leaving the beacon a lot without permission and then

[00:31:20] she's shown a video of the real Solomon. She's on the Halen now and then he walks in just then angry at her for snooping and now he knows she knows. He confesses his real name and says the real Solomon stole his ship and left.

[00:31:35] He demands to know when ISA is coming to pick her up and notices her knife. They struggle. She wounds him and he knocks her out with a chokehold. So do you believe Halen Luke that he didn't kill Solomon? I think there's more going on here than either

[00:31:51] Halen or Bart's who is the only other eyewitness are prepared to admit. I think we're going to find out that this is like a rush him on kind of deal that from Bart's point of view it might look like Halen murdered Solomon, but that's not actually what happened.

[00:32:10] Also, I was wondering what kind of witch of Stephen Roots many performances we were going to get and it turns out we're going to get sort of slightly haughty annoying Stephen Roots. And also I want to know what he was cooking that required the oven to be preheated

[00:32:26] to 350 degrees and part to print out a couple of sheets of ginger. I'm obsessed with the food situation on this beacon. Yeah. So the other thing that sort of struck me in this scene is the fact that Halen is prepared to he says he's prepared to

[00:32:44] kill Asta, but I don't really believe I don't really believe that he is. I don't believe him either. Yeah. But oh, oh, sorry. Is it just me or did we miss a bit because Halen gets stabbed in the chest and we never see himself or anything

[00:33:03] but he seems fine. No, yeah. But I think that with their medical technology, that's no problem at all. Just, you know, he put her and we never see him make the bed for her either, but we see that it's there. So he put her in the bed.

[00:33:15] He stitched himself up, did a little patch probably almost insta healed and he's fine. But it is worth noting that he doesn't have a ship. So I wonder, you know, he said that Solomon took it and left, but obviously also Solomon seems

[00:33:31] to have died there somehow or something or unless Solomon took it and left and something. I don't know. Yeah. So yeah, this is also where we see Halen chilling with the GWB looking at a picture of a lighthouse on Earth. Now the lighthouse is in the trailer.

[00:33:49] It made it look like it was an animated picture, but it's not actually moving. It seems to be some sort of hallucination. The lighthouse is one of my favorite things from the book, this picture and just the way

[00:33:59] it's used as a metaphor that changes as the book goes on. So I just wanted to read the first time that this lighthouse photo is mentioned. So it says across from the GWB and right above the best porthole for watching the asteroids twirl

[00:34:15] in space, there's a faded picture that some former resident put up, which is why I suspect I'm not the only one who sits here in the picture. A man in slickers is standing outside an actual Earth based lighthouse, a wave taller than

[00:34:28] the lighthouse looms behind him must be 20 meters high. The wave is slamming into this tapered pillar of stone and you figure it's the last shot of the lighthouse in the man that this tidal wave utterly destroys both of them the next fraction of a second

[00:34:42] and that the man is smoking his pipe and squinting up at what must be a drone with a camera or something like he's thinking, that's the most curious thing and has no idea his ticket is about to get punched from behind.

[00:34:55] I've spent more time looking at this poster than I have at the field of stars and rocks out the window. For a while, I assumed it was computer generated. You can never tell with these things. Sometimes the real looks fake, especially when

[00:35:07] you've looked at the fake for so long. But why would anyone hang up some CGI with such reverence? The paper is slick, not like the thermal crap we print out here and there's not a crease on it, which means it was brought

[00:35:20] flat packed or in a courier role either way. Someone took some care in getting it here. So I assume the damn thing is real. I assume this guy is real that he's having his last hope there at the end of his tiny world and his tiny life.

[00:35:34] I get a good Gwibbuzz staring at this photo sometimes for hours while I wait for a CPU to need a reboot or some ship to come out of hyper and ask for directions or give me some news of the war.

[00:35:46] This man is taking a maelstrom with a shrug and a deep drag like he's such a cool boss, such a cool customer. Meanwhile, I lose my shit over some distant infernal clicking sound. The lighthouse keeper was my hero for the longest

[00:36:00] time until I learned more about that photo. So I'll stop there because presumably since they've shown it to us, we will learn more about this photo in the show. But Luke, what do you think the lighthouse picture means to Haley and or in the show in general?

[00:36:13] Well, I mean, I'm not sure, but I think I recognize this poster. Okay, I think he used to own this poster or something very similar to it. Tell me more. Well, just just it was the same picture except one was in black and white of a Broway

[00:36:28] breaking ground a light hell with a guy standing outside. Not the same picture, very similar. Okay. So yeah, I think this is an actual picture. I think it does actually exist. Yeah, so that was kind of my Leo pointing me. Yeah. Okay, cool. For the episode. Yeah.

[00:36:51] I don't want to oversell it as some mystery to solve unless a show makes it that way, but I doubt it. But in the book at least it's meaningful to the protagonist, but in like a more symbolic way. So it's something that keeps coming back.

[00:37:04] I definitely had either that picture or very similar one as a poster. Okay, cool. Yeah. So Aster comes to with a soft cuff around her ankle preventing her from walking more than a few paces from the wall and she notices a scraping pattern on the floor

[00:37:21] at the furthest point of this tether indicating someone has been locked up like this before. Harmony and Bart have their meat cute when she appears before him to introduce herself and he tells him what happened to Aster. Harmony realizes his vocalization function

[00:37:36] has been blocked and unblocks it so he can talk voiced by Wade, Bogart or Brian. Haley wakes up to find Aster is no longer cuffed to the wall at the bed he put her in empty. He searches for finding Harmony

[00:37:48] who looks human and lures him into the air lock with curiosity as to how she got there giving Bart and Aster a chance to lock him in. Aster knows Haley is a soldier gone AWOL and Bart would like Haley to call him by his full name Bart Thalamule.

[00:38:03] Thank you very much because Haley is no Solomon. Bart also says that Solomon was murdered after being imprisoned and tortured. Haley doesn't deny it but says that's only half the story. Apparently neither he nor Bart care to share the rest yet. Aster leaves Haley to go scrubbing through

[00:38:19] Solomon's videos for clues but no answers yet because he was hiding information even from Bart who doesn't know why Solomon took 172 trips over nine years to collect these rocks from somewhere. But Harmony confirms the rocks contain an unknown element and tells Aster her gamble paid off.

[00:38:38] Aster asks Bart to scan the beacon to look for more silicate matter, more rocks. So looks like Solomon is the one who left scrapes on the floor right? Or Haley did when he tied Solomon up. But it looks like the scrapes were left by

[00:38:53] someone who walked to the furthest point of the tether and then it's like in an arc for it as far as you go. I was wondering this thing, do the AI imprint on the humans that they're like 22? I mean I have questions about why Bart is

[00:39:10] the way he's being but even Harmony does so Harmony doesn't think Bart's acting normal. Yeah, but I just wonder whether either the AI like imprint on the human they're meant to serve or whether the AI are tweaked that their personality profiles are tweaked so they

[00:39:26] will like the human that they're paired with or that their personalities are designed so that the human would like them because like Harmony and Aster the way they play that they play it as if they're friendly. Yes, if Harmony is like Aster's servant.

[00:39:43] But Solomon's terrible to Bart in those videos. It breaks my heart that Bart's so loyal to him. But that's what I'm saying. Does Bart imprint on Solomon in the way like a dupling imprint on a duck? I have theories that Solomon's been messing

[00:39:59] with Bart's code and then we're going to find that out next episode but we'll see. Are you still hoping for an AI romance? Yeah, I really am. I want an AI love story. As Harmony helps put Bart's shattered cognition back together again. I'm open for it. Yeah, yeah.

[00:40:20] You know, if you want something different, if you want the show to go off in a different direction, I want AI romance. Yeah. Any thoughts about the rocks? We're really not given any information about them other than that they are unknown, they contain unknown elements

[00:40:39] and that they dissolve when you try and pull them apart. So really all they are at this point is sort of bog standard McGuffin. Okay. No, yeah, I'm curious. So yeah, Bart's is definitely for me so far a highlight of the show.

[00:40:53] He makes me laugh constantly bringing up the brutal homicide. But my guess is that Solomon seems to have wiped his memory about how mean Solomon was to him or just something is somebody's been tampering with Bart for sure. And probably Solomon.

[00:41:08] Maybe, but I took that the AI sort of imprints on the human it's paired with so that like the AI is loyal to that human. No, but harmony is like, bro, you are not being normal. She's like you need to run a self-diagnostic. That's true. Yeah.

[00:41:25] So harmony, she's concerned that Haley isn't faring well after the isolation he's been through in the weekend, but she's interrupted when a quantum data packet arrives from something called a cutter and extraction team is on route to arrive in 35 to 40 hours.

[00:41:41] Luke, what do you think a cutter is? Well, I mean if it's if they're taking this from Earth history, it's a fast ship because yeah, as it is a tea cutter. Okay. That's what that is. So they would they were ships that crossed the Atlantic quicker than the

[00:41:54] average ship. So that's why I took that to me. No, that's probably correct. Handy information. Thank you. And you asked to bring Halon soy sauce as we said, because she noticed he wasn't eating and Halon insisted he did not kill Solomon, but his temper tantrum isn't convincing Aster.

[00:42:10] She should let him free. We the audience can see there seems to be some sort of battle flashbacks running through his head. He apologizes asked to just take the picker and go as a deserter. He needs to get away before the ISA

[00:42:24] shows up, but she can see he's traumatized and as we learn later, she knows it's not the ISA who's showing up to extract her anyway. So yeah, the picker that little ship it's called the lifeboat in the book they're calling it the picker in the show. Fine.

[00:42:39] Did you catch anything from those flashbacks that we saw him having though? Well, I don't think he's got PTSD. No. As we'll find out in the second episode, he's got tons of implants because it's sort of standard practice to enhance soldiers. I think it's much more like going

[00:43:01] the one or more of those implants is malfunctioning because Aster is just diagnosing how and there's having PTSD from something she heard and Bart actually says it's been like 76 years since the last recorded case because soldiers are like routinely medicated. Although that's I guess we'll kind of

[00:43:24] accept that because it's future tech and who knows, but that's not really how PTSD works. But anyway, so I think isn't PTSD. I think one of his implant one or more of his implants is malfunctioning. Okay. And so he's he's literally he's literally reliving memories.

[00:43:43] Well, yeah, Bartischer is Aster that PTSD has been eliminated for the military 73 years ago. 73 not sorry. Yeah, well, it's fine. But yeah, Aster is pretty sure that's what she's seeing. So luckily, there seems to be a magic medicine that soldiers are given after

[00:44:00] battle to make it go away. And Aster realizing Halen skipped his last dose prints them out for him and brings it to him against Bart's wishes who locks her in to until she eventually convinces him Halen's not going to try to escape.

[00:44:15] Do you think the prints are just like the janky local ripoff of the derma patches like how they print their food? Yeah, that's what I took from it. Yeah. Yeah, I'm I think I shouldn't overthink how the medicine works because as we see

[00:44:29] here, it's the hardwired memories that cause a PTSD. So and as you're saying, maybe they are literally hardwired. Yeah, I just think A that makes more sense and B I just hope is not PTSD because if it is PTSD, it's such a cliche. It's okay. Okay.

[00:44:48] I have to stop you here because PTSD is like one of the central things from the book. So it would be okay. It's it's should be PTSD. I mean, like it can be this literal hardwiring that you're saying but yeah,

[00:45:02] it's not would not be a bad thing to them to add it. It would. That's it's a huge part of the core of this character. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So this is also when Astor says she doesn't think Halen's a good liar. Do you think that means she believes

[00:45:18] him that he didn't kill Solomon? Yeah. Yeah, I do. Um, I mean, I'm not convinced until until I see a body. I'm not convinced Solomon is dead. Like, okay. I think I think like you say, I think it's perfectly possible he reprogrammed

[00:45:34] but stole Helen ship and then would get a good at. Wouldn't yeah, when Helen, Halen say he's not dead. I don't know. It's yeah, it seems like why doesn't Halen speak up to defend himself? Say say things to see what really happens. Yeah.

[00:45:51] I love the line by the way when Astor is about to go into the cell. She says harmony in the event of my demise, please emphasize in the report that Bart warned me. Some good laughs in there. So Astor tries to warn tries to win

[00:46:10] Halen's trust by telling him a story about being in quarantine on a cargo port for 74 days. She was evaluating a potential mine on an exoplanet out there and was forced to quarantine before returning and the cargo ports was the only place she could and she had

[00:46:26] nothing to do there but masturbate and face her thoughts like how she'll never see her sister again because by the time she could travel to see her Astor would still be the same age, but her sister would be dead and she's afraid if she ever

[00:46:38] takes time off work. She'll be demoted but Bart no longer afraid. Halen is a flight risk lets her out. Halen takes the Prince and harmony privately calls Astor's quarantine story out as bullshit. Luke, where are your trust levels at? Where is Astor falling now on the

[00:46:57] Julia to sim snards scale? Oh, she's way towards sim snards. Yeah. Then again, I don't think anybody in this show is towards the Julia end of the scale. It's like everybody is lying to everybody. Harmony is innocent. She never did anything. Not yet anyway. Yeah.

[00:47:20] But when she was telling the story until harmony called it out as bullshit, I believe that story. I thought that was a much better liar. Yeah, I believe that story and I do believe the bit about her being you know out of time with her

[00:47:34] sister and having spent so much time in in like suspended animation. That that I think is true. I think yeah, I do think that that part's true too because that seemed to be the part that really affected her emotionally. But what's interesting is the level

[00:47:51] of detail she gives in this story because studies show that people who are lying often provide excessive details. So that's that that might be her tell if we're looking in the future to try to figure out when she's lying. So yeah, it sounds like they travel

[00:48:05] and cry asleep suspension as they call it here. But so it seems like they travel faster than the speed of light like we were talking about with that like rainbow bubble they're in but clearly not. They don't seem to have found wormholes or anything to travel.

[00:48:21] Yeah, and also that they're traveling and they're traveling a very, very, very long way as well. Yeah. So it's pretty soon probably need some combination of FKL and like suspended animation. Yeah. By the way, talking about like sci-fi influences every time somebody's in suspended animation,

[00:48:40] it always has to look like the opening scene from Alien. Like nobody is nobody is thought of another way of shooting that. Why don't I mean, I guess if you just think about the pod and everybody slowly waking up, but alien doesn't get the credit for that.

[00:48:55] Snow White, I think it's the credit for that to be honest. Okay. Yes. Yes, that makes sense. Okay. So in the books, they're calling back to Houston here. We don't really know where the headquarters of the Galactic Empire is. Where do you think Earth is like

[00:49:14] in this universe? Do you think it's like Paradise or you know, ruin? No, I get this. I get this. I don't think it's either. I get this. This is a much more sort of industrial future. So if I had to imagine Earth, it would be something like maybe

[00:49:31] Coruscant out of Star Wars or E.D. Prime out of Doom. It's sort of, I get this. This is very industrial. A heavily industrialized future. So yeah, probably ruined but not ruined just over industrialized basically. Okay, fair. And interestingly, Astor says that she says she was in sector 91.

[00:49:55] In the book, the beacon was sector 8, nearly 9, which is considered one of the most distant places from Earth to be. So this kind of sets it like the beacon is larger. It sets up the whole expanse of space that they're traveling through is larger too.

[00:50:12] And by traveling through, I mean in the things they talk about, not that you should expect these characters to leave the beacon to go traveling. So part here is Harmony when she says like, oh, that's that was an inspired story before he sent away.

[00:50:26] Do you think this will come back later that he kind of knows has a sense of his life? Yeah, probably. Yeah, probably. Think he's going to call her out in the future. Yeah, well, Bob, I should be careful or he's going to go back to beeping and booping.

[00:50:42] Yeah, but so Aster makes sure to memorize the details of her quarantine story, which comes in handy later when Haley tests her on which sector it was. But it seems she really did go in there with the meds to help him. Haley calls Aster back downstairs

[00:50:57] saying he's remembered something he wants to tell her in person and she does, but brings a weapon that looks like a knuckle duster but sends out powerful punches of energy doing area damage. What do you think of the weapons tech? I like the weapons tech.

[00:51:10] I like these kind of anti-gravity. We will see them more in episode two, these kind of anti-gravity weapons. And it makes sense because obviously you can't use bullets space station. So it makes sense that you would have some sort of directed energy weapon.

[00:51:26] Like I said, I like the knuckle duster. Yeah, the little knuckle duster version of it. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. Haley clocks the weapon, but he's here to negotiate. He'll tell her what he knows in exchange for release and the picker to leave with 30 hours left until extraction.

[00:51:43] She agrees. Do you think she ever meant to keep her promise? No. No, it doesn't seem so later. No, I don't think so. Yeah, I've believed her at the time, but again, she's the better liar. Yeah. So Haley shows her the button Solomon forbade him from

[00:51:59] touching and though Bart says they're wasting their time, he shares that it used to open the door to the maintenance room for the microwave antenna, an antenna that was disconnected 100 years ago. So Aster realizes it's now a useless room that would be a perfect place to hide something.

[00:52:16] Bart gets more panicky demanding to know if Aster is stupid or corrupt to be working with Haley and Harmony says she'll explain to Bart how things are assuring him Haley will be taken care of. She calls Bart's behavior unacceptable and commands him to run a self diagnostic.

[00:52:33] Do you think Bart will find something amiss in his code? I'm not sure. I mean, I don't think he finds anything. Janki in his code. No. Although I found it interesting that the Harmony tells Bart to run a diagnostic and he does it.

[00:52:52] Like if one of the humans had said that to Bart, I could see this being an as a mob situation where he has to do what they say. Why is he doing what Harmony tells him to do? She's just another AI. Maybe she's a higher ranking

[00:53:05] AI. I don't know. Maybe she's a higher ranking AI. So on the way up to this door that they found the button for Aster finds clothing in one of the cases which seems to give her a thought but she doesn't share it. What do you think she was

[00:53:21] thinking? You know, she like catches this clothing and then says oh nothing keeps going. Maybe she was thinking, you know, this was Solomon's clothing. It sort of adds credence to the idea that Helen might have killed him. I guess that was that was the

[00:53:40] only thought that occurred to me. Yeah. Okay. So Aster opens a hatch to the room with the rocks and Helen gets a strong flashback and runs away in a panic. Aster calms him but he swears there's something in the room that came after him.

[00:53:54] Seems like those prints aren't working or do you think they really work much at all or is just propaganda? I think they work to some extent. But I think I think in addition to the PTSD, I think there's a hardware problem here with one of his implant.

[00:54:11] I think you're seeing things because the memory of one of those implants is playing up. But so how is this implant there's like a camera that's recording the memory or how yeah, they say in episode two, they've got one on the brain. He's got one in the

[00:54:27] he's got one in the brainstem. He probably has one in his eye. Yeah, so I assume the one in his eye and the one in his brainstem probably like recording every sensation. Everything he sees everything he feels. But then this must be something that happens with

[00:54:41] other soldiers too. Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure that it is but I'm sure that but the thing is he's deserted. So my guess is when it happens to other soldiers it's repaired or those of the soldiers are eliminated. But how and sort of out there on his own.

[00:55:00] Okay. That was just my head Yeah, I mean but it does seem to be triggered by proximity to the rocks. So that's interesting. Yeah, that's true. So maybe the rocks are interfering with the hardware. Yeah. So Astor finally gets up to the hidden room

[00:55:17] and there are not only rocks there but they are each glowing on the inside. She goes back to Halen locked in the airlock again but she refuses to honor her side of the deal. She says they won't care he went AWOL and that him

[00:55:30] staying is the best chance for both of them. So we know it's not ISA coming but this other mysterious group do you think Astor fears for her safety if she lets him go? Do you think she's thinking they'll let him join the team? Whatever this QTA is?

[00:55:47] I'm not sure I'm not sure she's thinking that far ahead. I'm just thinking that she thinks if they let him go he's either going to die because the picker won't get him very far or if he does manage to reach somebody else he'll tip them off of what's

[00:56:03] going on on the beacon. All right. Well Bart gets very aggro with Halen saying he wants to torture him and that he turned off his sound so no one would hear him if he screams. He has a good point. He says you silence me once.

[00:56:16] Let's see how you like it. But do you? That was malevolent Bart. That was proper howl 3000 version of Bart. That was but then again, you know, Bart has a point. Yeah. Yeah. I have a feeling that Bart is going to get fixed but I'm kind of kind of

[00:56:34] miss the murder bot setting. Like he's reminding he's reminding me in personality of a beloved droid from Star Wars called Chopper from rebels and Ahsoka. But Ahsoka only watchers don't realize in in rebels he's very murderous. So Aster she's playing with her new rocks and she notices that

[00:56:54] as she chips off part of the glowing interior when it falls to the table and immediately dissolves in a puff of smoke. Aster says she just needs to slow it down to figure out what it is and Harmony says she'll print out a collisional cooling unit.

[00:57:08] So these omniprinters sure seem useful other than money. What would you would you most wish you could print out on command? Uh huh. Other than money. I'll have to get back to you on that one. Because like clearly they used to print food.

[00:57:26] So I think that would be that would be quite cool. Yeah, I mean, you can 3D print food now. It's yeah, you can you can 3D print meat can't you know the stuff? Um, I know this is a great you can have with any number of sci-fi shows

[00:57:42] and beacon 23 is not alone in this but you are dissecting it unknown elements. You have no idea what this is or how it interacts with the human body and you're doing it without wearing a hazmat suit or any kind of protection. You're just there in your sleeveless vest

[00:58:00] playing with this unknown element. Like seriously, you are asking to catch alien viruses. That's the word. Begging to catch alien viruses. Yeah, no, that's this is a good point. Maybe that's what happened to Solomon. Maybe that's why he became such an asshole. I think maybe yeah.

[00:58:17] You're following probably not but you know, just just just it's just one of those things that you see and show after show after show. It's just oh, it's just really annoying because just wear a hazmat suit. Yeah, I also have to point out

[00:58:31] that they must have really advanced in the technology because these 3D printers must print very fast because there's no way in our world a 3D printer could print out an entire machine within 30 hours. No, but then Hale and C is the little cruiser

[00:58:45] from the opening scene approaching and calls to Aster. Bart warns her the whole beacon will explode if Aster tries to fire on the invaders and of course they get in. Aster traps them on the lower levels with Hale and of episode.

[00:58:59] Luke, you saw this first episode on Amazon where they're offering it for free to anyone with Prime in the US or with a VPN. Do you think it's enough to get people to sign up for the free MGM plus trial? Those who can.

[00:59:13] Yeah, I think I certainly want to see what happened next. I think it's a nice cliffhanger to end it on. And like I said, I think that the I think the thing that makes the show worth watching for me is the the chemistry between the lead.

[00:59:28] I wouldn't say it's a formulaic show, but it's not like silo. I think I'm just comparing it to the you how we had a Tash silo really gripped me with the plot. The script me more with the character, as he said. Okay.

[00:59:44] Yeah, I think that's that is accurate to the book because the book is sort of the book is often more of a hang where you're pondering deep questions. But then there are like sequences of very gripping or comedic even action at times. Yeah.

[01:00:03] Okay, so the story from episode one leads right into episode two, which is called Wreckers and Wreckers that's from the book like ship Wreckers. So just quick excerpt from the book in the days of sea bound ships when holes were made to keep water rather than vacuum

[01:00:21] out and hazards to navigation were submerged rocks, not the floating in space kind. There was a dishonest profession of men known as Wreckers. Wreckers did just as their name implied they wrecked ships for a living a brutal murderous living.

[01:00:36] This was a lighthouse I was standing in and lighthouses were not always appreciated. Lighthouses you see were bad business for the men who relied on wrecks for a living. So I think that yeah, that tells us a lot about the motivation of these characters who invade in this

[01:00:53] episode. What do you think? Yeah, and you can tell from the very first that these are clearly wrong ends because they're wearing oxygen masks and Parkers, which is a combination that in space shows is never never signifies anything good.

[01:01:10] I mean, hey, at least it's a properly cautious entering a new space and not knowing with their that's true. At least they are at least they are taking proper precautions. So the director of this episode is again Daniel Percival

[01:01:23] and the writing credit went to Zach Penn and this one picks right up off the tail of the previous one. Like I said, I can definitely see why they release these two together this week. We get a crew of five breaking in.

[01:01:36] There's battle Polina Nunes and asshole, but he seems to be the leader and Kennedy Marnie McFail Diamond is the brains of the operation. The alien language speaking big face Danny Cloupch is the muscle. They have an unnamed hacker Cyrus fared credited only as

[01:01:56] tech worker and Canadian son chick Jaden Noel completes the crew. Were you entertained by this troop of vagabonds? Yeah, I was and particularly the amount of bitching and back bite it between the five of them is quite funny, particularly

[01:02:13] like you say battle and the character he refers to as minister. And we'll find out why that is later on in the episode. Yeah, but I love the way they walk on to the beacon and battle the leader takes off his gas mask and breathes in

[01:02:31] the oxygen like it's fine wine. Yeah, these are five people who have been living together in a very small spaceship for a long time and that there are lots of very human smells. He's really enjoying like the clean recycled air of the of the beacon.

[01:02:50] Yeah, because this is not fresh air either but for him, you know if you've been on a smaller spaceship getting on to a station like this is a chance to stretch your legs. So yeah, spoiler for the end of the episode we're currently

[01:03:02] spoiling but most of them will eventually die. Did that bother you? No, you know, live by the sword die by the sword and let let's face it. They are all trying to kill Aster and Halon the two main characters. So yeah, they got what they deserve basically.

[01:03:19] Yeah, fair. It does reflect the book in the sense that in the book there's a sequence of bounty hunters that show up after the crash and not everyone makes it out of that alive. In the book, the records were just outside the beacon

[01:03:32] picking up the cargo that's viewed out in space and the bounty hunters they the bounty hunters were searching for a person not for rocks. So but in this show, the tech record pulls out a squishy goopy looking tube plugging it into his own stomach and

[01:03:48] a biometric interface and the circuitry of the beacon station. Do these organic tubes remind you at all of Lynch's doom or maybe like terror gallium movies? A little bit. Yeah, yeah, a little bit. I was also thinking of like, do you ever watch there's a

[01:04:05] Keanu Reeves movie from like the mid 90s like Johnny Mnemonic? Oh, okay. Yeah. And they've got like these things where they all the matrix where they like plug these things into the back of their heads and stuff in it. They're all their brain is like a computer interface.

[01:04:20] Yeah. It reminded me of that a little bit. Yeah. Oh, I think it's a to weave the hardness of you know, the sterility as you put it of everything else and then there's organic tech. It's interesting twist. Meanwhile, Kennedy is apprehensive.

[01:04:36] She says they were supposed to stay in the debris field. We later find out breaking into a beacon earns you a life sentence but battle wanted to stretch his legs as we said and get some fresh air and is sure there must be stuff to steal here.

[01:04:49] Aster hides the rocks and Bart suggests shutting the air off in the lower levels to suffocate the intruders bonus points that that would also take out Halen. So yeah, I guess Bart must be programmed not to kill Halen unless commanded because because Halen seems

[01:05:06] to be sleeping with both eyes closed. So he doesn't seem to worry that this robot that clearly wants him dead is going to kill him. And by the way, if you were looking at like Barts funny lines, I love that and there's sacrifice right. So good.

[01:05:22] Yeah, so Harmony starts using facial recognition to look up their visitors big faces name. It turns out is Medan she treat to humor from the mining camps in the outer arms brutal places that breed brutal people. So yeah, you were wondering about the names.

[01:05:38] Luke looks like they're just code names like their alter ego so to speak. Do you think other than the minister do you think the rest know each other's real identities? Um, no, I don't think they do to be honest because

[01:05:53] this sort of this doesn't strike me as a particularly happy or well integrated crew. This is just five people that were sort of working together because they have comp they have complimentary skills. I mean like you say there's literally the leader

[01:06:06] the brains the hacker and the muscle like literally they all fit. I mean, but this is a high screw. Yeah. I put together by this organization presumably. Yeah, I did also like that she was talking about that people on these mining colonies have like increased

[01:06:23] muscle mass and bone density. Yeah, so maybe they have heavier gravity. Yeah, that's that's what I was thinking the living in this particular environment is literally reshaping the human body because of the stresses. Yeah, exactly. So while the others look for things to steal seeming

[01:06:43] to believe they're alone the tech record eventually manages to shut Bart down harmony tries to interface with him calling him by his preferred name Bartholomew but he's lost for a while. In the meantime, the records can now see Aster

[01:06:57] and Harmony and tells them to stay out of their way. I love that both sides at least initially are like looking up each other with the facial recognition they're sort of balanced in that way. You know, they both have their hackers.

[01:07:10] Yeah, and I thought it was interesting that harmony's name is not an individual thing. It's the name of the particular AI program because like the hacker guy like literally identifies it as Oh, this is a harmony. So it's interesting that they don't have

[01:07:27] they don't have their own name. So I wonder if every I wonder if every beacon has a Bartholomew. Yeah, you make a good point. I didn't read it that way, but I see what you mean. Yeah, I was wondering if Bart is like an acronym big

[01:07:39] and that's because she called him a beta series, right? So yeah. So then we get the final scene we discussed in the intro episode last week where Haleen gets chicks attention. Chick calls out the others rather than helping him

[01:07:53] and Haleen finds himself in the middle of the crew making a deal to get himself out with the picker in exchange for some cubits and other supplies. But he also wants two minutes with Aster quote unquote to express his feelings.

[01:08:06] So now we know that it's true that Haleen is not the beacon keeper as we were discussing in the last episode. Although it still seems like the ISA the military is the one running this beacon, right? I'm not sure who's running this beacon because the ISA

[01:08:22] have been remarkably incurious about what happened to Solomon because presumably Helen unless Haleen's got like some voice scrambling software going he doesn't sound like Stephen Bruce either. Well, but he's not talking. He's talking to them through text messages not voice okay because that's yeah it's too far.

[01:08:44] Yeah, they just seem they seem remarkably incurious about what's going on at this particular beacon. So I'm not sure if I'm not sure who is anybody is in charge. Yeah, well battle says later you know when they talk about all the other beacons being destroyed battles

[01:09:01] and in a Canadian when she says you know we would get life for breaking into a beacon and battles like nobody cares anymore. Yeah, that's true. But to be fair yeah in terms of them is knowing that Haleen's not a beacon keeper obviously there's

[01:09:17] something up with him considering he's locked up. So that makes sense. They would question that now this is where we start to notice the Canadian battle seem to be fighting for influence over chick with Canadian discouraging the violence her son seems to be doing to impress her rival

[01:09:35] for his admiration. Yeah, I find that this whole dynamic the saddest part of this episode which of the three of them don't think kind of had a very had a very pitch black. Chronicles of Rivik. Okay, vibe so you know this whole social system of

[01:09:52] mercenaries and bounty hunters it really reminded me it was not so much of Chronicles Rivik but it really reminded me of pitch black and the way the way the kid in that whose name I'm blanking on kind of looks up to Rivik wants to be Rivik.

[01:10:11] I don't think I've seen that I've seen Chronicles of Rivik and I think that might be the only one I've seen in these days. Yeah, go and watch pitch black is a very good example of how to do relatively low budget sci-fi.

[01:10:23] Okay, because there's a very similar dynamic playing out in pitch black. Yeah, so about the Cubits in the book they mentioned the Quantum Tunneler which is a device we see later in the episode it's used to communicate across long distances and it works using entangled particles and it

[01:10:43] so you send simple text messages through entangled particles and the particles are destroyed when the messages are sent so it's expensive technology to use. So I was wondering they seem to like talk about Cubits just like currency but I was wondering if it could

[01:10:58] physically be that that they trade. I think that would make much more sense than a lighthouse having a substantial amount of money on it. Like that just doesn't make sense. And they did it was next to the Quantum Tunneler that they get them later in the episode particularly

[01:11:16] when like all your basic needs seem to be taken care of by these printers. I don't know what you would need money for it's not like you need to trade for goods and supplies particularly so I think that would make a lot more sense than it being cash.

[01:11:33] But you need how do I wonder how the printers work because you need to feed them. You know they're not magic you need to feed them material. Oh I thought there was I thought it was kind of like

[01:11:43] a star star Trek transport type deal where it could just rearrange math. I mean this doesn't exist in the books but but if it has any bases in reality then they have to feed it. Okay so to speak. Yeah yeah but then it is amazing all the different

[01:12:01] things that I can suddenly make on a whim so. I saw I saw a YouTube video of a universe. I think it was MIT some of the post graduates made like a boat not like a rowboat but like a motor launch

[01:12:17] like life guard boat out of a 3D printer in about four or five days. Wow. It's all like it was all like printed out of fiberglass and one yeah one one sort of single piece of fiberglass. Wow yeah I know it's cool there's a bridge in Amsterdam

[01:12:36] that's was 3D printed but it took many months. I can't remember how long anymore. Okay so did you immediately assume that when Halein said he wanted two minutes alone to settle the score that there was just an excuse to get away or were you did

[01:12:51] you think that he might actually go after Esther. I thought he might actually go after Esther. Yeah. I mean the show puts you straight on that quite quickly. Okay doesn't leave that as I thought the opposite yeah yeah

[01:13:05] but I thought yeah I thought he might flush her out the air log. Okay yeah because that's why he asked to did lock him up you know it's not like the relationship has been plain sailing up to this point so yeah I actually did believe that.

[01:13:25] I guess I'm inclined to trust both of them just because I know that they're the main characters you know. Yeah I'm gonna say Lena Hedy is wearing quite a bit of plot on so I was quite dense.

[01:13:36] I will be damned if they don't both make it to the season. Yeah. So the tech guy manages to shut off Astor's cameras so she can't see them anymore but it's going to take time to get the hatches open so battle makes the deal with Halein and

[01:13:52] Harmony ticks off what tech they can still control like the hatches while Astor arms herself with her knuckle blaster. Halein finds a way into the upper levels through the paneling literally pushing Chick off of breathing down his neck so that he can go alone and Harmony manages

[01:14:08] to ID another one of the wreckers. Battles real name is Timur Ondi and he was dishonorably discharged from the military himself for a long list of violent offenses. No surprise. So we just replied that is a very long list of violent offenses.

[01:14:25] I mean his battle the worst like literally the worst or yeah almost the worst. Yeah he does he does seem to he does seem to enjoy his work but it that way. And he does actually kick Chick in the butt though

[01:14:40] chicks been hero worshipping him so it's it's just like this sad echo of Barton Solomon. Yeah but they're all watching on the monitor as Halein drops into the room where Astor is she knuckle blasts him and they get into a brawl if they had popcorn

[01:14:55] they'd be eating it right about now right. Yeah with the oh yeah. They were enjoying that it's Canadian how much does she hate her life ending up with this crew and watching them corrupt her son. Oh she absolutely hates and I don't suppose we will find

[01:15:14] out but I think you could do a really good episode in flashback of how can I see in chick met the rest of this group because they don't they don't sort of naturally fit into it. No so I so I'd really like to know how can I see

[01:15:30] fell in with these people. Right yeah and Halein manages to pin Astor behind the desk out of sight long enough to calm her down and get the cameras off without the intruders eyes on them they angrily spit niceties at each other.

[01:15:45] I never tried to kill you I never tried to save you either you being alive as a result of me saving my own ass I like that like sort of establishing the relationship where he's like don't worry I'm not you know you I

[01:15:57] know you're not a damsel in distress just the person who can help me. Also sorry about your balls yeah thanks for that which would you like a tab yes. Which is obviously bullshit because she gives him one later. And they run out I don't know we haven't established

[01:16:18] yet. Like you say there is really funny like that back and forth back and forth. Yeah me too me too I also ever that one down yeah. So harmony's I did another intruder now so Dr. Rohan Kennedy apparently the only one going by her own name

[01:16:39] the former minister of equity on the allow colony population formerly six million in the signal system which was destroyed after the disastrous malfunction of the AX 129 beacon arm FTL Friders were unable to resupply allow leading to mass starvation and total civil meltdown similar events apparently

[01:17:00] also happened on another colony called men allows 30 years prior this makes Astor decide talking to Kennedy is their best option. So you know issue men allows whatever mining colony big faces from seems like this world is pretty vast think we'll see any nonhumans or that they're

[01:17:18] just colonizing empty planets. Well they must be fighting somebody because there is a military and it seems to be some sort of ongoing conflict could be other humans so that either means that either means it's humans fighting humans or humans fighting aliens as one of those two.

[01:17:37] So I think it's a 5050 shot whether we see aliens or not to give you a bit cynical about this but I wonder if I wonder if the budget is going to stretch to convincing alien. Oh practical makeup you can do a lot with practical

[01:17:54] makeup like we said at the beginning of the episode there are some moments in the second episode where you can where you can see the strength. Yeah I mean yeah I don't think we need to harp on it too much but yeah.

[01:18:08] So by the way the star system is signal with an n not Sigma I double checked and yeah this is not a real name that we're using for any star system yet but then again we're on the other side of Orion so who knows what's all out there.

[01:18:23] Now the AX 129 beacon arm so when they refer to a arm of colonies when they're talking about big face that seem to be like a collection of colonies so they're saying I guess an entire string of beacons leading along a certain route is out.

[01:18:38] Yeah that's that's what I took that to me again not to harp on this but I hope they clarify why this is the case because why couldn't the colony feed it I understand that it would need some supplies from Earth probably but surely you would set up

[01:18:55] a colony so it could at least feed itself. Yeah no I agree that makes no like I really mean unless you yeah yeah I hope they just I really hope they address that because otherwise it's a huge it's frankly quite gaping hole in this this universe.

[01:19:13] Yeah so but it seems though that they there must be somebody knocking out these lighthouses the fact that it happened to an entire arm of them and the fact that it happened to that other colony 30 years prior and now maybe this attack on beacon 23

[01:19:29] is part of it do you think or do you think it's just some independent records that hadn't occurred to me but maybe maybe that would that would make a lot of sense I just thought this was collateral damage in whatever war was going on or maybe like the

[01:19:46] interstellar equivalent of strategic bombing because yeah oh you think it's the enemy doing it. Yeah because obviously obviously if these colonies collapse without support from Earth it would make strategic sense. Yeah after the beacons as like the hinge point of the supply lines.

[01:20:07] Well so here's a thing that I noticed the news report says the collapse of the two colonies quote unquote highlights the risks of colonizing the outer rings where the colonies are isolated and depend on supply so I wonder I wondered if there could be some

[01:20:22] sort of rebel faction who was who didn't like something about the world order as it is and so they were knocking these out to get them to stop colonizing outer worlds. Yeah that's possible. I mean that could that could well be who they're fighting

[01:20:38] this could well be a human unhuman civil war I suppose. I just hope we find out more information about this because oh I'm sure they have to. Yeah because we have to find out about about Halen's past.

[01:20:52] Yeah but I think this episode like really opens up a lot of different avenues to explore whilst being quite itself contain you know over and done in 45 minutes episode it kind of reminded me actually of sort of

[01:21:08] the best of old school and by old school I mean sort of original series next generation Star Trek in that you have these very self contained 45 minute episodes right but occasionally they will set up and storylines and ideas that will pay off further down the road.

[01:21:28] Yeah yeah absolutely. Yeah so Aster still doesn't trust Halen when he suggests a weapons run one level down but she concedes they have little other choice but to work together battle meanwhile things Halen won't cross him because he's military which seems incredibly naive as I

[01:21:46] bet battle crossed plenty of people when he was before he was discharged and canady points out Halen is clearly no longer in the military either and battle uses it as an excuse to be a jerk again her is alter ego should

[01:22:00] be jerk face so Luke if you could give new code names to any of the records what would they be. Yeah I think jerk face is a good one I like the way sarcasticly refers to canady as minister the whole time

[01:22:16] he's throwing her fate you know her failure as the minister of this colony back at the entire time so yeah she's definitely minister. Yeah I'm gonna go with sad mama. And what would you call to the tech guy didn't get a name where would you call him.

[01:22:36] Oh I don't know the tech guy doesn't do enough to deserve a name he just come on he does the most actually because he's the one who like gets in turns off art for a while I guess he does.

[01:22:49] I don't know what would you call him hacker guts hacker guts yeah yeah. So Halen takes Aster to a storage room where he pulls a biotech weapon out of a chest turns out he's a living weapon himself with more implants than he remembers

[01:23:07] I counted at least 30 on the body scan they show here when I passed. Yeah there are a lot of them and he basically plugs himself into charge which leads to the interesting question of like where is the battery what's charging.

[01:23:21] We said that that was the battery that he was plugging it okay that's what the case was. Okay so yeah and apparently this is this is something that's done as standard to soldiers in this universe and they start implants when you sign up and they put

[01:23:37] more and more in overtime and Helen was a soldier for a very long time so he's got a lot of implants. Yeah so the beaker and keeper in the book doesn't have these implants but he says something interesting about

[01:23:49] why he was in the military so long that seems worth repeating here this scene takes place in a quiet moment as he's talking to another character who's not in the show yet getting his web buzz on and keep in mind

[01:24:03] that in the book he's here voluntarily assigned to be here on his own request and he thinks to himself we sit in silence for a long while it feels good up here even better with the company I could do it for another four years I could read up.

[01:24:17] I remember feeling this way in the army the days that were really good when you'd survive the bad shit felt kind of invincible and actually deeply happy but maybe an unhealthy and manic kind of way and how those were the days when you went to your CEO and

[01:24:32] saluted and shouted in your best bootcamp voice sign me up for another cert and how later when the high were off and you came down from the survivors rush and your mood went back to normal you were like what the fuck did I just do.

[01:24:48] So Luke you ever have something like that where you hung on to the good moments but regretted it most of the rest of the time. Oh all the time yeah you just remember the good stuff and you just missed the rest. How about you Elisha.

[01:25:00] Well I think yeah certain romantic relationships will sound familiar to people were. Yeah definitely so we also get confirmation in the scene that Halen's a pilot and which is the same as in the book but in the book the war trauma turned him into an alcoholic

[01:25:17] and he got grounded and rose the ranks in the infantry instead during the show battle is going into full man baby mode pushing Canadian around and stomping and screaming for Halster slash Aslan to open up and let him in and chick is sadly backing him up against

[01:25:35] his mom asked to find a nano blade and pulls it out. What do you think is special or nano about a nano blade. I don't know I seem just like I assumed it's like some sort of big syringe that like you can inject nano

[01:25:50] bots into into an opponent like to either paralyze them or I was thinking the cooler thing to do would be if you could like use the nanobots to like seize control of your opponent so you've essentially got like another out you'd be like remote piloting them.

[01:26:07] Why is it called a blade. So yeah that was that was my head cabin it's a big syringe sticking an opponent and nano. Okay I like that. So Halen's plan at this point is let's split up the crew luring them to different sections and knocking them

[01:26:23] down to be handled a two or three at a time and the record crew runs straight into the trap. They assume they assume Halen did it to help them because they had a deal. Did you ever doubt which side Halen was on? No not really.

[01:26:37] Yeah the reason I sort of snickered there is it's like there might as well be a neon sign saying this is a trap step into the trap and charge head log into it. Yeah the battle sucks he's a terrible leader.

[01:26:53] Yeah he really really is but yeah a battle also especially sucks because he sends chick first because chick says he can't do the other thing which I guess the other thing is spilling red. Battle says until he spills red he's expendable so

[01:27:10] apparently that's that's a rule of the wreckers. Aster waits until they're spread out on the stairs and has Harmony close the hatches separating them Kanadi and her son in front big face and battle together behind them with the tech back by the machines.

[01:27:25] Kanadi asked chick to help her find what she's looking for not the cubits which will be locked up somewhere but she's sure the company who sent them was going for something much bigger and she means to find that. Battle calls for status and Kanadi refuses to answer him

[01:27:40] because she doesn't want him to know we're useless I didn't get that like why would it be? No I didn't get that either. No that doesn't make sense and also like battle just standing there for minutes and then going you know

[01:27:54] what she starts well they're not going to tell you like they either can't hear you or they're not going to tell you something else. Well this is man baby. You great big man baby. But it does seem like you could just be like oh well look

[01:28:07] around up here and then you're doing exactly what you're saying. So Bart is still locked away somewhere Harmony trying to reach out to him but he's confused quoting Ophelia from Hamlet's quoting the bit where she's mourning her father will he not come again?

[01:28:25] No no he is dead go to thy deathbed. He seems to be mourning Solomon himself murder most foul he says. Techie battle and big face head to the main frame room to try to get control of the system back. Haleen is charging up his inner weapon nearly ready

[01:28:42] and upstairs Kanadi and son discover the picture of their family on the screen creepy. Harmony's been researching them of course and Kanadi insists this life they're leading now is only temporary and Chicks scoffed her in the face hard. Chicks says he's just got to earn battles respect and

[01:29:02] accuses his mother of killing millions. She decks him and he pulls a gun on her which she confiscates doing the mom don't you ever do that to me again thing which apparently just gives chick ideas for later. Chick chick yelts to battle that they're coming how

[01:29:19] he thinks he's going to do that I'm not sure. So what do you think of chick after everything. I mean I just I thought this scene was I thought the just didn't just to go back to Harmony and Bart for a second. That little scene was my favorite.

[01:29:33] Oh, okay. The episode the Hamlet not only because I want my aI romance right. I thought it did a really good like the quote from Hamlet and Athea. I thought that was a really clever way of getting into Bart's psyche. Mm-hmm. And why does he know Shakespeare here?

[01:29:52] Yeah, you know where Bart's head is that and I like the idea of these two these two aIs interacting with each other. I think it's a normally you only get one aI on a show right so I like the idea that you've got multiple aIs right.

[01:30:10] I like that too. They're interacting with each other leaving aside my desire for some aI on aI action. I just think it's a really just going to rub their circuits. Yeah, it's a really interesting concept of having aI

[01:30:25] talk to aI so yeah that was in terms of and how they represent it visually is cool too with like it almost looks like a quantum tunneling thing when Harmony's trying to go and looking to find where Bart is. Yeah, in terms of chicken kinetic kinetic is clearly

[01:30:41] the brains of the operation but chick has a much better sense of you know their situation and what they're and what they're facing is yet this idea that this is just temporary. This isn't a lot. It clearly is and can etty clearly chose to be here

[01:30:58] and she chose to bring chick with her. Right so I think chick has a much better sense of what else what's really going on here. Yeah, it was sad to see the picture where they look so happy RIP daddy and the two daughters.

[01:31:12] So yeah, this is just seeing like they don't even really talk about the girls much but you just see like there were two girls and they're not here now so yeah. Um chicks has late running the episode that they

[01:31:23] wanted to leave they wanted to try and get away. Dad and the girls and can etty was kind of the one insisting that they stay on the colony and writers write it out till they get supplied. So it does make me wonder whether dad and the

[01:31:38] girls did make it off world you know did my didn't didn't make a run for it. I hope they did. Yeah, yeah and um hacker guts gets into the main frame and battle says to lock the dock so that Haley can't steal their ship.

[01:31:54] He sends big face to guard the stairs and he goes to flush out Haley. Meanwhile, Harmony wires Aster in to talk to Kennedy with chick of course hearing every word. Aster tells Kennedy that she works for the QTA which raises Halen's eyebrows and Kennedy

[01:32:10] says they were also hired by the QTA. So who TF do we think the QTA is? I have no idea who the QTA is but it made me think of that that line from No Country for Old Men when Anton Shagur goes and sees the accountant

[01:32:29] and he thought if there were more people looking for the case and she goes no, no, no, that's foolishness. You pick the one right instrument. It's like you don't send multiple people after these rocks are just going to get you this way.

[01:32:43] Yeah, so I'm wondering though is the QTA like the group responsible for shutting down the beacons? Maybe it sort of struck me that they were probably like some some like corporate conglomerate thing. Oh, okay. Yeah. I was thinking rebels you're thinking.

[01:32:59] Yeah, I was thinking like evil corporation type. Okay. Haleen seems less secure in his odds with them than with the ISA who he deserted. So interesting and we also know that they send to Aster and then they sent this other group after

[01:33:14] her so that I don't know if that means Aster is expendable to them or if they thought she was lost or. Yeah, that just strikes me as deeply stupid because these two groups are clearly going to get in each other's way.

[01:33:25] Although the other group was not supposed to enter the beacon. That's true I suppose. They were just supposed to collect the cargo that spilled out in the wreck. So why yeah, why was Aster asleep on that ship that wasn't gonna stop here for I won't harp on that.

[01:33:40] But I'm wondering what Aster's role is with the QTA like she seems to imply she has some pool but then the fact they sent this other group after her makes me think is expendable. I mean it's not the harp on stuff but it's

[01:33:51] that point in a show where you can't quite work out is this a plot hole or is this a story point that's going to get developed later on and we're just gonna have to wait and see. Yeah, I'm not gonna try to just not worry about it

[01:34:07] until it's either answered or not. Yeah. Aster ended up there that's what's important. So Kennedy finds the glowing rocks in their irresponsibly translucent net bag and Kalen his internal weapon now fully charged says he's going after the wreckers ship even if he has

[01:34:25] to kill everyone else to get it. Hacker guts finally gets control of the hatches opening them and all may and breaks loose. Halen dodges a shot and then takes out hacker guts with a single backwards stab and then he fights

[01:34:38] big face in the gravity of the floors and non-gravity of one part of the stairwell here battle apparently gets stuck for a bit I guess Aster disconnecting hacker guts from the machine as Halen does some ass kicking eventually snapping big faces

[01:34:54] neck backward to take her out just in time for battle to emerge energy gun blast him from behind knocking him out. So did you think we already discussed that the the gravity fight was underwhelming they probably should have just seen that was not working and cut it.

[01:35:11] Yeah, I think the less said the better here but yeah, you did make me snicker and not in a not in a good way not in a way it meant to I mean it was it was it was cool in concepts

[01:35:22] but indeed I think this might be a show where the production design is very on point, you know, it really builds this world the costume design everything and you know they should less as more when it comes to the CGI because they clearly I mean they obviously

[01:35:37] spent a lot on building this atmosphere that the beacon itself and the space around it. Yeah, I think we'll just draw a line under that and move on. But yeah, did you think anyone would survive at this point? No, no, no, not even check.

[01:35:55] No, not even check because they've done the classic bad guy thing off. Don't do that. Yeah trap. This is a trap. Oh, we're gonna head into the beginning of the night but that is battles. M.O. And Canadian is just like on her own mission.

[01:36:12] Yeah, she would have survived if not for a month or a month. We'll get to that. Maybe. Yeah, maybe. So meanwhile, Canadian her son are inspecting the glowy rocks upstairs when the floor opens up and Aster emerges to talk. She says she's from Manilaus, the other colony that

[01:36:29] starved. Her mom got her out so she understands Canadian. Do you believe her? Do you think she's really from Manilaus? Who knows? I mean, maybe but it's an obvious lie to tell. Try and sort of create empathy. Right. It's too convenient.

[01:36:50] I feel like it is a little bit convenient. No, I don't think I don't think I do believe her but this is the thing Aster is such a practiced liar that it's actually quite difficult to believe anything she says about anything. That's true.

[01:37:06] But she says she can offer Canadian something better than she'd get from the rocks. She tells Canadian to send Chick back to their ship without the rocks and Canadian tells her son who's never been able to spill red to just go ahead and

[01:37:19] shoot anyone who gets in his way. Battle sees Chick and also sends him to the ship to get more weapons. Chick has guilt all over his face at being given this out knowing battle is about to be betrayed but when battle is as usual Jackass self,

[01:37:34] he goes with a scowl on his face and Canadian Aster keep talking. Aster says her mom was supposed to follow her out but didn't. So yeah, this story at least directly contradicts the story about her sister. But I think yeah, we both kind of agree.

[01:37:49] The sister one's probably true. This men allows one probably not. Yeah, I think that's right. Canadian says chick is mad at her because she didn't listen to her husband when he wanted to just leave that place. She believed more supplies would come and that

[01:38:03] she could save everyone if she stayed but the supplies never did come. She says they had to do things she never imagined to stay alive. You think that means they ate dad and the girls? Oh, yeah, I did wonder if that would have something to do with it.

[01:38:18] Yeah, yeah, I know that you put it that way. I felt like there's something shady with the sisters especially that they don't talk about it and yeah, yeah, could be. There was already another reference in the episode of cannibalism from Big Face. Yeah.

[01:38:34] So yeah, this is also where we see the quantum tunneler or the QT is it's regularly called in the book. It looks like a tiny computer from the 80s and yeah, it's used to send basic messages, text messages across fast spaces instantly using quantum entanglement.

[01:38:50] So in my opinion, this is like low key the coolest piece of tech, but it's hard to make it look cool I guess for most TV audiences. What do you think? Yeah, no, I thought it was pretty cool.

[01:39:02] And I think this is very much a show where less is more production design. Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool. And I like the idea that over this kind of immense distance you would need to keep the messages really simple and really short.

[01:39:20] Well, yeah, I mean, it's because the way that it communicates is so you have entangled particles like we could have one here on earth and you would have to take the, I will call it a qubit until I'm told otherwise I'm going to assume that the qubits are

[01:39:34] the units that use. So you would take the qubit from, you know, entangle these particles and take it with you to this distant place and they're still entangled so that when you change the properties of one and it immediately changes the other one no

[01:39:47] matter where it is across distances. So and then destroyed in the process. That's really cool. But anyway, Kennedy says her colonies council had one called it a very quick way to find out no one cares. Aster gives her a bag of qubits something

[01:40:05] the QTA apparently won't care about but ISA would in exchange for her taking Halen with them when they go. So yeah, the qubits it looks like they're solid objects they clink but I'm thinking these are like storage units storage cases. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:40:19] Because they're kind of big too. Yeah, they're not they're not like. They're not. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, they're probably what they come in. So if yeah, if Aster had succeeded in sending Halen away I'm wondering if she would have gotten in trouble with the QTA like I was

[01:40:36] wondering if she kept him earlier because she knew that she would get in trouble. She didn't and that she was risking her own neck now by saying like no, get him out of here. Yeah, or I mean alternatively. She might want to get rid of him because

[01:40:52] she doesn't want any witnesses to what she's going to do next. In terms of stealing the rocks. I mean it seemed like she wanted to keep the rocks for the QTA like she really was getting them for them. Yeah, but like I'm just thinking if she finds

[01:41:10] out that the QTA has sent this team of records like how many other people have the QTA sent after these rocks it might make more sense from Aster's point of view to keep the rocks for herself and see what she can extract

[01:41:23] from the QTA or other people to pay for these rocks. Clearly somebody has identified them as being very valued. Right, so downstairs a battle is rooting around looking for weapons I guess and he sees Kennedy leaving with the bag from his hidden location so he goes after Aster

[01:41:43] waving his gun but saying he just wants to talk they always run. He says this guy really never realizes he's the problem does he? No, you're the problem it's you. He needs me to tell her swift. So while battle is chasing Aster around

[01:42:01] Haleyn wakes up to find Chick running to the docking bay Chick pulls the gun and Haleyn tells him he killed two of his crew but Kennedy runs up before things can escalate further she points out Haleyn could have killed Chick already if he wanted to.

[01:42:16] She tells Haleyn about the deal but he won't leave without Aster and she wants to stay with the rocks. Would you if you were Haleyn at this point would you stay or would you go? I wouldn't go with them. So yeah.

[01:42:32] You'd rather stay with Aster than go with them. I think I'd rather stay with Aster. I'd rather stay with the devil. I knew frankly. Okay. These people. Yeah. But so on a scale of one to a ref favoring the Wrexham football club over Nautz County

[01:42:48] how much of a dumbass is Chick being this episode? Oh he is being a 10 and when well done for the reference you've been following my Twitter feed. Yeah, but he's being quite a considerable dumbass. Yeah, definitely a 10. Yeah. Chick's mad at mommy again for cutting a deal.

[01:43:11] So when his idol battle starts calling for him to bring the weapon charges that he was sent for the argument escalates and Chick pulls the gun on Kennedy again only this time he pulls the trigger his face showing it was a surprise even to himself.

[01:43:27] He's finally spilled red done what battle said he needed to do to earn his respect and it was his own mom. He leaves her body and all the cubits spilled around it with one last long sad look. So yeah, this was the saddest death in the episode

[01:43:43] for me. What about you? Yeah, I mean we're the only sad one I guess. Yeah, Kennedy Kennedy probably deserved it but she didn't deserve to go out like that. I don't know who the actor who plays Chick is but a look on his face just operated.

[01:44:00] Jaylin Roots or something I think was here and then Haylin runs across a bag of glowing rocks and he starts hearing things when he looks at them and he faints. So this seems to be a somewhat twisted reference to the book I think him looking at the rocks

[01:44:15] and hearing things it's completely different but I'm curious if there will be any more similarities as we see this play out. So I'm not going to say anything about the book version. Aster has closed herself in the airlock behind the gunproof glass and battle is trying to get

[01:44:30] in to get to her only turns out it was Harmony the whole time making herself look like Aster. Aster comes up behind him and calls his name and when he turns around she starts stabbing him repeatedly in the belly as he tries choking her

[01:44:44] but the stabbing works faster than the choking and now he's dead too. What did you think his goal was going after her like just to kill her or like why doesn't he just take this stuff and go?

[01:44:53] I can't work out like at this point it has to be pure revenge because there's no other explanation. I mean frankly if he had an M common sense at this point you just cut your losses and head back to the ship and put it down.

[01:45:10] It's a bad day. He doesn't seem like a common sense kind of guy. It seems consistent with this character. I did like the fact that Harmony can put on multiple skins I think that's interesting. That's an interesting feature that the particular AI has.

[01:45:25] I wonder if she can do other people too like I could see why she would have the ability to clone Aster because she would have programmed and scanned herself in or whatever but I wonder if she can just fast scan and do other people.

[01:45:36] Yeah I hope so because that would be that could be an interesting plot device. Yeah I also wondered why didn't Aster just attack him from behind like she was like turned him around so that he could choke her.

[01:45:48] Yeah there's a lot of stuff in this episode like that that it's not a plot hole but it just doesn't quite it just doesn't quite make sense. It's a little bit clunky. Yeah but overall I quite enjoyed it so I didn't mind.

[01:46:02] Yeah I think the thing is the characters are well enough drawn and it moves along. That's it yeah. It moves along at a fast enough pace. Right. Unless you're watching the episode multiple times like we do to prepare for these shows you're probably not going to notice it.

[01:46:18] It's true. On the first run through so. So battle RIP as the life leaves battle's body he drops his dead gun into that gravity less ladder well where it and a drop of his blood float a now very collected looking chick

[01:46:34] seeing this takes the charge out of his gun and drops it down there next to it. Why do you think he did this like it was just to make a point that he wasn't going to kill it again. Battle sent into thick to fetch more charges.

[01:46:46] Right well he's not going to use it now. Like an F you and like yeah I can F you basically. Yeah because I guess he did love mommy more than battle in the end because he didn't seem bothered by battles death at all. No.

[01:47:00] But yeah his motions have left the building in general now when he goes back up to collect the cubits scattered around his mother's corpse and he boards his ship with a swagger and takes off into the depths of space. So do you think we'll ever see Jake again.

[01:47:14] I hope so I'd like to figure out I'd like to know where he went and what is what is next because he's got the cubits yeah so he's got he's got something to trade. Well he might just be taken off for his new life.

[01:47:28] You know maybe maybe reports back to the QTA and he gets assigned to it and other team records or something but I'd like to think Chip was okay he didn't he didn't deserve he didn't deserve this fight he's a nice kid. Yeah just wrong place from time.

[01:47:44] I hope he's not too like broken now that he's going to become more like battle or something. Yeah so I have to confess I looked on IMDb at like the catalysts for the rest of the season which doesn't always mean something it's not always

[01:47:58] accurate but I have to say he's not on after this episode so I'm not holding my breath but it would be a bonus maybe he's coming back in season 2. Yeah maybe yeah. So Bart finally responds to Harmony he's disoriented

[01:48:12] from the hacking but he's back now he asks if events were resolved in a satisfactory manner and she says they were resolved. Aster applies a derma patch to an unconscious halin so I guess they weren't out and he wakes up he notices battles body Aster's bloody hands how

[01:48:31] shaken she seems and he scooches up next to her to comfort her he tells her he never wanted to leave he doesn't want to be alone anymore and they wait for the QTA to arrive I guess did you get about

[01:48:44] to kiss vibes from them looking at each other's lips as they were talking and stuff. Yeah I mean I kind of hope they don't go that direction with how I don't ask that because I don't know I don't know it doesn't feel true

[01:48:59] to either one of their characters. Well I mean but they could just be looking for comfort. Yeah I think they would work much better is very good for some friends rather than rather than as a couple to be honest and anyway let's let's face it the couple

[01:49:15] in this show is probably Harmony Harmony and Bart. We're shipping them. I am definitely shipping Harmony with their couple name Bartmannie Bartmannie yeah Bartmannie or Harmony no that's hard to just say. I'm honest, I'm honest with you. Yeah. Now Bartmannie is much easier. Bartmannie is much easier.

[01:49:37] So what do you think about the end of the second episode did it hook you enough that you would come back for the third if we weren't doing this? Yeah like I say I think I'd say the same for the second

[01:49:48] episode but I said for the first just more so this is very much a character driven show not a plot and I think to be honest if you think too much about the plot you kind of see a lot of the holes in it

[01:50:05] but it's a show that moves along at a really fast type so you're not focused too much on the holes in the plot and I think not just not just the Nehdi and Stephen James in this episode but the whole cast of all the records you don't

[01:50:24] find out all that much about the characters but particularly Battle and K'nethi in this kind of battle for chick soul is quite it's quite well done. Yeah. So yeah, the character work is strong. Yeah this is definitely a carry this is definitely

[01:50:42] a show that is being carried by its characters rather than by its plot. Yeah. Yeah which is funny because it does because none of the characters are in the book like I said except I guess a hailing but in a slightly different form

[01:50:57] and I'm still trying to figure out who Aster might line up to and far as far as book characters. I'm guessing they might combine at least two of them but it is they do take world building elements from it and it seems like there's going to be thematic

[01:51:10] elements so yeah it's just interesting that the characters are the strongest part and that's not from the book but it does feel like an inspiration from the book at least if an adaptation with an asterisk inspired by more than adapted from it.

[01:51:27] Yeah but there is when you look at the details there it's a lot that they're taking and you know am I it might start looking more and more like it as we go of be keeping an eye on for it.

[01:51:37] Okay that's interesting so okay we're going to take a quick break and then we'll share our lightning round of final impressions for these first two episodes then get into the feedback from the community see how other people are responding to the show

[01:51:51] boss talk through what's coming up on this feed and the network. The quantum timer has new messages. So before we get into the feedback, Luke a lightning round I'm just gonna throw questions at you and you just throw answers back at me.

[01:52:06] Okay so who's the most trustworthy character so far? Harmony. Okay the least I agree by the way the least. Aster. Yeah reluctantly have to say that too. Best kill in the second episode? The tech guy because I do like the firing the gravity gun

[01:52:27] and Helen dodging out the way and then yeah that was pretty cool. Yeah I guess I have to agree with that although of course the canady one had the most impact but that was like the coolest one to watch yeah with the backward stab.

[01:52:40] The lamest death we probably agree on this one too. Oh yeah big face. Big face yeah. Yeah I expected more from that death. Sorry it just didn't work. I feel like yeah we could have from that actress we probably could have gotten more awesome fight team but anyway.

[01:52:56] Yeah. Most intriguing mystery going forward. What happened to Solomon? Where is Solomon? Yeah and piece of world building you want to know more about. From both episodes I want to know more about the why the colonies need constant resupply from

[01:53:16] right because it just feels that feels either like something that's going to be explained in a really cool and interesting way or a gigantic plot. And I can't work out which of them. All right I guess my most intriguing mystery is the rocks and how they're affecting Helen

[01:53:36] and the world building are one know most about as the QTI I want to know what the QTA is what they do with their dealers. All right well getting into other people's thoughts we first we have some feedback from Abby.

[01:53:48] Abby broke down the beacon 23 book with me in the book club so link in the show notes again. Abby says just watch the first episode of beacon looks so good the inside the outside the space environment and while that ship docking was amazing.

[01:54:05] Also this is definitely only inspired by the book and basically a different story but fine on its own. GWB meditation and man and lighthouse art a nice touch evil AI Bart reminded me of Miss minutes which is a character in low key watch the second episode to

[01:54:23] some very cool tech there the no grab fight and the pulse guns visually great so if that the fight works for her OK. So he got implants huh kids spilling red was brutal yeah these rocks seem to influence Halen in some way

[01:54:40] wonder where this is going I still want cricket cricket to character from the book and I want to get to yeah and I'm wondering with the rocks for book readers I'm wondering if there's any tie with Rocky here with the fact that he's hearing voices. Yeah any thoughts.

[01:54:57] Yeah no I mean I'm glad that the zero gravity fight work for Abby until I'm told otherwise I think the rocks are interfering with Halen's implants in some way or interact some sort of radiation they're giving off yeah okay I think that's what we're meant to understand

[01:55:17] this going on. OK so Mark at Mark all 84 and Twitter says it was surprisingly good there is still so much to learn about this show what's so special about the rocks who else has implants who killed Solomon I don't think

[01:55:32] I have a favorite character yet definitely not the beacons AI he's a bit too rogue and kill happy who's yours well I think ours is. Yeah yeah I mean you say you should be a little bit

[01:55:44] rogue and kill happy I mean he is yeah but the pork for AI has been tortured by Alan's unknown period of time I think he has the right to be a little bit out of sorts to be honest.

[01:55:58] Yeah I don't I still think that it's Solomon messing with him because Solomon was so mean to him Halen's got to be better than that. Or maybe Haley edited the video who knows yeah but yeah we definitely did get I doubt it we definitely did get the jerk

[01:56:14] version of Steve Brute. Yeah there are several different characters like archetypes and Steve Brute you get with the Steve Brute form and this is definitely like if he's jerk version of Stephen Brute. Can't wait to see more of it I wonder if he behaves that way

[01:56:32] toward everyone or if we'll see him interact with anyone. Yeah. So for Alisa at fur underscore Alisa says lots of mystery love the space tech and idea of personal AI the technology is really cool the world is very different from anything

[01:56:47] I watched before Lena Hedy is great it does give me dark Star Trek vibes interested to see where it goes I have questions about that future how did they get there why Beacons Steve and James played a PTSD soldier in that Julia

[01:57:03] Robert Sam Esmeil show season one of Homecoming hope he's not getting typecasted all in all good start I'm intrigued. Yeah I like dark Star Trek. Yeah I think that's a good way to describe the show and like I think you can definitely tell that one of the

[01:57:20] producers has worked in the Star Trek universe I think there is a definite trek feel to the way the universe has been set up so I like dark Star Trek I'm appropriated that as a description for the show I think that I think that really

[01:57:38] encapsulates what they're trying to get across. No I think that's perfect too and about the Stephen James getting typecasted my precious her royal bubbliness a J. D. I. to underscore she jumped in and said aha I knew he

[01:57:53] in the character looks familiar I couldn't place it till I saw your comment yes he played a soldier suffering PTSD any victim of experimental drug used on him as well in Homecoming so I haven't seen this you have you watched

[01:58:07] Tom no I haven't but not only not only does Helen suffer from PTSD but his experimental drug uses quite high in this show is low so maybe is it typecast yeah I think Stephen James plays a plays a really good

[01:58:25] part because Lena Heady is such a Lena Heady is just strong screen presence that it would be quite easy but asked his character to overwhelm Alan so I think that the fact that that doesn't happen speaks very well of Stephen

[01:58:43] James ability as an actor because Lena Heady is a very you know very strong screen presence yeah absolutely yeah he he stands up to it yeah yeah they must have done chemistry tests. And yes so precious continues I've seen the first two episodes

[01:59:02] of beacon 23 and I gotta say I'm not drawn into the story don't have an idea of what's going on yet and it's a little too slow but I'll try to see the next episode to see how it goes so far I'm intrigued by Halen especially

[01:59:15] with how he switches from someone reliving some trauma or something to survival mode to him saying he doesn't want to be alone it's an entire spectrum that I don't understand yet but I'm curious. Yeah I mean I think that thing about you don't

[01:59:29] understand yet I think the I think Halen doesn't understand what he wants yeah that's fair too I think it's impossible for the audience to follow Helen because he doesn't know what's between any given moment and this is you know I think this is a guy trying to work

[01:59:46] out. I gotta say I don't agree at all about it moving slowly I think it moves are really cracking pace to be honest in fact if anything if anything I think probably but certainly for the first episode it probably moved

[02:00:02] a little bit too quick yeah okay like you say I would have liked to get a bit more of a sense of Halen's routine as a beacon keeper. Right okay before we jump straight into the action. Okay yeah no I understand like feeling I don't know if

[02:00:20] you don't get if the questions that it leaves at the end doesn't grip you then you're sort of like wow why am I continuing but yeah no I'm curious I'm curious to hear precious what you think of episode three and if

[02:00:34] that makes you want to keep going or if you say this one's just not for me which is fair. Okay so from Lidartha at Lidartha we have haven't read the book show has what I need high quality fully committed actors well written script with believable surprises great

[02:00:53] visuals one thing I noticed because it's rare no over explaining of the tech the future etc. We figure it out for ourselves and I like that. Yeah I like that yeah I tend to prefer my sci-fi these that gives the science bubble to a minimum to be honest.

[02:01:12] Okay yeah so I like the fact that they don't feel the need to explain how the TFL sort of things like that. Yeah I thought that was kind of cool. I like the science I like science in general like I like

[02:01:29] to you know figure out what's how it's working in the show but I think that they give us enough context that we can just kind of piece it together you know like we've been guessing about the Cubits might be totally off but

[02:01:40] they give us enough to play with that idea like the especially with the bio weapons stuff. Yeah we don't need to know more than they've told us and shown us with like the squishy tubes and stuff. So by the way I also post on the beacon 23 subreddit

[02:01:59] to collect feedback if you want to leave feedback there I'll leave a link in the show notes. I do not run that subreddit myself FYI but we did hear from the head moderator there Pharius and Pharius says

[02:02:11] I like the show but I would have preferred that they stuck to the book plot more my least favorite change is him not being sanctioned or assigned there and basically making him into an AWOL soldier instead of an honorable

[02:02:24] war veteran my most favorite change would be the addition of the AIs so agree in the AIs and yeah as far as I think there's yeah there's I'm curious about the fact that they that he's not there being honored like he was okay

[02:02:41] so in the book he has a medal and he's like feeling guilty about the fact that everyone sees him as a hero and he doesn't feel like a hero. So that dynamic is not present in the show at this point

[02:02:56] so okay yeah I understand that I understand that criticism for sure. Okay interesting and yeah so also from the Lorhounds discord and you'll find that link in the show notes as well we subzero said I watched episode one last night and I enjoyed it.

[02:03:13] Lena Headey is just so compelling in everything she does. I've never seen the other guy but I think he did a pretty good job as well. I was sufficiently hooked to keep watching although full disclosure when it comes to sci-fi slash fantasy my bar is

[02:03:27] pretty low laughing emoji. I've not read the book so I'm just taking the story as is definitely silo vibes when you look down the stairwell. Yeah there's definitely a Q Howie likes himself a spiral staircase. But that's not really how it's described in the book actually

[02:03:45] okay more like I had the impression it was more like ladders at least but like I said it's you know in the book it's much smaller because it's just a place for one guy it's not like this whole big station for one guy alone.

[02:03:57] I don't know as I like to spend years there but I certainly like to spend a weekend on the beacon it looks it seems really peaceful and like the whoever does the interior design for the beakers you know deserves to win some more

[02:04:10] because it looks it's got a real like nice minimalist vibe. Yeah yeah I mean okay so the beacon in the books it's feels bigger than for instance the space stations we have in our reality right now and it's just for one person so

[02:04:25] it's an upgrade from that but more closer on that scale where you know he's kind of sliding through different hallways and okay so so toy she says I just finished the second episode and I'm all in even though they're very

[02:04:39] different shows the tone and art direction gives me vibes like the expense did that's high praise because I love the expense I do wonder if the AIs are little too human my theory the rocks are like a narcotic big money on

[02:04:54] getting high laughing emoji what do you think are the rocks. I hope not there are enough drugs floating around and floating around this beacon to begin with everybody everybody is tripping balls on the space station but it's like Brave New World you know or like Valley of

[02:05:13] the Dolls you've got your pills to get you up get your pills and put your bed that could be quite cool. About the AIs being too human I get what I get the criticism of that but I don't share it like I think the AIs are

[02:05:30] probably the two most interesting characters at the moment. Yeah I do tend to like human-esque human-esque you know robot characters like I love data from Star Trek and I and also you know it's the same with Orville my favorite character and yeah yeah okay well that was our

[02:05:49] feedback for the week I will put up after so we're going to be doing the next three episodes together episodes three through five so I'll be collecting feedback for those three episodes together about a week before a few

[02:06:04] days before we record I'll put up a tweet on Twitter and I will ask for feedback in the Discord and on the Reddit and if you want to send in feedback on an episode by episode basis as you watch before that please feel free

[02:06:22] to get in touch with me on any of those platforms and we have our email address Willshiftdustpodcastatgmail.com that link will be in the show notes too so send your feedback about week in 23 or anything else we're covering at any time.

[02:06:37] So yeah the next three episodes are titled Why Can't We Go On Us Three is episode three appropriately God in the Machine is four and Rocky is five Luke any predictions for these three episodes based on the titles?

[02:06:51] No but I love God in the Machine I'm curious as to what that is. No that is a very Star Trek-y title by the way in terms of Dark Star Trek. There's X Machina. Yeah. I wonder I hope that's not a plot prediction or maybe I

[02:07:08] don't know I guess I don't mind if it is. We'll see we'll see. Yeah I'm wondering who the third is in three so Can't We Go On is three so we've got Hallen and Aster presumably and one of the AI like who do they want to leave out?

[02:07:21] Yeah. Is it Bart wanting to leave out Harmony or just as for Bart? Oh actually maybe Bart wants to leave out. Yeah maybe Bart wants to leave out Hallen actually yeah. Yeah book readers I want to know if you think the AI might

[02:07:36] play a similar role to Crickets in the book and yeah in the third episode is also for book readers it's called Rocky. Rocky's a character from the show I don't yeah it doesn't look like we're going to get that character but obviously

[02:07:49] that makes me very curious about episode five so yeah so it's gonna be two weeks off for Beacon Coverage and then we'll be back with those three episodes together but in the meantime here in this feed we will be

[02:08:02] breaking down the Dune novel and in that Dune novel breakdown we will be ranking the most iconic scenes based on feedback collected from a whole bunch of readers. So you can already catch up with the intro ep where

[02:08:16] we we talk about Frank Herbert's life how and why this story was created and what we'll be covering in the total Dune series which we're stretching out between now and when the movie releases in the spring and by the

[02:08:29] way we also mentioned our three body coverage but I wanted to report that the three-body TV show on Netflix is being moved to March so no longer in January that will be in March and that's when our coverage will take place to March is already getting busy.

[02:08:45] Yeah in the book club you'll find the breakdown for this book Beacon 23 and then next up is a second book in the Silo series shift so that link in the show notes and you can find us on Twitter to share your thoughts on

[02:08:58] Beacon 23 or anything else we're covering. You'll find me at Alicia CB you'll see the find that in the show notes and Luke. So I am Luke Middop on the Dead Bird app formerly known as Twitter. I'm also Luke Middop on Blue Sky.

[02:09:16] I do a podcast with a couple of friends from uni called it could be said. We look at British politics. We look at international politics and occasionally we look at sport. I think we're recording over the weekend doing a special

[02:09:30] on the surprising return of David Cameron as foreign second. Oh right. So we all hit our heads and woke up in 2010. Nobody had that on their bingo cards. Yeah. Okay. And we'll link that in the show notes as well.

[02:09:47] And on the Lorhoun's feed we just wrapped up our low key coverage with the emotional season finale. That was a particularly I don't say fun episode but a particularly deep episode. And next up we are recording our Marvel's coverage this weekend.

[02:10:05] There's also one shots coming up for the movies a creator Napoleon rebel moon and the guys in Maryland are doing the book nook and Star Wars movie watch throughs next up for Star Wars is solo and the holiday special. And also there's properly Howard they are between seasons

[02:10:25] now but you can catch up on their previous Coquitin of horror coverage and also their properly Howard coverage where they broke down a bunch of classic sequel movies but yeah honestly you don't have to have seen the movies to just like have a good time with these guys

[02:10:40] and they are teaming up with David and John to cover separates so they're going through the first season right now and then for season two whenever that comes out the four of them will be joining up together to cover it as for us.

[02:10:56] We'll see you back in this feed soon with more beacon 23 and doon and until then we'll be getting our Gwibbuzz on while we stare at photos of lighthouses by everybody. Okay David this is where we're supposed to choose

[02:11:29] aside green or black John my soul is as black as night. Your turn. I am black for life so we're not fighting I thought this is where HBO wanted us to like pick sides and fight and stuff. Don't worry I'm sure we'll find plenty to disagree about on

[02:11:48] the pod but we seem to agree on one thing we both really like the show the politics the drama the lore it was made for the Lorehounds and since we just finished recapping season one we couldn't be more ready to defend our

[02:12:02] black Queen in the Dance of the Dragons and with the season pass option and Supercast listeners can get early ad-free access to each weekly scene by scene deep dive plus our custom show guide with all the characters and connections.

[02:12:15] See you in the Lorehounds podcast feed each week for our dragonfire hot but probably positive takes a Lorehounds House of the Dragon covers is also safe routine green consumption side effects may include a deeper understanding of dragon lore a hardened conflict with itself and

[02:12:28] an inescapable urge to read the book fire and blood by George RR Martin dragon seeds may experience burning.