Episode 4: Under The Gun --OR-- Hand On My Head

Download the full script here

In this episode, the Company deals with some frustrations within the band and learns more about the work ahead.

Warlord Magna comes aboard the Kyrgan at her own behest to learn more about who it is she’s working with. Magna, definitely not a spider-beast, clearly wants more from the Company than she can get. Bernie is sentenced to ten years dungeon for destroying vital information.

This episode is kind of bottle-y, but in my opinion was a vital step towards showing the kind of day to day interactions between the Company members. We learn a lot about the hierarchy here. Ahab is the captain, regardless of how it may be on missions. He controls the team. Bernie might have his rocky heart in the right place, maybe— he definitely doesn’t do things to his team mates out of malice, but his actions do have consequences. His choice to kill Bullhorn before Ahab could extract any meaningful intel put their lives in jeopardy twice. Both during the riot afterwards and now at some unknown point in the future, when this apparently rich person with the means to corrupt even the Imperial Union of Gladiators decides to strike again.

And without any further leads, they need to head to Cobb Gnarly’s spaceport. Cobb… well, we’ll meet him in due time. There’s certainly nothing altruistic about him.

This episode also contains something of a mishap. There’s a scene in the bottom deck of the Kyrgan between Clyde and Bernie, that while does further their relationship, is also laden with far too much echo. I wanted a more subtle effect here but accidentally layered the filter on twice, and ruined the original voice recordings. Not salvageable, not undoable.

It’s not altogether the worst mistake possible, but it does muddy the conversation unnecessarily more than it should be. There isn’t THAT much space in the bottom of the Kyrgan. I’ll have ship schematics here at some point, hopefully.

The basic layout of the ship is thus:

The top deck is relatively narrow but fairly long. There are four bunks here, a narrow central area with the communications equipment, and the controls of the ship which can hold two.

The Kyrgan has various boxes and pods for herself, and to the right side of the ship is the central entrance point for people. There are smaller shuttles attached to either side.

The second floor is mainly for cargo, about 40 yards in length, but Bernie occupies a good portion of it when they aren’t hauling things. There’s a secondary compartment for their tech and equipment, about the size of an executive office.

It is very dirty down there. This is because Bernie sheds a lot. He’s also just generally a very earthy guy.

Episode 4 Cast:

Ahab- Ryan Sheehe

Bernie- Morgan Stewart

Clyde- Derek Huss

Narrator- Jake Roberts

Kyrgan- Katie Pappas

Warlord Magna - Katelyn Sabet

Episode 3: A Fork In The Road -- OR -- Hard Times Come Again No More

The script for Episode 3 is available here

Ahab takes down Bullhorn and the Imperial Union of Gladiators!

This episode had a lot of technical issues. You might notice that Ahab is perhaps uncharacteristically quiet during his match with Bullhorn— Ahab had some audio issues a few times over here. We recorded Ahab 3 times for this episode and ended up having to use a good portion of audio from session 2, despite it being inferior for various reasons.

I also had some difficulty with Bullhorn’s men. I used some freely available audio for the chanting, but I tried to mask it’s Earthly origin the best I could with some other sounds lest our wise and honorable audience discover it’s true source. Kayfabe!

This was the first true large action setpiece in the show. Did you feel like you could see the Kyrgan blowing through the walls of the arena? Dropping that escape vessel? I worked that section to death. I initially completed it in 2018 and fiddled with it for another 11 months off and on. It was the part that convinced me we should just go ahead and launch the damn thing instead of sitting on it forever and letting it die on the vine.

I can’t overstate how bitterly I felt about releasing the show without making it as excellent as possible. I think in many cases i may have over-edited. There’s a bit in episode 4—- we’ll get to it.

Leaving Fork behind is perhaps the Companies’ biggest mistake yet. He was a loyal dude despite his shortcomings as a weak minded baby, and with his new found bloodlust— it’s hard to say exactly what might happen to Fork. But rest assured, we will discover his fate one way or another. Someday.

Credits:

Ahab- Ryan Sheehe

Bernie - Morgan Stewart

Clyde - Derek Huss

The Kyrgan- Katie Pappas

Narrator- Jake Roberts

Bullhorn - Will Vogler

Episode 2: The Plan -- OR -- Boom Boom, Ain't It Great To Be Crazy

The script for Episode 2 can be found here.

This was the first original episode written for the podcast that had no relationship to the comic series or movie, it was fully original material.

In retrospect, if I had been smarter about it, episode 1 would have ended after some interaction with the gladiators instead of at the point of their capture— Episode one is relatively short and is absolutely starved of action. I repeat this mistake in episode 4, but it’s corrected for after that I believe.

This episode Sarah Sheppard and Will Vogler make their debut, while our dutiful and ever upbeat narrator Jake Roberts gets a turn as the heel Gerber. I told him to do the worst wrestler voice he could muster and he delivered in spades as he always does.

Sarah’s part I intended to recur throughout season one, but I didn’t find the space for it. The doctor is canonically alive and could return should the space allow for it. I liked her poetic yet curt bedside manner.

Will, playing Bullhorn also as a terrible wrestler, maybe had too small a part for how big his voice is. If season 2 sees light of day, I imagine he’ll return in some capacity.

This episode was the first major hurdle I had in learning to edit a very large set of sound beds and effects. There’s so much happening here in so many locations— I almost feel it’s still underdeveloped environmentally. There was a lot more that could have been done.

One of the places my sound libraries fails most often is in crowd sounds, or beds of passing people. I only like to use the sounds of feet moving when they’re important to the story. Though they do provide some ambient joy here and there I often find them annoying to listen to. So chalk it up to personal taste, which I’ve never been accused of having a lot of.

Episode 2:

Ahab/Guard- Ryan Sheehe

Bernie- Morgan Stewart

Clyde- Derek Huss

Kyrgan- Katie Pappas

Narrator/Gerber- Jake Roberts

Bullhorn- Will Vogler

Doctor- Sarah Sheppard