WEBVTT - Anthology of Horror, Volume 8 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:15.040 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:18.239 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Seth Nicholas Johnson. 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.600 That's right, because Joe McCormick is out on parental leave. 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:25.200 We're happy to inform everyone that he is now the 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:28.800 proud father of a baby girl and the whole family 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:31.800 is doing great. But he's going to take a little 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:36.120 time off from the podcast here and we'll return, uh 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.879 and really basically no time at all before long at all, 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:42.160 Joe will be back and he'll tell us all about 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.920 his adventures. Yeah, but congratulations to Joe and to his 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.839 wife and I guess to their new child. Congrats, congrats 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:54.040 on being born young one. Well, today's episode is going 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:58.440 to be a volume eight in a continuing series. This 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:01.440 is the Stuff to Blow Your In tradition of Anthology 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:05.399 of Horror Um this series. In this series, what we 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.040 do every year is we lay out a challenge to ourselves. 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:12.559 In the past, it's been Joe and I, but this year, 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:15.360 at kind of the last minute, Seth was able to 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:17.840 jump in and uh and be a part of it 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:20.240 as well. But the basic challenge has always go out 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.679 into the world of TV anthology series, especially horror and 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.559 sci fi series, and find something that is not only 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.840 entertaining but also raises a question worthy of discussion on 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:36.440 the podcast. And sometimes that question might be very ultimately, 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:38.000 kind of small, maybe not the kind of thing that 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.080 we would normally tackle, certainly as a full blown episode. 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.720 Other times it might tie into stuff we've talked about before, 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:47.080 but yeah, kind of just a quirky challenge and something 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:51.000 seasonally appropriate for Hawley. Has it always been television? Have 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:54.280 you guys ever done movies or radio or any other 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.520 kind of anthology bits. I think we dipped into film 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:01.160 a little bit because last year or the before I 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:05.560 picked one off of an anthology film, one that had 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:08.600 a killer cat in it. Uh So, so we have 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.680 gotten a little bit into into anthology films. Haven't really 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.919 got into radio. Someday, someday, There's plenty of opportunities out 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:18.720 there and plenty of anthologies. It's a, it's it's it's 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:22.680 a wonderful format for storytelling. I think it's a. Isn't 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:24.680 there a new one on Netflix this year from Gilliermo 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:29.000 del Toro Capital Curiosities. I want to say, as of 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:31.799 this recording. It's it's just dropped or some of the 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.079 episodes have just dropped, so I'll be checking it out tonight. Ditto, ditto. 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:38.560 But oh, but speaking of Netflix, well we'll get to that. Yeah. 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.720 But the anthology series are an interesting animal because, like 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:43.440 you said, there have been so many of them, and 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.120 every year when it's time to poke around for something 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:49.320 to cover and on the anthology of horror series, I'm 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.240 always just astounded by how much there is. How much 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:54.840 I mean, because there are the big shows that everyone knows. 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.679 I mean, everyone's familiar with the Twilight Zone and it's 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:02.680 Multiple Resurgency. Uh, there's of course the classic Outer Limits 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:05.720 and then the nineties Outer Limits, tons of episodes there. 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.799 But there's so many additional shows that have in many 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.480 cases have sort of fallen through the cracks of time, 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:14.040 and you there were one or two even then. I 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:15.400 looked up for this show where I'm like, oh, that 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:19.000 sounds like a fascinating topic idea. They really I think 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:21.840 it was let's see, what was it episodes of a 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.680 show called the dark Room or dark Room, and I 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.440 could not find them streaming anywhere. Looks like NBC was 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:31.600 streaming them online for a little bit, but are not anymore. So, Yeah, 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:33.680 there's just a lot of stuff out there. And of 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.840 course one of the great things and the the just 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:40.280 quirky things about anthology series is you're always going to 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:43.440 have ups and downs. We can have those really strong 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.880 episodes with great ideas, uh, and then you're gonna have 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.880 the some some less impressive installments. You're gonna have the 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:53.520 episodes that clearly got maybe a little more of the 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:56.480 lion's share of the budget, and others that were more 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:58.960 you know, bottle episodes and so forth. But but I 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:03.080 love the idea of failure because often failure goes hand 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.440 in hand with experimentation, and if you never try to 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.840 push boundaries, you'll never fail, but you'll never make anything 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:13.000 great either. So I I like people swinging for the fences, 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:15.720 going big and sometimes it doesn't work, but at least 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:17.520 you tried, you know. And that's that's how you get 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:20.680 good things. Yeah. And it's the and and it is 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.520 that that that varied topography of quality and going for 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.200 different things, having different creators, different authors involved in a series, 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:30.479 that the result and you're getting the ones that like 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:35.280 really match up with your expectations and your and your 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:38.080 in your taste. You just have to endure the ones 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:41.880 that don't hit that mark for you personally, m for sure. 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:43.919 So on that note, UM, you know, we've got a 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.000 couple picked out here today. I picked one out, You've 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.479 picked one out in the past. A lot of the 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.400 episodes of that we've looked at in the Anthology of 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:52.880 Horror series are kind of like a lot of the 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:56.239 films featured on Weird How Cinema stem from the twentieth century. 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:59.120 But the first selection here today, the one I picked out, 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.520 is not only from twenty first century, it's actually from 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:06.800 earlier this year. It is the episode Bad Traveling off 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.440 of season three of Love, Death, and Robots on Netflix. 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.920 I was actually really excited you picked this because typically 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:16.680 I'm not a Netflix subscriber. It's just not you know, 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.440 I subscribe to other streaming services, but just Netflix isn't 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.000 one of them. And um, I had heard of this, 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:24.360 and I had seen stuff, and as a big animation fan, 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:26.520 I wanted to see it, but it just hadn't come 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:28.080 up in my life yet. So this was a great 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:30.480 excuse for me to buckle down, turn it on and 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:32.480 watch it. And I was I was thrilled that This 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.920 was my first exposure to actually watching an episode of Love, 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.960 Death and Robots. Yeah, this one. I really enjoyed this. 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:41.840 This is a series that started in twenty nineteen. Uh. 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:44.760 The principal show runners or Tim Miller and David Fincher. 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:48.960 This particular episode directed by David Fincher, but also with 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:54.320 Frank Balson, Jerome Den Jene and Jennifer you Nelson. You 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:58.520 know more about the creation of animated material than I do, 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:01.719 so I don't. I it's easier to have that idea 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:03.840 in mind, like what is the director of a movie 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.359 look like? You see them setting in the movie director 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.640 chair and shouting cut and so forth. It's harder. I 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:13.479 don't have an image that I can easily go to 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.960 for what does the director or directors of an animated 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:20.400 installment or movie look like? I mean, it's it's honestly, 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:25.120 it's It's extremely complicated and really varied from not only 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.080 from project to project, but even within a project. I'll 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:31.120 give you an example. There was a show I was 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:32.880 working on. Oh, if folks don't know, I have a 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.880 background in an animation, mostly for television and film, and 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.200 um one of the jobs I was doing, I was 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:41.880 working on a show called Cake. Okay. It was an 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:44.760 actually it was a kind of an anthology. It was 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:47.920 a bunch of a quick shorts stitched together, um kind 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:50.400 of liquid television style. This was on f x X 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:52.040 and that you can find out in Hulu. Now it's 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.000 a great show. I like Cake. Um. But anyway, one 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.960 of the shorts that I was the director on wentz 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.760 and was uh clipped out of the show and then 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.240 submitted to the Sundance Film Festival where it played. And 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.279 I was really happy about that and everything. But because 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.960 I was listed as a director for the television series, 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:13.440 that was one distinction. But as soon as it played 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:15.640 in theaters, the guy who had created this show had 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.200 to contact me and be like, hey, Sundance is calling 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.720 me the director. Can I call you the animation director? 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.640 And I'm like, I don't care, go ahead, buddy. And 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.640 it's and that's the thing. It's that like there are 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:30.840 these like little like distinctions between just just even like 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:32.960 you know, unions and stuff like if this played on 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.320 a screen, it's different than what if it's played on television. 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:38.320 Did you direct the actors, did you direct the animators? 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:41.000 Did you just direct everything? You know? Did you direct 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:43.760 a storyboard artists, which is probably the most important actual 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:48.720 like traditional director's job there is when it comes to animation. 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.520 So so yeah, it's it's very um, it's varied, and 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.760 also there might be four or five different directors based 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:58.520 upon whether or not one person actually watched all those 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:02.120 different tasks. Well, I I've I've very much enjoyed Love, 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:04.720 Death and Robots, Uh, for the most part. With the 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:08.200 caveat that it is it is an anthology series, so 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:13.080 you're gonna get those the shifts in in overall quality 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:15.320 and you know, stuff matching up to my taste or not. 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:17.440 Like some of the stuff that they have on the 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.240 show is maybe a little bit more mo sho military 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:24.120 sci fi than anything I'm into these days. Uh. Some 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:26.920 cases that the animation is is very good. Other times 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:31.880 the animation is amazing, though amazing animation animation episodes don't 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:35.120 always match up with like amazing script episodes. But but 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.280 that's all right. It's a it's a showcase. It's a 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:41.240 spectacle the animation and this one is amazing though really beautiful, 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.440 and um, whenever I see something like this that's really 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:49.120 advanced computer generated animation, I often think to myself if 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.520 I was somehow able to project this as a film 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.760 for someone in like the nineteen thirties, nineteen forties, what 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.640 would they think it is? Like? What they think that 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:02.320 these are just like odd oddly shaped actors. Would would 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:04.680 they realize that, yes, it is animation, but they would 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.960 have no idea how it was made. Would they just 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:08.640 dismiss it as like, oh, this must be like the 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.080 next new rotoscoping technique, and that's it. They don't think 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.000 that it's actually as advanced as it truly is. It's 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:15.920 it's it's just an odd experiment. I can never really 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:18.600 get my head around. Yeah. Yeah, because for most of us, 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:22.720 we've we've we've grown up watching at least some of 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:25.800 it play out like we've seen. If you were old 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:28.760 enough to to see the first toy story, like you've 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:33.559 you've been around for a certain degree of the evolution 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:38.680 of computer generated imagery and computer generated animation. But yeah, 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.760 like with um younger viewers, you've just you're just born 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.200 into it and like here it is, and then how 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:47.520 would how would people in older generations have responded to this? 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.160 So each season has had it's uh, it's it's episodes 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.559 that stand out to me Um. There were a couple 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.720 of Joe Landsdale adaptations in season one. I believe the 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.160 Dump and the Tall Grass that might have been in 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.320 the season one and reason two. There's an episode titled 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:06.079 The Drowned Giant. There's a funny one title of the 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.720 Automated Customer Service. So yeah, some of the episodes lean 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:14.280 more funny. Other episodes get really serious, almost too serious, 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:19.120 and and some are more just like pure artful spectacle. Now. 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.760 Bad Traveling is based on a story by contemporary English 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.480 author Neil Asher, who I've I've never read, but I 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.840 recognized his name from various sci fi titles that I've 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:34.240 seen online or in bookstores. There's another episode in this 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.760 series based on one of his stories, Mason's Rats. That's 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.160 also quite good. Also a highlight from season three. But 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:44.800 while that one is funny, Bad Traveling is quite serious, 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:48.680 quite grim. Um and if you need any further evidence 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:52.520 of that, uh. Andrew Kevin Walker of seven Fame wrote 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.480 the screenplay for it. That's nice that, Uh we got 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:59.720 a nice little reunion then since was directing, Yeah, yeah, 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.960 it's each is the voice talents of Troy Baker, Jason Fleming, 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:05.680 uh and uh and and numerous others, and I believe 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.760 Blur Studios was the principal animation studio on this one, 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.400 but Tacit Sign Studio is also credited anyway. The setting 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.880 of the story is a fantasy twist on the age 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.520 of sales and the age of big ships, with a 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.520 crew of sailors braving an alien ocean hunting for something 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.600 called a javel shark. I believe there's some some sort 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.760 of a large, fierce sea creature that they're out there hunting, 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:32.440 and later on it's revealed that they're hunting them for oil. 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.920 Ships are often lost in this UH in this pursuit, 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:39.640 and they often and then doing so, they experience what's 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:43.400 called bad traveling. That's the sailors slang for a bad voyage, 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.200 and so of course our story is going to involve 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:49.480 some bad traveling. The ship in our story encounters a 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:53.840 terrible storm and is quickly boarded by a monstrous giant 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:58.760 crab called a fanapod, which take which kills multiple crew members, 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:03.440 takes up residents low deck and UH lots are then 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:06.240 drawn drawn among the crew see who's going to go 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:08.960 down and deal with the monster, and this character Torn 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.400 winds up with the duty. Now this is where the 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.800 plot gets clever. The fanopod, we learn, is not just 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:19.880 a big monstrous crab. It also can use the bodies 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:24.079 of human dead to speak. So there's this grotesque scene 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:26.840 where it picks up I think, just like the like 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.640 the upper half of a dead sailor and begins to 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:33.040 speak through its mouth in in like a garbled dead 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.600 man's voice and uh. And this is kind of a 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.000 nice twist that also seems to channel attack of the 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:41.640 crab monsters in a fun way. It also reminded me 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:46.160 of that scene from the film Independence Day where a 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:50.160 Brent Spiner playing a scientist gets captured by one of 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:53.480 the aliens and is also used in a very similar 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:56.640 way like a little puppet to communicate to the humans 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.080 what they're actually here for, what they want. You know, 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:02.360 it's a it's it's it's it's a beautiful little uh 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.280 little tool. You know, it makes perfect sense, and it 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.040 kind of gives you kind of that logic of the 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:09.680 babblefish where I guess babel fish depending on how you 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:13.120 pronounce it from the Hitchhiker series. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.719 hadn't thought of those connections, but yeah, totally so This 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:19.880 twist also changes things a bit because suddenly the fanopod 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:22.640 is in a position to lay out what it wants 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:26.080 to make demands, and Torn is actually in a position 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:29.959 to make a deal with the monster. So the fanapod says, okay, 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.000 I want you to sail me to Fadeen Island, which 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.520 we're told is a heavily populated island. And if we 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.200 don't have to really guess at what a monster like 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:41.920 this wants with a heavily populated island, clearly wants to 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:44.320 eat a bunch of people. Clearly it's a bad thing. 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:49.160 But the fanopod is making the this offer, and uh, 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.800 Torn is listening to it, and they kind of come 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:54.560 to terms. Okay, he'll do this in exchange for his 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.040 own life, So you're not allowed to eat me, fanapod. 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:01.400 And also, I need the key that was in the 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:05.160 captain's pocket, um, the captain that you just ate. And 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:07.760 so the fantopod like barfs up some remnants of the 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.600 captain and he gets the key, which he uses to 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:14.240 unlock the captain's pistol. And he then he uses the pistol, 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:15.960 which I believe is the only pistol in the ship, 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:18.840 to claim control over the ship UH to sort of 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:23.040 put the mutinous other crew members in check, at least 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.560 for the time being. But then he puts the question 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:27.880 to the crew, puts it to a vote, even what 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:29.840 are we going to do? There's this monster in the 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:32.120 hold of the ship that wants to go to a 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:36.120 heavily populated island and and do you know, god knows what, 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:39.640 but probably eat people. What should we do? Should we say, 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:43.080 should we agree to this and yes, deliver the fantopod 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.320 to Phaytan, or should we instead drop it off at 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:49.000 a nearby deserted island. So there's a great deal of 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:52.280 turmoil over this. Some crew members, maybe more than a few, 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.680 simply want to give the monster what it wants. Meanwhile, 0:14:55.760 --> 0:15:00.360 it becomes clear that the monster has even more or 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:05.040 ravenous ideas in mind. The monster is clearly apparent now 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.280 and the depths of the ship are soon crawling with 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:11.120 these palid crabblings that look a lot like um like 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:15.000 the sorts of crabs you'd find living around UH deep 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.800 sea thermal events. And I'm not going to spoil how 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.080 things turn out, but it's a it's a fun action 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:23.760 horror ride. The central monster the Fantopod is a real 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:28.080 grotesque treat, And yeah, you're left trying to figure out 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.880 where it's gonna land. Essentially, who's gonna win. Is it 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:33.760 going to be this this monster or is it going 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:37.200 to be the humans and is Torn or any of 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:39.760 the other crew members going to be able to stand 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:43.560 up and uh and and and prevent some horrible fate 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:46.680 falling on the unsuspecting people of Fate in Ireland. It's 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:48.560 also got a lot of really fun kind of like 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:53.200 logic deductive twists happening from people to people. It reminds 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:54.960 me of like kind of like those like old um 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:59.920 riddles where it's like, hey, someone stole these pastries at 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:02.160 one make sure they handle this coin and put it 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:04.080 in the bucket of water. We'll figure out who the 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.240 liar is. Like, it's it's got some real like, hey, 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:08.840 we have to figure out a way not only to 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:11.720 cope with this monster, but cope with one another. Let's 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.320 use some logic, let's use some planning to kind of 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:16.800 try and figure that out. And it's yeah, it's just 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:20.400 it just unfolds beautifully. It looks beautiful. The story is fun. 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.760 This the science fiction speculative fiction elements are a lot 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:26.720 of fun. It's it's great all around. Yeah, And I 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:28.880 can easily recommend this one as a as a first 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.800 Love Death Robots episode to watch for anyone out there 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:35.280 who hasn't checked out the show, because, like I said, 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:37.840 some of the episodes skew a little bit dark for 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.840 my taste, uh and some are more humorous, And I 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:43.640 feel like this one is is a serious piece but 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.320 also a good balance of of darkness. Yeah. The the 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:49.600 only kind of like um Copia I'd give anyone is 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:53.040 that it's it's quite gory, but it is cartoon gore, 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.520 So you know, I guess that that's left up to 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:59.360 the viewer and their own kind of understanding of themselves. 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:01.400 But to yeah, the worst thing you Cara have to 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:03.880 deal with is a lot of blood and guts. Cartoon 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:12.320 blood guts, but blood and guts. Now, when it comes 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:16.360 to the science of this episode, I think the interesting 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:19.280 science angle on Bad Traveling is that what we have 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:24.320 here as a tale of a devastating invasive shipborn organism, 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:26.960 and this whole scenario serves as kind of a fantastic 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:31.480 exaggeration of the very real history and present reality of 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:35.880 shipborn invasive species. They are multiple avenues by which invasive 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:39.560 species and then includes plant species and animal species have 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.639 been and are still being spread through human activities. These 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.960 as outlined in twenty eight teens Animals and Human Society 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:52.560 by Colin G. Skeins and Samia are took SATI include 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:57.880 species introduced for aesthetics, as game species for biological control, 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:02.520 and for fur as popular lations of feral domestic animals 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:06.520 as pets thoughtlessly released into the wild, and of course 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:11.359 animal and plants stowaways uh and while these also occur 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:16.920 via airplane uh one of the main examples throughout human history, 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:18.840 one of the Big Woman's has of course been ships, 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:21.400 the holds of ships, the insides of ships, but also 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:26.000 the the outsides of ships. Um. Now with with with 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:30.119 airplanes though they include a specific example of the brown 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:34.359 tree snake um and this is essentially the snake on 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:38.200 a plane par excellence. So this particular snake is native 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:42.760 to eastern and northern coastal Australia, eastern Indonesia, Papua New 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:47.560 Guinea and many many islands in northwestern Melanesia. But the 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:51.080 brown tree snake is only mildly venomous to humans, but 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:54.400 it's venom is apparently one times more toxic to birds 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.159 than to mammals. According to biologists Brian Fry of the 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:02.280 University of Queensland, the round snake has been particularly rough 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:06.120 on the bird population of Guam, which had apparently reached 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:11.000 aboard Australian troop transports during the Second World War. Fry 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.840 also points out that the United States was and I 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:18.520 believe still is, flying military planes from Guam to Hawaii, 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:22.840 and brown snakes have been intercepted at Hawaiian airports in 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.840 the past, So the potential is there for plane based 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.160 introduction of this species to the Hawaiian islands as well, 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:31.880 if we were to say, let our guard down now. 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:36.440 I wasn't able to find anything offhand that that really explained, 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:39.080 like how how are they hitching up hitching rides on 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.719 these planes? But one reason might have to do with 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.600 the fact that they use something called lasso loco motion, 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:50.400 which allows them to easily climb large smooth cylinders. So 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:53.680 it sounds to me like one possibility here is that 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.280 this is a snake that is just exceptionally good at 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:01.679 crawling on and perhaps into airplane uh and uh and 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.440 is of course a curious creature on top of that. 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:09.160 But when we're talking about animal stowaways, especially ships again 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.320 play a huge role, with rats and mice standing out 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:14.840 is is probably one of the best and most destructive 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.600 examples of creatures that have spread with humans to every 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:22.880 continent except Antarctica, where I believe the only invasive species 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:26.359 currently is a variety of muscle, and these likely traveled 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:29.160 there by ship as well. I'm surprised Antarctica has one too, 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:34.000 but that makes perfect sense. Yeah, yeah, most things are 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:35.520 that that we bring with us are not gonna be 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.320 able to get a foothold there, but muscles seem to 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:42.240 be the current exception. Now, when we're thinking about stowaway species, 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:45.800 and we're often thinking about creatures that sneak aboard or 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:49.920 are accidentally included in or on a ship and then 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:53.439 introduced to a destination or stop upon the way. Uh 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:57.400 So the mouse rat example isn't the only template though. 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:02.000 According to Grasping at the Roots of Biological Invasions by 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:04.919 Whom at All from the Journal of Applied Ecology in 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:09.240 two thousand and eight, quote, stowaways include organisms that foul 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:12.959 the holes of ships, are transported as seeds or resting 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:16.840 stages in soil attached to vehicles and in the ballast water, 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:20.040 as well as in shipping containers, cargo and air freight. 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:25.120 So for instances, the authors point out the brown there's 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:29.960 a variety of brown seaweed sargasm medicum, and this is 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:32.240 a great example of the stowaway species thought to have 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:36.399 spread from its native Japan to northern France, UH, the 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:40.880 English South Coast, and to the Netherlands via first the 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:45.160 the contamination of commercial oyster shipments, but then just via 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:49.120 drifting plants once they were they had made it basically 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:51.199 to the other side of the world. The authors here 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:55.040 also share that very that vessels provide numerous interior and 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:59.439 exterior possibilities for species to spread. You know, oftentimes you're 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:01.680 dealing with a big ship. You have a lot of 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:04.879 literally a lot of moving parts, uh, lots of nooks 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:08.639 and crannies, lots of different say, you know, examples of 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:12.000 cargo that are being brought aboard, human beings brought aboard. 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:15.879 But one of the most pervasive avenues by which a 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:20.040