WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: Alien Earth Roundup

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hi, my name is Robert Lamman. This is the Monster Fact,

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<v Speaker 2>a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,

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<v Speaker 2>focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. The

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<v Speaker 2>FX series Alien Earth just wrapped up what is presumably

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<v Speaker 2>its first season, though at the time of this recording,

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<v Speaker 2>no official renewal has been announced for this Noah Hawley

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<v Speaker 2>filmed Ridley Scott produced series. First, I want to stress

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<v Speaker 2>that I really enjoyed Alien Earth. My one true complaint

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<v Speaker 2>is that I wish it had wrapped its story up

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<v Speaker 2>in a single season, and it felt like all the

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<v Speaker 2>pieces were on the table to do just that going

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<v Speaker 2>into the eighth episode. But all of this being said,

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<v Speaker 2>I love the performances. Timothy Oliphant as a synthetic person

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<v Speaker 2>wasn't something I knew I needed. He's terrific. Adrian Edmondson

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<v Speaker 2>of The Young Ones and Bottom Fame was a fun

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<v Speaker 2>bit of casting, and Babu Sisey's Cybord character was terrific.

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<v Speaker 2>The rest of the cast excelled as well. If you

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<v Speaker 2>were hesitant about watching the whole series, I'd at least

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<v Speaker 2>urge you to watch episode five, which can be viewed

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<v Speaker 2>as a standalone or a key piece of the series.

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<v Speaker 2>But this is the monster fact, so I want to

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<v Speaker 2>discuss the creatures of Alien Earth. I won't say much

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<v Speaker 2>about the Xenomorphs. We certainly get them. Sometimes they're absolutely terrifying.

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<v Speaker 2>Sometimes they're a little lost in the shuffle, but that's

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<v Speaker 2>kind of par for the course. With the Alien franchise.

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<v Speaker 2>On top of the title Aliens, however, we also get

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<v Speaker 2>a number of other extraterrestrial specimens. The existence of other

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<v Speaker 2>non xenomorph and non engineer extraterrestrial life forms is of

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<v Speaker 2>course alluded to in nineteen eighty six's Aliens. The Alien

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<v Speaker 2>RPG from Freely throws in some additional supporting bugs for

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<v Speaker 2>players to hunt, and of course the various Alien books,

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<v Speaker 2>comics and crossovers over the years have introduced others, including

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<v Speaker 2>the famous Kryptonian himself. In the mid nineties Superman Aliens

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<v Speaker 2>limited series. Noah Holly does not give us DC Superman,

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<v Speaker 2>or even Marvel's Legion for that matter. We don't get

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<v Speaker 2>the Fargo Alien crossover that I think a lot of

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<v Speaker 2>us were pining for, but he does introduce no fewer

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<v Speaker 2>than four new extraterrestrial organisms. Let's run through them. There

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<v Speaker 2>will be spoilers from here on out. First up, we

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<v Speaker 2>have the parasitic species nineteen, a leech like organism that

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<v Speaker 2>drains a fatal amount of blood from its host, filling

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<v Speaker 2>up like a balloon in the process. We also observe

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<v Speaker 2>that it reproduces by spewing its larval young in whatever

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<v Speaker 2>fresh water is available. On the reproduction front, various organisms

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<v Speaker 2>of the natural world do seek out water for reproduction,

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<v Speaker 2>including some notable parasites. Mosquitoes famously lay their eggs on

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<v Speaker 2>the surface of the water, and their larvae and pupe

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<v Speaker 2>are fully aquatic. The horsehair worm also has a rizzly

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<v Speaker 2>reputation for hacking the brain of its host grasshopper or cricket,

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<v Speaker 2>and then forcing that organism to drown itself in a puddle,

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<v Speaker 2>so the noumautomorph might burst forth and wiggle free into

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<v Speaker 2>the water to complete the life cycle. As for the

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<v Speaker 2>blood ballooning, certain parasites, such as ticks and leeches, do

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<v Speaker 2>expand as they feast on the host blood, filling up

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<v Speaker 2>like a balloon in the process, though these organisms are

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<v Speaker 2>generally incapable of individually draining a lethal amount of blood

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<v Speaker 2>from the host. We might presume then, that Species nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>hails from a world where they depend on some form

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<v Speaker 2>of suitable megafauna that can sustain them without succumbing to

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<v Speaker 2>blood loss with each feeding. Up next, we have the

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<v Speaker 2>species referred to informally as the fly, a fairly large

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<v Speaker 2>winged insect creature that feeds on minerals and of course,

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<v Speaker 2>synthetic flesh. Obviously, the creature exists as a nasty foil

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<v Speaker 2>for the show's many synthetic characters, but it also plays

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<v Speaker 2>on a very real zenobiological consideration. Chemo lithothrops actually exist

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<v Speaker 2>on Earth in the form of certain bacteria and microbes

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<v Speaker 2>that feed on inorganic compounds and minerals. We don't have

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<v Speaker 2>anything as big as the fly, but it's proof that

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<v Speaker 2>such forms of life are possible, all right. Up next,

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<v Speaker 2>we have the specimen d plum the kyrie, which presents

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<v Speaker 2>itself essentially as a kind of carnivorous plant, but also

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<v Speaker 2>proves itself capable of fairly speedy movement when necessary, and

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<v Speaker 2>ultimately conducts itself more as an ambush predator than a

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<v Speaker 2>passive trap. We might think of this one as a

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<v Speaker 2>cross between a venus fly trap, which is capable of

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<v Speaker 2>rapid plant movement, a walking palm tree which carries out

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<v Speaker 2>a slow repositioning that I should flag may seem to

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<v Speaker 2>be exaggerated at times in reporting, and the barnacle enemies

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<v Speaker 2>from the Half Live video games. You remember these. They

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<v Speaker 2>dangle down, you walk into the dangling bits, and then

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<v Speaker 2>you get sucked up. Finally, we have the show's most

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<v Speaker 2>fascinating non zenom or alien life form, and that is

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<v Speaker 2>tripanohica ocellus or t ocellus, a crawling, tentacled eyeball creature

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<v Speaker 2>that affixes itself to the face of another organism, gouges

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<v Speaker 2>out one of the eye sockets, and then takes that

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<v Speaker 2>eye's place, taking over the organism in the process. Living

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<v Speaker 2>or dead, the creature is all the more fascinating because

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<v Speaker 2>it seems quite intelligent and may have an agenda all

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<v Speaker 2>its own that goes well beyond reproduction and acquiring food.

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<v Speaker 2>It's an inventive creature design which calls back to various

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<v Speaker 2>crawling eye monsters, especially nineteen fifty eight's The Crawling Eye,

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<v Speaker 2>and also perhaps plays with accounts of the isopod Simonthoa exagua,

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<v Speaker 2>which has been observed to seemingly replace a fish's tongue.

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<v Speaker 2>And then, of course we're also playing on general brain

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<v Speaker 2>hacking parasitic abilities that we see in multiple instances throughout

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<v Speaker 2>the natural world. I suppose we'll just have to find

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<v Speaker 2>out more in a possible second season of Alien Earth,

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<v Speaker 2>or perhaps in supplemental alien Fiction. Tune in for additional

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<v Speaker 2>episodes of The Monster, Fact, The Artifact or Animalist at

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<v Speaker 2>Pendium each week. As always, you can email us at

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<v Speaker 2>contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio.

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