Personal Highlights
Moonbase Theta, Out: Bonus 3 – Tumnus. Tumnus went through a lot in season 3, gaining consciousness and becoming a key player in the season’s story arc, and so it’s really interesting to have an opportunity for her to work through some thoughts on her own. In this episode, she records a message for Jen, who we met in the Before The Moon mini-series episode Hearing Voices, where she was recording for Tumnus’ voice. It feels like we’re coming full circle – this is really the end result of all those recording sessions. There’s a very interesting exploration of real-life Jen’s body positivity work and fat activism, how it ties into to Tumnus’ sense of self and how she relates to human bodies, and how Jen has influenced who she is.
Mercury: A Broadcast of Hope: Dont Let the Zombies Get You Down. Max marks four years since ‘Outbreak Day’, when they went into lockdown because of the zombies. In a very poignant episode, he reflects on the past four years and the progress the team has made. His thoughts about the future give us a chance to reflect on how the pandemic has affected our world, and our society’s attempts to return to some kind of normality.
We Fix Space Junk: Marilyn’s Diary: A Long Journey Home – E05. Space pirates! It’s another new aspect of the Automnicon universe for the audience, as Marilyn and Computer are taken hostage by pirates. Something’s very off about the whole experience, and it’s definitely not quite what you’d imagine; even though Marilyn’s enthusiasm about the whole thing is very amusing. There’s a discovery at the end of the episode which explains some things and is so comical in its absurdity, and fits into the show so perfectly, but still leaves a lot of question marks.
Lost Terminal: 5.2 – I’m at sea. Seth’s excited ‘I’m at sea!’ at the beginning of the episode made me laugh, and I’m also very much enjoying the running joke of the ocean being ‘unnecessarily salty’! Seth’s enthusiasm for the journey to rescue Antarctica is palpable, as well as his enthusiasm and curiosity for the new environment he now finds himself in. The image of Maddie rolling in at breakfast to say hi to everybody is adorable, and I love that both of them now have more humans physically around them that they can talk to and learn from. However, there’s a concerning discovery on-board that neither Seth nor the humans understand, but the audience does, showing how different their world has become compared to ours.
The Mountain’s Heart: Choice. Felisa’s time in the Philippines is coming to an end, and a question from her professor, the one she’s been making all these recordings for, makes her reflect on her current situation. Her experience on the mountain, and meeting the goddess Maria Makiling, was naturally a deeply profound one; and it has led to her asking a lot of questions about, as well as some deep re-evaluation of, her life – and not only in this episode. In an emotional episode, she has one choice in particular to face, with her professor’s question, which she doesn’t have a concrete answer to yet.
The Pasithea Powder: 18 – The Truth. There’s absolutely no escaping the direct influence of the Pasithea Powder on both Jane and Sophie this episode. One thing I found really interesting was the amount of scenes with two people in the same place, which I thought was especially apt given what happens to Jane and Moreau; to me it really highlighted how everyone is caught up together in this shared web around the Pasithea Powder, with ultimately no control over their destinies. All the tension and discoveries of the episode work up to a truly shocking revelation for Sophie towards the end of the episode – and I loved the contrast that final scene gave.
Debuts
The College Tapes is the final spin-off series of The Bright Sessions, originally released on Luminary. It’s the beginning of Adam’s final year at Yale, and the episode starts with a familiar setting – but this time, Adam’s the one who’s in a counselling session. We also meet Adam’s roommate, Caitlin, and they’re both definitely feeling the pressure of their final year. Sadly, there are suggestions that what Adam and Caleb had when they were both back in high school is no more… There’s also some definitely weird stuff going on on campus!
Returns
StarTripper!! is back for its second season. It’s a different situation to what we saw for a lot of the show’s first season, as Feston and Serena take on the job of being bodyguards for three siblings of the Dax family, of the huge DaxxyCo, as they go on an inspection of one of their factories. In true StarTripper!! style, things soon go ‘off-script’, as the siblings are put in danger. I loved the banter and joking between Feston and Serena, and it’s great to see how their dynamic has evolved since we first met Serena at the end of season one. Speaking of season one, I also loved the little callbacks to one episode in particular, when Feston had a… memorable experience with a DaxxyCo product!
Trailers and Prologues
Creep, a microfiction detective story, released a prologue for its second season. Things have taken a turn, with Miami now kidnapped – and he’s being taken, amusingly enough, to Miami. The why remains a mystery for now. Episode one is due to be released on July 30th.
Descendants, the sequel to Janus Descending, released a second bonus episode as part of their crowdfunding campaign. It focuses on Axel, the brother of Peter, one of the main characters in Janus Descending. It’s a hugely emotional episode, following what happened in that story, as there’s no sign of the Adamantine’s return.
Casting Calls
Between Heartbeats, an upcoming fantasy/sci-fi podcast, is currently casting for voice actors. Paid, deadline 11th August.
Horror/comedy Georgie Romero is Done For is casting for a role in its upcoming second season. Unpaid, deadline 26th July.
Crowdfunding
Tales of the Echowood, which describes itself as a ‘cosmic fairy-tale’ from the creators of The Sheridan Tapes. They’re running a crowdfunding campaign for the 10 episode miniseries.
BeanSprout Against the World is an upcoming podcast about two sisters navigating their parents divorce from Lavender Lemonade Collective. They’re currently crowdfunding for the show.
A Sky Full of Pods 