Tom, I say it's time for us to do a
show. I say you're right, old chum.
[music]
Welcome to the good ship cord killers.
The world of entertainment has been
flooded with options and we are here to
navigate it along with you. I'm Tom
Merid. Aoy Brian Brushwood.
>> Ohoy the boat, Mr. Tom Marit. Uh, man,
we are I haven't I haven't rethemed
everything for Nautical Adventures yet,
but I am making improvements. Thank you
to all the people watching video on
this.
>> Yeah. Uh, welcome aboard. Join our crew.
We've got all the pirate metaphors.
>> Just waiting for no piracy. Literally
everything.
>> But we are against piracy.
>> Real quick, real quick. My daughter
who's 22 years old and is working on uh
her first set of novels said that when
she was a kid, she because of the way
piracy is presented and everything for
years she had the impressions that that
all pirates did was go around burying
treasure, [laughter]
which which that's part of the story,
but but it's the things before that that
are that are a little bit
>> less.
>> Yeah. Yeah. It's not all one pieces. Uh,
well then, let's get right into our
supply run, shall we?
>> Supply run. Supply run. Supply run.
>> Video game movies are good. Yes, we
finally reached that promised land,
everyone. Not all of them are good, but
it's not like, oh, it's a video game
movie. It will be bad like it used to.
So much so that Xbox has launched a new
division called XP. Very clever like
experience points to handle its
non-gaming ventures. Within XP, Xbox
Pictures will pursue film and TV
adaptations of Xbox properties. Uh so
video games that are first party
studios, stuff like that. Uh they've
also got some other parts of this. Xbox
Products is going to do merch, you know,
like the Xbox stuffies they sell at
IKEA. Uh, Xbox partnerships will do
brand partners. Xbox Places is going to
run live events. And interestingly, the
former president of Moyang Studios, Caen
Walters, has been tapped to lead XP. Of
course, Minecraft made by Moyang
Studios, one of the more successful
examples of turning a video game
property into a movie. Reddit's chief
product officer, Maria Angelo Smith, is
coming over from Reddit and will take
over as the CEO of Moyang. Now, as I
mentioned, Minecraft movie, very
successful. Fallout, another Microsoft
video game property that has done well
as a television series on Amazon. There
are other examples, of course. Halo, not
as successful. Maybe you liked it. I'm
not saying it was a total flop, uh, but,
you know, it it's not like everyone is
going to hit, but we got some good ones.
Paramount Pictures is developing a
liveaction film set in the universe of
CD Project Red's video game Cyberpunk
2077.
So with all of this happening, Xbox
reorganizing, making film a focus of one
of its divisions, we got Cyberpunk 2077
going to be a liveaction film from
Paramount. Brian, what's what's the
proper role of a video game maker in the
TV and movie products?
>> First off, Tom, today's the day I found
out it's pronounced Mo Yang and not Mo
Jang. And I assume
>> you can do it either way. In fact, I've
I've actually heard the founder of
Minecraft say, "I don't care. You can
say Mojang. It's fine."
>> Okay. But but but it is correct that
it's pronounced Minecraft and not
Minecraft.
>> It's Mina Croft.
>> Oh, okay. Got it. [laughter]
>> No. Yeah. Out of all the titles you
mentioned, I'm really excited about a
Cyberpunk 2077 uh uh property, partly
because that game had uh not universal
praise when it came out, but has
permeated the culture so deeply and
become so embedded with hardcore fans
that uh that suspects that it's tapping
into something very primal and
fundamental. And I would love to see it.
Of course, we're going to talk about um
other properties that were inspired with
it, including the Amazon original
Bladeunner in a bit. But um I am
curious, Tom, I I think you correctly
keyed in to the primary insight, which
is it used to be a truism that uh
getting people who love one modality, it
doesn't translate to the other. In fact,
you know, fans of the book often hate
the movie, etc., back and forth. But
that used to be 100% true when it came
to video games. Now it's not true. But I
don't know if it's too early to open up
a brand new division for it. My arms are
still crossed in that regard.
>> Yeah. I think what Microsoft may in part
be looking at uh is
The Last of Us was a very successful
collaboration
between the studio. Well, the the film
uh and TV studio and the video game
studio uh where they both knew their
roles. Uh and you see that more with
books these days where the writers of
books will be given a role in the writer
room for TV shows based on their books
because it's not like it used to be
where the writer would come in and be
like, I don't know about anything about
this TV business, but you're doing it
wrong. And they'd be like, you know
what, you just go do your book thing and
we'll do the TV thing. Uh these days
people are a little more conversant in
speaking multiple roles and I think
especially for The Last of Us that was a
very TV-like storytelling video game and
so it made sense. What Microsoft may in
part be looking at is what can we
provide to the movie and TV studio to
make it easier for them to adapt the
story. Uh, and I don't know if that's
the right lesson because Last of Us is
very singular,
but it could also, depending on how they
do it, be the perfect thing of like
we'll make it easier for you to get what
you need from us by having a single
point of contact, but we won't try to
force you to do things that we don't
know about because that's your area of
expertise.
>> You know, let [clears throat] me let me
make a a case for it because it it is
reminiscent of what we just saw with
comic books. So in general, comic books
were a not wellrespected form of art
that were looked down upon. And so there
was no downside. If a comic book
property made it to the big screen or
the small screen, it was the big or
small screen doing a favor to the the
property. And as a result, the you got
no status points for making the fans of
that thing happy. Same thing with video
games. But 10 years ago, 15 years ago,
we began to see the MCU create this
unbelievable threading the needle
experience, this once-ina-lifetime
win. And all of a sudden, there's a lot
of status points, a lot of weepy eyed
comic book reading folks like, I can't
believe you crazy son of a guns did it.
I think that maybe I could be convinced
that the similar thing is about to
happen with video games in general.
video games now respected uh 10 20 years
ago there if you were going to adapt one
to the big screen is the big screen
doing the favor to the little uh to to
the video game not the other way around
but as of the Last of Us as of Resident
Evil as of you know we've seen
>> Fallout Fallout certainly now we're
seeing actors who are being lauded
by these passionate fan bases for having
pulled that MCU trick of threading the
needle, of keeping the heart of the
lower status uh art alive on the big
screen. And all of a sudden, that's
where all of that magnetic alignment,
the fans want it to be good, the actors,
the talent want it to be good because
now they get points in a way that 20
years ago they didn't get points, uh,
kudos points, not, you know, gross
percentage points.
>> Not points on the back end points.
>> Exactly. Although they may get those,
too.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Well, and if you do want
those on the back end, then what you
need is a structure like XP. I think I
just talked myself into maybe this is a
wise thing to do.
>> Yeah, I was thinking of it from the
other end of the negotiation, but I
think it works from both ends. uh like
so many things I think with books it has
become normal for a publisher to take a
book of a certain level of success and
go find a studio that wants to option it
right and we've talked many times on the
show that an option does not mean they
are going to make it means the publisher
went and made sure somebody put some
money down on it is part of the revenue
plan of books to go and try to sell the
option and You want that book to get
successful enough that a studio will try
to lock it up so some other studio
doesn't get it.
>> And and there's a lot of strange reasons
to option a thing that have nothing to
do with it actually being made. Like you
could buy an option to keep it out of
the hands of a rival studio. You could
buy an option because it's similar and
what you're really doing is you're
watching if these other guys have a time
travel body swap uh gorilla tiger love
interest movie. If that pops, you've got
one. Well, it's not a grill and a tiger.
It's a kangaroo and a koala. But at
least you have something in the space.
>> And bookbased
video properties proved themselves to do
well enough that it was worth it for
studios to build a stockpile to be able
to fight those fights that you just
described. Video games were not like
that. Video games were probably a loss.
So, you would only take a flyer when
you're like, "Maybe this time." Or, "You
know what? even if it's bad, maybe it's
famous enough that we'll make it up on
the box office. And sometimes they did.
Uh now we're getting to the point where
it's like, oo, we need to have a
stockpile of video games that we have
the rights to so that we have the option
to turn them in. And when you have that,
as the video game publisher, in
Microsoft's case for the Xbox, you want
to make it easy for someone to option
your video games. Uh, you want you want
it to to be as frictionless as possible.
Not who do I talk to, but like, oh, I
will call up uh X XP and see what
they've got uh this week or I heard that
this video game came out of option from
that other studio. Get on the horn and
get it over to our studio. Uh, and I
think that's probably the best use of
that division.
>> Yeah. So, do we um I'd make some kind of
comment where I
>> Yeah. What does it mean to us?
>> Well, no. I would imply that that this
studio is making a big that this is real
because such a big company is doing it.
But but again, I've seen we've seen Xbox
do
>> next level layers of befuddling and
stupid, you know, announcing things and
then not following through
>> unimals.
[laughter] Uh wow. Uh, I think the other
part of this that is more of a Daily
Tech news show uh background than a Cord
killers background is Asha Chararma uh
is the new head of Xbox as of January of
this year and is really focused on
cutting out the fat. So, you're not
seeing the old-fashioned Microsoft of
like, well, let's just spend some money
on it, see if it works. Uh, I think what
Asha Sharma is very good at is that has
an ROI. Uh, and so I given what I've
seen her do, not all of it is stuff we
all like, right? Because a lot of it has
been cutting staff or cutting games, but
I don't see her as somebody who sets up
a boondoggle without, you know, that I
see her as someone who says, "Oh, yeah,
we're leaving money on the table. If we
spend this much creating XP, we should,
if you do your job right, reap 10x
that."
>> Let me throw wild speculation out there.
if I felt like this trend wasn't enough.
There's probably a lot of major
properties to mine and so you make uh uh
Windows or
>> and again you don't care if they ever
get made if you're Xbox. You just want
to sell the options,
>> right? But then uh if you're first, then
you at first have a halo of
ridiculousness, but then it becomes a
halo of legitimacy. And I suspect the
big moves would be be first and
prestigious so that all of those indie
games that currently have no Halo of
prestige can be gobbled up and made into
things like imagine, you know, your
Undertales and Delta Runes before, you
know, back when it's just a kid, your
Five Nights at Freddy's before it it
blows up. you can uh gobble up options
like crazy, similar to what MCN's were
doing for individual podcasts and
YouTube channels.
>> So, I did a quick search. Uh Sony has
PlayStation Productions, so they're
already doing a similar thing. Makes
sense. Sony's also a movie studio.
>> Well, and and also Nintendo associated
with the defining video game to uh art
translation
>> with Last of Us. Yeah. Uh Nintendo has
Nintendo Pictures which manages its IP.
Ubisoft has an Ubisoft film and
television and Riot has a dedicated
animation and trans media division
separately. One for anime and one for
not. Um so looking at this it's almost
seems like Xbox is the last to the
table, right?
>> Yeah. Well, shoot. I guess yeah.
Well, I that's a less interesting Tom.
Does it mean better video games for us?
Like we I I guess that was my original
question is what's the role of the video
game maker? Is it just to license things
and say here you go, you've got the
rights, go forth and make good things,
you good thing making people. Uh or or
do we want them to be stewards of their
property a little more the way the
collaboration with the Last of Us
worked? I mean, okay, look, you're
dangling fresh red meat in front of
Galaxy brain, Brian. And I want to chase
it and start talking about how the job
of any kind of property is less to have.
It's not the story, and it's not even
just the world. It is the lens through
which people can look at a bunch of
whatevers and eventually see themselves.
and the different shapes of those
lenses, whether it's, for example, there
are a lot of places you can get your
movies and TV talk, but me and Tom,
having done this for a solid 18 years,
have a particular lens, a particular
flavor to the news that we give you.
That's why we support all of our
multitudes of bosses over at
patreon.com/cordkillers.
God, I'm on fire, Tom. I'm on fire.
>> You really didn't want to answer that
question.
>> No, I [laughter] didn't.
Uh yeah, Patreon is going through some
changes, you know, just like Bobby Brady
did. Uh we all go through it. And uh uh
with Patreon's changes, uh you may not
notice anything, but we will. So, make
sure you're a patron. How How's that
going, Brian? Do we have a deadline for
any of that stuff?
>> It's done. Uh uh quick news for anybody
watching or listening. We're switching
from per creation to per monthly. But
guess what? Uh, do you ever see Gatka?
Guy walks up and is seeing the Faker
pretend to be running on a treadmill and
he says, "Jerome, Jerome the metronome."
He doesn't know that it's a recording of
a perfectly healthy heart and not the
actual heart. They looked at our charts,
Tom. They were looking at flipping us
from per creation to per month. And they
saw steady, steady like a rock, like a
heartbeat. Jerome Jerome the metronome.
and they approved us to flip over to
monthly be one of our bosses. It's
getting really rad in here and we now
have a mandate to come up with an extra
bonus something or other every other
month. And you better believe we're
going to take that seriously.
>> Yeah. So, become a patron. How?
Patreon.com/cordkillers.
Let's move on to the search party.
The Emmy Awards will move from their
practice of rotating among the major
broadcasters in the US each year to just
being on Amazon Prime Video Worldwide
for six years starting 2027. Uh this
means that the Grammys are the only
major US awards show that is staying on
broadcast with ABC. It'll also be on
Disney Plus because it's ABC, but it
will be broadcast. The Oscars are going
to YouTube. Uh the the Emmys are now
going to Prime Video, which I don't
know. I want to make a joke about like
the TV awards are going off TV. But it
seems like the streaming shows are the
ones winning all the Emmys. So, this is
just them going where the Emmy
award-winning content comes from.
>> I'll tell you what, I think an awful
lot, Tom, about our story from last
year. March in 2025 was a watershed
moment. That was the moment that more
than 50% the majority of watching of
YouTube that happened was on living room
televisions rather than on mobile
devices. And it's like in that moment
like when we look back on it with
armchair analysis, that's the moment
that that we won and that's the moment
that we started having to reconsider how
we're changing the narrative of this
show.
>> Yeah. How do we lead you through the
winning is what we're doing now.
>> The the TV awards are on essentially
what we all think of as the TV.
>> Yeah. Uh and I almost feel like the Emmy
Awards going there is just late to the
game. Yes. The Grammys are going to stay
on broadcast, but that'll be an
interesting side note. In fact, I
wouldn't be shocked if Amazon Prime
Video uh makes a deal with a
broadcaster, some kind of independent
broadcaster to be like, you know, for
those few people who don't have
streaming, uh we'll we'll make it
available on on a digital channel for
some indie, you know, collection of
stations uh out there, but just not on a
major broadcaster. Uh I'll be looking
for that kind of story uh about
additional carriage for the streaming.
Uh but for the most part, yeah, YouTube,
that's just television, you know. So you
watch the Oscars on television even
though it's on YouTube. Do you think do
you think that a measurable amount of
these decisions I mean ultimately it's
just in the short term about where are
the eyeballs at but I think a lot about
how a decade ago our conversations were
about net neutrality and about how you
know there's only one pipe to your house
and and uh I probably much to everyone
should grin wave my hands and said in 20
minutes you know it's going to be
raining bandwidth but now you know with
the launch of you Starlink is pretty
much covering the skies and Amazon's got
their version and so on. Uh, do you
think that that plays into a significant
amount of of just put everything online
and and whatever pockets of audiences
that are left that don't have internet,
we'll figure out a way to get it to
them.
>> I I think what's interesting is a lot of
the net neutrality conversation died in
2020. And I think it was as people had
to use bandwidth during lockdowns, they
realized that and the ISPs realized this
is you you can't play around with that.
You just have to give it that combined
with 5G on your phone starting to feel
just as good as your wired connection at
home. Not for all use cases obviously,
but for the average person, they're
like, "Well, do I even need anything
else?" But that uh and then that's when
you start to see the carriers like we'll
provide wireless connection home for you
T-Mobile home connection and then you
have the space uh internet starting to
actually come into fruition uh and just
being on the verge of being competitive
as well with multiple providers. Uh yeah
like like
>> it's it's going to be it's not even just
about competition. It's about uh
differentiating the service based on
more than just speed. speed is an
old-fashioned way of measuring the
service. It's reliability, it's uptime,
it's lag, stuff like that.
>> It really is a gamecher when I wrap my
mind around true triple redundancy
internet. Like if I were to get
Starlink, then then my my uh uh Spectrum
internet could go out like it did every
20 minutes during the pandemic. And then
and at that point, I learned to flip
over to the hotspotted LTE tower just
around the corner. But then a third
level to go to space as a backup.
There's a lot uh that is a fairly robust
architecture to build uh whatever your
platform is.
>> Yeah, it's very futuristic like we're
living in Bladeunner times with
replicants running around. Uh and
speaking of Emmys, uh Bladeunner 2099
might be up for an Emmy, which will be
on Prime Video right along with
Bladeunner 2099. All eight episodes
coming to Brian Video November 25th,
starring Michelle Yo. Uh, and set 50
years after the last movie, which had
Harrison Ford as a as a uh reprising his
role from the original movie. Uh, but
still looks like Bladeunner.
>> Yeah, I thought this was absolutely
gorgeous, this trailer, and it reminded
me a lot of of of Alien Earth. And and
let me let me air my I have no doubts
that I will be gorgeous. I have no
doubts that the world will be rich and
strangely familiar. But while when I
watched Alien Earth before long before
it came out, Tom, you'll remember I
couldn't stop my mouth from running off
speculating, oh my god, are they going
to do great Game of Thrones great houses
stuff? Are they going to do that? I
suddenly was thinking of the
implications. I was left with that
trailer with a playset of ideas that
instantly had me so engaged. This one
quite literally around the 90 secondond
mark. I was like, "What what is this
about? What is the point of this?" And
then quite literally a character says,
"Do you know what you're doing?" And the
other says, "Do you know what you're
doing?" I'm like, "Not the time to ask
that question in this [laughter] trailer
because I'm wondering the same thing,
too." Here's the interesting part about
that trailer for me. I read the article
about it, which I often do before I
watched it, uh, because I'm trying to
look for the release date and, you know,
what this trailer going to be about. Uh,
and so I read the Ars Technica novel or
novel. [laughter] It wasn't that long
that way.
>> Uh, I read the Ars Technica story
talking about like, oh, it's telling the
story of the replicants have taken over
and the humans are on the run. And I'm
like, oo, that sounds really
interesting. Uh, you know, we
flip-flopped from the original
Bladeunner, right? The Blade Runners
might be replicants and they're looking
for humans to eliminate them and humans
that try to pass as replicants. Like,
that all sounds fascinating. Then I
watch the trailer and I'm like, man, I'd
really love to see the trailer for that
uh television series that Ars Technica
described cuz I guess this is about
that, but it was not clear to me that
this was about the humans. There were a
couple of scenes here and there I'm
like, "Okay, yeah, that one's about the
the humans are on the run now, but it
really didn't hammer that point home and
I'm not sure it did it a proper
service."
>> Yeah. Well, it might still be great and
I'll certainly
>> Yeah,
>> I'm not going to go.
>> It certainly looks Bladeunner, so I
sometimes watch things just because
they're pretty.
>> I'm like, "Yeah, the story's fine, but I
I just like looking at it." This might
be one of those. We'll see. Uh, there's
a trailer out for Narnia, The Magician's
Nephew. This is Greta Gerwig's first
Chronicles of Narnia film that arrives
in theaters February 12th and then
arrives on Netflix April 2nd. That's
right. It's getting a full theatrical
window and it's a Netflix movie. Uh, you
said it would never happen, someone in
the audience. Well, here you go. Uh, it
is the chronologically
first story in the Lion Witch in the
Wardrobe series from CS Lewis, but it's
like the second to last book, I think,
in in the series.
>> I was confused. Like, is she the witch
or the lion or the wardrobe? Greta
Gerwig, I thought, made an interesting
choice to say, I'm going to start my
attempt to make movies out of The
Chronicles of Narnia, not with The Lion,
the Witch, and the Wardrobe that
everybody has done a million times, but
with the one nobody's done yet, but is
actually the beginning of the story. And
so, we are seeing the predecessors to
the children in the Lion Witch in the
Wardrobe discovering how Narnia is made.
The funny thing about this, which this
will only be funny to those of you
who've read The Magicians by Lev Gman,
is it really reminded me how much Lev
Gman borrowed from The Magician's Nephew
when he made The Magicians. I'm like,
"Oh, the alternate world thing." Oh,
okay. That's interesting. But it looks
great. Uh, it looks like even if you
don't care about Chronicles of Narnia,
it looks like it might be just a really
fun film to watch. Yeah, it it it does
feel familiar in the conceit of the
boring normal world and then the
wizarding world just, you know, that
where the color gets turned up and all
that. It um I I'll be curious. I' I've
grown a little bit skeptical of any kind
of other worlds things because we're in
the middle of watching the MCU try to
try how can there be stakes when
everything is galaxies and multiverses
and stuff? Well, this may be a spoiler
for anyone who's never read CS Lewis,
but uh spoiler, we come down to one
world like well basically two. Our world
Earth and Narnia. Uh so instead of
trying to be like there are uh there's a
story, but we could have alternate
universes and spreading out which is
what Marvel has done. This is there's an
infinite number of worlds. Let's focus
in on one of them. Yeah. Um so maybe
that'll help. I don't know. Maybe it
won't. Uh, Merryill Streep is the voice
of Aland, though. Kind of love that.
>> Oh, wow. Wow.
>> Yeah.
>> Wow. All right.
>> I'm looking forward to that. Uh, Disney
Plus will live stream Super Bowl 61. Is
that right?
>> How soon? Until the Super Bowl's elig
eligible for
>> I'm looking at my Pittsburgh Steelers
Super Bowl 10 pennant and feeling very
old. Super Bowl 61 on Sunday, February
14th, 2027 in the US. Uh, and in more
than 55 other Disney Plus markets, you
will not need an ESPN subscription to
watch Super Bowl 61. You can live stream
it with your Disney Plus subscription.
Doesn't mean it's free, but you have to
add ESPN to Disney Plus in the US. You
won't have to do that to watch the Super
Bowl. So, there's that. ESPN
subscribers, however, will get
alternasts. Uh, Pton Manning has done
one for years uh with ESPN, so that will
be happening. Pat McAfee uh will be
doing one as well if you know him and an
unannounced statistics focused team will
do a very mathematical statistics
focused altern.
So if you just want to watch the game
and you're a Disney Plus subscriber, you
can watch it. You don't need to add pay
to add ESPN. If you want the alternative
cast though, you will. Is this Disney
Plus's first swing in the mind of
viewers into the world of live? I I I
can't remember an announcement.
>> No, they do they do live music uh stuff
all the time. Uh they do Dancing with
the Stars live. They they stream it
live. So, they've got a lot of
experience doing live.
>> This isn't at all comparable to
Netflix's early first dance live.
>> It's it's not similar to that. it this
I'm looking at this more as Disney Plus
saying you should just have Disney Plus
like you don't the we know you're tired
of subscribing to things so just come to
Disney Plus you you don't have to add a
bunch of stuff just just get the base
base thing and then you're good and you
could watch the Super Bowl.
>> Yeah.
Four of the stars of 2018's Crazy Rich
Asians movie are going to reprise their
roles from that film in a TV show called
Crazy Rich Asians coming to HBO. Uh
Adele Lim, who co-wrote the film, will
be the showrunner. Um I guess there's
more to tell. I know there's another
book that the in the series uh on which
the original film was based. I don't
know if this is going to follow that
book, though.
>> Yeah, they they they're crazier. They're
richer. They're even more the same
ethnicity they've always
>> uh Dick Clark's New Year's Rock and Eve
with Ryan Serest will be simal cast on
both ABC and say it with me Brian
>> Disney Plus. This is the first time that
they've put Dick Clark's New Year's Rock
and Eve on Disney Plus. So again, this
is like you don't need anything else.
You don't need to go get cable. Just get
Disney Plus. Uh, the special landed its
best ratings in four years last year
without being on Disney Plus. This is
according to Neielson's live plus 3day
numbers. At the midnight mark when 2025
turned to 2026, 30.01 [snorts]
million viewers were tuned in. So,
they're like, "Hey, this apparently
popular. Uh, we didn't make it easy for
young Disney Plus subscribers to watch
it if they didn't have some other way.
So, let's do that and see if we can get
above 30 million." Those are like 80s
level viewing stats. You don't see that
anymore.
>> Yeah. Now, and those are international
or domestic numbers.
>> I believe they are international, but I
believe if I looked, I bet the majority
of them are domestic. I don't think
people also uh quick reminder that only
Netflix adheres to for my mind the gold
standard of saying a view is 60 viewer
minutes in that hour. 100%. Like that's
how many people are watching watching.
>> Yeah. The 30.01 million viewers from
Neielen are uh
>> if they're Neielson then they'll those
are legit.
>> They're they're more legit than the like
you watched it for two seconds it counts
as a view.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh Avatar 7 Heavens has been Havens.
Heavens has been renewed for two more
seasons of Paramount Plus. Have you been
watching this?
>> I have not. I'm waiting to see what the
buzz is like. To be honest, I I bought I
I got a Paramount Plus subscription,
started the Avatar movie, made it into
the first act, and I was like, it sure
is good to see the gang again, and then
said, and then and then haven't gotten
around to finishing it. So, I'm waiting
to hear more things, but I think it's
wise for them to develop their identity.
Unfortunately, as we're going to talk,
we'll see whether or not Paramount Plus
needs much of an identity going forward.
Well, Avatar 7 Havens renewed at this
point of the merger means they are
confident. They're like, "This one's
doing great. Let's give them two more
seasons so we don't have to think about
it." On Paramount Plus means it'll be on
Paramount Plus for at least a year. That
second season that got renewed, which
will be season 3, that one might be on
HBO Mount Plus Max Discovery. Yeah. Or
whatever they end up calling it. Uh, W
division creator Jack Schaefer is going
to work on a new Stargate series for
Amazon MGM. Uh, last time Amazon said
they were doing a Stargate series, they
got the writer room together, they had
scripts going, and then right before
they were getting ready to start
production, they canceled it. So
hopefully Jack Schaefer can do better.
>> Yeah.
>> With Amazon this time.
>> Uh, Peacock's Dungeon Crawler Carl live
action TV series will begin shooting
next year. Uh, so for DCC fans, uh, keep
an eye out for the rumors to start
leaking off of set then. And we got a
first look at Austin Butler and Michael
B. Jordan as Crockett and Tubs in the
forthcoming Miami Vice 85 movie coming
to theaters May 19th, 2028. As people
who watched a lot of Miami Vice uh, for
spoiler in time, I thought they did.
They look pretty good. I'm I am certain
that they'll
we'll we'll see. I We're pretty fresh
off
>> just from the stills. Just from the
stills. I'm not saying they will
continue to be good or their performance
will be great, but I'm like, you know
what? So far so good.
>> Look, I I mean, I don't expect Michael
B. Jordan to suddenly not be a brilliant
actor. I'm It's going to be great.
>> No, of course not. But he might not look
like Tubs, you know? It might be like I
don't know,
>> but he does. And Austin Butler is a
passable, you know, almost said Don
Shoula.
>> [laughter]
>> Uh, yeah,
>> he's a passible Miami Dolphins 1970s
head coach Austin. All right. Uh, let's
talk about Barry Treasure.
>> Oh, no, that's not it. This one.
>> Most people want to know why they
suddenly got
>> Don Johnson, not Don.
>> This is the part of the show where we
talk about something we've been watching
that maybe you have been thinking about
or not thinking about or didn't know
about or want to discover. And one of us
being the person who says it becomes the
trappings of authority that cause you to
watch it. Brian, what are you watching?
>> Tom, I saw a little, you know, we're
watching Battlestar Galactica on the
Full Experience. And I don't know if you
know, but that show had a reboot of
Battle called Battlestar Galactica by
Ronald D. Moore.
>> Yeah. Which we also did on the Full
Experience.
>> Yeah, that's right. Uh uh Well, yeah,
that's right. And then uh anyway, uh I'm
watching Ronald D. Moore's For All
Mankind. And you know what it was? I
knew that you liked it and I knew that
you wanted me to get into it, but when
an outside vector gave me a little bit
of a push, it was my father-in-law who
was bringing up For All Mankind, and I
was like, well, okay, now I got to watch
it. So, I watched the very first
episode, and it helps so much knowing
that it eventually gets, you know, very
good from what I hear. Uh, but I like
the first episode just fine. First
episode played real timeless. I liked
the narrative framework because it's
like it begins with Russia beating the
United States to the moon. Well, what
dramatic tension can you have? Spoiler
for the first episode. Uh it is implied,
credibly implied that that Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin die on or
whoever it is die on the first moon
mission. Uh dramatically it does not
happen that way. Anyway, uh I liked it a
lot and I'm going to keep on watching.
Yeah, I think uh what's fun about For
All Mankind in the early seasons is it
does a good job of relying on subverting
your expectations, right? So, if you're
watching this, you probably know the
larger outlines of what actually
happened. So, you're constantly going
like, well, hold on. If the Russians did
get there first, what about this and
what about that and what happens with
this? And Ronald D. Moore's premise is
that it accelerates some technological
development but not all technological
development. And so you get this kind of
fun like things start to creep in a
little earlier. But what he successfully
pulls off and I wasn't sure in the early
days was like, okay, once we've gone
past the nostalgia undermining,
you know, like when you get into the 90s
and the 2000s, what are you going to do?
Well, what he did is create a really
good science fiction show. Uh, and so it
he does a nice blend of like this is fun
because it's different into this is fun
because it's good.
>> So, one of the things that I harp on a
lot when we do like our class that we
did is I talk about how fast can you let
the audience know what their job is. And
instantly I know that my job is to crack
this puzzle because they instantly are
giving me tools to play with. Even the
boring stuff where people are talking
about their emotions or character
development or whatever, I'm too busy
thinking about, wait a minute, they went
out of their way to say that that uh
with whatever Kennedy it was didn't go
to his party in Chapa Quitic. I was
like, "Oh, does that mean we're in a
version where he's emboldened because he
doesn't have that bag?" Oh my gosh. And
does that mean like like all of this my
mind is just racing and it it does a
great job of handing you tools and
immediately letting you know that
solving the puzzle is your job.
>> Yeah. Uh and then he's going to swap out
the puzzle and you're not even going to
realize it. Well, you might, but you
know, if he's doing his job, you're not
going to realize it. Uh, and
>> at some point I'll just unironically be
un invested in all the characters and
[laughter]
>> uh I this weekend uh was just kind of
had an unusual amount of free time.
Instead of using it productively, I
watched Star Trek the Next Generation
Unification. I have been slowly
re-watching
Star Treks since 2014.
I I remember talking about discovering
Star Trek Voyager because of an autoplay
trailer on Netflix like in 2014 on
Cordillers. Um and I I made it all the
way through Voyager. I made it all the
way through Deep Space 9. I made it all
the way through the original series and
through the animation uh that we watched
on the full experience and uh am have
been in the middle of watching Star Trek
the Next Generation. And the next one up
this weekend for me was Unification. And
I was like, "All right, this is the one
with Leonard Nemoy, and that's kind of
fun." But I remember it being a little
slow and thinking like, "Well, it's fun
to see Spock, but it's not the same." I
loved it.
>> Really
>> watching it out of context and not
really caring about the Spock of it all,
I realized it's a really good story. In
fact, it probably would have been one of
their better stories if they hadn't used
Spock. But the spock of it all does add
a little juice because, you know, his
character is got this history behind him
and he would probably be the only one
who could get away with some of the
things he does, but it doesn't rely on
it. And I think I I was like, you know
what, that's probably why I didn't like
it as much back then is I was like, I
just want more Spock fanfiction. And TNG
gave me like, no, no, no. This is just a
really good story that justifiably uses
Spock as one of its characters. Uh, so I
don't know if you're into Star Trek and
you haven't watched Unification in a
long time or maybe you've never watched
it. Uh, it's a great story. Uh, the the
premise is Spock sneaks onto Romulus to
try to help an underground organization
that's seeking reunification of Romulus
and Vulcan. And if those words mean
nothing to you, that's fine. You can
just watch it anyway. It's still a good
story.
>> Boy, what a way. What? Someone out
there, this could hypothetically be
their very first Star Trek anything that
they saw.
>> They became uh Yeah. What brought you
into the fandom? Well, I heard Cord
Killer say watched The Next Generation
Unification, and that was my first Spock
story. Everything else was was backstory
for that. For me, that that'd be kind of
cool, actually. If you got something we
should be on the lookout for, email us
cordkillers@gmail.com.
Uh Brian and I did a really cool collab
the recently because it's cyber security
awareness month in October. So for daily
tech news show, we're doing a threepart
series and it's available on the modern
rogue site as well. For you modern rogue
uh subscribers, just watch it there.
First part is out called social
engineering where Brian takes us through
all the psychological methods people use
to get social engineering done. Not the
malware that your antivirus takes care
care of, but the weakness in your brain
as a human being that they can exploit
to get you to do something that is not
in your best interest. Of course, as
Brian has want to do, he also explains
that you could probably turn some of
these tools to your own advantage as
well. Uh, but it is the first of three
parts. The next part comes out next
Sunday, which will tell you about all
the current threats and what you can do
about them. And the third part I think
is the most valuable part which is as
tools make it easier for bad actors to
fool you, what can you do to build up
your defenses? It's called Wolf Masking.
That's coming up in two weeks. Uh but
get it right now either at the Daily
Tech News Show YouTube channel or on the
Modern Rogue channel. Uh it's it's one
of the favorite things I've done in a
long time and it's useful. It's like
super useful for people right now.
>> It's it's great, man. I'm It turns out
uh this was a very good outlet for some
very polished hot takes. I'm very
excited about it.
>> Yeah. Go check it out, folks. And now we
scan the horizon.
>> Send us scanning to avoid.
>> Scanning the horizon.
>> Apple announced a bunch of smart home
devices uh today, including a new Apple
TV. Apple TV 4K with Siri AI. Uh, it has
an A19 chip, which is the same one in
the iPhone 17. So, the one from last
iPhone. Uh, but the big star of the show
are three farfield microphones. Uh,
that's the kind of microphones you get
in an Amazon Echo or a Google Home. The
idea is you can use your Apple TV
without having to pick up the remote.
Uh, so you could just say, "Play this,
launch this channel. Uh, do you have any
good shows that have gorillas in them?"
and it'll use Siri to answer those
questions. Uh, if you do need the
remote, uh, the new one can play a sound
if you're having trouble finding it. So,
you can say to Apple TV, "Where's my
remote?" and it'll start pinging. Uh,
new Apple TV will also use what it knows
about you from your Apple account to
understand what you're asking about and
make recommendations. So, if I say like,
"What was that show Brian recommended to
me in my email?" And if you're using
Apple for email, it'll be able to
understand that uh Siri AI will come in
beta to older Apple TVs as well as far
back as the 2021 second gen Apple TV 4K.
So if you have second gen Apple TV 4K or
newer, you will eventually get it when
TVOS 27.2 arrives later this year. If
you want this brand new one with the
farfield microphones, uh you can order
it now for $299.
Shipping November 13th. Very pricey for
this thing. Are you excited? Like like
so previously the prices have been so
low on all the streaming boxes that it's
not
>> Apple's always been more expensive. It's
been $99 when the others were 20. It's
been $150. Now it's been $199.
None of these have ever been this
expensive, I don't think.
>> Well, and and most of them not.
>> That that's my question is are we
crossing a threshold where it becomes a
discretionary purchase? And you have to
ask like, is my current Apple TV so
underperforming that I want all the new
whisbanging features or not?
>> Yeah. So Siri AI coming to the older
ones means well, if you've got an Apple
TV and that's all you're interested in,
you can use the mic on your remote. You
have to press the button, you know, and
talk to it. But it'll still do the
stuff, right? It'll still do the
operating system stuff. It will still
work as a home hub if you want to use it
for your smartome for your matter based
smart devices. What it won't have is
that farfield microphone, that kind of
natural thing. I feel like Apple's knows
that the people that are going to adopt
this are less price sensitive because
they're either early adopters or they're
at an income bracket where they're like,
just give me the newest thing cuz I'm
setting up my smart home and I want
something for the television. Uh and and
so they they hope that this isn't going
to delay those people. Um, but the price
of the components has gone up, you know,
so Apple has to go with that as well.
Still, the price of the components is
going up and they're going up for Roku
and Amazon, too, but not this much.
>> Yeah,
you can forget what I said last week.
Sky Dance chairman and CEO David Ellison
sees HBO Max and Paramount Plus
combining into a single service over
time. I alluded to this earlier in the
show. Uh, here's what Ellison said.
Long-term, the plan is basically to
bring them together. it'll take a period
of time to do that. It's like it's like
he left that in his quote and didn't and
then didn't have time to go put the
actual period of time. Uh so he said I
think in the immediate term you will see
them operated separately with things
like bundling or things that you'll able
be able to see accelerated in the
relatively short term. I can't be
specific about that yet today probably
because he doesn't know or they haven't
decided. Uh, as for the Warner and
Paramount studio lots, uh, Ellison said,
"We absolutely will keep both lots, and
you'll probably see us organize film on
one and television and streaming on
another, and we'll go back and forth
between the two, as well as the East
Coast when required, as well as our
Santa Monica offices for animation." Uh,
he's talking about as the CEO, he won't
spend all his time in one location. Uh,
but it does look like in a couple of
years or more, Paramount Plus and HBO
Max are going to merge into one service,
but until then, they'll be bundled. They
might even share some programming. And
that the Warner lot is probably going to
be the TV lot because it's the bigger
one, and the Paramount lot will be the
film lot.
>> That makes sense. But uh I I you know
that I am unromantic about Hollywood.
So, so maybe this kind of story lands
less with me. I just want to flip a
table on them all. Good for them.
They're all married.
>> Yeah. Uh I think the war the lots
changing. I didn't expect you to give uh
Rat's ass about. But the streaming
services combining I think that's
interesting from the cord killer
standpoint.
>> Oh yeah, trust me. Like what a bizarre
hyper chimera because you have so many
strong brands all in one app. I mean,
uh, the only move I can think of is to
come up with a new name for the app. I'm
sorry, you use none of them. You make
each of those strong brands pillars
underneath a brand new name because you
and you could do that. Um, uh, so, uh,
what oh, what's his name? Um, never
split the difference guy. Uh, the
negotiating expert. He says that uh you
should never compromise because tin and
uh uh iron don't compromise as they're
forged into the new thing steel. The tin
is all still in there. The the iron is
all still in there, but you get
something unique and new uh an alloy
called steel, right? That's what they
need to do. They have so many strong
brands that they have to forge a new
alloy and call it something new.
>> Yeah. Because don't forget Paramount
Plus not only has CBS and Star Trek has
Showtime. So your combined entity is
going to have HBO, Discovery, Turner,
CNN, CBS, Showtime.
I wouldn't be surprised if like you say
there's a new name for the combined
entity and HBO is the ESPN
of its offering where with Disney Plus
you get some sports if you're Disney
Plus like the Super Bowl for example but
if you want all the sports you had ESPN
I wouldn't be shocked if whatever pream
is called uh it becomes like you'll get
some of the HBO back catalog but if you
want the new stuff, you got to add on
HBO in the in the in the add-on service.
Uh, less of a bundle the way ESPN is and
more of just like there's a tier at
which you get the new HBO stuff. I I
kind of feel like that might be where
they go.
>> Yeah. Chris Voss was the name I was
trying to access.
>> Oh, Chris Voss. Okay. Uh, starting on
Friday, October 23rd for the US Grand
Prix from Austin, Texas, Apple will
offer Dolby Atmos sound for its Formula
1 races. Apple's been very friendly with
letting broadcast have races and letting
Netflix have some of its races. Now, we
know why. They're going to differentiate
on qual quality and say, "Yeah, sure.
You can watch those races other places
or you can watch them with Dolby Atmos
sound to really feel the engines on
Apple TV." And if you are the kind of
person that has a finely tone uh honed
home studio where you will it will be
insufferable to not get the full
immersive experience.
>> Yeah, exactly. Uh and then you know
what? I should have packed this on with
the Paramount Plus stuff because uh
starting now and they say it's been in
the plans for a long time. It was
unrelated to the merger happening now.
Uh Discovery Plus is raising its price.
Uh you may have forgotten that you could
still get Discovery stuff without having
HBO Max. Uh the plans are increasing by
a dollar for the ad free plan and $2 for
the no ads plan. So it's $6.99 a month
for adree and $11.99 a month for the
plan without ads in the United States.
Hold now for the chatter.
>> You got mail. [music]
Hopefully, you all watched the collab uh
that Brian and I did on Modern Rogue
about the smart TVs that spy on you,
where we suggested one way to deal with
smart TVs spying on you is lean into it
and get a telly. That's the TV you don't
have to pay for as long as you agree to
keep it connected to the internet so it
can send ads to you. And we said, I
wonder if anyone will do that. Well,
Isai made our day by sending us this
email. Watch this on Sunday, October
4th.
literally on a telly and sent us a
picture of the modern rogue video
playing on his telly.
>> 10 out of 10. That's remember we talked
about the audience having a job. That's
your job, guys. Top that one. Let us
talk and then send us a picture that
becomes content. That's great, man.
Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. Yeah. I I love the
fact that we're up there like you could
get a telly and he's like I did.
>> [laughter]
>> Well, and in the picture, you can see it
looks it it looks like exactly what it
shows on the box.
>> Yeah, indeed. Uh we also got an email
from Nikki uh responding to our call a
couple weeks ago for the perfect app to
help you find the proper bundles. Uh
Nikki says, "While Tom is looking for
something that tells him which bundles
are best, I'm looking for which streamer
has 10 things I want to watch on it so I
can rotate between them. maybe an alert
saying seven shows, but they're having a
special for $5.99 a month. My other wish
list item would be a priority-based list
of shows to watch. I would group them by
mood. And if I'm watching with my family
or on my own, like Trackr or Death in
Paradise, we have to watch as soon as it
comes out. While House of the Dragon is
something I have to be in the mood for,
I select some options like quick comedy,
cozy mystery, latest number one priority
leases, and it gives me a list of five
to seven shows to choose from the
streamers I currently have. Also,
tracking shows, Just Watch and others
track the BB shows from when they
release in the UK, but I don't really
get alerted when they're released on
Prime BBC America, which is annoying. If
we're dealing with AI, something like a
swipe left with a drop- down option on
why I wasn't in the mood would be nice.
as well so that the AI learns from me.
So that would be great. Thanks for
killing the cords, Nikki.
>> I like that idea of sort of anchoring
all of your uh your preset excitement
for various things and then the world
happens and at some point the
convenience threshold hits like a
perfect storm of like these are all the
shows you want. It's this amount. You're
give up what you're doing now. Move to
this other thing.
>> Yeah. I I like the idea of it learning
from you, too, so that you wouldn't even
have to tell it, oh, I always watch
House of the Dragon the minute it comes
out. It just knows you do. It gets
seized. Like, oh, new House of the
Dragon wa la la la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la la la
la la la la launches, they watch it
within an hour. Uh, so I will always be
recommending that. Uh, Ander wrote in
and said, "Hey guys, just wanted to
recommend Zena or Hercules for the full
experience." They both had great
episodes and some absurd ones with huge
tonal shifts. Just something you might
consider adding to the list. I think
this is a swell idea partly because
those came out and were popular during
the pop culture black hole of me being
in college as my daughter as a matter of
fact now that she's back uh from college
she is
you know reexperiencing television with
her dad and she's like man I did not
watch a single frame while I was out
there and so it would be great to see if
I could patch that cultural
understanding. Well, you know, that was
a funny thing is there are shows that
I'm like, "Oh, yeah. I remember watching
that." And then I realize I was in
college. I'm like, "When when did I
[laughter]
I don't remember ever sitting down and
watching TV uh when I was in college,
but apparently I did." For example,
Unification from Star Trek: The Next
Generation came out when I was in
college. I know I watched it. I know I
didn't wait around. Uh we also got one
more email from David. Uh David, I'm I
apologize. I'm not going to read the
entire email, but he basically heard us
talking on After Talk about watching
Batman the animated series for the full
experience and had many concerns about
why that would fail uh because of the
fact that there's a lot of two-parters
the way uh Speed Racer was and and a lot
of uh other plot reasons and all that
sort of thing. Uh Brian, I know you you
were entertained uh by David's concerns.
We'll put the full text in the show
notes.
What what would you have to say to
David?
>> No, I was I was exas exasperated because
behind David essentially said, "Please
don't do this experience and
>> it won't work.
>> It won't work." And it's like, "Well,
shoot. Now all you've done is confirm
that you you you've locked in a
prediction and the scientific method.
Now my hands are tied. We we have to do
it now to see if it works." and and
specifically uh you know something that
that it's probably no surprise to anyone
that when somebody says Brian's just
going to talk this way and then he'll
say that or whatever whether you're
right or wrong you know a little bit of
that oppositional defiance disorder is
going to come out. So now now I really
do want to experience it. And but I also
want to acknowledge that that this kind
of thing comes from a place of clearly
this property means a lot to David. And
it is hard to listen to someone
deliberately not give a property you
love a fair shake to set it up with an
unfair audition and then to render
judgment upon it. Uh consider this our
little tribute to America's Got Talent.
I mean, the full experience is unfair to
every show we do.
>> Correct.
>> The question isn't is it fair, the
question is how close to having watched
the whole thing can we get? Now, David's
speculating as Brian suggested that we
won't get very close. Uh, and that's not
a reason not to experiment. You you
don't do an experiment only when you
think it will succeed. Uh, actually a
lot of scientists do work that way and
that's a problem with science.
[laughter]
You still want to do experiments to
confirm something doesn't work because
you might be surprised until you try the
experiment and it works and you're like,
"No one thought this would work and it
worked. We've learned something
amazing." I'm not saying it will happen,
but it could and we won't know until we
try. And it will be entertaining for
most of us to watch us fail. Uh I
understand that David may not be one of
those people who's entertained because
he loves the property because think
about this. either I'm not going to like
it or we're not going to like it or
whatever and it's an unfair experiment.
But even worse is imagine if I love it
and I now think I understand why it's
great when it was that unfair
experiment. You're like you're loving it
for the wrong reasons.
>> Yeah. I I think the biggest fear is like
you won't like it, but you should. And
if you'd given it a fair chance, you
would like it. And I totally understand
that.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh our website is chordkillers.com. Our
email address is cordkillerg.com. And
we're live at twitch.tv/niteack. and
youtube.com/modernrogue.
Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m. Eastern, 2:30 p.m.
Pacific. I reckon we'll talk to you next
time.
[music]
[music]
>> Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this
bro. [laughter]
Yeah,
>> it sure does.
>> I almost didn't even do the actual
ending just because I as you were
sitting there doing the talk, I was
like, "Oh man, you know what look really
good is if right as he gets to this
part, then he's all
[music]
I reckon we'll talk to you next time." I
love I love that. I've always wanted
that. That's the radio way of doing it.
[music] Yeah. You just play the music
under
>> All right. All right. Well, then that's
what I'll do next time.
>> Yeah.
>> You wanna you want to bring the music up
well uh on Tuesdays at 5. You want to
make sure people hear the time, right?
>> Yeah. Yeah. We'll figure out now that
we're unlocking more more of the stuff.
Hello, Amos. How are you, sir?
>> Hi.
>> You made it home.
>> Yeah. Why do you have a tardy slip?
[laughter]
>> Sure. a presidential card. I got one
here. [laughter]
>> Just caught me one fake coin.
>> So, the president is here in Wasilla and
I was in Anchorage doing some family
stuff this morning and almost got caught
up. And as I got word that they were
shutting down the roads for the
presidential motorcade or the potential
presidential motorcade,
>> I started getting my old thinking cap on
and started hitting some back roads,
scooting around. And I will have you
know to know that just down the street
from my house is a traffic circle. We
call it the trunk circle.
I got through there just as the police
were closing it down.
>> Nice. just right on down to the house.
>> Nice.
>> So, yay for back roads.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. No kidding. Well done.
>> That's some skill,
>> Tom.
>> Shall we do the thing?
>> Oh. Oh, yeah. Sure. Let's do it.
>> I did not.
>> And uh Amos, did you watch?
>> No.
>> No, sir.
>> Here we go.
>> All right. And I'll you know what? We'll
start with this. Aha. I'll hit record.
[music]
Welcome to the full experience. This is
an experiment in television watching. We
watch four episodes of a TV series to
see how close we can get to
understanding the entire run. We watch
the first, ultimate, lowest, and last.
Ultimate and lowest, of course, based on
the ratings people on IMDb have given
them. First and last are the first
episode and the last episode. And this
week, we are watching the last episode
of the original 1978 Battlestar
Galactica called The Hand of God. season
1, episode 21, which first aired on my
sister's birthday, April 29th, 1979. She
was not born on that day, but that was
her birthday in 1979. And I'm sure we
celebrated by watching The Hand of God
from Battlestar Galactica. I'm Tom
Merritt. He's Brian Brushwood.
>> Hey, man. Uh Tom, real quick, silly
production brain Brian thing. My
favorite moment was when they needed to
describe their bombing run on the base
star. They of course needed a model, a
very very very
good, very precise
model of a bay star. One might suspect,
Tom, that it's a one for one perfect
copy [laughter] of the actual base star.
>> It looks like an actual base star. How
did you do that with your advanced space
technology? That's
>> And I knew I was like, "Oh my god, they
used the actual production thing as a a
prop in the show." And you could tell
the way they're handling it. Their hands
are are super delicate around it. You
could tell that the actors have been
given dire warnings. And then they were
so excited that they wrote it into
Baltar's first sneering line is playing
with toys. Are we? [laughter]
And uh uh but the episode itself, I got
to tell you, I
I liked it. I liked it. Uh, outside of
the painfully long
uh winking at the camera moment of of
this ghost transmission. I wonder what
it is. It's only got the most iconic
beep that I suspect everybody in 1978
had heard an awful lot. And it
>> Yeah, it sounds exactly like the radio
chatter of the oh, I don't know, most
watched television broadcast of all
time. But
>> I don't think you as a viewer are not
supposed to recognize it. The tension is
what are they gonna do because they
don't know it, but I know it. And so it
it builds that tension of like, "Oh my
god, that's us. That's Earth. They've
been looking for us. Are they going to
figure it out?" And of course, they
don't because the producers of the show
thought they'd get a season two and they
didn't. Uh, so they leave us at the end
uh with the heartbreaking like, "Oh, but
the transmission came back, you guys.
The eagle has landed."
I guess I guess we'll never know
>> till we find out. But also, the thread
is open on there. And of course, we know
that Battlestar 1980 did happen and it
is either is or is not.
>> Yeah, they they they got renewed with a
smaller budget and none of the original
actors except Lauren Green and then
jumped to 1980. Um, yeah. I I guess that
implies that they were a mere 11 years
away from getting to Earth. Uh if you
look at it that way, but in in in the
sense of the show at the time when you
didn't know there was going to be a
Battlestar 1980, uh I think it was
pretty frustrating, especially when they
canceled the show and you're like, "Oh,
but they I go back and forth though.
Sometimes I look at that. I'm like, that
would have been a perfect way to end it,
just to be like, the transmission is
there. Maybe they'll discover it. I
guess we'll never
>> Yeah.
>> Uh they had a throwaway line about the
Galactica being 500 years old.
>> Oh,
>> that seemed a little excessive.
>> Uh well, I'm [laughter] sure you catch
that yarn. Uh I'm sure
>> 500 yarns. Yeah. But
>> yeah.
>> No, but I kind of like the idea that if
you're playing with because keep in
mind, they do mention in the lore that
the Sylons were created by a reptilian
species. Uh and you know, they're the
the robotic descendants thereof. Um, I I
like the idea that if the battle star is
a titan that it would be vaguely
immortal itself.
>> I mean, they they do use that in the
reboot to great effect of like the
Galactica is so old it doesn't have
networking, right? Uh 500 just seemed
like arbitrarily too long for me. Um,
but old, it's old. They have these old
things that in this show riddled with
unicorns and [laughter]
>> I'll buy a unicorn. I will not buy 500y
old battle box. Uh also uh we find out
that uh Boxy's mom is dead. Jane Seymour
not on the show anymore. I I realized
Apollo wasn't with her. I was like,
"Okay, so did they break up?" And then
later they say something about, you
know, well, since Serena died, I'm like,
oh, or Serena is gone, you know, but
applying that that she died. So that's
kind of a major plot twist. I guess they
couldn't afford Jane Seymour for the
entire season.
>> Oh, and we also got to intuit it what
happened to the Pegasus since the the
guy's daughter is still there, but the
guy isn't, Lloyd Bridges.
>> Oh, right. Yeah. So, so we had some
folks stick around uh after the
disappearance of the Pegasus because we
never watched the conclusion of that. Uh
also, Baltar got captured.
>> Yep.
>> Since the last time we we saw him, he
was running the show for the Sylons. Uh
now he's he's having to help uh to get a
deal. Um also, they captured a Sylon
fighter. I guess that's how they
captured Baltar because they call it
Baltar's Sylon fighter. Um,
>> well, they uh
>> there was a lot of exposition in this
episode, too, which I found extremely
helpful as a full experience viewer.
>> To be honest, I don't know how good this
episode was to anybody who was watching
it live or watching the whole series,
but incredibly I feel totally caught up.
I do feel like because think about it,
our questions that we would have had
because we only got to see the part one
of the uh the Lloyd Bridges Pegasus
episode. I they're all answered.
Something something reckless, too much.
Uh I get it.
>> Yeah. Uh and then we have the gold
centurion, which make me wonder, was it
really expensive to do the old kind of
uh Sylon that was in charge usually and
we just had to have a gold one instead?
Oh, yeah.
>> Or was it because they just wanted to
make a gold one and they spray painted
it? I don't know. Uh the oh the other
thing that played into the moonlanding
broadcast showing up was they identify a
new solar system with habitable planets
and gas giants. And of course that gets
you on the edge of your seat in 1979
like oh is it us? Are they getting the
transmission and they they played fast
and loose. Well the transmission could
be far away or it could be really close.
You know we don't know. It could be
reflections. Uh, and then of course we
find that it's not our solar system. But
I do like that they talk about like
maybe we'll just land on one of these
planets. Like you know, the survival of
h humanity is getting kind of old as a
reason. I'm just tired of running. Let's
just stop even though there's a base
star over there. Um that that that was
kind of an interesting throwaway line as
well.
>> Yeah.
>> But then the the the latter half became
a World War II, you know, fight story.
uh part Death Star, Infiltration, uh
part uh you know, Attack on the Death
Star Viper style. Uh and
>> I remember watching this as a kid and
being very impressed at the Dirk
Benedict waggling this time, of course,
when he says, "I'll figure out
something. Maybe I'll waggle my wings."
I'm like, "Oh, yeah. I think that's what
he does." The waggling was not very
>> no obvious.
>> They they had to say, "He's waggling.
Stop. He's waggling. He is. I can't
tell. No, really, he is. You have to be
a Viper pilot to understand.
>> Although it's like, why don't you do
wacky barrel rolls or something?
>> Yeah. Right. I mean, why not? You're in
space.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh and then I remember uh they talked
about the recording being destroyed.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> Which which made me say, you know, they
should really back up their data better.
Come on, Galactic. You've been around
for 500 years. Have a backup plan. the
uh Okay, so uh number one, the Baltar
negotiation scene where he's negotiating
being marooned I thought was pretty good
where it's like what what's within realm
and communications no yes no because you
need real cooperation which means you
need something to offer and then we get
echoes of genuine nautical handling of
dropping somebody off on an island and
they're like well I'm not killing you
but dot dot dot you know maybe you'll
get rescued Dude, um the
uh [laughter]
shouts out to the first and only time we
see Sylons, and I'm using air quotes
here, running [laughter] like they
couldn't quite decide how athletic
sylons needed to be, but they have them
scrambling to their battle to their
fighters there. It was only so fast you
could run in one of those suits, too.
So, I imagine that was the limiting
factor there.
>> Yeah. And then the uh uh but I I I liked
the very credible idea that this was too
much to go for unless they had the the
you know the the ability to sneak up on
them and it was satisfying. Boy, you
really felt the limitations of their
budget in that moment though. It's
really too bad.
>> Yeah, it is too bad especially because
we got a sense of what they could do in
the o in the first movie. Uh, we have a
nice parallel to the Pegasus story where
Adama wouldn't risk it all and this time
he's like, "But now I will, and I have a
very good reason because we have
surprise on our side, which we didn't
have before." Uh, so you had a really
good setup uh for all of that. Um, it's
it's too bad you couldn't show it as
well as it could have been showed. I
thought for what they had, they did a
pretty decent job of keeping folks in
suspense, though.
>> Yeah. And there there was some Oh, uh, I
couldn't believe
what a strange time for women's
liberation where in the strange love
triangle of Starbucks and his two women,
they're kind of taking comfort in their
confusing shared worry about him. Like,
uh,
>> oh, no, no, no, no, no. That wasn't a
love triangle. That was Apollo's
girlfriend and Starbucks girlfriend. Uh
uh. Oh, were they talking about each of
their bows? Was it
>> commiscerating that like my guy is doing
the same thing that your guy is doing
and and it's risky and I hate it.
>> Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. Crap. I guess I
guess I was a little bit dialed out. Uh
minus
>> I would have I would prefer the more
interesting scenario that you set up,
but I don't think that's what they were
after. Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Um it was a little more of a straight
ahead of like this is so risky. I hate
it. Me, too. Let's date.
>> Um, well,
>> the other that's that's the old version
of me, Too. [laughter]
>> You, too. Uh, okay. Um, yeah, I I don't
think this is the best episode of the
series, but it's up there. It It was
good. It was a good solid Battlestar
Galactica episode given its constraints,
right? Like, yes, there are some
budgetary things that that show up, but
but the story is pretty good.
>> Oh, wait. It says here, uh, Plasma Storm
says Starbucks was with Cassopia and
Apollo's sister, but she was flying in
the fight, though.
>> Oh, it's Apollo's sister.
>> Yeah.
>> Oh, so you might be right then. See, I
was thinking it was um I I was thinking
it was the Apollo's lady friend.
>> Yeah. Okay.
>> I was I wasn't remembering it right.
Okay. So So then you are right. It is
the heartbreaker Starbucks,
>> but also well uh we'll figure it out.
We'll we'll read about it in an email
and talk about it in after talk. But uh
I would say Tom that uh I don't know how
good this was as an episode like we
said, but as a full experience, this one
saved the full experience. I feel
complete in my understanding of
>> Battle Star. It's a decent story. It may
not be perfectly told uh but it
definitely helped us understand
everything that had happened uh in the
episodes that we missed. So I call it a
success for the full experience. I'm
still trying to get to the uh Hand of
God IMDb page which I prematurely
closed.
>> Yeah. Pete in the chat says Paulo's
sister wasn't on this episode. They
dropped her.
>> Oh, she was credit. Lieutenant of the
Yeah. So that's a mistaken thing. It was
Lieutenant Sheibba and Lockheart with
Cassie Opa. Um, okay. So, there we go.
Yeah. Why wasn't Athena in this episode?
She's still in the cast.
>> I don't know.
>> Puzzle for another day. All right. So,
next week we will be watching the movie
Logan's Run as a sort of a moose bouch
between Battlestar Galactica and the
series Logan's Run. Uh so just kind of
giving us a little base base layer uh of
Logan's Run to go from. It's a 1976
movie. TV series started in 1977. Uh so
if you want to watch along with us, uh
go find Logan's Run wherever find
Logan's runs are sold. I think it's a
rental pretty. Oh no, wait a minute. It
might be on Tuby. Take it back. You
might be able to watch it uh free with
ads on Tuby if you can't rent it. Uh,
you can get these episodes early if
you're a patron at
patreon.comcordkillers.
It's all part of the service, folks. Uh,
you know what? We used to give the full
experience for free because we would
only charge for the cord killers
episode. But now that we're monthly,
it's all part of the package. It's part
of your monthly package. We've been
giving you eight to 10 episodes a month
and Patreon wouldn't even let us pay
charge for all of them, but now it's
just one flat rate. So, go check it out.
patreon.com/cordkillers
and we'll talk to you about Logan's Run
next time.
[music]
[music]
>> Yeah,
>> we should have been charging for the
full experience.
>> You know, you said that and I was like,
uh, retcon, retcon, that's the way it
is. Finally. Finally. Whoops.
>> Yeah.
>> All right. Well, thanks everybody.
Beautiful live people. We're going to
bid you a fond Jew and resolve the
evening to his tidings as we speak.
>> We bid you fondue, please.
>> As we speak only to our supreme bosses,
our our our not Gas Baltar's
>> our supreme leaders.
>> Yeah.
>> Kim Jong-uns.
>> Goodbye Lucifers. Bye
>> Lucifer. There you go. in the