Episode 103: The Voyage Of The Van Leeuwenhoek by John Medaille
Life aboard the Van Leeuwenhoek spacecraft is tough. There’s pretty much constant war with the Venusians, not to mention the daily duties, subspace apparitions, and the difficulties with the Lunars. And then, there are the cockroaches.
Outtakes
Afterward, Big and Rish ask if this story is Space Opera. What is Space Opera? Does it involve singing? Is 2001 Space Opera? What about Alien? What are the subgenres of Science Fiction? Can Rish say what he thinks of the SyFy Channel without violating his sensitivity training?
Also, would R080T be better or worse if he had a different voice? Only several ways to know for sure.
Please excuse the audio problems on this show. It won’t happen again…at least, we don’t think it will.
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The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine 
May 25, 2011 at 4:37 am
I haven’t listened to the episode yet (but I will soon), but here is my 2 cents on R080T’s voice.
I always thought it was fun in the “old days” before he got the voice chip, when he would make R2D2 sounds and we’d all have to imagine how he was insulting Rish. Sometimes Big would say what he was really saying, but usually you could tell he was lying to protect Rish’s feelings (At least that was my impression).
But then he got a synthesized voice, and we no longer had to rely on our imaginations. He became less interesting to me then.
Again, my 2 cents.
May 25, 2011 at 8:43 pm
Terrific story and narration. Creepy. I keep checking myself for roaches and scratching. Do I remember Big saying in the post-story discussion that Rish’s accent was cockney? I thought it was some future variation of southern. Regardless, still a great episode. The robot voice thing was fun. I enjoyed the variations on the robot’s behavior with the different voices. Booger!
May 26, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Great episode! The part about the cockroach crawling in the guy’s ear gave me the serious willies. Surprisingly, once they got all crazy big I was less bothered. As for the discussion of genres and subgenres, Alien is one of those constantly argued about movies. Horror fans mostly claim it’s horror with scifi elements, and scifi fans say it’s scifi with horror elements. As a horror fan, I think it’s a horror film… mostly because the scifi elements are used to create the horrific atmosphere and are really intended to frighten. It has elements of both survival horror and body horror. But I’m sure plenty of people would argue with me. (They’d just be wrong.) :-P
Also, I wholeheartedly agree with Rish’s disdain for the Syfy channel. Eff those losers.
XXX~M
May 27, 2011 at 6:09 pm
My dear Ms. Elektra, could you give me a few examples (five, let’s say, to satisfy any nerds that might be watching) of “body horror” and “survival horror?”
May 31, 2011 at 12:27 am
Body Horror:
The Fly
The Human Centipede (Do NOT google it if you don’t know what it is already. Your eyes will not forgive you.)
Alien 3
The less gonzo werewolf flicks
Survival Horror:
Aliens
Resident Evil (video games)
Almost any slasher flick
The Saw movies
June 1, 2011 at 11:48 am
Sorry Rish… you said ‘My dear Ms Elektra’ and I fainted in delight so I couldn’t answer right away.
Nathaniel’s got some good ones there. The Fly is a really good example of body horror. And Aliens is a really good example of survival horror. I’ll see if I can think of any others at work tonight though. Your wish, as they say, my command. ;)
xxxM
May 29, 2011 at 7:13 am
Kick-ass story. Win all around. I loved the ‘imitation’ of the Lunars’ accent.
May 29, 2011 at 11:20 pm
Nice work, guys! Creepy story, excellent narration, and I burst out laughing at the “douche who wrote the Dora map song” observation in the commentary!
May 31, 2011 at 5:06 pm
I enjoyed this story a lot. It was quite unique, but due to timing, it reminded me of the Boojum univierse from a recent Drabblecast. It’s obviously not, but it has got the same dirty nitty, gritty feel. I like how it was gradually revealed that there was more to MC’s companion that meets the eye. I thought the cockney accent was perfect; and intuitively clicked into the class warfare aspect of the story.
I take it this story will fit into the criteria for a Parsec award. Is this going to be your entrant? If so, good choice and good luck.
I think R080T would sound great with the voice from the skeleton on the Craig Fergeson show.
June 2, 2011 at 7:50 pm
Like Mr. Latham, I also got a Boojum vibe from this one.
But, yeccch, roaches!
June 3, 2011 at 10:30 am
Everybody needs a Boojum for a pillow. Everybody needs a Boojum.
June 28, 2011 at 12:43 am
Hey guys, great story. Loved it! As a native Dutch speaker (van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch scientist) you guys got the pronunciation almost right; the first syllable should be spoken as ‘lay’ not ‘lee’. So ‘lay-wen-hook’ (wen as in wendy’s).
Cheers!
June 28, 2011 at 11:14 pm
Great episode! 1 I like that you talked a lot about the story and not just about Star Wars and movies, although that’s fine too, and 2 the r080t voices were hilarious. Those same old mac voices that have been standards for 25+ years came to life with the in-character words you gave them. Hilarious! Really I’m not exaggerating.
July 11, 2011 at 3:36 am
Woah – freaking outstanding ! I found the idea of spending large amounts of time in hyperspace more scary than the bugs. Love the history of the setting. The Luna colonists were a great idea. Really good voice work from Rish.