Christian Ashley, Evan Garcia, and Herbie Ramsey dive into the latest buzzing topics in geek culture, focusing on "Peacemaker," "Strange New Worlds," and the intriguing new series "Alien Earth." Right off the bat, they explore the wild antics of "Peacemaker" Season 2, where John Cena's character navigates a chaotic world full of moral dilemmas and unexpected twists, all while trying to find his place in an ever-evolving universe. They switch gears to "Strange New Worlds," praising its fresh take on the Star Trek franchise, which brings back the essence of exploration and the complexities of humanity. The trio doesn't shy away from discussing the fascinating themes in "Alien Earth," where they ponder deep questions about consciousness, identity, and the implications of transhumanism. With a relaxed vibe and witty banter, these three geeks serve up an episode that's not just informative but also a fun ride through the cosmos of their favorite fandoms, all while weaving in their shared faith perspective.

The latest buzz in geek culture is brought to life in this episode of Systematic Geekology, where hosts Christian Ashley, Evan Garcia, and Herbie Ramsey get deep into some exciting new content from beloved fandoms. They kick things off with a spirited discussion about the anticipated second season of Peacemaker, noting how it picks up after the chaos of season one, with Peacemaker trying to navigate his complex identity against a backdrop of superhero antics and moral dilemmas. The trio dives into the character's struggle to balance his violent tendencies with a desire for acceptance, all while engaging in some hilariously absurd situations that only James Gunn could conjure. With clever banter and insightful commentary, they explore how Peacemaker's journey mirrors broader themes of redemption and self-discovery, making it a compelling watch for fans and newcomers alike.

Shifting gears, the conversation transitions to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, where the hosts express their adoration for Captain Pike's crew and the show's refreshing return to the franchise's exploratory roots. They highlight how this third season is not just about space adventures but also delves into the characters' personal growth and the moral complexities of their missions. The hosts enthuse about the show's ability to weave in humor and drama while tackling serious themes, like the ethical implications of their explorations and the consequences of their actions across the galaxy. The chemistry among the crew is palpable, and the hosts can't help but share their excitement for the character arcs, especially how they juxtapose the optimism of Starfleet with the harsh realities of interstellar politics.

Lastly, Alien Earth comes into focus, with the hosts discussing its intriguing premise that blends sci-fi horror with philosophical questions about consciousness and identity. They delve into the concept of uploading consciousness to synthetic bodies and the ethical dilemmas that arise from such advancements. The discussions reveal a mix of skepticism and curiosity about the implications of these technologies, drawing parallels to real-world advancements in AI and robotics. The show's ability to maintain the eerie tension associated with the Xenomorphs, while also exploring deeper existential themes, captivates the hosts and promises viewers a thrilling ride. Through their witty exchanges, they manage to highlight the show's depth, making it clear that Alien Earth is not just another sci-fi series but a thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be human in an increasingly digital world.

Takeaways:

• In the latest 'What's News' episode, the trio dives deep into 'Peacemaker', tackling its unique blend of humor and action while exploring themes of identity and redemption.
• 'Strange New Worlds' is celebrated for its fresh take on classic Star Trek narratives, emphasizing exploration and moral dilemmas that resonate with contemporary issues.
• The discussion on 'Alien Earth' introduces thought-provoking questions about consciousness and identity, particularly through the lens of transhumanism and corporate ethics.
• Christian, Evan, and Herbie share their excitement about the evolving DC cinematic universe, highlighting both the potential and pitfalls of character development across different shows.
• The episode showcases the hosts' witty banter, peppering insightful commentary with humor, making for an engaging and relatable listen for fans of all ages.
• Listeners are encouraged to reflect on the intersection of faith and fandom, particularly how these shows can illuminate deeper spiritual truths and moral lessons.

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To a new body. What's happening in Peacemaker Season 2? And are the strange new worlds we're experiencing. Good.

We're going to be asking those questions and a lot more in today's episode of systematic ecology. We are the priests of the geeks.

I'm your host, Christian Ashley for a special what's news episode, joined today by two lovely co hosts, of course, Evan Garcia. How's it going?

What's up, party people? Doing good. Glad to talk about this cacophony of new stuff that we have. We are spoiled.

Oh, yeah, and if you're on YouTube, you can't see him because he's very camera shy. Retro. Herbie, how's it going, Herbie?

It's going. I'm here. I'd rather be sleeping.

Oh, man. Wouldn't we all? Oh, yes, I have.

So with this and planet.

There you go, gentlemen. What's the, like, recent stuff you want to use for our lightning round? Yeah, I can go first. No one else wants to go.

I'll do the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They did the re release of the first movie and I took my son and I realized as I sat down, I said, man, I don't think I've seen this in theaters.

So I was like, it was a completely new experience for me. So it was fun. It was fun a scene. And those, those, those puppeted costumes, man, they hold up pretty well. Hold up pretty well. And it was pretty fun.

There were the few jokes that I don't know how I got past my mom in the 90s. I don't know how. I don't know how she didn't pick that up because I was like, oh, he said what? But, yes, but that was.

Was that just one of those, like, for one day only kind of releases?

I think for this month, I think.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, good.

Kirby, what about you?

Yes, so actually I have watched the most recent season of King of the Hill. I've watched the most recent Strange New Worlds. And next on my list is the most recent episodes of upload.

Okay, so, so, so I heard really good things about King of the Hill. We're getting to Star Trek later on today. So what are your thoughts on a new season?

So loved it. I think the era that King of the Hill was in is a bit different.

Unlike, like, the old episodes of King of the Hill, there was this, like, storyline that progressed through all 10 episodes, which was not the. Not the sitcom style of the original Community Hill.

Like, there were elements that might carry over, but more or less every episode was completely standalone. The original series.

Yeah.

You can like it or dislike it. I think it has a lot of positive things to the new season. But it was a striking difference that I noticed.

I'm sure that's a factor of time and everything. I heard other people say something similar to that, but King of Hill is just one of those shows. It's just nice to put on. It's not like offensive.

It's not like the greatest thing in the world. It's not. You're gonna laugh every now and then, have fun.

It's a show. You, you. It's designed to not be taken seriously. It doesn't get too offensive.

But yeah, it is kind of offensive in a lot of ways. You just have to remember it's a cartoon and they're just trying to have.

Have a good laugh on most of these things.

Yeah.

Now for me for the lightning round, I am continuing to watch Ultramatic Omega. It's starting to lose me a little bit. It's not progressing the plot in any way, shape or form. It's just, hey, look at new toy you can buy.

And yeah, that's been the Ultra series for quite some time, but it's kind of grading on my nerves. I'd like to next progress things, but other than that, it's enjoyable then. Oh, south park continues to be incredible.

They're doing this thing where they're releasing bi weekly instead. Sure. That's a Paramount decision to where they can have people stay on with their subscriptions.

That was what I was looking for, just so they can make a little extra cash. But no, Trey and Matt, like never leave. Guys, I love you.

Okay, that might because I don't have a Paramount plus right now, but I'm thinking about getting it just for South Park.

Yeah, I mean, if there was one show you had to get it for other than of course, Star Trek, it would be South Park. So why don't we go ahead and get into this bad boy. We're going to start off with Star Trek. Strange new world. This is the third season of the show.

Three out of five now that we know where things are going because they've already announced they're going to do five seasons and then potentially be doing a spin off with Kirk in charge again for those not the note, this is pre Kirk and Enterprise. Captain pike is in charge. We've got a Spock who's learning everything before we see him in the original series. Her is there right now.

We just got Scotty as like a member of the crew after what happened. The events of season two. And yeah, it's a lot of good fun. Herbie, anything you want to add before we go forward?

I mean, honestly, it.

It brings a lot of that original Fela Star Trek, the idea of seeking out something new and also dealing with the intricacies of life and like politics and war all, all into the mixture. I think Strange New Worlds overall has been a really good breath of fresh air to the Star Trek franchise retroactively.

It is the only reason why I'm glad that Discovery exists, because without Discovery, we don't have strange new worlds. Thank God for Discovery, you will hear me say one time ever. And it's because of this. Yeah, this show is phenomenal.

It's putting some hope back into my Star Trek after. Well, I've already said Discovery sucks. It sucks. And it kind of took all the joy out of things for me.

But this is bringing it back to roots of where does the Federation of why do we go out and seek out new life and new worlds and all this mess? Well, because we're explorers, because we want to find things out.

We want to discover new things and figure things out and understand where we come from as people. It's just fun. Yeah. This isn't a perfect season by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoy it. So you enjoying it so far, Herbie?

Absolutely, I am.

It's.

It's one of the things where I kind of watched the entire season or everything up to this point in like three days and was depressed when I didn't have another episode to watch.

I hate that, especially with such short seasons now. 10 is not enough for Star Trek season. It's not enough for anything anymore unless you do look in the miniseries. Well, I'll take 26 at this point.

The first episode of Star Trek was like, what, 53 episodes?

Can we have that back, please? Well, no, it was split in two seasons. There's still like 26 some. So just a bit of, you know, plots, synopsis, what's been going on.

I've not seen the most recent episode. I don't know if you have, Herbie.

I don't know if I have. I've been quite busy this week, so can't remember what the last one I saw was.

So.

So at the end of season two, we had the Enterprise encounter the Gorn who were making incursions on Federation space. Or was the Federation doing it on their space? It's all up in the air in that regard.

And actually it was colonists from the Federation who were not officially licensed that's what it was. And through the process of this, they had to escape, leaving some of their crew behind on one of the Gorn ships.

And they come back, save them by kind of freezing the Gorn a little bit without killing them at this point in time, and they're able to come back from the Gorn. And speaking of things that are kind of weird, the Gorn have very much been made into a certain creature that we'll talk about later in this episode.

There's some very more xenomorphic traits about them, which is an interesting take. I'm still not big on it, but I mean, you know what it is what it is. If that's my one complaint, I'll be okay.

Then we go to our next episode where we see Dr. Christine Chapel is meeting her fiance, Dr. Roger Corby.

And as you know, for those who've been watching, she and Spocky pet a thing that was hinted at in the original series, but now they're focusing way too much on it. There's another complaint. And through the process of the wedding plans for this, we end up with her trying to rekindle things with him, but failing.

Let's see what else happens in the episode. I don't know. Yeah, that's the one with Trelane in it. They don't know it's Trelane. And as we also will learn that Trelane is also spoilers.

I mean, the Q Continuum, because John de Lacey appears in energy form to talk him down, which was been a huge fan theory for years, is that's was true about Treane. Then we go to.

If you guys want to talk about anything before I go from episode to episode, please feel free to interrupt me to the third episode where Pike's main squeeze, Captain Patel, who has lost her ship, is now on the ship with them, has been implanted with a Gorn inside of her, which is one of the xenomorphic traits that they have. And to save her life, they go to this planet to try and find a cure.

Because of course there's only one planet and it has to be in Klingon and, well, technically Klingon territory, but technically DMZ kind of zoner. And that's where pike and Dr. Mbinga go down there.

And they're confronted by some Klingons, one of whom is the daughter of the ambassador that he murdered, and an attempt for her to regain her honor. They're barely able to escape some plant zombies. So we have zombies in our Star Trek now outside of the lower decks.

Episode I'm pretty sure they did not use the Z word. I'm pretty sure it says keyword though.

Oh, that's right.

Really?

Then next up we have the first ever holodeck episode. And if you know anything about holodecks is that they're. They're designed to fail.

Apparently we can't have a good holodeck episode without something going wrong. And of course the first one ever has to do the same where Lon is going through a murder mystery with Spock.

Only big twist, it's not actually Spock, it's just a computer making Spock and showcasing a lot of things where we kind of see a very fun referential episode of them kind of being in the 60s with like a space Adventure Odyssey episode. It's heavily inspired by what Star Trek would have been like.

It's an excellent excuse for Kirk's actor to show up on the scene because of pattern buffers or whatever. It's for the extent of putting him on screen. Let's see then.

Next up we have an episode where they go to an alien planet and find this place where a bunch of things are being kept behind this technology that has put become a prison for these extra dimensional beings. And they.

One of them ends up possessing a member of the crew, Gamble, who's been kind of an off and on new character and unfortunately through this he ends up dying and they're barely able to get the ship back and you know, save the crew.

Then the next one after that we have the Enterprise encountering alongside the Farragut where James Kirk is the first officer of a ship that is massive.

Just like almost if, if you didn't know it wasn't the apocalypse, he would kind of think it was kind of pocket in that it's made of different ships and different parts and stuff like that.

And they just attack people without warning and fried their scavengers and they end up fighting them and barely managed to destroy them in time to save the Enterprise.

As unfortunately we learned that these are actually survivors of Earth from the World War III that happens in Star Trek canon who had left the Earth behind and over the years kind of lost their way and were very isolationist and a very compelling episode. Then we go to one I'm kind of have mixed feelings on. It's the last one I watched. This is where. Goodness gracious, Ortegas's brother.

Yeah, her brother has been filming a documentary the entire time he's been on the Enterprise. And it's kind of weird. It's filmed almost as a documentary. Itself of showing Starfleet in action.

And he's asking all these higher questions that should be asked, but it's not really handled the best, in my opinion. Where they end up contacting this race that's fighting against the Klingons and they've had the super weapon they've made.

They find out the super weapon is basically like a space Mothra. And unfortunately they have like brainwashed the space Mothra and to killing people and it wants to die, so they essentially euthanize it.

Whoa.

So that has been almost recent season. Like I said, I haven't seen the most recent episode, so. So first off, Evan, since you haven't watched it, what are your, like, impressions?

Just like hearing all this madness, all these proper nouns I just threw out your way.

I'm glad that Star Trek has something that the fans like and that. That overall it's not the mess that the last one was from, from what I heard, so.

Amen.

Yeah.

All right, Irby, I will say that.

One of the most interesting episodes was the one you talked about where the star. The, the refugees or whatever they're called from World War Three are basically stripping everything that they can find.

It's almost like a gluttony type of thing where they're just surviving by taking absolutely everything they need without any care. Compassion. We need this. You're dead. We're taking your stuff. Just going through the entire galaxy, just grabbing everything they need.

I thought that was a very interesting episode. But at the end of the day, I think they deserved what they got.

At the hands of the Enterprise, even.

If they were humans, because it shows they didn't even care about their own race. They were completely willing to destroy the Enterprise and grab the few things that they needed off of it and leave it behind.

Yeah, I think this is one of the important things, because you don't learn this until like the very end of the episode is that these are actually human beings. And knowing the Star Trek canon before the events of First Contact, the Earth is a wasteland because of the events of World War Three.

And you have, you know, people like. I think it's Colonel Green who was leading the Earth into this post apocalyptic wasteland, Dehumanizing people, committing genocide.

And then humanity of the 23rd century is looking back at humanity of the mid, you know, 21st century and kind of going, oh, that, that could have been us. Like, what makes them so different than us? Why did they turn out the way they did versus how we did?

And they kind of go through this whole thing of because this is a command episode where Kirk has to take command because his captain gets injured.

So now he has to become the temporary captain of the Farragut to try and save the Enterprise, to kind of put him in the chains of command there for the first time. And he's doubting himself. And it's a great moment between him and Spock earlier on, but there's also a great moment between him and pike.

And it's like, look what a difference is. They lost hope or something to the effect of something like that.

And they just, for years had plenty of time to contact these new species and make friends with them, but they decided instead just to become fearful of what was around them. And I think that's a very poignant message.

They also pose the very same question that came out in Star Trek Nemesis there, of what guarantee that we have that if we were in their place, we wouldn't come out just like them.

Yeah.

And pike is like, we don't have such guarantees.

Which is a great way of putting it. It's like, I mean, you can hypothetical it all day.

You can what if yourself, out of whatever conundrum you're in, the end of the day, you're where you're at. And he even tells Kirk like the, the fact that you're feeling bad about this, that's a good thing. I don't think they would have felt the same way.

I mean, it's obvious they didn't. They had just destroyed an entire planet. They had just basically taken up the Enterprise and we're just going to keep going.

They didn't feel bad about it. At least there was no sign of remorse. Of course, we have no idea what culture had developed inside of this.

But we do know there was, what, 7,000 life signs when they destroyed the ship?

I think so, yes. And, and another thing.

In the episode, they were on their way to a pre warp world to strip it of its resources, which, you know, the big no no in the Federation. But knowing a ship that's been on its own for over a hundred years, they're not going to have the same compunctions that we do.

And there's also the fact that they weren't even trying to communicate when they came across the Enterprise. There was no communication. It was get out of our way, we destroy you, we keep going.

Yeah, even the board tell you they're going to assimilate you. They said absolutely nothing. Are there any other episodes that jump out at you, Herbie? Are we good to move on?

Honestly, there's A lot of we could talk about it and it could be a week long episode, but that episode, the. The one with that plot line just stood out over everything else.

Well, next we get to one of your topics today, Evan. That, of course, being Peacemaker Season 2. So take us away.

All right, Will do. That is right there. Bring up the good old slide there. All right. All right. Peacemaker season two.

I binge watched season one about two weeks ago because I completely forgot that it existed. And I was like, I haven't watched this. What happened? So I watched it. I loved it.

And.

Then we watched Superman, and that got me hyped again for the dc, the new DC universe. So this will pick up. This is a season two, and it picks up right after.

Seems like both things, Season one and Superman, because you see the Justice Gang, they're trying to hire some more. Some more members, and. And a Peacemaker goes and tries out and. And that goes wrong. And they. Clarity ensues and. But, but I'm. But I'm really liking it.

Episode two is about to drop now, so that's the first thing I'm gonna watch when I get off here.

And I'm really liking it because it's the same kind of story as Superman has in the sense the main character's trying to find his humanity and trying to find it with his. With his. With. With within community, basically. But they, but they are two different people, so the shows are completely different.

Like, Like, I'm not gonna show my kids this show. Yeah. So could take them to Superman, but they're not watching this. So. But that, but that works because every character is different.

They all have their strengths and the show. And James Gunn is getting some slack online about it, about the people saying they took my son to see Superman, but now. But now he can't watch this.

This, this show. It was never the case. They never said that this was going to be one huge cohesive thing, so. But I'm excited.

Some things are made for different audiences.

Sorry, I interrupt you. No, no, it's fine. Fine, yeah.

Herbie, are you familiar at all with Peacemaker?

I am not, and I have not seen any of it.

Okay.

So essentially there's some shenanigans going on here because this was actually part of the DCEU originally.

But then when Warner Brothers did what it did and ruined everything by not having a plan, James Gunn came in to save DC from itself and Warner Brothers from itself to create a new cinematic universe for them. And now they have done the thing where they. They have Retconned at the very end of season one.

Like, the Justice League shows up post after Peacemaker and everyone working with them stops an alien invasion.

But they've replaced the people there with the Justice Gang from the Superman movie and putting this to the point where this is now officially part of this new universe and not the old universe anymore.

And George Lucas, basically.

I mean, it's kind of seamless. It is. I mean.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I'm not complaining about it because I enjoyed his cameo in the Superman movie and seeing him here again was fun. Yeah. I think it works well. And they're also. They. Some of the things beforehand was like playing with the idea of alternate realities.

And we were thinking, oh, does that mean he's going to shift universes or something? Like. Oh, actually, no. He finds out that in this reality.

Sorry, in this continuity, his dad is the white dragon leader of a bunch of fascist supremacist and racist men, and he killed him in the last season. But he finds that one of the things that he owned was this essentially portal to another reality.

And he goes in, and not only is his dad alive, his brother's alive, and there's some. I don't know what they're going to be doing with this. I'm, like, baffled. In a good way. I don't know where we're going from here.

And he kills his alternate in that world. Yeah, yeah.

Because the alternate self sees him in his. In the other reality, chases after him, and he accidentally murders his alternate self, and that's where the episode ends.

So I'm curious to see what I pick up from that tonight. Without drums.

Yep.

Because. Because you're kind of wondering, like, does there need to be a new season? Wasn't season one sufficient?

So I'm curious to see where Gun goes with this, because as seen in the first episode, his first name's Chris, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's, like, struggling to find himself to a point where there's a scene I could really have gone without seeing.

But it is what it is. This is intended for a mature audience. And there is. Oh, gosh, that was way too long.

Jesus. Still going?

Yeah. Essentially an orgy hosted at his house. And it's part of the showing, the spiral. It's not shown as a positive thing.

I'm pretty sure it's shown as him, like, giving into depression and just trying to find the newest high, as it were. So I think this season is going to be a little bit about him rebuilding himself.

So maybe he's going to Go to that alternate reality for a little bit where he looks like he's more respected, kind of like a Superman, since he's not respected in his own. So maybe that's how it comes in. And then learning, it's like, look, you can pretend to be the other guy as much as you want.

You're you, and you have your own reality. Stay there. But I don't know. I'm speculating.

Yeah. The. And the one thing is that I'm still shocked every time they see John Cena. And. And. And he's not a bad actor.

Right.

I'm still shocked at that. Like, I can't believe he's. He's a superstar now. It's like, who would have thought?

He does a great job.

He does.

And I'm surprised that they actually put Amanda Waller in the first episode, considering the huge presence she had in the last one. But we still feel her effects and that her daughter can't find a job. Oh, gosh, what is. I'm so bad at proper nouns. His gal pal. What is her name?

Yes.

She's having a tough time finding a.

Job with the anger, problems with detox and masculinity.

You know, normally I find jokes like that stupid because they're used incorrectly, but, like, this is a good way to use it.

Perfect.

Because of how she reacts to it. And it's almost like I resemble that remark you just made about me. So I'm a woman. I can't have toxic masculinity. Exactly.

Like a toxic masculine man would.

Exactly. That was classic. That was.

Yeah. So I appreciate what they're doing here. So, like, you have any speculation on where things are going to go from here?

Evan James Gunn says episode six and episode eight are huge for the whole. For. For the whole universe. So I'm kind of excited for stuff like that. So.

And.

This one is a seemingly unknown character.

Man.

Like, they've. They've. They've really made it. And they've. They've really made it into something that. That people like. And the characters are super wacky and.

But they. But they are relatable. So.

Yeah. Yeah. This is definitely. As mentioned before, don't watch this with your children. Mature adults would be the best. It's.

There's gonna be foul language, there's gonna be nudity. Things that you might not want to experience. So spoilers that way. Don't watch.

But other than if you get past all that, there's some really good stuff lying underneath this. Like, I knew who Peacemaker was before the first Season before the Suicide Squad movie, when he appeared, I never cared about him.

Now I care about the character. I think that's what Gun does really well is he's like, look, all these obscure characters over here, they.

You give them a chance to put them in the limelight, and you're gonna care about them because I'm gonna make you care about them. Like, same thing with Creature Commandos. I cared about maybe Dr. Phosphorus, and that was it.

And the only reason I care about him is because, you know, he's fought Batman a couple times and a couple of other superheroes, but, yeah, he made me care about every single one of those members of the team.

Right.

So anything else we want to say about Peacemaker before we move on to our final subject of the night?

I wish they would drop it all at once, but they do not. So.

But yeah, I will say the. The dance number to Turn around is not as good, but I. I think after you start with what you did, it's just going to get compared to it either way.

So you just. You just do what you have to do. Yeah, it's like, it's fine. It's just clearly not as good, and that's fine.

Now the only reason I cared about it is because it was done well the last time. So moving on to our final discussion piece for tonight, we have Alien Earth, which at this point has released four episodes. Kevin has seen one.

I know. Herbie, do you care at all about the Alien franchise? I am not the biggest fan of.

The Alien franchise, but let's just say that I haven't seen any of this.

Fair.

So let me set the scene for you.

We are about two years before the events of Alien, the original film, if I'm remembering my timelines correctly, and I'm definitely not using any proper nouns because I know no one's names by heart. I am learning them as they come. But we get a bit of opening narration or credits where it talks about three different kinds of robotic life.

You have, I think, cyborgs, humans modified with Android. It's gonna be robot parts. Then you have synthetics, which are, you know, ash and everyone like that, who are full robots.

And then we have this new group that is being introduced in this series, which are humans who are uploading their consciousnesses into a robotic synthetic bodies. And that's a huge part of this, is we follow a group of these.

I think there's five or six, that there's a huge Peter Pan thing going on here, and it's not very subtle. As you continue Watching through this, Evan, you're going to see say oh man, I'm being pounded on the head with this.

And I'm curious to see where they go with that. I find it actually fascinating even with the heavy headedness of it, but the idea of these being like a new kind of Lost Boys.

And you know, they're girls among their rank, but these are kids who have been. Have their minds moved into what would be an adult body. So in later episodes you'll see them like an adult actor acting as if they were a child.

And it's very well done for the most part.

Whoa.

It's the idea of like, okay, what does it mean to have consciousness? What does it mean to have a body? And like they even directly ask those questions.

And you have some people who are just starky about it and say well we've been pondering that for years. We'll have other people like oh, let's actually think about this. But just for the sake of going through the plot.

A ship owned by Wayland Yutani lands in a region owned by a company called Prodigy. Now Earth right now is controlled by five different corporations.

The definition of unchecked capitalism, not capitalism itself being, but unchecked capitalism leading to the point where countries are now united by company and Prodigy is kind of owned by.

I mean it's fairly obvious they're making like an, an Elon Musk kind of figure who has started off kind of young, very hot headed, very his way is the highway kind of thing. And what Waylon Yutani was saying is they were collecting samples of dangerous life forms from across the galaxy.

I sent that ship, I think like 65ish years ago to return to Earth so they could study those things, you know, to, for this concept of war, for profiteering off of stuff like that. And it crash lands after a xenomorph gets out. And the only surviving member of the ship is a cyborg whose name escapes me as they all do right now.

And he is, his job right now is he's trying to track them down and bring them back so that he can get paid. He can like do the company well. But like I said, they crash land in Prodigies territory, which is Asia if I'm remembering correctly. And they've.

Some of them have run amok. And the new synthetic life forms, like they have an actual name for them, I can't remember off the top of my head, end up as part of the crew there.

So since they're not human, they can survive things. Their bodies are Augmented better. And they end up interacting with the alien itself. So I won't go any further since you haven't seen any more, Evan.

So what are you thinking so far, Man?

I'm loving it. The. The production value, the. As they said, dressing, the. It just. It gives. It's basically.

They shot it back in the 80s again with the same film, and it just has a perfect esthetic. He kind of blew me away. Like, I was kind. Kind of like I wasn't focused on the dialogue. It was just so beautiful to see.

I was like, damn, they did a good job. Like, this looks like what I think of a dealing movie in this franchise. And I probably watch that episode again because I was.

Because there was a lot to take in. And then. Then I'm excited to keep going from there. From what you said, it seems super interesting.

Yeah, I'm very intrigued by this. It was one of those. I was kind of like, okay, what are they going to do with this?

And he started reading a little more about what they were going to be doing with this. Okay, maybe you're winning me a little more. And then the first episode dropped, and I'm like, okay, you sucker me in. I'm with you.

We're in it to win it, you know? And I think.

And I joked about not knowing anyone's names, but there are some really compelling characters here, because, as you're going to find out, there are. There's a brother and sister, one of whom, years ago, became, like, the first of these kids to upload their consciousness into the synthetic bodies.

And she's been kind of watching him from afar. And he's been doing a thing where he wants to get off of contract with his company to go to med school, I'm pretty sure.

And she kind of finagles things to where they end up meeting and the interplay between the two of them, because it's like, okay, what does it mean to lose your loyalty to one company and then head to another company? Are you selling your soul by doing something like that? Excellent questions to be asked.

And then, of course, there's the question itself of, can the human soul be moved into another body, one that is synthetic in form, or are you just implanting, like, memories and thoughts and ideas?

Well, they should ask Emperor Palpatine and see how he did it.

Somehow.

Yeah, somehow.

Somehow Palpatine showed up in Alien Earth. So what's your take on that body uploading the. The transhumanism ideas behind something like that? Is it something we should be looking for?

Is it Ethical.

I think it's kind of scary that, that that kind of stuff is probably, probably, probably, probably might happen within our lifetime, like some version of it, which is kind of interesting and I'm super interested to see how that goes with AI we can figure stuff out like that. So I'm just curious. It's. It's like it's one of those things like the time travel.

It's been a staple in the sci fi world and stuff and the, and we always talking about consciousness. So, so, so.

Herbie, your thought.

I personally think that the idea of uploading your consciousness to a machine or to another body is probably not possible. Even if you could take like the mental state and the memories and all of that and put it into something else, intrinsically it is not you.

God created us a soul and body, you know, unionized into one thing. And that is not something that we can just move from one thing to another. I said upload is one of the shows that's next on my list.

And it's a fascinating idea that you can take the mind of a person that's dying and upload it to the cloud and they can continue on living forever on a server. However, I think at the end of the day that that's just not something that's possible. You cannot actually keep a human alive without their body.

Like you can't. There's no such thing as this out of body experience. The mind is forever linked to our physical body.

Because it's also kind of a question that's brought up with cloning. When you clone a human being or if it's possible to do so, is it the same soul? Is it a separate soul? Is there a soul to begin with?

And that's been debated for so long we don't know the answers.

But for this series in particular, I'm more on Herbie's side of things where, yeah, one of the blatant things that's brought up are kind of Elon Musk figure, I think his name is actually boy is is kind of talking about hell. This is about immortality for humanity.

And he's not wrong in that sense of if it's possible to uplift your consciousness this way, you could essentially, as long as you're being powered, live forever and you're functionally immortal. And that's goes against creation, that goes against what is supposed to happen as a result of the fall.

We can, you know, argue about that all day long.

Human human beings in this fallen world are supposed to die and we live our whole lives Thinking that we're invincible and that we can move past that, only to be proven that ain't true. And every single one of us outside of Enoch and Elisha, excuse me, Elijah, has bit the dust. And that's a result of our corruption.

And I think one day that's going to be not going to be the case anymore. And that's not because we did anything. It's going to be God did something.

But the idea of looking into this I'm not into because of the hubris involved, because I highly doubt that's a big problem. Yeah, I highly doubt the idea that you could upload all of my memories into something and then that thing is me.

Because human beings don't control the soul and can't really transport it from the body into another object. So my thinking would be it would be impossible. You would have like a memory simulation of me out there, but it wouldn't be me.

There wouldn't be a soul attached to it. Unless God himself decided to either create a new one or transfer mine to that. I don't think.

Go ahead. Yeah, or we figure it out. God lets us figure it out. Okay, you like? Who knows?

Who knows like that we're limited by the technology we have now. Is it actually possible for us to transfer a soul? Okay. Is the soul measurable in a beaker or what have you?

Yeah, could have. How many gigs is a soul? Let's say.

Do you still have to update Adobe while you're doing it or whatever? Life.

Yeah.

And whenever the server blue screens that your soul is tied to, do you die?

O. Yeah, probably. Oh, man.

I think too this. And even. Especially in a series like this, I don't think that would solve a lot of problems. I think it would create more in a different way.

I think you'd have subscriptions for how long you have? Like 10 years. And. And if you pay off this debt, you can continue to keep living up in this uploaded state or what have you.

Because they said ultra hyper capitalist society here with no morals on whatsoever. I. I think that's exactly something that would happen.

I think you should watch upload, Christian, because that is one of the major plot points of upload.

Ah, okay.

There we go.

That's Amazon, right?

Yes, it is Amazon.

Okay, cool. All right.

So of course we haven't really talked much about Xenomorphs, but they're in the show too, and they do a great job of maintaining the menace of these creatures while at the same time you're gonna find out, Evan, exploring, like what what they kind of are. Do they have a higher intelligence to them?

Those are questions that are being asked in the episode that I just finished, episode four, and some very captivating things.

But like, if you're like, we got talked about the xenomorphs, like, no, they're there, but there's other important stuff happening too, and they look amazing for. Especially for a TV budget.

Oh, right on.

I'm excited for that. All right, well, you guys have anything else you want to do or say before we wrap things up?

We have a lot to watch.

Oh, yeah.

Upload sounds good.

Upload does sound good. I'll add that to my very, very long list that I'm never going to finish.

The impossibly long list that does nothing to get longer.

Right.

How do you guys manage your cues? Quote unquote.

I don't even write it down. And so if I can't remember it, it's not on the list anymore.

That's how I feel about it now. Yeah, same thing.

I have an entire word document of things that I have watched. So if I've seen first season of this, I say blank first season.

So I know I haven't seen the second season, if that ever shows up because I am a very forgetful person. So I don't have, like, need to watch. I just have what I have. So I know, okay, if it's on this list, I don't need to watch it again unless I want to.

Right. That's good.

All right, so out of the things recommended today, like, what do you think is going to be your top recommendation? Torn between Strange New Worlds and Alien Earth.

I'm on Strange New Worlds. I'm Star Trek fan. Strange new worlds. 100% Star Trek. More so than lower decks, more so than Discovery. Strange New worlds. Go with it.

If you are even remotely at Trekkie, you're gonna love it.

Can I just jump in?

I mean, you know what, you've. How much Star Trek have you seen before?

Pretty much. Pretty much. Pretty much all the movies and. But, but none of the new series. You can.

It is fairly standard line. Like you can enjoy it all by itself.

You'll probably miss like a lot of like the Easter eggs or the tie in, but the plots do stand pretty well on their own.

You're going to, you're going to pick.

Up on names like, hey, this is Kirk, but not right.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah, I think there's enough there to like. Yeah, you're going to miss some things, but not enough to like, kill enjoyment.

Sure, sure.

Yeah, yeah.

For me, I'll probably go with. With a peacemaker. You know, it's. But if you're of a certain age and a certain disposition. Yes, yeah, yeah.

If you can take.

Is worth your study. Yeah.

So I think with that I'll go with Alien Earth. Like I'm very eager to see where they go from here. There's a lot of really good questions they're asking.

Some really good character interaction in a fun world. And of course, the xenomorph retains its menace.

And we've got some new creatures as well that we're learning about that is always nice to expand the world. And I can't wait to see you. Oh my gosh. Well, they continue with that one. They continue.

That's wild.

Yeah. All right, so those were our recommendations. Guys.

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