Welcome Podern family to our second newsletter.
This week I’m stoked to present an article about a new podcast that deals with the hugely popular SCP genre. What surprises me most is that it hasn’t been done before. If you’re not aware of what that actually is, think of it as a huge collection of urban legends or paranormal stories intended to scare.
If that’s not your cup of tea, then there a plenty of other great podcasts listed in the Podern Playlist that follows.
SCP ARCHIVES
by Dōhai
Secure. Contain. Protect.
Episode 1. Released Tuesday 19th March 2019.
SCP-078 is a darkened stairwell located on an undisclosed college campus that contains two very disturbing anomalies. The fact that the stairwell itself appears to be endless is disconcerting enough, but the anomalies contained within are enough to scare even the bravest of souls.
Episode 1 of SCP Archives brings this scary tale brings to life and it’s just one of the thousands (and I do mean thousands) of files found on scp-wiki.net that form the basis of the show.
Given the material, it probably comes as no shock to you that the people bringing this cornucopia of strange and obscure phenomena are the fine people at Bloody Disgusting Podcast Network, who have teamed up with Jon Grillz (Small Town Horror, Creepy) and Pacific S. Obadiah (Lake Clarity, Aftershocks, Enoch Saga).
Having listened without headpones (where the hell are they?) I just had to wake Pacific, (who says he “wasn’t asleep” but the drool on his keyboard says different) and ask him a few questions. Don’t worry, I gave him some time to get a coffee.
Who’s initial idea was it to bring these documents to life, and on what basis have you chosen files to use?
Jon’s actually! He reached out sometime around last summer and mentioned his idea, and I was on board, but at the time I was working on two other shows, so I kinda put the idea on the back burner, until I saw some stray comment on r/Audiodrama (A reddit board for audio dramas) asking about an SCP podcast. I messaged Jon, and we got to work.
Right now, we’re just going down the list of most popular stories of all time on www.scp-wiki.com. Only rule is the story must have at least one addendum (like an interview, field notes, tests, etc). Popular stories without addendum’s are going on our Patreon for now!
How many stories have you chosen to cover for a first season, or are you planning to continue indefinitely? If so, how many stories have you got in the can/ in various stages of production?
Technically our first season is 29 episodes - Which brings us to October 1. Though we don’t really have any plans of stopping when we hit that. Those episodes have all been recorded, and the first 10 are in various stages of post production. I think once we hit 20 episodes, I’ll start working on new episodes past October 1. I have some pretty fun plans for October!
How much artistic licence are you planning to use in regards these files? I notice the stairwell story stays pretty tight to the wiki file, but I can see the potential to take it further in the form of the “Data Expunged” Document 087-IV which could give it a whole new lease of life.
That’s one of the really cool things about working on a story that’s in the creative commons, we’re free to adapt and remix however we want! For this first “season” we want to stay pretty true to the wiki, a lot of our artistic license comes in the sound design and music. Though, Jon and I have definitely talked about doing some original content, whether that be an all new SCP, or expansion on previous lore, that’s still under wraps- For now. We have a few little experiments you’ll see within our first season, and if they work out well, even more in the future!
Do any of the team plan on writing their own SCP stories, either for the show or the SCP wiki? More importantly (my lips are sealed if they need to be) will there be an underlying story that will slowly reveal itself?
None of us have ever written SCPs, but I’ve been reading the wiki since I was pretty young! While there won’t be a very overt overarching story in the first season, it’s important to know that our “Narrator” is a character in this world, and he has his own reasons for doing what he does, his own approaches to things, and while a lot of these entries will be things that have been secured, he exists in the present and is still working.
Well if that’s not a little cryptic nugget that will stir a little excitement then I don’t know what is. A huge thanks to Pacific, who’s now run off to one of his finals so the only thing left to do is wish him and the rest of the crew the best of luck with this new show (and his exams)!
You can check out the show on your usual applications, or at any of the show links above. Enjoy!
A Podern Playlist
For week ending 17/3/19
Welcome back again Podern Pals! Here’s hoping you had a wonderful week filled with fun, happiness and of course podcasts. Here’s what some of the crew have been checking out this week.
Lex Scott
Mine was a busy week once again, but luckily I only had a small playlist to match it. This weeks episode of Write Along, ep. 20, focused on why you might get bored or feel bogged down with story and the only two times you should abandon a story, while Small Beans released the latest episode of The Coen Brothers Brothers to discuss The Ladykillers, possibly the most maligned of the entire Coen ouvre.
Alex C. Telander
Here are my listens for the week: Duggan Hill dropped a new episode as things continue to get creeper and I have no idea where this is going to go next. The new episode of Meteor City continues to draw me in to this show, and I really want to find out where it goes. Greater Boston's latest episode pushed everyone to the edges of their emotions again and Moonbase Theta has reached its climax of sorts, it’s so gripping and I have no clue how it's going to shake out.
A new show I discovered this week is Still Lives; it’s set in a post-apocalyptic world and it's got me interested from the start. The Box dropped a new episode somehow, even though we got two last week, and this one was another roller coaster on one's emotions. Calling Darkness showed things are still plenty weird, while Victoriocity is back with a new season and our favorite characters. Science Talk had an incredible story about someone who was at death's door and almost died seven times with a superbug, but with the use of phage therapy was essentially brought back to life and recovery.
The Air and Space podcast had a harrowing tale of a marine who ejected from his plane and survived flying through a thundercloud with lightning and extreme hail. And this week's BBC's Inside Science did a good job of talking about transgender athletes in sports and where it might be headed.
PodCake
Since redundancy is my forte, I found myself once again following the high tails of SAYER to see they had begun remaking the old episodes tracing back to 2014 when it first debuted. Though it mostly boiled down to technical changes in editing, vocals, and sound design, it did make all the difference to listen to the infamous “there are no bees on Typhon” line again with the amped up quality we were given in later seasons. An at most minor adjustment, but re-introducing myself to the chilling atmosphere that lured in me during the February of my early teens is a sensation I can finally relive again.
Well if that lot doesn’t get your juices flowing then I don’t know what will, so please tell us in the comments below and share the podlove with us and all our readers.
Until next week, we hope you have plenty of joy, happiness, and of course podcasts in your colourful socks!
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