Alexander Winn and Lacey Hannan talk about chapters 7 – 10 of Andy Weir’s The Martian; Mark Watney is the King of Mars, BD Wong is Sadness from Inside Out, and the poop potatoes are safe babies while everyone’s favorite botanist becomes the second sojourner across the Red Planet.
𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕊𝕪𝕟𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕤𝕚𝕤 is a live talk show that aims to find the relationship between science and fiction in pop culture. We’ll discuss a book, movie, or show each week that’s science-focused and talk about just how realistic it is, where reality is cooler than fiction, and exactly where certain liberties were taken.
Lacey [00:00:00] Oh, my God.
Alex [00:00:03] Hey, folks, this is Alexander Winn.
Lacey [00:00:05] I’m Lacey Hannan.
Alex [00:00:07] And we’re here to talk about the next four chapters of The Martian, we’re on Episode three of our read through of The Martian by Andy Weir.
Alex [00:00:16] And tonight, we are covering chapters seven through 10,.
Lacey [00:00:20] Only because 10 was really boring.
Alex [00:00:23] So Lacey has strong opinions about Chapter 10. We’ll get there at the end. So get ready for a bloodbath. But like, my God, in the meantime, I have a question for the audience, which is, if you had to pick a genre for the Martian, what would it be?
Alex [00:00:44] The answer might surprise you.
Lacey [00:00:47] I said.
[00:00:50] said epic drama, epic drama. Yeah, which sounds about right to make that drive adventure drama. Yes, it’s like that. Some variant of drama. Right. What is this to you?
Lacey [00:01:00] Yeah. More specifically, what is the movie to you?
Alex [00:01:07] Yeah, I think I mean, I think they’re basically the same. But if you. Yes. Specifically the movie, what genre would you call the movie. Because someone in the world is wrong and it’s either me or someone else. So there is a wrong answer to this question is the wrong answer. This is what we call a loyalty test. But in the meantime, we’re jumping into Chapter seven of the mission. For those who’ve been following along, Mark Watney is stranded on Mars. He is he’s been working on making water and growing potatoes and all sorts of fun stuff. And he’s stranded on Mars. We pick up Chapter seven and he is preparing the rover for a long voyage or serious something for for the serious miles.
Lacey [00:01:53] Yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see which. We’ll see which mission. Yeah. Gets him there. OK, well, so what do you got?
Alex [00:02:01] You’ve got ninety five pages, as usual, so let’s start with you.
Lacey [00:02:06] OK, so this man is very loud. I’m sorry. This man is keep it rolling.
Lacey [00:02:15] So optimistic. So the AC4 math is only thirty two hundred kilometers and it could have been 10000 kilometers. Yes.
Lacey [00:02:27] He says this better for you anyway. So I just want to put it out there that like I love how optimistic that little thought process is.
Alex [00:02:38] It’s only three thousand kilometers.
Lacey [00:02:40] Yeah. And just just for all of us. Thirty two hundred kilometers is almost two thousand miles, which is approximately going the length of New Zealand and back the whole thing, like starting in Auckland, going to Invercargill and then going back.
Lacey [00:02:57] Or it’s a one way trip from Los Angeles to New Orleans about. Yeah.
[00:03:03] So so it’s a long haul. It’s been a long haul. And this is a place where, you know, his rover can drive for like an hour before it has to recharge.
Lacey [00:03:12] I mean, that’s your you are it’s not that’s not true for for scientific accuracy. You can’t. What is it it’s it’s about three and a half.
Alex [00:03:26] Well, it’s important that’s after he solves the heating issue, right. Which is what this chapter deals. OK, fine. So the big problem that he deals, so the big problem that he’s dealing with in this chapter is how does he get his Rovere to go farther on a charge? Because what he realizes is that over half the battery gets used just on the heater inside because Mars is very cold. So he tries a test run without using the heater and just hoping that he can put on blankets and stuff.
Alex [00:03:54] And that very much does not work because he does he does three layers thinking that. But what he does is he takes the battery from Rover one. Yes.
Alex [00:04:02] And he strings that together. And then he needs to find a way to not use the heater so that these two batteries can get him farther.
Lacey [00:04:10] I love how he picks which rover he’s going to use. OK, so one of the things that makes Mark Watney a fully fleshed out character is he uses logic brain to know that he can trick out this rover. He’s he is capable of doing this. He’s smart enough. He’s got all the available information that he needs. But then his emotional center says that he’s bonded to Rover two because of the nights he stayed in it during what does he call it, the great hydrogen crisis scare.
Alex [00:04:45] Yeah, great hydrogen scare of soul. Thirty seven. So that’s when he almost blew himself up in the hab trying to make water. Yeah. So I just I liked that. I like that.
Lacey [00:04:57] You know, I’ve talked about how part of what makes him fully fleshed out for me is the way that he talks. But this is really about the writer deciding the way that he thinks. Yes. And I just I, I found it. It’s another way in which he feels whole to me is that he’s not totally logical.
Alex [00:05:19] Yeah.
Alex [00:05:20] There would have been a strong in like a strong impulse to take this character and make them basically Sherlock Holmes, like just ultra logic guy, perfectly practical, you know, really sort of drive home the idea that this is about survival and you have to do whatever it takes and instead it’s about survival.
Alex [00:05:36] And he’s going to have to do a lot. And he’s really smart. But he’s also like, I like this rover more.
Lacey [00:05:41] Well, and and then the other thing is, is he talks about how the problem that he has in front of him is really overwhelming.
Lacey [00:05:49] So he breaks it down to its component parts and he’s like, OK, the first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to focus on power. How am I going to get that? And this I mean, Alex and my therapist, both are always like, you get overwhelmed. You just if you break it down, break down a project to smaller parts, you can do this. And I love how it like this man just has a stress mechanism. Yeah.
Alex [00:06:15] You know, well, and it’s it’s not just stress, like, obviously, yes. That’s a part of it, but it’s also and I love that in a later chapter we are going to get the psychological profile of Mark Watney and the psychologist talks about why he’s kind of the perfect guy for this to happen to. But it’s also, you know, Andy Weir described this book one time as a religious novel for someone without a religion, as a religious novel for scientists, because he said what you what you get whenever you watch like a Christian film is the character constantly has to reinvest themselves in God. And that is sort of the path to the solution for whatever problem the story is about is that you give yourself over to God and that will see you through. And this is the same story. But for a scientist and every time he’s presented with a problem, what has he does? He turns back to science. He turns back to solving the problem. And this first step in solving any problem, the first step of science is break it down into questions. It’s not just a looming obstacle. It is a series of problems to be solved. And that is I think, you know, it’s exactly what you’re saying and it is exactly what makes him so capable in this situation, because he has internalized that every problem has a solution. It’s just a matter of finding it well.
Lacey [00:07:43] And he’s got he’s got his tools that he’s learned, but he’s also got his tools that are kind of built in, again, you know, nature versus nurture. Did he just already have some of these tools that, again, the psychologist talked about in a later chapter? But he’s got all of these tools and some of it is is about the science of it. So I love that he’s we’re we’re getting to watch a character have the tools for long term and short term stress and how to handle it. And he doesn’t always handle it perfectly, like there are moments where he gets kind of depressing. Yeah. Which we haven’t really had a lot of. We’ve had, like tension and scares and things like that, but it’s sort of comedic overwhelm.
Alex [00:08:27] Oh, I am so fucked like yeah, but not in any kind of actual sort of dark night of the soul kind of way.
Lacey [00:08:33] Yeah, exactly. And this is the first time that I think that we really get it. And I think that the the moment that it happens is great. But I feel like we’ve got a couple more things before we get there.
Alex [00:08:42] Also worth mentioning, we’ve got a few responses. Imam Emon Economist says the genre is Mars and I like that. I think there should be a is it up. Yeah, it’s it’s uplifting. It’s hopeful. It’s got science and competent characters. It’s Mars genre with fun. Yeah. I’m, I’m here for it. Jay grap my nemesis respond. Oh no this is a thing. No. Oh DJ Grape Arlott J. Grape and I are locked in an epic battle for the future of mankind.
Lacey [00:09:15] Started last week and I don’t even remember the inciting incident. So that’s on me.
Alex [00:09:19] It was something about him being a better son in law than I am. Oh that’s right. That’s true for your mom would like it more than that’s just me and your mom likes me a lot. So that means that J.
Alex [00:09:30] Grape is evil. So J. Grape says the genre is science fiction. Jacob also says, Alex, I am coming for you. Bring it on Grape. Oh, my God. And in the meantime, one thing that I did notice and is worth mentioning for anybody who has seen the movie The Martian, but maybe not read the book or is maybe reading along with us, which, by the way, if you’re reading along with us, tell us, because that’s super cool. They make a big deal in the movie about how the basically the only entertainment he has is 70s disco music. It is worth mentioning that in the book he has a little bit more than that. He talks about how he has some TV shows from the 20th century, but he also has some Agatha Christie novels, which is fun. Hercule Poirot specifically. Yes.
Alex [00:10:20] Hercule Poirot, for those who don’t know, is sort of a Sherlock Holmes kind of character written by Agatha Christie, who saw the movie that came out a couple of years ago with her on the Orient Express with Martin.
Lacey [00:10:32] What’s his name? Kenneth Branagh.
Lacey [00:10:36] No, I thought pyro was played by the guy who plays Watson and Sherlock no.
Lacey [00:10:42] Oh, well. Oh, OK.
Lacey [00:10:46] Listen, I don’t ever remember the names of musicians, actors, movies, songs, album titles, none of it. Like I I as an actor, I feel like I should care more, but I don’t. So I just I just this is going forward. I’m not going to remember any of this, but I’m going to reference it like ideal. Excellent. It’s a great thing. It’s great.
Alex [00:11:08] So worth mentioning, by the way, Mark Watney is embarking on what he calls the serious missions. And charmingly, he says that that’s a reference. And if you don’t get it, fuck you and get it. Dogs. Yeah. If you don’t do the rover. And specifically, I learned a thing about serious when I was looking this up, which is if you’ve ever heard the phrase dog days of summer, I did not realize that that is related to these star serious. Serious is the brightest star in the sky and it is part of the constellation Canis Major, the dog. The big dog. I take it this is in the northern hemisphere. Yeah, OK. And serious, right? A star in the sky. Part of Canis Major is referred to as the dog star because it’s part of Canis Major and the dog days of summer are supposedly the hottest, most oppressive days of the summer are when Sirius is especially prominent in the sky. That’s why it’s called the dog days of summer.
Alex [00:12:12] It’s because the dog stops instating. Yeah, nice little tidbit. I think they’re wrong about it for LA because it’s like September and October, the worst. But so there are a couple of things that we jumped that I really enjoy. OK, go for it. So what I like is his breakdown of the math. So first he’s like, how can I conserve energy? OK, I can wear layers, which the first thing I thought of was he sounds like my mother in winter when she won’t turn the heat up past like sixty eight and my grandma and I just like have to pitch into the void because we’re freezing. But my mom will have none of it. And that’s what he reminds me of my mom.
Lacey [00:12:49] But then he pulvers the battery from Rover one and he talks about it being a saddle bag for his rover and this just suddenly turned into a goddamn Western and I am totally here for it. And then it made me think of Firefly and I want to know where all of my Firefly fans are because Westerns for the win. Yes.
Alex [00:13:07] More Firefly fans coming. It was just announced or rumored at least I think that Disney is rebooting Firefly. What you did tell me that I wanted to save it for the air. Also, by the way, I’m an economist. Just weighed in. She says that’s how serious a black got his name, you know, the bug connection.
Lacey [00:13:25] I wondered that. So thank you for pointing that out because. Thank you. I immediately that was my thought when reading this was Harry Potter. But yeah, I, I think, you know, one of the things about J.K. Rowling is she’s pretty on the nose with her naming. Yeah.
Alex [00:13:42] She’s got that James Bond naming. Yes. Yeah. So I guess the real takeaway here is Emon economist is great. And Jay why can’t you be like her.
Lacey [00:13:52] I want my God to just what if I left and right.
Alex [00:13:56] Hey, I didn’t start this jury started this.
Lacey [00:13:59] This is a man who was like always wanted fights to happen around him because he was big and he figured that he could like make bully stop.
Alex [00:14:06] I topped out at six four in eighth grade and and now here he is, like picking them. You are being the bully group started this.
Alex [00:14:12] I’m just saying I’m going to finish it.
Lacey [00:14:14] What is so more of the math? Taking the solar paneling from the hab. He says that he has one hundred square meters. His boring, his words, not mine math says he needs to bring twenty eight square meters, which is fourteen panels. And I just like I don’t know, I liked all of the different options that he kind of provided in enacting.
Lacey [00:14:35] We called this tactics and it’s the different ways that characters come at a problem and try and get what they want. And for me it was just fun to see all of the different ways in which he could. Get more energy, conserve energy, you know, so I just thought it was fun before he came to his ultimate decision and his ultimate decision is that he’s going to go dig up the RTG.
Alex [00:15:01] The RTG is basically a big ol box of radioactivity that will absolutely kill you dead if it breaches. But if it doesn’t breach, it just provides electricity and heat. And so he can put this thing in his rover and it will generate all the heat he needs so he can leave the heater off and problem solved. And this is just I feel like we’re going to be saying this like four times every episode for the entire duration that we’re reading this book. But I love how Andy Weir keeps coming back to the little stuff.
Alex [00:15:35] It’s not just how do you survive on Mars. You grow crops and you, you know, whatever. It’s also like how do you heat the rover? Like, you know, like it’s cold. Well, how do you do this? It’s got insulation. If you bring the RTG in, it’s actually going to get too hot. So now you have to cut out some of the insulation, put the RTG and then when it gets too cold, you put the insulation back in and like he walks you through every single step.
Alex [00:15:57] And it really makes you feel like this is somebody dealing with problems, not just sort of a science superhero, like in Gravity, where they were trying to make her into just this. Like one person can do it all kind of thing. No, this is a real problem with a real solution. But it’s you got to go through every step.
Lacey [00:16:15] I do have to say log entry. So sixty seven is my favorite one by far. And that’s where he does that serious one test and he got too cold and all of that stuff.
Alex [00:16:27] And it’s also where we get this little nugget of wit, which is all my brilliant plans foiled by thermodynamics, damu entropy. And I just I like I cackled. I cackled. I’m like cackling through most of this book.
Alex [00:16:42] And I just yeah, it’s really just great. We do also get an awesome Apollo 13 reference in this chapter. We’ve been talking about how Apollo 13 is a huge inspiration for The Martian and for our show we started Episode one talking about the movie Apollo 13.
Alex [00:17:00] And in this he talks about how they have the same carbon dioxide filters in the rover that they had in the spacesuits in the HAB because Apollo 13 did teach us some stuff.
Lacey [00:17:13] I totally missed two different. Yes, filter. That’s funny. I somehow just skipped right over it. Yeah, but the other thing we skipped right over is you guys, I have this moment.
Lacey [00:17:24] And listen, I’ve got a couple of opinions about the chapters we’re encountering tonight that people might not like. And you’re just going to have to bear with me because I’m the one with the microphone.
Lacey [00:17:38] So they graps going to start coming after you wasn’t.
Lacey [00:17:43] So there was this moment where he calls Johannsson an Anglophile, and it made me so happy. I don’t really know why, but it’s it’s it’s not like a wounding thing to say. It’s just like this underhanded commentary that her that her taste is a little, you know, mundane and riskless and ubiquitous. Like, I don’t know, it’s just like, yeah, this this woman’s a little bit boring. And I was like, I’m not a gatekeeper. I don’t know pop culture well enough to be a gatekeeper. I can’t I reference things like I know stuff and I don’t. So I just I it just wasn’t particularly complimentary and it made me laugh like way harder than it should have.
[00:18:29] So I just had to put that out there.
[00:18:32] So the last thing that I thought was interesting in this chapter, and undoubtedly you have more, but the thing that that again, I just said we’re going to be mentioning this a lot is every little detail. And, you know, he’s leaving the hab for a couple of weeks and the potatoes won’t survive without the CO2 that he’s been exhaling. And so he has to go out and get CO2 from the from the Mavie fuel plant and turn off the oxygen later and release it into the hab so that his potatoes have enough carbon dioxide to breathe, to survive while he’s gone because he’s the only source. It’s just like this. Every little detail, every detail thought through. We just love it.
[00:19:19] And I think that one of the other things is when he talks about the radioisotope thermoelectric generator, I said that in one tank, I’m so proud of my size as if we were going to cut and dry again. This is why they pay the big box set up and how it’s holding the plutonium to thirty eight.
[00:19:35] And I just like I liked that. He explained to us that this is an incredibly unstable isotope and it burns red hot on its own because it’s. Because it’s unstable and it’s hot and it can fry an egg by itself, and I was just like those little details, you know, there’s another point where he talks about where they are. And I don’t remember. Oh, the I don’t I’m going to completely mispronounce this. Mm hmm. OK, he provides us with a little geography, the.
[00:20:10] As Sedalia, Polynesia one take really acid Sedalia Planche.
[00:20:17] I’m so good, I’m so good, listen, I love it because to me, it feels like he says that it’s, you know, a big old great plane and I’m like, Oh, the Great Plains. I love those. Now, I didn’t want to go look it up on a map because I just like that the details provided I don’t actually care beyond him naming it. I don’t need to I don’t need to go look it up. It’s just one of those it’s one of those details that we keep talking about, really just bring the science to life. Yeah.
Alex [00:20:48] Unsurprisingly, for a book this based in real science, the Aries three landing site is a very specific place on Mars. You can look up where it is on Mars and where he has to go when he references passing by certain craters. Those are actual craters on Mars. You can look up maps of Whatley’s path wherever he drives. For those of you who have played Terra Genesis and know the surface of Mars maybe better than the average bear, Sedalia Polynesia is the very soft, smooth northern hemisphere area that eventually becomes the Northern Ocean when you tariff on Mars. So it is you know, if you look at the elevation map in the game, it’s the darker areas in the Northern Hemisphere and it’s incredibly featureless as opposed to the southern hemisphere, which is pockmarked by craters, because basically the long and short of it is Mars had its head blown off billions of years ago. And the entire northern hemisphere is one giant impact crater. So it’s a lot younger than the southern hemisphere.
Lacey [00:21:48] Listen, I’m just saying that you can know the geography of Mars without putting water there, because why would you put water there? The planet has rights.
Alex [00:21:56] Lacey is a deep hyphestian.
Lacey [00:22:00] And I’m like, I’m in the minority. Yes, I’ll buy a lot. Yeah.
Alex [00:22:05] So, yes, I am a hyphestian and through. Yeah. Anti-terraforming.
Alex [00:22:10] All right. What else you got for Chapter seven. Um.
Lacey [00:22:13] Oh, uh. Two things I the moment he leaves the house behind for the first time, his anxiety starts to rise. In the moment, he says that it’s the first time he’s letting the hab out of his sight. I just like I like, choked a little.
Lacey [00:22:32] Yeah, because why?
Lacey [00:22:35] I mean, I know why. I know why. You need to you need to get your heat source. Yeah, I get it makes it feel a little bit like a video game now that I’m saying it out loud. But I the the anxiety was really there in that kind of leads into the rest of the chapters we have for the evening. Yeah. Which brings in like that really depressive tone. Um, yeah.
Alex [00:22:57] They don’t really go into too much what this is going to like, what impact this experience is going to have on Mark when he gets back to Earth, because obviously we’re all wrapped up in is he going to get back to Earth? But you do have to wonder if this guy is going to be like an agoraphobe for a while, because if you spend your entire life fearing the outside, fearing that any tiny hole in the wall is going to kill you, and every time you go out the door, you have to suit up. Outside is danger. Outside is death. Outside is barren. It really, I think, would promote a sense of agoraphobia. And then if you suddenly find yourself having to go out, having to go out into the world, that would be terrifying after three months.
Lacey [00:23:39] This is also the place where he gives us a really good context for how old Mars is, because he says it’s a desert so old it’s literally rusting. And I was just like, I don’t know, there’s something about that that totally blows my mind.
Alex [00:23:55] I don’t for those of you don’t know, the Mars is the Red Planet specifically because iron oxide covers it. The entire planet is rust colored because of the iron in the soil, has oxidized and is literally rusty.
Lacey [00:24:09] So which is just I guess I knew that. But the phrasing of it just really gives you a new perspective.
Lacey [00:24:18] It gives you a better frame for contextualizing the whole thing. So I loved that. But my last thing on Chapter seven is someone tell me what a slide rule is, because I don’t feel like Googling it, but he’s talking about how the NASA scientists are probably hiding under their desks with their slide rules.
Alex [00:24:37] It’s a it’s a tool for I actually don’t know how to use a slide rule myself, but basically picture a ruler, but with another ruler that’s attached to it that sort of slides to different configurations. And it’s a tool used for conversions and calculation.
Lacey [00:24:54] What they were using an Apollo 13 when they were all sitting at their desks like each person had kind of their own. Oh, yeah.
Alex [00:25:00] It was it’s it’s used for calculations and conversions. And especially in the pre computer era when you needed to do pretty complex conversions, you would have a slide rule. And so it’s sort of a it it sort of goes alongside the pocket protector.
Alex [00:25:14] It’s sort of the gear of the deep nerd.
Lacey [00:25:17] I was like, he’s kind of taking the pocket protector to a new level. But the slide rule is essentially what he’s doing. Example, rude.
Alex [00:25:25] I love it, but OK, so Chapter eight picks back up on Earth. We’ve started to establish this every other chapter thing where we get one chapter from Mark and then one chapter on. It’s not quite that and not quite, but it we get this alternating pattern and specifically we pick up with Mark or with with Earth and a newscast, which I think is a great way of showing and not telling something they tell writers and screenwriters all the time is show, don’t tell, don’t just tell the audience that somebody is really good at sports, show them playing sports. And so in this way, we get the sense that the news is out. You know, everybody knows the mark is alive, almost everybody. And the way we are sort of introduced to that fact is it’s a news broadcast. It’s the, you know, tonight’s coverage. It’s a daily segment. And they’re talking about, you know, they’re obviously kind of looking for any morsel of news that they can give the audience.
Alex [00:26:22] And it really helps set the stage that this is a global phenomenon, even though we never really leave the fairly tight circle of characters. You know, we do get the sense that everyone in the world is watching. Right.
Lacey [00:26:34] Um, I skipped over the like I mean, I read the news part, but I just kind of skipped over it because it was fun. But and I like Annie because we get to see the professional part of her and the super unprofessional part of her like that is not how you talk to your coworkers, but it’s very funny from an audience point of view. Yeah, but it’s the sitting at the tables they’re waiting on. I don’t remember who they’re waiting on, like Bruce, Teddy, Teddy, you know, Bruce is there and Mitch is there and then Kate and Mindy and Annie are all sitting there. Right. And I’m I’m not used to this. I have I have a deep belief in names. There are some names that you just shouldn’t name your kid because they’re going to just be assholes. And I’m not used to Mitchs sucking Mitchs categorical.
Lacey [00:27:32] Yeah, they’re like they’re generally good guys and or gals.
Lacey [00:27:36] I’ve heard that it’s a female name, too, which is rather cool. But I, I this guy, this guy, he’s the flight director of Aries three. And I figure he shouldn’t be allowed to talk to people until he learns like a minimum, like a skill level at human decency. This guy’s a dick.
Alex [00:27:55] Yeah. There’s there again for four screenwriters and writers out there, there’s something that people say which is Save the Cat, which is when you’re introducing a new character, you should immediately have them do a thing that indicates their character. And so if you watch closely in your favorite movies, especially if you if there’s a movie with like a badass, like sort of a John Wick or some kind of really scary list, you’ll notice that in their first scene they will almost always sort of, you know, kill a bunch of guys and then help someone or and then they will do something to indicate that their aggression, which takes it to the they may get very on the nose.
Lacey [00:28:35] And that’s the fun of it, is he’s got this dog. The dog gets killed and screw you guys. I’m going to murder all of you.
Alex [00:28:40] Exactly. But specifically in the first scene, oftentimes the character will be shown doing something to indicate that they’re a good guy just so the audience can start to internalize that despite any other terrible things they do, like murder. And he actually has one. Yes, but Mitch is the anti save the cat. Mitch is sort of the opposite of that.
Alex [00:29:01] He’s he is established and he immediately just sort of I mean, I felt that way, but I, I reversed on it because my first thought was, don’t fuck with Mindy. Mindy is my favorite. I like her too much. Not too much. I like her just enough. Yeah. It’s a lot. And you don’t mess with her because I say so. Yeah. And.
Lacey [00:29:22] Then I was like, OK, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, is Mitch the only one sitting here going, No, we need to tell the crew because for me, like we agree on something and there’s enough tribalism in me and enough of like I mean, we are in America where a binary polarization is kind of what we do right now. So I am he is on my team and he’s on probation, but he’s on my team right now and I will take him back. If he agrees with me, they should tell the freaking crew. I’m I’m like I’m I’m legitimately upset about it. Yeah.
Alex [00:29:57] I you know, one thing that I liked about this and it definitely ties into what you’re saying, is that he really, you know, in a story that’s about Mark and then and then he introduced all these other characters on Earth. He really I think he’s doing himself a great service by keeping each of the characters very specific and focused. It’s almost like inside out.
Alex [00:30:18] It’s almost like each character sort of represents one emotion, because we’ve got Mindy, who, you know, we go to this newscast and we’re doing all this stuff and then it cuts back. And I think it’s in the first sentence. It’s like Mindy sat at the table nervously fidgeting and it’s like, yep, that’s Mindy. And then, you know, Annie blows in and she’s like, not even looking where she’s going as she’s typing on her phone.
Alex [00:30:37] And she just definitely navigates the entire room and sits down our spot.
Lacey [00:30:40] And that’s like one of the first things she says is swearing at somebody.
Alex [00:30:43] Yeah, exactly. And it’s like every character in the room can be summed up by one sort of theme. And Mitch is confrontation.
Alex [00:30:51] And sometimes it’s good confrontation and sometimes it’s bad confrontation. But he’s the guy who’s going to get in your face. And then Bruce ING is just longsuffering. He in the inside, out of The Martian.
Alex [00:31:03] He is sadness. He’s the one who’s just always you just JPL guy, right? Yeah. You just imagine that he’s like always got a bottle of Pepto Bismullah in his hand because he’s just like just everything anybody says to this guy is just stressful.
Lacey [00:31:20] And it’s so he was kind of a dick in this too.
Alex [00:31:22] I don’t remember what it was, but I was like, yeah, he’s not the nicest, but he’s just the in the movie they cast DB Wong and DB Wong is fantastic in the little role that he’s given and he just he’s just like in every scene so yeah. We can get it done. I like it’s just so specific.
Lacey [00:31:48] Um I like that we finally meet the flight psychologist, we get introduced to Dr Irene Shields and she says at one point, you know, they’re live there on air. They’re talking about how um, it’s how the crew doesn’t know that Mark Watney is alive. And she says, yeah, I think I’m sure it was a hard decision for the for the upper management. And I’m sitting there going, They didn’t consult you. Mm. Why. Mm. Why she’s the flight psychologist. It doesn’t make any sense to me and I am going to be mad about it forever until they give me a really good reason not to be. But I like that she doesn’t sugarcoat everything. Yeah. That was she was willing to kind of go deep which.
Lacey [00:32:40] Is cool for a character and also makes me feel really bad for Mark’s community at home, because you know that they’re there, they’re getting insights on their son or their friend that they don’t really get to see on the day to day like they know him for what they know, you know, as as family or friend or whatever. But you don’t always you don’t really get insight into how somebody is at work and how they are with their team unless you’re part of the crisis. Yeah, exactly. Oftentimes you don’t really get to see these things. And so they’re watching somebody else describe they’re a person of their community in a way that’s just like devastating, really rough. And then, of course, the first thing, the the first thing I’m thinking is like, oh, my gosh, what about like when that one person who has no filter or zero empathy says something of like. Oh, yeah.
Lacey [00:33:35] When Dr. Irene Shields says said this and says it to his parents, like, this is where my brain goes as it goes off and all of these different, like, tangential storylines of like, oh, no, his parents.
Alex [00:33:51] And then of course, I went and you do get the sense that maybe this this psychologist was sort of going off script. Oh, yeah. They should not want to the stuff that was I feel like maybe off camera that psychologists got ripped a new one because it got really quiet and they’re like and OK, see, I think she won’t be doing any more press interviews.
Lacey [00:34:10] Yeah. The and then the other thing I was thinking of is, you know, that there that there are people out there taking bets on whether or not this guy is going to come back alive like there are bookies. There are like there’s a whole thing happening around this. And it skived me out really bad. But simultaneously, I was like, what? What I place a bet, I mean, no, the answer is no, but if I did, what would I bet? I’m not a betting person. I don’t like to take that risk. So it would never happen. But it was it was another place where you just sit there and wonder as an audience member, he’s he’s filled up this world so well that you get to continue expanding on it.
Alex [00:34:51] But you get to go to, like, all of the nooks and crannies because he’s filled it up so much nooks and crannies all the way to the post office, which is one of the most charming little asides in maybe this whole book, which is that they started printing Mark Watney commemorative stamps and then they realized he was alive. And you don’t print stamps of people who are alive, which I always forget is true.
Lacey [00:35:13] Yeah, like, I’ve known that off and on throughout the years, but I always forget it’s true. And so it was kind of fun to see. It’s just another way that Andy Weir brings in reality to his writing. And I just love that weird little ways.
Alex [00:35:29] You know, it’s not just the science, it’s the friggin post of it.
Alex [00:35:32] Like, who thinks of that stuff? Yeah, exactly.
Alex [00:35:35] Because, of course, there would have been a Mark Watney stamp, the first person to die on Mars. Are you kidding? Yes. They would have immediately done stamps and then she’s not dead. We do also get another example, yet another example of thinking through all the details, which is the green ribbons they’re talking about. How are they? So OK, so we’re going to send supplies to Mark because, again, they don’t know that he’s growing crops yet. They think he’s only got like 100 days of food. So we’re going to we’re going to launch a thing. We’re going to try to to land it. And I don’t know, we’ll get it as close as we can to him.
Alex [00:36:11] But how is he going to know that it’s there, which again, is like, you know, a lesser author would have been like, oh, we’re going to land at nearby and he’ll see it. But you don’t know that. You’re going to you know, like if you’re off by even a couple of kilometers, you might not see it and it might just sit there uselessly because you can’t tell and it’s there. So they come up with this plan to airburst thousands of little green ribbons, all of which have a message written on it. And in the red Martian landscape, a whole bunch of fluttering green ribbons are going to be very visible. And that’s just another example of just thinking and every aspect.
Lacey [00:36:44] And what I love about it is it’s not a highly technical solution. Yeah, this is analog in the world of NASA. And I love that. I love that not all solutions can even be high tech. Yeah. And I was a little surprised that they assumed that the biologist hadn’t figured out a way. And I get that to me. There’s I you would think that maybe Mitch or even the psychologist would have brought up we sent potatoes, guys. Hopefully he’s working on it. And I, I was just I thought it was interesting that they made that assumption.
Alex [00:37:26] I think it’s believable because, A, they don’t always send potatoes. It was only because they were going to be their own.
Lacey [00:37:32] Right. But that’s why I’m saying Mitch or or doctor, why do I keep forgetting her name? I don’t want to call her read Dr. Fields.
Alex [00:37:39] Yeah, but the other reason, I think, is because most food was freeze dried and those potatoes specifically weren’t. And so it’s easy to forget that, like, oh, in addition to the food that we always send, there’s also this one thing. And it is I know and you know, just all the things that he had to go through. He had to make the water. He had to make the soil. He had to make like all this stuff, if you like. Even if it had occurred to someone, they would have been like, well, I mean, what’s it going to do with the potatoes? He doesn’t have water. You don’t have soil.
Lacey [00:38:04] You know, like we don’t want to think about him trying to make water. Yeah, exactly. Like I said. All right. Yeah.
Alex [00:38:12] So the yeah. So one of the things that’s been going on sort of in the background of this chapter is he’s driving somewhere.
Lacey [00:38:24] And of course, for us, as the audience Mark has been talking about driving to for you.
[00:38:33] And so but what is he like doing that he’s he’s talked about how it’s going to be while it’s going to be for years, like, why would you go now?
Alex [00:38:40] And we even get this kind of ominous thing from the psychologist that, like, maybe he’s going to areas for because he’s already given up and he just wants to kind of broadcast a goodbye message. That’s not good.
Alex [00:38:51] It doesn’t sound like the guy we know, but he’s been talking about going areas for. And then we get this great scene where Mandy and Venkat are talking about where could he be going? How could he be getting there? And all of a sudden they realize, I think I know where he’s going. They rushed down to the cafeteria where there is a gift shop map of Mars, which is just so charming.
Lacey [00:39:12] And I was the one that I can write on. Yeah.
Alex [00:39:15] And I love the fact that there’s a tech in the cafeteria.
[00:39:18] It’s like, hey, what the hell are you going to buy you another one? Yeah.
Alex [00:39:23] The you know, just another opportunity to sort of inject some some inelegant realism that there’s like you can’t just go. Rip something off the wall at NASA and not have anybody say anything. There’s a guy eating dinner. That’s our thing. Screw you, man. Like, but he grabs it, he draws a line. He actually grabs that guy’s book to use as a straight edge and he realizes where Mark is going.
Alex [00:39:47] Mark is heading to Pathfinder and Pathfinder as a mission from the 90s that landed on Mars successfully. Yep, very, very famous mission. It had a sort of a base module that stayed in place, which had the radios and that sort of thing.
Alex [00:40:02] And then it had the Sojourner rover, which would go out little flat top thing you’ve probably seen pictures of and. It has a radio and it stopped working, but it has a radio and that is how he’s going to talk to Earth, this this scene actually made me tear up because.
Lacey [00:40:24] Then Katz excitement just like poured off the page in a way that I it felt very visceral to me and I like I’m getting a little choked up now just because I I love watching people get excited. I can see people get excited about a discovery or something that they know really well. It’s just like one of my very favorite things. And he does it and it’s written so well. And I was just like, oh, like everyone can breathe easier for just a second.
Alex [00:40:53] Infectious enthusiasm.
Alex [00:40:55] And and, you know, again and we’ll be talking about the movie in a separate episode, but the movie does this moment really well because you you’ve got your intercutting between Brincat and Mark and they each discover it at the same moment in the editing, Venkat realizes Pathfinder and Mark Watney reveal. He pulls aside the thing and he’s looking at it Pathfinder. And it’s like this meeting of the minds between two planets. It’s perfectly executed.
Lacey [00:41:27] And, you know, you have to give a lot to the editor. Yes. Of the movie, which at some point I will bring in his name.
Alex [00:41:34] But when we talk about the movie, we’ll be talking about the crew because every single person who contributed to that movie did a great job.
Alex [00:41:40] So it does raise an interesting question, which they never actually address in this story. And I, I keep waffling back and forth, trying to decide if it was a decision not to discuss it or if it was just sort of never came up, which is when is this story set? Is this set in? It seems to be vaguely modern times, like there’s no element of science fiction aside from landing on Mars, and yet. We’re not landing on Mars right now. So is it the 20 30s and the reason that I ask this is because they assemble the Pathfinder team, they say, go get all those guys who worked on Pathfinder. So clearly, this isn’t the twenty sixties.
Alex [00:42:21] This is relatively, you know, I mean, I feel like it’s pretty it’s pretty modern and and. Right. We’re not quite there yet. But you know what, the back to the future thought that 20, 20 would bring hoverboard. So like, you know where we can we can pretty easily say that technology, what they say that technology jumps forward like there’s a like a six month. What are talking about? Moore’s Law.
Lacey [00:42:51] Yeah, yeah, yeah, I you’ll have to explain it, because I couldn’t it’s it’s the number of transistors doubles and the cost halves every six months or something like that. It’s a way of projecting how good computers are going to be in the future. And it’s famously been incredibly accurate.
Lacey [00:43:08] So because of that, I can I could say that this is pretty modern because, yeah, we’re going to get that. We’re going to get to Mars very quickly. I don’t know how quickly we’re going to get to really putting people right on Mars, but I certainly hope so.
Alex [00:43:22] I said, yeah, and that rounds up Chapter eight.
Lacey [00:43:26] And in Chapter nine, we meet the king of Mars again.
Lacey [00:43:29] Yes, we do. We go back to the king of France. I just love that he calls himself that. I’m like, you know what? You’re the only one here. I guess you can do it. You can call yourself whatever you want. Madisen, we’re going to agree with you.
Alex [00:43:40] There is something interesting that jumped out at me in Chapter nine, which is, you know, we’ve got this sort of split story we’ve got on on the one hand, we’ve got the story of a of a single person doing everything they can to survive, and in particular in this moment, trying to contact Earth. And then on the other hand, we have the people on Earth watching him, trying to figure out what he’s doing, trying to figure out how they can help, trying to figure out all this stuff. And we never actually address.
Alex [00:44:09] The the earth side of the story, from Mark’s perspective, we never discussed the possibility that they might be watching him or they might have realized he’s alive, he always grants the premise that they think he’s dead. And I’m kind of surprised by that. I’m kind of surprised that he isn’t like going out and and. Doing donuts outside the have just to sort of let the satellites look at him and realize he’s alive, there’s no attempt to just do a big broad, hey, I’m still here to the sky just in case it’s like and I hear that.
Lacey [00:44:44] But the work ahead of him is so daunting. He’s got so much to do and he doesn’t take a day off. This man does not get weekends. No. So like, when does he have the time to do like time to waste because he doesn’t know when the satellites are pointed at him. Right. You know, so I feel like that would be a waste of time and energy and resources.
Alex [00:45:03] Right. I’m just surprised that he never floats the notion like he never says. I wonder if they’ve realized yet that I’m alive, you know, like he’s going to dig up Pathfinder. And even he says that nobody’s listening for that. Like, I’m going to fire up this thing. And the people who are listening for Pathfinder signal are long gone. So I hope the Deep Space Network picks up. You know, I hope Setti picks up my tickets.
Lacey [00:45:25] I mean, to me, it’s a defense mechanism. You think? Yeah, because there’s. I think that if you went in with the hope.
Lacey [00:45:36] And belief that people are going to be able to hear you and and know that you’re alive, I think that would be devastating if it turned out that you were wrong. Right. Like that would be the point at which you’re like, all right, let’s go get the let’s go to the med station and I’m going to get that morphine.
Lacey [00:45:55] Yeah, exactly. And so to me, I think that it’s really neat that we’re seeing this sort of defense mechanism, which is I am not going to make the assumption that anybody is aware yet because there’s nothing I can do about it and there’s nothing they can do about it right now like we can or anybody else.
Alex [00:46:15] I’m working the problem. I will continue working the problem. If they hear me, great. If not, I’ll continue working the brain.
Lacey [00:46:20] Yeah. And, you know, if they know I’m alive, they are either working the problem or they’re not, but I can’t possibly know. So it’s just like I think it’s better for his mental health that and this guy has to to like hold on to whatever good mental health he has for as long as he possibly can because he’s got four years. So I don’t know.
Alex [00:46:42] I know you told me, I will say traveling in the rover. Sounds like a nightmare. It’s just he talks about, you know, the interior of the rover is about the about the size of a van, which seems really spacious until you start thinking about living in a van for weeks. He literally talks about peeing in a box and shitting in bags because, of course, both of those things are valuable resources. When he gets back to the hab, he needs them for his soil. And it’s just that just sounds just awful.
Lacey [00:47:16] There is like a part of me that just went straight to. At thoughts of Instagram and hashtag camper van, life is what came to my mind, I was like, these people love it, like he cannot live that life and apparently neither could you. And I want a camper van so bad.
Alex [00:47:33] So to be fair, you can leave the camper van. I don’t know how many people are going hashtag camper van life when they can’t exit. Well, I mean, he can suit up every time.
Lacey [00:47:45] I know. I know. It’s not the same. It’s not the same. But that is where my that’s where my ad I like it made me chuckle because I thought of all of the people who are like, I’m I sold my house and I’m just going to drive around and work out of my camper van and I’m going to see the world. And I’m like, dude, that’s awesome. I don’t think I could do it for the rest of my life, but I could do it for a couple minutes. So get on board, Markwayne. I mean, at least we had a house for those for those who don’t know.
Alex [00:48:14] When Lacey and I were releasing Terror Genesis, we were living in New Zealand for seven months and just road tripping around the country.
Lacey [00:48:22] They have these they have these funny camper vans that are called that the brand is juicy and they’re like lime green. And they have this up redhead who I always thought I should go as her for Halloween and nobody in the US is going to get it.
Alex [00:48:37] But apparently they would. Apparently, Jussie, vans exist in the US. They’re not as they’re not as ubiquitous as they are in New Zealand, but that is everywhere.
Lacey [00:48:44] They were everywhere. And you always you could tell what it was coming down the road because it’s like lime green. Anyway, off topic. Off topic.
Alex [00:48:54] So he does mention and this is one of those things where, you know, he anywhere has said that the one thing that he gave himself license in this book for scientific inaccuracy is the storm at the beginning. The thing that kicks the whole thing off a storm like that could not actually exist on Mars. The air pressure is too thin. He does also I wonder if it’s sort of one and a half because he does mention that, oh, the Sojourner rover is a lot closer to the base station than it was when it lost power.
Alex [00:49:25] I haven’t looked up where Sojourner was, but I wonder if it wasn’t a long way away. And when he was writing this, he was like now.
Alex [00:49:31] And then it returned to the base station before it ran out of power. Because Markwayne needs to find this thing. I mean, we we can look it up. Yeah, we can look it up.
Alex [00:49:41] But yeah, he finds I mean, not right now. I’m just saying, like, it’s at some point we can look it up and then we can tell you what we found or you can look it up and you can tell us what you found.
Alex [00:49:51] Yes. So he finds Pathfinder, he gets gets a little rough with it to detach it and get it up onto the rover. He does mention, by the way, that, by the way, we’re getting comments in the chat saying that Juicy is all over the place for us.
Lacey [00:50:10] Sally, I’m blintz. Maybe L.A. just has too many people for me to notice.
Alex [00:50:16] Yeah, he does mention, by the way, that 200 kg is heavy even in Mars gravity. I did go ahead and look it up. Apparently, two hundred kilograms on Mars is about seventy six kilograms on Earth. Or if you live in America, that’s about one hundred and sixty seven pounds. Oh that’s not nothing. Yeah, that’s not nothing. A hundred and sixty seven.
Lacey [00:50:37] But I mean, you know there are, there are monster weightlifters who could just be like yeah yeah.
Lacey [00:50:43] But uh for the average everyday non muscle person, especially for someone who spent nine months in zero G and then landed on Mars and has been in Martian gravity for the last four months, I’m sure his muscle mass has decreased.
Lacey [00:50:59] Um, I. I also want to know, why does he not have his own entertainment? Why is Johannsson the only one who brought entertainment?
Alex [00:51:10] Well, she’s not so in the book. Several people do. He’s got Lewis’s disco music. He’s got Johanson’s novels. That’s right. OK, I know I didn’t see this, but apparently I saw a comment on a Reddit thread about the Martian. And apparently there’s some reference to the fact that Martinez and Watani both left their entertainment drives up on the Hermès because they were only going to be on the surface for 30 days or something like that. And they just didn’t bother to bring them down to the surface with them. Oh, I never saw them. I missed that. So maybe that person was just making it up.
Lacey [00:51:42] But that’s I mean, because we we do we don’t hear anything about Martinez’s stuff except for the wooden cross.
Alex [00:51:50] Exactly. So maybe that’s the answer. And we both just missed it. Or maybe it hasn’t come up in the book yet. And they mentioned at the very end.
Lacey [00:51:57] Yeah. I have this moment of like this guy, he keeps mentioning how much he misses his crew. Like this is where it really hits him, that he misses these people. Um, and the moment that he names Luis Valley, like, I was just like, oh, that’s really sweet. I am so sad for you. I feel so sad that this is this is what you have is to, like, make fun of their taste, to think about them and miss them and then name stuff after them. And I was just like, I don’t know, that kind of got me.
Alex [00:52:35] For those who are curious, by the way, as you play TerraGenesis on Mars, specifically, you may find a city name suggestion wapi crater, a little Martian Easter egg in Genesis.
Lacey [00:52:46] You just giving those away now. So it’s only been out for three and a half years, for three and a half. Yeah. That was twenty, sixteen and a half.
Alex [00:52:59] TerraGenesis, it’s been four and a half years.
Lacey [00:53:01] That’s weird. That means we’ve been married for almost five. That was a big year. Yeah. OK, so one of the other things I really like is he gets a little melodramatic in his philosophizing because he says Ferbos is the God of fear and I’m letting it be my guide. And I just like your hit man like that. It’s a little melodramatic. I, I like that he points out that that and that he knows that ferbos is the God of fear. But there’s just something really chilling about that. Yeah. And a little melodramatic and full of it. Yeah. Are you reading my notes. I am. Get out of here Cheeta.
Alex [00:53:42] Are you. So that’s all I’ve got for Chapter nine.
Lacey [00:53:45] Well, tell me about the Lighthouse of Alexandria, because I, I could guess what it is, but I, I have to assume that there’s more to it than, than what it sounds like.
Alex [00:53:57] So the Lighthouse of Alexandria, also known as the Pharaoh’s Lighthouse, was a lighthouse in Alexandria. That’s it. No, it was a my God lighthouse, absolutely colossal lighthouse at the Port of Alexandria, which was probably the economic hub of the Mediterranean throughout the entire ancient period of history. And they would burn wood and manure and all sorts of stuff. You could see it apparently for like hundreds of miles.
Lacey [00:54:28] I bet this is what when when Ben GM did that game for us that we were like essentially in the Mediterranean. This was the lighthouse. Yeah.
Alex [00:54:37] Oh, what was it stood for like a couple thousand years, I think. And then it was taken down by an earthquake relatively recently in history, if I remember correctly, it was like the fifteen hundreds or something. The lighthouse fell. It’s interesting. But yeah, we, we know what it looked like. It’s been very thoroughly described by ancient ancient accounts. And there are stories, obviously hyperbolic stories that it could be used like a death ray that like it was so bright that it could be focused and like burn ships and stuff.
Lacey [00:55:10] I think he did put this in his game. And I suddenly I love that friend of ours just a little bit more for being even more of a nerd than I thought he was. That’s so dorky. Great. OK, I don’t remember what game we were playing, but it was at Savage Worlds Munza Mastermind’s.
Alex [00:55:28] Oh, yeah. OK, so I think that’s the end of Chapter nine, which brings us to SLE.
Lacey [00:55:35] Yeah. He says that he builds a ramp out of rocks and sand like the Egyptians. Awful. It does sound awful, but I was like. I don’t know, again, he’s got all of these just like little references to ancient history, that because he’s a nerd.
Alex [00:55:51] He’s like all the good people are. So that rounds out Chapter nine, which brings us to the absolute catastrophe, the death knell of entertainment. That is Chapter 10 of The Martian. Lacey, you you want to tell us about the crime against humanity that Andy Weir has unleashed upon the world? It was boring.
Alex [00:56:20] So that’s all, folks.
Lacey [00:56:25] Listen, listen, he’s just.
Alex [00:56:28] He’s just saying he just wanted it to be funner, is what you’re saying.
Lacey [00:56:32] Listen, Jay, Grapes and my mom are right, I don’t love the word, but they’re right, it should be a word. Yeah, OK, this is this is where it started. That’s right. Good gracious. OK, no, it’s just it’s just a chapter about him fixing up the Sojourner and and the Pathfinder and, you know, like, just OK, cool. And like, we know how this is going to go. And I think that’s why I don’t enjoy it is because. We’re just waiting for the last sentence, and he’s just I think that’s why I don’t like it, is I’m just waiting for it to end. I know how it’s going to end, but yet it really does feel like.
Lacey [00:57:23] No, I’ll tell you, when you talk about Chapter seven, I’ll end one of the one of the things that I really enjoyed is the Chapter 10 opens with something very near and dear to our hearts, which is Mark. In his own episode of The Synthesis, he starts picking apart an old movie about a probe that was sent to Venus that landed on Earth. And he starts sort of ripping it apart for its scientific inaccuracies. And I felt very close to Mark Watney in that moment because that’s what we do here, is talk about movies and how they represent science. He does it with more sarcasm, though, for sure. But I should really appreciate the fact that he sort of echoed our own show. He did it to us.
Lacey [00:58:07] You know what? I totally missed that one point for Chapter Ten. All right.
Alex [00:58:11] Next up, I really appreciated the return to the HAB in the same way that leaving the have felt really scary. I really bought into returning to the have felt joyous. He had talked about how awful it is to stay on in the rover and how cramped it was and how smelly it was. And all this kind of stuff he talks about as soon as he gets into the hab, he starts doing laps and just waving his arms around in the air because he literally hasn’t been able to wave his arms around inside for, you know, a couple of weeks.
Alex [00:58:42] And it just it really sort of captured the joy of coming home to mother.
Alex [00:58:47] OK, when did I say I’d like Dan? Yes, OK, but he’s not wrong.
Lacey [00:58:57] That does sound rough. And it’s it sounds pretty awful and like, you know, you’re back. Being screwed up is no joke when you don’t get to quit. But simultaneously, I was just like, OK, I’m glad for you that you’re back. I’m here for the joy. Let’s get to the end of the chapter. Yeah.
Alex [00:59:15] And the end of the chapter has what I thought, because I don’t know, maybe you didn’t feel the same way, but I thought it was the most emotionally impactful data log I’ve ever read, which is he gets the Pathfinder system up and running. He gets a charged, he gets it all good to go. He boosts it up and he makes a big deal about how I’m not going to really like there’s sort of nothing for me to do. I just have to wait for this thing to try to contact Earth and we’ll see if it does, because nobody’s listening for this anymore. Like he knows this is a long shot. The Pathfinder system is decades old.
Alex [00:59:53] You know, I hope somebody hears me and he’ll know that they did if the whole system reorients toward Earth because it has no way of knowing where Earth is.
Alex [01:00:04] So the only way it can triangulate its position is if it gets a signal from Earth and then it can point its dish and it ends. He ends the chapter with a log of internal systems diagnostics for the Pathfinder system, and it starts going through like solar panels non-operative and goes through all this kind of stuff. And it says attempting to acquire a signal waiting. Waiting, waiting. Signal acquired. And I’m I am listening to the audio books narrated by Wil Wheaton, Lacey’s reading the physical book, I’m listening to the audio books. And even though I’ve watched the movie a dozen times, I I’m just more efficient with my time, really. But even though I’ve watched the movie a dozen times and I’ve read the book a couple of times, that signal, a quiet moment gave me chills. It’s in everything in this story is in that moment I was like, I’m practically dead here.
Lacey [01:01:03] And we’re like, this is so boring, so boring, so boring. And then it was just like everything came back to life. I just like I there was like a squeal that happened inside of me.
Lacey [01:01:10] I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes. I kind of like because we’re not doing next week because it’s Christmas Eve and the week after, because it’s New Year’s Eve. I felt like I was like, oh man, we’re kind of assholes because we’re leaving on the season finale. Like, that’s what this is.
Alex [01:01:25] Mark Watney can finally talk to Earth, but you know who’s not going to be talking us to you? Wait until twenty, twenty one. Yep.
Lacey [01:01:33] So I my thing about it was just like there is there was this jolt because this is what I’ve been waiting for, this is what I knew was coming and yet. And yet. And can you imagine being those scientists who worked on the Pathfinder mission and you’re being called to help to help bring Mark home.
Lacey [01:01:55] And I was just like, oh, I choked up. Oh, I was.
Lacey [01:01:58] So I was just like, I mean, if we if we consider that this is, what, 30 years later, maybe.
Lacey [01:02:04] Right. How big of a deal would that be to you to have maybe the thing that you consider your life’s work is actually going to is it’s going to be salvaged and made into something bigger than you life saving.
Lacey [01:02:19] Oh, my.
Alex [01:02:22] Yeah, I’m just like absolutely fantastic moment and so perfectly delivered through a system diagnostic. Like, again, he just he keeps returning to the the competence. You know, it’s not the these moments are not even done in particularly emotional ways. They’re done through success. You know, he he achieved his goal and that is impactful. We don’t need to see him thrusting his fist into the air to know how important that is.
Lacey [01:02:55] And we as the audience get to know that on the other side of it before, like, this is the first time that we know something really before Mark Watney does.
Lacey [01:03:04] I mean, we were seeing what’s happening on Earth. Yeah. But, you know, they haven’t come up with issues yet and they haven’t really come up with any big solutions yet. There’s they’re still arguing about what the best thing is to do while they’re all working together, which again, I don’t totally foresee happening. But they you know, they are supposedly they’re all working together and and. They still don’t have answers and they’re trying and this is this is the moment that we get to see. The work that they’ve put in, the work of following his trajectories and what he’s doing, I don’t know, there’s just something so beautiful about that. Thing’s starting to click, you know, and finally getting traction.
Lacey [01:03:54] Yeah, I just love it so much. And that’s it for this week on the Synthesis.
Lacey [01:03:59] We know it’s not know, first of all, first of all, I there are a couple of other things in here that I I’m with J great here that the Saturn five does need a stamp is not wrong. Definitely not wrong. I’m going to assume, uh, Jay Grap is a guy because you’re driving with my husband. But if that’s not true, let me know. I will use the correct pronouns.
Alex [01:04:31] Jay grap not a good person but not wrong.
Lacey [01:04:35] Oh oh my God I but you also have to tell people what the genre is. Oh yeah. You guys.
Lacey [01:04:44] So guys I think you know so we agree it’s, it’s Mars genre, it’s, it’s epic drama, it’s sci fi, all of that.
Alex [01:04:53] I was, I was researching The Martian, the film and this is bullshit among other things. I noticed that while it received several accolades, all of which were deserved, it did also win the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture, musical or comedy.
Lacey [01:05:10] What? That’s not right. I mean, it’s funny, don’t get me wrong.
Alex [01:05:16] Yeah, there’s humor, but like, there’s humor in a lot of stuff. There’s humor in Titanic like this.
Alex [01:05:23] This is not a comedy. And I mean, obviously, it’s not a musical, but it’s not a disco jukebox music. Exactly.
Alex [01:05:32] This is not, you know, the disco version of Jersey Boys. Yeah, right. This is the musical. So I’m I’m very blown away and I don’t like it. And I would like to go back in time and tell them to get it right. No, no. OK, wait, wait. Look up. Who actually got a best, um, I don’t know, drama that year or whatever, whatever the other one is, uh, whoever they didn’t want to go up against because you know, they get to submit themselves for whatever category they want. So really this is on the producers.
Lacey [01:06:06] So, uh, 20 then everybody had to vote for them. So maybe, you know what, there’s a lot of blame to go around and I’m willing to hand it out.
Alex [01:06:15] Yeah. Um, let me see her best music, best motion picture drama. In what year was this? Uh, they were up against The Revenant, I think. The Revenant.
Lacey [01:06:28] I don’t remember that one. Yeah. Is that the is that the the Leonardo DiCaprio one. OK, ok. OK, let’s, let’s do this you guys. I’m not so we’ve talked about uh nope. I have to have this little rant. I just. I do, I do. I need to look up his name real quick because this is important and everybody here needs to know about this.
Alex [01:06:51] Um, what is living on Mars is harder than surviving a bear.
Lacey [01:06:56] I’m just saying, OK, um, so.
Lacey [01:07:01] There’s a book called Lord Grizzly, and it was written by Frederick Manfred, and it’s about Hugh Glass and it’s freaking incredible. It is.
Lacey [01:07:14] I am you know this. I’ve talked about it. Survival stories are not my jam. But I read this book in high school and. I to this day, it’s one of my favorite books, I told my grandfather, yes, this is morbid, but I told him when he dies, the only thing I want from him is his signed copy of Lord Grizzly now. Now, Manfred’s family multiple times optioned the story. And you want to know what got made. The Revenant, The Revenant that is supposed to take this is supposed to take place in South Dakota, my home state, and Frederick Frederick Manfred’s home state, I do believe. And they film it in the Rockies, in Canada, because it’s prettier. No, it’s not. And I mean, those are beautiful, too. It’s not a it’s not a competition.
Lacey [01:08:04] But you guys, The Revenant is a made up story based on an incredible story that’s told better in Lord Grizzly.
Lacey [01:08:14] And why didn’t they do it? Why why didn’t Manfred’s family not get they worked so hard and this author was so much better.
Lacey [01:08:21] And I’m just I am still so mad about it. I’m so mad about it.
Lacey [01:08:26] I’m so mad about it. And then they beat out the Martian for best drama and kicked them to best comedy. Adding insult to injury.
Lacey [01:08:34] This is not I am so unhappy. The Revenant can. Yeah, but it’s it was beautifully shot. I will put that out there. Yeah. I with that movie, very, very strong opinions in this one.
Lacey [01:08:51] I don’t feel bad.
Alex [01:08:52] That is it for the synthesis this week. We are going to be off for the next couple of weeks for the holiday. So enjoy your January 7th. Yeah. I think January 7th is the next time we’re going to be Horth is a Monday.
Lacey [01:09:07] Yes. OK, so we will see on the 7th. Yeah. Which means that we super hope you have have found a great way to celebrate your holidays to stay safe. Um Happy Hanukkah.
Alex [01:09:19] Merry Christmas. Happy Boxing Day and Kwanzaa and happy New Year and everything else that happens in the season because it’s yes.
Lacey [01:09:27] A lot of good stuff that happens this season. And we hope all of the good stuff happens for you. Yes. Our people.
Alex [01:09:34] So tune in in three weeks to the synthesis when we’ll be talking about the next few chapters of The Martian. In the meantime, be sure to subscribe and follow us. We have a patriot on page four networks entertainment.
Alex [01:09:49] We are on Twitter and Facebook and read it and everything you can imagine. Be sure to hit the bell so you get updates for future episodes. And thank you for watching. We’ll see you in twenty, twenty one. It has to be better than this year.