Modern Audio Dramas and Setting Fatigue
That Time When Every Fiction Podcast Wanted to be Wolf 359
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Wolf 359 was a linear science fiction comedy that came out the summer of 2014 and was the first series produced by Kinda Evil Genius Productions. It debuted around what I called the âFiction Podcast Renaissance Period'', circa the early 2010âs when nothing but independent heavy hitters were dropping one by one to uproarious praise, bustling fandoms, and successful Patreons.
Wolf 359 was undeniably the front runner for the next three yearsâfour years if you count the mini episodes and reunion special.Â
Wolf 359 was just that good and all around this fun, emotionally moving and well crafted experience.
For starters, Wolf 359 had the kind of audio drama miracle that only happens so often. The cast was exceptionally talented and had good chemistry, which made their vocal performances engaging and believable.
The sound design was crisp and clean; the story could be an episode of Star Trek one minute and all the freaky parts of Alien the next and not skip one single beat in the process. It was a funny, intense, psychological rollercoaster that could only possibly be concocted with the combined efforts of a cast and crew that were giving their all since episode one.
Wolf 359 was simple and organic, yet packed with humor and character, almost entirely contained in a small space which made the environment equal parts homey and claustrophobic.Â
So what happens when a show like this ends after a successful run and satisfying conclusion, but youâve developed an insatiable taste for this specific brand of science fiction? Well, thatâs where it gets tricky.
The Cosmic Problem
In preparation for this article, I took just a little more of a deep dive that ate up a surprising amount of time. The topic had been rattling in my brain for a hot minute, but what were once careful glances around social media feeds prompted me to get a more in-depth analysis. Despite it being the main topic of an older article, cover art only acted as a minor factor here and it was really titles and summaries that were the focal point of my research
My keywords went as follows: mentions of ârag-tag crewsâ or some variation of that phrase, themes of introspection in isolation, âsurvivalâ, âspaceshipâ or âspace stationâ, some indication that the spaceship is faulty or doomed to fail but trudges on regardless, and a statement clarifying that the spaceship has no determined destination and acts as a backdrop for the story without any pesky rest stops, or itâs entirely stationary (which Iâve realized may as well be the same thing).Â
For about a week I was browsing podcast hosting websites, entering my aforementioned keywords into Google, and found the occasional âPodcasts Like Wolf 359â list. My research was as thorough as it could get and gave me a whopping total of thirteen shows.
Now that may not sound like a lot, but as someone who plunges the depths of Spotify and Podchaser for a living, trying to find new audio dramas or hidden gems to talk about, thatâs a concerning amount of shows to skip over completely.
If I tried to compile all my findings on a single list with original descriptions, Iâd be stumped by the third entry (and thatâs if I strictly go in alphabetical order).
Speaking realistically, Iâm not going to have time to listen to every podcast ever but even though my line of work essentially involves critiquing free-to-access indie projects, thereâs a pressure I feel to give everything a fair shake.
But sooner or later, I have to make time for the stories that I know will inspire conversation, not dive into a random roulette of chance because Iâm merely hopeful itâll be a new or original take on the same premise.
Finding shows that are too similar in too many ways has allowed me to filter out those options much more easily, and right now the âlike Wolf 359 butâ brand of podcast is something Iâve been better off avoiding.
Now, thereâs nothing inherently wrong with having a show kind of like Wolf 359. Thereâs no trademark to tarnishâeven Urbina in my interview with him way back in 2016 credits Farscape as a direct line of inspiration. Itâs just an idea so flexible and so easily doable, that what feels like just about everyone has taken a crack at it.
A dysfunctional space crew science fiction show can mean Firefly to one person and Cowboy Bebop to another, two incredibly different takes on the genre right down to their country of origin, runtime, medium of entertainment, and year.
But in the realm of audio drama, the words âdysfunctional crew in a spaceshipâ can spark several titles that inevitably overlap with one another and it becomes a guessing game of what specific details set them apart. Maybe they do get off the ship and explore planets, maybe it was actually a simulation, maybe this one has a weirdly concerning amount of human on alien coitusâI wouldnât know because I honestly couldnât bring myself to listen to more than a few episodes, if I started the podcast at all.
If I were to cut a snippet of Star Trek and merge it with the 2005 film rendition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, someone would definitely notice, but this specific brand of audio drama has become so interchangeable that the crucial differences become so deeply hidden in the text that itâs often not worth the trouble.
The Rich Variety of Science Fiction
The best piece of writing advice Iâve gotten in recent years is to enjoy the biggest variety of media you can possibly find. Fiction authors should read nonfiction books, soap opera fans should play horror games, graphic designers should watch video essays about the evolution of filmâif we only ever indulge one type of media, thatâs the only type of media weâll be able to make. I
f your realm of creativity is limited to âbeing like Wolf 359â, then you need to listen to something else besides Wolf 359.
Lately, it seems like everyone wants to be The Martian, but no one wants to be The Fifth Element or the next Valerian or, God forbid, Jupiter Ascending, which personally bothers me because science fiction has always been such an abundant playing field ripe with story potential.
I personally love sci-fi that treats space as a blank canvas that can be rife with any number of wacky, fantastical potential. EOS 10 and Inkwrym still have some elements of the âdysfunctional found familyâ, but use the space backdrop to offer a futuristic take on a hospital and a fashion empire.Â
So instead of opting for the phrase âlike Wolf 359 butâ, Iâm forced to do some thinking when it comes to describing them: EOS 10 is a pretty compelling medical drama with the humor and pacing of a sitcom. Inkwyrm feels like a sci-fi take of The Devil Wears Prada or Ugly Betty.Â
StarTripper!! is an easygoing space comedy road-trip with a magnetic protagonist that reminds me of Wander Over Yonder way before Firefly even comes to mind.
THE INFINITE NOW, an experimental, short-form collection of space transmissions that honestly flourished from its lack of a linear structure, is undeniably sci-fi but also undeniably its own weird, independent passion project. Perhaps my love of SAYER directly contributes to how much I love the Portal games.Â
Even Urbina in my review with him heavily credits 1994âs teen drama My So-Called Life as an inspiration for Wolf 359, which couldnât be more different than the show is inspired.Â
Itâs that combination of attributes that gives the show a little more meat on its bones, a very distinct identity that traces back to a variety of inspirations.
Even if those similarities are pure coincidence, that still shows implications of a broader scope, of people who like to merge genres or pay homage to one.
There can be a lot of power behind just a few words that differentiate one space show from that space show and above all, you never want to be another space show.
Space Has Become Everymanâs Land
Iâm going to be completely honest: Iâm starting to find shows that take place exclusively inside of a spacecraft/space station to be the slightest bit boring, but namely from an audio-visual standpoint.
Just about any show I can think about with this setting has a few go-tos: rickety, somewhat out of date machinery, loudly clacking keyboards, handheld tape recorders for the occasional framing device, small windows with big views of starry horizons while lounging around in baggy jumpsuits and heavy duty lace up boots, bad food and shitty living conditions that become cozy by sheer sentimentalityânot that every show has these details, and not that theyâre inherently bad, just that one inevitably follows the other.Â
Because cramped steel decks are a necessity and giant blankets of stars on a blank void may as well be the wallpaper that comes with your new iPhone.
Like the shows I mentioned above, thereâs a lot more room to give a setting some life when itâs not isolated in one location, or at least not a location weâve seen a million times over. Once again, letâs look at EOS 10, which asks: How would a hospital in space sound and operate? Is it really high tech with all this cutting edge equipment or relatively standard but with aliens?
These are the key world-building opportunities that give a setting its life and distinct identity. Youâve seen one spaceship, youâve seen them all, but a space trailer park might be worth a look.
Who says it even has to be a traditional space crew â how about a group of wedding planners who hop from planet to planet organizing the perfect weddings for their clients? Or space food truck operated by a human trying to share the joys of earth food with aliens, or a tour guide narrating a space cruise through the Milky Way, or a story about two competing space home realtors with belligerent sexual tension, or drug dealers that sell stardust.
I know plenty about âa show in spaceâ, but a crime thriller in space? A summer camp slasher b-movie in space? Glee in space?Â
And yet the question still stands: does it even have to be in space?Â
Breaking a Routine of RedundancyÂ
The audio drama community is suffering from a major sci-fi surplus the likes of which Iâve never seen.
And I feel that thereâs just so much more ground we could be covering (pun very much intended): sprawling cities, the comforts of a childhood home, cozy cottages and farms, the unassuming suburbs, office buildings, college, high school, the mall, a grocery store, a coffee shop, a restaurant, a story out at seaâthese all come with such unique assets that can greatly impact the music, sound design, and general vibe.
Lately itâs not just been intriguing settings, but the truly off-the-wall plots thatâs been piquing my interest lately. Iâve been getting more and more invested in short-form, freestyle work like Community Cat News and anthology collections like Obsidian and PodCube. And the incredibly specific pitches like Two Flat Earthers Kidnap a Freemason and Who Killed Avril Lavinge? are the stuff of a conspiracy theorist's wildest dreams.Â
The Godshead Incidental enthralled me not just with its unique concept, but with sprawling city life and distinctly modern finesse meshed with an American Gods brand of magic realism. And now I canât imagine the show without images of towering buildings, busy highways, splashes of color on geometric backgrounds like the base of a mod-chic style dress.Â
Only some of these details are supplied in the show but itâs easy for brains to fill in the cracks and flesh out a truly unique environment. The same could be said for Greater Boston, albeit with a bit more of a coffee smell and more underground subways.
Then there are some shows that still have small settings, and yet every little detail feels micromanaged to fill out their audio Pinterest board. Brimstone Valley Mall is quite literally a story during the nineties about demons from hell who want to start a rock band in between working their part-time mall jobs.
Those words alone must brush up against each other at least once in the headspace of the average Hot Topic employee (at least the ones from the 2000âs).
Who Killed Avril Lavigne? has MTV era punk rock etched into its DNA like the smudged autograph on a CD. I found myself incredibly charmed by the slice of life, workplace comedy What Can I Get Started For You? that is so confident in their casual atmosphere.
And while none of these shows are perfectânothing isâthey held my attention from just the title and description alone.
I didnât have to check off buzzwords from the Spotify synopsis because the summary of Fawx & Stallion still manages to be marginally different from Victoriocity despite having some similar themes.
This sci-fi overflow has only pushed me more into the shows that have something a little more bombastic, bold, weird and innovative to share. Iâve been looking for shows that stand for everything that audio drama was deliberately built on without the clutches of corporate marketing and focus testing to worry about.
To see so many audio dramas, old and new, hopping into the bandwagon so willingly without the orders of an ominous executive suit telling them to follow specific trends and adhere to certain tropes for certain audiences, proves that this kind of mindset can happen to anyone.
Not that these creations canât be concocted with love but they also need to be made with ambition, with a sort of fearlessness to be niche, esoteric even. The second we start to fear our own creativity is when weâve failed as creatives.
Iâm Not Mad, Just DisappointedÂ
Iâve been recently binge watching the video archive of YouTube essayist Jacob Geller. And though Gellarâs usual topic of choice is about immersive video game narratives, as I was checking out his video from May 2020, âBad Graphicsâ, there was a line that really spoke to me:
âEvery city doesnât need a variation on a Guggenheim to be prestigious, but the only way to break out of that mindset is to just start doing it,â says Gellar by the 15:56 timestamp. âUse all that processing power, all those shaders and pixels and teraflops to do something other than pores on a sad manâs skin. Show us all the things we donât even know are possible because weâve been so hyperfocused on one definition of âgood.â
Even if audio drama is currently an indie market, it doesnât mean it canât fall into the same trappings that make other assets of entertainment in our life samey and droll.
Now this does echo a few points I made in a past article where I shared my gripes about horror podcasts and allow me to clarify: this isnât meant to dissuade people from the science fiction genre, just to utilize it better. I donât want to convince people to not make art, just to make memorable art.
I only ever voice these concerns because I want the creative space of audio drama to improve and grow beyond the infinite loop of âquirky space crew with hidden emotional trauma acts silly on rinky-dink space stationâ shouldered next to âdreary forest town occult mysteryâ thatâs roommates with âsingle narrator lists off supernatural horror scenarios with an off-puttingly nonchalant tone of voice.â
To be so enamored by our own minute list of differences is the first step to becoming complacent in repetition not just with our art, but everyone elseâs art.
And Iâm sure youâve all seen it: The Welcome to Night Vales and Kings Fall AMs, the many reels of The Black Tapes, the multitude of supernatural archivists that have suddenly sprung up from the foreground in the past few yearsââthe space station storyâ is just one of many cases.Â
And much like Gellar says towards the conclusion of his video, I do love seeing the perfectly rendered pores of a motion captured A-list actor traversing a fully realized open world the same way I like anything thatâs pretty and obviously made with just as much love as it was timeâI love Wolf 359, but Iâve already listened to Wolf 359.
if you want to support my own blog, cake radio has a ko-fi and patreon in need of funds to keep this bakery open. thank you for reading and stay sweet.
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Listen to your elders
So last week I posted abut the importance of downloading your fic. And then three days later AO3 went down for 24 hours. No one was more weirded out by this than I was. But while yâall were acting like the library at Alexandria was on fire I was reading my download fic and editing chapter eight of Buck, Rogers, and the 21st Century. And also thinking about what I could do to be helpful when the crisis was actually over.
So first off, Iâm going to repeat that if youâre going to bookmark a fic, you really need to also download the fic and back it up in a safe place. I just do it automatically now and itâs a good habit to get into.
But letâs talk about some other scenarios. Last October I lost power for over a week after hurricane Ian. Apart from not having internet or A/C I did find plenty to do, I collect books so I had plenty to read, but maybe, unlike me, your favorite comfort reads arenât sitting on a bookshelf. So letâs do something about that, shall we?
In olden times many long years ago around 1995 we printed off a lot of fic. It was mostly SOP to print a fic you planned to reread and stick it in a three ring binder. And thatâs totally valid today too, but you can also make a very nice paperback with a minimum amount of skill and materials.
Letâs start with the download; Go to Ao3 and select your fic, weâll be working with one of mine. This method works best with one shots, long fic tends to need a more complicated approach. Get yourself an HTML download
Open up the HTML download and select all then copy paste into any word processor. Set the page to landscape and two columns, then change the font to something you find easy to read, this is your book, no judgement. This is all you have to do for layout but I like to play a little bit. I move all the meta, summary, notes to the end and pick out a fun font for the title:Â
No time like the present to do a quick proofread. Congratulations, youâve just created your first typeset. On to the fun part.
Now youâre going to need some materials:Â
8.5x11in paper
ruler
one sheet of 12x12 medium card stock (60-80lb)
scissors
pencil
pen or fine tip marker
sheet of wax paper
white glue
two binder clips
2 heavy books or 1 brick
butter knife
Youâll also need a printer, if youâre in the US there is almost a 100% chance your local library has a printer you can use if you donât have your own. None of these materials are expensive and you can literally use cheap copy paper and Elmers glue.
Print your text block, one page per side. Fold the first page in half so that the blank side is inside and the printed side out:
use the butter knife to crease the edge. Repeat on all the sheets. When youâve finished, stack them up with the raw edge on the left and the folded edge on the right. I used standard copy paper, because youâre only printing on one side thereâs no bleed to worry about. Take the text block and line everything up. Use the binder clips to hold the raw edge in place.
Wrap the text block in the wax paper so that the raw edge and binder clips are facing out. Iâm going to use my home built book press but you donât need one, a brick or a couple of books or anything else heavy will work fine.
Once the text block is anchored down, take off he binder clips and get out the glue.
You can use a brush but you donât need one, smear some glue on that raw edge.
Go make a margarita, watch The Mandalorian, call your mother. Donât come back for at least an hour
In an hour smear some more glue on there and shift your brick forward so that the whole book is covered. This keeps the paper from warping. While glue part 2 is drying weâll do the cover. Get out your 12x12 cardstock
Mark the cardstock off at 8.5 inches and cut it. Measure in 5.5 inches from the left and put in a score line with the butter knife (the back edge not the sharp edge)
Carefully fold the score line, this is your front cover. You have some options for the cover title, you can use a cutting machine like a cricut if you have one, you can print out a title on the computer and use carbon paper to transfer the text to the cardstock. I was in a mood so I just freehanded that beoch. Pencil first then in pen.
Take your text block out from under your brick. Line it up against the score mark and mark the second score on the other side of the spine
Fold the score and glue the textblock into the cover at the spine. Once the glue dries up mark the back cover with the pencil and then trim the back cover to fit with your scissors.
Voila:
Iâm going to put this baby on the shelf next to the Silmarillion.
The whole process, not counting drying time, took less than an hour.
If you want to make a book of a longer fic, I recommend Renegade Publishing, they have a ton of resources for fan-binders.Â
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