Some episode 3 easter eggs part 2

Here are all the various appearances of the dots representing earth in the night-sky of Mars. The last pic is not an easter egg as such, but it's a beautiful shot, and would make a good desktop background: (blogspot seems not to want to let me put any text between the pictures).

Initial Review of Episode 3 - Me Looka, Me Laika

This is an initial review, just to get my thoughts out on the page before they fade. I'm not going to bother recapping, because if you can read this it means you have an internet connection and can watch it for yourself.

Out of the gate I want to say I loved this episode.

Watching this episode I got that feeling when you work somewhere for a few months, and then get to know your work colleagues and you realise what motivates them. Without descending into soap opera, we get to see extra sides to Taylor, Walzer and DiLeo. In Taylor's case we see his (ex-?) girlfriend and his aspirations there. For Walzer I enjoyed seeing his somewhat naive view of what the situation was about, especially after decades of frustration with the US view of manned Mars missions. We literally got to see a new side to DiLeo in learning his first name, taking him out of the realm of being predominantly comic relief (not that there's anything wrong with comic relief).

Another star of the show here was Jane, or rather the chemistry between her and Yuri. Laura Graham's depiction of an overwhelmed Jane attempting to apply things she knows in an extraordinary situation was genuinely moving. Somehow Yuri, who sits up once, screams once and says only one word manages to convey something meaningful in his attitude towards Jane, maybe because we know its possible that this is the only female he's ever seen apart from his mother.

The music in this episode was still beautiful but the quality seemed better and more integrated somehow. Just from having seen it once, I'm guessing any Easter Eggs here were mainly audio rather than visual. I'm primarily talking about the intentionally-unsubtitled Yuri's word which means 'Firebird', suggesting he speaks at least some English.

That said, and I'm far from an expert in these matters, the visuals seemed more proficient as well. More establishing shots and pans or something, I don't know.

"I can't imagine what your life has been like". With those words it occurred to me this is in some ways a series about human-alien contact, it's just that the alien both human and Martian (like the protagonist in Stranger in a Strange Land), and that communication is almost as difficult as if he weren't human.

Also nice to see Laika, Walzer's dog, enter the P1 canon, although readers of this blog would already have known about this. ;)

Each episode in this series -which started out great- has got stronger and stronger. If this trajectory is continued in episode 4 in three weeks I'll be a very happy man. I really hope they get the funds together to tell the story the show deserves for episode 5 and 6. But if you're reading this you've already donated for those episodes, right?

Episode 3 out now!

Episode three appears to be online a bit early. You can get it here. Click on download.

Episode 3 in orbit today and some theories.

Well folks today is the day. I haven't been able to devote as much time as I'd wished to this blog in the run up to episode 3, but I'll be watching it tonight and posting a review as soon as I can. I'd invite people to post their thoughts and so on in the comments.

I just want to get a couple of things off my chest quickly before epi 3 comes out. There are two bits in episode 2 which I think may prove to be important. One bit is where Clive says that the shuttle approaching Earth was at a different trajectory on Wednesday and must have slowed down to catch Earth. This is overlaid by Walzer's discovery of a Martian rock, and I wonder if this isn't some deliberate misdirection to give us some information but make us forget it straight away.

The second part is at the end where Walzer says something like 'the evidence fits with the boy's story, but I can't feel like there's something big that I'm missing'. Combine this with Josh Bernhard's comments about episode 4: "The next episode is called "Alone in the Night" and we'll be spending a lot of time with Yuri, our supposed Martian cosmonaut." and I think we have a twist approaching.

Let me know what you think and don't forget to donate.

Episode 3 release date announced - March 28

Just got this email literally seconds ago:

We are pleased to announce the official release date for episode 3 of Pioneer One: Monday, March 28th. An official release date for episode 4 will be announced soon, but we plan to release it within weeks of 3.

We also have a start date for production on episodes 5 and 6: May 5. Whatever money we raise between now and then is what we'll have to make those episodes, so we're hoping 3 and 4 will get us some new fans who want to see more!

50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight.

The Guardian is a British newspaper and has a fascinating piece about Sergei Korolev, the man behind the Soviet Space Race. You can read the online version here. They also have a great gallery of Yuri related images here. Yuri is of course probably the inspiration behind the naming of Yuri in episode 2. Hopefully in 3 we will find out his real name.

Another update about releases dates

The folks at Pioneer One have just announced that episode 3 will be out by the end of the month (March), and episode 4 about two weeks after that:

http://twitter.com/#!/pioneeronetv/status/44465704543584256

Update on episode 3 and 4 release dates

Just a quick post to say that according to this Tweet the release dates for Episode 3 and 4 will be released in a few days, with plans for 5 and 6!

Exclusive Interview with Josh Bernhard

I'm very pleased to present an interview from Josh Bernhard, co-creator of Pioneer One. The last question contains some mild spoilers.

P1FS: First of all thanks for agreeing to do this interview.

JB: Sure! One of the things we were most looking forward to with doing this show was being able to have a dialogue with our viewers.

P1FS: The show ticks all the boxes for me: mystery, geekiness, retro-technology. Your approach of making the show available for free and funded from various sources is very brave; are you meeting your targets? Have you had to rethink your approach at all?

JB: Thanks, though I'm not sure I'd call it bravery! We wanted to tell this story, took stock of what resources and opportunities we had, and decided this was a way we could make it happen. And we constantly rethinking our approach. Not necessarily from the bottom up, but definitely recalibrating. Six months ago we thought we might be somewhere different by now, and six months before that we thought something else entirely. We've exceeded some of our target goals and fallen short on some others. But after the first two releases we have a much better idea of how to use our resources most effectively, and that's affecting how we're moving forward.

P1FS: I heard in an interview recently that you see more of an affinity with TV shows like the Green Wing [JB: West Wing I think we had mentioned, GW is the hospital show yeah?][P1FS: Yes, I'm going to quote Homer Simpson here: "Doh!"] and I think 24 than with the usual suspects like the X-Files and Fringe. How happy are you with the label of 'Science Fiction', with all the baggage that this brings?

JB: I have absolutely no problem with being labeled science fiction, it's just not the first label I'd slap on the package. And that's not dithering, because I think to do so would create false expectations of what the show is going to be. We just want to make sure that "Mars" and "space" are not all somebody hears before they stop listening, because the premise, while a little high concept, is really more of a launching point for the drama. I'd describe it more as a piece of speculative fiction, but people give me funny looks when I call it that so I decided to shut up!

That said, both Bracey and I have pretty strong credentials in the sci-fi department, and we're making a show that we would want to see ourselves.

P1FS: The pacing of Pioneer One seems to me to be very like a novel. Are there any particular authors or novels that have influenced Pioneer One?

JB: Thanks, that's one of the things I like about it too. Our show has a serial narrative and is more of a slow burn, and it builds to something that I think will be very satisfying.

P1FS: The central concept of the show is a really great one, how did you come by that idea? Did you decide you wanted to make a web series and get the idea, or the other way round?

JB: This is probably the question I'm worst at answering! I can't say for certain, but those who know me well have pointed out my long-standing interest in both the space program and Cold War history, so I guess it was natural that's where my head would end up.

The story came first, and this was the best way to tell it. If I thought it would work better as a one-off, we would have made it as a movie instead.

P1FS: The soundtrack to the show is beautiful. Can you tell us more about it?

JB: Thanks for asking about that! This is really a question for Bracey to answer, since wrote the signature pieces himself and is overseeing the rest of the score. We have a few composers (Felix Bird, Josh Cipolla, and Mike Sweeney) working on different sections but Bracey is very concerned with creating distinct melodies and themes that will recur throughout the show.

P1FS: There are a bunch of other web only TV series, but it seems to me that Pioneer One has been by far the most successful to date. What's your secret?

JB: That's very flattering, what gives you that impression? I guess it depends on by what measure you judge. The only thing I can say is that from the beginning we've thought of the show we're making not as a web show but as a TV show that appears primarily on the web. It might be a semantic distinction, but that's the mindset we're operating with.

The biggest boon for us in terms of exposure has probably been our distribution through VODO and our association with their DISCO Distribution Coalition. Part of what I meant earlier when I said we took stock of our resources was that we knew we had a venue to get the show out there through our relationship with VODO, which started when they distributed a movie I wrote and directed called The Lionshare. [P1FS note: hope to do a post on this in the future.]

P1FS: How are episodes 3 and 4 shaping up? Can you tell us something exclusive about the upcoming episode?

***MILD SPOILER ALERT***

JB: Episodes 3 and 4 are both in stages of near-completion, which is why the gap between these two releases will be short. The next episode is called "Alone in the Night" and we'll be spending a lot of time with Yuri, our supposed Martian cosmonaut. Episode 4 is titled "Triangular Diplomacy" and will give us a perspective on the events of the story from the outside world.

Approximate episode 3 and 4 release dates announced.

The mysterious entity behind the Facebook page for Pioneer One has mentioned in a thread that the release dates of episodes 3 and 4 will be March, exact dates TBA. There are also a ton of pics in their album. You can look at them here, I think you'll need a Facebook account though.

UPDATE: New information has come to light you can see here.