#episode 1: succulent rat killing tar

[wolf359comic]

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Image description under cut.

A comic page with three panels, colored with dot tones.

Panel 1: A close-up drawing of a back-lit space station, made of a bunch of different tubular modules and solar panels, in front of an orange start, with the caption "U.S.S. Hephaestus, 1900 hours."

Panel 2: A close-up drawing of one of the individual tubular modules, with radio dishes and antennae and two portholes visible, with a speech bubble that says "This is the audio log of Communications Officer Doug Eiffel."

Panel 3: A close-up of one of the portholes, with the light of the star reflecting in it, and a speech bubble that says "I am speaking to you from the comms room of the U.S.S. Hephaestus Station."

[wolf359relisten]

EPISODE 1: SUCCULENT RAT-KILLING TAR

listen / transcript / recording script / wiki

"Our premiere episode. Officer Doug Eiffel, communications officer on board the U.S.S. Hephaestus Station, is willing to go to any lengths to procrastinate his work. Tasked with a pointless hunt for alien intelligence, Eiffel would much rather spend his time complaining about the station’s malfunctioning autopilot system and making sure his stash of contraband cigarettes doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. But when his instruments start picking up a mysterious radio signal from an unidentified source, Eiffel begins to wonder if someone - or something – could be trying to communicate with the Hephaestus. Plus, explosions, dangerous experiments,  non-destructive hair driers, handy-dandy tips for surviving in outer space, and creative interpretations for the word coffee."

August 15

[hephaestuscrew]

Thoughts on the patterns of who speaks the episode title phrases in Wolf 359

This analysis is based on the data I gathered in this spreadsheet and summarised with graphs in this post. Basically I've been looking at which character first says the episode title phrase (i.e. the exact words which form the name of that particular episode) in every episode of Wolf 359. Go and look at the spreadsheet if you want more context.

I think we can view the episode title phrases as often expressing the key problem or question of that episode. (I might talk about this in relation to individual examples another time.) Through this lens, the consideration of who speaks the title phrase is about which character gets to frame the key issue of the episode for the listener. This doesn't necessarily mean we are meant to share that character's view of the issue, but it's why I think there is some potentially significant analysis to be done on this topic. (See below the cut...)

The proportion of title phrases said by Eiffel reduces with each season. 69.2% of the Season 1 title phrases are (first) spoken by Eiffel, compared to 46.6% in Season 2, 22.2% in Season 3, and 20% in Season 4.

This is perhaps unsurprising. Eiffel is very much the main perspective character and the primary narrative voice at the start of the series. And, as someone with unusual speech patterns, he is excellent at coining a good memorable title phrase. However, while I'd argue that he never stops being the main protagonist, over the course of the series, the narrative focus broadens away from a singular emphasis on Eiffel's perspective. This perspective shift is reflected in episode titles being spoken by a greater range of characters.

I think the decreasing proportion of Eiffel title phrases also reflects the podcast's shift towards a generally more dramatic rather than comedic tone. While Eiffel is capable of being serious at times, I'd argue that his mode of speech is particularly well suited to generating amusing unusual turns of phrase that work well within a more comedic context (e.g. Succulent Rat-Killing Tar, What's Up Doc?, Bach to the Future). As the stakes become higher and the tone becomes less humorous, characters other than Eiffel, who are more often inclined to take things very seriously, are more likely to speak the title phrases.

There's also just the fact that as we get more characters involved in the action on the Hephaestus, the opportunity to speak the title phrase is spread between more characters.

Although Eiffel is by far and away the most common speaker of title phrases in Season 1, in the first three episodes of the whole show, we get all the characters of that season represented in the title phrases. Minkowski speaks the title phrase in the second episode and Hera does in the third episode - but probably quoting a phrase from Hilbert. This gives us a good early indication that, while Eiffel may be the focal point particularly in this season, this is going to be an ensemble show and all of these characters are going to be significant.

Hilbert's only title phrase is in Ep12 Deep Breaths, in the first stage of his mutiny, arguably the only point in the show where he appears to clearly have the upper hand while acting alone.

After the SI-5 are introduced at the beginning of Season 3, we get five Kepler or Jacobi title phrases in a row, which solidifies the SI-5's presence in the show. It also highlights the fact that the SI-5 have taken over the Hephaestus and are now (at least ostensibly) the ones determining the aims of the Hephaestus mission.

In addition, these patterns might be seen to reflect the shift in the show towards a more conflict-focused tone (related but not identical to the movement away from comedy). While Wolf 359 has always been a show full of conflict, the balance of this conflict shifts with the arrival of the SI-5. For the first team, our protagonists are facing a unified team of antagonists. The potential for violence feels higher, as do the stakes. This might explain why, while we only had one antagonist-spoken title phrase across Seasons 1 and 2 (Hilbert in Ep12 - Lovelace doesn't get a title phrase while she's serving as an antagonist), 44.4% of our Season 3 title phrases are first spoken by antagonists.

The only title phrase spoken by Maxwell is spoken by her in a recording that we hear after her death. This isn't even the only posthumous title phrase spoken from the past in Season 4 - we've got one from Commander Zhang of the Tiamat as well. It's an interesting kind of legacy, an interesting way to emphasize the questions characters leave behind after death, recalling similar themes to those explored in Ep46 Boléro.

[morrithal]

Hey, I know I've been bugging my followers with Wolf 359 posts for about oh, five years now, but if you really haven't listened to this completed podcast about the crew of a distant space station discovering the truth behind their mission (and shit gets crazy from there), please find some time to get into it! It has fantastic characters, a great mix of comedy and drama, and an awesome soundtrack. I think I'm remarkably restrained in not freaking out about it 24/7, and it might literally be my favorite piece of media... ever? Yeah, I feel confident naming it my favorite piece of media of all time. Here's a link to the first episode:

I recommend at least sticking through to episodes 12-13, when things really pop off and get interesting.

[myexhaustionissoftblue]

When I first listened to episode 27: Knock, Knock of Wolf 359 (before listening to episode 28: Who's There?) I was momentarily CONVINCED it was gonna be about time travel

Hear me out:

In episode 27 the voice of Doug Eiffel says "Hello? Does anyone copy? This is Douglas Eiffel aboard the U.S.S. Hephaestus Station. Please respond. Again: is anybody out there? Please respond. ... Again: is anybody out there? Please respond."

Which is an exact copy of Eiffel's words in episode 1: Succulent Rat-Killing Tar, "Hello? Does anyone copy? This is Douglas Eiffel aboard the U.S.S. Hephaestus Station. Please respond. Again: is anybody out there? Please respond." Obviously we know why that was now but I didn't just then!

Plus, the pause and then extra words in ep 27 could be because music didn't start playing for this times Eiffel!!

Anyway I figured there was a lot of time travel shenanigans already so it made complete sense:

• Episode 11: Am I Alone Now? Minkowski mentions a sorta time loop thing, when a day repeated and only she remembered.

• Episode 12: Deep Breaths. Discovering the music can't be from Earth, since it's music from the 1910s, instead of ~7.8 years ago. Could instead actually be that they were wrong and it is from Earth but because of timey wimey reasons.

• Episode 21: Minkowski Commanding. Lovelace's return could be due to time shenanigans.

Basically I was super excited for the end of season 2 Hephaestus crew to talk to the season 1 episode 1 Hephaestus crew!

I do love the Dear Listeners and on the whole I think I do prefer the way the podcast actually goes, but I just thought it'd be a fun idea to share. (Also I can't be the only one to have thought this??)

[skoople]

here it is: an annotated listening guide to the pilot episode of wolf 359, featuring discussion questions!

[wolf359transcripts]

Welcome to Wolf 359 Transcripts!

List of transcribed episodes

Season 1

Succulent Rat-Killing Tar

Little Revolución

Discomforts, Pains, and Irregularities

Cataracts and Hurricanoes

Cigarette Candy

Super Energy Saver Mode

The Sound and the Fury

Box 953

The Empty Man Cometh

[badpodcastcrossovers]

MAG 1 Angler Fish, 1 - Pilot, Episode 1: Succulent Rat-Killing Tar and 1.01: Juno Steel and the case of the murderous mask. Just all playing at the same time.

[browncoatparadox]

25 Days of Wolfmas

1. Who or what got you listening to Wolf 359?

I had just gotten caught up on ars Paradoxica, and was trying to find something else to listen to. I had poked around at a couple of shows, but there wasn’t anything that had caught my interest. And then I went to the bonus page (because I wanted to see if there were any mini-episodes available) and found the Whisperforge version of “Succulent Rat Killing Tar”. So I listened to it. And then I listened to the original version. And then I kept listening. 

[wolf359comic]

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[hephaestuscrew]

Have you ever thought to yourself "Wow, the Wolf359 characters sure do seem to spend a lot of time asking if people can hear them, I wish someone with far too much time on their hands would document this"? Then today’s your lucky day! Across 61 episodes, I found 59 instances of characters saying “Do you copy?”, “Can you hear me?”, “Are you there?” and other similar phrases.

Please insert your own insightful commentary on what these quotes say about the show's themes of communication and connection. I think there's definitely something interesting about an audio drama placing such emphasis on the idea of being heard.

Below the cut are screenshots of every instance I could find from Seasons 1 and 2 (I’ll add the others in a reblog).

Episode 1: Succulent Rat-Killing Tar

Episode 4: Cataracts and Hurricanoes

Episode 5: Cigarette Candy

Episode 6: Super Energy Saver Mode

Episode 8: Box 953

Episode 9: The Empty Man Cometh

Episode 11: Am I Alone Now?

Episode 12: Deep Breaths 

Episode 13: Gas Me Twice

Episode 14: The Kumbaya Approach

Episode 16: Painfully Ever After

Episode 17: Bach to The Future

Episode 19: Let’s Kill Hilbert

Episode 24: Tactical Brain Damage

Episode 26: Do No Harm

Episode 27: Knock, Knock

Episode 28: Who’s There?

[arisingonmorningsinnocent]

[image: a screenshot of my spotify, which is playing episode 1 of wolf 359, "succulent rat-killing tar"]

:)

me: I have 14 different podcasts saved to my phone that I've been wanting to check out for months. I should try listening to some of them during the 4+ hours I spend with my earbuds in everyday.

Also me: or I could listen to wolf 359 again.

Me: ...or I could listen to wolf 359 again!

[arsparadoxica]

Hey everyone! By now we hope you've had a chance to hear our Christmas present to @personalinsanitymoment from last year, a shot-for-shot gender-swapped remix of Wolf 359 Episode 1: "Succulent Rat-Killing Tar!" They put it up for the fans last night, and we just wanted to let y'all know that it's now up on our site as well. PS: if this is your first introduction to @wolf359radio... THAT SHOW IS SO GOOD! Get on it!!

[wolf359comic]

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[wolf359comic]

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