Episode 48 - With host Craig Norris, and joined by Taylor Lidstone.
First Broadcast on Edge Radio, Friday 6 October 2023.
In this episode of Media Mothership, we explore why the 1948 radio drama “The Thing on the Fourble Board” is widely regarded as one of the best radio horror stories ever produced. We analyze how the story uses first-person narration, themes of isolation and madness, the unreliable narrator and the impact of voice acting, music and pacing to create a vivid and immersive atmosphere that terrifies and fascinates listeners.
We also discuss two intriguing news stories of how media can shape our perception of reality: Scientists use Age of Empires computer game to simulate ant warfare - ABC News, and Saw X's Editor Had the Cops Called on Him by Worried Neighbors (gizmodo.com).
Don’t miss this thrilling and insightful episode of Media Mothership!
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Inspire by The Thing on the Fourble Board. Made by Bing Image Creator.
Transcript
This transcript was generated by audio-to-text AI and may not be 100% accurate. If you have questions about any of the information found here, please contact us.
Craig Norris
Hi and welcome to media mothership here on Edge Radio, 99.3 FM and I'll be your host today, Doctor Craig to discuss some of the latest media happenings, unusual events and start up the horror horror horror fall. Horror spooky material for this. I guess it's, let's call it a Halloween month. So on media mothership, we explore how media popular culture can shape our understanding of the world around us. We of course tried to spread that message as large as we can, so we're streaming on edgeradio.org dot AU YouTube as well as Twitch. And you can find us by just searching media mothership if you'd like to contact us, send us a a thought question suggestion. You can SMS us on the. The SMS line here directly in studio on 04811707 or send a message on the chat on YouTube or Twitch chat to communicate. First, let's set the scene to consider some news. But before we do that, let's explore a little bit of messaging.
Speaker 5
Troubled by the multiple narratives ever question the possibility of a stable meaning, one had deconstructed all edge. Radio doesn't just offer you media, we offer you media mothership. Media mothership designed to expose you to the simulacra of today for one hour of playful irony. What are you waiting for? Hop on the media mothership.
Craig Norris
So with that exciting setup, I'm going to play an audio from a video game to get us in the headspace for a bit of. Video game meets Science News. So that wonderful sound is from the popular video game series Age of Empires, as Knights are battling against each other in Mortal Kombat. During that RTTS video game age of empires. What's interesting here is. ABC News recently did a little story about scientists using the age of Empires video game to simulate Ant warfare. Yes, it has a real life scientific application. Around the idea of how best. Survive invasive Ant species introduced Ant species. How the native Ant could possibly get a little bit of a leg up through science to help them defeat. Many of these introduced species, so this is a project. That's including Australia's Cyro and the University of WA, so we've got Pyro and the University of WA teaming up to use the video game here, the article says. Age of empires and mainly they've used it as part of a bigger project, of course, but with the video game what they're looking. For is a way to. Ant warfare. It's something they were looking for. The interview with the the researcher Samuel Limbury talks about how they were looking for a video game that they could run various simulations to get an idea of battle practises. So the researcher Samuel Library. Is acquitted, saying ants, ants, one of the few groups of animal species in which warfare resembles human warfare in terms of scale and mortality. So I guess extrapolating from that idea that Ant warfare. Is similar to human warfare in terms of scale and mortality, I guess if we're thinking of. You know, World War One, World War 2, massed combat. You know, maybe there is a similarity, very interesting deep dive there. So they used this video game and within the game, of course, for those who haven't played it, you can build a small empire. Large empire and your. Part of that game is you can battle other empires, or you do a battle. Other empires. You're building your armies up, mainly mediaeval kind of level armies, swords, Shields and arrows and whatnot, and they're fighting against each other. So what the researchers did was they started to design. Different armies and battlegrounds within this game of different sizes, and then as the Godzilla film. They let them fight, and then they mapped out their results and what they were looking for was trying to replicate the larger Australian ants and they were forming small groups of strong soldiers and then they opposed them to what was typically some of the introduced Ant species. Which are smaller but larger in in mass, so they created these large groups of weak soldiers. So they had a huge group of weak soldiers battling a small group of very, very strong soldiers, and they were playing out various permutations to see. Who wins and the different conditions? How many weak soldiers do you need mass to overthrow a small number of very, very strong soldiers and so forth. And the library the research is goes on to say what you want to do is set up exactly the same scenario over and over again. Run it in very repetitive fashion and not interfere too much. So again. The appeal of using a video game was that idea that they could just rerun the same scenario over and over again very repetitively. To to see. What variation started to emerge and map those out? So again, what's interesting here that they're looking at, they're trying to model large native ants. So here they were looking at a type of Ant called the meat Ant MEAT Ant. Battling against what they extrapolated to this typical invasive species like like the small non native Argentinian. And then they would see how their, you know, small number of very strong ants, EG that is the Australian meat ants. Found themselves battling against a huge amount of very, very weak ants replicating the Argentina ants and researchers. Then, you know conducted also after this video game research. They then looked at experiments. They compared real ants. And the laboratory experiments to see what the actual ants did. And how their behaviour was was certainly more unpredictable than that. But they explained, you know, it allows you by using this game, the researcher said it allows you to identify points of commonality and difference between the simple and more complex systems. So again, while the game wasn't a one to one match with the actual real. Laboratory experiments they did with real ants. Nevertheless, they were able to look at commonalities and differences between these simple and more complex systems. What they found was, which was quite interesting, was that small armies of strong soldiers. I did do better in complex terrain based battlefields. While the large armies of weaker soldiers did better in simple, open battlefields, so that is, you know, to to explain what these terms mean. You know, the article goes on to say, for an Ant, a simple battlefield would be a footpath or an urban park. You know, something reasonably. But not too much rubbish or decorous bushes and so forth. That would be a simple battlefield, and that suits weak soldiers, or in the real world, they introduced smaller Ant species like Argentina. Plants, however complex battlefields, which in the real world setting you should say would be similar to a bushland strip that's got a lot of undergrowth, small bushes and some woody debris. Would suit your larger Australian. And and a small army of these stronger ants do better in what's called complex battlefields. That is, that native ants do better in bushland, strips with undergrowth or small bushes or woody debris. Then need events do in footpaths and more maintained grassland areas, which is a problem given how much urban encouragement there is in many Australian locations. So Doctor Limbury said that this work would help develop new approaches to habitat. Management, like adding undergrowth or more environmental complexity back into urbanised environments in an attempt to tip the competitive balance back in favour of native native ants. So it's interesting, the article goes on to say that there's across Australia, there's over 50 different species of invasive ants that have established themselves. These include electric ants, fire ants, and yellow crazy ants, and that there's a huge, huge effort being made to try and combat these. But the article. Says that. These introduced Ant species are, to quote the Invasive Species Council, principal policy analyst Carol Booth. That these ants are the worst invasive species problems facing Australia. So hundreds of $1,000,000 have been spent trying to eradicate these pests. So again using a video game matched with real life laboratory tests with real life and suggests, yeah, suggest it's really interesting. In terms of trying to help. Bring back some balance to the native ants who are not doing well in your typical urban locations because of the. Playing into the hands of your smaller mast invasive Ant species. So we are fascinating. Fascinating. So, yeah, let's, let's, let's see how that goes. Again. Maybe we can play other video games to addressing introduced animal species. What video games do you think could be applied? What video games do you think the researchers should use? Is there something that could do a better job than age of empires? To simulate Ant warfare, I wonder feel free to post comments or SMS on 0488811707. There's. Yeah, there's a lot of really good real time strategy games that could could replicate it. I mean, the age of empire, at least the image they had here was from quite an old version. So it'd be interesting to see if new versions could help. All right, next little quick bit of news. Is is an interesting one. It's very in tune with the theme of of horror. And the impact of media to create reality. How a fictional media text can be misunderstood as as real when it's. Not so this. Article is from Gizmondo. The headline saw X, so that's the movie saw X was so gnarly. Its editor had the cops called on him. And this is an article talking about how the editor for Sorex was working to edit the film in his domestic abode in his in his house. And of course, for those people that don't know, soy is a a notorious grizzly kind of torture. On horror movie that involves quite elaborate, horrific scenes of torture often or puzzle torture. So. What had happened was the director, sorry, the editor. So it was during an interview with Sorex director Kevin. Great hurt. And he revealed that the first assistant editor, Steve form, had had the cops called on him because Fawn was working on the sound design. For a particularly gory scene featuring the eye vacuum trap. And he had the volume up loud enough that his neighbours called the police to see what was up. So the director goes on to explain that, you know, the store bell gets rung and it's the police saying that the neighbours had called to say that there's someone being tortured to death in this house. So the guy that ported I had to explain that. No, no, no. Actually, I'm just working on a movie and you can come in and see it if you want. The police, however, declined that offer to see a sequence with the latest. Saw movie and laughed it. Off so and well, let's have. A look I mean. This this sequence is available on YouTube. And what better way to consider the impact of these sounds than they are if we were to listen to this now, would you, if it was coming from your neighbours abode, get worried and possibly call the police. So this is from. Sorex official clip. I vacuum trap. I'm not gonna play anything too grizzly. It's him. Basically the setting is he's struggling. He's he's kind of locked into his apparatus and he's struggling and we'll just set it up with the villain of the piece. Explaining what's about to happen so we won't play the gory sounds, but nevertheless it will set the scene I think.
Speaker 3
I'd like to play a game. Perhaps one that addresses those sticky fingers of yours. I've had my eyes on you and I do not like what I see your job as a custodian is a noble 1, sanitising and sterilising the hospital, helping patients avoid sickness. But there is a sickness inside you that needs to be exercised. You have the ability to not only save your soul today, but your sight.
Speaker 4
This is so.
Speaker 3
All you have to do is click the dial. Across the five. Positions and you will live to see another day. You have 60 seconds. Help please.
Taylor Lidstone
And then. Don't let your stomach ruin your day.
Speaker 4
Listen to some. Refreshing media mothership and feel the difference. There he goes into that radio station he's about to host the show. Showtime media mothership.
Speaker 6
Gregg and Lord Taylor. To most people, a radio show is a collection of sounds and words. But there's one programme I know of where the hosts explore the power and influence of media on our perception of reality. Every week they chat with creators, critics and fans of movies, TV shows. Video games and more in the first episode, for instance, you'll find the K Pop and cultural intermediaries interview, and in another audio adventure, you can inspect the Harry Potter or Sherlock Holmes radio dramas that are a unique creation of artificial intelligence. Don't miss these chat bot generated radio dramas. Gone wrong.
Speaker 7
The show media mothership, a fast moving media analysis who tips the scales at 239 pounds, brought to you by the Tasmanian youth broadcasters, incorporated, makers of Edge Radio and other fine media empires.
Speaker 4
When you overeat or eat too fast, you're looking for trouble with your digestion. That's no time to let your stomach ruin your day. Instead, try a better. Way a gentle way. Listen to refreshing media mothership. Yes, when you're bothered by heartburn, nervous indigestion or other common digestive disturbances, media mothership promptly helps to calm and quietly upset. It settles and sweetens it. You feel the difference? Next time you eat too much or too fast, you can do something for that uneasy, uncomfortable feeling. Try refreshing medium mothership. That's right when your stomach's upset, don't add to the upset. Take soothing media mothership and feel. And again, and now from Hobart TAS Media Mothership hosted by Doctor Craig and joined by Lord Taylor.
Craig Norris
Yeah. Well, we actually are now.
Taylor Lidstone
Yeah, hello.
Craig Norris
Complete. So look Taylor. Welcome complete.
Taylor Lidstone
We are.
Craig Norris
So now we're moving into case study discussion. OK, to recap, did a great little news analysis of two pieces of work. One was the Syro and the University of. WA that have been playing the age of Empires computer game to simulate Ant warfare so that yeah, they can hopefully help native ants battle the invasive species ants you ever played Asian empires.
Taylor Lidstone
All right. Yeah, I have, yeah.
Craig Norris
Yes, I'm be curious to know. If if the game version we play, you can't really tell by the image, but I wasn't sure whether or not they're playing the leader seeing plays because I know they've released the next edit.
Taylor Lidstone
It looks like a pretty.
Craig Norris
Old one. Yeah, well, that could just be what the. Ohh. This is the the thing supplied by cyro. So yeah. Anyway, we might look at that in the future as well as then the saw movies.
Taylor Lidstone
What did you call it?
Craig Norris
Siro cyro, CSIRO.
Taylor Lidstone
CSIRO. I've never been called silo.
Craig Norris
Siri, you know, just really, I don't think that's unusual. I'm pretty sure I've. Heard other people say Siri.
Taylor Lidstone
OK, in your weird circles, OK.
Craig Norris
That's right. In my kind of, there's probably some conspiracy. I don't know where. No, I'm part of.
Taylor Lidstone
And what else?
Craig Norris
Alright then, there was a soul movie. The editor for the latest Soul movie got busted. I played the clip that he got busted for editing because the neighbours called the cops on him because the neighbours thought someone was getting tortured in his house.
Taylor Lidstone
Glad I wasn't here for that. Because he was editing it.
Craig Norris
Because he was. Editing a really violent torture scene, which weirdly, is on the Internet already, that that scene.
Taylor Lidstone
Yeah, and and very weird that he was playing it so loudly so that the neighbours could hear.
Craig Norris
Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Rather than using headphones.
Taylor Lidstone
Yes, or even studio speakers just not at full volume.
Craig Norris
Well, you know, you gotta you gotta to get sound, right? Maybe you gotta cause headphones are different than listening through speakers. That's true. So maybe he has, like, a mini theatre, cinema theatre, just to get the. Anyway, he knows he should interview him.
Taylor Lidstone
For the show. Yeah, sure.
Craig Norris
However, now Keith study, so this case study was inspired by you Taylor confessing or admitting or. Like the revolting that next month is the writing competition.
Taylor Lidstone
Yeah, Nanowrimo national novel writing month. Write a novel in November, and if you do 100 and 1447 words per day, you will have a 20,000 on 20,000 word novel by the.
Craig Norris
End of it. So like, what's that 1500 words.
Taylor Lidstone
Yeah, I'm not that. Yeah.
Craig Norris
If you ground it up a bit this.
Taylor Lidstone
Is a lot. Can't remember.
Craig Norris
OK, well so this short time it's only October the 6th, so the next four weeks what we're gonna do is map out some genres of writing which might be useful writing guides to use to do this accomplish this. I might do it. I'm not. I I could link it to the fundraiser like I've done every week. You know, if you'd like to see us attempt to write or me attempt to write a novel, Taylor's already down for his. Novel. Yeah, yeah. I pitched that we should do. I should do horror, I said we. But he's alright. Well, your turn might change.
Taylor Lidstone
Like horror.
Craig Norris
For the next 4 weeks. So basically I scoured the Internet for what people consider to be the best. Audio Horror Story yeah, from the classic era of radio dramas, right? So not a stinking thing or anything.
Taylor Lidstone
So yeah, yeah, something out of.
Craig Norris
The classic 30-40, the 1930s nineteen forties, 1950s. Yeah, something I can play on air or at least little snippets of. So I've heard this one before and it comes in often unanimously as the scariest.
Taylor Lidstone
Public domain.
Craig Norris
Radio drama piece from the 1940s. It's called the thing on the. Fourble board? Yeah. Football board and I'll just jump into it and you can, we can discuss what you thought about it cuz.
Taylor Lidstone
OK. You've listened to it. The thing that I like about the the show actually is that they spend a great deal of it. Explaining what the hell a voivod is.
Craig Norris
They do, they do. So some of the comments, I'll just read some of the comments on the YouTube, there's a couple of YouTube versions of it floating around and all of them have good audio. So someone commented, commenter said, still one of my all time faves and I literally learned how old oil rigs work from this story, which is as you're saying, it goes into a lot of depth. And how oil rigs work, which is? Fascinating. Another comment says I was going doing sort of all right until that ****** sound started, and then tears started streaming down my face completely on reflex, that noise awakened some seriously primal fear deep inside me.
Taylor Lidstone
One of the things that. Was it the muting?
Craig Norris
The noise. Yeah. Yeah. Did you call? What the noise? What? What?
Taylor Lidstone
Noise. Was it the mewing?
Craig Norris
Hmm. So we'll play some clips, yeah.
Taylor Lidstone
Really. Really. Yeah, that's scary. Yes, I mean.
Craig Norris
Well, I think part of it is the setting. I mean, most of the commenters say and most of the discussion about this example says, look you, it's really, it really works if you're watching it under ideal circumstances, which is at night, no, not during the day. So at night.
Taylor Lidstone
So driving my car isn't.
Craig Norris
By yourself in a dark house, and then you listen to it and. That's what most people tell the story. Of freaking them out. So now the commenter says I am getting chills. Oh God, I might have nightmares tonight and this never happens to me. All caps I'm.
Taylor Lidstone
Yeah, I guess if you, if you were like, alone listening to this on your computer with no one else in the house, and yeah, that would be a scary sound.
Craig Norris
Yeah. So it goes on saying I'm never affected by things I want to listen to and it's even still light outside. Ohh God, why? So for this one person even. Not necessarily ideal circumstances. Wimp. Yeah. This is scary in part because of the grounding in discussion of real science and geology and engineering techniques which make it seem real when The thing is.
Taylor Lidstone
Introduced. That's such a weird point.
Craig Norris
Well, I think it's world building, right? It does do. A lot of well building.
Taylor Lidstone
So does Avengers and that's not.
Craig Norris
Scary. Well, it's worth building for different purposes. So I say in this case, the world building that is the incredible amount of detail on the geology and engineering. Of all worlds. Is maybe pacing right. It's also about slowing down that pace. So then when you do, yeah, when you do get to a moment of describing horror, it speeds up a bit and you hear his voice change and also it kind of gives that unreliable narrator by by the end that you really.
Taylor Lidstone
Yeah, it is quite slow and that works.
Craig Norris
Twist happens when you realise this person that we're listening to tell the story to isn't who I thought it was, yeah, anyway. And a final quote I wanted to mention from a person on YouTube was after I listened to this I. Dismissed it as not at all being scary. A few hours later, I listen to it. Today. It could be like one of those slow release pills, right? You're saying you're fine now? But then 11:00 tonight.
Taylor Lidstone
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Craig Norris
It will then release since this.
Taylor Lidstone
It just sounded like a man doing it.
Craig Norris
Oh, OK, I'll play. Some. So basically just send it. Up so this. Is the thing on the fourble board and it's a under half hour horror.
Taylor Lidstone
Listen to the whole.
Craig Norris
Thing now when I have time I got some.
Taylor Lidstone
Key OK. Yeah, key elements.
Craig Norris
Yeah. So it was broadcast on the critically acclaimed neutral network series. Quite pleased, right? So a lot of these radio drama pieces are part of radio anthology series. So this is from the quite pleased series.
Taylor Lidstone
So those are all different writers and directors every time.
Craig Norris
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I forget how many years. Quite. Please ran, but it ran for a few years. And each week, although this one was written by the. Showrunner of the white please system. So some of them had returned. Yeah. Anyway, it was broadcast on August 9th, 1948, and it was only broadcast once, right? And then it had a longer life on LP. So a lot of people listened to it later on LP because that.
Taylor Lidstone
OK. Yeah.
Craig Norris
And it's interesting because most of the quality up until recently has been really bad when people are trying to, you know, listen to it again, because the records have been. But the versions on YouTube have all been digitally remastered, or at least remastered by fans.
Taylor Lidstone
I thought records were supposed to give the. Best sound take.
Craig Norris
Most well, they say. That most of the records were in such bad state for this.
Taylor Lidstone
Ohh yeah so so that works. So records are a great sound, aren't they? Take that hip sling.
Craig Norris
If you listen to them a lot and you. Treat them badly so it is considered one of the scariest and most influential radio horror stories ever produced. Not sure. It's inspired many writers and film makers in the genre. I'm going to have to look that one up. I'm not sure. Anyway. It's written by Willis Cooper, who's also the creator of this radio series. Quite pleased. And and yeah, I I want to explore a bit about the genre many people have placed in them, which is this cosmic horror genre. That lovecraft? Yeah. So what? I want to dive into is how many?
Taylor Lidstone
Ohh yes.
Craig Norris
People see this. Episode as a power of audio storytelling. It uses music, voice acting and narration to tell a terrifying and immersive experience for the listener without relying on visual elements. Kind of like reading a book.
Taylor Lidstone
That's an audio book, isn't it? Yeah. This is an audio drama, though.
Craig Norris
Yeah, well, you gotta let your imagination do more work. So the thing on the floor for, for the thing on the fourble board has a couple of things. What I wanna start with first is how it uses first person narration, right. So basically the story is told by the character Porky.
Taylor Lidstone
Sitting on the floor.
Craig Norris
The first person.
Taylor Lidstone
OK.
Craig Norris
Yeah, a weird name. I think it's. Because he cooks. Pork, at least in the sense he's always cooking pork and God, Dan and I, I did get the taste of pork.
Taylor Lidstone
That's true, he does, yes.
Craig Norris
In my mouth, and I was listening to it. So he's an oil rig worker, referred to as a roughneck, and he tells of encountering this mysterious creature. But he does it, and it's really conversational and casual tone. So there's a wonderful kind of sense of intimacy that's created. And through that, many people say realism. Which is then contrasting this idea of the mundane explanation he's given about being an oil worker with the horrific kind of other worldly experience towards the end. So what I'll do is I just wanna play the start of it, which sets up this first person delivery and draws you into his story.
Speaker 8
Quiet please.
Craig Norris
I answered for a bit.
Speaker 8
Quiet please. Quiet, please. For tonight is called the thing on the fourble board.
Craig Norris
It's good organ planning, yeah.
Speaker 8
Me, I'm a roughneck. Well, I was a roughneck. I mean, 20 years ago. A little too old. Too slow. Now. Besides, I got a dollar. Now I don't have to be a roughneck. You see, Mary got a nice home. Had to meet my wife. Hey, Mike.
Taylor Lidstone
Good bass to his voice, yes.
Speaker 8
Her name is Maxine, but she likes to be called Mike. She's busy out in the kitchen someplace. Besides, she doesn't hear very well. Shame too. She's so pretty and everything. Well, you'll meet her. I was saying I was a roughneck. Well, no, that doesn't mean exactly what you think it means. You're roughneck is an oil field worker, specifically a guy in a drilling crew.
Craig Norris
Pulls it down a bit. So what's really interesting there is. You know he. Is talking with someone like he's saying you sit down. I'll get my wife Max. Max comes over here. You know I want. You to be. My guest and a little bit of Maxine likes being called Mike. We, and that's foreshadowing, right? I mean, listening to it, it's one that I think is good listening to it. Again, what's also interesting is one of the comments was talking about this guy who loved this radio drama.
Taylor Lidstone
Yeah, yeah.
Craig Norris
And said he. Wanted to teach it to an English class and what type of American accent he's speaking in and this big discussion blew up. On the. Discussion board talking about how it's actually not an American colloquial voice he's using. It's very much received pronunciation. He's doing the 1940s radio voice. Yeah, there. I mean, there is a bit of a Texas draw, but it's very much.
Taylor Lidstone
Right, yeah.
Craig Norris
Kind of tap down for a radio voice. Yeah. So he? Because I don't think a roughneck sounds like that. And that's what some commentators were saying as well. So again. But we have this, this nice first person delivery throughout. I mean it's it's really. I mean there's only, I mean his voice is what. To sense the whole story, we have two or three other characters. Yeah, but barely. Yeah. All right. So the other thing that I want to go into a little bit now is how it explores these themes of isolation, madness and the loss of identity. As Porky's describing working. I know it's not a name that. You would think. Is or character working in this remote and hostile environment and setting up this kind of encounter with this entity that then kind? Of drives them.
Speaker 6
A little crazy.
Craig Norris
So there's there's a kind of a mystery which is set up. So I want to kind of jump in just to the mystery. Beat ring. Of the of the piece. The ring. Oh, yeah, the ring. But first first. Before that, it starts a little earlier. So what happens is, yeah. So they've had to. He's just with four nearly 5 minutes in and he's just been explaining how in the oil rig they hit water quite a bit down and because of that they had to stop, put concrete in and let that dry. So then they can drill through it and not have a flood occur. And so this is the scene they're at now. So they've they've done that. The geologist is coming in right to just check what's occurred because they hadn't anticipated hitting water that part down. So here we have the geologist arriving and. Sets up. The first idea of this kind of mystery that's being set up. In the store.
Speaker 8
Banquet. And where's that core? That's what I came up here to look at. Yeah, back there on the bench. Look. At it after supper.
Speaker 9
Didn't you say you were all alone here? I thought I heard somebody talking.
Speaker 8
I don't see anybody keep an eye on that pork chop you. Won't have any supper. Yeah, I'm watching it. Yeah. Let me put the coffee on. Like so.
Speaker 9
When do you finish the mending?
Speaker 8
This morning, last tower only made about 10 feet of holes, so Ted shut down before we get flooded out. Of house and home.
Speaker 9
Funny about that water. How ought to be any at that level according to my figuring?
Speaker 8
Well, there is.
Speaker 9
Is it salt?
Speaker 8
Sure. Right out of the bottom of the. Ocean. That's funny.
Speaker 9
Well, maybe I'll be able to tell. Something from the core.
Craig Norris
So they said have this idea of the geologists, the scientist character that you always have these stories is just puzzled, right? There shouldn't be water this far down. What's going on? We should just be hitting shale. You know, this isn't making sense. So then they I'll skip forward a little bit to the the next mystery, which sets up at this point, they don't know there's anything there. Right. They just think this is unusual. This is like. They've they've sunk this thing down into the depths. Of the earth. And they've hit something that no, they've not encountered with any of the other orgs that they've done. And of course the anything to remember here is that it's very isolated location, right. It's not in the middle of the city.
Speaker 9
OK. I wish I was screeching that you.
Speaker 8
What's the matter?
Speaker 9
Hey, wait a minute, Porky.
Speaker 8
But why did listen? What's eating you?
Speaker 9
You you know how to swarner somebody up there in.
Speaker 8
That portable board? Yeah, you're crazy. There's nobody. Up there, you're gonna get.
Speaker 9
Those stands a drill fight.
Speaker 8
Now they just rack crooked one of them slip. Come on back and eat your pork chop.
Speaker 9
Yeah, I guess so, only I.
Speaker 8
What? Just so jittery about Billy. Come on, eat your sandwich. Here. Yeah, well.
Speaker 9
Thanks porky. I don't know. I I'm just. Naturally, that way I guess. I'm always scared of the dark and. Dark gonna I? I hate to be a baby, but I.
Craig Norris
So it's interesting, they're setting up their fears right? Again, foreshadowing he's scared of the. And yeah, which is again foreshadowing right. It's a nice piece in terms of when you first listen to it, you're not really seeing how the foreshadowing is gonna pay off, but let's get forward it. So this is where things start getting a little.
Taylor Lidstone
Porky, Porky is scared of spiders. Should we sort of like explain what a foible board is first?
Craig Norris
Well, are we? Are we? Yeah, because we're. This is the football scene now.
Taylor Lidstone
OK, so they're explaining.
Craig Norris
Yeah, maybe I may have skipped. Anyway, I'll explain in case. They don't cause see the formal.
Taylor Lidstone
OK. Yeah.
Craig Norris
World is the middle section on the oil rig where people can stand and inspect the drill shaft. And so yeah, so it's actually on the scaffolding of the kind of prism that they already exists as and the formal board is the wood, they're standard or is that structure. And it's where they encounter the odd thing.
Speaker 8
Billy turned his light off. I come on inside. And just as I come up the steps, he let out a yell. What's the matter? What's the matter, Billy?
Speaker 9
Hey, come here. Look here.
Speaker 8
Well, what's it look, 40? Where did you find?
Speaker 9
That. Now listen, Porky, I give. You my word that was embedded in the core.
Speaker 8
Why it couldn't be?
Speaker 9
I tell you it was look. Where I dug it out. You know what? That rock there comes from a mile underground, and it's been a mile underground for a million years. And look at this.
Speaker 8
And I did look. And what he was holding was a gold ring. And it was all carved and filigreed, just like jewellery. And there wasn't any kidding about it. It was real.
Craig Norris
So they set up the ring. That's like millennia ago, that somehow they. Brought up and that also as they clean up well, they see next to this this finger that then they clean up and as they take the mud away from it it vanishes that is it's invisible. It's kind of a translucent object. This then sets up and I'll just skip to now is. Since the six minutes in so at the moment they've just been setting it up right there, they're coming across all these weird things that don't make sense and now they climb up to the full board. Because they've, you know, they've, they've got that sample, they're head up to the formal board to have a look at the other samples and see what else is. Is is there, that they've they've dug up.
Speaker 8
And that was 20. Years ago.
Taylor Lidstone
20 years ago.
Speaker 8
Well, that was enough. Two accidents in a row, the whole crew quit. They wasn't going to wait for 1/3. And it was Ted's money that was paying off. And it wasn't anymore. And. As far as I know, the abandoned Derek is still there.
Taylor Lidstone
I think you missed an. Important. Yeah, sorry.
Speaker 8
And that was 20 years ago.
Craig Norris
All right. Well, yeah. So what happened was the geologist died, right? Something's broke. His neck was broken. We don't know why or how. It's a great scene. I won't spoil it for you, but do listen to that scene, OK? So.
Taylor Lidstone
Yes, his neck.
Craig Norris
Then there was a second act. There were two accidents.
Taylor Lidstone
Well, they, they, they, they, they, they fell asleep, got drunk, fell asleep when you.
Craig Norris
They got drunk.
Taylor Lidstone
Luke, his friend was the geologist was dead.
Craig Norris
Yes, and he dreams of. Any dreams? It's. It's a wonderfully creepy scene. But what I want to get to now is that that voice, right? So the commenter said. That you know. He was he was coping with this story until that sound happened. And yeah, many people say it's this voice acting and the sound. And interestingly, the voice.
Taylor Lidstone
The boys.
Craig Norris
We're gonna hear is. Played by. Tessa Roy, who also did the voice for the radio drama series on Casper the. Ghost all right. She played a lot of children's. Things so 1654. So what he does is that was 20 years ago. He goes back to.
Taylor Lidstone
It 20 years. Later, 20 years.
Craig Norris
Later. Yeah. And then then he encounters the the thing.
Taylor Lidstone
Then he goes up to. The foil board.
Speaker 8
That travelling block was right in front of my face when it broke loose. It was hanging by steel cable three quarter inch steel cable. And I saw that cable break right before my eye.
Craig Norris
Sorry, what's he describing now? Is the death of the foreman, the owner of the oil rig, who there was a police investigation and the they he wasn't charged with any crime and they decided to go ahead and. Oil to find the oil there. But then there was another accident which killed the owner and the very suspicious circumstances. So he's describing.
Speaker 8
Eyes look just like a piece of string when you snap it between your fingers. You know what? There was something up there on the formal board with me. And so a couple of days later, I came back. I I don't know if there's anything in the world as desolate as. Dismal as Deadlocking is an abandoned oil well rig. There it stands like a skeleton off on a deserted side road and the Barry Yellow Hills surrounding it. And. It's the deadest thing you ever saw. I sat in my car for a long time, looking at it. Everything was just the way we left it. I looked into the floor, the smashed travelling block was there alongside the Rotary table. There was a little matter as steam. From the boiler. That was all. Then I heard a tinkle of something as it hit the ground alongside me. I looked around, there wasn't a Solent sight. But at my feet. Was the gold ring that Billy Grunwald and I had found in the core of rock that came from a mile underground and from a million years ago in time. And I heard a little sound. The sound of a kid crying. And it wasn't any kid up there. And I heard it again and it came from above my head and and I. I took out my revolver and I loaded it carefully. I started up the ladder to the fourble board. No, there wasn't anything up there. Nothing I could see. There was.
Speaker 3
A voice call.
Speaker 8
The voice of a little kid. And then there was a movement behind the rack of drill pipes, and I saw the pipe. Move and, I yelled. Come out of there, whoever you are. Come out or I'll start shooting. And the stand of pipes shivered, and I thought, what can it be? They can handle that heavy pipe like. Like Jack straws. And there was a crash. The whole stand up pipe fell over and I just got out of the way in time. And I was alone. I'm a fable board. With the thing. But I couldn't see it. I felt the platform tremble under my feet again as something moved toward me. I fired two or three shots. And nothing happened. I started backwards. I knew it was following me because I could hear it meowing like a cat. My feet tripped over something I saw was a big can of red lead that somebody had left up there. Without thinking, I've picked it up and I threw it at. The sound and it's splash. And there it was. And I wish I. I wish. The face of her little girl frightened. Flying with hunger and terror hands like a human being and a finger. Missing from the left hand. And the body. And I'll tell you about that. I told you how I'm scared of spiders. But I knew where it came from. It had come from the bowels of the Earth. Come riding up on the drill pipe as we yanked it out of the well. Come to an alien world and was lost. And stood there dripping with red paint, blood red from head to foot, like some horrible dream.
Craig Norris
So it's the wonderful reveal. So there we have the monster reveal. That's not the real twist. No twist is is about to happen, so I'll just skip. So what we've had is, you know, so that's the sound. Anyway, that the commentator was really freaked out by that kind of. Meowing and you know, and it reminds me a little bit about that Japanese movie Juon that has the ghost children that just make that kind of yawning sound. It's it's. I think it's creepy. Anyway, skipping forward a bit. So now we finally get to real time again. So as we know, it's set up. Up at the start of it with. Him talking to someone in the room. Yeah. And you were thinking it's a friend or something. He's just describing in the past tense. What had happened to someone? But he is the kind of unreliable narrative twist where you realised that there's a different. Relationship between these two people.
Speaker 8
20 years ago. I discovered many things about it, what it used for food, that it was deaf. That it was invisible and couldn't see people when it was invisible. That if you sprayed it with mud or paint or grease paint makeup, then it could see people. And believe me, I didn't want to see its body. I can see. That in my nightmares. But it's face. I can't help wanting to see that pathetic little girl face. I'm afraid maybe I've fallen. But it's very beautiful and when it's well made up, it's. But making it up rubbing grease paint on a stone face that looks at you and smiles. And it makes sounds like a lost kitten yet. I can disguise the body and long dresses. She can't hear very well. And when she's hungry, I have to stay out of her way. I found out what she likes to eat, remember? No, no. Sit still. Sit still, do. So Stella, I'll have to shoot.
Craig Norris
You. So yes, this sudden shift in tone and we realise all along that in fact this poor chap that's hearing the story is.
Taylor Lidstone
The pray.
Craig Norris
The pray. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I like the suggestions that are there. It doesn't come out and explicitly spell everything out. You know that she's got a spider body that he's married. Her that he's gone completely crazy, obviously, and developed this relationship with the this this thing and then also yeah. Provides her with food, right. Brings these people back and somehow. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. What did you think? We've got a minute.
Taylor Lidstone
Yeah. All right.
Craig Norris
The most terrifying.
Taylor Lidstone
I mean, not the most terrifying thing I've.
Craig Norris
It's it's an interesting concept. Yeah, yeah.
Taylor Lidstone
It's good and it's definitely really good for the time as.
Craig Norris
Well, yeah, yeah. Look, I do think there are when you go back and listen to stuff in the 40s, some of those dramas, you really have to. Gave a little historical asterisks to and explain. OK, well, we're gonna have. It some slack. Because it was conforming to various audience expectations and. Requirements for production.
Taylor Lidstone
My current favourite one is called Shitsu shirts Shih Tzu.
Craig Norris
Shirt, Sir. Is this a podcast or radio drama from?
Taylor Lidstone
No, it's a radio drama.
Craig Norris
Ohh from the.
Taylor Lidstone
40s no. From modern day, from the Doctor Who universe Doctor Who audio adventures.
Craig Norris
Oh, OK.
Speaker 5
Ohh wow.
Taylor Lidstone
It's really good. The the Doctor and his companion go to this place and they can't see and they can't see anything, and there's this really high pitched sound that plays during it and it's just it just it makes you close your eyes up and it's like it's really, really good sound design. Yeah. And they spend the, they spend the whole like 2 hours of the episode not being able to see just going around. Which is so.
Craig Norris
Clever for an audio drama, because everything then has to get. Exactly. I I'd love to circle back to that and discuss it in next week's episode and have it right for. Yeah. Yeah. So that was the thing on the.
Taylor Lidstone
Before, before the board.
Craig Norris
Do listen to it. It is worth listening to.
Taylor Lidstone
Yeah, it's it's definitely worth listening to in in its entirety rather than just in this different format, yeah.
Craig Norris
Little snippets. But again, it's interesting to see how they're executing some really interesting tropes around storytelling. In 1948, so thanks for listening to media mothership for another week. If you've enjoyed the show, please. If you go to YouTube or Facebook, you can subscribe. Leave us a review if you're listening via podcast. If you have any questions or topic suggestions right in to us on Facebook, discord or Instagram, or even YouTube or.
Taylor Lidstone
Twitch letter.
Craig Norris
Or or mail somehow. I haven't got my.
Taylor Lidstone
Yeah, send a mail to Ed Richard. Yeah.
Craig Norris
Address up there. And radio contact details are available on the YouTube site or Facebook or on Edge Radio. Keep listening to Edge Radio coming up next is Kpop Unlimited with the disc jockeys any.
Taylor Lidstone
Music. No music today.
Speaker 4
Great. It's, it's.
Craig Norris
Gonna be a spoken word. K pop. So another 50 minutes of of us.
Taylor Lidstone
Talking. Yeah, which?
Craig Norris
Is great. We could should do it in Korean though.
Taylor Lidstone
We definitely should.
Craig Norris
All right, so keep listening. To Edge Radio coming up on the next hour is K Pop Unlimited with disc jockey TJ and disc jockey CJ doesn't quietly. That's nicely.
Taylor Lidstone
No, no.
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