The Audio File: Spaceships

My policy for serialized shows is that they must have at least one complete season before I commit to a review. Today’s review is a show that has just completed its first season. I am very excited to finally be able to review this one. So, let’s not wait any longer. We’re taking a look at Spaceships. 

Spaceships takes place in a future where humanity has spread to the stars, and is part of a thriving galactic community of sentient races. Humans and aliens have both created countless AI-equipped spaceships to help them out. One day, for seemingly no reason, all sentient organic beings suddenly drop dead. The spaceships, and other mechanical sophonts, must now build a civilization of their own. The series follows UHS freighter William Mackie, science research vessel Maya Hironaga, and Ocanar warship Otto. Together, they will explore the galaxy, encounter strange new spacecraft, and try to discover what led to the death of all intelligent organic beings.

I have been a fan of Spaceships for quite a while now. I discovered them over on the r/audiodrama subreddit back when they only had one episode out. It was around the same time I discovered Residents of Proserpina Park. Incidentally, this was also back when Residents of Proserpina Park only had one episode out. The premise looked interesting, so I decided to give it a listen. I liked what I heard, and I eagerly awaited more episodes. This came in due time, and here we are now.

Despite the rather macabre premise, I can best describe Spaceships as a dramedy. There’s plenty of moments of levity and humor to balance out the action and humor. Series creator Filip Momirovski also includes a fair bit of social commentary and satire about human nature. For example, it is mentioned that humans frequently stereotyped the Ocanar as being violent and warlike. However, humanity itself was prone to getting into quite a few wars with other races. So, it was kind of a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Well, that and the war with the Ocanar was also started over stupid reasons. The Ocanar live underground, and don’t mix well with flash photography. The human delegation, unfortunately, forgot this at an attempted peace talk.

We also see that self-driving cars have finally become a thing. Though, they’re all rather prone to road rage. That episode also included some jabs about how humanity has been taking its sweet time with trying to combat climate change. Wait, so the self-driving cars are now the dominant intelligent lifeforms on Earth. Does this mean that Spaceships is secretly a prequel to Pixar’s Cars movies? Hmm, nah, probably just an amusing coincidence. Especially since none of the sentient vehicles are anthropomorphic.

Filip Momirovski has said that, should Spaceships ever be adapted as an animated series, a lot of the humor would come from the fact that the spaceships all look like normal non-sentient spaceships. He envisions there being points where the camera would do a close up on the spaceships, but they’d just look like, well, non-anthropomorphic spaceships. An animated adaptation is probably not in the cards any time in the near future. However, Spaceships is being adapted as a comic book. It is being released on the Spaceships Patreon page at a time. Also, for those wondering, the spaceships on the series title card are, from left to right and moving in a circle, Otto, Will, and Maya.

So, let’s discuss the characters. Will is a freighter with the personality of a frat boy. He’s impulsive, scatterbrained, immature, and can be a bit of a horndog at times. In fairness, a lot of this can be blamed on Will’s crew. They were all really into trashy reality television, and Will tends to use what he learned from those shows as a guide to life. Still, despite his flaws, Will always tries to do right by his friends. There’s almost nothing he can’t accomplish when he really put his mind to it. Of course, given how easily distracted Will can be, this is easier said than done. Will tends to be the one who provides the comic relief throughout the series. Will is voiced by Bobby Gaglini.

Otto is an Ocanar warship. He’s stern, serious, and is comically bound to the Ocanar code of valor. Otto is very quick to suggest just shooting whatever problems the spaceships come across. Much like Will, this can be blamed on his upbringing. The Ocanar are, basically, Klingons. So, it is only natural that Otto would be so aggressive and warlike. Well, that and, you know, he’s a warship. And to be fair, he’s not always wrong when he advocates for shooting things. Though he wouldn’t be quick to admit it, deep down, Otto does value Will and Maya as friends. Otto is voiced by Bobby Gaglini, and I must say, never would have guessed that Otto and Will shared a voice actor. In fact, Bobby voiced several male characters on Spaceships. 

Rounding out the main trio is Maya. She is a science research vessel. The extinction of humanity hit her the hardest. She’s always been fascinated by humans, and was quite close to her crew. She’s the most level-headed of the main trio, and often has to talk Will and Otto out of their especially harebrained schemes. Maya initially doesn’t care much for Will and his advances, but she warms up to him with time. Maya is also the most determined to find out why organic beings have all dropped dead at once. If nothing else, she can’t let her crews’ deaths have been for nothing. She’s also determined to help spaceships establish a new civilization; hopefully, one that is free from the flaws of the organics. Maya is voiced by Arson Alfaro.

I must take a moment to compliment the music and soundscaping. It is all very professional, and quite high-quality, especially for an indie show. It is easily on par with anything you might find at a major podcast production studio. Major credit to Vlad O, who handles the sound-design.

There’s also an extremely colorful cast of supporting characters. One of my favorites is a a science ship who talks like Carl Sagan. Fittingly enough, his name is UHS Sagan. I also liked the spaceship who collaborates with Will to create a new form of cryptocurrency. I’d comment on how stupid that is, but Will seems like the kind of spaceship who would go for that sort of thing. The annual Mars Rover Race was another really fun episode. I could keep going on, but suffice it to say, you’ll meet several memorable spacecraft throughout season one of Spaceships.

The spaceships all run the spectrum from kind and sympathetic to petty, scheming, and even evil. But overall, the spaceships come across as flawed, often deeply so, but well meaning. In other words, though they are machines, they’re human in all the ways that count. I suppose it is of some comfort to think that, though the curtain has fallen on the human race, a certain spark of the human spirit lives on in the machines we built.

I must also give some serious praise for how the season one finale was handled. But if I’m going to do that, we’re going to have to get into spoilers. So, if you don’t want any of that, turn back now.

Last chance, you sure you want to continue?

If everyone who wants out is gone, let’s get into it.

So, as I previously noted, Maya really liked humans. However, there was one human she was particularly fond of. He was a brilliant scientist, and they grew very close with one another. In fact, you could say they fell in love with each other. But, he wasn’t the only human who caught her eye. 

There was a second human scientist who Maya greatly admired, but not in a romantic way. This scientist, while brilliant, was also a major misanthrope, and grew increasingly cynical over the years. He also went a tad nutty as well. Eventually, he developed a formula intended to destroy all artificial intelligences. Unfortunately, he did that math wrong, and it killed all organic intelligences.

A mathematics formula that can cause human minds to shut down? Might be more plausible than you might think. Some scientists have theorized that it is possible to make a human mind crash like a computer program. Perhaps their might be some pattern that the human brain is incapable of processing, and this could trigger a systems failure of the mind. Neil Stephenson famously utilized this idea in his novel Snow Crash. Thankfully, this remains a hypothetical scenario, and might not even be possible at all. On the other hand, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the human mind. So, you never know.

This revelation occurs in the penultimate episode of season one. It is also in this episode that Maya dies while retrieving this information. That is to say, damaged beyond the point of repair. I kept wondering if this was going to stick. It has been shown that spaceships can have their AIs downloaded into other bodies. But no, Maya stayed dead by the end of the season. I must applaud Filip Momirovski for being willing to stick to his guns. Having Maya stay dead was a choice that could easily have upset people, but I’m glad Filip didn’t take the easy way out. But let’s see what season two holds for us.

Also, here’s a thought, what if organics aren’t gone for good? The International Space Station has something called The Immorality Drive. It is a memory storage device that contains the digitized genetic codes of several famous humans, such as Stephen Hawking, Stephen Colbert, and Lance Armstrong. Obviously, it was created before Lance Armstrong got busted for doping. Anyway, the Immortality Drive is there in hope that, should humanity go extinct, and alien race might be able to resurrect humanity. I’m willing to bet that the future of Spaceships has several such Immortality Drives. Perhaps the spaceships will discover some Immortality Drives, and will debate if it is worth resurrecting humanity and the other races of the galaxy.

But whatever the future of Spaceship holds, I do know one thing for certain. I can’t wait to see what season two will have in store for us.

So, there you have it. Spaceships is a dramedy about sentient spaceships exploring the galaxy in the aftermath of humanity’s sudden demise. It has extremely high production values, great voice acting, and quality writing. You certainly won’t want to miss out on this audio drama.

Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.