Orion: Pop Culture Superstar

>> Jordan: Hi, I'm Jordan. >> Kit: And I'm Kit. >> Jordan: Welcome to Starry Time, where stars plus lines >> Kit: equal stories. >> Jordan: In this week's episode, we'll be getting silly and exploring the pop culture of our constellation this month, Orion. >> Kit: In this episode, we share our favorite and least favorite occurrences of this month's constellation in pop culture, and we end by taking over the brand to wish upon a star for what we wish existed.

>> Jordan: Perfect. Kit, do you mind if I start first with my favorite pop culture appearance of Orion? >> Kit: That sounds great. Just to start, there was a ton to pick from, so we might have some honorable mentions to do as well. >> Jordan: We definitely will. As far as I'm concerned, this was one that barely beat out a few very close honorable mentions. >> Kit: Mhm. >> Jordan: All right, so my favorite pop culture appearance is a 1996 video game titled Master of

Orion. Have you ever heard of this game before? >> Kit: No. >> Jordan: So Master of Orion, I didn't think you would, is a game that was made by the same company, Micropose, that made Civilization. And it was a science fiction strategy game where you could choose from ten different civilizations. And of course you had to use diplomacy and conquest and develop technology and colonize star systems. I said it came out in 1996 because that's when I started playing

it. It actually was released in 1993. Back on my notes for this, I said that it came out when I was eleven and I could not figure out the interface at all. But Master of Orion, post some screenshots, it's very mid nineties nostalgic. It's like seeing an old board game from your childhood. >> Kit: And now you can probably play it on your phone, like. >> Jordan: But the thing that desperately made me want to bring it to your attention, Kit, is its

abbreviation. Master of Orion. >> Kit: Yeah >> Jordan: Moo >> Kit: moo. >> Jordan: But yes, I was one of the first strategy games I played. It's called a four x strategy game. It's turn based, but yes, Master of Orion, 1993 or 1996, depending on when you got it. That was my favorite appearance of Orion in pop culture. Kit, what was your favorite pop culture appearance of this constellation? >> Kit: So even though, like I said, there are a lot of choices, this was

very easy. My choice is, of course, the Orion species in Star Trek. I mean, we see them in the original series, we see them in the animated series, Star Trek Enterprise. And I would be completely remiss if I didn't mention that they show up in Star Trek lower decks. And my probably my favorite character on that show is Tendi who is an Orion who is also known as the mistress of the Winter constellations. Wow. >> Jordan: Yeah Sounds like our kind of gal, right?

>> Kit: So, yeah, this was an easy pick. I'm a huge Star Trek fan. Of course, I have critiques of the representation of Orion women as Orion slave girls for a number of reasons, but I really feel like Tendi, aka the mistress of the Winter constellations, is really doing her part to sort of, like, revamp the image of the Orions. And I love it, and I'm here for it, and I love to see more of that. And this was, yeah, super easy. Just, I I

was like, this is it. Um I almost didn't even look at anything else, but then I did because I was looking, you know, to see what else was out there. But no, nothing could beat this. >> Jordan: All right, Kit, excellent choice.

So now let's get into our honorable mention. I can tell you my first, and then will you give me your first honorable mention? >> Kit: Yeah, sounds great. >> Jordan: All right, this one is pretty predictable, but I'm going with the Orion roller coaster. Did you research this at all? >> Kit: I saw it. Yep. >> Jordan: Absolutely great name. It's 287ft tall, features a 300 foot drop, which makes it not a hyper coaster, but in fact,

a Giga coaster. It's within driving range, approximately 4 hours from where I live, so I might actually be able to ride it one day. But, yes, Orion is made by my favorite roller coaster company, Bolliger and Mabillard. And yes, of course, I have a favorite roller coaster company. My second is RMC, and my third is Vekoma. But enough about them.

Bolliger and Mabillard are a Swiss roller coaster manufacturing company, and they also designed a little roller coaster you may have heard of called the Hulk. >> Kit: Oh, yeah. A favorite. >> Jordan: I'm willing to believe that Orion, which came out in 2020, is pretty, pretty good, and it's within driving distance. So I'm putting it on my two k 24 goals list. That is my first honorable mention. Kit, would you please tell me yours?

>> Kit: So, we've talked before and proposed in the past, you know, you know, wineries, and when I saw Orion breweries, I was like, good idea. This is a good idea. It is a very large brewery in Japan. Um, and the logo is really cool, and they've got, you know, like, the font is neat, and they have the three stars above it from the belt. >> Jordan: Classic. >> Kit: Very classic. I don't know anything about the beer. I've never had it. Can't tell you if it's good

or not. But I loved the, like, I loved the font, I loved the aesthetic, and I was, like, this is a good. This is a good idea. Did you have any other favorites or things you wanted to mention before we move to least favorites? >> Jordan: Another Orion pop culture one I just feel like it would be remiss if we didn't talk about it would be Orion Pictures, which is a distribution and production studio that existed from 1978 to 1999, which was bought by MGM, who I guess is now

owned by Amazon. Okay, cool. But Orion Pictures is responsible for a bunch of like, eighties and nineties movies that you may be familiar with, including ones I grew up with, Terminator, Silence of the Lambs, Addams Family, Life of Brian, Bill and Ted, Amadeus, Robocop. And there's also a bunch of movies I haven't seen, like Caddyshack and Platoon and Hoosiers and Dances with Wolves. So I just wanted to give them a shout out, because I'd feel bad if we didn't, you know.

>> Kit: My second honorable mention, I just liked the name of this video game. So Orion is a character in this game. It's some kind of fighting game. Never played it. But it's called Brawlhalla. And that >> Jordan: I love it. >> Kit: Yeah, that really made me, um, giggle. So I haven't played the game. Just know it has a good name and that there's an Orion character in it. And, when I saw Brawlhalla, I was like, that is good.

>> Jordan: My last honorable mention, I don't know if you looked at this one at all, was a band called Orion the Hunter. >> Kit: Mhm. >> Jordan: Wooee. I wanted to hate this band. I went into it listening for them to be my least favorite. >> Kit: Uh-huh. >> Jordan: It's an eighties band, a lot of very early eighties keyboard. It's an offshoot of Boston, which is a modern rock band from Boston. Um, but yeah, it kind of reminded me of like Jay Giles

band or the Cars. Their hit song is called So You Ran. I will post a link to it. The four minutes and 15 seconds I gave their one hit song. >> Kit: Mhm. >> Jordan: I loved it. So Orion the Hunter, you are my second honorable mention for sure.

>> Kit: Yeah there is a big collection of stuff to choose from, so maybe let's move to our least favorites now. Would you like to go first? >> Jordan: I'd be happy to. It was actually really hard for me to find a least favorite. I can recite a lot of different military ships I didn't care enough to look up more about, but we've done that before. I can talk about USSS Orion or HMS Orion or HMAS Orion or the Orion class battleship or BAE Orion or NRP Orion, constantly

used as a ship of war. But my least favorite is a bit more specific than that. >> Kit: Okay. >> Jordan: And this is actually a callback to an episode we did earlier where we explored some of the names of professional athletic teams in Asia. I am going, actually, in fact, with a professional basketball team, which is based in Goyang, South Korea, and plays in the Korean basketball league. It's been bought and sold a few times, but let me just walk through its name evolution with you.

>> Kit: Oh, boy. >> Jordan: This team from Goyang, South Korea, originally was known from 1996 to 1997 as the Dongyang confectionery, as in, like candy, basketball team. From 1997 to 2003, I was known as the Daegu Tongyang Orions. All right, so we're getting Orion into the branding. From 2003 to 2011, it was just abbreviated, to the Daegu Orions. From 2011 to 2015, they moved to their current location and became the Goyang Orions, which is how

I found them on the Internet. What really caught my eyes was that from 2015 to 2022, they were no longer known as the Goyang Orions. They were known as the Goyang Orion Orions, which I had a lot of questions about. >> Kit: Yeah. >> Jordan: But guess what? It gets better from there. From 2022 to 2023, again, they were bought and sold. They were known as the Goyang Carrot Jumpers. Apparently, they were bought by an insurance company

called Carrot Insurance. And then. So this is my least favorite for so many reasons. I don't know which name I hate the most. Least favorite, for sure. All right, Kit, what was your least favorite pop culture appearance of Orion? >> Kit: I totally agree with everything you said about, like, nothing, really, I wasn't upset about anything. Um, I didn't really understand all of the airlines that are called Orion something. Like, there's more than one of them. And I'm like, that makes no sense

to me. I guess maybe to do with navigation, but I'm like, this is not a character that flies. So I was not really into that, but. And then I saw there was a Orion federal credit union, and again, I was like, what? Why? >> Jordan: I did not see that. And, >> Kit: Yeah, I'm like, I don't know. Like, credit unions are fine. I have nothing against them. I just don't know why. Maybe it was named after a person named Orion. I don't know.

Um, so, ultimately, what I came down on was something we've talked about before, something I think about quite often, which is the Orion spacecraft. Now, the Orion spacecraft is, um, part of NASA's Artemis program, which will be sending folks, to the moon and also to Mars. Now, listen, I think the module looks cool. BoP and I took a trip to the Kennedy Space center and, like, got to see a mock up and stuff that they're planning to do with this. It looks great. I can't wait to go back to the

moon. I can't wait for people to go to Mars. However, the Orion spacecraft seats four people. >> Jordan: Kit. I don't think that's gonna be enough to survive a Mars mission. >> Kit: It is not enough people. >> Jordan: Kit, I think they're setting them up for failure. >> Kit: They are. And so that's why it's my least favorite. Not because I actually have anything against the the use of Orion in a spacecraft name. Not because I don't like its design,

because it's kind of cool looking. It's, um, mission patch's cool. Um, it's going to be used for cool stuff, but, yeesh. I have a lot of concerns about four people going to Mars, and that is why it is my least favorite. so those were our favorite and least favorites. If we missed yours, feel free to let us know over on our socials at Starrytimepod on mastodon, on the Universeodon server. Um, the same handle on twitter.

So now let's talk about what we wish existed. Jordan, would you like to go first with your wished for? >> Jordan: Kit, I really struggled with this one because there are already so many Orions that existed. I looked up the Orion name Wikipedia, and I learned about, all sorts of different people who had Orion in their name. You know, there was a Vermont politician from the 19th century. There was a billionaire from India. The brother of Mark Twain is Orion Clemens.

>> Kit: Okay. >> Jordan: So what I wish for was a human, a gigantic athlete of a human. >> Kit: Uh-huh. >> Jordan: Their name will be Orion O'Neal, son of Shaquille O'Neal. No, no, no. The name is not as good as the rhyme Shaquille O'Neal, but it is alliterative. Anyways, if we're gonna be having any sort of story about a conquering hubristic giant who is the subject of modern folklore, I would prefer that it is related to Shaq in some way. So, Shaq, if you're

listening, get on it. I don't know what your current relationship status is like. I know you got a bunch of kids already. If any of them are good at basketball, just, you know, rename them Orion once they get to high school. So, future NBA superstar Orion O'Neal, I'm ready to root for you. Kit. What is the version of Orion that ou wish existed? >> Kit: Okay, so I will tell you mine first, and then I want to tell have a little story Time on Starry Time related to

BoP. So let me give you mine first, and then I will give, um, give you another wished for that requires a bit of setup. So I kept my wish for very simple. I'm proposing a specialty belt store called Orion's belts. >> Jordan: So good. So good. >> Kit: you know, what is a specialty belt? I don't know. Maybe it's got led lights. Maybe it's got a giant belt buckle. Maybe it is,

um, like a really cool studded belt. I don't know what a specialty belt store sells or if anyone shops at them, but Orion's belts is the name of this store that I wish existed. >> Jordan: This is up there with Reese's pisces for me, like this, like some of your finer work. Immediately jealous. I didn't come up with it.

>> Kit: So that was my idea. Now, when BoP and I were out on a walk, as we do, we were talking about ideas, that's when I was trying to come up with my ideas, and something just really got stuck for him. Now, I'm going to start with a question, which is, do you know what O'Reilly's auto parts is? >> Jordan: Is it like a, um, mechanic tune up shop? I seem to remember, like, the commercials. >> Kit: Okay. >> Jordan: Like a jiffy lube type of thing.

>> Kit: Yes. So I wasn't familiar with this. Um, they apparently have a very famous jingle. And so Brian was like, I think what you should do for a wish for you do their jingle, but you make it instead of O'Reilly's Orion. So it'd be like, oh, Orions. And sorry if that's wrong. And I was like, I don't know what you're talking about. And he was like, no, this is a very famous jingle. And I was like, I don't know about this. >> Jordan: Yep. Going over my head here. BoP.

>> Kit: Yep. So I'm glad that you agree, because we asked some other people who are staying with us, and they both immediately were, like, saying us the jingle. So let us know if you know the jingle and if you're singing it now. Um, BoP probably wants you to know that there's a ten hour version of the jingle on YouTube. So if you love the jingle that's there for you. Um, but there's more to the story. So BoP first proposes, you know, a jingle using Orion's, and then he really got cooking.

You know, sometimes that happens with, um, wish upon a star you just kind of get going and, like, you are really into it. So BoP was like, okay, well, what if that's actually a theme song for a tv show? And the premise of the tv show is there's this man named Orion who's from the big city, and he's out on a hunting trip and his car breaks down in a small city and he has to work at the auto shop for some reason I'm not really clear on. And so this is in BoP's

wished for. He wishes for a sitcom called Orion's, which follows this big city guy living in a small town, working in an auto shop. And the theme song is the O'Reilly's auto parts jingle, but saying Orion instead of Oreilly's. And that really, it was very well developed. >> Jordan: Excellent work by our friend of the pod BoP. There's still many more meanings up there for grabs. So let us know on our socials what Orion, you wish existed.

>> Kit: Because, you know, it's only a matter of time before one of our wishes comes true.

>> Jordan: This has been Jordan >> Kit: and Kit. >> Jordan: Sisters. Lovers of stars and stories. >> Kit: We'll see you next time >> Jordan: On Starry Time. [Music]