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Terms and conditions apply. Hiring indeed is all you need. Thanks for supporting the Fable and Folly Network. Here's another show we know you'll love. You're invited to the most exclusive event in Berkshire Bay, which may include the occasional murder suspect. Enter our martini-loving socialite. I'm Dorinda Mansfield, and this is my daughter, Stacy. Instead of mingling with her peers... Dorinda would much rather investigate their scandalous crimes. This was a homicide.
I'm sure of it. When mysterious deaths are afoot in Berkshire Bay, the Mansfields are on the case. We have become known for our amateur detective work. Enter the world of Mansfield mysteries, where Martini's motives and murders isn't just a tagline. It's a lifestyle. Have you ever seen such an unconcerned group of murder suspects? Murder? It wasn't me!
Join our crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo and help in raising $5,000 where you'll unlock exclusive Mansfield Mysteries merch at every tier. Because even an amateur detective deserves a little luxury. Welcome to a bonus episode of The Deck's Legacy. I'm writer and co-director Emily Inkpen. And I'm producer and co-director Chris Gregory. And today we have news of two new shows.
from our production company Alternative Stories. Yes and we have exciting news that we wanted to share with our listeners and first up is another award shortlisting. Yes we're very honoured. Last year, season two won the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Audio Fiction. And this year, we've been shortlisted for the Shadows of Trauma episode.
It was one of our Kickstarter special episodes, and it's such a simple scene between Ren and Otto that we put out as just a complete bonus one-off. I mean, you say simple, but simple... and effective i think it really packs an emotional punch yeah i mean it's set the day after episode two the hunt so we're sort of going way back in time
on the timeline here. But Varian, Isra and Ren go through so much during their first deployment. And I think it's important for listeners to know that they're not okay about any of it. Even if they put on a strong front, you know, teenagers, they...
put on a front, but they're not necessarily resilient all the time. Well, yeah, exactly. I remember when you sent me that scene for the first time, and it hit really hard. Varianism and Ren are... as we know awesome in so many ways but in that moment you also realize how vulnerable they are Yeah, and there is no framework of support on Dex Island. So Wren doesn't even know what the term mental health means.
But, I mean, in this moment of absolute desperation, he asks Otto for help and she accesses information from the seed data, which is, of course, a collection of all of the information that was... provided to the settlers of SP714 by the ancestors before they left Earth. So all of the information in the seed data would be probably quite familiar to us. Yeah. And basically he finds...
One of those articles, we've all seen them, 10 Ways to Cope with PTSD. But hearing Otto read out those pointers, Wren's reaction... you realise just how little any of them have to go on. I mean, it really is do-it-yourself DIY mental health support, isn't it? Yeah, because, like, I mean... Ren's an incredibly intelligent character, he's 15, and the fact that he even thought to ask Otto the question.
is amazing like a stroke of genius on his part and it kind of it follows because auto has all of the information and ren is one of those people who knows that information is the solution to so many problems and the dex legacy is all about anchoring these super soldiers in a kind of reality because we see movies and tv shows where heroes fight and kill their way through problems with seemingly very little impact on their psychological state but it's not realistic
And this moment doesn't make Ren weak. I don't think it proves how strong he is, actually. Well, yes, strong and... resourceful and using the only method and source he has to find the help he needs exactly yeah and i have to shout about performances here because Charlie Richards is amazing, isn't he? You know, he's a comedy actor and he can really bring the pain. I joke, of course. Charlie Richards is an incredibly talented actor with huge range.
It's weird. As a writer, it sometimes feels like he's crawled inside my brain and downloaded Ren directly from the source, which is not a simple thing because Ren is a very complicated character, but he just gets him.
Yeah, he totally does. It's an amazing and nuanced performance that captures kind of the panic and the pain and the confusion and desperation, this whole kind of melange of... emotions and feelings and thoughts that he doesn't understand and desperate need to take responsibility and to help and to be strong in the face of everything they've been through and i think that's that's the thing he just desperately wants to be able to cope.
yeah that's at the heart of it yeah absolutely and there was another brilliant performance in uh shadows of trauma and you won't shout about this but i can i mean there's only two people in shadows of trauma by a process of elimination i must be talking about your performance as also of course really incredible bit of acting oh well thank you i mean auto is the ai and i wrote her to be nothing more than an appliance
But she sort of got a bit beyond that. She really did. Yeah. And I just think I was so impressed with the way you injected so much... feeling and nuance into a relatively tight range of expression because it had to be didn't it yeah i mean she's not exactly effusive because she's you know a robot and uh you know it's it's but it's a challenge I have to remind myself that, above all, Otto is curious. So Ren's emotional state is very interesting to her.
And as soon as I got that, I think I just sort of, I was able to sort of show her interest in the situation and show her sort of emoting with it, but ultimately being an observer. And the fact that he ran even... like thought to ask.
for her help in the first place i mean whenever someone treats her like a person and not an appliance it means a lot to her and wren does that more than anyone else which sort of paves the way for their relationship to develop later on And in terms of how that episode was recorded, it was all recorded on Zoom, wasn't it?
Yeah I mean we were in our booths in our separate homes using our studio mics but we were on a call at the time so we could see one another and react which makes a big difference and I mean we hang out with actors enough to sort of get the lingo from them and they always say that acting is reacting and it's so true uh if you want to know how acting works ask the experts so um you know like when you've been doing this long enough you know that performing live elevates the scene
which is why we record in a studio where all the actors can be together. And you can really tell that it was recorded live.
Clearly listeners loved it and appreciated the episode. And so in terms of the award, it's now down to the final vote, isn't it? Yes. And it means so much when an episode resonates as a writer, you know. Yeah, absolutely. So how... can people vote for shadows of trauma ah so bsfa members vote for the winners and you can join the bsfa so if you're not a bsfa member yet you can
and the British Science Fiction Association. You can join for about £20. I think it's a bit more, but it's... not much more than that for overseas members so if you loved the episode and want it to win you can join the bsfa wherever you are just go to www.bsfa.co.uk and you can do that And there are lots of other categories members can vote in, right?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's one of the bigger awards. Authors put the sticker of, you know, won the British Science Fiction Association Award on the front of their books in bookshops and things. So it's one of the bigger ones. And there's categories for best novel, best short fiction, best...
non-fiction best art and yeah it's one of the biggest awards so if you join you can vote in every category so it's well worth it if you're a sci-fi fan because you can just have share all of your opinions yeah and i love seeing award shortlists because they just give you an idea of what's been great in
the world of science fiction or whatever over the last 12 months so if you're looking for reading recommendations what could be better than just go through the list of nominated novels for example yeah and i would recommend the long list as well because the long list is long but it
I mean longer, but generally speaking, it's a broader overview of what's great in the industry and a lot of stuff on there that you would never have heard of before, but it's really, really good. So check out the long list as well. Yeah, indeed. And some of the other audio nominations. Yeah, we're up against some big people. I'm not at all intimidated. It's tricky this year, isn't it? It's really tricky. Do check them out and then vote for us.
so award nominations aside that's not the only piece of exciting news we have to share So we told you a few weeks ago about our new Dex Legacy spin-off series, Wasteland. And today we're also going to be talking about a new cyberpunk thriller called Burnout. Yes, we are. But let's start with Wasteland.
so the whole series is out now you can binge your way through the lot of it over on the wasteland channel so go do that the reception has been amazing some really great reviews which has been incredibly heartwarming not many on the show itself
though so if you're listening and you enjoyed it but haven't left a review please do that it means so much to everyone in fact if you've listened to the deck's legacy and you love it and you haven't yet read a review please leave a review it means everything yeah and you can leave reviews on apple podcasts these days actually you can leave ratings and comments on
Spotify as well which is which is really helpful and we get to see those and we can reply to them so you know if you're if you're a fan and you've never communicated with us before drop us a comment on Spotify and we always try and get back to people So, you know, we can say hi. Oh, there's also YouTube. We have our YouTube channel with the subtitles and everything. And you can comment on the individual episodes. Yeah. Yeah, indeed. So, yes, reviews.
and ratings really help with the visibility of our shows yeah and it's just it's just nice to hear what people think because i mean we put these shows out into the wild and we see the listener numbers we see the download numbers it's very exciting but it's it's like
We very rarely hear from anybody. And it's, yeah, I mean, so that means whenever these words come back and people give us their thoughts, it just means so much. So Wasteland then. Yes. If anyone doesn't know what Wasteland is about...
Can you give us an overview, please? Yeah, so Wasteland is set at the same time as season one of The Deck's Legacy, but it's told from a completely different perspective. So it's about how the Xenosi military respond to the Rhone missile and how the political landscape... shifts.
Because it was the Zenosi government that launched the missile in the first place and it landed on Rhone. But they always say that it wasn't their fault. It was Dex Island who didn't tell them how bad the missile was going to be. And there's all this sort of slopey shoal.
don't want to take responsibility for it. But the political landscape in Xenos is never the same after this. And so it's all about really the Xenosi military, how they respond to the Rhone missile, how the political landscape shifts and how that... political sort of shift affects the military and at the same time all of these people in the military who are on the ground just trying to do their best in the face of all of this yeah we see it from two perspectives don't we we see it from the
from the people on the ground the military teams but we also see it from the perspective of the politicians as well yes And Wasteland then, I mean, very much part of the Dex Legacy universe, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. Let's share a clip. Is everyone doing okay? Yes, Captain. Yes, Cap. Yes, Captain. Just remember, stick to your training and be careful. We don't know what's down there or what will be waiting for us. Be ready to jump on landing at my command.
Yes, Captain. Yes, Captain. Yes, Captain. Mecha Giants, you are clear to drop. Repeat, clear to drop. Ready to drop. Ready to drop. Ready to drop. Ready. Timing, three, two, one. Okay team, eyes sharp. If you see anything or anyone down there, shout and that's where we'll go. Understood, Captain. Captain, I'm seeing nothing. Siri's picking up north sides. Same here, Vorsi. Keep looking. Yes, Captain. Engaging thrusters. Slowing descent. Engaging thrusters. Slowing descent.
Captain, I can go a while more before engaging. We want a controlled safe landing here, Vorsi. Engage thrusters. Thrusters engaged. Ezran, thrusters engaged. Extending primary limbs for landing. Don't forget to bend your knees. Yes, Captain. Touchdown. Engaging low thrusters. Touchdown. Touchdown.
So that was a clip from Wasteland. We're really proud of this, aren't we? Let's just say that the deck's legacy is about... dex island who are the baddies in effect but everybody in wasteland is basically a decent person doing their best in the face of disaster which is different And of course, there's the outside perspective on what Dex Island is doing, which will be interesting to everyone who's already a fan, because Dex Island, I like to think of them as this sort of tiny nation.
that is just in the back of everybody's head they are just there like a sort of growing threat level um sort of like you know you know when you turn up the heat how do you boil a frog you turn up the heat slowly it's like it's just like this growing shadow on the minds of everybody and in the minds of militaries around the world like who are these people what are they doing oh my god how do we how do we even
work out what to do about this how do we counter it do we counter it is there any way to counter it and in wasteland we're seeing that from a wholly different perspective we're kind of seeing it the way another nation in your world will see it. And I think that's a really interesting perspective. But it's not just about...
taking another view on Dex Island and everything that you know about in Dex. It's about a whole new set of characters and an adventure, a mission that they go on. And I think the really interesting thing about Wasteland... i know a lot of people really into this is that we have mechs oh so tell us a bit about mechs emily giant mech rigs so i'm very particular about this there's a very big difference between exosuits and mechs
Iron Man, exosuit. The knights in Fallout, exosuit. Because you've got a person directly in the limbs, controlling the limbs. Yes. Mechs are like Titanfall.
You sit in them, you control them like a pilot. You know, you are not moving the legs manually. You are directing the machine where to go and it goes. So these are mechs. They are much bigger than... an exosuit would be and they are just really cool and all of them are different all of the models are different so we have four people in this mecha unit and all of them have their own characteristics and their own function to play in the team.
and it was just really fun to play with that and also really fun like you know getting the sound design back from you being like how's this mech sound and it's like in my earphones and i'm like yeah no i think it's not enough actually like dial that up to 11 you know make it a bit more bassy and yeah it was it was it was quite a sound design challenge but so much fun and so many files zipping back and forth between us anyway so wasteland go and go and listen to
Wasteland, if we've made that sound interesting. But we mentioned that we've got two new shows. We have been busy, haven't we? We have. And our second new show of 2025 is a completely different IP. It's a sci-fi cyber... punk thriller called Burnout from the genius mind of Lewis Carter. Well, Lewis Carter is the creator and the chief writer, but you wrote a couple of the episodes, didn't you? I did. Yeah, Lewis invited me to and it was a lot.
of fun to play in somebody else's world yeah so you say cyberpunk Tell us a bit more. What is cyberpunk, for those who don't know? Cyberpunk is a whole sci-fi aesthetic and genre that should be pretty familiar to most fans. We're talking like Blade Runner, big corporations and organisations, sprawling cities.
biotech ais and it's often raining for some reason yeah it's always raining it's like that rain against neon sign yeah like so you get like damp ground with the neon lights reflecting in it and and all of that. It's always raining. It's a very British thing to talk about the weather, isn't it? It is. Although I have to say, I don't think it's rainy in Burnout. But then again, Burnout is a thriller too.
So I guess, you know, that makes sense. It's about an ex-zero gravity racer who's blackmailed by his old gangster clan boss into going on an impossible mission. And he has an illegal AI nano... swarm in his brain an unstable ai a seemingly impossible quest a despotic leader sounds familiar fans of decks are gonna love this aren't they well we hope so let's uh let's hear another clip
I love clips. Leo, left one. Left one. So much for taking it easy. She's fast. She's fast, Iris. I noticed. Enter mode code. Theo, I'm still attuning to the setup. Attune faster! Theo! My God, I've missed this! You don't say. 1,200 metres straight approaching. What are you saying? What are you saying? What do you think I'm saying? Open her up. Copy that. This is unreal! What the hell? Losing power.
Downshift gradually. Iris, what's happening? Detecting an EMP signature. Mode coast, Theo. Mode coast. Oh, shit. Oh, no. What was... What is it? The EMP signature. It's the same as the citywide attack. Of course it is. Rerouting power unit to fuel reserves. Enter mode carbon now. How did they find us? Iris! Focus on the road. Okay, okay. I've got this. We just need to conserve fuel and evade.
Let me know as soon as we're back online and I'll punch it out of there. Blockade, look out. Shit. Brace, brace, brace. I'm okay. I'm okay. Several heat signatures incoming. We need to move now. I just... I just need a... I need a minute. No time. Triggering an epi spike. This might be a little... So that was a clip from Burnout and there are some familiar voices for Dex fans in Burnout too, aren't there?
Well, yeah, so we have Tiffany Clare, who plays Valentina in Dex. We have Charlie Richards, again, who plays Wren. And, of course, both of us are in Burnout. We also have Ethan Reed, who appears as Kyn Kravik in Wasteland. And it's just an amazing cast, which also includes the brilliant Misley Rose as Iris. unstable ai and alexander broad who some listeners might recognize as the voice of clive shill in the fantastic red valley podcast yes and as always we recorded burnout
at the studio where Red Valley is recorded in London with our brilliant producer Richard Orpheus Campbell. Now, Emily, you directed Burnout, and as we said, you wrote a couple of the episodes. But tell us about our main writer and the creator, Lewis Carter. Yeah, so Lewis is an award-winning filmmaker and script writer. And you worked with him a couple of years ago on The Gathering, which was an official selection for the UK.
International Radio Drama Festival. And I was in that one too, briefly. Yes, I think you had two minutes at the end, didn't you? Not even. I think maybe two seconds, 20 seconds, maybe, if I'm lucky. The best 20 seconds of the show, obviously, but that's beside the point. A fine 20 seconds. Absolutely. As a writer who's used to working autonomously, how was it to work alongside another writer, Emily?
Oh my God, I was so nervous because being so embedded in my own world and then stepping into someone else's, I just didn't want to mess it up. But Lewis was so great to work with and he provided a loose structure to keep the story on track. because it's a mid-season episode. But he was happy for me to go crazy with it. I have to say, I do love your episode. You also wrote an interlude as well, but your episode is... Top notch. I wouldn't say you went crazy crazy.
No, I mean, I kept it in line. I got Lewis's characters, Theo and Iris, immediately and writing their dialogue was pure joy. So I ended up finding it really easy to slot into the tone. But I was sending him weird messages asking... about the layout of the city and things like where do the rich people live the rich people yeah like are they in the suburbs or what uh because
in the story, he's racing this car and I was like, is he suddenly going to be racing through the suburbs? Are we going to have to make a comment about rich people on the outskirts of the city? Is there going to be a snide remark about that? to know this stuff um so it turns out that they're in penthouses and the upper floors of the skyscrapers which figures because rich peoples are always like out or up
from the regular folk. But it does mean that they're conveniently out of the way and we can forget about them, in effect. So we're not going to be running any of them over in our zero-g car as we race through the city. So, yes. And we do race through the city. These things go incredibly fast. Incredibly fast. Hopefully we've brought that to life in the sound design so you're going to feel like you're in the car with Theo. I can say this because you won't.
you will feel like you're in the car. It's a lot of fun. It's great. Well, we try. We try. Anyway, people can find burnout. by just searching Burnout Alternative Stories wherever you listen to podcasts. As always, we'll also post a link in the show notes of this podcast so that you can listen and subscribe. Yeah, okay. So let's hear the trailer for Burnout.
Now. I can't do this. Theo. From the award-winning team behind the deck's legacy, comes Burnout, a new high-octane sci-fi audio drama set in a world of zero-g racing and illegal ARs. I know. That was close. You've really never raced before, have you? Hard left. Is the commentary necessary? It is for me. Do you really think I wouldn't tie together a missing corrupted AI and the timing of your retirement? What do you want?
Straight to the point. I like that. You can call me Alfie for now. I owe him that much. Oh, you owe these people nothing. This one. This one I do. Is it in there? Can it hear me right now? So, running now? You hear rumours about guys like you. Guys like me. Speed junkies, racers. They say by the time you'll bench you're more machine than men. No longer fear for polite society. You can't be serious.
Are you chipped? Yes. I spent five years jacking your car without getting so much as a recommendation from you for test driver. Yes. Triggering an epi spike. This might be a little unpleasant. Triggering a what now? Holy shit, what was that? A little pick-me-up. You can do that? There are perks to being unstable. Burnout.
an original science fiction audio drama series created by Lewis Carter and Alternative Stories. Coming soon to your favourite podcast app. Last chance to back out. We're way past last chances now. In that case, may the road take us ever onwards. You know, I never understood that old clan saying. Surely every road comes to an end at some point, right? Feel free to keep those little epiphanies to yourself while we're driving. Right. Yeah. My bad. Point taken.
And Burnout will be releasing episodes weekly until May. And you can hear Chris as the cockney gangster Taj Bran and me as the no-nonsense mechanic called Jess. And I absolutely love her. So do I. She is a fantastic character. And we know that many listeners will be keen for their next fix of the deck's legacy now. Yes. Emily, what news of season three and when's it going to be launching?
Well, recording is ongoing. We have around three quarters of season three recorded and we're hoping to release the season in the summer. So the bits that we have yet to record, we've been in the studio, we've done all of that. We've now got to coordinate our overseas and remote.
actors which means that you know like there's there's scenes obviously with the kids we've got voices in america and uh other places that we have to bring together so we've got to coordinate those people and then we'll have all of it recorded which is so exciting so that's
roughly where we are with recording yeah indeed and as always follow our social media channels we will make announcements we'll show you behind the scenes pictures of people recording and all sorts of peripheral stuff around the show
and we'll post links to all the social media in our show notes yep and also keep an eye on this channel we will drop information about the season a trailer when we have one Finally if listeners are looking for a podcast fix between now and season three what can they find? Well, we have an interview with Marie-Claire Wood, the star of Wasteland, over on the Wasteland podcast. And episode two of Burnout is out today.
That series has five full-length episodes and four interludes, so plenty to catch up on with that one. Yeah. And we're going to leave you with the trailer for Wasteland. Don't forget to subscribe. Listen to Wasteland and Burnout via the links in our show notes. And I've been Chris Gregory. And I've been Emily Inkpen. We'll be back with more news in the future. But in the meantime, we hope you have a great weekend.
Wasteland. A new science fiction drama from the makers of the DEX legacy. My name is Captain Sarah Sax. Prepare your mechs and report to the dropship. We are moving out. Sergeant Ezeri Voisinda, Minister. This is Siri. And your mech is different to the others, so tell me about it. This is Tank. A heavy model built to take fire and protect. Of course it would be difficult at first, but hate doesn't last.
Hate lasts longer than any other emotion. Nova has come a long way since our first exercises. We understand each other at this point. I know what this program means to you, Sarah. Well, really, Quentin. You always say it was my encouragement that got you back on course again after your accident. Oh no. The nastiness will not recover support for many years. How dare you consider this a benefit on any level? Right. Therese. Horsey. Ezra.
I wish I could say our training has prepared us for what we're about to see. But I don't think anything could. We don't know what we'll encounter once we're there. What I do know is that we're the only unit capable of finding out. We've received our orders and this is our time. Search Wasteland, a DEX legacy story in your favourite podcast app to listen and subscribe.
The Fable and Folly Network, where fiction producers flourish. Hi, folks. Let me see if I can sum up Midnight Burger in about 25 seconds. Really big monster. Zero irony. Pardon me, Gloria. My husband and I have a word. The radio is talking to me. So this is how it ends. Eaten by wolves in space. There's a... Pocket dimension in the deep freeze. This is the stupidest dystopia we've ever been to. What the hell is that? Because you're having a cigarette?
In 415 million BC? Where are we? Space? Can you narrow that down? The bad part? Ava. Yeah, that didn't work at all. At the nexus of all things, there is a diner. Look for Midnight Burger on your favorite podcasting app or just go to weopenat6.com.