We took a week off last week since two of us were out of town for Thanksgiving, but we’re back this week with a brand new edition of Episode 7: “Here Ye Be Pirates.” Rose wrote the blog about it!
Pirates! Honestly, this idea was so off the wall yet, oddly… it works, somehow. It’s one of our better written episodes, though, looking back, I think we went too hard on trying to make Sapphire Siren a “thing.” She was the result of a contest, just like Opal Odyssey and Grasshopper. Yet while those two took off pretty well, Siren falls flatter than I’d like, given that her backstory is the shade of angsty gray that I like. It’s why you haven’t seen much of her since lol.
But this episode delves into the story of what warped Howie into Dr. Rough. It also showcases that while Nick isn’t conventional, what he does works. Jay’s origin story pops up, too, and really, I just love a deep dive into a character. Plus, I mean, can’t you just picture Nick and AJ as pirates? This was years before they decided to dress up as them for the BSB Cruise. What’s great, though, is playing with the antagonistic relationship between Emerald and Nick. They’re reflections of each other. Yet neither wants to admit it.
But I’m rambling here. Really, when you get down to it, 00Carter is at it’s best when the randomness is off the wall yet somehow coherent, and that’s definitely the case here.
Speaking of random… where did the “magic turtles” that track the agents in the water and turn into jet skis come from?
Julie: Magic turtles! That’s a reference to an old parody video making fun of the writer’s room at Lost. I think Rose is the one who found it and sent it to the rest of us because it reminded her of 00Carter. We’ve always had a knack for coming up with these random ideas and finding a way to string them together and somehow make them work. So having Pearl create some “magic turtles” with technology to get our heroes out of trouble seemed like the perfect homage.
Dee: I’d forgotten about that video! I laughed the whole time because the guy in the purple sweatshirt is clearly Julie, trying to make sense of “red sweatshirt” Rose’s random ideas, lol. I guess that means that I’m some mix of “blue button up” and “fancy blazer.” We have a leg up on Lost writers though, because it always ends up making some sort of sense. I think that’s the fun part of tech, making up whatever you need for the plot. Making it make sense is less fun and these two are less supportive of good old fashioned hand-waving.
Julie: You’re definitely “blue button up,” Dee! You’re usually the one to point out plot holes, but then help us figure out how to fill them. Although the guy in the blazer does seem to enjoy hand-waving.
Rose: I’m super proud that I’m the one basically throwing in a unicorn and letting you guys sort out how it ended up there LMAO.
Dee: It’s actually a mechanical “Trojan Unicorn,” created by Dr. Rough to prey on Nick’s love of the bizarre and unexplained, lol.
We’ve always enjoyed including pop culture references and parodies, but this episode takes that up a notch. What are some of your favorite pop culture parody moments readers may or may not have noticed?
Rose: The Titanic parody Julie does in this episode cracks me up. And honestly there’s no better place for it.
Julie: Surprisingly, I didn’t write the Titanic parody! Titanic is my favorite movie and gets referenced frequently in my stories, so I totally get why you thought that was my part. I don’t remember who wrote it either – Veronica, maybe? But I love it, too!
Dee: It gets a laugh from me, but I always think it drags near the end. Meanwhile, the random dude with the “RUUMMMM” always cracks me up, especially when the flask hits Nick in the head afterward. I think other than the Titanic one, most of them were short homages compared to the typical parodies we toss into an episode. I guess “pirates” in general was a spoof of Pirates of the Caribbean. Although, my favorite part about the pirate plot was that it didn’t even begin as a FANS plot, but Dr. Rough definitely pirated it, lol. I also love that the Captain Hook song was changed to “The Elegant Dr. Rough” and that he actually enjoyed his minions’ antics for once. Also his outfit. Glorious.
Julie: So glorious! I enjoyed all of the Pirates of the Caribbean and Captain Hook references in this episode, especially Emerald fashioning her dress into a Tick-Tock Crocodile pipe bomb and Drums ending up with a hook for a hand. Poor Drums… Sorry, not sorry!
The end of this episode was modeled after the end of The Empire Strikes Back. Drums losing his hand reminded me of both Anakin and Luke Skywalker, so I parodied Star Wars both in the part where Dr. Rough rescues Drums and at the very end. It may not have been obvious (other than Dr. Rough saying “May the FANS be with you”), but if you watch the end of The Empire Strikes Back while reading the last few paragraphs of this episode, you’ll see it. We’ve compared Drums to Anakin in our conversations since the very beginning of planning this story, so it was also nice to pay homage to that in the scene where Dr. Rough rescues him from the pirate ship. Their relationship is similar to Palpatine and Vader. And because I don’t have a better way to wrap this up, here’s an awesome Pirates of the Caribbean/Star Wars music mashup I found to listen to while editing this episode: https://youtu.be/14SzfLg37Uk. So epic!
