Comments on: Episode 291: Split Second

By: David Thiel

David Thiel — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 03:34:11 +0000

Thank you! I truly hated this one, and was feeling self-conscious about it. I was listening to it in the car, and kept hitting the skip button…are they at the castle yet? No? Skip, skip, skip.

It doesn’t help that by now I’ve encountered many, many variations on this sort of story. Person suddenly finds themself in a world that looks familiar, except that the details are wrong and no one recognizes them? That’s the basic premise of any number of Twilight Zone episodes. The difference is that in the Twilight Zone, all of that stuff with the protagonist running around saying “Don’t you know who I am?!” is the first act. The castle is reached. The rest of the story is about the protagonist trying to figure out how to cope with and/or escape this altered reality.

And agreed that it made no sense for the daughter not to recognize her mother. Perhaps if the mother’s appearance reflected that twenty years had passed, but looking exactly as she did when she died?

By: James d Birch

James d Birch — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 02:37:03 +0000

Dear MORLS (and everyone)-
I just feel a need to stand up and say, as an avid MORLS listener of several years, how much I disagree with you guys on the music of Nightfall. I’m 52, and I grew up in the age of chunky synth music (if you enjoyed 70s/80s-era Dr. Who, I feel it’s hypocrisy to disparage Nightfall’s musical score) – Nightfall’s music is absolute gold to me (as is the music of it’s possibly more refined descendant, Vanishing Point, on display here). The *only* criticism I may have about Nightfall’s music is that at times it’s too loud for the scene.
Eric mentioned the “choice” of music in this episode – I’m under the impression they had a music director that was responsible for *writing* music specifically for each episode (perhaps I’m wrong, I need to research that in order to be sure). Anyway, it’s my belief they literally scored this episode with deliberation.
As for this episode, I was indeed dubious about the daughter not recognizing the mother. The mother obviously had never seen the daughter grown up, so she’d not be expected to recognize her. But the daughter certainly should have recognized her mother appearing at the age she was when she was tragically killed – also, any photos of her would have ceased at that same age/appearance, and I feel certain the daughter would have kept photos (or that someone would have kept them for her).
Finally, I just want to suggest that when you do replace your computer for recording the show, you may want to give the good folks at Sweetwater a call – I deal with them for anything audio-related (they do computers for audio/recording as well), and as a comparison shopper, I have never found anyone who can top them for price, as well as customer service. I’m not on their payroll, I just love how they do business and I want you guys to get the best possible purchase for your (patrron’s) money. Heh.
Thank you guys for all you do! – JdB

By: Johnathan Monsen

Johnathan Monsen — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 08:21:32 +0000

I actually didn’t really like this show. The inner monologue having both the echo and the whispering to it made it feel, to me, far too intrusive. It was jarring. More than that, it was too calm. It felt less like a dream state to me, and more like the classic unflappable “Oh my, there’s a monkey flying the plane! Isn’t it curious how well it can land?” reaction. I felt the same when she went to sleep in that room; it didn’t seem dream-like, it just felt weird and dumb for her to do. Even her actual speech suffered from that; she doesn’t sound even slightly stressed when Susan reveals her name and says her mother died, she seems completely unmoved until suddenly she gets homicidal at the orderlies where she had been entirely cooperative before. Heck, she had insisted that she would follow orders if she turned out to have memory loss, but then just takes a 180 the moment they expect her to make good on that. And I felt it made no sense for the daughter not to recognize her. If my mother had died twenty years ago, and someone came to my door towing someone that looked exactly like she did when I last saw her, sure I’d logically conclude she wasn’t really my mother, but that would be LONG after I initially freaked out and thought it WAS. Instead, her daughter acts like she’s never seen anyone that looked like the main character before.