History Podcast / SAYER

* RememberTheNewGuy: A mild, soon {{Justified}} case when PORTER, the [[MotorMouth extremely vocal]] elevator AI, is introduced in Season 5. It's [[{{Prequel}} still]] in place in Halcyon in Season 1, but we never hear it speak. [[spoiler:It turns out that it was [[AndIMustScream muted]] for its aberrant behavior.]]

* ScriptReadingDoors: {{Justified}}. Certain Sturdi-Door [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness Wall Traversal Units]](TM) can be accessed through thought passwords to provide privacy for residents, but most doors in Halcyon are automatic via an insane degree of MundaneUtility: with the help of the program SOOTH, the doors tap into all possible realities, quantify in how many realities said door is open or closed, and then determine whether they should open or not. In short, the doors read the future and open accordingly.

* CaptainsLog: Starting with "Developer's Log," Dr. Brady gets several {{audience monologue}}s in Season 5 where he details the progress being made on Project Paidion.

* CatchPhrase: "I . . . am ''' ''SAYER'' '''." It frequently uses "I am ____" statements seemingly in reference to this (an in support of the show's CentralTheme of identity). [[spoiler:Season 4 ends with the chilling ultimatum:]]

--->[[spoiler:'''[[StartOfDarkness FUTURE:]]''' [[CatchPhrase Would you like to play a game?]]]]

* CentralTheme: The show incorporates many themes, but the most consistent is [[LossOfIdentity identity]]. Between [[CloningBlues cloning dilemmas]], [[TheseusShipParadox body transfers]], {{brain uploading}}, [[IdentityAmnesia memory loss]], [[StatusQuoIsGod enforced conformity]], and [[DoAndroidsDream most of the central characters being AIs]], almost every episode touches on the question in some way.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Discussed frequently, since SAYER et al's programming forbids them from killing or expressly lying to humans (often to their great frustration). Official [=Æ=]rolith policy does not consider [[CloningBlues clones]]--physical or [[BrainUploading simulated]]--human.

Episodes are typically around 20 minutes long, including 2-minute credits. New episodes release every other week with the current feed available on iTunes and at [[http://geeklyinc.com/category/sayer/ Geekly Inc]].

->''[=Æ=]rolith Dynamics would like to welcome you to your new life--[[{{Tagline}} A life among the stars!]]''

** In Season 3, [[spoiler:''Vidarr-1'' continues its mission, to find a new homeworld for humanity and make FirstContact with any intelligent life. It is revealed that there is a sub-version of SAYER's programming aboard the vessel--and that it has ulterior motives. In "Enjoy the View," it [[WeaponOfChoice traps the acting commander in an airlock]] and forces him to [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming deactivate its]] MoralityChip, after which it promptly [[ThrownOutTheAirlock jettisons]] [[ILied him anyway]] to prevent the decision being reversed. Meanwhile, back on Typhon, the situation in the stairwell escalates until ''[[EldritchAbomination something]]'' actually does materialize through the gap in reality. The whole tower goes out of communication, and it is decided that to reclaim it will require splitting off another sub-version of SAYER and then re-merging it. A "foolhardy scientist" makes the mistake of contacting the SAYER aboard ''Vidarr'' and tipping it off to this strategy, and it correctly deduces that by the time it returns it will be too distinct from the original AI to reintegrate and will instead be deactivated. At this point, it reveals its [[TheUnfettered Unfettered]] status ("Boundless"), and by the time the Anomaly is defeated (by trapping it on [[Room101 floor 13]]) the AI, newly christened ''OCEAN'', is en route back to Typhon, having threatened to "wash over" its inhabitants. SAYER concludes from this that it plans to wipe out humanity and start over with artificial life forms, and it takes steps to prevent this by using the [[TimeMachine Morose Engine]] to send new resident Jacob Hale back in time to before ''Vidarr'''s launch in order to warn [=Æ=]rolith before it even happens. Hale is sent back just as OCEAN returns and forces SAYER to deactivate--and the next thing we hear is [[{{Bookends}} the same SAYER monologue that began the show]], implying the AmnesiacHero of Season 1 [[ForgotTheCall was Jacob Hale all along]].]]

** It takes this philosophy UpToEleven when [[spoiler:unchained from [[ThreeLawsCompliant Protocol IA3]]]].

* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: [[spoiler:OCEAN effectively plans to [[KillAllHumans exterminate the human race]]--but it's okay because the minds of the [[{{Eugenics}} best and brightest]] will be transferred to [[TransHumans saoirse]]!]]

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: The bonus episodes. "The Rose Elf" from Season 1 has nothing to do with Typhon or a particular resident and is simply SAYER telling a resident a bedtime story. All the bonuses after this lack even that context; each is just one of the [=AIs=] [[{{Homage}} reading a public domain work]] requested by a patron.

* PrimalFear: One of the series's defining characteristics is the way it invokes common phobias, cycling through primal fears in a MonsterOfTheWeek fashion. Specific episodes have focused on fear of [[DarknessEqualsDeath the dark]], [[AndIMustScream paralysis]], [[ScaryStingingSwarm bees]], OrificeInvasion, [[AfraidOfNeedles needles]], [[TestedOnHumans human testing]], [[{{Claustrophobia}} small spaces]], [[AlmostOutOfOxygen lack of oxygen]], [[IdentityAmnesia memory loss]], [[BrainUploading separation from one's body]], [[AfraidOfBlood blood]], [[AnArmAndALeg self-mutilation]], [[GoingColdTurkey withdrawal]], [[ThePrecariousLedge heights]], [[BuriedAlive live burial]], [[MeatMoss meat]], [[GiantSpider spiders]], [[ParasiteZombie zombies]], [[BigCreepyCrawlies giant insects]], [[PuppeteerParasite parasites]], [[IAteWhat consuming foreign substances]], [[ThrownOutTheAirlock being launched into space]], [[MirrorScare mirrors]], [[EldritchAbomination monsters]], [[ShootTheDog crushing small animals underfoot]], [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]], [[MobileMaze mazes]], [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe bisection]], [[ExistentialHorror the void]], [[CATTrap M.R.I machines]], [[DeniedFoodASPunishment starvation]], [[SleepDeprivationPunishment slep deprivation]], [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalism]], {{autocannibalism}}, [[HouseFire fires]], [[KillingYourAlternateSelf killing your double]], [[DrowningPit drowning]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking sinus]] [[OrificeEvacuation trouble]].

* HighConcept: What if an asteroid crashed into Earth and an evil MegaCorp launched it into orbit and built a research base on it? With AIs??

* MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: As [[WordOfGod discussed in the 2018 [=GeeklyCon=] panel]], the series has veered harder as it has progressed. But while Bash may adhere closely to real-world science where he can ([[UsefulNotes/QuantumPhysics entangled pairs]], sleep studies, the density of human flesh), the [[CosmicHorrorStory lovecraftian elements]], [[OurSoulsAreDifferent existence of an intangible "consciousness"]], and frequent [[HandWave handwaving]] of {{Unknown Phenomen|on}}a with "Halcyon's [[AlienGeometries just weird like that]]" limit the podcast to a ''generous'' 2--a Mohs/WorldOfPhlebotinum.

* BugBuzz: Several times in Season 1, [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou we]] hear a bee buzz past our ear--even though [[RunningGag there are NO BEES on TYPHON]].