Binary System Podcast Archive

This episode originally broadcast on October 2, 2025. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2025/10/binary-system-podcast-475-wtnv-274-the-hoa/

There’s a new Homeowners’ Association trying to muscle its way into Night Vale, and the residents of the Desert Grove neighborhood have a lot of questions. Will the new HOA have rules against owning more than 36 iguanas? Are abandoned cruise ships on the front lawn still allowed? And for crying out loud, what are the homeowners dues going to be? This being Night Vale – where all government conspiracies are true – the reality is going to be much worse than you think.

Having an entire episode devoted to HOA’s led to a discussion about what they actually do, and whether or not having something in place to prevent trashy lawns and hoarder houses is worth having someone checking to see if your lawn is more than eight inches high. Sharon. Not a long discussion tho’, because what we really want to talk about is that Elizabeth finally watched the second John Wick movie (excellent fight choreography, kiiinda missing the spark of the first in the series), and Kathryn finally watched The Substance (which is a great movie, don’t get me wrong, but it’s kiiinda hard to recommend it because dear Lord that last scene what did I just watch?)

This episode’s outro is a clip from Upward Spiral by TeknoAXE.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on September 25, 2025. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2025/09/binary-system-podcast-474-robert-redford-and-the-sting/

It's a travel edition this week, featuring the return of special guest Hannah Wallace! Listen in as we discuss (accompanied by tree frogs and crickets) the life and work of Robert Redford, specifically The Sting since we all sat down to watch it in his memory.

Of course we also wander off into some tangents, like movies that are depressing but worth the effort, early 80s pop LPs, Samuel Jackson's political connections, "Women in Fridge Syndrome," and whether or not you want to play gin rummy with our Mom. (Not unless you've got deep pockets you don't.)

This episode’s outro is a clip from The Entertainer by Scott Joplin. (This is from the 1902 piano roll and is in the Public Domain.)

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on September 11, 2025. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2025/09/binary-system-podcast-473-wtnv-273-horror-recs/

As longtime Welcome To Night Vale fans and two people who love horror movies and are always accepting recommendations (with some terms and conditions*), the latest episode could not be more perfect. Not only does Cecil share some of his favorite horror movies, he also passes along suggestions from other familiar Night Vale citizens. Come for the recommendations, stay for the descriptions of what movies morph into when they cross over into Night Vale. A sequel to Brokeback Mountain where everyone’s a vampire? WE WOULD BOTH WATCH THAT.

*Movies must be clever, creepy, or out-and-out surreal. Supernatural elements preferred. Jump-scares welcomed. Blood and violence are acceptable, gross-out gore is not. NO TORTURE PORN.

Play the Podcast Below | Download the MP3 | Subscribe via Apple Podcasts | RSS Feed

This episode’s outro is a clip from Inside the Reaktor by TeknoAXE.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on September 4, 2025. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2025/09/binary-system-podcast-472-star-trek-lower-decks-and-wednesday-season-2-premiere/

“We’re not talking Uncanny Valley, we’re talking Uncanny Grand Canyon.”

In this week’s Star Trek: Lower Decks recap we discuss Dr. Migleemo’s attempt to cook for two food critics from Klowahka (…geddit? Cloaca? Bird butts? Cause they’re birds? It is a very silly episode) while Mariner tries to get her Klingon buddy Ma’ah’s captaincy back and Boilmer fanboys all over the place.

Then Elizabeth briefly talks about the first episode of Wednesday season two, which is also a little silly but with really good production values and some impressive stunt casting.

This segues into Kathryn trying to describe just how awful Asylum’s knockoff Little Mermaid really is, and that leads to a long rant about AI, because, seriously, you guys, it’s not saving you as much time as you think and the end result is so much worse. Also yes we’re old GET OFF OUR LAWN.

This episode’s outro is a clip from Neon Route by Musinova.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on August 28, 2025. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2025/08/binary-system-podcast-471-wtnv-272-horoscopes-and-lower-decks/

Well if you know us you know we love some Night Vale horoscopes, except for the fact that Capricorn is ALWAYS getting the shaft. Luckily this week Capricorn made it out fairly unscathed, other than that whole accidental bear mauling thing. That’s just LIFE, man.

After the recap we jump into the third episode of the final season of Lower Decks, where Mariner does her level best to avoid an emotional conversation at all costs, and Boimler runs headfirst into danger. Accidentally, obviously. (Jack Quaid just nails those ear-piercing screams.)

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on August 21, 2025. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2025/08/binary-system-podcast-470-station-eleven-series-finale/

We watched the series finale of Station Eleven this week, only three and a half years late, that’s a record for us! (Except for when we watched Mayor of Kingstown season three the same month it was released. Or Love Death and Robots the same week it came out. We’re bad at TV except when we’re not. Don’t try to logic the bit. Shoo.)

Massive great big spoiler warnings of course, because we can’t talk about the final episode without going over every bit that kicked us right in the heart and surprised the hell out of us. Seriously, we had our guesses where things were going to go and we were wrong every time and we loved every bit of it. (Except Alex. Could you just PICK A SIDE. ALEX.)

After that we touched briefly on the Hugo Award winners, most of which were also a surprise, including Star Trek: Lower Decks getting best Graphic Story AND best Dramatic Short Form. (Listen in for Elizabeth trying to correct Kathryn that of COURSE she got that wrong because they didn’t get both OH NO WAIT THEY DID.)

And then of course we’ve gotta tangent some tangents, and discuss the upcoming season of Mayor of Kingstown, and why it’s probably good it’s the last one, and how they darn well better give us some angst-ridden Mike because that’s what we LIKE.

This week’s outro is a clip from Acoustic Blues Solo Guitar by Musinova.

You can see Elizabeth’s new Soundwave model on Instagram.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on August 14, 2025. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2025/08/binary-system-podcast-469-wtnv-271-the-festival-and-station-eleven/

Welcome To Night Vale is back from hiatus, and they’ve brought us the perfect summer episode! The description of a mysterious festival in the desert made us nostalgic for Dead & Company shows, and the description of just how horribly, HORRIBLY the festival goes wrong made us nostalgic for when Fyre Festival was an entertaining dumpster fire, instead of…whatever that Fyre Festival 2 attempt was. (Come on, McFarland, if you’re gonna fail then at least make it an interesting failure.)

After that we’ve got the penultimate episode of Station Eleven, where we finally find out what happened to Jeevan after he disappeared from Kirsten’s life. This show absolutely never goes where we expect it to, but what you’re guaranteed to have is amazing music, heartbreakingly real characters, and the two of us having an amazing amount of trouble remembering people’s names. (Hat tip to “The Doctor”, and “The Lady Who Shot Jeevan”.)

This week’s outro is a clip from Electro is not Dead by TeknoAXE.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on July 31, 2025. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2025/07/binary-system-podcast-468-san-diego-comic-con-galaxycon-and-lower-decks/

This week we've got recaps of ALL the Conventions. And by all we mean two. But they're big ones!

The West Coast branch of the podcast was at San Diego Comic-Con, while the East Coast branch was at GalaxyCon Raleigh. We spent the weekend taking cosplay photos, checking out the latest merch on the sales floor, attending an amazing panel on working with cosplay foam, and seeing the original Tim Burton Batman with an orchestra playing the music live.

After the recap we went over the second episode of the final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks (it was hilarious), and took a quick look at the latest season of Rick & Morty (it was fine?)

Plus the usual tangents into clickbaity events, superhero fatigue, sub-par sound systems, and whether or not we need to watch KPop Demon Hunters.

This week's outro is a clip from Ambient Electronic Background by Musinova.

Check out Nathan's cosplay photos from GalaxyCon, and all the content from SDCC 2025!

Here's Kathryn's Kirsten cosplay and Elizabeth's Art Show display!

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on July 24, 2025. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2025/07/binary-system-podcast-467-station-eleven-and-star-trek-lower-decks/

The Station Eleven episode we recap this week is number 7, "Goodbye My Damaged Home", and oh boy. If you're watching this show then you know why this one just knocked our socks off. (And if you're not, well, you really should, what are you waiting for?) We finally get the backstory for why Kirsten and Jeevan left Chicago, and why Frank wasn't with them when they left, and it's all kinds of beautiful and tragic, with stunningly good choices for the music, and brilliant cinematography, and young Kirsten's cardboard costumes are perfect and that is not up for debate.

It's an episode that chooses a slightly different format for what would usually be a typical flashback story. So it's fitting that we follow it up with the Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 premiere, which takes a go-to template for a Star Trek story - the crew members meet the alternate reality versions of themselves - and then does something juuust slightly different with it.

This week's outro is a clip from Yet Another Level by TeknoAXE.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on July 17, 2025. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2025/07/binary-system-podcast-466-station-eleven-lower-decks-superman-and-the-spectacular-failure-of-the-star-wars-hotel/

It's a bonus-sized (and spoileriffic!) episode this week because we've got a lot to go over. Another episode of Station Eleven of course, with gorgeous cinematography, excellent music, and a lot of questions: are the child-bombing psychos from the Museum, the Prophet, or the Red Bandanas? (Or all three, we have no idea who's side anybody is on.) Does the Conductor have cancer, because in TV land bald = cancer but we know in the real world bald = chemotherapy and there's probably not a lot of chemo in the apocalypse. And finally, Alex, come on, we know you're up to something, please don't be evil?

Next up on the season 4 finale of Lower Decks, remember last week where we wondered if one storyline was a very deep pull from Star Trek the Next Generation? Turns out yes it was a very deep pull from Star Trek the Next Generation. One that, at the time, made us feel really bad so it's no surprise we squashed the memory. But this episode makes up for a lot of that.

And after that, surprise of all surprises, Elizabeth went to see the new Superman movie while it was still in the theater. Short version: she really liked it, though it wasn't quite as good as that trailer we loved. But that's an awfully high bar to hit. However Nathan Fillion is all kinds of awesome, the end.

And finally, Kathryn watched the first hour of the Hugo-nominated "The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel." Turns out there are many things to love about Disney's short-lived luxury LARPing experience, but they've got an emergency plan that we DO NOT LIKE, and could possibly be illegal, but Disney gonna Disney.

This week's outro is a clip from House Banger Music by YuraSoop.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagra