The Cosmic Shed

Joonas Suatamo talks to The Cosmic Shed.

Chewbacca is, let's face it, the best character in all of Star Wars so he needs no introduction. Based, allegedly, on George Lucas's dog and played until recently by Peter Mayhew, everyone's favourite Wookie is about to appear once again on our screens in The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story

Ti and Andrew met him at For the Love of Sci-Fi in December 2017 and they also met Joonas Suamoto, the man who plays Chewbacca in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and the Han Solo film.

Ti, Joonas and Andrew.Joonas tells us all about taking over the role from the legendary Peter Mayhew, what it's like on set with J J Abrams and Harrison Ford, and how exactly you go from Basketball player to film star.

Ti, Chewbacca and AndrewShow notes

Bucket list items ticked off.Andrew mentions an interview we did with Starship Troopers star Casper Van Dien. You can see that here.

Joonas Suatamo talks to The Cosmic Shed.

Chewbacca is, let's face it, the best character in all of Star Wars so he needs no introduction. Based, allegedly, on George Lucas's dog and played until recently by Peter Mayhew, everyone's favourite Wookie is about to appear once again on our screens in The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story

Ti and Andrew met him at For the Love of Sci-Fi in December 2017 and they also met Joonas Suamoto, the man who plays Chewbacca in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and the Han Solo film.

Ti, Joonas and Andrew.Joonas tells us all about taking over the role from the legendary Peter Mayhew, what it's like on set with J J Abrams and Harrison Ford, and how exactly you go from Basketball player to film star.

Ti, Chewbacca and AndrewShow notes

Bucket list items ticked off.Andrew mentions an interview we did with Starship Troopers star Casper Van Dien. You can see that here.

They scoured the oceans to bring us the most breathtaking imagery, never seen before behaviours and unforgettable creatures. They've used brand new, specially created cameras to bring us the very best films of our oceans we could possibly imagine. They've seen fish eating birds, octopuses outwitting sharks in ways we never thought possible and seen different species gathering together to hunt in cooperation with each other.

Now, they've been to the Cosmic Shed. Yes, that's right. They've finally made it. John Chambers (Assistant Producer), Sophie Morgan (Researcher) and Alex Vail join Maddy, Steve and Andrew in the Cosmic Shed to chat about the making of this stunning, landmark series.

We find out about some of the amazing technology they used to bring us the oceans like never before.

And reveal what it's like to spend so long among the wonders of the deep oceans.

They even deal with questions like whether turtles watch their footage...

So download the episode, put on your favourite headphones, sit back and imagine you're in the shed...or on location in the Pacific Ocean. The choice is yours.Show notes

During the episode, Andrew asked Sophie Morgan which behaviours she had found by reading scientific papers. Sophie told us that she had found something really remarkable which they had managed to film but she could not tell us what it was as it was embargoed at the time of recording. We can now reveal that Sophie's reading of scientific papers means that we can enjoy this stunning sequence of behaviour.Many thanks to Mrs. Haworth's Year 8 Geography class at Haslingden High School for all your wonderful questions

And, of course thank you to all of you who suggested questions via our various social media platforms/channels/things. You can follow us on twitter @thecosmicshed and on Facebook here.All of the pictures (apart from the ones of Post-it notes) are provided by the BBC.Update: Here's Mrs. Haworth's class listening to the episode in class. Best. Teacher. Ever.

They scoured the oceans to bring us the most breathtaking imagery, never seen before behaviours and unforgettable creatures. They've used brand new, specially created cameras to bring us the very best films of our oceans we could possibly imagine. They've seen fish eating birds, octopuses outwitting sharks in ways we never thought possible and seen different species gathering together to hunt in cooperation with each other.

Now, they've been to the Cosmic Shed. Yes, that's right. They've finally made it. John Chambers (Assistant Producer), Sophie Morgan (Researcher) and Alex Vail join Maddy, Steve and Andrew in the Cosmic Shed to chat about the making of this stunning, landmark series.

We find out about some of the amazing technology they used to bring us the oceans like never before.

And reveal what it's like to spend so long among the wonders of the deep oceans.

They even deal with questions like whether turtles watch their footage...

So download the episode, put on your favourite headphones, sit back and imagine you're in the shed...or on location in the Pacific Ocean. The choice is yours.Show notes

During the episode, Andrew asked Sophie Morgan which behaviours she had found by reading scientific papers. Sophie told us that she had found something really remarkable which they had managed to film but she could not tell us what it was as it was embargoed at the time of recording. We can now reveal that Sophie's reading of scientific papers means that we can enjoy this stunning sequence of behaviour.Many thanks to Mrs. Haworth's Year 8 Geography class at Haslingden High School for all your wonderful questions

And, of course thank you to all of you who suggested questions via our various social media platforms/channels/things. You can follow us on twitter @thecosmicshed and on Facebook here.All of the pictures (apart from the ones of Post-it notes) are provided by the BBC.Update: Here's Mrs. Haworth's class listening to the episode in class. Best. Teacher. Ever.

The people who made the on screen technology in Blade Runner 2049 are Territory Studio. In other words, one of the main reasons you and we love the way Blade Runner 2049 looks is because Peter Eszenyi and Andrew Popplestone made things like this:

So we were really rather delighted when they joined us for this very special episode of the Cosmic Shed.

Just so we are clear, they make things like this:

and this:

So you probably want to stop reading this and start listening to the podcast now but in case you want to see more, here is their showreel.

Oh go on then, just one more:

Oh, we should probably mention that they also worked on The Martian, Guardians of the Galaxy and Ex Machina.

But you really need to get on with listening to the podcast episode now.

Show notes

THEY ARE ALSO WORKING ON READY PLAYER ONE!

The people who made the on screen technology in Blade Runner 2049 are Territory Studio. In other words, one of the main reasons you and we love the way Blade Runner 2049 looks is because Peter Eszenyi and Andrew Popplestone made things like this:

So we were really rather delighted when they joined us for this very special episode of the Cosmic Shed.

Just so we are clear, they make things like this:

and this:

So you probably want to stop reading this and start listening to the podcast now but in case you want to see more, here is their showreel.

Oh go on then, just one more:

Oh, we should probably mention that they also worked on The Martian, Guardians of the Galaxy and Ex Machina.

But you really need to get on with listening to the podcast episode now.

Show notes

THEY ARE ALSO WORKING ON READY PLAYER ONE!

Douglas Vakoch is an American search for extraterrestrial intelligence researcher, psychologist, and president of METI and he joined Andrew to discuss Star Trek Discovery, the Pahvan species and his own attempts, through METI to contact potential aliens (relatively) close to Planet Earth in real life.What would happen if we did make first contact? Will we really hear anything back from this message?

Douglas and the team at METI have just beamed a radio message out into the Cosmos to let any aliens on a particular planet know that we are here. Not everybody is happy about us letting know aliens are out there. We've all seen science fiction, right? Andrew and Douglas discuss the potential threats and come down very much on one side of the argument...

Show notes

Star Trek Discovery so currently on a mid season break so you might like to take some time out to listen to our other episode on the series with Prof Ethan Siegel

Douglas Vakoch is an American search for extraterrestrial intelligence researcher, psychologist, and president of METI and he joined Andrew to discuss Star Trek Discovery, the Pahvan species and his own attempts, through METI to contact potential aliens (relatively) close to Planet Earth in real life.What would happen if we did make first contact? Will we really hear anything back from this message?

Douglas and the team at METI have just beamed a radio message out into the Cosmos to let any aliens on a particular planet know that we are here. Not everybody is happy about us letting know aliens are out there. We've all seen science fiction, right? Andrew and Douglas discuss the potential threats and come down very much on one side of the argument...

Show notes

Star Trek Discovery so currently on a mid season break so you might like to take some time out to listen to our other episode on the series with Prof Ethan Siegel

With the Last Jedi just around the corner, we gathered in the shed to discuss the Physics of Star Wars, a rather lovely new book by Dr Patrick Johnson.

Patrick's book finally persuaded us that we could do an episode on Star Wars after all. So here it is. Thanks Patrick.

Patrick is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Georgetown University and, fairly obviously, the author of The Physics of Star Wars.

Show notes

Attack of the Clones isn't very good.

With the Last Jedi just around the corner, we gathered in the shed to discuss the Physics of Star Wars, a rather lovely new book by Dr Patrick Johnson.

Patrick's book finally persuaded us that we could do an episode on Star Wars after all. So here it is. Thanks Patrick.

Patrick is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Georgetown University and, fairly obviously, the author of The Physics of Star Wars.

Show notes

Attack of the Clones isn't very good.