The Dark Material Podcast: His Dark Materials read-along

Join us in this special bonus episode as we go through our thoughts on the 2007 film adaptation of The Golden Compass! This episode will contain spoilers for all of Northern Lights, so if you haven’t finished reading that book yet, meet us back here when you’re finished!

We re-watched the film for this special episode (we didn’t remember any of it before) and then had a chat about the Good, the Bad and the Odd…we even dust off the trophies and dole out some Cast and Creative Awards! After all, it’s bloody difficult stuff to make a film (we’d have no idea where to start), so credit where credit is due!

------

You can read more about the reception of The Golden Compass film around it’s release and the author’s general thoughts on the process in this interview with Philip Pullman from 2007.

You can read Chris Weitz’s first draft of the screenplay for the Golden Compass here.

Listen to Kate Bush’s song ‘Lyra’ here! Warning: it is a bit of an earworm…

If don’t already follow Twittagazze and Instagazze (the official fandom accounts for all things His Dark Materials and Book of Dust related), then do so now at the above links!

------www.thedarkmaterialpodcast.com

@darkmaterialpod

www.patreon.com/darkmaterialpodcast

Join us in this very special bonus episode as we talk to our world’s Pavel Kunrath, maker of alethiometers (and much more besides) - Michael van Kesteren!

Michael's work in season 1 of the BBC / HBO adaptation of His Dark Materials helped to physically bring some beautiful objects into our world and onto our screen. He has two roles on the HDM crew: 1. his official role of 'Concept Artist for Props', and 2. One half of the Science Division...

A HUGE thank you to Michael for giving us his time: you can find him at the links below.

We definitely recommend taking look through his portfolio here, showcasing lots of gorgeous things he has designed and created!

Twitter: @michaelveekay1

Instagram: @michaelveekay

------www.thedarkmaterialpodcast.com

@darkmaterialpod

www.patreon.com/darkmaterialpodcast

In the final chapter of Northern Lights, we join Lyra alone on the far side of a crevasse in the ice of Svalbard: Iorek & his bears fighting Mrs Coulter behind her, Asriel & the abducted Roger in front. She and Pantalaimon stumble on, with Roger’s cries ringing off the mountain sides. Join us as we reach the tragic but captivating end of book 1 of His Dark Materials…

------

Philip Pullman’s hand-crafted box in aid of charity during lockdown here

How the phases of the moon and moon-rise and moon-set works here

A video capturing a snow leopard’s inability to roar! More snow leopard facts here

This Radio Times article summarises why the golden monkey is not quite anatomically correct

------

Music by: Jaymen Persaud

www.thedarkmaterialpodcast.com

Patreon: www.patreon.com/darkmaterialpodcast

Twitter: @darkmaterialpod

Instagram: @thedarkmaterialpodcast

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thedarkmaterialpodcast

Lyra is asleep as this chapter opens - shocking no one - but gets a startled awakening by Thorold, who tells her that Lord Asriel has ‘gone mad’ and taken Roger away into the middle of the Arctic night. Confused, sleepy and increasingly worried about Lord Asriel’s intentions, Lyra sets off after her father to try to save her friend one more time.

Join us this week, as we discuss just how high bears can jump, the locomotion of medieval siege weapons and the load-bearing potential of snow.

------

You can see a full version of Amy’s artwork for our episodes and our quotes for the week here.

As we’re nearing the end of the book, if you have questions for us about Northern Lights or about the Golden Compass film, we’d love to hear from you! Get in touch here.

If you’re as confused as we were about the difference between a catapult and a trebuchet, then you can take a look at this handy intro!

------

Music by: Jaymen Persaud

www.thedarkmaterialpodcast.com

Patreon: www.patreon.com/darkmaterialpodcast

Twitter: @darkmaterialpod

Instagram: @thedarkmaterialpodcast

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thedarkmaterialpodcast

I am an armoured bear; war is the sea I swim in and the air I breathe…

In this very special bonus episode we interviewed the king of the Panserbjorn - Joe Tandberg. We discuss his background with the books, bringing Iorek to life in the HBO / BBC TV adaptation, vocalising a bear (with new dialogue & languages!!!) and much more.

We hope we covered your questions - there were a LOT! - and thank you all for sending them to us for this interview.

A HUGE thank you to Joe too, you can find him at the links below or check him out in season 3 of the excellent climate crisis thriller Occupied (available here).

Twitter: @joe_tandberg

Instagram: @joetandberg

------www.thedarkmaterialpodcast.com

@darkmaterialpod

www.patreon.com/darkmaterialpodcast

This time, Lyra went to Lord Asriel’s pretty lovely ‘prison’…Roger gets freaked out by Lord Asriel’s wolfish ‘welcome’ of the two of them and Lyra has an awkward reunion with her dad, including finally confronting him about why he’s lied about his relationship to her. Lord Asriel mostly ignores this (rude) and instead decides to sit down with Lyra in his swag library and tell her a few stories about Dust, the Magisterium and the Oblation board…

Join us this week, as we disagree about subtext, get very jealous of Asriel’s interior design skills and geek-out over zombie-lore.

------

You can see a full version of Amy’s artwork for our episodes and our quotes for the week here.

As we’re nearing the end of the book, if you have questions for us about Northern Lights or about the Golden Compass film, we’d love to hear from you! Get in touch here.

You can watch this short video about the different gaits of an Icelandic horse, including the ‘tölt’ gait that we describe this episode

If you’re a Brooklyn 99 fan, be sure to check out this post where we compare Brooklyn 99 and HDM characters - is Iorek the Captain Holt to Amy’s Jake Peralta? Be wary of spoilers in the comments…

Find out more about the delightful and genteel sounding Cassington here.

Here are the original translations from our world’s Bible which Amy quotes in this episode.

If you’re interested to find out more about the relation of intercision and circumcision in His Dark Materials, we recommend this excellent essay by Robert Darvey (NOTE: SPOILER HEAVY)

This is a summary of the dark and disturbing history of castration.

If you want to geek out over the history of zombies (including much more about how the idea spread in popular culture), here is a good place to start.

------

Music by: Jaymen Persaud

www.thedarkmaterialpodcast.com

Patreon: www.patreon.com/darkmaterialpodcast

Twitter: @darkmaterialpod

Instagram: @thedarkmaterialpodcast

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thedarkmaterialpodcast

In the most action-packed chapter of Northern Lights so far, we join Lyra and the bears as ring-side spectators to a rare fight to the death between contenders to the throne of Svalbard. Through a jaw-dropping fight between Iofur Raknison (the usurper King of the Panserbjorn) and Iorek Byrnison (our hero and the rightful King), the fate of Lyra and the bears is decided. With the clear advantages of health, rest and power, Iufor looks sure to win but perhaps Iorek has a trick up his greaves... 

Join us this week, as we discuss real world bear fights, recreate the sound of all the world’s shingle in an ocean-battering storm and debate panserbjorn political philosophy.

------

You can see a full version of Amy’s artwork for our episodes and our quotes for the week here.

For a full paper on the anatomy of walrus skulls look no further than here.

For some Attenborough-narrated bear battles look here.

Moustachioed helmet at the Royal Armouries at their Twitter page here.

Background on the name Belacqua here.

A great overview of the legend of Sigurd here and Norse Myths from the Myths & Legends podcast here.

The real-world uses of Spaghnum moss in WW1 here and 100%-vetted and sourced reference to bears using moss for their wounds here.

------

Music by: Jaymen Persaud

www.thedarkmaterialpodcast.com

Patreon: www.patreon.com/darkmaterialpodcast

Twitter: @darkmaterialpod

Instagram: @thedarkmaterialpodcast

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thedarkmaterialpodcast

WHO IS YOUR KING!?

IOREK BYRNISON!!!

We are delighted and excited to be welcoming the King of the Panserbjorn to our humble clouded mountain studio for a special bonus episode! We’ll be interviewing Joe Tandberg - the voice of Iorek Byrnison in the BBC / HBO TV adaptation of Northern Lights - and would love your questions & comments.

You can send them to us in all the usual ways below!

If you see / hear this before 16:00 (UK time) on Thursday 30th April 2020, there is also an afternoon tea with Philip Pullman today! In aid of an Emergency Fund for authors during the COVID19 pandemic.

Link to sign up: here (https://www2.societyofauthors.org/event/soa-home-festival-afternoon-tea-with-philip-pullman/)

or their Go Fund Me page is here (https://www.gofundme.com/f/authors-emergency-fund).

------

www.thedarkmaterialpodcast.com

@darkmaterialpod

www.patreon.com/darkmaterialpodcast

This time, we join Lyra as she’s thrown into a cell in the polished-turd Palace of Iofur Raknison: King of the Armoured Bears. She meets her new cell mate, Jotham Santelia (best described as the wrong side of eccentric) and Lyra carefully dupes him into giving her information about their host, so she can start to form a plan to get out of this panserbjorne-ish pickle.

Join us as this week, as we discuss exactly what Professor Trelawney really does, gush over new armoured bear theories and get into an impression competition. Why are you surprised?

------

You can see a full version of Amy’s artwork for our episodes and our quotes for the week here.

You can learn more about Qulliqs (seal blubber lamps) here or here.

This is the essay on the question ‘What is it like to be a bat?’ that we discuss this episode.

What does the Palmerian Professor do? This and this provide some context for our theories.

You can find out more about gamma rays and gamma ray astrology here and here.

Here is the extra information from listener and friend-of-the-podcast Maddy on Electrosurgery! (First mentioned in our episode on The Silver Guillotine):

”Thought I’d chip in a bit after your mention of electrosurgery (aka diathermy) in this weeks episode. It’s not just for cardiac surgeons - is lowly obstetrician gynaecologists use it too! I use it pretty much every time I do a c-section (the nurses know now and routinely open it if they know it’s me operating) and we have a few really clever ways to use it in gynaecology.

”The principle is an electric current is generated in a electrode, and this causes heat in the tissue of the body to create an action of cutting, coagulation, or both! We have two main ways of using it - monopolar and bipolar. Monopolar is where a current is passed from the electrode, through the patient’s body, and then back out via a plate (usually on their leg) to the machine again. Bipolar is where the current is passed between two electrodes so doesn’t need to travel as far. It means we can use bipolar like scissors, so we can cut something that would bleed, but it doesn’t because it’s “sealed” at the same time. We can use this same technique during keyhole surgery too. We can control bleeding in emergency surgery quickly and patients don’t need open surgery so it’s less invasive and recovery is quicker. I commonly use it during a c-section for fine detail haemostasis. We often find during this type of surgery there are multiple points which “ooze”. You don’t want to leave them in case they get bigger and the woman has internal bleeding, but they’re too small to put stitches in. Diathermy solves this as you can target small areas.

”Regarding the smell, it’s very distinctive. When our patients are awake (normally the case for a c-section) they often ask what the burning smell is. I don’t think it’s unpleasant, the best comparison I can make is a BBQ...!I’d never clocked the reference to it in HDM - not sure how I feel using the same kit as the gobblers!”

------

Music by: Jaymen Persaud

www.thedarkmaterialpodcast.com

Patreon: www.patreon.com/darkmaterialpodcast

Twitter: @darkmaterialpod

Instagram: @thedarkmaterialpodcast

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thedarkmaterialpodcast

Since we've been hoarding questions like a greedy, riddle-loving dragon, we thought it would be a good time to record us attempting to form some answers! 

We hope you enjoy our thoughts - some of our answers are definitely more speculative than others, so let us know in the comments if you have your own home-grown theories!

If you have other questions for us to ponder (particularly on Northern Lights and The Golden Compass films, as we have wrap ups coming up for those soon), then let us know!

If your questions contain spoilers beyond our latest read-along episodes (Chapter 18), please email those to us directly to avoid spoiling fellow patrons - thank you!

This episode will be released for early access for all patrons and be available to everyone as part of our usual feed a week later.

------

www.thedarkmaterialpodcast.com

@darkmaterialpod

www.patreon.com/darkmaterialpodcast