Last month, Tor Labs and Gideon Media launched an exciting new science-fiction series titled Steal the Stars. The 14-episode series (five of which are out now), directed by Jordana Williams, follows two government employees who fall in love against strict orders, and must fight all odds to be together — all with the help of an alien named Moss. Intrigued yet? Read on to find out more about the newest podcast that has a good shot at filling that Game of Thrones-sized hole in your heart.
The premise
Steal the Stars is the story of Dakota Prentiss and Matt Salem, two employees of a private military contractor tasked with guarding the biggest secret there could possibly be in the world: a crashed UFO. Despite being forbidden to fraternise, Dak and Matt fall in love and decide to escape to a better life with the help of a dangerous plan; they’re going to steal the alien body they’ve been guarding and sell the secret of its existence.
It’s written by Mac Rogers
Mac Rogers, the award-winning, indie playwright that everyone loves to love, and who is also the writer behind science-fiction podcasts Message and AfterLife (both downloaded more than 6 million times), needs little introduction. His stage plays include The Honeycomb Trilogy (three-time New York Times Critic’s Pick, one of The Guardian’s top 10 New York shows of 2015, and winner of the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Premiere Production), Frankenstein Upstairs, God of Obsidian, Universal Robots, and Fleet Week: The Musical. A man obsessed with writing sprawling science fiction stories for a minimal budget, his screenplays usually teem with drones, mad scientists, aliens and the like.
Tor Labs: Origins
Tor Labs is the experimental publishing imprint of Tor Books, one of the largest publishers of science fiction and fantasy there is, publishing everyone from Robert Jordan to Philip K Dick; and Steal the Stars is their first podcast project. “If the science fiction business teaches us anything, it’s that we can’t fully imagine what new technologies will enable us to do until they’re upon us. We want Tor Labs to be open to these changes in how people tell and experience stories,” said Jennifer Gunnels, Tor editor, in an interview with The Verge.
You don’t have to love science fiction to tune in
While the plot is submerged in the world of SF, populated by a seven-foot-tall alien, shadowy government organisations, and people who’d die to keep a secret, the central conceit of Steal the Stars is love and the lengths people would go to protect it. As the series develops, you see the typical tropes of a science fiction thriller merge with that of a romantic drama, that’s essentially also a meta discussion on the human condition and its many foibles and victories.
There’s a novel coming
A full-length novel based on the podcast series is currently in the works, being written by Nat Cassidy, an award-winning playwright and author himself. The book should be out in stores in November, once all 14 episodes of the podcast have aired.
