S1E1: "Tortoise"

## Information

"Tortoise" is the first episode within the Red Valley audio-drama. This episode was officially released to the public for the first time on the 22nd of March, 2020, and marked the beginning of both season 1, and the podcast.

## Warnings

From the Official Red Valley Podcast website, warnings for Tortoise are listed as:

* Explicit language
* Brief non-detailed descriptions of human cryonic storage process

## Cast

This episode features the following characters and their voice actors:

* Jonathan Williams as Warren Godby
* Alan Mandel as Gordon Porlock
* May Cunningham as Karen Godby
* John Cook Lynch as Doug Holder
* Carol Pestridge as Switchboard 1 and Jenni
* Chloe Gardiner as Tracy
* Richard Campbell as Switchboard 2
* Lee Bowers as Bio-Science
* Nima Cas Hunt as Voicemail

## Synopsis

Two crackling male voices are suddenly heard through the broken and muffled static of a dictaphone, one slightly more muffled through the other end of a phone, as though they were mid-conversation before we are able to hear them. The two lightly bicker, before one of the voices asks if the other has any knowledge of cryonic preservation. The voice responds with a joke of Walt Disney's head being frozen in a similar manner, not being able to finish his joke before the other cuts him off and threatens to hang up the phone.

We are taken back to a flashback of earlier that day, where the voice that joked about Walt Disney's head being frozen identifies himself as Warren Godby; he can be heard talking to a female voice on a phone who labels herself as a member of 'Storage Solutions'. He inquires about a department that takes care of a 'seed vault' only describing it as a handler for emergency crop supplies, but he is quickly referred to 'Agric Solutions' and swiftly hung up on. He takes up on the referral and a woman who identifies herself as Tracy, a member of staff for 'Agric Solutions', answers the next call Warren issues. Warren once again introduces himself and asks her if she has any knowledge of the seed vault he is looking for, Tracy, even swifter than the last, says she has no knowledge on the place he is searching for and hangs up. Snippets from 2 different calls are then heard, all with the same outcome of Warren being shut down with no new knowledge of the seed vault he is searching for.

A new, more casual conversation is heard between Warren and a female voice. They lightly joke about renovations to their living space, mocking their landlord. Another call begins, this time Warren directly names the person on the other side of the phone as Doug (Holder). Doug teases Warren by asking if he's having fun with his goose chase on the seed vault, Warren marvelling at how many branches reaches out from the main company at which he works, which Doug tells the name of as Overhead. He then hangs up.

Warren enters an office setting, and a woman can be heard addressing a man as Gordon, telling him Warren has requested to see him. Warren sits as the woman, named Jenni, walks away. Gordon asks if Warren is new, to which he responds he's been on the job only 3 months. Warren asks Gordon about the seed vault he's been searching for, having found out that Gordon works in the archives facility - he thought they'd have some record of the place that no one else seems to have incase of renaming or repurposing. Gordon seems to have some knowledge of the place, naming it the 'Red Valley Seed Vault', both Gordon and Warren seem surprised that someone else is aware of the vault. Gordon makes Warren confirm that he has never heard of the seed vault or Red Valley itself (Warren only aware of it after Doug Holder, his line manager, asked him to follow up on it due to some loose ends in the budget review), before explaining that Red Valley was a place next to a mountain named Beinn Bagg (nicknamed Bean Bagg or Ball Bag) in the outer islands off the coast of Scotland. Once asked if Gordon works there, he explains that the government took over the land during the cold war, building a facility for tracking missiles and possibly an emergency crop resource incase of nuclear disaster. After the Cold War, Overhead bought the company that manufactured that vault and he was placed on the modernisation team, but the plans they had were shut down before they could be finalised. Gordon suddenly says he has the files for the plans for the vault on his screen, enticing the intrigued Warren to draw closer to him. Once he is able to look at his screen, it is only advertisements for tortoises.

Gordon whisper-threatens Warren, firmly demanding to know if this is the first time Warren has ever heard of the Red Valley Seed Vault, Warren *swears* today is the first time he is hearing anything about it. Gordon says that the reason they're sending the new boy to look for the Red Valley vault it won't be for a good reason. Gordon asks if Warren has been recording their conversation, telling him that he, himself, has; tapping a hidden microphone on his desk. He directs Warren to the stationary department, where there are dictaphones he can use to tape every conversation he has from that moment on, saying he may need it.

Warren is now in his car, playing the 3 voice messages he's received since last checking his phone. The first is from Gordon, sent at 3:34pm, he tells how he enjoyed their meeting and gives Warren his number. Warren deletes the message. The next is also from Gordon, sent at 4:15pm. This time, he tells Warren that he is sending a package to his house after getting his address off the payroll and pretended to be Warren on the phone. Warren deletes this message. The third and final message is *also* Gordon, sent at 4:18pm. Gordon apologises to Warren for pretending to be him on the phone to get his address. Before Gordon can finish, Warren receives a new call and he cuts Gordon's voicemail off, answering the incoming one. The woman on the phone is the same from when he was joking about his landlord, she asks where he is. He says he's stuck in traffic, and she tells him that there's a package at their house, Warren says he will meet her once he gets home and the call ends.

Warren's phone rings, this time an outgoing phone dial, to which Gordon Porlock is heard on the other side of the receiver. Gordon asks if he got the package he sent, Warren responds that he had, and inside he found an old dictaphone cassette player. Gordon asks if Warren is recording their current conversation, demanding that he begins to record once he learns Warren is not. Warren can be heard rummaging through his bag and the eventual click of the dictaphone is heard, and suddenly the same conversation heard at the start of the episode is heard, yet expanded upon. Gordon asks Warren if he knows anything about cryonic preservation, Warren denying and confusing it for cryo*genics.* Gordon explains the difference in the two and says how cryonics works with the specific preservation of human beings in extreme low temperature. Gordon explains further into cryonics, explaining that Overhead owns one of the companies that freezes and preserves people. He tells Warren to listen to the tapes he provided in his parcel, not to tell Doug Holder of what they are doing, and to record everything he says and does.