#953 Renee Renewed

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Tarol
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#953 Renee Renewed

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What do you think of this episode?
I'm honestly quite disappointed that they changed Renee's voice actor. She's had such a small roll so far that honestly if they couldn't keep the same voice actor they should have just dropped her. This new actress is fine, but I found her accent quite inconsistent through this episode. Additionally and specifically, she says "kenna" for "cannot," and I have no memory of the old actress saying this. It just feels inconsistent and a poor start to introduce a new character in a main album with a new actor. I know since album 51, actors have changed rather frequently (*cough* every member of the Parker family), but I'm just getting tired of it. I also understand this is not usually the producers choice, but I think the story could have just been cancelled. ALTHOUGH, Renee is essentially going to replace Eugene so I get why they need her to stay, I'm just annoyed but it's fine.

This episode really did not stand out to me. I feel like Whit has been extra grumpy in this album for very little reason, and I'm not sure why. Is it really that awful to perform an experiment in his building when the student and their parents were fine with the experiment? This argument felt a little silly. I suppose he does have validity in the fact of using his coding without permission, however.

I did enjoy Trey's ending conversation about why Renee picked him. That was rude of her to choose him because she thought he was "introverted and not confident enough." I think this was clear and a useful wrap-up in the episode.
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Polehaus53
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Here are some of my thoughts:
Let it be known to all AIO fans: This episode marks Renee D. Carter finally appearing outside of AIO Club exclusive episodes! \:D/ Her step into the mainstream albums is long overdue.

Confession time: I have not listened to any Renee episodes in quite a while, so I did not even notice that the actress for Renee had been changed until I listened to this episode for a second time. :anxious: How embarrassing. :oops: I’m either getting old and losing my hearing, or else I haven’t been keeping up as well as I used to; was this change of Renee’s actress announced anywhere? Why did they change her actress?? I don’t seem to recall anyone mentioning Amy Pemberton becoming unavailable. :?
However, I won't let this change impact my judgement of this episode. Although the actress has changed, the story of Renee's character remains the same, and I enjoyed hearing it continued in this episode.

I was surprised that Astan Lebernis played such a big part of this episode, although he only appeared in flashbacks. However, since Astan Lebernis appeared in the Club episode, “The World of Whitonia” I think it can be confusing to those who have not heard the episode. However, I won't dwell on it; the topic of AIO Club episodes impacting mainstream episodes is another post for another time. ;)

I found it humorous how Horus put on the Personality Enhancer and it immediately revealed his true thoughts for Renee and Renee makes him turn it off. :lol: Interesting setting they have on there.
As Renee and Horus ran the tests of the Personality Enhancer and put it on Trey, I was seriously questioning the ethics of such technology. Perhaps it's just me, but such a device seems scary to have. You can literally find out what someone is thinking by making little adjustments on the device (as what happened to Horus), so I am glad that Whit called them out for doing such an experiment.

Tarol wrote:
Sat Jan 07, 2023 1:55 pm
I feel like Whit has been extra grumpy in this album for very little reason, and I'm not sure why. Is it really that awful to perform an experiment in his building when the student and their parents were fine with the experiment? This argument felt a little silly. I suppose he does have validity in the fact of using his coding without permission, however.
Well, I wouldn’t say he was necessarily unreasonably grumpy. Whit explained his reasoning for not allowing the experiment to go on. Not only because they used his technology without his permission (which is indeed a valid reason), but he also said that he wasn’t in favor of this type of technology. He doesn’t believe that personality enhancing should be done artificially. I’d have to agree with him. Also, indirectly referencing Novacom and their Novabox, Whit said it did not go well the last time they had something like this. Which is very true; I can imagine that after the world nearly being taken via his technology, I’m sure Whit isn’t going to risk allowing anything like that to happen again. So, I thought he had valid reasoning for not allowing it. But maybe that’s just me.


I have a feeling that this episode is the beginning of events that will play an important part in Odyssey’s future episodes: It establishes Renee as a new employee at Whit’s End that we will be seeing more of as we see less of Eugene. I also think that this episode will be important to future Novacom episodes. After all, it introduces what I believe is a piece of Imagination Station technology that can be used in the wrong ways. Maybe this will play into future episodes.

I do have more to say about this episode, but maybe in another post. For now I'll say that overall, I think this was a good episode and I look forward to hearing more of Renee’s story in the mainstream albums!
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Tarol
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Polehaus53 wrote:
Sat Jan 14, 2023 9:54 am
I found it humorous how Horus put on the Personality Enhancer and it immediately revealed his true thoughts for Renee and Renee makes him turn it off. :lol: Interesting setting they have on there.
This is kind of interesting, because we did have a previous episode with Horus and Renee flirting, but in the end we find both of them were not serious about their romantic interest. I wonder if this machine made Horus A. flirt with everyone, B. showed his inner feelings, or C. made him feel things he didn't even feel?
Polehaus53 wrote:
Sat Jan 14, 2023 9:54 am
Well, I wouldn’t say he was necessarily unreasonably grumpy. Whit explained his reasoning for not allowing the experiment to go on. Not only because they used his technology without his permission (which is indeed a valid reason), but he also said that he wasn’t in favor of this type of technology. He doesn’t believe that personality enhancing should be done artificially. I’d have to agree with him. Also, indirectly referencing Novacom and their Novabox, Whit said it did not go well the last time they had something like this. Which is very true; I can imagine that after the world nearly being taken via his technology, I’m sure Whit isn’t going to risk allowing anything like that to happen again. So, I thought he had valid reasoning for not allowing it. But maybe that’s just me.
I suppose my perspective is that Renee and Horus are adults and can experiment with things as they choose. I think there is a little controlling going on with how angry Whit gets. I think Renee of course should have discussed this with Whit and they could have talked about its benefits and problems. That's what scientists and researchers do. I just think Whit maybe overreacted a little bit in banning them from researching this. Maybe Whit just bothers me anymore for no reason, I don't know haha. I also think with the insantity of what has happened with the imagination box and Emily, I think Whit himself is on wierd moral grounds with manipulating people. I mean, Whit uses the imagination to enhance and teach students all the time - which in some ways is very different from personality enhancing but in other ways not. I do recognize this technology is somewhat analagous to Jason's use of the imagination station in "A Touch of Healing," and that was not successful either... In the end however, I do agree with you (and Whit) that this technology is not particularly helpful or necessary, and Renee and Horus should spend their time on something else. They did learn a valuable lesson about personalities and change which I think was very necessary and would have been learned from TREY and not from Whit refusing to allow them to experiment.
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Bob
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Broadly speaking, there are two areas of particular interest in this episode, one being the philosophical quandaries relating to and societal ramifications of this technology, and secondly the legal aspects. The potential downsides of the former seem obvious (although they escaped Renee), so I will focus primarily on the latter in this post. This album is a bit more law-centered than some of the others, something fans of "Blind Justice" and "A Victim of Circumstance" should appreciate.

Renee exploited her status as an intern to carry out her own agenda by "borrowing" a piece of his proprietary, trade secret technology, and carrying out experiments with it on a live subject, in Whit's End, all without either having or asking permission (probably because she knew all along that he wouldn't approve). This is already dubious, but Mr. Whittaker seemed to be willing to let it go with the equivalent of a 'cease-and-desist' warning. Afterwards, she, in my estimation, demonstrates dangerous ignorance of intellectual property rights laws.

Renee has the idea that, although she cannot directly use Mr. Whittaker's technology, she can go and implement her own version of it. She then tops it off by deciding to look at his schematics for reference. The former is already on shaky grounds, because Mr. Whittaker could very well argue that as a worker at Whit's End, Renee had access to information that she never would have come up with on her own. (After all, Horus is not unintelligent, and he felt he was at a dead end.) I think the latter, however, makes her behavior indefensible.

Maybe there is a difference between the laws that regulate software and hardware (although given the nature of the technology, I think the former would likely be applicable anyway). But I know that when you work with software, you have to be careful about how you handle replicating someone else's code, especially when it hasn't even been released. If Renee disassembled the hardware and software of a commercial product that Mr. Whittaker had been selling to the public, wrote a guide about how it works, and gave that guide to Horus so that he could write his own version (without having ever seen the original), she would probably be safe. But as-is, Renee's attempted actions seem best described as industrial espionage. Connie and Eugene were arguably fired for less, and in most cases, Renee would have faced civil and/or criminal consequences. The fact that he ends up hiring Renee as a full-time employee right after this shows what some might call a "reckless forgiveness". Mr. Whittaker can forgive and hire whoever he wants, and it isn't my purpose to question his judgement in that respect, but to point out that this was not a small affair. Rather than being grumpy, angry, or mean, Mr. Whittaker is actually unusually calm and lenient, by any reasonable standard.

From a production standpoint, I thought the episode was mostly fine. Ms. Pemberton had been doing a good job and losing her is disappointing, but the new actress is close enough not to be too jarring. As far as adult casting changes go, it is probably an above-average match, one of the better ones they've done. By the end of the episode, I can barely tell the difference.

I'm not sure they explained the backstory with her professor, Lebernis, sufficiently to people who have never had the Club. It is certainly a compelling and powerful point, given Renee's background, that helps drive home how she's gone astray, but if I didn't already know what had happened, I think I would feel like Jason in "Moving Targets" - "Who's Glossman?"

Although Whit might be a bit more forgiving here than he was in early episodes, I don't think we would have experienced any of the controversies that have plagued the show over the last few years if they consistently wrote him this way. His views on technology and children are in line with virtually all of his portrayals earlier in the show. It is also interesting how poised he is here, even when Renee nearly asks 'how can he be so stupid'. It contrasts with his previous episode, "Game Night", where he explodes after a prolonged interrogation from Jason, Jillian and Wooton. I suppose he lets his guard down with those he considers his close friends, while Renee is not in that inner circle.

I have no particular complaints or comments to make regarding Horus or Trey Calhoun at this moment, but that may change in the future.
A classic never goes out of style.
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