The Vox News logo.
Vox News is a holovision news channel featured in Deadlocked, and in the News Update feature on the Insomniac Games website prior to the game's release. It is a subsidiary of Vox Industries based in the Shadow Sector of the Solana Galaxy, and hosted by news anchors, Dallas Wanamaker and Juanita Alvaro, who also provided commentary during the matches. Weather forecasts were presented by Pepper Fairbanks, before she went on to become a news anchor in the Polaris Galaxy.[1]
The channel provided updates on the news around the galaxy and updates on the DreadZone fights, before Ratchet shut down Vox Industries. The coverage was greatly slanted towards the narrative pushed by Gleeman Vox for DreadZone, and as such, was very unreliable.
History[]
Before Deadlocked[]
Vox News had Dallas and Juanita as anchormen for six years prior to the events of Deadlocked, during which time Dallas sexually harassed Juanita[2] and still lived in his mother's basement. Dallas frequently veered off-script and questioned the source material, much to Juanita's frustration, as she stuck to it more closely.[3]
In the run-up to Ratchet's arrival on DreadZone, Vox News aired slanderous stories on Ratchet and his allies. This included accusing Sasha Phyronix of corruption,[3] and describing the defeat of Courtney Gears at the hands of Ratchet and Clank as being an attack by "deranged fans". Simultaneously, they spun a deal in which Gears signed over her rights to Vox as one favorable to her.[4] In the update of the last episode in the season before Ratchet's arrival, the duo gave a preview for what would be Captain Starshield's final battle, against Ace Hardlight, while Juanita poisoned Dallas's coffee.[5]
At some point, Pepper Fairbanks was a weather girl on the Vox Network when she was in a pictorial in "Women of Igliak".[6]
Deadlocked[]
Dallas and Juanita slandering Ratchet on Vox News.
Vox News reported on DreadZone updates throughout the show's run. Ratchet was initially written off by Dallas as "intermission material" during his match commentary,[7] but as Ratchet continued to surpass expectations, Vox News ran hit pieces against him. Among these were accusations linking him to organized crime (and calling him a "mafia crime boss"[8]), illegal sales of cigarettes to children, dabbling in the occult, and piloting a tanker ship filled with radioactive waste for Zexxon and crashing it into Aquatos while drunk.[9] The channel also described him as a "threat to children, endangered species, and common decency",[10] and brought up aspects of his past without context and using forged imagery, such as describing him as a member of "illegal hoverbike gangs".[11]
Dallas and Juanita on the final episode of DreadZone.
When Ace Hardlight was defeated, the channel ran coverage mourning Ace's loss, and further accused Ratchet of using performance-enhancing drugs.[12] In the final event when Gleeman Vox rigged DreadZone Station to self-destruct, both anchormen changed their view on Ratchet, rooting for him in their final update.[13] The anchormen later became the subject of a new holovision reality show, Juanita and Dallas, depicting a dysfunctional marriage between the two.[14]
Coverage[]
Vox News segments covered DreadZone, celebrity gossip, and brief political coverage. DreadZone was covered in Sports News[15] in updates on the performance of certain contestants. Their celebrity gossip coverage included hosting a "Celebrity Harassment Hour"[16] and segments named Galactic Glamour,[4] giving updates into their lives. Their coverage of galactic politics was brief, and most of the time revolved around rumors of personal scandals.[3]
Forged image of Ratchet in a biker gang.
Vox News' heavy slant towards a narrative pushed for DreadZone made its coverage highly unreliable. It provided slanderous commentary about some contestants, and fawning coverage for Vox Industries and its associates. The hosts also outright lied on air, claiming participation in DreadZone was entirely voluntary.[15] Vox News often used forged imagery, including images depicting Ratchet as a mafia crime boss owning a Maktar estate,[8] a forged image of his membership of hoverbike gangs,[11] and dubbing over viewers cheering Ratchet's defeat of Ace to pretend they criticized Ratchet.[12] The slant delivered by Vox News' coverage did not appear convincing, as seen with poor sales of Ace Hardlight merchandise and the popularity of Ratchet.[17]
Dallas and Juanita were extremely unprofessional. Dallas would often veer off-script and sexually harass Juanita on-air with crude comments,[18] which he later confessed to and apologized for.[2] Juanita responded to both with on-air violence[18] and poisoning Dallas's coffee on-air. Additionally, Juanita crushed on Ace Hardlight, Dallas noting she taped 72 pictures of him to her locker,[5] and Shellshock pointing to her Ace Hardlight underwear.[19] Beyond slanting the coverage, this led to Juanita leaving a Quantum-Demoleculizer in Hardlight's locker,[5] which biased the final match against Captain Starshield.
Citations[]
- ↑ A Crack in Time script § "Gimlick Valley"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Deadlocked script § "Destroy the Central Core (gameplay)"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Insomniac Games official website October 14 2005
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Insomniac Games official website October 24 2005
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Insomniac Games official website October 28 2005
- ↑ A Crack in Time script § "Gimlick Valley"
- ↑ Deadlocked script § "Time to Blow $!% Up!"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Deadlocked script § "News Break"
- ↑ Deadlocked script § "Climb the Tower of Power (gameplay)"
- ↑ Deadlocked script § "News Blues"
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Deadlocked script § "Yay Ace!"
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Deadlocked script § "Boo Ratchet"
- ↑ Deadlocked script § "Sneaky Lombax"
- ↑ Deadlocked, Extras § "Dallas and Juanita"
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Insomniac Games official website October 17 2005
- ↑ Insomniac Games official website October 19 2005
- ↑ Deadlocked script § "Under where?"
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Insomniac Games official website October 21 2005
- ↑ Deadlocked script § "Shellshock and the Twins"
References[]
- Insomniac Games (2005, October 14). "News Update". From Insomniac Games. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019.
- Insomniac Games (2005, October 17). "News Update - Sports News". From Insomniac Games. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019.
- Insomniac Games (2005, October 19). "News Update - Entertainment News". From Insomniac Games. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019.
- Insomniac Games (2005, October 21). "News Update - Action News Update". From Insomniac Games. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019.
- Insomniac Games (2005, October 24). "News Update - Entertainment News". From Insomniac Games. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019.
- Insomniac Games (2005, October 28). "News Update - Sports Update". From Insomniac Games. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019.
- Greg Off (2005). Ratchet Deadlocked Prima Official Game Guide [Book]. Prima Games. ISBN 0761552049.
- Insomniac Games (2005). Ratchet: Deadlocked [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 2.
- Insomniac Games (2009). Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 3.