Ancient Geeks

Before Mulder and Scully, before Doctor Who, before Carl Kolchak, there was Professor Bernard Quatermass, scientist! The protagonist of several popular British TV series and movies, Quatermass defended the Earth from all sorts of cataclysmic threats. In this episode, we talk about Quatermass and the Pit, the movie version of a story that starts with stunning discoveries made while extending the London Underground. What are all these weird hominid skeletons? And what is this other thing...whatever it is...in the middle of them? How might this overturn our understanding of humanity's past, and even worse, how might it...

The Silmarillion was J.R.R. Tolkien's life's work. Seriously, he worked on it his entire adult life. Published posthumously, it tells the story of the first two ages of his world, focusing on the tragic history of the Elves, with a great deal of human tragedy thrown in for good measure. Plus the creation of the world, the plots of an evil god, and the further plots of his protege. It's more than a backstory to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit; it's a mythopoeic saga that stands on its own.

It's also a...

We wrap up our discussion of the pivotal second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation with our reviews of the rest of the episodes we didn't cover last week. There are some definite gems, but also some definite meh episodes, and some stinkers. But what does it mean to be a bad TNG episode? Whatever the Platonic ideal of badness is, Steven is more forgiving than Tom. Hear us put the rest of season two on the diagnostic table.

Picard squared! We make things go! We reach our peak! We have people follow us around and...

We continue our discussion of Star Trek: The Next Generation season two by discussing some of the must-watch and should-avoid episodes. There are classics like "Q Who," "Measure Of A Man," and "The Emissary." Not only are they really good, but they established characters, adversaries, and plot elements that continued to be important for the series. And then there are the regrettable episodes, like "Up The Long Ladder" and "The Child" that make you shake your head with disbelief that they did not learn the hard lessons from season one.

Both the good and bad episodes help...

We return to the 24th century for the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. We start our discussion with an overview of this pivotal season. What did we expect, when we watched season two for the first time, after the few highs and frequent lows of season one? How well did it live up to our expectations? What were the critical improvements made this season? And what might have happened if this had been the last season of ST:TNG?

In the next two episodes of this podcast, we'll review individual episodes of ST:TNG...

We finish our discussion of the first three Earthsea novels by Ursula Le Guin with The Farthest Shore. We see Ged, the magician, as an older man, risen to Archmage. There's something terrible happening in the world, extinguishing magic and driving people insane. Looks like the makings of a classic quest! Except, as with the other two Earthsea books that preceded it, The Farthest Shore is anything but your typical fantasy, and this is more than just a quest to hunt down The Big Bad. As is the case with any good literature, it also has important lessons to...

Continuing our coverage of Ursula K. Le Guin's first three Earthsea books, we turn to The Tombs Of Atuan. This time, the focus is on a female protagonist, Tenar, and her very dark coming-of-age story. She's the high priestess of one of the most depressing, oppressive religions in fantasy literature. Nevertheless, the adults in the temple keep telling her of how wonderful it is to be the spiritual leader of a faith centered on a lightless labyrinth and mute gods, all in the middle of a desert. Who wouldn't want that job!

It's a big shift from...

We begin our three-part coverage of Ursula K. Le Guin's classic fantasy series, starting with A Wizard Of Earthsea. It starts with a story arc that may sound familiar, a young magician finding his way in the world. But, as you'll hear, it's so much more than just another coming of age story with spells and dragons.

Steven read the Earthsea Trilogy (it was only the three books then) when he was young. Tom just read them. Both of us have a lot of praise to heap on the first book in the series.

It's...

The popularity of the original series of five Planet of the Apes movies meant there would be more than just a chain of sequels. In this episode, we talk about the POTA spin-offs of the 70s, including a short-lived TV series, a cartoon series that was definitely not written for children, and a series of black and white magazines from Marvel Comics. 

Plus, we talk about the enduring appeal of the original series of movies. Beyond nostalgia, what has made the POTA films a lasting part of popular culture? And, if we could rewind to the late S...

The fifth and final movie of the original Planet of the Apes raised expectations. It's going to be the last movie...and the title says that there will be a battle for the entire planet...and there are apes and mutants fighting on the movie poster. Great Cornelius' ghost! Bring on the battle!

What the movie delivered was a bit smaller.  Battle of the Planet of the Apes picked up just a few years after Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. In the interim, a lot has happened. And hasn't happened. But what will happen, in t...

Ever wonder how we went from the swinging Sixties and Seventies to the brutal oppression of apes over humans? Conquest of the Planet of the Apes tells that story. The child of Cornelius and Zira, whom we saw as a newborn in the last movie, is now all grown up now. He doesn't like what he sees, in a world where apes are enslaved, humans are decadent, the architecture is brutal, and turtlenecks are all the rage. As you might expect from the title, the status quo is about to endure a hammer blow!

Plus, since this...

Of course there would be more sequels after Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, even though it was designed to be the last. In fact, the chief purpose of Escape From The Planet Of The Apes was to make more sequels possible. World ended? Just go back in time before it was ended!

Come back with us to that time when Cornelius and Zira (plus unnamed baby) crash land on 1970s, and then get mistreated. And then turned into beloved celebrities. And then mistreated again.

The calmest evil scientist you'll ever meet! Boring scientists! The...

We wrap up our series in which we look at the first movies of directors who later made the classics of geek cinema. In this episode, we discuss John Carpenter's student film, later expanded for theatrical release, Dark Star. It's a low budget science fiction dark comedy in which a burned-out crew flies from planet to planet, destroying any that they deem "unstable." Of course, nothing's more unstable than these space cadets. 

Carpenter made Dark Star as the anti-2001, anti-Star Trek. It's also the first effort of a director who wanted to make great B-movies.

B...

We continue our series about the first movies made by directors who later made the classics of geek cinema. In this episode, we discuss Duel, a TV movie made by a very young Steven Spielberg. Starring Dennis Weaver, it's a deadly cat-and-mouse conflict between an average Joe in a Plymouth Valiant and the driver of the most monstrous of trucks.

In this early effort, what elements of Spielberg's style can you see that would later appear in Close Encounters, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, and other films? What did we think of this movie, then...

We begin a series of episodes about the first movies from directors who later made the classics of geek cinema.  In this first episode, we take a look at George Lucas' first feature film, THX-1138. A dystopian drama starring Robert Duvall and Donald Pleasance, this movie was based on Lucas' student film, Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB. (Frankly, we're stumped why Lucas didn't stick with this title.) The backstory is fascinating, including a significant role that Francis Ford Coppola played behind the scenes.

But what did we think of THX-1138, then and now? And more importantly, can you s...

Harrison Ford and Sean Connery? More Nazi villains? A Grail quest In spite of the disappointment of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, we said, "Sign us up!" And it was glorious!

A return to what made Raiders of the Lost Ark great! Exciting action scenes! Organic humor! Two different types of academics! Disturbing questions during Indy's faculty review! It's all here.  

Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D...

Of course there was going to be a sequel...

We had high hopes for the second Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Spielberg, Lucas, Ford...How could it go wrong?

As it turns out, it could go very badly. We debate how badly, and what were the reasons why this sequel failed to come close to the original. 

Was this Tom's first case of sequelitis? Leaving all the criticisms aside, what did we enjoy about the movie? How much better or worse did this movie seem, on rewatching it d...

You can hear the soundtrack start to play in your head already...

No history of early geekery would be complete without Raiders Of The Lost Ark. In this episode, we talk about the roots of this movie in serials like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, in the pulp magazines like Weird Tales and Argosy, and in radio dramas like The Shadow and Suspense. And of course, we talk about the movie.

What did we expect, when we heard that a high adventure movie was coming soon, from both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg? What was...

We take a detour from our normal reminiscences of geekery past to recruit our favorite Star Trek crews. Across all of Star Trek, from the original series to the modern era, whom do we pick for captain, first officer, chief engineer, and all the other leadership positions in a Star Trek crew? Who are the worst picks for these positions? Which ship do each of us want to staff? And whom would we hire from outside the Star Trek universe?

Hear two lifelong Star Trek fans wrestle over whom to recruit, and expect to hear some strong...

Aha! You thought we were done talking about Harlan Ellison! You fools!

Actually, this episode is less about Ellison, and more about the contents of the anthology, Dangerous Visions, which Ellison organized and edited. The book is full of stories from well-known writers, such as Philip K. Dick, Damon Knight, Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, and others, as well as lesser-known authors whose work Ellison decided to promote. Dangerous Visions pursued a new model for anthologies, and is one of the important landmarks in the history of science fiction, speculative fiction, whatever label you want to apply.

Planet Of The Apes was a classic. Beneath The Planet Of The Apes was supposed to be the sequel to end all ape sequels, just as World War I was supposed to be the war to end all wars. How did both of those efforts work out?

Beneath The Planet Of The Apes carried the deep distrust of human nature into another film. But now, with another astronaut (who looked a lot like the first astronaut), a first act that looked a lot like the first film, and then, it added psionic mutants and a sacred doomsday...

In an earlier episode, we said that 2001: A Space Odyssey was one of the greatest SF movies ever made. Arguably, the greatest. Also one of the greatest films, period. And then in 1984 came the sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact.

Was it as good as the original? Definitely not. But was it a good movie? A decent sequel? Good science fiction? An effective adaptation of the book sequel that Arthur C. Clarke wrote? We'll answer all these questions, and more, in this episode.

Strange happenings near Jupiter! My old buddy HAL! My old gal SAL...

In this episode, the last of our four-part series on Harlan Ellison, Steven and Tom discuss more of Ellison's works on the big and small screen.

Come for A Boy And His Dog, both the novella and the movie version. It's the rare film version of anything that Ellison wrote, and it's also not bad. You want to know what's really bad?

Stay for The Starlost, the monumentally awful Canadian science fiction TV series, based on Ellison's idea for a show set on a giant space ark. But it was so mangled that Ellison disavowed...

We continue our in-depth look at Harlan Ellison, the man and his works, with some of his most famous television scripts. "City On The Edge Of Forever" is, of course, one of the most famous and beloved episodes of the original Star Trek TV show. "Soldier" and "Demon With A Glass Hand" are two episodes written by Ellison for the science fiction anthology show, The Outer Limits. All three are at the apex of Ellison's writing for television, a medium with which he had a...how to say it...complicated relationship. He battled with Roddenberry over his Star Trek...

Last time, we talked about Harlan Ellison, the writer. This episode, we cover his writings. Tom and Steven review short stories, novellas, and essays that best exemplify his written work. How did we respond to his fiction, then and now? Was Ellison one of the best short story writers of his time? Can you separate the writer from the writing? Tune in to find out.

Harlequins! Five year-olds! Doppelgängers! Murderers! Timekeepers! Telepaths! Telepathic dogs! Whipped dogs! It's all here.

Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting th...

And so begins our multi-part look at Harlan Ellison, one of the most influential writers, editors, and personalities in the realm of "speculative fiction." In this first episode, we look at Harlan Ellison the public persona: the guy we knew from TV and radio interviews, convention appearances, writings about himself, and other avenues. Force of nature, pugnacious champion for a more serious take on the genre, nemesis of TV producers, editor of groundbreaking SF anthologies, champion of fellow writers, vocal critic of everything that he deemed wrong about the world — call him what you will, he left a deep im...

Don't panic! The jokes are still funny, decades after we first heard them. Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy combined dry British humor with science fiction tropes. Why did that chemistry work? Which of the different incarnations of the Hitchhiker's Guide was the best? And how many Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters could we consume?

Super-computers! Two-headed aliens! The end of the Earth! Bad poetry! Bureaucracy! Out-of-work philosophers! Improbability! It's all here.

Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science f...

One of the best SF movies ever made. Directed by one of the greatest directors ever. Co-written by said director and one of the most respected "hard" science fiction authors of the classic era. The movie that, in the last Sight & Sound poll, other film directors rated as their top movie, period. How have we not covered Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey before now? Perhaps we had not evolved enough...

Journey back with us when we were scratching our heads, trying to figure out this movie the way the Australophithecines were trying to...

When we were kids, Saturday afternoon cartoons were a staple of our popular culture diet. So, too, were weekday afternoon cartoons. Not surprisingly, we liked the really geeky ones that featured science fiction, fantasy, and superheroes. Space Ghost, Macross, The Herculoids, Starblazers, Super Friends, Battle of the Planets, Johnny Quest...These shows shaped our tastes, as well as those of a generation of geeks.

Annoying sidekicks! Too many monkeys! Superheroes in space! Giant robots! Giants in giant robots! A science fantasy world that's perpetually invaded! Child endangerment! Obscenely expensive merch! It's all here.

A...

We wrap up our in-depth coverage of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. We continue our discussion of some of the signature episodes of the season. How do they fall in the categories of good, bad, and meh? We finish with an overall evaluation of season one. Why wasn't it better? Why did we stick with it? And what are the lessons for other TV shows?

More ridiculous Ferengi! Flying pan pizzas! Space pushers! Holodeck honey traps! The worst of Jonathan Frakes! Worf gets pummeled again! It's all here.

Ancient G...

Steven and Tom review the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. We talk about the key episodes, such as the pilot, the death of a main character, and the re-introduction of the Klingons and Romulans. We review a sampling of the good, the bad, and the meh. (Quite a lot of meh.) We talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the first season, as we saw it when it first aired, and now that we've re-watched these episodes. 

The shaky pilot! The introduction of Q! That great Klingon episode! The Ferengi fail as foes! Standardized t...

In the mid-1980s, we heard that a new Star Trek series was on the way. But it wouldn't include anyone from the cast of the original series. It was to be set decades in a future, with a new Enterprise, a new crew, and a new adversary, but still helmed by Gene Roddenberry. How did we feel about the series, when it was announced? And what were our initial reactions, when it premiered?

In this episode, we journey back to the 80s to answer these questions, and provide some background on what was happening behind the...

An episode the size of the Alpha Quadrant! We go back to 1987, the year when Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered. In this first part of the discussion, we discuss the state of Star Trek at this time. This was a heyday for Star Trek subculture, full of movies, novels, reference books, tabletop games, computer games, comics, you name it. Star Trek was flourishing, all based on the original series. Plus, the conventions were popular destinations for Trek fans. And a whole new series was on the way. Journey back with us to this bustling era of Trekdom.

The second season of the political science fiction thriller Blake's Seven advanced and improved upon the first season. Characters and situations evolved as the crew of the Liberator continued their fight against the Federation. And the season ended on a cliffhanger that changed the show even further.  

Intrigue! Wardrobe changes! Surprise twists! Supercomputers! Clones! Telly-porters! It's all here.

Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doc...

In 1977, the other big science fiction film release, aside from Star Wars, was Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. Riding the wave of success from Jaws, Steven Spielberg wrote and directed the iconic UFO movie that was also a blockbuster success. From the special effects to the soundtrack, from memorable scenes to top-notch filmmaking, Close Encounters was a smash success, both commercially and artistically.

While Jaws had been a blockbuster movie, Steven Spielberg wasn't yet Steven Spielberg (spoken in hushed, reverential tones). Close Encounters made us stand up and take notice of him. It was a showcase...

When we were youngsters, first exploring science fiction, Isaac Asimov's robot stories were a must-read. The short story collection I, Robot, anthologized Asimov's stories that centered on the famous Three Laws Of Robotics, the rules that governed thinking machines in his fictional setting. Now, in the real world, the Three Laws Of Robotics are not just often-quoted among SF fans, but also among people developing robots and artificial intelligences in the real world.

In the history of science fiction, Asimov's robot stories were Important, with a capital "I." But how well do they hold up, when our...

The Terminator was a surprise hit. We knew something good was coming with the sequel, but we had no idea what. T2 exceeded expectations, with sympathetic characters (including a friendly Terminator), a solid script, practically non-stop action, and breathtaking special effects. Yeah, we liked it then, and we still like it. What makes it a great movie, but not a perfect movie?

Come with us back to the premiere of T2, when everything was unexpected. Catch phrases! Scary Sarah! A nice guy who's responsible for an apocalypse! Amazing (for the time) CGI! A closed time loop! It's...

We'll be back...with a new episode! We knew Schwarzenegger from Conan, But who was this James Cameron guy? It was a surprise hit, one of those "you gotta see this" films. Was it an action movie? A science fiction movie? Or two, two, two things in one?

Time travel! Bootstrap paradoxes! A climax in a factory! Guerrilla filmmaking! Unknown actors as the leads! Getting sued by Harlan Ellison! It's all here.

Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like s...

In the early 1970s, the most popular TV movie was The Night Stalker, the story of a scruffy, disreputable reporter chasing a vampire across Las Vegas. A sequel, The Night Strangler, came a year later. Produced and directed by a producer/director with a penchant for supernatural stories (Dark Shadows, Trilogy Of Terror, Burnt Offerings), and written by Richard Matheson (Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Star Trek, and more), these made-for-television movies had a fine geek pedigree, and it showed. The basis for a later television series with the same intrepid journalists, and a monster of the week, these were...

ZARDOZ IS PLEASED YOU ARE LISTENING TO THIS EPISODE! When John Boorman's movie Deliverance became a smash hit, Hollywood gave him $1.5 million to make any movie he wanted. The result? Sean Connery in a red leather thong, a giant stone head, and immortals who want to die. It's transhumanism, 1970s British style! Join us as we explore the dystopian, far future world of Zardoz. Was this as weird as people say? Or as bad? Listen to this episode to find out.

Crystals! A lot of Connery's chest hair! An eternity of doing household chores! Nudity! Guns! Mutants...