sci-fi Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Have You SEEN This?

161 – Virtuosity

Russell Crowe menaces a hapless TV technician with a gun against a blue background in Virtuosity (1995)

Jen and Tim nineties nineties nineties nineties Denzel Washington nineties nineties virtual reality, nineties Russell Crowe nineties, nineties nineties nineties Virtuosity nineties!

Hear the whole episode over at our Patreon!

Read the AV Club interview with Kelly Lynch where she describes Denzel’s motive for doctoring the script for Virtuosity, as mentioned in the episode.

Per Tim’s recommendation, you could do a search on the World Wide Web, or you can check out an article about Kai’s Power Tools if you’d like to see some screenshots of that bonkers interface!

Also, if you missed it the first time around, listen to our episode about The Lawnmower Man, another cheesy 90s film from the director of Virtuosity.

152 – Spaced Invaders

Jen and Tim enjoy a silly 1990 comedy with startlingly good practical effects, Spaced Invaders!

Hear the whole thing at our Patreon!

Director/writer Patrick Read Johnson’s long-gestating nostalgia trip, 5-25-77, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 22, 2022. In the meantime, you can read Karina Longworth’s review of a cut of the film in 2008 from the now-defunct Sprout Blog. The director left a comment rebutting some of her criticism there (thank you, Internet Archive).

This Slate article sums up the probable facts behind the “War of the Worlds mass panic” myth quite well.

The song from Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds that Jen was talking about is “The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine.” Ulla!

147 – R.O.T.O.R.

Brad Overturf as the titular character in R.O.T.O.R. (1987) — To quote Bill Corbett: “We…SEE…HIM!!”

Jen and Tim finally tackle one of their shared albatrosses— the Robocop before Robocop, R.O.T.O.R.!

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon!

Isadora Fox wrote a piece in memory of actress Margaret Trigg for New York magazine back in 2004. The article details her struggles with disordered eating and poor mental health, but also serves as a eulogy for a legitimately talented person gone too soon.

You can also watch an entire episode of Aliens in the Family, the unlamented sitcom Trigg starred in for 8 episodes. By the way, Aliens in the Family was co-written by everyone’s least favorite “satirist,” Andy Borowitz.

Like abysmal independent films from the 80s? Why not try our episode on Things?

124 – Outland

Lobby card featuring Sean Connery in a scene from Outland, 1981

Jen and Tim revisit an old favorite, Peter Hyams’s “High Noon in Space,” aka Outland!

Jen is incorrect when she asserts that John Wayne was considered for the part of Marshal Will Kane in High Noon; Kramer and screenwriter Carl Foreman wanted a hot young star like Brando or Gregory Peck. Wayne, along with other Hollywood reactionaries including Hedda Hopper, did pressure Gary Cooper into withdrawing from a proposed production company headed by High Noon screenwriter and HUAC target Carl Foreman.

The story of High Noon and Carl Foreman is told at length in Glenn Frankel’s book High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic. You can read an excerpt on the Vanity Fair website.

By the way, you can browse the Outland press kit!

For more sci-western fun, try our episode on The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.!

123 – Apple TV+

Tim and Jen shred a selection of programs from awful neolib also-ran streaming service, Apple TV+!

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50+ bonus episodes!

Have you seen…Tim’s website?

Jen alludes at one point to the “Unicorn Killer,” Ira Einhorn. He claimed to have helped found Earth Day, but his account has been disputed. Conservatives still love to evoke him as emblematic of leftist depravity. He died in prison in 2020.

Jen also touched on the much-muddied concept of “emotional labor,” as originally described by sociologist Arlie Hochschild. Read Sharmin Tunguz’s article on how the term has been misappropriated.

When emotional labor has left the professional sphere and has entered the domestic realm; when it is used to describe a household list of domestic chores, whether or not those chores are done happily or grumpily, it has become diluted to the point of being in danger of losing its meaning. Yes, women do tend to shoulder more emotional labor in the workplace, and more attention on its health and professional repercussions means more attempts to alleviate it. But when contexts morph, and meanings change, are we still talking about the same thing?
Sharmin Tunguz via Psychology Today

Don’t miss our Nothing But Trouble episode with Matt Christman, by the way!

113 – The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

Jen and Tim revisit the greatest unfairly-cancelled single-season sci-fi western TV series of all time: The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.! If you thought we were going to say “Firefly” you have obviously never listened to our show before. Also Jen is finally able to air her feelings about Dixie for a mass audience. Spicy!

Drake meme with Firefly in the "no" position and Brisco County Jr. in the "yes" position — sorry, we’re correct

Check DVDTalk for information on the complete series on home media.

Whether you lived through it or not, you can peruse the 1993-94 prime-time television lineup for yourself.

For more cult TV, try our episode on Hammer House of Horror!

109 – M.A.N.T.I.S.

Newspaper ad for broadcast of the TV movie M.A.N.T.I.S.

What if Black Panther had been the pilot for a TV show, but when they went to series they took out Wakanda and most of the black people? You’d have M.A.N.T.I.S.! HYST superfan mugrimm joins Tim and Jen to talk about what was lost when the Sam Raimi/Sam Hamm/Rob Tapert pilot became a politically toothless show with white sidekicks.

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!

The documentary Jen couldn’t remember the name of is Call Me Lucky, and it was directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. It’s an account of the life of satirist and activist Barry Crimmins.

Want to hear about a more inept superhero telefilm? Why not listen to our episode about Captain America with MST3k and Rifftrax alum Bill Corbett?

107 – Krull

Ken Marshall wields the Glaive in Krull (1983) — literally who cares what this thing is called shut the hell up

Mike Rosen returns to fight Tim on the merits (or lack thereof) of cult 80s sci-fantasy film Krull! Jen moderates to the best of her ability!

Krull hit screens in 1983 and failed to make its money back, although it is beloved by the kind of people who liked Ready Player One.

For exhaustive contemporary coverage of Krull, visit the Internet Archive’s scanned copy of Starlog issue 76, from November 1983.

Special effects makeup artist Nick Maley seemed to enjoy making the film, judging by his reminisces.

One valiant effort to market the movie: Krull-themed weddings! To our knowledge, none of the brides or grooms have come forward to admit to their participation. But it’s hard to see how the movie missed with marketing concepts this good:

One [marketing gimmick] suggests approaching the local bakery about creating special pastries in the shape of the Glaive and dubbing them the punny ‘Krullers’. “Everyone knows what a cruller is…a tasty glazed donut. Now comes the Kruller…a tasty Glaived donut.
Tim Kirk via The Moving Arts Film Journal

For another fantasy misfire and more of guest Mike Rosen, try our episode on Ron Howard and George Lucas’s Willow!

106 – Planet of Storms

Still frame from Pavel Klushantsev's Planet of Storms (1962)

Tim and Jen return to Soviet filmmaker Pavel Klushantsev’s optimistic world of space exploration for 1962’s Planet of Storms! Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!

The original film is available on YouTube with English subtitles. If you’re curious about the 1955 Disney short Man in Space, you can watch it here, but you won’t actually learn much about the historical origins of rocketry.

See photos of the actual Venusian surface captured by some of the unfortunate Soviet probes we mentioned.

If you missed our Road to the Stars episode, listen to it here!

ERRATA: Jen speculates in the episode about the reason for the lack of cultural impact the film made in the United States. It turns out there’s a good reason. Planet of Storms didn’t arrive in the US in official, unadulterated home video form until some time in the 90s. As we mentioned, the film was cannibalized for two different American productions. One was Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, with new footage directed by eventual New Queer Cinema trailblazer Curtis Harrington. The other, as we mentioned in the episode, was Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women. They both suck.