Where No Pod Has Gone Before

Happy the Fourth of May! To commemorate this arbitrary day, we're taking a look back at the Disney era of the Star Wars franchise. We are also joined by a very special guest - a Star Wars expert - to help guide the conversation and fill in the gaps. Our discussion follows the franchise year by year since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012. We look back at all the movies and most of the TV shows and give a whole variety of takes as we go along. Culminating in a look ahead at the new release "The Mandalorian & Grogu," we also discuss how we ultimately feel about the franchise's direction and pitch our own ideas for what we would like to see. Do enjoy and like & subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And this being Star Wars, of course, feel free to leave a comment. We can't wait for everyone's very normal reactions!

A quick hop to Phoenix Station and down to Mars this week as we catch up on the last three weeks of "For All Mankind" Season 5. We begin with the fallout of Ed's actions from last time in Episode 3 (02:40). We then discuss the new beginnings and new characters throughout Episode 4 (46:11) and finally we unpack the heavy political intrigue of Episode 5 (01:14:07).For next Monday we will be doing a special episode celebrating the Fourth of May (*wink*) by discussing the Disney era of Star Wars. There's no way people will react disproportionately to that! . See you then!

We're back and ready to stand up and fight against humanity's biggest threat: AI slop. This week we're taking a deep dive into the fiercely original but wildly uneven "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die," the latest film from Gore Verbinski. We discuss the film's interesting use of AI as an apocalyptic threat, its muddled messaging and themes, and confusing ending. And of course we have to point out several times that it was shot in Cape Town, to our endless amusement. We hope you enjoy the show and please leave a like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!Join us next Monday as we catch up with our friends on Mars in the latest episodes of "For All Mankind" Season 5.

We're going old-school this week as we discuss the 1956 classic "Forbidden Planet," a film that looms large over the history of popular science fiction (as demonstrated by the number of times we compare it to "Star Trek"). A first-time viewing for us both, the old-school charms still worked wonders, and so we discuss possible reasons why we tend to prefer old analog effects. We also take a deep dive into the cultural context at the time and how that manifests in the film's story and themes - nuclear anxiety, intellectual scepticism, the birth of the space race, and unfortunate gender dynamics all weigh heavy on the film. We hope you enjoy the discussion. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe wherever you're listening. We will be back next Monday to unpack Gore Verbinski's latest release, "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die."

Hi, Bob.One of our favourite ongoing shows, "For All Mankind," is finally back and we're here to unpack the first two episodes of Season 5. We begin by catching up with all the old and familiar faces (underneath layers of make-up of course) in episode 1, "First Light" (11:29), before settling into the new season's conflicts and mysteries in episode 2, "The Hard Six" (57:59). We also weave in discussions about real-world missions, such as the recent launch of Artemis II, and ongoing efforts to seek out life in our solar system, and how they relate and rhyme with the show.As for next week's episode, we'll be checking out the 1956 classic "Forbidden Planet." Until then!

It's a big one this week as we tackle one of the most iconic sci-fi animes of all time, "Akira." In this episode we cover the film's groundbreaking technical scale and commercial success for the anime industry. We also dive into its themes of humanity's relationship with technology, the cyberpunk aesthetics and how they mirror 1980s Japan, and the spectre of nuclear disaster that looms over the film.And as for our next episode, we will be back on Monday discussing the first two episodes of the new season of "For All Mankind." See you then!

Titan Julian discuss movie. Amaze Amaze Amaze! This week we sit down and unpack the big-budget sci-fi movie on everyone's minds, "Project Hail Mary." Join us for a spoiler-filled conversation on the film, but also the original novel by Andy Weir, as we use it to guide ourselves along.We explore the classically exciting sci-fi set up of the film, the way it addresses it in grounded scientific thinking, the engaging and refreshing depiction of alien life, the optimism for our future, and of course the friendship at the centre of the film.We hope you enjoy the show and we will catch you next Monday with the iconic anime, "Akira."

School's out for the summer as we take one last look at Star Trek: Starfleet Academy with its final two episodes. Join us for recaps and reviews of "300th Night," an episode that mercifully was not about prom (01:23), and season finale “Rubicon” (or is it “Rubincon”?), a decent effort in wrapping up season one (43:41). We then discuss our general feelings on this season as a whole and look ahead to the uncertain future of the Star Trek franchise (01:36:56).As always, we will be back next Monday where we will be discussing the highly-anticipated new release “Project Hail Mary.” See you then!

We're back and this week we're using everything we have to try and make sense of the 2004 mind-bending cult classic "Primer." We discuss how its low-budget origins shaped it into the film it is, not just aesthetically but right down to the story and viewing experience. And of course we get into the nuts and bolts of the film's central time travel mechanics and try to make sense of that bonkers third act. Enjoy and of course we'll be back next Monday to discuss the final two episodes of "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy."

Back to school this week as we rejoin the cadets of Starfleet Academy. Join us as we open our discussions with the show's best episode so far in Come, Let's Away, as the cadets are confronted with the harsh realities of Starfleet service. We then move to one of the show's worst hours in Ko'Zeine, as we question just about every creative decision made here. We conclude with The Life of the Stars, which sees our cadets taking theatre class instead of doing Star Trek missions. We also ponder the ultimate question posed by this episode: Why wasn't this episode 7??We have our fingers crossed that the final two episodes will take us out on a high note. Those and the season as a whole well be covered by us in two weeks' time. As for next week, we'll be covering the 2004 mind-melter Primer, so as always enjoy and we'll see you then!

We're back for a special episode today as we welcome our first guest to the pod. Matthew is one of Julian's oldest friends and is now our in-house Alien expert. Alien: Romulus is our subject today - a film that divided opinion on release and that's no different on the pod. We get deep in the weeds on the film as we discuss the mechanics of modern franchise filmmaking, the use of practical effects and CGI, the importance of strong character dynamics, and (Spoiler Alert!) the ethics of using the likeness of dead actors.This was a really fun episode to record as we went deep on a franchise that means a lot to all three of us, so we hope you enjoy the show today! As always, we'll be back next Monday where we'll be catching up with our friends in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

Join us this week as we discuss Paul Verhoeven's 1987 sci-fi action satire RoboCop. We talk about the film's surprising depth as a piece of dystopian fiction, especially as it relates to Reaganomics and capitalism in general. The film also portrays media and media consumption as equally depressing and hilarious, and we discuss how this relates to our relationship with media today. It's also a film about a cyborg kicking ass and of course we talk about how enjoyable that is.As always we hope you enjoy the episode and we'll catch you next Monday for a chat about Alien: Romulus.

We're back in the Alpha Quadrant as we recap and review the last few weeks of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, and yes we're still struggling with character names...Join us as we cover Julian's worst nightmare come true in S01E03 (00:17), taking a sharp upturn with the season's best hour so far (26:41), before finally finding out what happened to Benjamin Sisko (54:30), a question that definitely hasn't been answered already...As always, we'll be back next Monday, and we have an exciting film prepared. Stay tuned to our Instagram for the announcement!

We're back! And today we're talking about Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Join us as we champion the film as among Spielberg's greatest works and touch on its history as first a Stanley Kubrick project. And as always we dive into the real-world implications of the film's themes and world. We'll be back next Monday to catch up on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

In today's episode, we discuss the underrated classic that is Robert Zemeckis' Contact, as based on the novel by the great Carl Sagan. We discuss the enormous influence of Sagan, not only in science but for ourselves. We also get into the weeds on the real life Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and discuss the implications that first contact would have on our world. We hope you enjoy the discussion and we'll see you again next week when we discuss Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

In this week's episode, we discuss the two-episode premiere of the new flagship Star Trek show, Starfleet Academy. We get straight into it with episode one (01:03), dissecting the ups and downs of the premiere and struggling to remember the names of several main characters, while also trying to figure out what the hell a tachyon is. We then get into episode two (34:27), our relief that this show seems to be real episodic Trek, and our feelings on the show going forward. We'll be back next Monday with our first movie, the 1997 classic Contact by Robert Zemeckis.

Welcome to our new podcast! In this special launch episode we give a little introduction to ourselves, discuss our love of sci-fi, and look ahead to the premiere of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Enjoy!