0:00

Hello listeners welcome

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to your November

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future frontiers episode

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where we talk about what's

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coming up on the podcast

0:11

what's coming on journey through sci-fi

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and what's coming up in sci-fi

0:15

in general in cinemas and on

0:18

TV how's it going James Not

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bad Matt, not bad, how are

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you? I'm good, it's post Halloween

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spooky season is over, I'm feeling

0:27

Christmas. Straight away, straight into November,

0:30

instant, bang, the shots change and

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I change, that's how I do

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it. Yeah, I did think it

0:37

was weird that you're wearing a

0:39

Christmas hat already, for the

0:41

podcast. Gotta break it in for the

0:44

big day. What day do you put

0:46

your Christmas decorations up on? Like is

0:48

it, do you wait till December or

0:50

do you do it in November? Pretty

0:52

late. No, I don't really do it

0:54

in November, I think. It's insane. Yeah,

0:57

you gotta let November be November,

0:59

right? Got fireworks to get through.

1:01

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, fireworks all before

1:04

all of that kind of stuff.

1:06

Yeah, there's been a lot this

1:08

month in terms of sci-fi films

1:10

out in the cinemas, but on

1:13

a different note from film and

1:15

TV, I managed to catch the

1:17

Stranger Things Theatre Show in London.

1:20

Yeah. How is that really really good?

1:22

It's it's one of those things

1:24

I didn't know what to expect and

1:26

it's been a while since I've watched

1:28

Stranger Things but the whole

1:31

show is basically a prequel of

1:33

the story behind the guy who plays

1:35

who becomes vector. So you

1:37

see like younger versions of

1:39

some of the parents in

1:41

Stranger Things and it's all

1:44

different actors but the staging

1:46

itself it's got this amazing

1:48

kind of rotating drum. So

1:50

scenes just move quite fluidly

1:52

and it feels like you're

1:54

watching like something on TV

1:56

or a film because it's very interact.

1:59

as well. They've got like a big

2:01

screen that pops up. You've got actors

2:03

coming from the aisles, all this kind

2:05

of stuff. It feels like it's sort

2:08

of all encompassing when you watch it.

2:10

But yeah, it was really good fun.

2:12

It's interesting to do like a prequel

2:14

to your show as a stage show.

2:17

More common these days, isn't it, doing

2:19

kind of a theater spin-off? Because it's

2:21

really profitable, isn't it, if you have

2:24

a successful theater show, because you can

2:26

tour that? It's like a nice extension

2:28

of the brand as well because I

2:30

feel like more shows are doing this

2:33

kind of thing. And also theatre is

2:35

kind of morphing into film and TV

2:37

in some ways because now you've got

2:39

like the Mrs. Doubtfire theatre show, you've

2:42

got Back to the Future, the musical.

2:44

It feels like they're making, I'm not

2:46

sure how I feel about them doing

2:48

this, I feel like theatre should be

2:51

theatre. but it feels like a lot

2:53

of films are becoming theater productions now.

2:55

Yeah, there's a bit of a, it's

2:57

like a fine line between a sort

3:00

of cynical cashing on an existing property

3:02

and... making theatre like an accessible experience

3:04

for everyone because I don't, you know,

3:07

it's expensive, it's really expensive and there's

3:09

limited, if you don't live in a

3:11

big city, there are limited options for

3:13

your theatre that's unlikely to be more

3:16

than one theatre in your town if

3:18

you're not in a big city. So,

3:20

you know, there's something to be said

3:22

for making it an accessible experience that

3:25

more people will go to versus yeah,

3:27

just like just to cash in on

3:29

Mrs. production in particular I haven't seen

3:31

it but you know you mentioned it

3:34

as an example. I think there is

3:36

still something about seeing those actors live

3:38

and seeing the live productions like when

3:40

they did stuff like they did a

3:43

thing called Secret cinema didn't they where

3:45

they'd put on productions of films in

3:47

real life and recreate the sets they'd

3:50

do stuff like Star Wars the Shawshank

3:52

redemption and it would be fully interactive

3:54

sets and actors so you like you

3:56

were in the film and all of

3:59

that kind of stuff's quite interesting to

4:01

me just it's it's making you more

4:03

part of what you love but then

4:05

cinemas are very different things it's supposed

4:08

to feel a bit detached from what

4:10

you're seeing yeah yeah that I guess

4:12

it is yeah interesting we can talk

4:14

about that detachment and interaction a bit

4:17

later when we talk about the films

4:19

that we've seen this month. Interesting. Well,

4:21

do you want to get into that?

4:24

We talked about what was coming out

4:26

in October and what we were going

4:28

to go and see. You've seen a

4:30

lot more than I did. What have

4:33

you seen this month or last month?

4:35

Well, I feel like I've lived in

4:37

the cinema this month because I've caught

4:39

most of the films we talked about

4:42

in last month's future frontiers episode. So

4:44

the first one I caught this month

4:46

was joker fully adieu. Well that's nice

4:48

just sounds lovely. I don't know, that's

4:51

how I want to hear it. I

4:53

had to really struggle finding out how

4:55

to like pronounce that as well. I

4:57

don't even know if I pronounced it

5:00

properly now and I'm sure. I didn't

5:02

catch it is that is that term

5:04

not used in the in the film?

5:07

No, no, not at all. Not that

5:09

I remembered anyway and I remember when

5:11

we talked about it last episode we

5:13

just called it Joker. Just to make

5:16

it easier. How was it? I didn't

5:18

watch it in the end. I was

5:20

excited for it and then everyone said

5:22

it was terrible. Yes, it's been very

5:25

polarizing hasn't it? I didn't love it.

5:27

I did not love it. That's quite

5:29

surprising because you're quite generous especially with

5:31

comic book related films. Yeah, it's this

5:34

weird, it basically, it feels like Todd

5:36

Phillips never wanted to make a joke

5:38

a film. which is probably fair, but

5:41

apparently he had a lot of... Well

5:43

I don't think anyone forced him... No,

5:45

no one forced him to, but he

5:47

went ahead and made it anyway. And

5:50

then this one, it feels like DC

5:52

fans would have wanted to see the

5:54

Joker become the Joker in this. Whereas

5:56

it feels more like you're seeing a

5:59

very troubled man... and going through a

6:01

lot of like trauma throughout the

6:03

film and sort of inventing this

6:05

persona and it goes down

6:07

more that kind of roots and

6:10

it's like the majority of it

6:12

is set in a courtroom you

6:14

see lots of courtroom stuff you

6:16

see lots of stuff in cells

6:18

it gets very bleak at times

6:21

and then out of nowhere there'll

6:23

be a musical fantasy sequence which

6:25

is meant to shift the tone, but

6:27

I don't know what it serves to

6:29

move any of the story along. So

6:32

it's kind of, it's got like

6:34

some interesting bits, but it

6:36

doesn't quite connect. And I can

6:38

see why like major DC fans wouldn't

6:41

have liked it. And I can see

6:43

why just pure cinema fans didn't

6:45

like it because it felt like

6:48

it was a bit, I don't know

6:50

what comment it was making. It

6:52

was just a bit there and a

6:54

bit there. Oh right, okay. That's a shame.

6:56

I saw all the sort of polarized opinions

6:58

and I went on a bit of a

7:01

journey of like, oh maybe I won't bother,

7:03

and then I started to think, oh maybe

7:05

I do need to see this, because some

7:07

people really hate it and some people seem

7:09

to really like it. But you saw another

7:12

polarizing film, didn't you? Yeah, I went to

7:14

see Megalopolis, which I was really desperate to

7:16

see actually, because it was already having a

7:18

very polarized response, although mostly negative, I suppose,

7:20

in terms of the reviews of the reviews

7:23

of it. But I got in my

7:25

head that I desperately needed to see

7:27

it in the cinema because I thought

7:29

it was going to be maybe crap,

7:31

but maybe also like a bit of

7:33

a visual feast, you know, the sort

7:35

of thing you really need to see

7:37

on the big screen. And you know,

7:40

there was this, did you hear about

7:42

this audience interaction? So speaking of interactivity

7:44

with your multimedia sort of experience. There

7:46

was supposed to be a scene where...

7:48

the audience interacts with it. Yeah and I

7:50

was really puzzled by that because it seemed

7:52

like it was only on a very certain

7:54

times throughout the day at least at all

7:56

the cinemas that I could see and I

7:58

wondered if that was why. No, I don't

8:00

think so. I think it was

8:03

only on at certain times because

8:05

it was a massive sort of

8:07

financial failure to be honest with

8:09

you. Yeah, I ended up taking

8:11

half a day off work to

8:13

see this film because even in

8:16

its second week, it's second week

8:18

screening at my cinema, they shunted

8:20

it to just one screening a

8:22

day at about one o'clock in

8:24

the afternoon. And I was obsessively

8:26

the idea of seeing it in

8:28

the cinema, so yeah, I took

8:31

half a day off work. to

8:33

go and see it. It was

8:35

probably not as bad as everyone

8:37

is saying, probably about as weird

8:39

as everyone is saying, a genuinely

8:41

strange film but ultimately just a

8:44

film, not like this utter... catastrophe

8:46

that everyone is making out to

8:48

me. It's not great, and it's

8:50

definitely flawed, but you know, there

8:52

is some really interesting visual flare.

8:54

All of the actors are going

8:57

completely insane and often in different

8:59

ways, like the tone between the

9:01

performances can sometimes be not complementary,

9:03

like Shila Buff is amazing in

9:05

it, to be fair, and so

9:07

is Adam Driver, but they're both...

9:09

acting completely insane and in ways

9:12

that seem to exist in different

9:14

sort of fictional universes. So it's

9:16

just it's very clunky. There's also

9:18

the main characters called Caesar and

9:20

his sort of art rival is

9:22

called Cicero and you might recognize

9:25

those names, obviously, you know, Caesar,

9:27

and Cicero is also a contemporary

9:29

Roman of Julius Caesar. And I

9:31

knew that much, but I knew

9:33

nothing else about Cicero, and I

9:35

don't know very much about Julius

9:38

Caesar. And you immediately feel like,

9:40

wow, I should know more about

9:42

Caesar and Cicero to understand what's

9:44

going on in this film. It's

9:46

a real like, it's set in,

9:48

I think it's set in new

9:50

Rome. It's very obviously New York,

9:53

but the word York is exchanged

9:55

out for Rome, it's New Rome,

9:57

and it's all about the transition

9:59

from... the Roman Republic to the Roman

10:01

Empire but setting the sort of fictional

10:03

modern day. So you feel on the

10:05

back foot if you don't know very

10:08

much about the transition from the Roman

10:10

Republic to the Roman Empire and Cicero.

10:12

So that kind of left me on

10:14

the back foot. So I was a bit

10:16

frustrated about that. The audience

10:18

direction scene. This is what I

10:20

want to know about. There's nothing.

10:22

There's no audience interaction whatsoever. Like I'd

10:25

seen it. It's the only bit of

10:27

it that I had sort of seen

10:29

a bit of a spoiler of,

10:31

because I had seen a clip

10:33

on Twitter of someone talking

10:35

to the screen. But there's

10:38

no encouragement to stand up,

10:40

like the house lights didn't

10:42

come on. There's just a

10:44

scene where Caesar is like

10:46

giving a press conference

10:48

and he's kind of looking down

10:50

into the, he's just delivering...

10:53

a monologue. So the only interaction

10:55

you could have is maybe ask

10:57

the question that he responds to

10:59

if you knew what that question was,

11:01

if you know what I mean? Like

11:03

I don't know if there's another cut

11:06

of the film that is more

11:08

edited to audience interaction, but it

11:10

was non-existent. Anyway, it's a weird

11:12

movie. I'm really glad I watched

11:15

it. It has stuck with me

11:17

more than most films do, and

11:19

I think about it a lot. There's

11:21

some mad stuff about... I don't

11:23

want to give spoilers but certain

11:25

abilities that characters have that are

11:27

almost supernatural in nature but have

11:29

nothing to do with the plot

11:31

and are never used in the

11:34

film. Wow! Wow! So they've got

11:36

weird powers that mean nothing. One

11:38

of them does, yeah, and if

11:40

you've seen the film you'll mind

11:42

someone I mean. And yeah, it's

11:44

just extremely strange, it looks weird,

11:46

it doesn't always look bad, sometimes

11:48

it looks a bit cheap and

11:50

bad, but always... kind of interesting.

11:52

It's a really interesting film, James.

11:54

I do think you should see it, but

11:57

no one, no one needed to race to cinemas

11:59

like I did. me some great production facts

12:01

about it afterwards as well like Francis

12:03

Ford Coppola, France, how did he make

12:06

him suddenly? Yeah he's been trying to

12:08

make it for I don't know 30

12:10

40 years like he's had the he's

12:13

wanted to do this this grand fall

12:15

of a fall of civilization as we

12:17

know it film transitioning to it to

12:20

a new world. He's had that idea

12:22

for a long time and he's been

12:24

proactively trying to make it since. since

12:27

the early 2000s. He's obviously a very

12:29

successful filmmaker, but he hasn't had a

12:31

successful film in a while. And in

12:33

that time he's become independently wealthy as

12:36

a wine maker. So he spent something

12:38

like $120 million of his own money

12:40

to finance it, just from the wine.

12:43

That's just his wine business funded that.

12:45

So, and it, I don't know, it

12:47

didn't make very much money, which... I

12:50

mean the writing was on the wall

12:52

just with kind of the early reviews

12:54

and the early screenings of the film

12:57

but you feel a little bit bad

12:59

for him but he's also it's just

13:01

a you know it's an incredibly hubristic

13:04

thing to want to make this thing

13:06

and obviously you could afford it if

13:08

you got 120 million dollars of wine

13:11

money you know if that's what you

13:13

want to do then then you either

13:15

do that you end up buying a

13:17

social media network right if you got

13:20

all that money so like you're free

13:22

to do that with your money I

13:24

suppose that with your money I suppose

13:27

that with your money I suppose that's

13:29

that's his prerogative but I don't think

13:31

it's made him a great deal of

13:34

money back but he did what he

13:36

wanted to do yeah I mean more

13:38

power to him for doing that but

13:41

I'm just I love that you took

13:43

a half a day off work to

13:45

watch this as well like the dedication

13:48

to see watch a mildly disappointing film

13:50

yeah brilliant in terms of other films

13:52

that are out this month I also

13:55

caught Transformers 1 and I was really

13:57

surprised about how much I like this

13:59

I didn't think, because it's like it's

14:02

got more comedy in it. You've obviously

14:04

got Key Good, Michael Key, as Bumblebee.

14:06

You've got like this great voice cast.

14:08

You've got... Steve Bashamie in there a

14:11

star screen. Scarlett Hanson's Alita one. Megatron

14:13

is played by Brian Tyrie Henry, Chris

14:15

Hemsworth with Opismus Prime. It's like Lawrence

14:18

Fishburns in there as well as Alpha

14:20

Trion. It's got a great voice cast.

14:22

I was like, okay, so they've got

14:25

a good voice cast. It'll probably just

14:27

be, be okay. Yeah. But. They really

14:29

have fun with it because I think

14:32

I saw this after I saw Joker

14:34

and Joker was just so disappointing to

14:36

me. Watching Transformers One was just more

14:39

upbeat, more pacing, brighter, obviously it's animated

14:41

and I think Josh Cooley has done

14:43

a really good job with this film.

14:46

I was just completely surprised by how

14:48

much I liked it considering it's a

14:50

Transformers film and Transformers is like notoriously

14:52

bad when it comes to... films and

14:55

sequels ever since Michael Bay came along

14:57

and did however many sequels they've been.

14:59

And I often sing the praises of

15:02

Bumblebee, that film, because that felt like

15:04

had more heart to it. That was

15:06

good. But this one feels like it's

15:09

more along those lines. And there's like

15:11

funny laugh out loud moments. It doesn't

15:13

take itself too seriously. Obviously it's a

15:16

ridiculous concept, but also it's kind of

15:18

going back to basics and explaining. what's

15:20

happening on Cybertron before, which is the

15:23

planet where they all live. Yeah, it's

15:25

really good. I really enjoyed that one,

15:27

way more than I was ever expecting

15:30

to. So yeah, Transformers One was one

15:32

of the ones I caught. Also caught

15:34

Wild Robot. Yeah, that looks quite good.

15:37

Yeah, this was like, it's just heartwarming.

15:39

It's a robot who is raising a

15:41

goose. it learns like how all of

15:43

the other animals interact as well and

15:46

it's kind of like saves them from

15:48

the winter and becomes friends of a

15:50

bit with a fox it's all the

15:53

kind of weird stuff you wouldn't expect

15:55

a robot to do is it like

15:57

a friendly version of scavenging is rain?

16:00

In some ways yes in some ways

16:02

yes and it's just very heart warming

16:04

and it's like a nice one you

16:07

can take your kids to and yeah

16:09

it'll get you in your fields so

16:11

yeah wild robot accord and also venom

16:14

free. Okay how was that? I mean

16:16

I know the reviews haven't been great

16:18

to it but first off I was

16:21

just shocked that they managed to get

16:23

a trilogy out of these venom films.

16:25

Yeah, yeah. That's an astonishing story. That

16:27

was just astonishing to start off with.

16:30

Tom Hardy looks very different now to

16:32

how he looked in venom too. How

16:34

so? He just looks a bit more

16:37

worn down by life. Let's put it

16:39

that way. Oh no. Sorry. But I

16:41

think it worked for his character of

16:44

Eddie Brock though, because it's like, look,

16:46

he's gone through... some shit in the

16:48

past couple of films and he's always

16:51

just a bit bumbling now as well

16:53

like they make a whole joke in

16:55

this film about how he doesn't have

16:58

any shoes the whole time he keeps

17:00

losing his shoes and it's a really

17:02

it's a really random joke to have

17:05

in there to be some sort of

17:07

narrative Fred throughout it yeah but they

17:09

had that they do throw in like

17:12

a bunch of other venums at the

17:14

end so it's like let's have every

17:16

multi colored bellum that you can think

17:18

of that has some sort of relevance

17:21

to the comics. They kind of threw

17:23

that in at the end. They already

17:25

have like teases about some big bad

17:28

which could be in a different film,

17:30

but this one very much feels like

17:32

the final chapter for Tom Hardy and

17:35

Venem. It feels like a rounding off

17:37

of that. Three Venem movies there's plenty

17:39

enough for any actor I'm sure. I

17:42

also found out that Tom Hardy... is

17:44

has like a rap alias. Does he?

17:46

What's his name? Uh, face puller or

17:49

Frankie Polwitzer. It was great. And he's

17:51

actually really good. Is he? I don't.

17:53

He's on an album with one of

17:56

the guys from Wootang. It's called Sarface.

17:58

It's a group called Sarface. And I

18:00

noticed because at the end of the

18:02

film, they played this rap song. It

18:05

had like Method Man on Inspector Deck.

18:07

And I was like, oh, who's this

18:09

other guy? And turns out it's Tom

18:12

Hardy. And Tom Hardy is known for

18:14

having this rap alias years ago and

18:16

having like putting out a mixtape, which

18:19

everybody thought was rubbish. But now he's

18:21

just like secretly doing rap songs in

18:23

an American accent. and creating this kind

18:26

of rap alias and doing all these

18:28

songs with the Wootang, which I was

18:30

just like, wow, that's great. Is it

18:33

a song made for the soundtrack? This

18:35

one was made for the soundtrack, but

18:37

he's also done other songs with Tsar

18:40

Face under this alias. So yeah, if

18:42

you look up Face Puller, you'll be

18:44

able to find Tom Hard in wrapping,

18:46

yeah. Great. So quite a big month

18:49

for movies in the cinema, you've been

18:51

a busy boy, haven't you? Yeah, or

18:53

it's busy or is it just like

18:56

sitting in front of a screen in

18:58

the darkness? It's time consuming. It's time

19:00

consuming. That's a kind of busy. It's

19:03

eating into my time, sitting and doing

19:05

nothing. But yeah, so I've been doing

19:07

a lot of that in the cinema.

19:10

What about on TV? What have you

19:12

been watching? Oh, I've been sat on

19:14

the sofa watching a bunch of rubbish

19:17

as well. So when you're not sat

19:19

in the cinema, you sat on the

19:21

sofa? Just permanently sat on the sofa.

19:24

Always that. When I'm not at work,

19:26

I'm sat watching a film or a

19:28

show. In terms of shows, I've been

19:31

back on the anime. I said I

19:33

was watching Attack on Title last time.

19:35

I've started watching a new show, which

19:37

I think falls into sci-fi. It's called

19:40

Dandadan. Dandadan. I guess it has an

19:42

amazing theme tune, because I didn't know

19:44

how to pronounce this when I first

19:47

read it. It was like, it's Dan

19:49

Dandadan. And the theme tune goes. danda

19:51

danda danda danda danda danda danda danda

19:54

danda it's great and it's like this

19:56

like Japanese rap again on the rap

19:58

vibes but it's it's brilliant and the

20:01

The premise for this show is there's

20:03

two high school teenagers. One of them

20:05

believes in aliens, the other one believes

20:08

in ghosts, and they dare

20:10

each other to go to these

20:12

two places. One which is renowned

20:14

for having alien abductions. The other

20:17

one is renowned for having spooky

20:19

ghosts, and neither of them believe

20:21

in either of these. And then they

20:23

both end up having encounters with

20:26

aliens and ghosts. Some weird

20:28

weird shit happens the

20:31

boy ends up having his

20:33

His banana removed.

20:35

I think they refer to it

20:38

as his banana. Okay

20:40

removed by a demon

20:42

called turbo granny So he

20:44

is fighting to get his

20:47

his appendage back

20:49

from turbo granny and

20:51

on the other side of the things

20:53

the the girl is abducted by aliens

20:55

and lots of stuff happens there and

20:57

it's absolutely bonkers but I was totally

20:59

bonkers yeah yeah okay what TV have

21:02

you been watching them that well I'm

21:04

still working my way through Picard and

21:06

it's still good I'm still happy with

21:08

that can recommend that and then outside

21:10

of sci-fi all of Nathan for you

21:12

has recently been put on hammers and

21:14

prime yes have you ever watched any

21:16

of that so good Yeah, I'm a

21:18

big fan, but I'd only ever seen

21:21

season one before, so I've been working

21:23

my way through that. It's just incredible,

21:25

if anyone hasn't seen that. I know

21:27

it's not sci-fi, but yeah. How would

21:29

you explain Nathan for you

21:31

to someone? Nathan Fielder is a,

21:33

he is a comedian and is

21:36

a comedy, but he is absolutely

21:38

dead pan style of humor, and

21:40

he plays a kind of amateur

21:42

business consultant. So he finds a

21:44

business each episode and... suggests

21:47

a way for them to improve

21:49

their business, gets them to

21:51

do it. The humor comes from

21:54

the plans are obviously always

21:56

a little bit silly or

21:58

outlandish. The real humor... though

22:00

is that these are real people

22:02

that he finds and he genuinely

22:04

seems to find some of the

22:06

most insane people in in the

22:08

world and they end up saying

22:10

the most incredibly revealing things about

22:12

themselves and he just runs with

22:14

that strangeness while never breaking character

22:16

as this socially awkward business consultant

22:18

basically it's incredible he's so good

22:20

the character is just brilliant and

22:22

I don't know how much of

22:24

it is character and how much

22:26

of it is character and how

22:28

much of it is Well I

22:30

want to work my way through

22:32

Nathan for you and then his

22:34

other show the rehearsal and then

22:36

the curse as well I'm most

22:38

interested to get to the curse

22:40

where he is actually he wrote

22:42

it and it's a drama and

22:44

he acts in it because that

22:46

that I've never seen him not

22:48

be Nathan Fielder and not being

22:50

character so I want to see

22:52

you know any kind of desperate

22:54

for him to not be like

22:56

that. Desperate to see another side

22:58

to him and a crack in

23:00

that facade. Yeah who's in that

23:02

with him. Demastone. Yeah, I'm hearing

23:04

lots about that. Yeah, it looks

23:06

good. We have to keep us

23:08

updated on that man, definitely. I

23:10

will do. We've also got an

23:12

indie pick for this month as

23:14

well. You know, we're both Benson

23:16

and Moorhead fans. Absolutely. And we

23:18

talked about something in the dirt

23:20

over on Patreon, like a few

23:22

months back, quite a few months

23:24

back now, and Michael Felca. who

23:26

is a frequent collaborator of Benson

23:28

and More Heads. He's in the

23:30

Benson, the More Head averse. He

23:32

is, he's in, the more, is

23:34

there a more snappy name we

23:36

can have for that? Benson, we'll

23:38

workshop it, yeah, we'll bring it

23:40

to the workshop. So he has

23:42

been the editor, he was the

23:44

editor on the Endless, he was

23:46

the editor on something in the

23:48

dirt, and he has now directed

23:50

his own film called Things Will

23:52

Be Different Will Be Different. I

23:54

saw this recently and was very

23:56

impressed. And if you're a fan

23:59

of Bends on the Moorhead, it's

24:01

all of that stuff you like

24:03

about their work. Eerie, weird sci-fi,

24:05

time elements going on. trying sort

24:07

of like to work out this

24:09

kind of mystery box thing. It's

24:11

got all of that stuff in

24:13

there. The film is called Things

24:15

Will be Different. So this is

24:17

going to be out on Blu-ray

24:19

and digital downloads from 18th of

24:21

November. So it's about this brother

24:23

and sister who are fleeing the

24:25

police after a robbery. They're both

24:27

estranged and they go to this

24:29

mysterious farmhouse which transports them to...

24:31

somewhere and we're not quite sure

24:33

what's going on there but it's

24:35

a very interesting watch so that

24:37

would be my indie pick off

24:39

the month as well. Is that

24:41

it? A magical safe house. Now

24:43

we wait for time to pass

24:45

in our present and we head

24:47

back make sure we're clear. Where's

24:49

the key? There's gonna be a

24:51

key somewhere right? There never was

24:53

a key! Hello?

25:01

You shouldn't be here.

25:03

The cycle is delicate.

25:06

Time is in kind

25:09

to the displaced. I

25:11

can't take it anymore.

25:14

There's no going home.

25:17

Is that what you

25:19

really think? Was that

25:22

supposed to mean? You

25:25

are working with them.

26:02

Why are you doing this? Yeah,

26:04

I'm really excited to see that.

26:06

It looks pretty cool. I mean,

26:08

aside from that, it's pretty quiet

26:10

on the sci-fi front for films

26:12

coming out in November, isn't it?

26:14

But there is one major release

26:16

that might make up for all

26:18

of that. Dune prophecy is on

26:20

the way this month on Sky.

26:23

Yeah, I thought you were gonna

26:25

say Red One. Is that a

26:27

red one, the Christmas action movie?

26:29

Yeah. Put one with Dwayne Johnson

26:31

and Chris Evans and Fighting Snowmen

26:33

and yeah, it looks bonkers that.

26:35

I mean, I'm definitely going to

26:37

see that. But then a Christmas

26:39

film out in November, I'm not

26:41

sure. Does that mean they haven't

26:44

got faith in it or they've

26:46

got a lot of faith in

26:48

it? It's going to stay in

26:50

cinemas till New Year's Day. I

26:52

mean, I mean, red one looks

26:54

fun. It looks good for the

26:56

kids, doesn't, doesn't it? I know

26:58

when I'm not the target audience

27:00

or something so I'm not going

27:02

to engage with that too much.

27:05

Yeah, I mean getting Dwayne Johnson

27:07

and Chris Evans on something to

27:09

team up will be quite fun,

27:11

but yeah, maybe not our thing

27:13

per se, but I'm still probably

27:15

going to watch it because I

27:17

live in the cinema apparently. But

27:19

doom prophecy is on the way,

27:21

I'm really excited for this. I'm

27:23

keeping my expectations a little bit

27:26

low because this isn't Denisevial nerve

27:28

and it's... I think based on

27:30

non-Frank Herberty stuff, I'm not sure

27:32

how much is, how much it's

27:34

from prequels and how much is

27:36

from the original novels, backstory, but

27:38

it looks really cool. It's got

27:40

the look of the films and,

27:42

you know, I'm happy to have

27:44

some more, some more dune live-action

27:47

content. That's exciting. I've been surprised

27:49

about how dubious you are about

27:51

this, given, I mean, that makes

27:53

sense now you've explained it, like

27:55

it's not. like a really long

27:57

time in the past in the

27:59

time. and Frank Herbert wrote about

28:01

that, but he didn't set any

28:03

books in that time. It's all

28:05

the stuff that's been done posthumously

28:08

by his son that actually delves

28:10

into that timeline in detail. And

28:12

I'm not even sure if this

28:14

is actually adapting that directly, or

28:16

it's just sort of taking some

28:18

of the history and sort of

28:20

adapting it into a TV series.

28:22

Yeah, no, I'm definitely excited. I'm

28:24

just... I don't want to get

28:26

too excited because I just don't

28:29

think it's going to be as

28:31

good as the movies. So I

28:33

want to meet it on its

28:35

own terms rather than getting all

28:37

hyped up about it and then

28:39

being like, hmm, it wasn't as

28:41

good as the film, you know.

28:43

Well, let's give it a chance.

28:45

Exactly. Yeah. The sisterhood draws women

28:47

from many worlds to advance our

28:50

species and govern the future. The

28:53

Imperium is fragile. The Great Houses

28:55

fight control. Now is the time

28:58

to secure the serum and protect

29:00

the Imperium. This endangers everything. There

29:02

are secrets we have gone to

29:05

great lengths to keep. Yeah, so

29:07

that's coming out later this month.

29:09

I think it's coming out on

29:11

Sky over here in the UK.

29:14

So what's that now TV? Yeah

29:16

now TV from the 18th of

29:18

November, given my high-tech Intel, which

29:21

may or may not be wrong,

29:23

but it'll be sometime in November

29:25

apparently. It's on its way. And

29:28

we've got Silo Season 2 coming

29:30

out. You watched Silo Season 1,

29:32

didn't you? Yeah, I've read all

29:34

the books as well. Have you?

29:37

Yeah, I'm a big fan of

29:39

this series. It's, yeah, it's really

29:41

interesting. So I would recommend that.

29:44

It's on Apple TV, from 15th

29:46

November Series 2. You can catch

29:48

up on Series 1 at the

29:50

moment as well, obviously. It's basically

29:53

a bunch of people all living

29:55

in this Silo. They've got this

29:57

whole civilization in there and they've

30:00

got... I mean I don't want

30:02

to get into it too much

30:04

but it's a really interesting science

30:06

fiction TV show. At the end

30:09

of the last series had a

30:11

big sort of cliffhanger which I

30:13

know gets resolved at the star

30:16

of series too. So yeah, recommend

30:18

that definitely. What's the big question?

30:20

What if everything you know to

30:22

be true? Was just one big

30:25

lie. For

30:32

as long as

30:34

we can remember,

30:36

everyone that goes

30:38

outside. If killed

30:40

by the dangerous

30:42

toxins of an

30:44

unsafe world. Julian

30:46

Nichols asked to

30:48

go out. She

30:50

was a fighter.

30:52

Warning, oxygen levels

30:54

low. But she

30:56

died. A hero!

31:05

She might be out there somewhere. Exciting,

31:07

okay, maybe I need to get caught

31:09

up on site though. You do, ma'am.

31:12

Shall we do some listener questions, James?

31:14

Sounds good to me. You've got mail.

31:16

So Jake Andrews has written to us

31:18

and asked us in the spirit of

31:20

Halloween, or a little bit late on

31:22

this joke, sorry, in the spirit of

31:24

Halloween, what are your five favorite sci-fi

31:27

horror films? James, what's in your top

31:29

five sci-fi? Oh, I knew you come

31:31

and hit me up with that one

31:33

first. Ah, okay, so sci-fi horror films,

31:35

I think you put alien in there?

31:37

you'd put the thing, so that would

31:40

be two, I've got that far, sci-fi

31:42

horror films. We can make one collaboratively

31:44

if you want, I'd add the fly

31:46

in there as well. The fly, yes,

31:48

great shout. When we talk about Terminator,

31:50

when we talk about it in depth,

31:53

we talk about how scary it is,

31:55

but for some reason I don't, I

31:57

never think of it as a, I

31:59

never group it in horror in my

32:01

head in my head because it's... such

32:03

iconic science fiction tropes and imagery. But

32:05

when you actually sit down and watch

32:08

it, it's so scary and nightmareish that

32:10

I think it really is a great

32:12

sci-fi horror movie as well. Yeah, it

32:14

is a slasher as well, isn't it?

32:16

So... It's got that part of it.

32:18

So what have we got there? We've

32:21

got a David Cronenberg, a John Carpenter,

32:23

a Ridley Scott, and a James Cameron.

32:25

I think Paul W.S. Anderson needs to

32:27

be in the mix with those names,

32:29

doesn't he? For event horizon. Oh, you

32:31

could chuck event horizon. I'm not chucking

32:33

event horizon in. No. That is for

32:36

me. That would be in my top

32:38

five. I'd maybe think about potentially... I

32:40

love under the skin, but I don't

32:42

know if it's exactly the sort of

32:44

film you would watch on a Halloween.

32:46

Yeah, I know what you mean. It's

32:49

very slow paced, but it's so creepy

32:51

and the energy around that is very

32:53

much like sci-fi horror. So I'd probably

32:55

have that in the mix. I don't

32:57

know if it would make it into

32:59

this. Okay, cool, very interesting. I think

33:02

we've covered five for me, but I'd

33:04

maybe give an honourable mention to Possessor

33:06

as well, which we watched a few

33:08

years ago. just really stuck with me

33:10

it's really just upsetting and unpleasant sci-fi

33:12

movie but really great so another Cronenberg

33:14

film there from a different Cronenberg yeah

33:17

just what you want to stick with

33:19

you after you watch the sci-fi horror

33:21

film being like upset and depressed yeah

33:23

sadly So we've got another question here.

33:25

This one's from Wayne. Wayne says, will

33:27

there be updates to older episodes to

33:30

include new movies? E.G. we did season

33:32

one and we were doing AI. Would

33:34

we do a update to our AI

33:36

series? Yeah, I mean, it's a good

33:38

question. Hey, we've got nothing better going

33:40

on. But I mean, when new films

33:43

come out, Wayne, we do try and

33:45

cover... most of them over on patron,

33:47

you know, when there's big new AI

33:49

movies released in cinemas. But as far

33:51

as like an update to an earlier

33:53

season, I certainly think we might come

33:55

back to something. like that we've just

33:58

got a lot to get to as

34:00

the problem. We've got so many subgenaies

34:02

that we haven't touched on that we

34:04

have some rough plans for future series

34:06

of the show. It might be quite

34:08

a long time until we come around

34:11

to do like a full season long

34:13

update but we're chipping away new movies

34:15

aren't we on patron? Yeah exactly we're

34:17

always like chucking extra things in so

34:19

I think we've covered a few extra

34:21

AI AI films that we didn't cover

34:24

on that main series on Patreon on

34:26

Patreon and as Matt just said like... we're

34:28

always updating stuff and sometimes you might

34:30

find an AI film that has a

34:32

mad science element as well so it

34:34

might end up in our mad science

34:37

series or one of our future series

34:39

so we're always thinking about ways we

34:41

can sort of get these other newer

34:43

films into series and so

34:45

we can discuss them especially

34:47

if they're making waves in

34:49

science fiction in general. Jamie

34:51

has asked us, what are

34:54

the most plausible sci-fi movies

34:56

you've reviewed? Jamie says they

34:58

love it when writers put

35:00

the effort in to make

35:02

a believable hard sci-fi, but

35:04

most contenders probably come from

35:06

the dystopian series. Unfortunately, yeah,

35:08

I agree. Jamie, why does

35:10

it have to be dystopian?

35:12

But I think Jamie's right, you

35:14

know, like those feel the most

35:17

realistic. I think sadly... I don't

35:19

know for me Handmaid's Tale is

35:21

written in such a way that

35:23

you know it's so near future

35:25

and feels very realistic in the

35:28

kind of universe they create in

35:30

that show that that feels particularly

35:32

realistic. There's also I was

35:34

thinking about the movie Her recently

35:36

because I read a really upsetting

35:38

story one of the big one

35:40

of the AI companies had to

35:42

like issue an apology because one

35:44

of their users had taken their

35:46

own life after talking to

35:48

their, to like a character based

35:51

AI that they'd kind of, I

35:53

guess, become a bit too involved with.

35:55

Oh, I read about that, yeah.

35:57

Which is a really bleak thing.

35:59

a bleak sort of futuristic feeling thing

36:02

to happen and really a really

36:04

sad story. Wasn't it specifically like

36:06

a game with Thrones like a

36:08

denarious kind of AI chat box?

36:10

Yes it was yeah that they

36:12

were kind of role-playing with and

36:14

I guess had some some problems

36:16

of their own their working theory

36:18

but yeah just a really sad

36:20

story but it unfortunately reminded me

36:22

of her and not in a

36:25

good way. So yeah, that's, I

36:27

mean, that's not really a dystopian

36:29

movie, is it? I guess it's

36:31

got shades of that, but it

36:33

feels like we're moving in that

36:35

direction possibly and not in a

36:37

good way. Yeah, I think it's,

36:39

I think the AI films, I

36:41

think, just as much of the

36:43

dystopia seem to becoming more and

36:45

more close to reality. It's just

36:47

a shame that the AI we're

36:50

getting doesn't seem to be this

36:52

sort of fully formed artificial intelligence

36:54

like... what sci-fi imagined and what

36:56

we talked about in our first

36:58

series and is this kind of

37:00

shitty language model that just regurgitates

37:02

you know stuff that it's absorbed

37:04

and has no intelligence. I don't

37:06

think I don't think the term

37:08

artificial intelligence really captures what a

37:10

modern AI actually is because there

37:12

doesn't seem to be a great

37:15

deal of intelligence behind it just

37:17

kind of most of them just

37:19

spit out the... the next most

37:21

likely word, right? That's how it

37:23

works. Data scraping, isn't it? It's

37:25

all that kind of stuff, which

37:27

we've mentioned in the past. I

37:29

think gatika, gatika feels like something

37:31

which is closer and closer to

37:33

happening, because you could do all

37:35

that kind of stuff now, can't

37:37

you? You can, if they've got

37:40

like a certain genetic traits, like

37:42

in certain, like if there's a...

37:44

certain hereditary disease, you can take

37:46

out that element if you're doing

37:48

sort of like IVF and things,

37:50

which is gatica all over. Is

37:52

there any you would like to

37:54

be realistic? Like Star Wars or

37:56

something? Yeah! Let's have something a

37:58

bit more up. Let's move towards

38:00

a YouTube. Like Star Trek, you

38:02

know, let's set ourselves on the

38:05

right track for a change. Oh

38:07

Star Trek would be great. Would

38:09

you join up? Join Star Fleet,

38:11

yeah, of course. Of course. You

38:13

wouldn't have a choice, you'd have

38:15

to. You've got a choice, James,

38:17

it's a utopia. I mean, for

38:19

you. Oh, I wouldn't have a

38:21

choice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm

38:23

not saying it's like, you have

38:25

to get enlisted in the Star

38:27

Trek. he said what is the

38:30

earliest sci-fi show movie book or

38:32

comic that made an impression and

38:34

got you hooked on sci-fi oh

38:36

that's a good one I mean

38:38

I've talked about it a lot

38:40

but but for me it's definitely

38:42

Star Trek and specifically my earliest

38:44

memories are like Kirk and Spock,

38:46

the original Star Trek. I think

38:48

I liked all the sort of

38:50

sci-fi elements of it, but also

38:52

I think when you really boil

38:55

it down, it's an incredibly like

38:57

colorful show that's really exciting and

38:59

adventurous. It's, you know, it's great

39:01

for little kids. So I remember

39:03

getting into that. And then like

39:05

alongside that, all the other, like...

39:07

Camp colorful sci-fi-fi-fi from roughly the

39:09

same period you know Flash Gordon

39:11

was huge for me when I

39:13

was little and all the kind

39:15

of all the stuff that isn't

39:17

really that great to be fair

39:19

that BBC-2 was shoveling into that

39:22

that slot It's like Buck Rogers

39:24

and the original battle star, you

39:26

know all of that stuff. I

39:28

have quite vivid memories of all

39:30

that stuff. What about you? What's

39:32

your earliest sci-fi memories? Well, I

39:34

think the reason this podcast works

39:36

is because your earliest one was

39:38

Star Trek and my earliest one

39:40

was probably Star Wars. Oh right.

39:42

So we've got both sides of

39:44

the Fandon here. Yes I would

39:47

say Star Wars. Again Star Trek

39:49

to a degree like Next Generation

39:51

when it was in that slot

39:53

on BBC 2 the famous 6

39:55

o'clock slot where we got all

39:57

of our sci-fi knowledge from as

39:59

young children. I'd say that I'd

40:01

say X-Men as well. I think

40:03

comic-wise and when I first saw

40:05

X-Men the... TV show that really

40:07

got me into the ideas of

40:09

science fiction like the fact that

40:12

they are mutations and that's where

40:14

their powers come from and all

40:16

the things that go from there

40:18

and also had the superhero element

40:20

which I loved I think that

40:22

was a really big sort of

40:24

part of my childhood like all

40:26

of that yeah yeah I love

40:28

those cartoons that it was the

40:30

cartoons with the way in for

40:32

me that kind of shared universe

40:34

of Marvel cartoons in the mid-90s.

40:37

Yeah, definitely that. Okay, I think

40:39

we've got time for one more

40:41

question, and this is definitely a

40:43

question for you, James. This is

40:45

Tony from Sci-Fi Talk, has asked

40:47

us, what are your feelings on

40:49

the original Planet of the Age

40:51

film? James, what are your feelings

40:53

on the original Planet of the

40:55

Apes film? It's just brilliant. We

40:57

did our whole mini-series on Patreon

40:59

about all of the original Planet

41:02

of the Apes series and then

41:04

we went on and covered the

41:06

films which have come since. But

41:08

I think there's something about those

41:10

original Planet of the Apes films,

41:12

especially that first one and that

41:14

twist at the end, all of

41:16

it is just really captured my

41:18

imagination when I first watched it

41:20

and I think it's the best,

41:22

one of the best twists in...

41:24

filmic history, even though everybody knows

41:27

what the twist is. That's possibly

41:29

why it's one of the best

41:31

is that the film is still

41:33

incredibly good, even though everybody knows

41:35

the twist. Along with, you know,

41:37

up there with like the sixth

41:39

sense, where you can still enjoy

41:41

those films, even though you know

41:43

that it's got a huge twist

41:45

at the end, and you probably

41:47

know what that twist is. It's

41:49

amazing. Yeah. So if you want

41:51

to hear more about our feelings

41:54

on the original Planet of the

41:56

Age film, Tony, we did cover

41:58

Planet of the Apes in our

42:00

Time Travel series, and then we've

42:02

covered every other Planet of the

42:04

Age movie on... Patreon. James is

42:06

an enormous, long-time fan of those

42:08

films and I'm a happy convert

42:10

as well. So you covered all

42:12

the originals. That's my biggest achievement

42:14

of this podcast is getting you

42:16

into the Planet of the Apes

42:19

film. Good. Yeah, no, I'm completely

42:21

on board. All right, so what

42:23

have we got coming up this

42:25

month for November James right here

42:27

on Journey 3 sci-fi? Well, later

42:29

this week. we've got another main

42:31

feed episode we will be covering

42:33

doctor x and time after time

42:35

in our mad science series yeah

42:37

a couple of murder mystery mad

42:39

scientists mad scientists going on the

42:41

hunt for some serial killers in

42:44

different contexts yeah throw in jack

42:46

the ripper into the mix as

42:48

well and h g wells oh

42:50

yeah yeah Yeah, and synthetic flash

42:52

and lots of fun stuff in

42:54

that episode. It is my theory

42:56

that one of us in the

42:58

past from dire necessity was driven

43:00

to cannibalism. The memory of that

43:02

act was hammered like a nail

43:04

to the mind of that man.

43:06

Shrewd and brilliant. He could conceal

43:09

his madness in the human eye,

43:11

even from himself, but he can't

43:13

conceal it from the eyes of

43:15

the radio sensitivity. I am talking

43:17

about traveling through time. in a

43:19

machine constructed for that very purpose.

43:21

The first to use the machine,

43:23

however, is Dr. John Leslie Stevenson.

43:25

Better known to history as Jack

43:27

the Ripper. And what was to

43:29

be a voyage of discovery in

43:31

an instant becomes a manhunt through

43:34

time. From 19th century England to

43:36

20th century San Francisco. The following

43:38

week over on patron we have

43:40

got episode three in our expanse

43:42

mini series we have been watching

43:44

season three of the expanse the

43:46

final season on sci-fi before it

43:48

got canceled so we're talking about

43:50

the kind of what that means

43:52

for the show as a potential

43:54

final season before it gets picked

43:56

up again by Amazon for season

43:59

four. Yeah it takes a few

44:01

twists and turns in that series

44:03

as well. It's very much in

44:05

two chunks. So that's a very

44:07

fun discussion that we've had recently

44:09

about the expanse. So that'll be

44:11

up on Patreon as part of

44:13

our mini series on that series.

44:15

So many series in that sentence.

44:17

No one tells you the hardest

44:19

part of battle is figuring out

44:21

who the enemy really is. What

44:23

were you thinking when now we

44:26

told you what she did? She's

44:28

not the person I thought she

44:30

was. We've got no friends, no

44:32

safe harbor, we are living on

44:34

borrowed time. I tend to take

44:36

on fights that can't be won.

44:38

Do you like to whistle? Why?

44:40

It forces you to breathe. Just

44:42

don't pass out. Be ready for

44:44

anything. The UNM ship just fired

44:46

on us. Myth of the way.

44:48

We just declared war on Earth.

44:52

And then following that, the week

44:54

after, on the 21st of November,

44:56

we are back to mad science

44:59

and we are looking at the

45:01

Invisible Ray from 1936 and Dark

45:04

Man from 1990. Yeah, mad scientists

45:06

getting even madder as the movie

45:08

goes on, really driven to madness

45:11

by their science. Yes, Boris Karloff,

45:13

Bella Legossi, and then we got

45:15

Liam Nieson, turning up in Dark

45:18

Man, a bit of Bruce Campbell

45:20

in there as well. Going Sam

45:22

Ramey Mad. Yes, Sam Ramey Mad.

45:25

You know you've really got mad

45:27

when you've got Sam Ramey Mad.

45:30

Few men fail to capture him

45:32

at the gate, and at midnight

45:34

we bolt all doors in darken

45:37

the entire house. His face and

45:39

hands will appear like phosphorus. And

45:41

if he touches anyone, they die.

45:44

He has the power to look

45:46

like any man. This will post

45:49

us of witches! But he is

45:51

unlike any man. I gotta tell

45:53

you something about me. He's a

45:56

cockroach. You think you're killing? and

46:00

he pops up someplace else.

46:02

In the darkest hour. Julie,

46:04

who's the real monster here?

46:07

There's a light that shines

46:09

on every human being. But

46:11

one. From Director Sam Raining.

46:14

Dark Man. And then wrapping

46:16

up the month over on

46:18

Patreon we've got another bad

46:20

movie bunker we are going

46:23

to be watching a Sound

46:25

of Thunder Peter Hyams directing

46:27

a Ray Bradbury adaptation that

46:29

didn't work out too well

46:32

for them. Yeah six percent

46:34

on Rotten Tomatoes for that

46:36

bad movie bunker entry so...

46:38

I think it's definitely worthy

46:41

of the bunker. Yeah, a

46:43

certified stinker. But we'll see

46:45

if it is deserving of

46:47

that accreditation. Yes, will it

46:50

stay on the shelf or

46:52

will it be burning up

46:54

on the radioactive surface above

46:56

the bunker? You have to

46:59

find out in the episode.

47:01

If you're taking you back

47:03

65 million years to hunt

47:05

the greatest predator the world

47:08

has ever seen. Today, I'm

47:10

this hunter. Someone will die.

47:12

All the hunters, there is

47:14

no middle ground. Remember whatever

47:17

happens, do not step up

47:19

in the pan. Time

47:25

has been turned upside down. What happened has to

47:27

be connected to our last job. You must have

47:29

changed something. And what did you change? We don't

47:31

know. Somebody stepped off the path. The changes in

47:33

evolution that you're affected come in ripples like dropping

47:36

a stone into a pond. Start with climate, then

47:38

vegetation, the early manifestations of life. What was that?

47:40

Then come the more complex organisms. You have to.

47:42

I have to work. Set things right. So that's

47:44

your month of November here on Journey Through Sci-Fi

47:46

and that's what we're going to be watching in

47:48

cinemas and watching on TV this month. I hope

47:50

you've been... I enjoyed listening to

47:52

that. that. If you want more

47:54

from us, please do do

47:56

subscribe and come and visit us on and

47:58

visit us on our

48:00

website and our social media.

48:02

Yes, and we'll be back next

48:04

month with another Future Frontiers episode.

48:06

So you have any questions

48:08

for us, anything you

48:10

really wanna find out from

48:12

me and Matt about

48:14

the series, the let us

48:16

know what shows you've been

48:18

watching, what things we've missed

48:20

out, what things we should be keeping an

48:22

eye on in the world of in the

48:25

Do let us know. You can reach us

48:27

You can reach us at at through .com to send us

48:29

an email, send us drop us a or on

48:31

any of our social media accounts. any of

48:33

be back soon with more journey through sci

48:35

-fi. will you then. soon with more journey through sci-fi. See you then!