Episode 127: Top 5 Sci-Fi Things We’re Not Into, But Wish We Were

March 7, 2013

Featuring Matt Anderson and Ben De Bono

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9 comments on “Episode 127: Top 5 Sci-Fi Things We’re Not Into, But Wish We Were

  1. Palindrome Mar 7, 2013

    Ben you are interested in Red Dwarf because you have come to realize that the BBC owns the entertainment world. The British are pretty consistently awesome in their writing and acting abilities across the board, they know how to do humor and drama, and the BBC knows how to let their creators be in control.

    Doctor Who is awesome. It’s very cheesy, but its cheesiness is what allows it to be awesome. And Matt you need to start liking Doctor Who this year because it’s the 50th anniversary. The 50th anniversary is on November 23rd. You have until then to start loving it.

    You only have to watch the first five seasons of Supernatural, they are part of one complete and contained story, and I can provide you with a list of episodes that you can skip for each season. Also it has a lot of interesting themes, both of you guys should watch it because of the way it deals with ghosts, demons, angels, hell and faith. I think the Sci-Fi Christian could do a really good episode about it. The show focuses on two brothers and I think you would appreciate this series a lot more if you have any siblings. (during spring break I plan to send you a long email about why you should watch this show)

    Babylon 5: yes the first season is slow, but the world and the various cultures that are set up in the first season are all very interesting and important.

    If you guys watch 2001: A Space Odyssey you should watch it together and do a live blog, which would be funny for us and (probably) make it more bearable for you.

    Matt if you are interested in Harry Potter, I definitely recommend the audiobooks, the reader, Jim Dale, is amazing.

    And though I’m not particularly recommending it to Ben, stargate was a very lame movie and an awesome show, the show does not deserve the reputation it gets from the movie.

    And to what you have to say about anime, I agree, but you still must see something by Miyazaki. He’s a genius.

  2. Palindrome Mar 7, 2013

    Ben you are interested in Red Dwarf because you have come to realize that the BBC owns the entertainment world. The British are pretty consistently awesome in their writing and acting abilities across the board, they know how to do humor and drama, and the BBC knows how to let their creators be in control.

    Doctor Who is awesome. It’s very cheesy, but its cheesiness is what allows it to be awesome. And Matt you need to start liking Doctor Who this year because it’s the 50th anniversary. The 50th anniversary is on November 23rd. You have until then to start loving it.

    You only have to watch the first five seasons of Supernatural, they are part of one complete and contained story, and I can provide you with a list of episodes that you can skip for each season. Also it has a lot of interesting themes, both of you guys should watch it because of the way it deals with ghosts, demons, angels, hell and faith. I think the Sci-Fi Christian could do a really good episode about it. The show focuses on two brothers and I think you would appreciate this series a lot more if you have any siblings. (during spring break I plan to send you a long email about why you should watch this show)

    Babylon 5: yes the first season is slow, but the world and the various cultures that are set up in the first season are all very interesting and important.

    If you guys watch 2001: A Space Odyssey you should watch it together and do a live blog, which would be funny for us and (probably) make it more bearable for you.

    Matt if you are interested in Harry Potter, I definitely recommend the audiobooks, the reader, Jim Dale, is amazing.

    And though I’m not particularly recommending it to Ben, stargate was a very lame movie and an awesome show, the show does not deserve the reputation it gets from the movie.

    And to what you have to say about anime, I agree, but you still must see something by Miyazaki. He’s a genius

  3. AlyssaZ Mar 12, 2013

    Sci Fi things I am not into but probably should be/wish I was: (No Order)
    1. Battlestar Galactica. Oops.
    2. Torchwood. As a HUGE Doctor Who fan, I have tons of guilt for not watching this yet! It is on my Netflix queue.
    3. Supernatural. I haven’t started this yet only because I am concerned I will be scared by it (yes. I am a scaredy cat)
    4. Buffy and Angel. I sort of forgot these even existed until I saw them on Netflix about a month ago
    5. X-Files. I am worried this will be too cheesy.

    No Desire to be into:
    1. Comic books. blech. sorry!
    2. Farscape. I couldn’t even complete the first episode!! WOW. BAD.

    • Palindrome Mar 14, 2013

      Supernatural is pretty scarey and somewhat gory, if decapitating vampires by strangling them with razor wire doesn’t sound like fun to you then I don’t recommend it.

  4. Josh L Mar 12, 2013

    Matt, you need to embrace The Doctor! Watch about 3 or 4 episodes in a row as long as they don’t have Donna as the companion, she did not seem to fit with the Doctor the way Rose, Martha or Amy did, but those ones are still good though.

    • Mike Poteet Mar 14, 2013

      How funny, Josh – After Amy, Donna is my favorite modern series companion because she breaks the “love interest” or “pining after the Doctor” mold. I find her smart and funny. What don’t you like about her?

      • Josh L Mar 15, 2013

        I guess Donna got better in future episodes but at first she came off as a high maintenance which doesn’t fit with the adventuress life the Doctor leads.

  5. Todd W in NC Mar 14, 2013

    I’m in the middle of listening to this episode right now, and you guys are mentioning some good things.

    Babylon 5… I’m so glad this was on both your lists. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best show in the history of TV. Yes, season 1 is a little rough (though not nearly as bad as some make it out to be). Yes, it was a little low budget. And, yes, the mid-90s computer graphics used for space scenes are dated 20 years later. But, it has the best overall story arc (far better told & much more complete than Lost), several of my all-time favorite characters (from any genre, any medium), some of the most articulate & impressive dialogue, some of the best costumes, some of the most original alien make-up, some of the deepest drama, some of the wittiest comic relief, some of the most dynamic space battles, and a decent amount of storytelling that delves into culture, politics, history, philosophy, and religion. All these years later, it still beats other good shows like Farscape, Lost, BSG, and Fringe.

    Jericho… Another good choice. Watched a few episodes again on Netflix recently. Great story arc; good characters; good mystery. Season 2 is noticeably abbreviated, rushed, and slightly lower budget, but since the show was brought back from cancellation, it was better than not getting a 2nd season at all and still has decent resolution.

    Doctor Who… Don’t feel bad about not getting into it. I’ve dropped it at least twice. I eventually start watching again just to keep up with the hype, and it does have some redeeming qualities. But, it’s frustrating & over-rated too.

    Eureka… A little on the fluffy side, but that’s actually refreshing considering how dark some other sci-fi shows get. Great humor; good characters. Season 4 is probably best. Season 5 is a little disappointing. But, the series finale is as close to perfect as it possibly could be considering it was unexpectedly cancelled, the creator had to ask for one extra episode to wrap things up, and that finale was written & produced in the fraction of the time of a normal episode. Excellent ending.

    Stargate… SG-1 (10 seasons) kept getting better & better every season and adapted well (I think) to several cast changes that occurred later on. Atlantis (5 seasons) was a ton of fun while it lasted but feels slightly directionless in retrospect. Universe (2 seasons) was cancelled prematurely and got off to a rough start, but like SG1, it continually improved, and now I have a ton of respect for what they tried to pull off. Also, they didn’t know if they were getting a season 3, so the season 2 finale doesn’t have total closure, but under the circumstances it worked beautifully as a makeshift series finale.

    The Prisoner… Sometimes cool, sometimes cheesy, sometimes psychedelic, especially in its convoluted, incomprehensible finale. The best episodes were ones filmed on location at Portmeirion, Wales. It’s always distracting in lower-budget episodes when they try to re-create the setting, including the beach, on a sound stage.

    Original BSG… Have watched a few episodes on Netflix recently myself. The first half of the pilot is actually pretty impressive. But, it gets cheesy after that, especially in its frequent re-use of old west sets and stock footage space scenes. Still need to see the Pegasus two-parter. Wondering if that will be better. My biggest issue with new BSG is how unrelentlessly depressing it is. But, original BSG isn’t dark enough.

    Star Trek… Deep Space Nine is my 2nd-favorite sci-fi show, TNG is my 4th, and I actually like Enterprise too. TOS is just not my thing, and Voyager is horrible. Kind of liked The Animated Series as a kid.

    Alphas… So disappointed you guys hated it. It had its ups & downs, but it had potential, and I came to love several of the characters.

    A couple years ago, another podcast I listen to did a listener-voted Top 100 Genre Show list. My top 20 ballot had B5 at #1, DS9 at #2, Lost at #3, SG1 at #4, TNG at #5, SGA at #7, and Eureka, SGU, and Enterprise in the lower 10. If I had to do it again today, it’d be B5 at #1, DS9 at #2, Firefly at #3, TNG & SG1 swapping places at #4 & #5; Lost & SGA would both possibly fall all the way out of the top 10; Enterprise would still be on there somewhere; Alphas might squeak in between #16 & #20; and I’d have to strongly consider Eureka & SGU for the top 10.

  6. Matt and Ben,
    Once again a fun episode that got me thinking. As usual, I could probably spend a lengthy post doing a point by point, but I will limit myself to four comments this time.
    First, I applaud Matt for wanting to read Asimov. I like to think my comments had something to do with it.
    I would recommend not starting with Foundation, though. The whole series is long and can be a commitment. I love it dearly, but it’s not the best entry point.
    Try I, Robot. It you’re thinking the movie, try not to. The movie is to the book what meatloaf is to a fine steak. The book is actually a series of short stories, which are well- written and easily consumed. That’s where I’d recommend starting for a good introduction.
    The wizard of oz books are worth reading the first one, maybe two. The first for the movie contrasts and the second because it’s an ok book. After that they get too trippy, random and bizarre to be worth it.
    2001 you can probably safely skip. It’s beautiful but boooooring. The beginning and the end especially, with a halfway decent middle. If you watch any part, just that middle part is the best.
    Finally, I generally agree with Matt on anime, I’m afraid that you’ll be missing one of my all time favorite shows which also happens to be the only anime show I’ll watch. And they only made 26 episodes and one feature length movie, so you can knock out the entire corpus in a weekend.
    It’s called “Cowboy Bebop” and it follows a group of professional bounty hunters, called Cowboys, who more often than not are struggling to put food on the table in their ramshackle ship called, appropriately enough, the Bebop.
    What I love about this is it’s set in the near future, so you have spaceships, hyperspace travel, and some advanced weapons, but most of it feels gritty and familiar. For example, Spike, the protagonist, prefers a handgun or his own laidback form of marital arts in a fight.
    There are moments of anime silliness, especially with an androgynous kid hacker called Radical Edward who is annoying.
    Most of this is tongue in cheek and minimal. The other three main characters make up for the annoyance and most of the art looks like it’s from a painting.
    Some of the subject matter is mature, but Ben at least is ok with that right? There are also a lot of moral themes, such as dealing with loss, friendship, taking revenge, and many others.
    But the absolute best part of the show is the soundtrack. It’s mostly laidback jazz or more upbeat bebop style, but it explores a number of genres including blues, rock, and folk. It’s all written by the incredible Japanese composer Yoko Kanno and performed by a group called The Seatbelts.
    Even if you don’t see the show, you need to check out the music. Not to dictate what you do on your show, but if you look up “cowboy bebop tank” on YouTube as well as “cowboy bebop real folk blues” you’ll instantly see what I mean. These are the main theme and credit music.
    Thanks again!

    Anime cowboy bebop.
    2001 space odyssey
    Wizard of oz

    Sent from my Samsung Replenish

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