Top Ten Fantasy Films (pt. 2 of 2)
Troy Harkin and David Clink continue with their fantasy movie top ten lists, and the reasons for their selections.
Listen to Troy and David go over their lists, compare and contrast. Maybe you have some of the same films on your own top ten list?
Top Ten Fantasy Films (pt. 1 of 2)
Troy Harkin and David Clink each come up with their own top ten fantasy films, and the reasons for their selections. How many films will appear on both lists?
Will The Wizard of Oz appear on both lists?
How about…
King Kong?
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
My Neighbor Totoro?
The Adventures of Robin Hood?
Big Fish?
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King?
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone?
Listen to Troy and David go over their lists, compare and contrast. Maybe you have some of the same films on your own top ten list?
Top Ten Sci-Fi Films
Troy Harkin and David Clink each come up with their own top ten science fiction films, and the reasons for their selections. How many films will appear on both lists?
Will 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars crack the top ten?
How about…
The Terminator?
E.T.?
The Day the Earth Stood Still?
Blade Runner?
Logan’s Run?
Star Wars?
Alien?
Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
Listen to Troy and David go over their lists, compare and contrast. Maybe you have some of the same films on your own top ten list?
Buckaroo Banzai
This is a cult film that must be seen to be believed.
Troy Harkin and David Clink invite back Ira Nayman (see bio below) for their episode that looks at a film that Gene Siskel predicted would become a cult classic.
The witty dialogue, the unusual plot developments, and John Lithgow’s manic delivery make this film very watchable. With each viewing, you get more out of the film, you see more, and you realize that there is a lot to it. There is method in the madness.
Peter Weller plays Buckaroo Banzai, a scientist and rock star. He develops a device that allows him to travel through matter, and this opens up a whole can of worms.
Jeff Goldblum is a piano playing surgeon / cowboy. Will he join the Hong Kong cavaliers? Will Buckaroo and his motley crew save Earth from the Red Lectroids? Is Penny Priddy somehow connected to an old flame from Buckaroo’s past? And why are there so many people called John? And what about that watermelon? Listen to the podcast to find out.
Ira Nayman is a writer who keeps getting speculative fiction in his humour.
His eighth novel, The Ugly Truth, will be published by Elsewhen Press in 2022.
His 21st short story, “Girls Rule the Steampunk World!”, will be published in the next Brave New Girls anthology in July, 2022.
Les Pages aux Folles, Ira’s website of social and political satire, will celebrate 20 years of weekly updates in September, 2022.
He was the editor of Amazing Stories magazine for three years.
Before he was a prose geek, Ira was a script geek. He took three years of screenwriting for his undergrad degree at York University and wrote for Creative Screenwriting magazine.
Genre Crushes.
We’ve all had them.
Who were your genre crushes when you were young? And how about now?
Some grew up with a crush on Eartha Kitt or Julie Newmar as Catwoman. Others may have had a crush on Dirk Benedict or Richard Hatch in Battlestar Galactica. Did your bionic leanings lean toward Lee Majors or Lindsay Wagner?
If you are drawn to liking women, were you inclined towards
Velma or Daphne in Scooby Doo?
Buffy or Willow in Buffy: Vampire Slayer?
Xena or Gabrielle in Xena: Warrior Princess?
Bo or “Kenzi” in Lost Girl?
Maggie or Carol in The Walking Dead?
Number Six (Tricia Helfer) or Number Eight (Grace Park) in BSG?
If you are drawn to liking men, were you inclined towards
Fred or Shaggy in Scooby Doo?
Steve or Bucky in Captain America?
Apollo or Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica <1978-79>?
Spock or Kirk in Star Trek <1966-68>?
Sam or Dean in Supernatural?
The Shoveler or Blue Raja in Mystery Men?
And there are, of course, a very long diverse list of crushes, including Sanaa Latham; Wesley Snipes; Michelle Rodriguez; Simu Liu; Michelle Yeoh; Diego Boneta; HoYeon Jung; Zoe Saldana; Sonequa Martin-Green; Eartha Kitt; Ming Na Wen; Nichelle Nichols; Tia Carrere; Thandie Newton; Grace Park; Terry Carter; Kandyse McClure; Will Smith; Yadira Guevara-Prip; Bille Dee Williams; Park So-dam; Priscilla Quintana; LeVar Burton; Woo-sik Choi; Lisa Ray; Michael B. Jordan; Luciana Paluzzi; Sarah Shahi; Nicole Beharie; Steven Yeun; Kelly Hu; Diego Luna; and Rekha Sharma, among many others. There are so many, one cannot do an episode without leaving out one of your own.
Troy Harkin and David Clink welcome back two special guests for this Valentine’s TOF. Charlene Challenger was the guest for Season 1 Episode 6: Blade Runner. Shaindle Minuk was the guest for Season 1 Episode 8: Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Who were Charlene and Shaindle’s crushes? Who are they now?Troy and David cover their own, as well.
Some of the categories the four will look at:
ALL-TIME GENRE CRUSH
SEXIEST ACTOR/ACTRESS (Genre TV Show)
SEXIEST SEX SCENE (Genre TV or Genre Movie)
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD (Genre Actor)
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD (Genre Actress)
SEXIEST Sci-Fi Movie of All Time
David came up with a couple of fun categories…
Sexiest genre actor/actress in an annoying party scene
Looking for Love and Feline Groovy
Charlene and Shaindle and Troy and David will come up with, individually, based on a movie that does not exist, their own…
ELEVATOR PITCH for the SEXIEST Sci-Fi Movie of All Time
Will it live up to the one for Barbarella?
A beautiful, young fortieth-century astronaut prevents the positronic ray from getting into the wrong hands.
Charlene Challenger is a writer and graduate of X (renaming in process) Theatre School. Her first novel, the young adult fantasy The Voices In Between, was nominated for the 2015 Aurora Award for Best Young Adult Novel and longlisted for the 2015 Sunburst Award Young Adult Novel category. Its sequel, The Myth In Distance, was published in 2016. Her work is also featured in Stone Skin Press’s Gods, Memes and Monsters. She lives in Pickering, Ontario with her family and her adorable house-wolves.
Shaindle Minuk is an animation builds artist and has been working in the TV and film industries for decades in various capacities.
She is also the editor and co-founder of misterkitty.org, which hosts some of the many comics and graphic novels Shaindle has created over the years, alongside humorous features such as “Found Objects” (in which Shain showcases her vast collection of creepy, unappealing ceramic animal figurines and toys) and the popular “Stupid Comics”, which provides in-depth commentary on, well, stupid comics.
2001: A Space Odyssey.
This is the second part of our look at the film.
We realized that, with two guests, and a big movie like 2001, we would need two parts to do the movie justice.
In Part 2, Troy and David and Mark and Rob spend more time on the film, doing a deeper dive than in Part 1.
Rob refers to the film as “a paradigm shift.”
Mark refers to the film as “a landmark.”
Stanley Kubrick wanted to make the first great SF film.
Mark and Rob mention other films that predated 2001 that were great SF films.
Would Star Wars have happened without 2001?
The Schrödinger’s Cast is looked at, which is taking the cast from the original film, and replacing them with people you may not suspect.
Mark Askwith is a writer and Television Producer. He has covered the Science Fiction genre for over 30 years.
Mark is the creator of the award-winning Prisoners of Gravity, and he is one of the Founding Producers of SPACE, Canada’s National Science Fiction and Fantasy Channel.
He has also produced dozens of half-hour television movie specials, featuring interviews with stars like Tom Hanks, Christian Bale, and Sigourney Weaver. As well, he has interviewed dozens of scientists and astronauts including Neil deGrasse Tyson, Buzz Aldrin, and Chris Hadfield.
Neil Gaiman called him The Secret Master of Science Fiction. So, I guess that’s no longer a secret.
Robert J. Sawyer is one of only eight writers in history—and the only Canadian—to win all three of the world’s top awards for best science-fiction novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.
The ABC TV series FlashForward was based on his novel of the same name.
His latest novel is The Oppenheimer Alternative.
A member of both the Order of Canada and the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, he lives in Mississauga, Ontario.
2001: A Space Odyssey.
This film is arguably the whitest film since Birth of a Nation. White actors playing white astronauts in a white spaceship trying to discover, on board a spaceship called Discovery One, the secrets of a black monolith.
Many consider this the greatest science fiction movie of all-time, despite its lack of diversity.
The movie itself did not get a great reception. Many walked out of the premiere screening. For those who left early, and those who stuck it out to the end, many thought “What the hell was that about?”
Most reviews were harsh.
Stanley Kubrick cut 20 or so minutes from the version of the movie that opened, and over time, the shorter (but still long) film found an audience. The film was far ahead of its time, and, like most films that are revolutionary and cutting edge, people just didn’t get it.
The amazing special effects, that still stand up today, and the classical music, the sets, the story, all added together to make something that many would not soon forget.
Troy and David will look at the movie, and discuss it with two special guests: Mark Askwith and Robert J. Sawyer.
Rob was the special guest for Season 1 Episode 2: Planet of the Apes
Mark was the special guest for Season 1 Episode 4: The Prisoner Series
Troy and David welcome back Mark and Rob, who had both listed 2001: A Space Odyssey as their fave genre movie.
We realized that, with two guests, and a big movie like 2001, we would need two parts to do the movie justice.
In Part 1, Troy and David ask Mark and Rob to provide answers to their favourite genre things that were not asked of them before (over the past year more categories were added), and review their previous answers.
Mark and Rob talk about their first experience seeing the film.
The Dream Casting will look at these roles, played by these actors:
| Character | Original Star |
| Dr. David Bowman | Keir Dullea |
| Dr. Frank Poole | Gary Lockwood |
| Dr. Heywood Floyd | William Sylvester |
| Dr. Andrei Smyslov | Leonard Rossiter |
| Moonwatcher (the chief man-ape) | Daniel Richter |
| HAL 9000 | Douglas Rain (as the voice of…) |
| The Monolith | [visual effect] |
| Star Child | [visual effect] |
Mark Askwith is a writer and Television Producer.
He has covered the Science Fiction genre for over 30 years.
Mark is the creator of the award-winning Prisoners of Gravity, and he is one of the Founding Producers of SPACE, Canada’s National Science Fiction and Fantasy Channel.
He has also produced dozens of half-hour television movie specials, featuring interviews with stars like Tom Hanks, Christian Bale, and Sigourney Weaver.
As well, he has interviewed dozens of scientists and astronauts including Neil Degrasse Tyson, Buzz Aldrin, and Chris Hadfield.
Neil Gaiman called him the Secret Master of Science Fiction. So, I guess that’s no longer a secret.
Robert J. Sawyer is one of only eight writers in history—and the only Canadian—to win all three of the world’s top awards for best science-fiction novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.
The ABC TV series FlashForward was based on his novel of the same name.
His latest novel is The Oppenheimer Alternative.
A member of both the Order of Canada and the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, he lives in Mississauga, Ontario.
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
It has been quite a year.
Two Old Farts Talk Sci Fi was first broadcast in April 2021.
2021 brought 14 episodes of season 1, and the first 6 episodes of season 2.
Troy and David look at the beginning of the podcast, which started with an email exchange in December of 2020. They look at the 20 episodes, with recollections, highlights.
Troy and David also answer the questions they pose to their guests, and reveal their own all-time faves, including favorite genre (science fiction, fantasy, horror, and all the mash-ups and subgenres) film, tv show, tv episode, novel, shorter work, genre theme, theatre production, comic, audiobook, and so on.
They will also talk about some of the shows that are upcoming.
Copyright-Only Dedication* (based on United States law) or Public Domain Certification
This is part 2 of our holiday special to be broadcast on December 25th, 2021.
This episode looks at speculative movies.
[Please listen to Part 1, which is season 2 episode 5, if you want to listen to David and Troy talk about holiday TV, books and comics.]
There are two movies that we will look at in much more detail in this episode:
Black Christmas – 1974
Krampus – 2015
These two films will take the vast majority of our holiday movie special.
We will look at other holiday fair that have some kind of speculative content. Two of the greatest examples are:
“It’s a Wonderful Life”
“A Christmas Carol”
NOTE: I don’t think we look into “A Nightmare before Christmas” at all, and some other recent classics are missed. We need to save something for next year!
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When it comes to Black Christmas, this is one of the great speculative Canadian films, up there with Ginger Snaps (2000) and Heavy Metal (1981), even though Heavy Metal is a Canadian-American co-production. The Thing (2011) and Cube Zero (2004) have enough Canadian content to qualify as Canadian.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Canadian_science_fiction_films
Canadian Horror Films:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Canadian_horror_films
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What is it about Black Christmas that makes it one of the earliest, and perhaps the first one ever, slasher film? Why do so many people consider it a classic?
How is it that the director, Bob Clark, who is best known for
Murder by Decree
Tribute
Porky’s
A Christmas Story
end up directing Black Christmas?
How is Black Christmas influenced by The Exorcist?
How did Black Christmas influence Halloween and other films?
Why is John Saxon so great?
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We will also look at Krampus, and why it is, in the tradition of Gremlins, a horror movie that the whole family can enjoy (as long as your children are not super young). Why does Troy and his family watch this recent classic every Xmas? Listen and find out!
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Troy Harkin and David Clink will talk about the holidays, in genre movies.
There is no special guest for this episode.
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Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
This is part 1 of our holiday special to be broadcast on December 11th, 2021.
This episode looks at speculative TV, books, and comics.
[Please listen to Part 2, which is season 2 episode 6, if you want to listen to David and Troy talk about holiday movies. Episode 6 is set to be broadcast on December 25th, 2021]
The holiday season is replete with references to the holidays, in TV and books and comics.
From the annual Dr. Who Christmas Specials, to the Star Wars Holiday Special. The holidays are no stranger to science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
The Twilight Zone visited the holidays, as well.
Night of the Meek is one such episode.
Wonder Woman (the series starring Lynda Carter) also had a holiday episode.
It seemed that comics in December seemed to have some tie-in to Christmas, especially superheroes like Superman or Spiderman. Perhaps they thought parents would put some in their children’s stockings?
