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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.

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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.

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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.

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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-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?

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Connie Willis put together a collection of her science fiction and fantasy short stories called “A Lot Like Christmas.”

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Troy Harkin and David Clink will talk about the holidays, in genre TV, genre books (briefly), and genre comics.

There is no special guest for this episode.

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On Writing is a classic book (published just 20+ years ago, in 2000) by Stephen King. It is part memoir, part writing instruction, part how King did what he did, and does what he does.

What does Stephen King say

about writing?
about what it takes to be a writer?
about what you need to do to be a writer?

Listen, and find out!

Here are four quotes from the book:

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If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.

Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world.

The job boils down to two things: paying attention to how the real people around you behave and then telling the truth about what you see.

In the spring of my senior year at Lisbon High—1966, this would’ve been—I got a scribbled comment that changed the way I rewrote my fiction once and forever. Jotted below the machine-generated signature of the editor was this mot: “Not bad, but puffy. You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. Good luck.”

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Troy Harkin and David Clink will talk about the book: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

Our special guest is our first return guest, Bev Vincent. Bev was our guest for Season 1 Episode 7, where we talked about The Dead Zone. See author photo and bio below.

Bev Vincent is the author of The Road to the Dark Tower and The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, as well as over 100 short stories, including appearances in Ellery Queen’s, Alfred Hitchcock’s and Black Cat Mystery Magazines, and Cemetery Dance.

His work has been published in 20 languages and nominated for the Stoker (twice), Edgar, Ignotus and ITW Thriller Awards.

In 2018, he co-edited the anthology Flight or Fright with Stephen King.

Recent works include the novellas “The Ogilvy Affair” and “The Dead of Winter,” the latter found in Dissonant Harmonies with Brian Keene. 

To learn more, visit bevvincent.com

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Nearly one hundred years ago Universal Pictures got into the monster business, and created a legacy that has not been matched. The Mummy; Dracula; Frankenstein; and The Wolf Man were four characters that cemented Universal as the studio where monster movies were made, and audiences thrilled.

Dracula
Frankenstein
The Mummy
The Wolf Man

Universal also added The Invisible Man; and The Creature from The Black Lagoon.

Troy Harkin and David Clink will talk about these early horror films, and more recent ones.

We will also do our recent either/or segment.

Our special guest is Michael Rowe. See author photo and bio below.

Michael Rowe is the Shirley Jackson Award-finalist author of three novels, Enter, Night, Wild Fell, and October, all available from Open Road Media, as well as an essayist and former journalist.

A 17-year veteran of Fangoria magazine, he is also a National Magazine Award finalist, a GLAAD Media Award co-finalist, and the winner of the Randy Shilts Award for Nonfiction from the New York Publishing Triangle.

His essays and reviews have appeared in numerous venues in Canada and the United States including the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Canadian Notes and Queries, and the Boston Globe.  Born in Ottawa, he has lived in Beirut, Havana, Geneva, and Paris. He currently resides in Toronto. 

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This is the second episode of our two-part Exorcist episode.

We will continue our look at The Exorcist (the book by William Peter Blatty and the film by William Friedkin).

We will do our Dream Cast and Schrödinger’s Cast for the 1973 film. We will look at six key characters in the movie, and pick the actor/actress that would have best fit that role, and also an outside-the-box cast:

Regan MacNeil | Linda Blair
Chris MacNeil | Ellen Burstyn
Father Damien Karras | Jason Miller
Father Lankester Merrin | Max von Sydow
Lt. William Kinderman | Lee J. Cobb
Burke Dennings | Jack Macgowran

Troy Harkin and David Clink will continue to look at the book and the movie, and talk about the impact that they have had.

Our special guest, from episode 1, is back for episode 2. Valentino Assenza will have a lot to add about the 1973 film. See author photo and bio below.

Valentino Assenza has been a published poet and performing spoken word artist for over the last two decades.

In that time he has released four chapbooks and performed all over Canada and the US.

Valentino has been a co-host and co-producer of HOWL on CIUT 89.5FM, where he has interviewed names such as George Elliott Clarke, Anne Michaels, Denise Donlon, Ron Sexsmith, and Margaret Atwood.

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The Exorcist is a book by William Peter Blatty, a film by William Friedkin, and there were sequels. The novel (1971) and movie (1973) tell the story of demonic possession. An actress’s daughter is the victim, and after exhausting all medical and psychological possibilities, they are left with a Catholic ritual to “exorcise” the demon from the child.

The book received a lot of praise, and the movie was a hit. Not since Psycho and Rosemary’s Baby has a film gripped the public’s imagination.

Here are six key characters in the novel and movie, and the actor/actress that played the role in the 1973 film:

Regan MacNeil | Linda Blair
Chris MacNeil | Ellen Burstyn
Father Damien Karras | Jason Miller
Father Lankester Merrin | Max von Sydow
Lt. William Kinderman | Lee J. Cobb
Burke Dennings | Jack Macgowran

Troy Harkin and David Clink will look at the book and the movie, and talk about the impact that they have had.

Our special guest is Valentino Assenza. He will also be our guest for part 2. Valentino will have a lot to add about the 1973 film. See author photo and bio below.

Valentino Assenza has been a published poet and performing spoken word artist for over the last two decades.

In that time he has released four chapbooks and performed all over Canada and the US.

Valentino has been a co-host and co-producer of HOWL on CIUT 89.5FM, where he has interviewed names such as George Elliott Clarke, Anne Michaels, Denise Donlon, Ron Sexsmith, and Margaret Atwood.

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     “The trouble with Jim was he looked at the world and could not look away. And when you never look away all your life, by the time you are thirteen you have done twenty years taking in the laundry of the world.”

Chapter 9, page 40, Something Wicked This Way Comes,
this selection is from ISBN 0-380-97727-3. Avon Books, Hardcover, June 1999.
copyright (c) 1962, 1997 by Ray Bradbury.

This episode of Two Old Farts Talk Sci-Fi is part two of our “Something Wicked This Way Comes” episode.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a novel by Ray Bradbury, one of the great writers of speculative fiction of the 20th century. Bradbury was (and is) an influence on a generation of writers, including Stephen King.

The story idea began in Bradbury’s head, and found its way out via a short story, a comic, a screenplay, a novel, and a movie.

Troy Harkin and David Clink continue to look at the pivotal novel, in all its iterations.

We will also do our Dream Casting, and our Outside-The-Box Casting, which David has referred to as “Scream Casting,” but, going forward, may be called “Schrödinger’s Cast.”

Our special guest continues to be Sandra Kasturi. She was our special guest for pt. 1 (Episode 13). See author photo (a different one, this time) and a bio (same one from episode 13) below.

Sandra Kasturi is an award-winning poet, writer, and editor, with work appearing in many places including ON SPEC, several Tesseracts anthologies, and 80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin.

Her two poetry collections are: The Animal Bridegroom (with an introduction by Neil Gaiman) and Come Late to the Love of Birds (both from Tightrope Books).

Sandra recently won second prize in The New Quarterly’s Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest. She is also the winner of the Sunburst Award for her story “The Beautiful Gears of Dying” and ARC Magazine‘s Poem of the Year Award for “Old Men, Smoking.”