This is TOF’s second Live Show. The first one was a celebration of their 50th episode, and had the theme of Time Travel. This live show is all robots. Each season TOF will host a live show.

This show was recorded on Tuesday, December 19th, from 8 pm – 9:30 pm, Eastern Time. 13 or 14 or so attended the event, including five previous guests: Sandra Kasturi; Ira Nayman; Robert J. Sawyer; Jerome Stueart; and, Maaja Wentz.

Dan Miwa attended, and will be a guest for our forthcoming Spaceballs episode, that will be released on May 4th, 2024. He talks a bit about the film during this episode.

Stephen Humphrey attended, and is a forthcoming guest, and we will be looking at Neuromancer, likely in March of 2024.

David and Troy reveal their top ten robots.

Some discussion of what a robot and an android are. What counts as a robot and what does not.

Some of the robots mentioned in this episode include:

Robots from Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman.
GORT from The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Huey, Dewey, and Louie from Silent Running.
Robocop – does not count – a cyborg.
The Cylons from Battlestar Galactica.
Robot from the Let’s Kill Hitler episode of Dr. Who.
Sandra recommends the flesh robots from
Weird #66: “In the Hills, The Cities” by Clive Barker (1984)
Marvin the paranoid android from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Nomad from Star Trek.
Twiki from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
Promo the Robot from Rocketship 7.
Wall-E.
Hymie the robot from Get Smart.
The robot from Metropolis.
Mechagodzilla and Mechani-Kong.
Dolores from Westworld.
The Terminator from The Terminator.
Robbie the Robot from Lost in Space.
K9 from Doctor Who.
Rover from The Prisoner.
No. 6 (played by Tricia Helfer) from BSG.
The Daggit from the original BSG
Ash, and other androids from the Alien movie franchise.
The Nazi scientist (Karl Ruprecht Kroenen) in Hellboy.
The Major from Ghost in the Shell.
The replicants from Blade Runner.
The Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz.
Proteus from Demon Seed.
Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
A.I.
The Iron Giant.
C3P0 and R2D2 from Star Wars.
Brainiac, Vision, and Red Tornado.
T1000.
Bender from Futurama
Dot Matrix from Space Balls.
Minsky from Fargo, season 3.
Martha Wells Murder Bot Diaries.

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:

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.

The 1968 Planet of the Apes film brought Pierre Boulle’s 1963 novel to the big screen, and nothing has been the same since. From the first appearance of apes, right up to the final climactic scene, Troy Harkin and David Clink, with special guest Robert J. Sawyer (see author bio below), will talk about the film, its importance, its legacy, and where it fits in with the ACE (Ape Cinematic Universe). Spoiler alert: specific plot points in the film, the novel, the TV series, and other ape films will be discussed.

Robert J. Sawyer
(photo by Carolyn Clink)

Robert J. Sawyer has won the best-novel Hugo Award (for Hominids), the best-novel Nebula Award (for The Terminal Experiment), and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (for Mindscan), plus over 60 other writing awards. The ABC TV series FlashForward was based on his novel of the same name, and his 24th novel, The Oppenheimer Alternative, is now out. Rob holds honorary doctorates from the University of Winnipeg and Laurentian University, was one of the initial inductees into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and is a Member of the Order of Canada, his country’s highest honour.