Troy and David continue their discussion on sports and games in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.
This is PT.2 of a 2-part episode.
This episode is being broadcast on Saturday, July 08, 2023.
Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror are replete with sports and games. Rollerball and Death Race 2000; The Running Man and Field of Dreams; The Hunger Games and Ready Player One; games of chance, sports, and competitions have been a part of the genre landscape for many years. Harry Potter had Quidditch, and the Triwizard Tournament.
Troy and David have created a two-part episode, The Spec Sports Spectacular, where they look at appearances of games and sports in speculative film, TV, and books.
Remember the number of times that poker appeared in Star Trek? Is that not the final scene in the TNG series, Captain Picard finally joining the poker game that his senior officers play?
And who can forget the games played on the Battlestar Galactica?
This episode is being broadcast on Saturday, June 24, 2023.
The Thing PT. 2
Troy and David return with Carolyn Clink and Sandra Kasturi, to look at The Thing. First and foremost, the 1982 film, but also the 1951 film, and the 2011 film.
They also do a Dream Cast and Schrodinger’s Cast, of six of the main characters in the 1982 movie.
| Character | Original Star |
| MacReady | Kurt Russell |
| Dr. Blair | Wilford Brimley |
| Nauls | T.K. Carter |
| Palmer | David Clennon |
| Childs | Keith David |
| Dr. Copper | Richard Dysart |
They choose another actor or actress to fill the role, one the best actor (living or dead) which is the Dream Cast, and one unusual choice, for the Schrodinger’s Cast.
This episode is being broadcast on Saturday, June 10, 2023.
Carolyn Clink is a poet living in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
She won the Aurora Award for Best Poem/Song in 2022 for “Cat People Café” and in 2011 for “The ABCs of the End of the World.”
Her genre poetry publications include: Weird Tales, Analog, Imaginarium 2012: the Best Canadian Speculative Writing, Polar Starlight, Polar Borealis, On-Spec, Tesseracts, Frost Zone Zine, Eye to the Telescope, Tales of the Unanticipated, Room, and all 5 volumes of Northern Frights.
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.”
John Carpenter’s The Thing. 1982 saw a plethora of great genre films, and this one got lost in the mix. How exactly do you compete with Blade Runner; E.T.: The Extraterrestrial; Tron; and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan? It did not do well at the box office. It had some poor reviews, most notably from Roger Ebert, who said, “…this material has been done before, and better…”
There have been a few films that took audiences and critics years, if not decades, to warm to, and this is one of them. It is now considered a classic of the genre, and often appears in top ten lists. It is favorably mentioned alongside Blade Runner and Alien. Its makeup effects, which at first was off-putting to some audiences and critics, were ahead of their time, and still stand up today.
This is Part 1 of a 2-Part episode.
Troy Harkin and David Clink, the Two Old Farts of this podcast, will look at the 1982 film in detail, but will also look at the 1951 film, and the 2011 prequel. There may be some discussion on the story, Who Goes There, by John W. Campbell (who has recently been cancelled), which the movies are based on. In the case of the Howard Hawks film, a much looser adaptation, whereas the John Carpenter film, starring Kurt Russell, was a much closer version.
About John W. Campbell being cancelled, here is an excerpt from an article titled: John W. Campbell Award Is Renamed After Winner Criticizes Him, published in The New York Times, August 28, 2019, and updated on Sept 1, 2019, written by Peter Libbey:
The decision to remove Campbell’s name from the award came after this year’s winner, Jeannette Ng, criticized him in her acceptance speech. “He is responsible for setting a tone for science fiction that haunts this genre to this very day,” she said. “Stale, sterile, male, white, exalting in the ambitions of imperialists, colonialists, settlers and industrialists.”
Click on this image to take you to the full article:
This episode is being broadcast on Saturday, May 27, 2023.
Troy and David are joined by two guests. Please see their bios and author photos below.
Carolyn Clink is David’s sister, and this is her first time being a guest on the TOF podcast. She lists the 1982 film, The Thing, as her favourite all-time genre movie. Being a first-time guest, Troy and David ask her about her early genre memories, and what her all-time genre faves are.
Sandra Kasturi makes her third appearance as a guest. Sandra first appeared on the Season 1 episode 13 and 14 on Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes (September 2021). She next guested on Season 3 episode 2 and 3 on Folk Horror (July 2022?), which took a careful look at The Wicker Man and MidSommar. Sandra joins Bev Vincent and Ira Nayman as guests who have appeared on three different topics.
Carolyn Clink is a poet living in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
She won the Aurora Award for Best Poem/Song in 2022 for “Cat People Café” and in 2011 for “The ABCs of the End of the World.”
Her genre poetry publications include: Weird Tales, Analog, Imaginarium 2012: the Best Canadian Speculative Writing, Polar Starlight, Polar Borealis, On-Spec, Tesseracts, Frost Zone Zine, Eye to the Telescope, Tales of the Unanticipated, Room, and all 5 volumes of Northern Frights.
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.”
The Twilight Zone ran from 1959 – 1964. Hosted by Rod Serling
Rod also wrote most of the episodes.
This is part 2 of Two Old Farts Talk Sci-Fi’s look at the Twilight Zone.
This episode looks at (as Troy Harkin says):
Rod Serling after The Twilight Zone, and…
The Twilight Zone after Rod Serling.
There were a few Twilight Zone series since the original. There was also a Twilight Zone movie.
Tom Elliott, the host of The Twilight Zone Podcast, is the special guest. He was also the special guest for part 1.
Tom and David and Troy talk about The Twilight Zone in the later decades.
Tom and David and Troy do the Dream Cast and Schrodinger’s Cast, choosing one character from the original series, and choosing another actor or actress to fill the role, one the best actor (living or dead) which is the Dream Cast, and one unusual choice, for the Schrodinger’s Cast.
They also talk about Night Gallery, and The Planet of the Apes. And Troy asks Tom about the SerlingFest Convention.
This episode is not being broadcast on Saturday, June 10, 2023, as David says in the episode. It is being broadcast on Saturday, May 13, 2023.
Tom Elliot began The Twilight Zone Podcast in 2010 intending to record short ten-minute stream of consciousness thoughts after each episode viewing. As the production quality of each episode increased, so did the diversity of show content. As well as episode reviews, the podcast grew to include short story readings, book reviews, event coverage and interviews.
Guests such as Anne Serling (daughter of Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling), Earl Holliman (the first actor to ever appear in The Twilight Zone) plus many others have all graced the airwaves of The Twilight Zone Podcast. The Twilight Zone Podcast has become the definitive and longest running podcast about the landmark show on the web.
This is our look at The Twilight Zone.
Troy and David have a special guest for this 2-part episode. Tom Elliott. Please see his bio below. The Twilight Zone ran from 1959 – 1964. Hosted by Rod Serling. Rod also wrote most of the episodes.
Many have listed it as their inspiration to work in the speculative genre field.
Mel Brooks, a lifelong fan, wrote an entry for the book Everything I Need To Know I Learned From The Twilight Zone. In it, he said, “Every time I watched The Twilight Zone, I was completely ready to surrender to it.”
You know when you have an iconic series when there are so many parodies and homages. The Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror had a parody of the episode “To Serve Man” that is fantastic. Saturday Night Live parodied Nightmare at 20,000 feet, and Eye of the Beholder.
Troy and David have a special guest for this 2-part episode. Tom Elliott. Please see his bio below.
David asks Tom about his early genre loves and all-time faves, before getting into discussion on The Twilight Zone.
Troy gives a history of The Twilight Zone.
And we look at the five seasons, highlighting specific episodes that stood out.
Tom Elliot began The Twilight Zone Podcast in 2010 intending to record short ten-minute stream of consciousness thoughts after each episode viewing. As the production quality of each episode increased, so did the diversity of show content. As well as episode reviews, the podcast grew to include short story readings, book reviews, event coverage and interviews.
Guests such as Anne Serling (daughter of Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling), Earl Holliman (the first actor to ever appear in The Twilight Zone) plus many others have all graced the airwaves of The Twilight Zone Podcast. The Twilight Zone Podcast has become the definitive and longest running podcast about the landmark show on the web.
Two Old Farts Talk Sci-Fi celebrates their 50th episode in style. A live show, recorded on April 10, 2023. The Theme – TIME TRAVEL!
We had a number of people attend, and there was a time travel quiz, on movies from 1970 – 2023.
Troy plays an acoustic version of the theme.
Listener mail. A Beatle-ism.
And a Dream Cast and Schrodinger’s Cast of people that could have played Troy and David. Who else could of (or should have) been the hosts of this podcast?
Was Twiddle Twaddle the greatest science fiction series of all time? Was it better than ST:TNG? Star Trek Classic? Doctor Who? the Prisoner? BSG? Buffy? Many think so.
David Clink (one-half of Two Old Farts talk Sci-Fi) moderated a panel about the show, back on November 5th, 2022. The guests were Adrienne Kress (the fourth fart?) and Ira Nayman (affectionately known as “The Third Fart”). This episode is a recording of that panel. The panel was held at Astronomicon, in Rochester, New York, run by super fan Wayne Brown.
Adrienne is a huge Twiddle Twaddler! She fell in love with the show watching it in reruns as a kid on Saturday mornings, and it’s still her favourite comfort show to return to time and time again. She also loves to cosplay Furious Francesca (maybe not the best Twiddle Twaddle medic, but surely the most entertaining!)!
Ira Nayman wears a pony tail as an homage to Tony, the cross-eyed mailman, who was a regular in season five of Twiddle Twaddle. Fans of the show will know that his character, like all of them, were killed off at the end of the season because the new show-runner wanted to take the series in a different, more science fictiony direction. Heartbroken, Ira never fully recovered
Adrienne Kress is an award winning and internationally published author, actor and screenwriter based in Toronto, Canada. Her most recent novels include The Explorers adventure trilogy and the horror novels Dreams Comes To Life, The Illusion of Living, The Lost Ones and the upcoming Fade to Black based in the world of the Bendy and the Ink Machine video game. Her first graphic novel, Ghost Circus, illustrated by the amazing Jade Zhang, will be out in 2025!
Ira Nayman is the published author of eight novels, 25 short stories and 14 collections of Alternate Reality News Service (“When we break the news, it stays broken!”). He was also the editor of Amazing Stories magazine for three years. His dream is to build a time machine so he can go back to 1979 and be a member of the writers’ room for Twiddle Twaddle.
Troy and David talk about the Batman movie from 1966.
In March of 1966, a decision was made to make a feature film of the TV show. An all-star set of baddies, called The United Underworld, decide to de-hydrate some of the leaders of the free world, and extort the nations of the world to have their leaders returned.
July 30, 1966, released in theatres.
July 4, 1971, premiered on TV.
The Penguin’s submarine.
The Penguin as ringmaster.
Burt Ward doing most of his own stunts in the film.
Bruce Wayne falls hard for Miss Kitka.
Troy and David look at the two iconic, classic scenes in the movie.
1] The scene where a shark takes a bite out of Batman’s leg.
2] Batman trying to get rid of a bomb.
All of this in a universe where everything is labelled.
The famous Dutch angles (when the camera is not level), when you are in the lair of a criminal. Maybe because they are crooked?
“Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb.”
A bomb with the longest fuse in history.
Troy and David also do their Dream Casting and Schrödinger’s Cast, looking at six roles:
Batman [Adam West]
Robin [Burt Ward]
The Riddler [Frank Gorshin]
The Joker [Cesar Romero]
The Penguin [Burgess Meredith]
Catwoman [Lee Merriwether]
Troy and David continue to look at the Batman TV series from the 1960s.
They look a the theme song, and the parody.
Here is a link to an article about the parody:
Here is the 5th verse:
Jingle bells, Batman smells
Robin laid an egg
Batmobile lost a wheel
And Joker got away
Jingle bells, Batman smells
Robin laid an egg
Batmobile lost a wheel
And Joker got away
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Kamakazi / Nick Gagnon
The refrain is sung by Mark Hamill, in an animated episode.
Troy and David look at specific episodes that stand out…
= = = = =
S1, Ep1 = Hi Diddle Riddle
S1, Ep2 = Smack in the Middle
This episode has Jill St. John disguised as Robin.
Robin’s sick burn.
How there was not origin story for the first episode.
We are introduced to many elements that run through the series…
The red phone
The bust of Shakespeare
The bat poles
The batmobile
The Dutch angles
The henchman
The cliffhanger
= = = = =
S1, Ep19 = The Purr-fect Crime
S1, Ep20 = Better Luck Next Time
First episode of Catwoman.
The Batman and Robin relationship
echoes a father son’s relationship.
There are night scenes in this “Evil is as evil does” episode.
= = = = =
S1, Ep27 = The Curse of Tut
S1, Ep28 = The Pharaoh’s in a Rut
Victor Buono is King Tut.
First King Tut.
Great cliffhanger.
= = = = =
S2, Ep17 = Hizzonner the Penguin
S2, Ep18 = Dizzoner the Penguin
The Penguin. runs for mayor.
Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, may be the best of all the actors who have played the role.
Batman wants to run a campaign on the issues.
= = =
And more…