We recorded some quick thoughts that ironically take a while to get to about the Murderbot trailer and what we hope to see in the series.
Happy May the Fourth! Murderbot is a droid, so it’s clearly canon.
We got to go see The Wild Robot at our local SF Film Festival, so we figured it was high time we covered this terrific movie, and we were joined by Colin’s elder son, Peter.
Rankings:
We had a great conversation with Ed Ashton about his background in engineering and medical research, how he finds the time to write a novel every year, and how Mickey7 and Mickey-17 came to be.
Edward’s website:
This time the guys look at Mickey7, by Edward Ashton, and its new adaptation, Mickey-17. We pretty much go full spoilers for everything, so be warned. The book takes a couple of days to read, and the movie will be on streaming soon.
Rankings!:
This time the guys take up “The Bicentennial Man,” by Isaac Asimov, the 1976 novelette, and its 1999 movie adaptation Bicentennial Man.
Rankings!:
Notes & Links:
That Joel Kinnaman/Eric Roberts looking The Positronic Man cover:
Elizabeth Freeman, who successfully sued for her freedom from slavery
Bicentennial Man as a trans analogy:
We take a quick look at the new Nosferatu movie as part of our ongoing Draculadaptations series.
We had some trouble with our digital recorder and lost parts of the conversation. I’ve tried to salvage what I could and I hope you enjoy it.
Good news is that we all enjoyed the movie.
This time, the guys are joined by both of Colin’s adult sons as well as a mystery guest, at a secret location known only to everyone who listens to this episode. It’s a Christmas miracle!
We’re covering The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy, and its 1990 film adaptation. It’s fringy science fiction, but our podcast, our rules!
More about OMSI and the USS Blueback:
https://omsi.edu/exhibits/uss-blueback-submarine/
OMSI Tim’s links:
https://thetidesofhistory.com/
https://open.spotify.com/show/35kmkXTwTsjDgbK2mZYtFU
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA3mh-jJTdFbGBCvVd8fv3JL9hhqhlpRb
Other Notes & Links:
Naval News’ April Fool’s Prank:
Seth referenced an AO Scott quote, but it’s Scott Tobias:
https://www.avclub.com/what-makes-a-good-book-to-film-adaptation-1798230564
Peter referenced Smarter Every Day’s playlist of Nuclear Submarine videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjHf9jaFs8XWoGULb2HQRvhzBclS1yimW
Tim K referenced Patrick Willems’s video on the Red October subtitles:
Yes, we were going to be doing The Hunt For Red October. But we decided to kick that one down the road a month and replace it with a much less worthy movie, and an even less worthierer book. It’s the 1987 novel Penal Colony, by Richard Herley, and it’s a bit of a stinker. The movie is watchably bad and available for free with ads in several locations. The movie is the Ray Liotta-starring dystopian-ish No Escape, notable mostly for Stuart Wilson’s turn as the Big Bad.
Trigger warning for the book: lots of talk of sexual assault in prisons. Also it’s super homophobic and basically distills down the essence of AIDS-fueled anti-gay sentiment that I remember so well from being a conservative kid in the 80s. We’ve moved on since then, but this book has not.
The movie is arguably worth watching-ish, so if you don’t already possess the book, don’t spend any money on it. We’ll explain why.
Rankings!:
This time we discuss the 1981 Caldecott-winning children’s book Jumanji, by Chris Van Allsburg, adapted into the 1995 Robin Williams movie of the same name, and expanded into the new Jumanji franchise started by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
Rankings!:
This month, we keep things close to home, which makes sense given that last month we were quite far from home. We go small like we’ve never gone before, diving into a local adaptation of R.U.R., or Rossum’s Universal Robots, by Karel Čapek.
It’s not necessary to have gone to our local theater for the new adaptation, as it’s really quite close to the original. The 1920 play is worth reading, only takes a couple of hours, but it’s very much of its time. We talk director/adapter Matthew Zrebski about the changes he made and their impact on the story being told. So even if you didn’t get to see the new version, you can still enjoy the conversation and look into a creative’s mind.
Really this just gave us an excuse to talk about an extremely influential piece of SF history.
https://lakewoodtheatrecompany.csstix.com/event-details.php?e=1119
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/karel-capek/r-u-r/paul-selver_nigel-playfair
