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L Is For Logan’s Run

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No, we’re not talking about the 70s Michael York/Jenny Agutter film. Rather, we’re taking a look at the source material–the William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson novel. An entirely different, much darker but much more cinematic prospect. Which is frankly a lot more fun!
We believe the time is right to reconsider this cracking, pulpy take on a society that has shrugged off its humanity in favour of youth. Who needs another movie?

 

logansrunbook

Pictured: the exceedingly battered 1970 Corgi edition of Logan’s Run that lives with Rob.

 

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S Is For The Survivalist

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What would survival in a post-oil society be like? As life slips back into an agrarian, hard-scrabble existence, how can we find meaning or even happiness? How much do we have to lose before we lose our essential humanity?
Stephen Fingleton’s cult psychodrama The Survivalist takes on these questions and weaves a taut story of uneasy trust and betrayal from the tangled threads. A film to admire, and one that gives you a lot to think about…

 

For a more informed take on the film, check out director Stephen Fingleton in conversation with Stuart Wright on the excellent Britflicks podcast…

http://www.britflicks.com/Podcast/23938

 

The Survivalist is out now on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD.

O Is For The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

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As usual with our short fiction posts, we urge you to read the story before listening.

Here’s a link.

A parable on the sacrifices even the most utopian societies have to make. Does Ursula LeGuin’s acclaimed story dig into a deeper truth…or is it simply stating the obvious? Worse, is it suggesting that the best we can do when faced with atrocity is walk away? Rob and Clive try to unpick this most knotty of threads, only to find themselves more deeply tangled than before…

H Is For Howl’s Moving Castle

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It was inevitable that the Curious Crew would talk about a Studio Ghibli film at some point. And what better example than there be than Miyazaki’s adaptation of Diana Wynne-Jone’s novel? An explicitly anti-war film that absorbs, refracts and re-projects the source text (already a thing of beauty) into a rare and remarkable piece of fantasy fiction. If you’ve never seen a Ghibli film… start here!

K Is For The Killing Joke

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One bad day. That’s all it takes to turn you from a normal citizen into a psychopath. Or at least that’s what The Joker would have you think. In Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s massively influential The Killing Joke the nature of evil is explored, along with the cyclical nature of catch and release at the heart of the relationship between the Bat and The Clown.
Rob, Clive and Curiosity take on one of the comic scene’s more controversial reimaginings… and find that joke isn’t funny anymore.

F Is For Forbidden Planet

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Rob, Clive and Curiosity celebrate a landmark piece of SF in the shape of the 1956 classic, Forbidden Planet. Widely recognised as a formative text in the creation of Star Trek, and influential in the production and sound design of Star Wars and many other examples of filmed and TVSF. If you like the fiction of sciencey, you need to be all over this film.

Worst name for a starship ever, though…

S Is For Star Trek: Beyond

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A five year mission. A villain with a secret past. A warrior princess. A crew without a ship. A family without a home. Faced with a situation like this, there’s only one way to go… and that’s BOLDLY.

Join Rob, Clive and Curiosity as they fire up the warp engines and engage… in a discussion on the merits of 2016’s Star Trek: Beyond.

Spoilers, needless to say, are in abundance. Alert Condition Red for that, yeah?

Oh, and we like the Rihanna track that plays over the end credits.

K Is For Kinda

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Kinda, unfairly, has a reputation as one of the worst episodes of Davidson-era Doctor Who, largely based on the slightly duff effects at its climax. OK, sure, the ‘terrifying embodiment’ of the villainous Mara is pretty poor by today’s standard…or any time, frankly.
But, as Rob and Clive make clear, there’s a hell of a lot more to Kinda then one ten-foot-tall rubber snake. Cycles of life and death, good and evil, peace and war. A satirical take on colonialism. And some eerily effective dream sequences, that still have the power to un-nerve us even now. A deeply atypical episode of Fifth Doctor goodness. Join our gestalt mind and discover more…

T Is For Trials And Tribble-ations

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Star Trek: Deep Space 9 is often thought of as the darkest of the franchises, but it had its lighter moments. Take the 20th Anniversary commemorative episode, a goofy, utterly delightful celebration of everything that makes the show such a beloved SF benchmark for so many people.

It’s got time-travel, Terry Farrell in THAT dress, a proper cantina fight and an exploding Tribble! What more could you want?

Hey, if you have Netflix, you can check out Trials And Tribble-ations right snecking now! If not, here’s a taster…

S Is For A Sound Of Thunder

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In which Rob fanbois so hard over Ray Bradbury that he nearly breaks something.
Seriously, though, A Sound Of Thunder is a formative SF text, and hence very worth of a one over from the Curiosity Crew. Just stay away from the movie, ok?

Once again, we believe you should read the story before you listen to the podcast. Not such a hard grind when it’s this good…

Start here, please.