Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*

As always there are spoilers ahead!
You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.
If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm
Despite a failed pilot Star Trek made it to TV in 1966. Creator, Gene Roddenberry's vision of a future that was beyond the contemporary struggles of civil rights and racism and global Cold War tensions but very much aligned with the style of the 1960s. As a diverse crew faced alien planets and tackled ethical questions audience numbers dwindled and cancellation loomed. The show was finally axed in 1969 but a growing fanbase aided by syndication meant what could have been a small part of TV history actually became a huge phenomena.
My amazing Trekkie guests discuss the origins of my favourite franchise.
Julian Chambliss is a scholar and a professor at Michigan State University. He has taught Star Trek as part of his Media Race and Culture classes.
Carey Millsap-Spears is a professor of communications/literature at Moraine Valley Community College. She has written extensively about Star Trek including the 2023 book Star Trek Discovery and the Female Gothic.
 
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:36 Gene Roddenberry's pitch and the pilot episode
04:29 A new kind of frontier
08:34 The fans
11:06 Woke and the 1960s
17:26 The gothic in Star Trek
20:39 Captain Kirk as Casanova?
26:09 That kiss and Uhura
30:42 Utopia!
36:47 Propaganda
39:24 The Alien others
44:08 Technology, NASA and Nichelle Nichols
47:29 The Next Generation
51:52 Why do we love Star Trek?
54:32 Recommendations
 
Recommendations
The Centre Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek (2021)
StarTrek II: The Wrath of Khan
 
NEXT EPISODE!
You have two weeks to find and watch The 10th Victim (1965) by Elio Petri. Another Italian film (like last episode's Planet of the Vampires) but a very different feel. Although coupld contend with Mario Bava's Danger Diabolik (1968) for the most 60s film ever made! The film is available to rent online in many places. You can check the JustWatch website for details of what it's available in your region.

As always there are spoilers ahead!
You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. 
If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm
Planet of the Vampires was directed by Mario Bava and released in 1965. American International Pictures had made money with Italian films such as Black Sunday (1960) but would often need to oversee many changes to make the films suitable for an American audience. Their solution was to provide a script and co-produce a film so they could control the content.  
The film had a small budget of around $200,000 and although it definitely has its fair share of Schlock, Bava had a reputation for doing a lot on a small budget. 
My guests unravel why Mario Bava's reputation and love for this film continue to grow. 
Scott Higgins is Professor of Film at Wesleyan University as well as being the Curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives. 
Russ Hunter is an Assistant Professor in Film & Television Studies at Northumbria University. He has a special interest in Italian genre cinema.
Scott says Eugenio Bava (Mario's Father) invented the Schüfftan process before Eugen Schüfftan after whom it was named. You can read more about this here: https://dcairns.wordpress.com/tag/schufftan-process/
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:46 AIP involvement
04:14 Italian cinema in 1965
09:01 Dubbing
14:31 Names changes and US appeal
17:28 Mario Bava
21:51 Scott's love for this film
27:12 Bava and Barry
29:22 Special Effects and the Schüfftan process
33:39 Production and Set Design
35:21 Style over coherence
38:33 The alien
41:35 Influences and origins
43:40 Vampires in name
44:20 Legacy
49:06 Recommendations
 
Recommendations:
The Green Slime (1968) by Kinji Fukasaku
Tu Vuo' Fa' L'americano by Renato Carosone
Danger: Diabolik (1968) by Mario Bava
Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark by Tim Lucas
 
NEXT EPISODE:
As we approach 1966 on the podcast it is time to talk about my favourite franchise which will be 60 years old this September! A little detour into the beginnings of Star Trek in two week's time.

As always there are spoilers ahead! (And the podcast is much more fun if you've seen the film first.)
You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. 
If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm 
Jean-Luc Godard is potentially the most prominent of the French New Wave directors. In the mid-60s his mind turned to science fiction and the result was a visually striking, choatic film about a dystopian world in which logic rules and love is punished.
If you find the film confusing you are not alone and I have two brilliant academic brains to help us out.
Roger Luckhurst is a Professor at Birkbeck, University of London. He has written/edited numerous articles and books on cultural history and film.
Douglas Morrey is an associate professor of French at the University of Warwick. He has a special interest in the French new Wave on which he has written extensively, including the 2005 book Jean-Luc Godard.
CORRECTION: In the podcast I mention Roger citing Alphaville having an image from Chris Marker's La Jetée but the image is actually Marker's photograph which is in the credit sequence but doesn not feature in La Jetée.
The book of poetry in the film Capitale de la douleur (Capital of Pain) is written by Paul Elouard.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:40 French New Wave in 1965
03:38 Godard's influences for Alphaville
11:31 Eddie Constantine: The illogical Noir hero
16:43 Lemmy Caution and fascism 
18:05 Alienation and confusion
25:52 Godard's technique and budgets
30:07 Sound design
32:30 The swimming pool execution scene
39:26 Love, poetry and Godard's divorce
47:00 Godard and women
49:30 Legacy
53:57 Recommendations
 
Recommendations:
• The Trial written by Franz Kafka and made into a film by Orson Wells released in 1962.
• Weekend (1967) by Godard.
 
NEXT EPISODE!
Next episode we will be talking about Planet of the Vampires, the low budget 1965 dubbed delight by Mario Bava. The film is campy (and for me quite hilarious) as well as being famed for inspiring Alien (1979). (Perhaps a little overstated in this regard?) You can find the film to rent on Amazon, Apple, Flixfling and may find it on free platforms with ads in your region. You can check the JustWatch website for more details.

As usual there are spoilers ahead! 
You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. 
If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm
This episode we track the birth of one of the longest running franchises. Dr Who was first broadcast in 1963 and with the help of some exterminating aliens a film was produced just a couple of years later. I speak to my wonderful Whovian guests about the origins, the hallmarks and the 1960s context of the infamous Doctor including the colourful and shiny 1960s feature films. 
Paul Booth is a professor of Media and Pop Culture with a special interest in fandoms on which he has written extensively. He is co-editor of the book Adventures Across Space and Time: A Doctor Who Reader. 
Lee Arnott is the co-host if the Problematic Gaze podcast. He is a social historian who is currently researching the the social history of Britain since the 1960s through the lens of Doctor Who.
Although Australian composer Ron Gainer wrote the music for Dr Who it was Delia Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop who produced the theme. 
You can see the Delia Derbyshire clip I mention on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsRuhCflRyg
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:41The BBC origins of the series
04:45 The first episode, changes and differences on the big screen
09:40 The Daleks and Dalekmania
13:20 WW2, Nazis and nuclear fears
19:37 More Daleks
23:33 The Doctor
27:33 What is canon
29:21 The Companions
35:13 The Tardis
38:05 Design
42:02 (The best ever) theme tune
45:46 Legacy
49:22 Success and favourite doctors
53:04 Recommendations
Recommendations: 
Lee recommended The War Game (1965) and Paul recommended the book Dr. Who & The Daleks: The Official Story of the Films by John Walsh.  
 
NEXT EPISODE!
Next episode we will be discussing the 1965 French New Wave science fiction film Alphaville by Jean-Luc Godard. It is easy to rent on main streaming platforms as well as other places in the US including Mubi and Kanopy. To find the film in your region you can visit the Just Watch website.

As always there are spoilers ahead!
You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. 
If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm 
First Men on the Moon was written by HG Wells and serialised in The Strand Magazine beginning in 1900. The book was published in 1901 a year before Georges Méliès kicked off science fiction cinema with La Voyage dans la Lune in 1902. (You can learn more about that film in episode number 2 The First Science Fiction Film Ever.)
 Then in the swinging 60s as the space race was heating up a collection of brilliant sci-fi filmmakers go together to make a story about a Victorian British scientist going to the moon with his anti-gravity material Cavorite! And yet even the amazing Ray Harryhausen stop motion special effects were not enough to make this film a success. My amazing guests break down the origins and outcomes of this mid-century oddity. 
Keith Williams is a Reader in English Literature at the University of Dundee where he runs the science fiction programme. He has a special interest in the pre 1945 period and is the author of the book H.G. Wells, Modernity and the Movies.
Matthew Rule-Jones is a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Exeter and author of the book Science Fiction Cinema and 1950s Britain: Recontextualising Cultural Anxiety.
At 6:09 Keith is about to explain the contraption that Robert William Paul was planning based on HG wells Time Machine. I interrupt him as we've covered this in two episodes priot. You can access more information about that on episode 37 The Time Machine: HG Wells' Legacy in 1960s Sci-Fi at timecode 23:07 or in episode 9 The Invisible Man Exposed at timecode 38:29.
Chapters
00:00 Intro
02:23 HG Wells, selenites and Georges Méliès Trip to the Moon
06:57 Balancing act: Producer Charles Schneer vs Writer Nigel Kneale.
12:44 Box Office flop
15:12 Dreams of Empire and international cooperation
19:40 Steampunk sensibilities
22:26 The backdrop of the Space Race
26:58 Bedford and Cavor
33:20 Ray Harryhausen
37:50  NASA and the moon landing
41:12 Ant colonies and sci-fi
46:42 Legacy
50:10 Recommendations
 
Recommendations:
The First Men in the Moon (2010)
The Stone Tape (1972) available to view on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHgcpzzZspw
 
NEXT EPISODE!
The next episode will feature two films:  Dr Who & the Daleks (1965) as well as Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966). These films are available to buy or stream on mainstream platforms like Apple and Prime as well as subscription services. The Just Watch website is a good resource for finding where films are available in your region.