Episode 131: Tales of the Fandom Chin - A Bruce Campbell Retrospective

You found the battered VHS tape in a trunk stored in the cabin's basement. There was a lock on the clasp but the lid had rotted allowing you access to the variety of mouldy junk within.

With shaking fingers you reach out to push the tape's spine into the old VCR, you feel the smooth raised surface of the word "GROOVY" written in office white-out along the space where a label should be. The tape begins...

"Hi, I'm Leo and this is Ian and we have been researching urban legends, specifically this one about the so-called 'Hero From The Sky'. The legend relates that if you say the words 'Chuck Finley' into a mirror three times a man in leather pants with a dubious beard will come to your house and crash on your sofa for a week..."

You have heard the legend yourself, but you've never been brave enough to so much as whisper the name of the unspeakable god of B-Movie schlock. What would happen should you succeed? What if he arrives in his other guise as OAP Elvis? What if he likes your place so much he parks a trailer on your front lawn and fills your attic with dead-ites?

Sure, you're a fan, but are you really THAT much of a fan?

This episode uses excerpts of Town Braggart by John Bartmann

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/131talesofthefandomchinabrucecampbellretrospective/131%20-%20Tales%20of%20the%20Fandom%20Chin%20-%20A%20Bruce%20Campbell%20Retrospective.mp3

Episode 123: Star Trek is Screwed

Indeed it is, and has been for so long that the title of this episode has been baking since 2013 when Ian first suggested it. Things weren't much better then, when Ian thought of the idea because a certain Time Lord's 50th Anniversary was coming up. The Doctor had bunting in his Tardis, cake and a War Doctor incarnation played by John Hurt to celebrate.

At almost the same time Star Trek was coming up to its 50th. What did Kirk et al. get? A re-sequel of a re-boot and then forgotten for a couple of years. Then, like a zombie a second sequel to the re-boot came along as well as a shiny new series unavailable except via extortion in the country of its birth. Star Trek did not have the best birthday or aftermath of birthday.

Has it ever been thus? The plug was pulled on Classic Star Trek but it wouldn't die, resurrected in the girdle-clad flesh to shamble on to cinema screens in competition with Star Wars. Then brought back to television and it seemed the rough years were over. Until, three patchy spin offs down the line, we crashed headlong into the shuffling embarrassment of awkwardness that was Enterprise, along with the crushingly awful Nemesis and that appeared to be it.

But you shouldn't count your tribbles until they've been to the vet for neutering (no, seriously). There was the reboot, which was delayed in release so long it looked like it might just get shelved and then... well, here we are, spore drives and a movie franchise that may, possibly, have flatlined. Is this any way to run a Space Federation? Join the 80s kids in their final show for this season and let the moaning commence.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/206StarTrekEditFinal/2-06-Star-Trek-Edit-Final.mp3

This episode features an excerpt from Cutting To The Chase by the outstanding Kai Engel.

Episode 108: And Now, The End Is Near

SPOILER WARNING! This show is about the ends of shows. So the topic of conversation is necessarily spoiler-heavy. Listen with caution!

You had to know it was on its way. There's only one year left in the Noughties, those final Top 5s and we're a mere 7 letters from the end of the alphabet.

All that remains is for the kids to sweep up, arrange the barstools neatly and turn out the lights. Cue the emotional piano music, like all great shows the 80s Kids is winding up to the big finish.

So, before we take that last step into the arena of finality, why not take the opportunity to get all beardy that one last time?

In a conclusion to the "navel-gazing" strand of the cast Leo and Ian talk about show finales. They go hunting for the common threads in that most elusive of beasts: the satisfying conclusion.

"Lost" is bound to come up again, as it does, but there's also a look at "Star Trek: TNG", "Buffy", new "BSG" "Fringe", "Blakes 7", "Babylon 5", "Twin Peaks" and "The Shield" among others.

So as the roundabout slows try not to get anything in your eye. You can rest assured that the kids aren't going to go out in an "everybody dies" toys from pram kind of a finale.

Incidental Music by incompetech.com



Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/Episode108AndNowTheEndIsNear/108-And-now-the-end-is-near.mp3

Episode 97: Noughties Procedural Action Men - The TV show

Procedural drama. You know the stuff. You have your cast of regulars who act as problem solvers and each week they get to do their job, working their way through whatever crisis is going on in a neat format be that Murders, Undead Horrors or Aliens come to Earth to stir up trouble.

Of course we've got over an hour to kill talking on this topic on our episode so this necessitates a degree of formula. After our attention grabbing opening skit we sink our teeth into 'Angel' as this series more than any other seemed to umbrella over so much of what we wanted to discuss. This quickly leads into a more worldly chat about the frantic '24' and then onto the crime shows of 'CSI', 'Lie to Me', The Mentalist', 'Criminal Minds' and that UK attempt at '24' style show ... 'Spooks'. If we were a procedural show all this would fall before our first ad break so you can safely assume it will be a dead end as we move on to new lines of inquiry after a word from our sponsor.

We then head into the thrilling middle section as the problem only seems to deepen. Taking our conversation to the amazing but gritty 'The Shield', the undying 'Supernatural', the much beloved 'True Blood', the quirky 'Eureka' and charming 'Warehouse 13'. But all this is mere run around that only leaves us with an ever deepening mystery.

Finally, getting desperate, Leo lets Ian off his leash and lets him talk on the shaggy Doctor Who spin off 'Torchwood', and while he's waffling away to himself something he says makes a connection in Leo's mind and suddenly in a dramatic final scene all is explained and the topic put to bed in time for the closing titles.

And next week will be very much the same I expect. But I think people find such things reassuring.

Incidental Music by incompetech.com

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/097ActionNoughtyTV/097%20-%20Action%20Noughty%20TV.mp3

Episode 64: The New Arc Shows - Buffet The Episode Slayer

And then 'Buffy' happened and somehow TV was just so much more interesting. But why? This week the 80s Trio tackle this and other questions as we delve into what was on the goggle box in the late 90s. Turns out 'Buffy' and 'Angel' aren't in fact all that ground breaking when you take it apart and look at the pieces but the whole hung very well together and it is the show that finally convinced the world that Story arcs could work.

Not that everyone was convinced, with shows like 'Mutant X', 'Voyager' and 'Sliders' still very much clinging to Roddenberry's great end credits reset button, but these are its dying days. Like a building storyline ending in a climax a wave of new shows came thundering in ready to embrace story progress like 'Charmed' or the sleazy and surreal 'Lexx' ... or for that matter the decade stomping 'Stargate'.

The UK also shone brightly as vampire lethal sunlight for the briefest of moments with the dearly missed and almost forgotten 'Ultraviolet', and the same channel that gave us that also gifted as the nerd joy that was Simon Pegg's 'Spaced.' Oh for sure, the late 90s had it's awful piles of crap like 'Andromeda' and the truly turgid 'Millennium' but overall the decade rounds off in interesting shape.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/064Late90sTV/064%20-%20Late%2090s%20TV.mp3

Episode 26: You Get What You Deserve

Only Leo and Ian this week but they have BIG problems with BIG cinema. Discussions drift from the unloved Ender's Game adaptation to the lack of thought provoking films these days. But aren't we getting the cinema we deserve?

Between the internet's never-ending desire to see the world burn and the current "golden age of television" the big screen is being squeezed. Too big to fail they're playing to the lowest common denominator for as many humans on seats as possible. Spectacle and lots of explosions is something TV can't do, so it isn't surprising film production leans that way.

High budget, thought provoking films have been made and died unseen, worse, they died with hails of vitriol from the internet. But how is any of that the film maker's fault? With our dollars and pounds we've shaped the market we have now and show little sign of changing our habits. Leo has a lot to say, Ian just wants chicken.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/026YouGetWhatYouDeserve/026-You-Get-What-You-Deserve.mp3

Episode 23: A Very Special Episode: Raiders of the Lost Arc

In the synth-scored montage of the tale of the 80s kids, and how they got their revenge, this is a key plot moment indeed. This is our idea of A Very Special Episode, we're not going to be talking about issues, or facing up to the serious side of the world in some maudlin after school special, oh no.

This week we're a man down, work done has been lost due to technical error and even Sue was out. So Leo and Ian do what they do best, sit down and have a thoroughly beardy discussion about whether the current trend of story arc based television is such a good thing as everyone thinks.

After all, we're in a Golden Age of television, supposedly. If this is the case then why do so many series's lose their way, jump the shark and lose everyone's interest. Well, we don't know for certain, but we've got a few ideas...

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/023AVSERaidersOfTheLostArc/023-AVSE-Raiders-of-the-Lost-Arc.mp3

Episode 18: Pity The Fool Who Messes With Our Imports

Fire up your robot car, get out your welding irons and affix some sheet metal to a 4x4, turn into whatever animal you want as long as it's an eagle or a tiger, it's time to look at some of the 80s viewing aimed at younger audiences from across the Atlantic.

Of course, there were anomalous programmes such as the A-Team which didn't start out for kids, things that straddled the gap like Knight Rider and stuff aimed squarely at the younger viewer such as Benji, Zaxx and the Alien Prince.

Basically, if it had a real person in it and it came from the USA in the 80s the 80s kids are getting into it this week. (The cartoons, well, they merit a whole show to themselves He-Man and Transformers fans!)

SPECIAL BONUS CONTENT: Response to feedback, listen on after the end theme to enjoy this response to a detailed fan comment from our Pod-O-Matic page.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/018PityTheFoolWhoMessesWithOurImports/018-Pity-The-Fool-Who-Messes-With-Our-Imports.mp3

Episode 16: Never Forget The Gunge

Nowadays genre television is of such a high quality that it's a tough game to get into. Faint hearts abound as TV Channels would rather put out tosh like 'Sharknado' than produce a low-production value genre show.

In the 80s this shame was no issue as channels worldwide embraced monsters made of rubber and gaffer tape, sets made of cardboard and endless scenes shot in quarries. Not only that but we went right along with them embracing shows that begged the indulgence of our imaginations to make up for the lack of an effects budget.

The 80s kids examine with affection the role that the UK played in our genre landscape from our attempts at robot based sitcoms to the special schedule for good telly dictated by only having a handful of broadcast channels. It's a good, solid UK-based nostalgiafest this week and all the better for it. Last one to the sofa has to wear the Helmet of Justice!


Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/016NeverForgetTheGunge/016-Never-Forget-The-Gunge.mp3