Episode 69: 1998 - Two Death Space Rocks And A Big Lizard

You know, I do try and think of something original to say in these blurbs other than ... "Oh look another 90s year and it's a mixed bag offal" but I find myself doing just that yet again. And we had high hopes for 1998 with gems like "The Truman Show" about but then you see the dross and boy does '98 have plenty of that!

A Woeful selection, from disjointed "Lost In Space" movie to the not even trying "Star Trek Insurrection", from missing the point "Godzilla" to the pointless "X Files Movie'. Seriously this decade can't be over with soon enough. At least some fun was had by Leo with "The Avengers" (not those ones), and Justin bizarrely loved "Meet Joe Black."... I'm not sure what Ian gets out of this year... oh that's right ... NOTHING!!

You know what. I'm just over it. I really am... It's blurb time and I can't be bothered. Who reads this anyway? Can our bleak nihilistic journey through the 90s get any worse? Oh... and we get to talk about a Robin Williams movie where people who commit suicide get sent to dark hideous hell where they're emotionally tortured by their twisted inner demons forever in a haze of madness without any hope of escape or relief EVER. Humm .... yeah ... our "What Dreams May Come" discussion feels kind of awkward now.

Well I guess that puts all my 90s moaning into perspective. Incidental Music by Incompetech.com

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/0691998TwoDeathSpaceRocksAndABigLizard/069%20-%201998%20-%20Two%20Death%20Space%20Rocks%20and%20a%20Big%20Lizard.mp3

Episode 53: The Wasteland of early 90s TV

This week our Trio rummage deep into their old, dog eared copies of the TV Times and cast their minds back to the Genre TV series of the early 90s. For the UK it was a poor offering, having axed Dr Who the BBC deemed it unnecessary to replace it with anything. Red Dwarf seemed the only game in town, that and the cripplingly dire "Crime Traveler" or the misshapen "Bugs". Science fiction seemed to bubble out on anything but actual drama, surviving on game shows like "Interceptor" or "Crystal Maze."

The doctrine was clear, post Star Wars people expected special effects with their Sci Fi and TV couldn't do that, it was American imports like "Star Trek - The Next Generation" or do without. Thankfully Next Gen was prospering quite well, along with "X Files" and any other half way decent Genre show on Sky Satellite channels. For terrestrial viewers they had to make do with the lack lustre also rans like "Sea Quest" or the 'little low budget show that could', "Babylon 5".

The thing is America was also having a hand in special effects lite fantasy shows like "Early Edition" or "Quantum Leap" which frankly made a mockery of the idea Genre TV was too expensive. Anyway ... "New Adventures of Superman", "Hercules" and "Xena" also rolled about being objects of enjoyment for at least some period of their run. But really this is the bit in history that TV makers of the future would refer to as "Before Buffy" and after that everything changed. But that's a story for another time. For the moment it's very much make do and mend.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/053TheWastelandOfEarly90sTv/053-the-wasteland-of-early-90s-tv.mp3

Episode 37: When Leo Met Ian And The Cultural Soup They Swam In Together

No Justin this week, so Leo must face the brave task of rebuilding Ian's shattered psyche alone. The formally Dr Who obsessed 80s kid has been brainwashed and has gone full 'Bronie'. If he cannot be brought back from his confused amnesiac state he will be lost to a magical world of small flying pastel shaded horses forever.

And so a trip down memory lane begins as Leo regresses Ian back to the time they first met in the early 90s while on a Media course. There he further provokes Ian's identity to reassert it self by reminding him what a deeply sad Dr Who fan he was, even back then. But Leo's smugness soon fades when he realises he himself is just a character from Twin Peaks.

Together they swim further in the cultural soup of their lad-hood and the films, TV, books and other media that were so current at the time: X-Files, Terry Pratchett, Quentin Tarantino, Independence Day and Cypress Hill. It's all in the mixer today as our 80s kids remember that time they were 90s bros.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/037WhenLeoMetIanAndTheCulturalSoupTheySwamInTogether/037-When-Leo-Met-Ian-and-the-cultural-soup-they-swam-in-together.mp3