First Men in the Moon: From HG Wells to 1964
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead! You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . 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. 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 .) Then in the swinging 60s as the space race...
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Missed Episode, Medicine & Metropolis
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
I am very sorry but I have been unwell this past week. (But I am on the mend!) Multiple visits to the hospital mean that although I have the next episode recorded I have not been able to edit it. I've heard many podcasts serve up older episodes in this circumstance. Maybe an annoyance to those who have already heard all the episodes but for those who haven't since it is 2026 it's probably a good opportunity to watch Metropolis (1927) as this year is the year it was set. I have two remarkable and engaging academics speak about it. Sonja Fritzsche is a professor of German Studies and an...
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Dr. Strangelove: Cold War Comedy & 1964 USA
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead! You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . 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. In 1958 the Peter George novel Red Alert was published about the dangers of nuclear war. A few years later when Stanley Kubrick was looking to make a (serious) film about the topic he was recommended the book. Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was the resulting film. The film takes aim at...
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What is Afrofuturism?
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
Time for another detour! An introduction to Afrofuturism with two magnificent guests. You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. If you would like to be a patron of the podcast it would be greatly appreciated! You can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. The symbol mentioned in the podcast a few times is the Sankofa symbol which is a recurring symbol in Afrofuturism. It represents the idea that there are things that you go back for (and things you leave behind). You can read more about it on this wiki page: Julian...
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Ikarie XB-1: 1963 Communist Utopia in Space
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead! We’ve discussed Czech scifi before with Karel Zeman’s gorgeous steam punk offering from 1958 Invention for Destruction (dubbed into the English language The Fabulous World of Jules Verne) and we’ve also covered Communists in Space with 1960s The Silent Star (AKA First Spaceship on Venus). The Czech Ikarie XB-1 (1963) has connections to both of those films but also offers an aesthetic that . The year is 2163, communism has won, and a crew of 40 are sent to find life on the white planet in Alpha Centauri with a journey fraught with sociological,...
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X-Ray Eyes: Roger Corman’s 1963 Psychedelic Sci-Fi
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead! You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . 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. Roger Corman produced hundreds of films in his lifetime and directed dozens. X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes is a colourful, psychedelic, 1960s extravaganza with aspirations of transcendence. If you wanted to join in, you can watch the film X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes from 1963 first. DVDs of the film are available, but it is also...
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The Manchurian Candidate 1962: Politics, Power & Paranoia
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead! You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . 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. In 1959 at the cusp of a new and exciting decade Richard Condon wrote a book that is largely described as a political thriller. And it is a political thriller. But it also fits neatly into my concept of science fiction. To learn more about what is and isn’t science fiction you can head to the heady days of the first episode where the topic...
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The Day of the Triffids: Wyndham vs Sci-Fi Spectacle
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
There are spoilers ahead for all versions of The Day of the Triffids and also for the film Signs. You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . 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. This episode had been edited down to a more digestible length of under an hour but a longer (audio only) version is available for Patreon subscribers (alongside the shorter option). We are doing things a little differently and discussing the 1963 film along with the source material...
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Panic in Year Zero: Nuclear Apocalypse & the Nuclear Family
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead! You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . 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. There is a trigger warning for discussion of rape in this episode. I have marked the beginning of that part of the discussion with a beep and the discussion lasts for four minutes and four seconds after the beep if you wanted to skip past it. Last week we told you “” but this week we focus in on the panic. ...
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Don't Panic: The Hitchhiker's Guide Phenomenon
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead. You can buy the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book in most bookshops and you can listen to the radio play on YouTube and also on the Internet Archive. You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . 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 and be revered amongst both the G'Gugvuntts and the Vl'Hurgs: As mentioned elsewhere this is not an analysis of the film or any kind of review of the book but more like a chat...
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Somewhere in the late 1950s society began to come to terms with the idea of the teenager. Teens were heading to the cinema leaving younger siblings and parents at home. The Blob (1958) isn‘t a tale of rebellion or film warning about teenage delinquency but a thoroughly enjoyable time with a catchy theme tune.
I have two wonderful guests to help us unravel this classic 1950s sci-fi.
The Experts
Roger Luckhurst is a Professor at Birkbeck, University of London. He has written/edited numerous of articles and books on cultural history and film.
Matthew Rule Jones is a senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Exeter and the author of Science Fiction Cinema and 1950s Britain: Recontextualising Cultural Anxiety.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
03:22 The origins of the film
06:05 Moral panic, the teenager and the AIP film formula
11:36 Red scare as red herring: Jello and suburbia
16:25 The intention vs the interpretation of films
17:32 The Blob
20:00 The theme song vs the earnest tone
24:15 The cinema scene and self-reflection
28:32 The double bill offering
29:56 Steve McQueen: The adult teen
39:10 What are we gonna do?
39:40 Legacy: Sequels and the education system
48:55 Recommendations for the listener
The Next Episode!
The next episode we will focus on the film I Married a Monster from Outer Space. You can buy or rent the film from many outlets or check the Just Watch website to see where it may be streaming in your region
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