Alienating the Audience

"Galaxy Quest" is the greatest parody of Star Trek imaginable… without technically being Star Trek. Nick Sperdute and Erin Macdonald join the show to discuss what makes the show so memorable--and hilarious.

Links to the film and the referenced documentary at www.mightyheaton.com/goodscifi

"Hyperion" by Dan Simmons projects Chaucer's Canterbury Tales onto a distant scifi future. Katherine Mangu-Ward joins to discuss the multiple characters who make their away on a deadly pilgrimage to meet the Shrike—a robot monster who moves backwards in time, and what it all means for humanity, mortality, and literature

Michael Weiss, editor-at-large at The Daily Beast, joins the show to discuss Darth Vader: why he's such a compelling malefactor, the deep inner conflict and tumult which motivates him, and the mythological figures the dark lord of the Sith represents.

"Watchmen" kicks off with the Tulsa Race Massacre, which defines the central theme of the rest of the series: race. Hannibal Johnson is the author of "Black Wall Street 100–An American City Grapples With Its Historical Racial Trauma," as well as the host of "Black Wall Street Remembered."

He joins Heaton to discuss the Greenwood Massacre, racial animus, and reparations.

Brian Brushwood joins the show to discuss "Watchmen," the televised sequel to the film and book, "The Watchmen." Topics include: underlying tensions in the show, is Dr. Manhattan a stupid character, and was Ozymandias right?

This is Part One of a two-part episode; episode two will go deep on the Tulsa Race Massacre which kicks off the series, and its unresolved racial tensions.

"Demolition Man" is a cult classic, wherein Sylvester Stallone gets thawed out in the near future to stop Wesley Snipes from destroying Los Angeles. Society is bifurcated into infantilized virginal technocrats up top, and rat-eating, free-thinking punks beneath.

Economist Steve Horwitz joins to discuss.

In "Clans of the Alphane Moon" by Philip K. Dick, a planet is colonized as an insane asylum, then abandoned, so that its inmates develop their own society and cultures.

Tom Merritt, host of "Sword and Laser" joins to answer: what happens when pathologies become the basis of civilization, rather than its aberrations?

You can check out "Clans of the Alphane Moon" as well as the other books and films discussed on the show by going to Mightyheaton.com/goodscifi

"Mad Max: Fury Road" is the height of post-apocalyptic wasteland glam--everyone is really getting into skulls, cars, and neo-Viking lore. Not to mention it may be the greatest feminist film in science fiction.

Scott Johnson of Frogpants Studios joins to discuss!

Why is "The Mandalorian" so popular with Star Wars fans, yet the latest films are so divisive? Where does it veer from the traditional beats and themes of Star Wars, and where does it embrace that unique George Lucas flavor? Jack Helmuth and Nick Sperdute join to unpack everyone's favorite bounty hunter.

"The Stepford Wives" (1975) is a satirical horror film about spunky urban wives getting replaced by their husbands with submissive, ornamental robots. Chris and Cristi Moody come on to talk about the unease captured by the movie in a time of gender roles tumult, 1950s conformity, Second Wave Feminism, and parallels to "Get Out."