Old v. Gold

Season 2 of Old v. Gold moves, with Spockly logic, to Season 2 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. First up: “Q Who,” which, besides serving up big scoops (a word Worf should never say) of the title character, also introduces us to those lovable scamps, the Borg. Our discussion covers the notion of episode structure vs. series structure and the difficulties of predicting technology in science fiction. And this time, Troi is one of the few characters we don’t mock.

And if you’re down with Gen to the Next, make sure to check out our previous entries on Season 1 eps “The Naked Now” and “Conspiracy.”

Q’s like, you bitches ain’t prepared.

Podcasters: Robert, Tim, Danny, Jack, Sam

Join Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn as James Cameron leads them into The Abyss.

Check us out on Twitter (@hiddendeadly or #oldvgold).

Season 2 premiere! Ah, the ’80s. When Americans were obsessed with skiing contests, French foreign-exchange students, Howard Cosell-imitating drag racers, and dancing Claymation fast food — all rigorously documented in exacting cinéma vérité detail by director Savage Steve Holland via Better Off Dead, Fall 1985’s required dose of John Cusack.

Join us (and the peanut gallery) as we find out whether the movie’s maybe-slightly-above-two-dollars budget still pays off three decades later. Or, instead, you can watch an awesomely terrible, Roger Corman-produced sci-fi film we get distracted about.

Ducks, you know, for comedy.

Podcasters: Robert, Tim, April, Joanna

It’s back to the good ol’ Enterprise for a Season 2 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that asks the unpunctuated question: Q Who.

Check us out on Twitter (@hiddendeadly or #oldvgold).

We be back! Old v. Gold‘s second season begins Tuesday, Oct. 7!

New to the podcast, or need a refresher course on the concept? Enjoy this preview — in video or audio — which includes clips from both seasons.

Then, get your disc library or Netflix queue in order and join us to find out if you’re better off watching Better Off Dead — the movie for next week’s Season 2 premiere.

Season finale! When you think of Chariots of Fire. one thing comes to mind: guys running down a gloomy British beach in long underwear to the iconic keyboard theme song. But did you know that the O***r-winning Best Picture for 1981 also contains other scenes? Yes! And those scenes feature Ian Holm, Ben Cross, and the Borg Queen in a low-key tale of athletic skill, heritage, faith, and the classiest way to practice hurdles at your posh manor. Also, surprisingly, trowels are prominent.

So Ian Holm was never young in anything, was he?

Podcasters: Robert, Tim, April, Joanna

Check us out on Twitter (@hiddendeadly or #oldvgold).

A bunch of us black-palms get together and set our analytical lasers to beautify and/or brutally dissect Logan’s Run, the iconic 1976 sci-fi tale in which the color-coded denizens of a future Epcot Center live an erotically convenient, hermetically sealed life — then die a state-mandated, Cirque du Soleilesque death at 30. And for those who enjoy old people rambling and naming their cats, there’s the second half of the movie.

I guess once you can beam sex people into your apartment, maybe you don’t need TV and cameras anymore?

Podcasters: Robert, Tim, Mark, Mary Ellen, Rich

Start getting psyched up for the next Olympics with Chariots of Fire.

Check us out on Twitter (@hiddendeadly or #oldvgold).

Two kids with what ought to be world-conquering powers and conveniently sporadic vague memories wind up on the run from a large number of disturbing adults in Disney’s 1975 Escape to Witch Mountain. Also, for some reason, we occasionally interrupt the podcast for late-breaking updates on RVs used in modern TV shows.

“We have too much awesome stuff. We have nothing left to hope for. Let’s go leave our stuff behind, and hope for more stuff.”

Podcasters: Robert, Tim, Dana, Mary Ellen

Carousel. Last Day. Aquarius 23. Logan’s Run.

Check us out on Twitter (@hiddendeadly or #oldvgold).

So far, the subjects of Old v. Gold have been genre films or old films aimed at child or teen viewers, a trend which leads us naturally to … Trainspotting. You see, someone remembered Danny Boyle’s acclaimed tale of heroin-dependent and -adjacent young men in Scotland as a kind of, I guess, funny romp? So here we are (in a session recorded a couple of weeks ago, before certain grim recent Hollywood news), to find out what we — and our peanut gallery of one — get from this energetic and artistic 1996 movie in 2014. (A hint: depressed.)

You know, we all went through that mid-’90s poop phase.

Podcasters: Robert, Tim, David, Mary Ellen

It’s Escape to Witch Mountain, which we promise, despite the title, is not about heroin.

Check us out on Twitter (@hiddendeadly or #oldvgold).

Anál nathrach,

And so, using the magical pseudo-Gaelic (or perhaps Dothraki?) of the Charm of Making, we weave a mist … in time! … through which we watch Excalibur, John Boorman’s 1981 telling of the legend of King Arthur, full of verdant hills and glades, orchestral music from a completely different legend, and shouting British AC-TORS!

We don’t really have churches yet, so here’s a prop from “Godspell.”

Podcasters: Robert, Tim, Jack

We stick around the British Isles (several centuries later) to do some Trainspotting.

Check us out on Twitter (@hiddendeadly or #oldvgold).

Old v. Gold goes on location for the pilot episode of Twin Peaks. Not the location — that’s in Washington and/or fictional. Instead, we huddle in a shaky house among the redwoods of Northern California to view David Lynch’s groundbreaking 1990 mix of surrealism, humor, terror, and donuts. Think of this podcast as “Diane” if it helps.

Sure there’d be an ethereal singer at the biker bar. Why not?

Podcasters: Robert, Tim, April, Mary Ellen

Join us in castle times when knights were proud and tables were round: it’s Excalibur!

Check us out on Twitter (@hiddendeadly or #oldvgold).

Kirk, Spock, and the rest warped to the big screen in 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This first movie in the franchise isn’t a five-year mission, but it is a, well, leisurely tour.

“We’re right down its throat.” … No you’re not. You’re in the colon, buddy.

Podcasters: Robert, Tim, Rich, Sam

Enter the surreality of Twin Peaks as we cover the groundbreaking TV series’ two-hour pilot episode.

Check us out on Twitter (@hiddendeadly or #oldvgold).