Welcome to an end of year mailbag special looking back over Redshirt Cinema Club's 2025.

What a year it's been! David Lynch, The Matrix, Jurassic Park, 1991, Indiana Jones, [Alien Earth I guess], John CarpeNNter - we have been on a cinematic tour and you have kept us company on the way. Now we go through the best of your emails and take a moment to reflect before breaking up for the Christmas period.

Yes this would normally be a bonus episode, and yes we've made it available to everyone on purpose. And yes we don't really understand very much about Australia, sorry about that.

Star Wars continues with The Return of The Jedi on Monday 29th December.

Join the Redshirt Cinema Club! Support us at patreon.com/redshirtcinemaclub to receive two bonus episodes every month as well as our newsletter, The Civilian Observer.

You can also follow us at x.com/redshirtcinema, and get in touch at [email protected].

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This week we're all enjoying The Empire Strikes Back - Dave's favourite Star Wars film. Rob's favourite Star Wars film. Not Nath's though, but he does still like it. You could describe Empire as the beginning of Star Wars as a 'franchise' - it's a film brimming with confidence, with characters hitting their stride (Darth Vader is definitely evil now and C3PO is a bit nicer) and with ships and set-pieces that would make excellent toys. Then there's that bit - one of the most famous twists in cinema history, a moment that ignited spoiler culture as we know it. Let's dive in!

We'll be watching the original Star Wars trilogy followed by the prequel trilogy, all through December and January. Dates are below!

Star Wars: An Intro - 8/12/25

Bonus - Star Wars Games - 10/12/25

A New Hope - 15/12/25

Empire Strikes Back - 22/12/25

Mail Bag End 2 - 24/12/25

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A long time ago in an office in Bath... we said we'd do a series on Star Wars. Finally, here it is. We start where it all began, with 1977's A New Hope (or simply 'Star Wars' as it was known back then). An un-assuming sci-fi adventure with a cast full of unknowns that director George Lucas thought was going to bomb - so much so that he went on holiday to avoid the noise around its release.

What follows is movie history - the biggest film franchise of all time was born. But how does the original measure up to what's come since? How did a simple post production decision transform the entire finale? And is Harrison Ford actually handsome in this one? We discuss all this and more as we move scene-by-scene through the film that started it all.

We'll be watching the original Star Wars trilogy followed by the prequel trilogy, all through December and January. Dates are below!

Star Wars: An Intro - 8/12/25

Bonus - Star Wars Games - 10/12/25

A New Hope - 15/12/25

Empire Strikes Back - 22/12/25

Mail Bag End 2 - 24/12/25

Return Of The Jedi - 29/12/25

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It's happening - we're about to watch Star Wars on Redshirt Cinema Club, and there will be no-one to stop us this time.

Before we rewatch and discuss the first movie, we take a moment to discuss our personal histories with Star Wars, and read about some of yours. Are the three of us Star Wars fans? Which parts of the Star Wars world have we seen, and do we like the best? And exactly how fucking cool did it feel to boost engine power and tear off after an escaping smuggler in TIE Fighter on the PC?

The answers to this and many other questions are to be found here.

We'll be watching the original Star Wars trilogy followed by the prequel trilogy, all through December and January. Dates are below, and don't forget you can support us on Patreon if you'd like to hear the bonus episodes.

Star Wars: An Intro - 8/12/25

Bonus - Star Wars Games - 10/12/25

A New Hope - 15/12/25

Empire Strikes Back - 22/12/25

Mail Bag End 2 - 24/12/25

Return Of The Jedi - 29/12/25

Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure 5/1/26

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We conclude our 1985 season with Nath's pick, Terry Gilliam's absurdist dark comedy Brazil, a disturbing vision of what the world might be like if capitalism squeezed every last shred of humanity out of society. Brazil tells us that world would have lots of ducts, and heroic vigilante plumbers played by Robert DeNiro.

A wonderfully unique, hilarious and harrowing film with a stacked cast, Brazil is a step away from anything we've watched before on the podcast.

Let us know what you think of this episode by emailing us at [email protected] and support us on Patreon at patreon.com/redshirtcinemaclub for access to two bonus episodes per month as well as our newsletter, The Civilian Observer.

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We're continuing our 1985 season this week with Walt Disney oddity, The Black Cauldron.

Caught between the classic early decades of Disney animation and the studio's 1990s resurgence, The Black Cauldron is an unusually dark (and unusually British) adventure, with moments of dread and horror mixed in with the odd and unfathomable (magic pigs, hairy little thieves, gruesome self-sacrifice).

Clearly, it struck a chord with young Rob, who grew up loving fantasy stories, and who picked this for our 1985 season. Enjoy, let us know what you think of the film, and join us next week for more 1985 oddness with Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

Let us know what you think of this episode by emailing us at [email protected] and support us on Patreon at patreon.com/redshirtcinemaclub for access to two bonus episodes per month as well as our newsletter, The Civilian Observer.

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Back To The Future! Our 1985 season begins in earnest this week with Dave's pick of the year, Robert Zemeckis' layered, heartfelt time-travelling adventure (although do go and listen to our Goonies bonus episode if you can...)

BTTF is a perfect fit with several films the pod has already absorbed, a "Spielberg-ing" of early 1980s life that like ET (and The Goonies) presents a world beset by adult problems to which only children have the answers. Dense with physical gags and cultural references, and tightly plotted around its time travel premise, we are in the presence of another absolute classic.

Let us know what you think of this episode by emailing us at [email protected] and support us on Patreon at patreon.com/redshirtcinemaclub for access to two bonus episodes per month as well as our newsletter, The Civilian Observer.

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We're taking a long overdue look inside the Redshirt Cinema Club mailbag this week (please keep emailing us, we do read them, promise) before kicking off our new mini season by each selecting our favourite movie of 1985, in celebration of the year Dave was born. This has caused alarm for a couple of reasons: firstly it's made us realise a number of our favourite movies are now, like Dave, 40 years old and secondly it turns out Rob has only seen two movies released in this year. Time to fix that stat.

Let us know what you think of this episode by emailing us at [email protected] and support us on Patreon at patreon.com/redshirtcinemaclub for access to two bonus episodes per month as well as our newsletter, The Civilian Observer.

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Man is the warmest place to hide this week, as our John Carpenter mini-season comes to a spectacular, gushing climax with 1982’s The Thing. Is Jed the dog the best dog actor ever? Could speaking Norwegian have solved this whole business in 5 minutes? And who - if anyone - is human by the end? Let’s find out

Let us know what you think of this episode by emailing us at [email protected] and support us on Patreon at patreon.com/redshirtcinemaclub for access to two bonus episodes per month as well as our newsletter, The Civilian Observer.

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Hello and welcome to Redshirt Cinema Club, a weekly podcast about smoking, apparently.  

In the distant future of the year 1997, Manhattan has become a super prison, the president of the USA has crash landed inside, and only one man has tight enough trousers and good enough arms to break him out again. This is John Carpenter’s Escape From New York…

Let us know what you think of this episode by emailing us at [email protected] and support us on Patreon at patreon.com/redshirtcinemaclub for access to two bonus episodes per month as well as our newsletter, The Civilian Observer.

Our October John Carpenter series:

Dark Star - 6/10/25

Assault On Precinct 13 - 13/10/25

Bonus - The Fog - 15/10/25

Halloween - 20/10/25

Escape From New York - 27/10/25

Bonus - Prince Of Darkness - 29/10/25

The Thing - 3/11/25

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