Sci-Fi Malady

In the month of May we are going really old school - reviewing serials. For of you that don’t know what that is the movie theaters used to show portions of a movie before the main movie. Maybe next month we will review more silent films!

We conclude sci-fi comedy month with a review of possibly the highest form of the craft - Spaceballs. It has Rick Moranis at his best and Mel Brooks’ formidable skills in satire, slapstick and irony are fully on display. Spaceballs is a wonderful mix of parody slapstick comedy, irony and satire. It is not really a movie or humor that can be explained, it has to be seen. We don’t seriously deconstruct this one because there is nothing to destruct, we just have a blast discussing a movie we love.

When you think of science fiction comedy Red Dwarf should be high on the list. If you haven’t seen it just picture over the top zany British humor and you have Red Dwarf. It is light hearted, fun and finds a way to make subtle or not so subtle commentaries on religion, authority and human beings in general. Not to mention a human that evolved from a cat played by an actor channeling James Brown.

I could attempt to describe Red Dwarf and I would fail. Watch it. It can’t be explained it simply needs to be experienced.

Dark Star - released theatrically in 1975 - is the earliest of master filmmaker John Carpenter’s work. It started as a film school project on a budget of $1000, and then $6000 and then $60,000. Buried within this overzealous endeavor was an interesting concept about investigating the nature of reality, was is knowable what is tangible and how can we actually know what is real if the only thing we can really rely upon is our sensory data. Unfortunately what would have been a great high concept for a cerebral science fiction short film or twilight zone episode was padded out to theatrical length with horrible comedy, a beach ball alien (literally a beach ball) and a malfunctioning talking bomb with a personality that comes to believe it is God and kills them all.

While this film lacks a plot, action, drama, good character interaction, sense of direction, comedy, a likeable character or any sense of story, the film making chops of the future legend are evident and co-writer Dan O’Bannon learned from his mistakes to bring us Alien.

This one is a cult classic that while not horribly bad like other movies is about as exciting as watching grass grow. Carpenter and O'Bannon did what all creators do and learned from their shortcomings in this one and built on their success, but to be truthful there was no where to go but up from this one.

Dark Star, 1974, its….something.

Everyone once in a while there is a movie that is so bad you have to watch it. The Velocipastor is one of those movies. I could spend time explaining why it is so bad it is good, or I could leave you the films initial synopsis and ask who amongst could resist watching after reading this summary.

After a devastating family tragedy, a priest travels to China to find deeper spirituality, but instead is endowed with an ancient ability that allows him to turn into a dinosaur. At first, he is horrified by his newfound superpower, but a local prostitute convinces him to use his newfound gift to fight evil -- and ninjas.

I mean how are you not watching, this has everything.

For Symptom 144 Sci-Malady teams up again with our friends at The Lunatic Parade and we break this epically bad yet great monstrosity. Be sure to check out The Lunatic Parade and 1st Table Gaming for a great podcast on all things geek culture.

As Q once told Jean Luc Picard - all good things must come to an end. after 143 symptoms has Sci-Fi Malady com to an end?

COVID19 is here. Most of us are shelter in place or stay at home. Seems like a great time to play some awesome science fiction games!. With that in mind we are discuss our favorite science fiction RPG’s and video games.

Stay safe and healthy everyone.

While at Gamer’s Haven playing Firefly we had a chance to interview the owner Brandon. He runs a really cool place. Go check it out if you are in the area.

Firefly was an amazing science fiction series. Maybe one of the best. If you say otherwise you are WRONG! WRONG I SAY!

Well, they also made a pretty cool board game that manages to capture a lot of the feel and flavor of the cult hit series. So take me out to the black and tell em I ain’t coming back, it’s time to play FireFly

For the month of March we are discussing games. Mostly board games, but maybe a video game. We kick this month of with a discussion of a little known but completely awesome and amazing game - Space Alert!. You take command of a sitting duck class ship which comes under attack from various threats. You and your crew take actions in real time to defend against the threat. Once the game has ran its course you check to see if you survived.

Make sure to hit the computer before the screen saver kicks in or you probably will die as it will lock down all systems.