See You Next Week ...in Space!

The Walsh gals talk about a true science fiction TV class this week. Babylon 5 ran for five seasons and was one of the first properties that developed a multi-season plan that would be realized over the course of the entirety of the series. All well and good, but this episode will probably stand out for the incredible amount of hair talk Amy and Sarah do.

This week we talk about a movie some of you might have missed: Predestination (2014). Filmed in Australia and primarily an Australian production, this time travel movie is the gift that keeps on giving. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? This movie maybe answers that question. Then again, maybe it doesn’t.

Amy and Sarah also start the show by talking about all the ways that you can support Black Americans (and democracy itself). There are many ways to do this, but one of the most critical is funding organizations dedicated to protecting the civil rights of Black Americans. Organizations you may want to support include:

Black Lives Matter: www.blacklivesmatter.com

The NAACP: www.naacp.org

The ACLU: www.aclu.org

Southern Poverty Law Center: www.splcenter.org

National Bail Fund Network: www.communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfn-directory

REGISTER TO VOTE: www.eac.gov/voters/register-and-vote-in-your-state

This week, things get a bit dark. Like, literally. The short film, based on Ray Bradbury’s equally short story, All Summer in a Day (1982) takes Amy and Sarah on a journey into the dark hearts of children. Despite getting all the way to Venus, the human race still hasn’t found a solution for bullying it seems…

Amy and Sarah explore the more realistic sci fi world of The Martian (2015) this week. What do they learn? Many things, but perhaps the most important is that neither of them is prepared to be an astronaut. This isn’t just because space is terrifying, but because they don’t have the botanical skills it apparently requires.

Put on your tight pants and take a ride with Amy and Sarah all the way back to 1983! This week, the girls talk about another classic 80s franchise: Knight Rider. Perhaps not traditionally recognized as a member of the scifi family, this particular episode actually deals with a rather novel concept of the genre: do artificial intelligences care about their physical appearance? For this more-than-car, turns out the answer is yes!

It’s a big week here at SYNWiS. Sarah’s been waiting to talk about this movie for quite awhile. Amy, however, has not. In this installment, we get to see just how full of high concept explorations of difference and violence a scifi movie can be. Submitted for your approval, the gals talk about Enemy Mine (1985).

This week the gals talk about a stranger corner of the sci fi landscape: Farscape. The brainchild of Rockne S. O’Bannon (SeaQuest DSV/2032) and Brian Henson, this series explores the adventures of a rag tag bunch of misfits in an uncharted part of the galaxy. What do we learn in this episode? That Sarah really is NOT a fan of puppets.

Amy and Sarah talk about one of Sarah’s favorite childhood movies this week. The Last Starfighter (1984) was most likely designed to capitalize on the success of the Star Wars and Star Trek film franchises. Needless to say, as the ladies discuss, those dreams weren’t realized. But this does movie does answer the age-old question: how would YOU interact with your simuloid double?

This week we have a couple of big firsts: first guest and first foray into 1960s sci fi. The guest: Amy’s husband Izsac. The show: Lost in Space. Beating Star Trek to the punch by a year and Star Wars by a decade, this series feels a bit more like a Western than traditional sci fi. But it still delivers in all the ways that count. Maybe especially in the villain department…

It’s our first kids’ movie this week and it seems only fitting that it would be the 1986 classic Flight of the Navigator. What does this movie tell us? Maybe keep a closer eye on your children. But, also, kids seem to be really good at flying space ships.