Starship Podcast Warlock

Edmund is slated to be the latest in a line of troublesome priests and is forced to get him to a nunnery. We review the career of Richard Curtis, co-writer of all four Blackadder series, as well as The Vicar of Dibley, the Bridget Jones films, and an episode about some obscure artist for an even more obscure time travel show.

A Scottish war hero threatens to take Edmund's lands, but might have something even better to give him in return: a step closer to the throne. We discuss Rowan Atkinson, including his brief stint as Doctor Who, and Jeff reveals to Drew that the film of Casino Royale (not that one, the other one) was even stranger than he'd realized. See if you can spot the moment in this episode where our faithful steed Discord briefly stopped carrying us and interrupted Jeff mid-thought! (Hint: there is music)

New season of Starship Podcast Warlock! We start our rewatch of Blackadder, beginning at the very beginning. We give those new to the shows (ours and the one we're watching) some idea of what they're in for, Jeff explains the whole "alternative history" concept, and Drew asks the key question foremost in everyone's mind: why Peter Cook?

We watch "Summer Holiday," the bittersweet (for us) last episode of The Young Ones ever, and save all the discussion for after, when we run through our rankings of the musical numbers and the episodes themselves, and run down the premise of our not-yet-written and maybe-impossible-now sequel/reunion Young Ones series. Starship Podcast Warlock will return in Season 2, when we tackle an entirely different show! Stay tuned!

We watch "Sick," in which the boys start by grossing us out and finish by sowing their seeds, filling the time in between with highly articulate outbursts. For our part, we articulate a vision of a 21st century Young Ones remake that's not embarrassing or (unintentionally) offensive. What outdated subculture would Neil be part of? Which character would we cast as a woman? Which character would we keep almost exactly the same? And, most crucially, what musical acts would we book to perform on the show?

We watch "Time," in which the boys awake to find they have no memory of the night before, and there's a strange woman in their house! These ominous events are preceded by a priceless parody of Dallas, at the time an unbelievably popular primetime soap opera about a Texas oil family. We discuss the TV shows we watched as kids (a list which does not include Dallas), the model for Jeff's portrayal of Felix in The Odd Couple, and the peculiar dignity of the professional title "murderess." For better or worse, this is probably the horniest Young Ones episode, but that's not saying much. We keep it pretty clean, though you do hear some more about our grade school crushes, and the surprising connection of one of mine to...the primetime soap Dallas. Time is a flat circle.

We watch "Nasty," and this time "we" includes a special guest: my significant other, Ann, who started watching The Young Ones around the time we did. Yes, we finally convinced her to join us for an episode, even though she had to multitask and do grad school homework at the same time. If you listen closely you might hear her mouse clicking! While the boys get hold of an illicit videotape back in the days when the equipment to watch them on was crazy expensive, we reminisce about how we all met in college, and talk about our nightmare-inducing early experiences with scary movies. Find out which of us had a teacher who showed Nightmare Before Elm Street in class to a bunch of kids! I know, WTF?!

We watch "Cash," in which the boys find themselves short of cash and firewood in winter, and one of them has to get a job before the baby is born! This episode features the line from which this podcast takes its name, along with famous bits like "Darling Fascist Bully Boy" and "Aren't You Mussolini," which weirdly are not related to one another. Highlights of the pre-show reminiscences include Jeff's recollections of watching old ladies getting into fistfights, as well as the most embarrassing job Drew ever had.

We watch "Bambi," in which the boys attempt to do their laundry before going on TV to compete with the posh kids on a quiz show hosted by...a cartoon deer? The posh kids are played by Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, and Ben Elton, so that's fun. We discuss our own humiliations in various school competitions, along with the words that eliminated us in spelling bees. Also Jeff goes to the bathroom during Mötorhead, and for some reason announces it to all of you. I could have edited this one out too, but you know what, he's going to have to learn somehow.

We watch "Flood," in which the boys visit Narnia and narrowly escape an axe-wielding homicidal maniac with the aid of adorable stock footage lions. We also list the titles this podcast almost had, and rank the six episodes we've seen so far. If you were hoping to hear the part where Jeff announces whether or not he "went" before we started recording, forget it, I edited it out. You'll have to wait for the outtakes episode.