Strangers and Aliens: Science Fiction & Fantasy from a Christian Perspective

Ben, Steve, and Dr. Jayce have seen The Hobbit . . . but do they think YOU should? Find out here!

Listen as Ben says there will be no small talk . . . and then promptly his wife makes HER first appearance in the show!

They talk about the new higher frame rate . . . even though none of them saw it that way!

They dive into the story changes, the character designs, the music . . . all that fun stuff . . . and at some points it seems like the all saw a different movie!

Ben reveals a favorite movie that The Hobbit reminded him of . . . and loses a lot of geek creed with Dr. Jayce!

And Ben can’t say any Middle Earth names correctly . . .

And what do Star Trek III, Simon and Simon, and Snow White have to do with the “fellowship” of dwarves?

And how do the eagles cause a near argument about free will and predestination?

They also talk more about animal droppings than they have in any other episode!

Don’t forget to go to http://negatron.strangersandaliens.com/hobbit to see how what our resident super villain thought of this movie! Why does he believe that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has two of the greatest villains of the years?

Steve interviews Geoff Holding, the mastermind behind the website End of the World 2012? at http://www.endoftheworld2012.net/ . . .

The website covers many different topics, and Steve and Geoff also cover many different topics . . . but, of course, the question they will also be covering is “will the world end on December 21, 2012”???

Find out here! (Spoiler: no . . . but Geoff has some very interesting perspectives not only about why not, but why people are interested in both the 2012 DOOMSDAY and aliens and  . . . well, listen to the episode.)

 

Ben and Steve tackle REBOOTS!

Are reboots evil . . . necessary evil . . . or necessary?

What recent reboots work . . . and what don’t?

And what is the GREATEST reboot of all time? Steve thinks he knows. And Ben just may know the second greatest . . .

Listen as they lock horns over Battlestar Galactica . . . laugh about Highlander . . . launch into Star Trek . . . look at comics with the New 52 and Crisis on Infinite Earths . . .

Let us know by contacting us! You can call us on our hotline: 1-840-37-ALIEN . . . contact us via Twitter (and Twitterbot just may read your comment next episode) . . . use your own computer to record a message for us using our website recording widget . . . or just plain e-mail us at [email protected]!

After a Thanksgiving break, Steve, Dr. Jayce, and Ben return with a list of their favorite five science fiction characters! Some may surprise you . . . others not so much. After that, they each reveal a science fiction character that many people love . . . but they do not (and they are all prepared to dodge rotten eggs and tomatoes)!

They also open the mailbag for some listeners’ favorite characters and Twitterbot makes an appearance to read some answers for two listeners!

Do you agree? Disagree? Have a list of your own? Hate a character one of them loves? Love a character one of them hates?

Let us know by contacting us! You can call us on our hotline: 1-840-37-ALIEN . . . contact us via Twitter (and Twitterbot just may read your comment next episode) . . . use your own computer to record a message for us using our website recording widget . . . or just plain e-mail us at [email protected]!

Oh, and stick around after the credits for a special dramatic recitation of a classic sci-fi theme song!

In this episode . . .

* We celebrate the podcast’s first birthday!

* We introduce a new co-host, Twitter-bot!!!

* We probably fire said new co-host, Twitter-bot!!!

* Listener feedback about Star Wars! (Listen to the episode about the Star Wars Disney purchase here.)

* Ben plugs two other podcasts!

* Dr. Jayce’s interesting theory about Doctor Who!

* Listener feedback about our Gluttony episode! (Listen to the first in our series of podcasts about the Seven Deadly Sins — Gluttony — here.)

* The WINNERS OF THE SUPER FANTASTIC FACEBOOK FAN CONTEST OF AWESOME!!! (On Monday, we will begin contacting the winners on Facebook.)

LINKS:

Between Disney — the Disney blog by The Sci-Fi Christian’s Other Guy

Sci-Fi Christian’s Darth Mickey – Disney Buys Lucasfilm — The episode from The Sci-Fi Christian that gives a great background behind Disney’s business dealings and some of the implications of the purchase

Geekklesia — Hank Harwell’s blog, a thought-provoking blog about science fiction and fantasy and Christianity

The Spirit Blade Underground —

Last summer, the Gideon Media Arts Conference and Film Festival featured a new contest: The Comics Writer and Comics Artist Contest. Sponsored by Kingstone Comics, publisher of The Book of Godand The Christ Graphic Novel, one of the prizes (in addition to a cash prize) was to be featured on the Strangers and Aliens website.

So, for this episode Ben interviewed three of the six winners. They were fun conversations, touching on geeky stuff like favorite comic books to what got them into art to what drives them as artists and writers. And we are  featuring some of the work of all the winners (except one) in this blog post.

In the episode we also had some announcements to make (like that the Super Fantastic Facebook Fan Contest of Awesome has been extended to November 14, 2012). Or that you can still vote for us in the Podcast Awards (religion/inspiration) until November 15!

Here are the results of the contest, and the featured creators . . .

ARTISTS (artists were given a script they were to illustrate):

 

1. Mike Abuan — Unfortunately, Mike was unable to record an interview for the podcast, but he did provide us with some links and a couple art samples . . .

First, his Deviantart account: http://miabu.deviantart.com/

He also did some work for the Angel Dreams comic series — http://indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6605

Angel Dreams is published by Visionland. Here is their website — http://www.facebook.com/visionlandcomics?fref=ts

He drew the astronaut image above, and also the workspace image to the side here.

2. Laura Hollingsworth — Laura also was not available for an interview, but also sent us some links to her work. She came in second place in the art contest. She does a webcomic called The Silver Eye. Laura says: “The Silver Eye is an action/adventure webcomic about a wealthy orphan and a vagrant king who have to unite to stop an out of control conqueror.”

You can read The Silver Eye here: www.thesilvereye.com

Her Deviantart profile, with more sample art, can be found here: lostie815.deviantart.com

 

 

 

3. D.L. Maffett — D.L. was one of the contest winners we interviewed in this episode. About his current project, he wrote to us: “I am currently working with some CCAS members on a new christian in comics project, the working title is “One Lost Coin” featuring golden comic era characters from Christopher Lee Jone’s Shock Squad with some other C...

Ben and Steve react to the news about Disney aquiring Lucasfilm and the promise of a new Star Wars movie in 2015.

They talk about what they would like to see happen, what they hope does NOT happen, and Ben makes the prediction of the actual release date for the movie (not a difficult prediction to make).

Some links: The Super Fantastic Facebook Fan Contest of Awesome 

Please vote for us in the 2012 Podcast Awards: The Podcast Awards (voting starts November 1!)

And please, as always, join the conversation! E-mail us at [email protected], send us a short message using the widget to the right of the page or by e-mailing us an MP3, leave a note in the comments below, or contact us through Facebook — http://facebook.com/strangersandaliens — or Twitter — https://twitter.com/StrangeAndAlien — or use our contact form.

(Photo from NPR)

This is the first part of a periodic series we are doing about the Seven Deadly Sins. Part one is Gluttony.

In this episode, we explore gluttony and its accompanying virtue temperance in sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, while also talking about it from a scriptural and personal point of view.

If we missed anything, we encourage you to contact us! You can send us an audio message using your computer’s microphone by clicking on the tab over to the right of your browser, e-mail us at [email protected] (MP3s welcome!), or go to our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/strangersandaliens).

Also, we would love it if you joined the conversation in the comment section below! We want to know what you think! Did we miss a great example? Did we miss an important angle? Let us know!

Other episodes in the Seven Deadly Sins Series:

Part One: GLUTTONY

Part Two: SLOTH

Part Three: WRATH

(Seven Deadly Sins artwork by Tim Baron — http://www.timbaron.blogspot.com)

This episode is a special episode — an interview with the “granddaddy of Christian sci-fi podcasting” and the producer of Christian sci-fi stories, Paeter Frandsen. He is also the mastermind behind the Spirit Blade Underground, a fan community for people of Christian faith and geek fandom.

The interview covers Spirit Blade Productions’ mission (or missions) and Ben and Paeter have some fun talking geek stuff, too.

The main page for Spirit Blade Productions is here: http://www.spiritblade.net/

The Spirit Blade Underground podcast can be found here: http://spiritblade.blogspot.com

And the Spirit Blade forum can be found here: http://spiritblade.forum-motion.com

The Sci-Fi Guys are back, talking about the Justice League, Superman, the Sci-Fi Christian Feud, podcast awards, and the Super Fantastic Facebook Fan Contest of Awesome!

First, the Podcast Awards . . . if you go to this link, right here — http://podcastawards.com — you can nominate us for the podcast awards in the religious/inspiration category (and we would REALLY appreciate it if you did because it would really, really help us get the word out about the podcast!).

Second, the Sci-Fi Christian feud. Some of you may notice a new opening for our podcast — and some people may say that we ripped them off . . . AND our “new” theme song may be a bit reminiscent of another certain podcast — but these gentlemen have started a feud by saying that Superman is stupid. In this episode, we answer that charge. We also make a charge not just of ripping off, but plagiarism! Innocent or guilty? You be the judge. (They have made a few more charges in the feud here. Go ahead, listen to them. If you like our podcast, you should find their’s interesting.)

Third, our Facebook Fan contest. You can read all about it here in our original blog post.

Thank you so much for listening! if you have any comments about our podcast, the Justice League, or comics in general, let us know! You can record a message using the “Send Voicemail” tab to the right of your browser, send us an MP3 or an e-mail to [email protected], or contact us on Facebook or Twitter.

And if you want some Superman stories worth reading, check out these graphic novels: