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

The first half of this episode is a spoiler-free discussion between Ben & Steve and Dr. Jayce, as Dr. Jayce puts on his teacher hat and grades his co-hosts on their performance in our previous Doctor Who episode (episode 26).

The second half of the episode is spoiler filled! Chock full of spoilers! Tom and Christa rejoin Ben and Steve in a discussion of Doctor Who season 7 part 1, or whatever they are calling it. How does the final leg of Amy’s (and Rory’s) journey stack up? Satisfying? Unsatisfying? It’s a fun filled — and SPOILER FILLED!!! — conversation!

Also, we open up the mailbag, quibble about grammar and the new Star Trek movie title, and revoke Steve’s man card.

~ Ben

The Booth at the End is a thought provoking, dramatic speculative fiction series on Hulu.com (available as part of their free service). Ben has reviewed the series, and on getting in contact with the series creator and writer, C.K. Kubasik, was able to take some time to have a conversation with him for Strangers and Aliens.

Ben’s review can be found here: The Booth at the End. It was part of series of three reviews of sci-fi programming that were made for digital viewing, not for TV. (The other two series were Electric City and H+.)

If you are a listener of certain OTHER podcasts that have to do with sci-fi/fantasy and Christianity (you know the type of podcast I am referring to: the kind that “brings you theology at warp speed” or whatever) you may have already heard an interview with Mr. Kubasik. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to that episode, recorded after season one of The Booth, you should. It’s a fantastic interview (in spite of the fact that it’s done by S&A’s nemesis podcast). Here’s a link: The Sci-Fi Christian interview with C.K. Kubasik

If you are not familiar with the show, here is a teaser trailer for season one:

And a season two trailer:

Want to give us some feedback about this episode or The Booth at the End? Do you have another online sci-fi show we should be talking about? Let us know about it! E-mail us at [email protected] OR record a message using the handy recording tab on the right of our webpage OR send an MP3 of you and your comment OR contact us through Facebook or Twitter! We want to hear from you! (And we’d love to hear from you by actually, you know, HEARING your voice!)

Here is the link to Audible that we mentioned: http://audibletrial.com/strangers (Remember, signing up for a free one month trial, which gets you a free audio book that you can keep forever, ALSO helps Strangers and Aliens!)

 

Episode 26 is “a very special episode” of Strangers and Aliens, featuring two special guests!

The topic: Doctor Who.

The hosts: Ben and Steve, along with Christa, Steve’s wife and long time Who Fan, and Tom Holste, S&A listener and frequent contributor to the S&A mailbag and big time Doctor Who fan! Bu what about Dr. Jayce? He’s in there, too, just in a different roll than usual!

With “season” seven of the modern Doctor Who series in full swing, the Strangers and Aliens talk about all things Who: favorite Doctors, why they like the show, how and/or why it resonates with them on a spiritual level, where they think it falls in the pantheon of science fiction series.

If you have never watched Doctor Who before, this episode is for you. Dr. Jayce, who has never watched it before, prerecorded some questions for Ben & Steve and guests, asking why they like the show and why they think he might like it.

If you are a Who fanatic, this episode is for you. Ben & Steve and guests explore the things that they love about the show and along the way reveal some new ideas to each other.

And River Song need not worry . . . there’s no spoilers!

But why did Steve get BLEEPed?

Also, we open up the mailbag with some of your comments and responses to past episodes!

Special thanks to Christa and to Tom, for joining us! We hope to do it again sometime soon!

Did we miss something? Do you agree? Disagree? Let us know about it! E-mail us at [email protected] OR record a message using the handy recording tab on the right of our webpage OR send an MP3 of you and your comment OR contact us through Facebook or Twitter! We want to hear from you! (And we’d love to hear from you by actually, you know, HEARING your voice!)

Here is the link to Audible that we mentioned: http://audibletrial.com/strangers (Remember, signing up for a free one month trial, which gets you a free audio book that you can keep forever, ALSO helps Strangers and Aliens!)

 

In this latest episode of the show, Ben, Dr. Jayce, and Steve discuss their favorite sci-fi and fantasy movies from before Star Wars changed science fiction and fantasy cinema forever!

What will they choose?

What movie will make Dr. Jayce completely disown you if you like it?

And will Ben or Steve be cast off into the darkness by Dr. Jayce for picking it?

Do our favorites match up with yours? Do you disagree with any we included? Did we miss any? Let us know about it! E-mail us at [email protected] or by using our contact form here.

We also open up the mailbag with some favorite movies from Facebook friends and Twitter followers!

Here is the Twilight Zone edit of Planet of the Apes: http://theforbidden-zone.com/media/tzone.shtml

Here is the link to Audible that we mentioned: http://audibletrial.com/strangers (Remember, signing up for a free one month trial, which gets you a free audio book that you can keep forever, ALSO helps Strangers and Aliens!)

While Dr. Jayce and Ben were at the Gideon Media Arts Conference and Film Festival, they got together with two other men who were also there as faculty, Roland Mann and Gary Voelker . . . who also, coincidentally (or not) are Strangers and Aliens listeners! The four of them chatted about this year’s sci-fi/fantasy offerings, made fun of Gary for not seeing any of them, and then talked about what it would take for someone to make a Christian sci-fi movie.

It was a fun conversation, and hopefully just the first of many Strangers and Aliens round table type discussions!

We want to hear from you! Join the conversation by leaving a comment below, contacting us through our contact page, e-maiing us directly at [email protected], or using the handy recorder to the right of your browser.

Ben, Steve, and Dr. Jayce are together again . . . and, fortunately for you, none of them sing the song from The Muppets Take Manhattan (although Ben has it stuck in his head as he types these words).

The topic? Sci-fi rip offs. The three of them make their way through list of favorite rip offs in sci-fi and fantasy, some you may be familiar with and some that may be new to you and some that maybe you hadn’t thought of.

Did you find yourself yelling back at the podcast, either that one we chose wasn’t a rip off or that we missed an obvious one right in front of our noses? Write to us and let us know, or even better use the recorder on the right side of the screen here.

Also, we tackle a controversy that has cropped up (“They drew first blood, not me”) . . . and give some thoughts on what we have linked to in our links section of our website, and why.

We want to hear from you! Join the conversation by leaving a comment below, contacting us through our contact page, e-maiing us directly at [email protected], or using the handy recorder to the right of your browser.

Ben and Steve got together this week to talk about Amazing Spider-Man.

Is this big budget reboot spectacular? Just amazing? Or something much, much worse.

What do YOU think? We’d love to hear your reactions to the movie or your reactions to our reactions. E-mail us at [email protected] with a written message or a recorded message (please try to keep it under three minutes if you send us a reorder message) or contact us through our blog, below, or on Facebook!

Thanks for listening!

In preparation for The Dark Knight Rises, Ben, Dr. Jayce, and Steve take on the Batman!

They take a look back at the Batman films, starting with Adam West’s 1966 Batman, moving to the Tim Burton era Batman and Batman Returns, into the Joel Schumacher era with Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, taking a detour with a movie that only Ben had seen (and wishes he hadn’t), and into the Nolan Batman universe.

We’d LOVE to hear (or read) your thoughts and memories of watching Batman. As usual, you can contact us through our website or e-mail us at [email protected]. Also, if you like, you can e-mail us an MP3 recording (please try to keep it under three minutes).

Next episode will be a superhero from a different publisher: Spider-Man. And coming soon: The Dark Knight Rises!

The topic: fairy tales.

They are everywhere right now, appearing on two of the major TV networks in prime time, in theaters, and, of course, in DVD collections and toy boxes around the world.

So what is it about fairy tales that cause us to enjoy them and want to reinterpret them?

Are they helpful or hurtful to the intended audiences?

And after the main discussion, we open up the mailbag and respond to some listener mail.

And, of course, Ben plugs a new book of his.

If you have something you’d like to add, tell us! Even better, you could record a short message in the form of an MP3 (under three minutes, please) and we’ll include you in an upcoming episode!

Coming soon: next episode, we take a look back into sci-fi history, with a fun and experimental episode!

Godspeed, everyone!

In the final installment of Avengers week, Steve, Dr. Jayce, and Ben assemble to talk about the movie that geeks the world over have been waiting for.

Well, was it all it could be? Better than it could be? Or did it crash and burn? Steve’s answer may surprise you. And Ben and Dr. Jayce argue over a nit-pick, because a nit-pick was all they could find to disagree about.

We’d like to know what you thought about The Avengers, too. Send us your feedback for next episode’s mailbag. Even better, e-mail an MP3 to [email protected] — please try to keep it around or under three minutes — and we’ll play it for everyone.

This podcast is the culmination of our “Avengers Week” here at the Strangers and Aliens blog. Check out these other Avengers features:

Dr. Jayce’s Biggest Avengers Disappointment (from BEFORE he saw the movie)

Steve’s Onward Christian Super-Soliders (an interesting take on Captain America and the superhero metaphor)

Ben’s thoughts about the Superhero Cinema Cycle (and how The Avengers fits into it)

Cool Comic Covers (with some of the coolest imagery to feature these Avengers characters):

Iron Man

Hulk

Captain America

Thor

And finally, Ben’s series of reviews of the various Avengers movies, looking at them as single movies and also as part of an epic series . . . starting with Iron Man 1 and 2!