The Incomparable Mothership

By Jason Snell

Arts

What's The Incomparable Mothership about?

The Incomparable Mothership is the flagship of the Incomparable podcast network. It’s all about geeky media we love, including movies, books, TV, and more, featuring a rotating panel of guests and hosted by Jason Snell and friends.

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658: Nowhere In Time

03.24.2023

Avoid stepping on butterflies, step into your time machine, and go kill your grandfather—it’s time for our Time Travel Movies Draft! We select favorite films from all corners of the time-travel genre, from time loops to historical shenanigans to nonsensical ...

The Incomparable Mothership episodes:

03.24.2023 658: Nowhere In Time Avoid stepping on butterflies, step into your time machine, and go kill your grandfather—it’s time for our Time Travel Movies Draft! We select favorite films from all corners of the time-travel genre, from time loops to historical shenanigans to nonsensical ...
03.17.2023 657: A Cloud Atlas with 12 Monkeys Our Book Club reads “Sea of Tranquility” by Emily St. John Mandel, a beautifully written story set in multiple timelines that—like her earlier novel “Station Eleven”—frustrated some, but not all, of our panelists. We also recommend a lot of other ...
03.10.2023 656: Endless Slumber Party We wrap up our seven-year walkthough(!) of the seven seasons of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” The show is slowly grinding to a halt, but are there gems to be discovered? Buffy’s got a speech about that. Maybe the real Big ...
03.03.2023 655: Princesses Don't Have to Wear Pink This week we’re drafting Disney Princesses! There are two simple rules: They must be Disney, and they must be princesses. How far will our intrepid panelists go to stretch those rules? Join us to find out....
02.24.2023 654: Goth Girl Handbook Wednesday Addams is not the girl of your dreams — she’s the stuff of your nightmares. Our group of outcasts gathers in our secret library to conjure our thoughts on the first season of “Wednesday”, streaming on Netflix. We discuss ...
02.17.2023 653: Royalty Don't Mess Around Put on your home-built Iron Man suit and whisper into some beads, because it’s time to discuss “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Our panel talks about how the movie leaves space to grieve Chadwick Boseman and T’Challa while also providing a ...
02.10.2023 652: A Long Zoom Our Book Club reconvenes to discuss R.F. Kuang’s “Babel.” It’s a story about magic and empire and revolution, and our feelings about it are similarly complicated. Plus: A whole bunch of book suggestions! Our next Book Club selection: “Sea of ...
02.03.2023 651: Breakfast Club for Superheroes Get in line to order a hero sandwich—not so fast, sidekick! We’re here to talk about 2005’s thoroughly delightful Disney movie “Sky High,” featuring superhero action and teen drama that are both full to the brim—but never quite over the ...
01.28.2023 650: The Sum of All Tildas This week, we’re drafting some spies, secret agents, and con artists. Con artists? Why not? They all use similar skills—sometimes, it’s impossible to tell the difference. From fiction to spoof to inspired by real life, we’ve got it all. Also, ...
01.20.2023 649: I'm Gonna Marry That Robot Lady Put on your headset and get ready to jump into a polt, because we’re going to discuss “The Peripheral,” Prime Video’s adaptation of William Gibson’s novel. What makes its approach to certain famous sci-fi tropes unique? How interesting are the ...
01.13.2023 648: Magical NDA Store up some mana and watch out for maleficers and maw-mouths! We’re going to discuss Naomi Novik’s Scholomance trilogy, which takes the familiar story of a school for teenage magicians and does some very different things with it! Before the ...
01.08.2023 647: Obnoxiously Vegan Our favorites from 2022, plus a few clips....
12.23.2022 646: A Christmas Quarrel The Knight before Christmas this year is David Lowery’s 2021 film “The Green Knight.” This year’s final Mothership episode is a game inside a gift inside a game, much like the movie. Is every episode featuring Glenn secretly (or not-so-secretly) ...
12.16.2022 645: Oh No, My Spleen! Our annual Kilmas tradition leads us to watch the questionable 2000 sci-fi film “Red Planet,” in which Val Kimer is at his best, and several other actors are also present. Also, the main plot points of this film are so ...
12.09.2022 644: Spoilers for "ALF" Star Wars gets serious with “Andor,” a show that gives us exactly what we needed (but didn’t know we wanted?) from the venerable franchise. We break down the plots, characters, and storytelling choices, live from John Siracusa’s living room!...
12.02.2022 643: Shouty Oscar Winners At midnight on New Year’s Eve, the S. S. Poseidon, enroute from New York to Athens, met with disaster and was lost. A handful of podcasters follow the challenges faced by a handful of Oscar winners and other assorted stars ...
11.24.2022 642: Management Advice From Mobsters Are you calling us funny? Are we like a clown? Do we amuse you? More than thirty years later, “GoodFellas” still stands up. In honor of the late Ray Liotta, we break down Martin Scorsese’s classic film about street-level gangsters....
11.18.2022 641: Miles Ahead of Lou Ferrigno Put on a magic bangle and pick up your briefcase, because it’s time for us to discuss two Marvel Disney+ series that push the universe in some new and interesting directions, “Ms. Marvel” and “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.”...
11.11.2022 640: Did He Really Date Madonna? “Weird” is the direct-to-Roku movie that accurately chronicles every aspect of Al Yankovic’s life. This podcast accurately chronicles every aspect of the movie....
11.06.2022 639: Prologue: The Television Series We watched “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and “House of the Dragon” and have thoughts....
10.28.2022 638: A Loose Assemblage of Goo and Blobs Put on a jacket and charge up your flamethrower, because it’s almost halloween, and that means it’s time for Old Spooky Club to discuss 1982’s “The Thing.” It’s foul and drippy and gooey—the Thing, that is, and not the movie. ...
10.21.2022 637: Sorry, Charlie, It's Chinatown Our Old Movie Club sits down with a nice plate of fish and a large glass of water to watch 1972’s “Chinatown.” We discuss the merits of Jack Nicholson, the horror of John Huston’s character, and perhaps the perfect noir ...
10.14.2022 636: The Elephant in the Trenchcoat Mystery and mayhem are on the menu as we draft favorite TV detectives. Thomas Magnum is off the board, but everyone else is fair game. Who will our panelists choose to figure out whodunit? Will it be the usual suspects? ...
10.09.2022 635: Throw a Rock at a Reader It’s time to reconvene our Book Club, not to talk about an awards shortlist but to recommend books from arbitrarily selected categories. So many books! And not many rocks, we promise....
09.30.2022 634: Addicted to Sand Grab your helm, pouch, and ruby and watch out for dream vortexes! The classic Vertigo comic “The Sandman” has been adapted to a new Netflix show. What do we love about this modern retelling of the story—and what are we ...
09.24.2022 633: Thor Family Russell Crowe! Christian Bale! Natalie Portman! Are they starring in a prestige film that we’re sure to hear about when Oscar time comes around? No, it’s “Thor: Love and Thunder!” But while this movie might not be able to live ...
09.16.2022 632: Time Bandit Titanic Mum, Dad, it’s evil, don’t touch it! The Summer of Time Travel reaches its end—or is it the beginning?—with 1981’s “Time Bandits,” a children’s fantasy written and directed and even featuring some Monty Pythons. Does it work for adults? Does ...
09.09.2022 631: Timecop After Timecop What if H.G. Wells used a time machine to chase Jack the Ripper into the present day (of 1979)? It would look an awful lot like 1979’s “Time After Time,” we’re guessing. David Warner and Malcolm McDowell match wits! Mary ...
09.02.2022 630: Saunter in From the Future The Summer of Time Travel meets Rocket Surgery as we watch the very 90s, good-bad film “Timecop,” the movie that answers the question, “What would happen if you tried to kick time itself?”...
08.26.2022 629: Bum Bag Beatdown We take a sideways break from the Summer of Time Travel by verse-jumping across realities to Everything Everywhere All At Once, the multiverse movie directed by The Daniels and starring Michelle Yeoh. Is empathy the superpower Doctor Strange needed all ...
08.19.2022 628: Dumbness is Timeless The Summer of Time Travel begins/ends/continues (pick one) with 1989’s “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” in which two dumb guys collect some of history’s greatest figures and take them to the mall. Party on, dudes!...
08.12.2022 627: The Czech Office The days of appointment television are long gone, but what if you could create a streaming service broadcasting the best that TV had to offer in the 21st century? What shows would be on your marquee? We’ve got you covered, ...
08.05.2022 626: Don't Copy That Chip 'n Dale Floppy The release of the super-meta “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers” with John Mulaney and Andy Samberg on Disney+ put us in mind of a movie from which it borrowed a hunk of its DNA: “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”. We first ...
07.29.2022 625: Frisky Vulcans Thirty-three episodes of new live-action “Star Trek” have now concluded, and we’re going to talk about all of it. We bring some tough love for “Discovery” and “Picard”, which disappointed us. But all is not lost—there’s a lot of unabashed ...
07.22.2022 624: You Got Ludlumed On the occasion of the publication of “The Nova Incident,” Jason asks Dan a bunch of questions from readers (and listeners) about his writing career, techniques, tools, and more....
07.15.2022 623: Sand Tuna Thief Hello there! We discuss “Obi-Wan Kenobi” on Disney+, including Ewan MacGregor’s delight in the role, the return of Hayden Christensen, and balancing the needs of superfans with movies-only fans....
07.08.2022 622: The MacGuffin Twins Put on your flying cloak and load up on pizza balls, because we’re here to talk about “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” This is an interesting one, because most of us agree that the movie is fun and ...
07.01.2022 621: They Built the Halos Let’s face it, there’s not a lot of evidence to support the cause of adapting video games for movies or TV. And yet we tried the “Halo” TV series from Paramount+ and… liked it? We discuss making the Master Chief ...
06.24.2022 620: Alien Donut Lady 2022 Awards Book Club concludes with three Hugo-nominated novels: Andy Weir’s deep-space problem-solver “Project Hail Mary”; Shelley Parker Chan’s historical epic “She Who Became the Sun”; and Ryka Aoki’s alien-and-demon-packed “Light from Uncommon Stars.” Also, Erika and Jason highlight some ...
06.17.2022 619: Who Will Speak For Fish Police? From Duckman to Dicktown, this week we’re covering cartoons… for grown-ups. These animated series have an adult sensibility, and they don’t all feature obscenity, graphic violence, or sexual acts… though some do! Shows like The Legend of Vox Machina, Harley ...
06.10.2022 618: Mars Monkey Dance Number Rocket Surgery takes a time machine back to 1930 for “Just Imagine,” a visionary view of the far future of 1980 that’s three movies in one—and feels like it. Then we jump to the real 1980 where, instead of evil ...
06.03.2022 617: Group Therapy for One Guy Moon Knight—the butt of a thousand jokes on this very network who improbably made the Sweet Sixteen of our infamous Summer Superhero Spectacular—got his own limited series on Disney+. We talk about the Oscar Isaac of it all, the loving ...
05.27.2022 616: Bad Decision Theater Our Book Club continues its walk through the Hugo and Nebula nominees for Best Novel with three books, “The Galaxy and the Ground Within” by Becky Chambers, “A Master of Djinn” by P. Djèlí Clark, and “The Unbroken” by C.L. ...
05.20.2022 615: People-Positive Management Style What do you get when you blend historical fiction, pirates and Taika Waititi? You get “Our Flag Means Death,” an ensemble romantic comedy featuring both ship battles and biting insults....
05.13.2022 614: Eternal Spotlight of the Sunless Mind Step into this elevator and leave your personal biographical memories behind… Welcome, Listener I., you’re now part of Lumon, a Very Friendly Company that always has your best interests at heart. We discuss the Apple TV+ series “Severance,” and try ...
05.06.2022 613: Kaiju Panda Put on your toque and be sure you’ve got your 4*Town tickets—we’re here to discuss Pixar’s “Turning Red,” a delightful coming-of-age movie about a Chinese-Canadian girl whose body is undergoing some telltale adolescent changes—you know, becoming interested in boys, rebelling ...
04.29.2022 612: YABM: Yet Another Batman Movie Our panel of caped crusaders assemble to dissect 2022’s “The Batman.” The last thing we may have needed was another Batman movie, especially the grimmest, darkest, and longest one ever… but what if we actually liked it? We take apart ...
04.22.2022 611: Distributed Disinterested Dystopia Our annual shortlist book club is back! We read two novels that were nominated for Best Novel in the Nebula Awards! SB Divya’s “Machinehood” is a near-future story of gig workers, weak AI servants, and rebellious space stations. Jason Sanford’s ...
04.15.2022 610: No, Mr. Blond, I Expect You to Die Cue the electric bass and the full brass section, we’re talking Bond, James Bond this week. We make time for “No Time to Die,” of course, and the rest of the Daniel Craig era. How does it hold up, where ...
04.08.2022 609: Chekhov's Toy Store Old Movie Club returns with two films that imagine attempts to disrupt the United States government. In 1954’s “Suddenly,” Frank Sinatra’s going to try to kill the President. In 1964’s “Seven Days In May,” Burt Lancaster is plotting a military ...

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