The Lobot Mods: A Podcast about Sci-Fi Cinema

They're here!!!

In this final episode of LOBOT MODS season 1, we take a look at Tim Burton's sci-fi feature film MARS ATTACKS! and compare that with the 2011 UK action/sci-fi/monster feature ATTACK THE BLOCK. Two alien invasions. One by the skeletal would-be Martian overlords, the other from a bunch of ink-black plushies with radioactive teeth. Is the human race doomed? Not if John Boyega has anything to do with it. 

In a wide-ranging conversation, hosts Aaron Wood and Paul Docherty talk about the legacy of Cold War sci-fi cinema, and about the place of comedy in the speculative fiction genre... And about Star Wars...

THE LOBOT MODS will return in ten weeks. See you in 2025!

For more details and background info on these movies, visit The Lobot Mods Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Lobot-Mods/61560413766188/

Music by Tony Longworth
Cover art based on a photograph taken by Jon Nicolls CC-BY-2.0

This podcast is brought to you by the feature documentary HEART OF NEON.

Humans would make great pets!

We take a look at the classic 1968 sci-fi feature film PLANET OF THE APES starring Charlton Heston, and compare that with 1973 animated science fiction film FANTASTIC PLANET. Two alien scenarios where humans are subjugated by an oppressive bureaucracy that seems all too familiar. Wild psychedelic fantasy? Or are these films expressions of contemporary existential dread?

In a wide-ranging conversation, hosts Aaron Wood and Paul Docherty talk about the ubiquity of Heston in the science fiction cinema of the day, and about how jazz-inspired animation may not have been the best direction Tom & Jerry ever took...

For more details and background info on these movies, visit The Lobot Mods Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Lobot-Mods/61560413766188/

Music by Tony Longworth
Cover art based on a photograph taken by Jon Nicolls CC-BY-2.0

This podcast is brought to you by the feature documentary HEART OF NEON.

Mad men make mad mechanical people. Mad horny mechanical people. 

We take a look at Stanley Donen and John Barry's 1980 feature SATURN 3 starring Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett, and compare that with Alex Garland's 2014 film EX MACHINA. Two wildly different takes on the Frankenstein archetype, both with wildly different takes on gender politics and libido.

In a wide-ranging conversation, hosts Aaron Wood and Paul Docherty talk about what merit if any sex scenes have in movies, and about Kirk Douglas' virility (which is what he would have wanted)...

For more details and background info on these movies, visit The Lobot Mods Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Lobot-Mods/61560413766188/

Music by Tony Longworth
Cover art based on a photograph taken by Jon Nicolls CC-BY-2.0

This podcast is brought to you by the feature documentary HEART OF NEON.

Two Artificial Intelligences hold human life in the balance. One is a monstrous, untrustworthy abuser. The other is Kevin Spacey. 

We take a look at the legendary Stanely Kubrick classic 1968 feature 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and compare that with Duncan Jones's low budget 2009 film MOON starring Sam Rockwell, Sam Rockwell and Sam Rockwell. Both have our desolate satellite and non-human caretakers in common. Do they share science fiction cinema greatness?

In a wide-ranging conversation, hosts Aaron Wood and Paul Docherty struggle to accurately remember SPACE: 1999 and debate whether having a rockstar dad is a valid sci-fi film credential...

For more details and background info on these movies, visit The Lobot Mods Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Lobot-Mods/61560413766188/

Music by Tony Longworth
Cover art based on a photograph taken by Jon Nicolls CC-BY-2.0

This podcast is brought to you by the feature documentary HEART OF NEON.

Two future sports that tease the prospect of freedom. One is a meat grinder on wheels, the other is barely a game at all.

We take a look at the classic 1975 feature ROLLERBALL starring James Caan, and compare that with Robert Rodriguez's big budget cyberpunk-ish 2019 manga adaptation film ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL. Do these films represent the future of death sports? Or the death of future sports..?

In a wide-ranging conversation, hosts Aaron Wood and Paul Docherty lament the lack of narrative velocity and question whether there is actually a playable game in either movie...

For more details and background info on these movies, visit The Lobot Mods Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Lobot-Mods/61560413766188/

Music by Tony Longworth
Cover art based on a photograph taken by Jon Nicolls CC-BY-2.0

This podcast is brought to you by the feature documentary HEART OF NEON.

Two terrifying tesseracts piercing time and space, and the dumb humans that throw themselves into them.

We take a look at the 1979 Disney sci-fi feature THE BLACK HOLE starring
Robert Forster & Yvette Mimieux, and contrast that with Christopher Nolan's hard sci-fi art-house melodrama INTERSTELLAR. Which one takes a dive? Or do neither escape the pull of the cosmic drain?

In a wide-ranging conversation, hosts Aaron Wood and Paul Docherty debate the likelihood of love transcending gravity, and ponder the existence of Christianity on the event horizon...

For more details and background info on these movies, visit The Lobot Mods Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Lobot-Mods/61560413766188/

Music by Tony Longworth
Cover art based on a photograph taken by Jon Nicolls CC-BY-2.0

This podcast is brought to you by the feature documentary HEART OF NEON.

Two detectives surrounded by robots (possibly), trying to make sense of the noir world around them.

We take a look at Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 feature ALPHAVILLE starring
Eddie Constantine and Anna Karina, and compare that art house flick with the hypermodern, stylish and groundbreaking 1982 film BLADE RUNNER by Ridley Scott. When does style get in the way of substance? When is too much not enough?

In a wide-ranging conversation, hosts Aaron Wood and Paul Docherty question the value of poetry in sci-fi, and get confused about which version of a film they are actually talking about...

For more details and background info on these movies, visit The Lobot Mods Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Lobot-Mods/61560413766188/

Music by Tony Longworth
Cover art based on a photograph taken by Jon Nicolls CC-BY-2.0

This podcast is brought to you by the feature documentary HEART OF NEON.

Two men trapped in societies that rule the masses with an iron fist. Two men that defeat the odds and break on through. One of them does it for the betterment of all of humanity. The other one is a bit of a jerk. 

We take a look at George Lucas' 1971 debut feature THX 1138 starring Robert Duvall, and compare that meditation on the automation of the human condition with the wild, unkempt and occasionally flamboyant 2006 film CHILDREN OF MEN by Alfonso Cuaron. Order versus chaos, Lucas vs Cuaron. Whose vision speaks most clearly about authority of the modern age?

In a wide-ranging conversation, hosts Aaron Wood and Paul Docherty critique sci-fi philosophy, and specifically berate the notion that movie special editions are a worthwhile endeavor... 

For more details and background info on these movies, visit The Lobot Mods Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Lobot-Mods/61560413766188/

Music by Tony Longworth
Cover art based on a photograph taken by Jon Nicolls CC-BY-2.0

This podcast is brought to you by the feature documentary HEART OF NEON.

Two spaceships from Earth on a mission to blow up celestial bodies - one mission to save mankind, the other to escape boredom. 

We take a look at Danny Boyle's 2007 film SUNSHINE, starring Cillian Murphy, and compare that high-stakes deep space survival drama with John Carpenter's debut feature, the genre-defining 1974 sci-fi film DARK STAR. Has science fiction cinema advanced since Carpenter's classic? Or has all the imagination and vitality been sucked out of space movies?

In a wide-ranging conversation, hosts Aaron Wood and Paul Docherty sermonize relentlessly, stirring the pot of science fiction nostalgia, all the while orbiting the legacy of George Lucas like demented moths around a lightsaber...

For more details and background info on these movies, visit The Lobot Mods Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Lobot-Mods/61560413766188/

Music by Tony Longworth
Cover art based on a photograph taken by Jon Nicolls CC-BY-2.0

This podcast is brought to you by the feature documentary HEART OF NEON.

Two dystopian futures where the masses are controlled by taking away their emotions. A peaceful society at the cost of not appreciating poetry. It's monstrous. But the fighting looks cool.  

We take a look at Kurt Wimmer's 2002 film EQUILIBRIUM, starring Christian Bale, and compare that totalitarian state with Stanley Kubrick's eye-popping, retina scratching 1971 film A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, starring Malcolm McDowell. Do these movies have something profound to say about the autonomy of the citizen? Or are these movies merely reveling in the cartoonish nature of the violence?

In a wide-ranging conversation, hosts Aaron Wood and Paul Docherty pontificate wildly, swimming in the future visions of their imagined past, making outrageous comparisons to Star Wars along the way...

For more details and background info on these movies, visit The Lobot Mods Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Lobot-Mods/61560413766188/

Music by Tony Longworth
Cover art based on a photograph taken by Jon Nicolls CC-BY-2.0

This podcast is brought to you by the feature documentary HEART OF NEON.