The Nextlander Watchcast

Star Trek Summer is officially back on the menu, folks! We're once again joined by our compatriot Brad Shoemaker to continue our journey through the original series' third season soldiers on. And this week that journey meets one of its toughest challenges yet in the execrable episodes The Paradise Syndrome, and And the Children Shall Lead.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 186: Star Trek: The Paradise Syndrome and And the Children Shall Lead
(00:00:23) - Intro.
(00:06:12) - Launching straight into The Paradise Syndrome.
(00:12:33) - ANOTHER planet full of random humans?
(00:20:02) - Kirk gets zapped with the head empty beam.
(00:25:53) - You're a handsome devil, you're our god now.
(00:30:25) - Burning out your engines to move an asteroid like a centimeter.
(00:34:31) - Kirk's so happy.
(00:38:51) - Moonwalking back to the planet and discovering alien music.
(00:40:35) - It's god time.
(00:44:08) - Mind melding your way out of your bad life choices.
(00:51:23) - Break!
(00:51:46) - We're back, And the Children Shall Lead...us to this very bad episode.
(00:55:10) - The somewhat, uh, unconventional casting choices.
(01:03:36) - We're not dunking on this because it's a kid episode. It sucks well beyond the kid stuff.
(01:08:54) - Wasting a perfectly creepy intro set-up.
(01:18:07) - Them kids ain't right.
(01:30:43) - The final confrontation with the pirate ghost.
(01:37:27) - Final thoughts.
(01:39:49) - Next week's episodes, and outro.

For this week's special guest Watchcast animator and game developer Scott Benson takes us on a tour of the creeper corners of Depression-era West Virginia in Charles Laughton's singularly strange thriller, The Night of the Hunter!

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 185: The Night of the Hunter (1955) w/ Scott Benson
(00:00:21) - Intro.
(00:12:39) - How we came to this movie initially.
(00:19:47) - Some history of the film.
(00:36:23) - Some talk about the cast.
(00:44:14) - The film's initial lackluster reception, and subsequent reappraisal.
(00:48:08) - Break!
(00:48:51) - We're back, and it's time to get into the film proper.
(01:00:51) - I'm Peter Graves, and this is a felony.
(01:25:46) - Meeting the other townsfolk, and the preacher comes a callin'.
(01:41:14) - A consequential picnic, and Willa makes some bad choices.
(01:46:03) - An all-timer of a bad honeymoon.
(01:52:53) - Good night, Willa.
(02:07:00) - The trouble with Harry.
(02:13:22) - A long, lazy trip down the river.
(02:23:44) - The introduction of Rachel Cooper.
(02:29:15) - Everything's going great until a teen girl gets a crush.
(02:46:53) - Harry's approach is less viable under these circumstances.
(02:52:29) - Do not mess with Whistler's mother.
(03:05:14) - The strange epilogue to it all.
(03:16:36) - Final thoughts.
(03:23:59) - We might return to Star Trek next week (check the Patreon this week for more info).
(03:26:38) - Outro.

For this week's Special Guest Watchcast we've got none other than Austin Walker joining the show to tell us all about a seminal work of cyberpunk anime (that just happens to coincide with a new revival hitting the airwaves very recently) in the 1995 adaptation of Ghost in the Shell!

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 184: Ghost in the Shell (1995) w/ Austin Walker
(00:00:26) - Intro.
(00:03:32) - Talking about this week's movie, the manga and other adaptations, and how it feels to watch this in 2026.
(00:25:53) - Do we understand what happened in this movie? We think so!
(00:32:49) - Some talk about the animation techniques used, and then rampant cyberbrain chat.
(00:39:48) - Break!
(00:40:17) - We're back, and tackling some lingering questions before we launch into the plot.
(00:45:40) - Setting the stage.
(00:51:58) - Sorting the sections, and setting up the Puppet Master.
(01:06:07) - The Major's cop buddies.
(01:11:16) - The garbage men.
(01:23:35) - I wanna sink to the bottom with you.
(01:37:21) - The Puppet Master has demands.
(01:52:57) - Ishikawa.
(01:58:58) - The decoy, and the run-up to Old Town.
(02:08:21) - The Puppet Master's pitch.
(02:17:55) - Well, everyone's dead. Guess we'll just wrap this one up.
(02:24:55) - Sequel talk, and final thoughts.
(02:36:50) - Housekeeping for next week's movie: Night of the Hunter with Scott Benson!
(02:38:48) - Austin's plugs, and outro.

The Watchcast rises from hiatus to sparkle for all of you once again, and while our friend Brad is out on leave, we've got a few guests lined up to take us through some of their favorite films. First up is Abby Russell with the movie she's been determined to make us watch for months now. the equally baffling and entertaining YA vampire romance, Twilight!

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 183: Twilight (2008) w/ Abby Russell
(00:00:22) - Intro.
(00:04:12) - Why does Abby love Twilight ever so much?
(00:14:25) - On Stephenie Meyer and the folks who made this movie.
(00:25:21) - MAN was this a big franchise (and more about how teens responded to the material). 
(00:34:39) - Break!
(00:35:01) - We're back, and it's time to talk about this damn movie.
(00:46:25) - This is quite the efficient intro, and then high school happens.
(00:53:09) - The Cullens make their entrance.
(01:10:42) - Edward saves Bella for the first time (of many).
(01:21:55) - Things meander a bit before the big vampire reveal.
(01:34:24) - A big, sparkly unveiling.
(01:43:47) - Meeting The Family.
(01:54:23) - Edward + Bella 4 Eva
(02:01:34) - Wanna play baseball?
(02:05:52) - Enter: the sleazy vampires.
(02:14:41) - By the time I get to Arizona.
(02:27:29) - Waking up in the hospital with the worst cover story ever concocted.
(02:29:21) - Casino prom? Casino prom!
(02:35:46) - Final thoughts.
(02:44:11) - Housekeeping for the next couple of weeks, and outro.

One season is all that stands between us and our years-long goal of completing Star Trek: The Original Series. Yes, that season might be uniquely bad by series standards, but we are determined to push through any deep hurting that may result in order to achieve our goal. First up, an all-timer dumb-dumb episode in Spock's Brain, and the surprisingly solid The Enterprise Incident.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 182: Star Trek: Spock's Brain and The Enterprise Incident
(00:00:17) - Intro.
(00:03:45) - Why season 3 is Like This.
(00:16:24) - Launching into this season of hell with Spock's Brain.
(00:22:40) - Who made this episode, and why is it in this state.
(00:27:52) - Pressing the "make everyone fall down" button so you can steal a brain.
(00:37:27) - The horrors of the caveman planet.
(00:41:37) - RoboSpock.
(00:51:27) - I...KNOW...EVERYTHIIIIIING!
(00:58:30) - They saved Spock's brain.
(01:03:05) - Break!
(01:03:32) - We're back, and it's onto The Enterprise Incident.
(01:15:16) - The creatives involved in this episode, and the real life naval event that inspired the
episode.
(01:23:00) - Veering into the Neutral Zone like a road rage incident.
(01:30:11) - What is the Romulans' interest in Spock?
(01:40:35) - It was all an elaborate, if confusing, ruse.
(01:42:23) - Can love bloom on the battlefield, specifically between a Vulcan and a Romulan?
(01:50:54) - Keystone Romulans, and Spock's filibuster.
(01:58:16) - Try every USB adapter you've got, Scotty!
(02:05:37) - Final thoughts.
(02:09:34) - Outro.

We've got a one week break coming up before Star Trek Summer begins again in earnest, but before that happens we've got one more documentary to serve our Watchcasting listeners in Trekkies! Join us for some nerd archeology as we dig through this doc that's chock full of superfans of all flavors and stripes, and marvel with us at how quaint it all seems compared with our extremely fandom-oriented present.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 181: Trekkies (1997)
(00:00:14) - Intro.
(00:05:40) - Why we're doing Trekkies (because Star Trek Summer is on the horizon).
(00:08:10) - The fandom, and how this movie treats its nerds.
(00:16:41) - On Denise Crosby, and how this movie got made.
(00:20:32) - The cast reactions to all this stuff. 
(00:31:30) - Break!
(00:31:54) - We're back, and we're beginning this journey with the Spiner-Femme.
(00:37:18) - Gabriel, the star of the movie, if we're being honest.
(00:52:32) - Barbara, the Whitewater juror.
(00:58:29) - Actual Star Trek (and affiliated) people. 
(01:07:06) - The Slash Fiction crowd.
(01:12:03) - The Greensteins.
(01:17:18) - Starbase Dental.
(01:20:29) - Filking.
(01:22:54) - The wildly different radio shows.
(01:30:43) - An encounter at Radio Shack.
(01:34:53) - A few scattered bits.
(01:40:17) - Final thoughts.
(01:53:08) - Housekeeping for our upcoming Star Trek season 3 watch.
(01:55:59) - Outro.

Nothing brings people together like a good old fashioned space mission, and for this week's Watchcast we've got a documentary about the goodest of old fashioned space missions, Apollo 11! Join us as we marvel not just at the unbelievable human achievement this story represents, but also the ludicrously high quality footage they managed to capture 50-plus years ago.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 180: Apollo 11 (2019)
(00:00:24) - Intro.
(00:02:50) - Brad tells us why he picked Apollo 11, and we muse on how wild it is that this footage exists.
(00:11:01) - On the achievement itself, and what it's meant to the world since.
(00:22:51) - Some context for the previous Apollo missions.
(00:32:20) - Once again talking about the ludicrous amount of high quality footage we have here.
(00:38:30) - On the filmmaker, and how this movie came to be.
(00:43:02) - Break!
(00:43:28) - We're back, and Brad has a familial anecdote.
(00:45:50) - Launch day.
(00:59:27) - Once again, gotta give it up for the clarity of this footage.
(01:05:41) - Off to the (space) races.
(01:12:54) - Arrival at the Moon, and the descent.
(01:25:12) - Two hours on the Moon.
(01:30:03) - Rejoining with the ship, and heading home.
(01:35:35) - The boys come home.
(01:39:18) - What came after.
(01:53:27) - Final thoughts (we did a cool thing, once).
(01:58:01) - What's coming up on the Watchcast.
(02:04:08) - Outro.

This week's Watchcast takes us on a trip down to Harlan County, U.S.A. as we tackle Barbara Kopple's gripping (and Academy Award winning) documentary about the 1973 miners' strike against Duke Power.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 179: Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976)
(00:00:57) - Intro.
(00:07:38) - Geography lessons with the Nextlander gang.
(00:12:53) - On Bloody Harlan, and some discussion of the movie's structure.
(00:20:41) - How this movie came to be.
(00:37:02) - Break!
(00:37:24) - We're back, and it's time to venture down to Kentucky.
(00:42:01) - Our first glimpses at the life of the strikers.
(00:51:34) - A personal retelling of Bloody Harlan, and the first encounter with the gun thugs.
(00:58:05) - The women of the community become more directly involved.
(01:05:24) - Open conflicts begin to errupt, and people are taken to jail.
(01:10:37) - Heading to New York.
(01:17:22) - The Farmington accident, and discussion of black lung.
(01:23:26) - The Boyle/Yablonski affair.
(01:32:02) - Tensions are boiling in Harlan.
(01:41:13) - The road blockade and the warrant for Basil Collins.
(01:46:58) - The killing of Lawrence Jones.
(01:51:18) - The fight is never over.
(02:01:24) - Final thoughts.
(02:07:00) - Housekeeping for next week's doc: Apollo 11!
(02:11:45) - Outro.

We're filling out May's Watchcast schedule with a trio of documentaries that have been on our respective lists for a while now, and first up is Vinny's pick, Class Action Park! Join us as we recount our own memories of weirdo theme parks of yore, marvel at the brazen lawlessness of this whole operation, and wonder aloud if we aren't just living in Action Park all the time now.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 178: Class Action Park (2020)
(00:00:43) - Intro.
(00:04:00) - Class Action Park is Vinny's pick this month, and here's why.
(00:10:37) - How this podcast is going to go, generally, and our own personal experiences with local theme parks.
(00:20:57) - How the hell was this allowed to go on for so long?
(00:27:04) - Break!
(00:27:32) - We're back, and it's time to talk about who made this movie, and who some of the folks speaking in it are.
(00:32:11) - Kicking things off with who Gene Mulvihill was. and how he came to own this place. 
(00:36:26) - The Action Park complex, and the rides that didn't work out.
(00:46:42) - Some of the rides that lasted the duration, and the Lord of the Flies situation going on here.
(00:56:02) - The deadliest kayak experience this side of the Colorado.
(00:57:31) - The wave pool deaths.
(01:05:49) - Motorworld, and George Larsson's death on the Alpine Slide.
(01:14:52) - How Gene Mulvihill dodged consequences.
(01:24:05) - What became of Action Park, and what, if anything, is there to be learned from all this?
(01:46:12) - Final thoughts.
(01:53:26) - Our film for next week: Harlan County, USA!
(01:56:18) - Outro.

We close out our slate of Coens comedies with their 2008 spy thriller farce, Burn After Reading! And joining the crew as we unravel this sordid tale of idiot spycraft is none other than our friend and yours, Austin Walker!

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 177: Burn After Reading (2008)
(00:00:16) - Intro.
(00:01:02) - Our guest this week is Austin Walker, and our movie is Burn After Reading!
(00:05:36) - On the movie's overall tone, it's cynicism, and how it treats its characters.
(00:21:14) - How this movie came into the world.
(00:29:03) - Break!
(00:29:24) - We're back, and it's time to handle the most important political issue of our time: HR violations at the CIA.
(00:36:38) - Katie, and the Pfarrers.
(00:44:52) - Osborne's explosive memoirs (and exploding marriage).
(00:51:32) - Linda arrives, and she wants some work done.
(01:00:49) - The discovery of top secret shit.
(01:07:22) - The master plan begins.
(01:15:56) - We gotta get these two crazy kids together.
(01:18:34) - The drop, and the Russians become involved.
(01:24:40) - No one ever expects the adult novelty chair, and the fall of Osborne Cox.
(01:31:36) - Things escalate, to say the least.
(01:36:07) - JK Simmons is here to say what we're all thinking.
(01:41:16) - Everyone and everything becomes unwound.
(01:57:55) - What did we learn?
(02:03:58) - Final thoughts.
(02:09:21) - Housekeeping for the remaining May movies.
(02:13:01) - Outro.