Spocklight: A Star Trek Podcast

Episode 43: Twilight (w/ Cam Smith from the SpyHards and Subspace Transmissions podcasts)

With Paul waylaid by the possibility of football coming home, Liam and Matt welcome Cam Smith from the Spy Hards and Subspace Transmissions podcasts to discuss one of his favourite episodes of the often overlooked Star Trek series, Enterprise.

Cam tells us the origins of his Star Trek fandom and his own experiences of hosting panels at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention. Then we dissect Cam’s episode choice, Twilight, discussing the Archer/T’Pol relationship, the timey whimey concept of the story and the history of alternative timelines in the Star Trek universe

It’s been a long road getting from the last time we covered Enterprise on the podcast to here but the time is finally near, and all you have to do is stream or download this episode now!

 

As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on:

TWITTER - @spocklightpod

INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod

FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/

EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com

Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.

 

You can find Cam @camvsmith on Twitter and the SpyHards and Subspace Transmissions podcasts wherever you catch your pods.

Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/

Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http://www.stephentrumble.com 

Huge thanks to Russell Honeywell for post production support

Episode 42: The City on the Edge of Forever (w/ Boyd Hilton from the Pilot TV Podcast)

Boyd Hilton of Heat, Empire and Pilot TV, returns to the podcast to discuss iconic Star Trek episode, The City on the Edge of Forever, and his love of The Original Series in general whilst calling James Dyer a bellend a lot.

We break down the episode discussing the success of its emotional core, Harlan Ellison’s original vision, how the story went on to inspire many other Sci-Fi stories to come as far and wide as Alex Garland's Devs and 90s Nicholas Lyndhurst Sitcom, Goodnight Sweetheart, and Paul gives us the lowdown on the scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor thanks to previous guest, Roger Lay Jr’s Roddenberry Vault.

 

As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on:

TWITTER - @spocklightpod

INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod

FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/

EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com

Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.

 

You can find Boyd @boydhilton on Twitter and the Pilot TV Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you catch your pods.

Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/

Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http://www.stephentrumble.com 

Huge thanks to Russell Honeywell for post production support

The Richard Donner Interview: Tribute to a Legend

Back in 2017 we sat down to interview the legendary Director of Superman, The Goonies, Lethal Weapon and The Omen, Richard Donner, who sadly passed away earlier this week at the grand old age of 91. To commemorate the great man we decided to re-release the Interview with a newly specially recorded tribute from ourselves.

 

Join us as Dick shares anecdotes and behind the scenes stories on the making of Superman: The Movie, The Goonies, Scrooged, his episodes of the Twilight Zone and even Lethal Weapon 4. We also delve into the complicated history of Superman II and Dick's eventual Director's cut as well as getting some, at the time, exclusive news from the man himself on the sadly never to be, Lethal Weapon Finale.

 

We would never be able to thank Dick enough for giving his time for us to interview him in such an in-depth manner, the man was a Legend, Dick Donner R.I.P. 

Spocklight At the Movies 22: Fast Five (w/ Petros Patsilivas)

We’re joined by Petros Patsilivas of the Caged In Podcast for one last ride as we put the pod into 5th gear to tackle Fast Five or as it was known in the UK, Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist.

Liam explains how ‘Fast Five’ rejuvenated the series with the help of “Franchise Viagra” Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Matt dissects why the Furious films have become firm fan favourites while Fast & Furious Virgin, Paul, gives us his verdict on his first experience of the series and Guest, Petros shares his personal History with the film.

 

Ride or download now!

 

As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on:

TWITTER - @spocklightpod

INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod

FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/

EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com

Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.

 

You can find more information about Petros’s brilliant podcast at @cagedinpod on Twitter

Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/

Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http://www.stephentrumble.com 

Huge thanks to Russell Honeywell for post production support

Episode 41: Star Trek Lower Decks Season One Retrospective

The Spocklight crew take the turbo lift down to the Lower Decks to examine the entire first season of this new adult animated comedy iteration of Trek. It’s Phasers at Dawn as Liam, Matt and Paul discover they have severely differing opinions on the show. Paul connects with Boimler and tells the origins of the Willson effect, Liam reveals his seething hatred of Badgey and Matt’s obsession with the Lower Decks theme tune becomes clear. 5, 6, 7, 8...and download now!

 

As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on:

TWITTER - @spocklightpod

INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod

FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/

EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com

Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.

 

Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/

Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http://www.stephentrumble.com 

Huge thanks to Russell Honeywell for post production support

Episode 40: Star Trek Discovery Season 3 Spoiler Special

The Spocklight crew reunite to analyse the 3rd season of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’.

Liam bemoans what could have been, discussing the potential that the opening episodes of the season showed and makes a case for Grudge the Cat becoming the next Discovery Captain, Matt points out the continuing failure to flesh out the larger ensemble cast of characters and accuses of them being a bunch of nerds, while Paul waxes lyrical on his love for the new arch villain of the piece, Osyrra and is disappointed to return to the mirror universe.

 

All this and much more awaits you so download now and Let's Fly!

 

As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on:

TWITTER - @spocklightpod

INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod

FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/

EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com

Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.

 

Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/

Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http://www.stephentrumble.com 

Huge thanks to Russell Honeywell for post production support

Episode 39: Tomorrow is Yesterday (w/ Daryl Bar from Sudden Double Deep and Is Paul Dano Ok?)

Daryl Bar, host of Sudden Double Deep and new Podcast, Is Paul Dano Ok? returns to Spocklight to tell us why he, controversially, considers ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’ to be the finest time travel episode of Star Trek.

Daryl tells us how the oddball humour of the episode delights him, Liam questions the quality of replicator grub, Paul points out Kirk’s hypocritical attitude towards Major Christopher’s backward views and Matt notes the similarities with a certain Futurama episode.

We also discuss the surprising darkness of the episode, compare it to other time travel based Trek tales and examine how the pre-titles sequence must have wrong footed the contemporary audience.

 

As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on:

TWITTER - @spocklightpod

INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod

FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/

EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com

Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.

 

You can find more information about Daryl’s brilliant podcasts at @SDDFilmPodcast and @IsPaulDanoOk on Twitter

Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/

Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http://www.stephentrumble.com 

Huge thanks to Russell Honeywell for post production support

Spocklight At the Movies 21: The Transformers: The Movie (w/ Tim Coleman from Total Film Magazine)

We’re joined by Total Film Writer and regular Evolution of Horror contributor, Tim Coleman, to discuss what he considers to be one of the greatest films of all time, 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie starring Leonard Nimoy as Galvatron.

 

We’re transported back to the days of Saturday Morning Cartoons as Tim gives us an education in Transformers taking in such revelations as the Optimus Prime as Christ analogy and poor highbrow Orson Welles being destroyed by trash culture at the end of his career. We also examine how the surprisingly brutal nature of the film came about, debate the differences between Optimus Prime’s characterisation in the original series to the later Michael Bay movies and of course, place the film within Nimoy’s illustrious career alongside such iconic roles as The Evil Moroccan Magician in Faerie Tale Theatre’s interpretation of Aladdin.

 

As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on:

TWITTER - @spocklightpod

INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod

FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/

EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com

Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.

 

You can find Tim @fatscoleman on Twitter and more of his writing in the pages of Total Film and at https://movingpicturesfilmclub.com/

You can watch the full version of The Rude Awakening of Optimus Prime here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq1_6D9QS9Y&t=180s

You can watch the full version of Hollie McNish’s brilliant poem, Megatron, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCO-YmLT8t4

Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/

Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http://www.stephentrumble.com 

Huge thanks to Russell Honeywell for post production support

Supplemental 18: The Science of Trek (w/ Dr. Dean Burnett)

Prominent Neuroscientist and Author of best selling book, The Idiot Brain, Dr. Dean Burnett, drops by to educate the Spocklight crew on the neuroscience and psychology behind 3 episodes of Star Trek from different eras of the franchise:

Spock’s Brain (The Original Series - Season 3, Episode 1)
The Nth Degree (The Next Generation - Season 4, Episode 19)
Hard Time (Season 4, Episode 18)

Brain surgery, human intelligence, Post traumatic stress disorder and much more are discussed as Dean gives us the Science on the episodes and also tells us how his early Trek fandom led him to his current career in Neuroscience and the story of Next Generation alumni, Whoopi Goldberg, buying the rights to his book. 

 

As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on:

TWITTER - @spocklightpod

INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod

FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/

EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com

Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.

 

You can find Dean @garwboy on Twitter and buy ‘The Idiot Brain’ and Dean's other books at Amazon and all good booksellers. You can also currently Pre-order Dean's new Book, Psycho Logical, at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Psycho-Logical-Mental-Health-Wrong-Sense/dp/1783352337/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&qid=1611014196&refinements=p_27%3ADean+Burnett&s=books&sr=1-3

Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/

Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http://www.stephentrumble.com 

Huge thanks to Russell Honeywell for post production support

Spocklight At the Movies 20: Batman & Robin

Merry Christmas Spocklighters! Our present to you this year is the gift that keeps on giving, 1997’s Batman & Robin.

This festive season we’re giving Joel Schumacher’s much derided and camp as Christmas Superhero movie a full critical re-evaluation.

We look over Schumacher’s eclectic directing career and explain our own history with the film before getting into a beat by beat breakdown of the movie, written of course by Star Trek: Discovery, Picard and Strange New Worlds Producer, Akiva Goldsman.

We discuss Batman & Robin’s place within the Batman movie lexicon, comparing it with other iterations of the franchise over the years, reclaim George Clooney’s Batman as the natural successor to Adam West’s Bright Knight, admire Poison Ivy’s Drag Queen chic, lament at the treatment of Bane and Robin in the film, are moved by the emotional core of the story, discover that Barbara Gordon’s backstory literally doesn’t add up and even find time for a mini tribute to James Gandolfini.

 

Winter has come at last.

 

As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on:

TWITTER - @spocklightpod

INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod

FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/

EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com

Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.

 

Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/

Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http://www.stephentrumble.com 

Huge thanks to Russell Honeywell for post production support