Symptom 147: Spaceballs, The Review

We conclude sci-fi comedy month with a review of possibly the highest form of the craft - Spaceballs. It has Rick Moranis at his best and Mel Brooks’ formidable skills in satire, slapstick and irony are fully on display. Spaceballs is a wonderful mix of parody slapstick comedy, irony and satire. It is not really a movie or humor that can be explained, it has to be seen. We don’t seriously deconstruct this one because there is nothing to destruct, we just have a blast discussing a movie we love.

Symptom 146: Red Dwarf - Weren't We Just On This Ship

When you think of science fiction comedy Red Dwarf should be high on the list. If you haven’t seen it just picture over the top zany British humor and you have Red Dwarf. It is light hearted, fun and finds a way to make subtle or not so subtle commentaries on religion, authority and human beings in general. Not to mention a human that evolved from a cat played by an actor channeling James Brown.

I could attempt to describe Red Dwarf and I would fail. Watch it. It can’t be explained it simply needs to be experienced.

Symptom 145: Dark Star - John Carpenter In Space

Dark Star - released theatrically in 1975 - is the earliest of master filmmaker John Carpenter’s work. It started as a film school project on a budget of $1000, and then $6000 and then $60,000. Buried within this overzealous endeavor was an interesting concept about investigating the nature of reality, was is knowable what is tangible and how can we actually know what is real if the only thing we can really rely upon is our sensory data. Unfortunately what would have been a great high concept for a cerebral science fiction short film or twilight zone episode was padded out to theatrical length with horrible comedy, a beach ball alien (literally a beach ball) and a malfunctioning talking bomb with a personality that comes to believe it is God and kills them all.

While this film lacks a plot, action, drama, good character interaction, sense of direction, comedy, a likeable character or any sense of story, the film making chops of the future legend are evident and co-writer Dan O’Bannon learned from his mistakes to bring us Alien.

This one is a cult classic that while not horribly bad like other movies is about as exciting as watching grass grow. Carpenter and O'Bannon did what all creators do and learned from their shortcomings in this one and built on their success, but to be truthful there was no where to go but up from this one.

Dark Star, 1974, its….something.

Symptom 144: The Velocipastor

Everyone once in a while there is a movie that is so bad you have to watch it. The Velocipastor is one of those movies. I could spend time explaining why it is so bad it is good, or I could leave you the films initial synopsis and ask who amongst could resist watching after reading this summary.

After a devastating family tragedy, a priest travels to China to find deeper spirituality, but instead is endowed with an ancient ability that allows him to turn into a dinosaur. At first, he is horrified by his newfound superpower, but a local prostitute convinces him to use his newfound gift to fight evil -- and ninjas.

I mean how are you not watching, this has everything.

For Symptom 144 Sci-Malady teams up again with our friends at The Lunatic Parade and we break this epically bad yet great monstrosity. Be sure to check out The Lunatic Parade and 1st Table Gaming for a great podcast on all things geek culture.

Symptom 141: Space Alert

For the month of March we are discussing games. Mostly board games, but maybe a video game. We kick this month of with a discussion of a little known but completely awesome and amazing game - Space Alert!. You take command of a sitting duck class ship which comes under attack from various threats. You and your crew take actions in real time to defend against the threat. Once the game has ran its course you check to see if you survived.

Make sure to hit the computer before the screen saver kicks in or you probably will die as it will lock down all systems.

Symptom 139 The Measure of a Man

It is largely considered the first “great” episode of Star Trek The Next Generation and rightly so. Melinda Snodgrass wrote a powerful examination of what constitutes life and how our treatment of life reflects on humanity as a society. There is also commentary on the historical existence of “disposable people” or classes that are relied upon to do the dirty or dangerous work. This episode examines the nature of humanity and sentience at its most basic levels as well as letting us see a righteously indignant Picard fighting for what is right for the first real time in the series, and as any fan knows righteously indignant and angry Picard is the best Picard.

This Episode may rank at number two on my list but it is probably my favorite as it maybe the quintessential TNG episode. That doesn’t however mean “best”. Favorite and most representative can be very different from “best” We get to overall best next week.

Symptom 137: Defector

We kick off Trekkin Into The New Year with a Rick Roll! Just kidding, well not really, but seriously we are discussing the season three episode of Star Trek the Next Generation Defector. Scott chose this partially because it is one of his favorites and also because it is an excellent portrayal of Captain Picard’s leadership. Also, the complete owning of Tomalak at the end is amazing - “Shall we die together”!!!

Supplemental: The Best Episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation

I can’t limit my favorite episodes of TNG to four. No possible way. The result of that effort is this 45 minute supplemental that explains why The Inner Light, though a near perfect and powerful piece of science fiction is not on the list, tosses in two of my guilty pleasures, three honorable mentions for and my choices for the 10th through 5th best Episodes of TNG. They are as follows:

Guilty Pleasures:

Booby Trap

Time Squared

(Not Mentioned - Where Silence Has Lease)

Honorable Mention - The Drumhead, The Offspring, Data’s Day

10. Chain of Command

9. The Wounded

8. Darmok

7. IBorg

6. Q Who

5. Yesterday’s Enterprise

Episodes 4 through 1 to be released in upcoming Symptoms, starting with Symptom 137: The Defector

Symptom 136: The Ghost Of Sci-Fi Future

This week is the first ever Sci-Fi Malady Crossover Podcast. We are changed by Trent, Curt, Stormy and Bob from The Lunatic Parade and 1st Table Gaming to talk about the future of science fiction, Star Wars Episode Nine and a whole lot of talk about table top gaming. The Lunatic Parade and Raving Lunatic Media - a perfect pairing.

We met Curt at at Ghoulardi Fest and had a ton of there over 3 days. The idea for this crossover pod was hatched there. We had a ton of fun recording this and it shows in the final product. All signs point to future cross collaborations between The Lunatic Parade, 1st Table Gaming and Raving Lunatic Media. Make sure when you are done to check out The Lunatic Parade and 1st Table Gaming it is a great geek culture podcast

Symptom 135: Star Wars Episode 9

It is here! Finally! We get to see the legendary Star Wars on the big screen one more time. The culmination of 42 years of story telling and the end of the Skywalker Saga. We find out that the best way to wrap up the “Skywalker Saga” is to tell us about how awesome Palpatine’s granddaughter is…?

Yes, the final episode is all about how the Skywalker family failed to kill the Emperor, making Anakin’s sacrifice pointless, Leia lost the New Republic to the First Order and Luke ran and hide while Palpy healed up in hiding and secretly ran the first order, only to be foiled not by Ben Solo, who at least had some Skywalker blood…but by his own granddaughter Rey.

Because why should the concluding trilogy of the Skywalker Saga be about them at all? It should about everyone but them and about how they were huge failures. The prophecy of brining balance to force? Meh, Rey killed the last Sith, who was ALL the Sith. Balance Smalance.

All I can say is thank God this is over. Disney learned something from the failure of 8. Episode returned to feeling like Star Wars…but Rian Johnson left JJ in such a huge hole it was impossible to really dig out and this probably the best effort that could be made. The Mandalorian is good. The future of Star Wars is in good hands. Maybe whatever the next Trilogy is can build off that and return to being and feeling like Star Wars. Thank god this monstrosity that is 7, 8 and 9 is over. For us at Sci-Fi Malady they never happened.

Supplemental: The Madalorian

Sometimes there is a ton riding on a series. Sometimes, somehow, someway, the future of the great American Film Franchise that could do no wrong and was box office, comic book and toy gold, might hang on the success or failure of a live action series? Insane right? Yet Star Wars and Disney’s insanely large investment to purchase Lucas Films might actually depend on how The Mandalorian is received.

Good news for Disney - it seems to be going over well. Some fans absolutely love it. Others like myself (Scott) feel it is good and a solid effort at telling new stories in the Star Wars sandbox. Young media critics seem to be meh about it or hate it, probably for the reasons fans love it.

Disney’s new direction with Star Wars seems to be a hit with the people that matter - those who watch and love the franchise. It is everything Episodes 7 and 8, Rogue One and Solo were not. Disney has done with this without compromising its larger beliefs and positions but by focusing on telling a fun story with characters fans are interested in - again unlike the other efforts in the DisneyVerse, which focused on boring characters we were told we would like and that were better than our heroes.

This is nearing a rant, so at that note, here’s the podcast. Maybe I continue writing for another platform on the RavingLunaticMedia network and bring that other podcast out of hiatus. But probably not, because I am lazy.

Symptom 134: Metropolis - The Ghost of Sci-Fi Past

We kick off our discussion of science fiction through the years with a review of 1927’s Metropolis. First off, this is a silent film, so it is a completely different experience to watch. It is also highly stylized and layered with symbolism. Then of course there is the obvious pro-worker anti business message and the recurring motif of the mediator between head and hands must be the heart.

Honestly, I am not sure what this film is…pro communist, anti capitalist, anti communist and pro worker, anti business but pro worker? It is a confused jumble of ideas, but maybe because of that it remains a classic that is watched through the generations.