Happy New Year to all of you! It's hard to believe it's 2020 - where are the flying cars? Maybe our science fiction films and TV shows didn't get it all right, but at least in this era we are fortunate to have an abundance of science fiction and fantasy movies and TV shows to watch and enjoy (and sometimes criticize). In our first episode of Planet 8 for 2020, we will take a look back at our favorite movies and shows and celebrate the amazing variety of entertainment available to us. It's gotten to the point where it's basically impossible to watch everything genre-related that comes out! But between Commander Larry, Chief Engineer Bob, and Recon Officer Karen, your crew manages to cover quite a few offerings.
We'll start off discussing the great genre films of 2019, talking about our favorites, and a few disappointments. The Marvel films make a strong showing here, but a certain giant green lizard does pretty well too.
Next we move on to the small screen. There are so many shows on television now -depending on what streaming services you subscribe to! - and some folks like to binge a bunch of episodes over a weekend while others enjoy the suspense of seeing a show week after week. However you like to watch, there's a ton of programs to watch, and the crew discusses a bunch of them, including What We Do in the Shadows, Watchmen, Walking Dead, Lost in Space, Star Trek Discovery, and more.
As we end one year and usher in another, we also look back on those we lost in 2019. These include: actress Julie Adams from Creature from the Black Lagoon; Ron Sweed, The Ghoul; artist Monkeypunch; Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew; actor David Hedison; and several people associated with Star Trek, including writer and producer Dorothy "DC" Fontana, Charlie X actor Robert Walker Jr., Odo actor Rene Auberjonois, and Nog actor Aron Eisenberg.
For our Sensor Sweep, Chief Engineer Bob wants to remind everyone about the super-cool designs we have at Tee Public for Planet 8 swag. You can get Planet 8 t-shirts, hats, stickers, bags, and more. We would really love to see a picture of you with your Planet 8 gear! Send them to us here or at Twitter or the Facebook page.
Finally, we got so busy as we were recording several episodes on the same day, we just completely forgot to say anything about what we were looking forward to in 2020! So quickly, here are the films the crew are most excited about for this year:
- Commander Larry: The New Mutants
- Chief Engineer Bob: Godzilla vs. King Kong
- Recon Officer Karen: Black Widow
That's all for us! Let's hear what you enjoyed most this year, and what you're looking forward to as we dive into 2020. Feel free to comment here, or hit us up at our other communication links:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Planet8Cast
- Facebook: www.Facebook.com/Planet8Podcast
Thanks for Listening!
...well, happy new year to you guys, too. Not sure if I should be pleased or embarrassed by the personal shout-out in the show...
ReplyDeleteAs to your look back on the year, I have to say to some extent I share Karen's feeling of being sated with the MCU films. Endgame and then Far From Home as a sort of epilog really put a cap on the last 10 or so years of movies, so much so that I almost groaned at the post credit scene in the Spider-man film - as in, 'oh, no, not another drawn out story...'
Personally, I wouldn't mind if going forward, the MCU films limited themselves to fun, one-off adventures (basically, done-in-ones) rather than building toward a big epic like most of the preceding films. I'm kind of hoping that's what the upcoming Black Widow film will be.
As for TV, I don't watch much of the current stuff, but I did watch season 2 of Orville and totally agree with Bob that it's a surprisingly enjoyable show.
By the way, I liked the obits/tributes to all of the well-known people from our geeky sphere of interest (but esp. Dorothy Fontana, whose importance to Star Trek and Trek lore can never be emphasized enough). A few you overlooked that I think are worth mentioning include:
Actor Rutger Hauer - who died in the same year as arguably the most memorable character he ever played, Roy Batty in Blade Runner.
Cartoonist of the weird, creepy yet still (very) humorous, Gahan Wilson.
And two guys with the same name:
Character actor Sid Haig - who probably gained the most fame from the 1990s onward starring in a lot of cult films by the likes of Rob Zombie, but who I recall the best as the evil Dragos from Jason of Star Command, and for his guest roles in shows like, yes, the original Star Trek, the Batman TV show, Get Smart and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and...
Designer and conceptual artist Syd Mead - who created the visual identity for a number of SF films like Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Tron, 2010, Aliens, Tomorrowland and the aforementioned Blade Runner and its sequel.
Looking forward to more great shows in the coming year,
Edo Bosnar
A really good Episode to kick off 2020!
ReplyDeleteMovie of the year for me: Godzilla, King of the Monsters, second runner up would be a few films: Alita, Battle Angel. Spider-Man Far From Home. and John Wick 3. and then A:Endgame. Movies that were awesome, and totally unexpected were from the non-mainstream cinema: Parasite, and the Lighthouse were both surprisingly well done.
And damn! Streaming "TV" Shows have been off the chain this last year: Orville Season 2 (AMAZING!) Lost in Space, the New season of The Expanse, Love, Sex, and Robots (Hope they continue this one), and of course batting clean-up with a GRAND SLAM: The Mandalorian!!!
We lost of cool, and talented people in 2019. Thanks to Chief Engineer Bob, and fellow Listener, EBos, for including those souls overlooked, but not forgotten.
I'm kind of amazed that you didn't have a Best Of 2019 Sensor Sweep. There was a ton of awesome swag released this last year...,
Here's to looking forward to what 2020 brings us all!
Having High Hopes for the release of Godzilla vs Kong next Fall!
Thank you all for you hard work, and wishes for successful Planet 8 Podcasting throughout 2020 and Beyond!
Kevin
Kong's Cave of Collectibles