Episode 55: The Eighth Wonder of the World - Kong!

This is it! We're finally talking about the King - King Kong that is! The big ape has been one of Hollywood's (and the world's) biggest stars since he first showed up on the scene in 1933. At the time, the original King Kong was cutting edge, and it influenced many later generations. Kong is a part of pop culture, and new versions of the eighth wonder of the world keep getting made. There is something universally appealing about this unique and powerful figure.

We'll go through the long history of Kong in films (and a little bit on TV), starting of course with the classic original 1933 King Kong, directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack, with ground-breaking stop-motion effects by pioneer Willis O'Brien. The exciting story, the ferocious  Kong, and the whole beauty and the beast angle, made the film a huge success. It was quickly followed up with a sequel, also in 1933, Son of Kong, which was amusing but no where near the success of the original.

In the 60s, through a somewhat circuitous route, Kong wound up across the Pacific and got a job with Toho Studios, making King Kong vs Godzilla in 1962, and King Kong Escapes in 1967. There's a connection to the 1966 Rankin-Bass King Kong Show cartoon too!

Near to our hearts, even though it's clearly a flawed film, is the 1976 version of King Kong. The film may be best remembered today for the amazing John Berkey poster showing Kong astride the World Trade Center towers. We'll talk about the controversy over the robot Kong and how the great make-up genius Rick Baker played Kong. Bob took the hit for the team and watched King Kong Lives, and gives a rundown of that sequel.

If you're excited to hear what we think about Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of King Kong, well, you may want to ratchet back your expectations. We have some strong opinions on the film, and that's all we'll say here!

Finally, we finish strong as we enthusiastically discuss Kong Skull Island (2017), which took a very different approach to Kong, and will lead to a rematch with Godzilla next year!

Larry's Kong and Bruce mugs, seen front and back

On this episode's Sensor Sweep, our mission commander, Larry, shares his love of tiki mugs, and shows off two: a Bruce the Shark from Jaws mug from Mondo, and a Kong mug from Tiki Farm. If you love tiki mugs and monsters, check 'em out!

In a burst of shameless self-promotion, we want to mention the various side-gigs we all have going on.

Your crew at Monsterpalooza a few years ago -Larry, Karen, and Bob

Bob recently participated in a panel discussion on Ultraman for the Kaiju Con-line, an online  convention celebrating kaiju (obviously). If you want to watch the panel, click here. If you're a Gamera fan, a blu-ray box set should be coming out at the end of July, and Bob and his pal Keith Aiken are doing commentary on the film Gamera the Brave! 

Karen decided to start blogging again, to babble on about science fiction and other stuff. You can read her posts once or maybe twice a week at Echoes from the Satellite.

Larry has just started doing a video blog! It's on YouTube and it's called Larryland USA. Larry will be talking about things he loves and his many genre-based memories. Check it out!

That's all for us right now. We hope all of you are staying well, and hanging in there. If you have thoughts on King Kong, other giant apes, or anything else, drop us a line, why don't ya? You can leave a comment at our site, or hit us up here: 

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Thanks for listening!

Episode 54: The Human Adventure Continues: Star Trek The Motion Picture

That's right listeners, it's time to go where no one has gone before -to the big screen, for the first voyage of the Enterprise in theaters! Today the Planet 8 crew is talking Star Trek: The Motion Picture!

The Motion Picture (or ST:TMP) has gained a bad reputation over the years, often derisively called 'The Motionless Picture,' but it actually was a hit at the box office, if not with the critics. Without ST:TMP, we wouldn't have gotten Wrath of Khan, or any of the films to follow, and perhaps no Next Generation and beyond. So whatever your opinion of the film -and we know opinions vary, because even within our Planet 8 crew, they do - one must acknowledge its role in keeping the franchise alive.

We'll discuss the troubled history of the production, how it swung back and forth between plans to be a new Star Trek TV series (Star Trek Phase II), a movie, a TV show, and a film again. By the time the studio decided to go with a theatrical film, they went into production in a rush, without a firm script, and with a set release date (December 7, 1979) which put the pressure on, especially with the complicated special effects that were required. They were lucky to have an experienced director in Robert Wise at the helm. They also kicked out the original effects group and brought in master effects artists Doug Trumbull and John Dykstra, who managed to finish the special effects just in time for the release.

Going to see Star Trek on the big screen was a real experience for all of us. There was, of course, huge anticipation. We hadn't seen our Enterprise crew in a new adventure in years! What would they look like? What would the story be like? Of course we had seen photos in magazines but to see them on the big screen would be a special thrill! For some though, the movie was not what they expected. After the excitement of Star Wars, ST:TMP might have seemed too slow, too talky. For others, it was too reminiscent of the Star Trek episode, The Changeling, where an ancient Earth space probe, modified by an alien probe, mistakes Kirk for its creator. But in some ways, ST:TMP is the Trek movie most like the original episodes. It may have been their attempt at Trek's '2001,' but it maintains Trek's hopeful concept for mankind's development as a species.

Regardless of one's thoughts about the plot of the film, the special effects are still beautiful to behold (and if you haven't seen the director's edition, run out now and get it!), and Jerry Goldsmith's score is perhaps the best Star Trek score of all. His main theme went on to become the theme of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it originated here, with this film, and it's absolutely beautiful to hear in conjunction with the visual of the streamlined Enterprise.

In any case, it's worth a revisit if you haven't seen it in a while. Check it out and let us know your thoughts!

For our Sensor Sweep this episode, to go with our theme, Karen shares a book that goes into great depth on ST:TMP: Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Preston Neal Jones. In this hefty tome, Jones has put together an oral history of the film, which includes interviews with the cast and crew of The Motion Picture. Honestly, anything you would ever want to know about how the movie was made is included in this book. You can find it from sellers on Amazon, and at the time of this writing, they now have an ebook version too.

We also want to give a plug to our first ever video-only episode on our YouTube channel! We decided to do a quick little video Sensor Sweep for you guys, sharing some of our collectibles, and a funny story about a near-miss the guys had with a collectible. So we hope you'll check it out at our YouTube channel. Let us know if you'd like to see more video episodes!

All right, that's it for this time around. But if you want to contact us, hailing frequencies are open!

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Live long and prosper!