Episode 100: We did it!

 

They said it couldn't be done. They said we would never make it. They said hot dogs are sandwiches. But despite the nay-sayers, and against all odds, we made it to our 100th episode! 

When we started the Planet 8 podcast, we had no idea we would reach this kind of milestone. But here we are. Despite the hiccup of Recon Officer Karen getting hit with Covid right before we were going to record our 100th episode, and having to delay a couple of weeks, we bounced back to bring you this episode, where we celebrate this milestone by throwing a party in the Planet 8 Officer's Club.  

It wouldn't be a party without guests, and we have quite a guest list! Through the miracle of science, we're able to reach through time and space and bring to Planet 8 a collection of actors, artists, and more who have all contributed to our love for science fiction, fantasy, and horror media. We discuss why we would want to have them at the party and what we'd talk to them about. Who would each of us invite? You'll have to listen to the episode to find out!

Rounding out our episode is our Sensor Sweep, this time focusing on upcoming events that Chief Engineer Bob will be putting on through his Bay Area Film Events group. First up, on August 12, 13, and 14th at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco, is the annual Godzillafest. This year's theme is "Gamera crashes Godzillafest" and Gamera the Brave will be shown, along with a number of other Gamera films. Bob and his partners will also be showing two films in 35 mm format, Terror of Mechagodzilla and Godzilla vs. Gigan. If you're in the Bay Area, don't miss this kaiju bash! They'll also have artists and vendors on site, so you can buy all sorts of goodies! Click here for more information.

On October 1,2, and 3, Ultraman will be coming to the 4 Star Theater in Chinatown! Details will be posted soon on the Bay Area Film Events site.

Listeners, we want to thank you for sticking with us, for posting comments on our site, Facebook, and Twitter. We appreciate your thoughts and being able to engage with you! Hearing from you and knowing you're out there is what keeps us going!

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We would rather be with you people than with the finest people in the world!

Episode 72: It's on like Donkey Kong! Godzilla vs. Kong!

 

It's here, the first really BIG movie of 2021: Godzilla vs. Kong! Whether you saw it at home on HBO Max or caught it in an actual theater, this definitely felt like the first real event film of the year. Your intrepid Planet 8 crew all saw the film as soon as it was out (some of us staying up into the wee hours of the night) and are here to share our thoughts and impressions on this latest entry in Legendary's monsterverse.

Be prepared for SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

The question everyone is asking is, whose side are you on? And our team was divided. Commander Larry and Chief Engineer Bob are long-time Godzilla devotees, while Recon Officer Karen is a fan of the big ape. But despite our differences, we were able to come together and talk about how we enjoyed this film. And we did enjoy the movie! It's a huge popcorn movie, full of a lot of crazy pseudoscience, a lot of callbacks to older films, and some really exciting monster battles. Although we might at times be nostalgic for the men-in-suits eras, there's no denying how fantastic the CGI looks in this film (and its predecessors).  And we get to the action pretty quickly.

This movie is sort of like a supreme pizza: it's just got everything sprinkled all over it. There's a trip to the Hollow Earth, swimming Godzilla, evil businessmen, a giant ape wielding an axe,  crazy conspiracy theorists, ape sign language, and ...Mechagodzilla! It's best if you just sort of turn off the critical thinking part of your brain and relax when you watch. But there's still a lot to wonder about. Who built the amphitheater in the Hollow Earth? Will we eventually see aliens in a Legendary film? What monster will we see next?

Maybe the best thing about Godzilla Vs. Kong was how excited we all felt about watching a movie again. In some ways, it felt like a bit of a return to normalcy. We hope the movie does well and that we get more entries in the series.

In other news,  on our YouTube channel, we reached 100+ subscribers -thank you very much! - so you can now access our videos by going to YouTube.com/Planet8podcast. If you haven't caught our latest video episode on American International Pictures with Lord Blood-Rah, please head on over and check it out. And let us know what you think!

This week, our Sensor Sweep starts with a memorial to Cleve Hall, "The Monster Man." As we recorded this episode, we had just heard of his passing. Cleve had made monster suits and make-ups for innumerable films and projects. Cleve was known for being very approachable at shows and was a true fan himself. The community is poorer for his loss.

In brighter news, Chief Engineer Bob's Bay Area Film Events will host Godzilla's Monster Bash at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco on May 14-16. There will be 10 Godzilla films, celebrating the 60th  anniversary of Mothra, and the 50th anniversary of Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster. If you're in the area - or even if you're not - order your tickets and come have a great time!

All right folks, that's it for now. Let us know what you thought of Godzilla vs. Kong by leaving a comment here, or contacting us at one of our other sites: 

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So long from Monster Island!

Episode 66: Hidden Gems

 

This time around on Planet 8, each crew member has chosen a film that maybe didn't do well at the box office or get critical acclaim, but we feel deserves another look. Yes, we've picked out some hidden gems! We'll each take a turn talking about our pick, followed by some discussion. Hopefully we do a good enough job that you may be encouraged to check these films out! Our selections are pretty different from each other, and reflect our range of interests.

Chief Engineer Bob is up first with 2008's Speed Racer by the Wachowskis. Based on the famous cartoon series, the film captures the flavor of the cartoon, so if you're a fan, you'll definitely appreciate it. It's highly stylized and visually exciting, and well worth your time if you want to see something really unique. And how is Speed Racer connected to Elvis? Listen and find out!

Up next is Recon Officer Karen with the offbeat 1974 sci-fi film Zardoz, best remembered for Sean Connery in a red loincloth. The plot of the film is difficult to summarize, but if you like dystopian futures, giant stone heads, and weird psychedelia, this could be the film for you. 

Finally, bringing us to a close, Commander Larry tells us all about Phantasm, the Don Coscarelli film from 1979. This low-budget thriller has developed a true cult following. Larry gives us the scoop on the Tall Man and of course, the sphere. Did you know there were five films in the series? Neither did we! But Larry gives us the basic premise -which is that the Tall Man collects corpses and turns them into scrunched down zombie slaves to take back to his planet. What?. Anyway, it'll keep your attention!

Those are our picks. We have so many other films we could name, but we'll save them for another round!

This episode's Sensor Sweep is brought to us by Bob. This time it's a gigantic box set of 18 LPs from Waxworks Records for the Showa Godzilla films (1954 -1975)! Each film gets its own album, and a few get two-record sets. If you love the Godzilla soundtracks, and you have a few hundred dollars sitting around, check it out. These LPs are colored vinyl, and include exclusive artwork. Quite a collectors' item!

That's all for us. Let us know what you think of our hidden gems, and tell us about your hidden gems! What films would you include? 

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Thanks for listening!

Episode 42: Welcome 2020 - Looking Back with Perfect Vision

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:

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Thanks for Listening!

Episode 40: This is the Way: The Mandalorian at the Half-Way Mark

via GIPHY

It's here -the first live-action Star Wars series! And so far, everyone seems to agree -The Mandalorian is a hit! Your Planet 8 crew has eagerly awaited the debut of this Disney +  show, created by Jon Favreau, with contributions from Dave Filoni of Clone Wars and Rebels fame. Set about five years after the events of Return of the Jedi, the show depicts a time of uncertainty and unrest as the Alliance attempts to build from the ashes of the Empire. In the outer rim territories, the mysterious bounty hunter known as The Mandalorian forges a living hunting down bail jumpers and other low lifes, when he receives a bounty commission from former Imperials laying low. And from there, his life gets very complicated...

It's not a surprise to say that our episode is heavily SPOILER-FILLED from minute one, so you may not want to listen unless you've seen the first four episodes of The Mandalorian! We will discuss just about every detail of the show, being long-time Star Wars fans, and this show really hearkens back to the original trilogy in many ways. But it also brings a fresh take on the universe, which we thoroughly enjoyed!

via GIPHY

What are some of the influences we detected for the show? What were the little details we flipped over? How much does Commander Larry love Baby Yoda? Take a listen and then be sure to chime in with your thoughts too!

For our Sensor Sweep, no, it's not Star Wars, but Godzilla we turn to, as Chief Engineer Bob tells us all about the exciting new Godzilla Showa Era boxed set from Criterion! Almost as big as the King of Monsters himself, this eight disc bluray set covers Godzilla films from 1954 to 1975 and comes in a beautifully illustrated hardcover book. You can get it from Criterion or other fine retailers.

OK, that's it for this transmission. If you've seen The Mandalorian, what are your thoughts so far? Got anything to say about the Criterion Godzilla collection? Anything else you need to get off your chest? Leave a comment below, or try our other communication resources:

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Thanks for listening - we have spoken!

Episode 37: Halloween on the Small Screen

It's that time of year again, when creepy and scary stuff abounds! Besides all the great horror movies out there this time of year, there are a ton of great TV show episodes that either focus on Halloween or have themes that fit the holiday. We talk about some of our favorites ones on this episode.

Larry discusses a few classic Star Trek episodes with spooky themes, including the eerie "Catspaw." Did you catch the Cthulhu references in the episode? Did you know it was written by Robert Bloch of Psycho fame? We look at a couple of Next Generation episodes too.

Karen reminisces about The Simpsons'  Treehouse of Horror specials, and focuses on a few favorite segments. So many of these were take offs or homages to classic sci fi and horror films or shows, especially The Twilight Zone.

Bob shares a classic Halloween episode of Route 66 -Lizard Leg and Owlet Wing (see it on YouTube here). It featured Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr, and Peter Lorre. it was the last time Karloff wore the Frankenstein Monster make-up! Our chief engineer also covers a bunch of others, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, The Big Bang Theory, Laverne and Shirley, Married with Children, and more.

Do you have memories of some favorite TV show episodes that centered on Halloween? We'd love to hear them.

Chief Engineer Bob says hands off my Godzilla game!!

For our Sensor Sweep, Bob has managed to get a hold of the new Bandai Godzilla card game! Not only that, but we have a special interview with the game's designer, Ryan Miller! So be sure to check that out to learn about this cool new kaiju card game.

We want to wish you all a spooky, creepy, monster-filled Halloween!! And feel free to share pictures -past or present -of your costumes at our Facebook or Twitter sites.

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Thanks for listening!

Episode 28: Oh No, There Goes Tokyo, Go Go Godzilla!

Welcome to this Daikaiju-sized edition of Planet 8! We needed a larger than normal sized episode to cover our subject, Godzilla King of the Monsters! Besides our usual three-headed review, we'll be including some bonus material from Chief Engineer Bob's away mission to the press screening and Hollywood premiere of this colossal film, including a special interview with the film's director, Michael Dougherty, at the end of the episode.

This is a SPOILER-FILLED episode, so make sure you see Godzilla King of the Monsters before you jump into the podcast!

This is the third film in Legendary's Monsterverse, with the 2014 Godzilla being the first, and Kong:Skull Island being the second. And this film featured more kaiju than ever before, with some heavy hitters alongside the Big G: Mothra, Rodan, and the infamous King Ghidorah, aka Monster Zero!

Of course, your Planet 8 crew grew up with Godzilla and all of his assorted friends and enemies. We all went into this film with certain expectations based off of our nostalgic recollections. Did it live up to those memories? Listen to find out!

The premiere gets set up at the Grauman Theater

In place of our usual Sensor Sweep, Bob gives us a glimpse at his trip to Los Angeles and the Godzilla premiere, where he got to not only see the film, but meet and speak with many of the actors, and also interview the director, Michael Dougherty, along with his pal Keith Aiken from SciFi Japan.

Godzilla busts loose!

Godzilla stairs!

Bob with Godzilla 2014 director Gareth Edwards

Bob and actor Ken Watanabe

We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you'd like to meet the Planet 8 crew, head over to Creatures Con at the San Ramon Marriott (in San Ramon, California) on July 7th! We'd love to see you live and in-person!

As always, we look forward to hearing your thoughts, so please share either here or at:

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Thanks for Listening!

Episode 27: All Those Wonderful Toys

One of the great things about being a fan is all of the fun and amazing (if not expensive) collectibles that are to be found based on so many of our favorite TV shows, movies, comic characters, and more. It's astonishing the variety of items available - Star Trek Enterprise pizza cutter, anyone? Many of us have acquired a ton of posters, figures, books, and what-have-you over the years. Building a collection is a point of pride for many. Some are downright obsessive about it.

In this episode, Larry, Bob, and Karen discuss the fine art of collecting, and look at a few of their favorite items in their own collections. Bob has a number of one-of-a-kind or nearly so items of the kaiju variety (like an Ibanez Ultraman guitar), while Larry explores some rare Anchor-Hocking Universal Monster glasses that he hunted down. Karen shares a favorite piece, the Sideshow Creature from the Black Lagoon premium format statue.

Just why do we collect? Is it out of a sense of nostalgia? Is it the thrill of chasing down that rare item? And do you limit yourself to just one genre or show, or do you range far and wide in the types of things you enjoy? And we ask the question, if you didn't collect genre-related stuff, what else would you collect?

For this episode's Sensor Sweep, Bob tells us about a special painting he had done for him by Hugo-winning artist Bob Eggleton. It depicts the landscape of Planet X from Monster Zero. And now it proudly hangs in his living room!

Now it's your turn. We would love to hear about all of your collections! You know where to reach us -in the comments here, or at:

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Thanks for Listening!

Episode 18: Time Keeps on Slippin'...Into the Future

If you're reading this, it means you made it! Congratulations and welcome to 2019. Your Planet 8 crew survived multiple attacks by Zanti misfits and those creeps on Planet 9, and have put together a retrospective show on 2018 -we look back on the movies and shows that came out this last year. You might be surprised by some of our favorites, and the ones we thought missed the mark. We also salute those genre actors, artists, and others who left us in 2018. Finally, we discuss what we're most excited about in this new year. Which movies and TV shows are high on the Planet 8 crew's list? You'll have to listen to find out!

For our Sensor Sweep, Mission Commander Larry brings to our attention the small but deadly Infinity Gauntlet Mini from Hot Toys (you can find the details here:
https://www.sideshowtoy.com/collectibles/marvel-infinity-gauntlet-hot-toys-903359/). This little beauty looks just like the shiny glove that wiped out half the universe in Avengers: Infinity War. It stands about 6.5" high, and it even has light-up features. Want to impress and/or terrify your co-workers? Put this on your desk!

We want to thank all of you listeners who have been tuning in and sharing with us. We appreciate your feedback! We'd love to get more comments from you, either here, or at the other places where we monitor  Earth transmissions:

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Thanks for Listening!