As usual there are spoilers ahead!

If you want to read the full show notes you can click the episode on this page and scroll down.

The Day the earth Stood Still was released in 1951 just like The Thing from Another World. And just like that film The Day the Earth Stood Still is based on a story from Astounding Science Fiction magazine.

The flying saucer craze of 1947 has obviously made its impression on Hollywood and The Day the Earth Stood Still delivered a seamless sleek futuristic saucer along with an imposing shiny robot and a polite humanoid alien who comes in peace to deliver an ultimatum to a world wrangling with the atomic age.

The Experts:

Glyn Morgan is Curatorial Lead at the Science Museum in London and is a science fiction scholar.

Peter Gottschalk is a Professor of Religion at Wesleyan University with a special interest in the South Asian region, empire and science. He also teaches a class called “Awesome Cinema”.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the show and guests
02:22 Astounding magazine, The Manhattan project and the Peace Offensive
5:55 From pulps to peace: Sci-fi amid the red scare
11:28 The Flying Saucer
14:00 A benevolent invader and the United Nations
19:39 Gort the robot - Klaatu, Barada Nikto!
25:55 The sane scientist
29:06 Christian themes
34:36 Media frenzy
38:24 The 2008 remake
42:44 Bernard Hermann’s seminal score
44:06 Legacy and recommendations

NEXT EPISODE!
Next episode we will be taking a closer look at The War of the Worlds (1953). You can check Just Watch to find out where it can be found in your region. It is available to buy or rent at many outlets including Apple TV.

If you wanted to listen to the famous 1938 radio play from Orson Welles you can hear it here on YouTube.

And if you want to hear Richard Burton’s hypnotic reverberating voice in Jeff Wayne’s Musical version of War of the Worlds you can hear that here on YouTube.

As always there are spoilers ahead!
For the full show notes with no character limits you can click the episode on the website watch page here.

Description:
We are finally in the 1950s! The Golden Era of science fiction cinema.

Although the 1950s are known for may B Movies The Thing from Another World was produced (and possibly directed) but the very famous Howard Hawks and came from RKO which was a big name studio at this time.

This film capitalised on the growing appetite for science fiction in the USA which was up until this recently largely in print but also a little on television although studios were still wary of the science fiction label. Based on the John W Campbell novella Who Goes There? from 1938 there were a few significant changes made to the story.

The Experts
Jay Telotte is Professor Emeritus of film and media studies at Georgia Tech. He has written/edited numerous books and articles about science fiction film including the 2023 Selling Science Fiction Cinema.

Marc Longenecker is an Associate Professor of the Practice of Film Studies at Wesleyan University.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the show and guests
02:40 The 1950s sci-fi explosion
06:34 The studio aversion to science fiction and the paramount decree
09:55 Howard Hawks, Howard Hughes and who really directed this film?
16:20 If it walks like a Hawk: Hallmarks and the Hawksian woman
21:52 The Cold War, flying saucers and “the group”
34:05 Jay’s comparison to The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
36:26 The influence on John Carpenter and The Thing (1982)
44:21 The legacy of the film
48:56 Recommendations for listeners

NEXT EPISODE!
Next episode we will be taking a closer look at The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). You can check Just Watch to find out where it can be found in your region and is available to buy or rent at many outlets including Apple TV.

Unlike most episodes there are no film spoilers ahead!

For full detailed show notes please click the episode on this page and scroll down.

This episode we take a huge jump back to the end of the 19th century and a side step to science fiction literature rather than film.

Robert Duncan Milne is a lost pioneer of science fiction literature. Milne’s work had largely vanished despite a book drawing attention to him in 1980. Born in Scotland in 1844 he died in San Francisco at the dawn of the 20th century. During his time in San Francisco he worked as a journalist as well as writing science fiction short stories.

In the many stories Milne wrote he included themes of time travel, alien life, teleportation, cryogenic preservation, remote surveillance and much much more.

My fantastic guests today have spent many years researching and compiling Milne’s work and trying to discover as much as possible about his life and work.

The Experts
Keith Williams is a Reader in English Literature at the University of Dundee where he runs the science fiction programme. He has a special interest in the pre 1945 period.
Ari Brin completed her Masters at the University of Dundee where she began her PhD research which focuses on the life and work of Robert Duncan Milne.

The book that Ari and Keith have been working on will be released in January 2025. It is available for pre-order for the ungodly price of £117 in the UK or $175 in the USA. We all hope a cheaper, consumer friendly version will be released in the future.

Shownotes:
00:00 Introduction
01:59 Why was this pioneer’s work lost?
03:21 Milne’s contemporaries and the topics he wrote about
06:57 The promising young man who vanishes from Scottish society
12:32 San Francisco: an exciting literary hub in the late 19th century
14:18 Milne’s excessive drinking and the Keeley cure
19:27 Milne’s journalism and how it fed into his fiction
22:20 The Great Moon Hoax of 1835
25:51 Milne, Wells and visions of the future
33:17 The death of Milne and his work
36:32 Keith and Ari’s book and the crazy price

NEXT EPISODE!

WE ARE IN THE 1950s!!!!! It is an exciting but overwhelming time so please bear with me.

The next film we will be speaking about The Thing From Another World (1951). You can find out where you can watch it on Just Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/

It is available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play and other outlets. If you are in the USA I believe you can watch it for free (with ads) on Tubi.