Why the 2013 crop of summer blockbusters has sucked

A sign of the times: the new Man of Steel (Photo credit: Ed Yourdon)

Once again, I am called upon by my fellow SF Signal podcast irregulars to snark my way through a topic better left to professionals: What's up with the not-so-hot lineup of 2013 summer movie blockbusters?

Fortunately, Jeff Patterson, Patrick Hester and actual honest-to-Grodd film critic Derek Johnson are on hand to wrangle my even-more-nerdy-than-usual snivelings about film and genre. (How these guys got nominated for a Hugo with me on the line is beyond explanation.)

In the course of the podcast, we go deep on the flagship blockbuster of the season -- Man of Steel -- and sort of back into a treatise on why the "midlist movie" is so desperately necessary to save Hollywood from itself. There are worse ways to spend an hour of your time, especially if you fast forward through all my speaking parts. Those of you that tuned into my appearance on Shooting the WISB wherein I savaged Star Trek Into Darkness have heard most it already, anyway.

You can listen to the complete SF Signal podcast here.

As always, the chronicle of my previous SF Signal podcast atrocities is available here.

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Everything wrong with Star Trek Into Darkness, according to three random geeks

Star Trek into Darkness (Photo credit: David Holt London)

In one those rare moments of serendipitous geekery, Paul Weimer and Shaun Duke threw out a random "anybody want to jump on a podcast about Star Trek Into Darkness in five minutes?" flares on Twitter and, to my own surprise, I had a free evening.

The result is an hour of unremitting podcast hostility towards the Hollywood machine that is dismantling Star Trek, as only ad hoc nerdrage can deliver it.

If you liked the movie and want to understand why you were wrong to do so (he said, tongue only half in cheek), this is the podcast for you. Tune in and unlearn all that J.J. Abrams foolishly tried to teach you. It's fun to use anger for good.

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Why can't Hollywood make Mars work?

Cover of Red Planet [Region 2]

Anyone else realize the last broadly successful science fiction movie set on Mars was 1990's Total Recall -- the movie that Colin Farrell is helping remake sans the Martian elements? Tinseltown seems to keep fumbling any version of the Red Planet that sees the big screen -- and I include Red Planet in that eulogy.

So, is Mars cursed in Hollywood?

That's question I try to answer in SF Signal Podcast Episode 117.

Fortunately, Fred Kiesche, Jeff Patterson, Scott Cupp, Paul Weimer and Patrick Hester are there to drown out my cynical meanderings about the cinematic value of the fourth rock from our sun. Give a listen, if only for Golden Age Flash Gordon references and the gratuitous namecheck of the Viking landers.

Per usual, the backlog of my established SF Signal Podcast errors is available here.

What work of classic literature was Gene Roddenberry's inspiration for Star Trek? (Hint: It wasn't "Wagon Train")

A mere 44 years ago this week -- Sept. 8, 1966 -- the first episode of Star Trek aired on CBS. The debut of "The Man Trap" was the culmination of six years of work for series creator Gene Roddenberry, who had been developing and shopping his show concept since 1960.

Like all Hollywood pitches, Roddenberry had to relate his show premise to an already successful franchise in order to interest production studios. Thus, Star Trek was floated to TV houses as "Wagon Train in space" -- a description that many fans consider inaccurate, and perhaps even condescending.

In truth, Roddenberry was only citing the episodic, random-encounter-with-the-unknown aspect of Wagon Train. His inspiration for Star Trek, as he would later claim, was actually one of the most famous works of classic literature ever written.

What work of classic literature was Gene Roddenberry's self-professed inspiration for Star Trek?