Uncanny Treks

di Bob and Matt

Seconda serata Critica televisiva

Stagione 1

Deep Space Nine Season 2 Recap

Bob and Matt discuss the ups and downs of DS9 Season 2.

Babylon 5 Season 1 Recap

Bob and Matt recap season 1 of Babylon 5.

Babylon 5 vs. Deep Space Nine-"Chysalis" vs. "The Jem'Hadar"

Chrysalis S1E22 (3 Oct 94) vs. The Jem’Hadar S2E26 (12 Jun 94) -Matt & Bob recorded a podcast episode on the penultimate television episodes of B5 S1 & DS9 S2, but Matt blacked out for 24 hours and lost all memory of "Legacies" and "Tribunal". He also keeps having flashbacks of torture and probing. -Bob’s favorite Faustian narratives are Christopher Marlowe Dr. Faustus (1592), Goethe Faust Pt. 1 (1808), Lord Byron Manfred (1817), Herman Melville Moby-Dick (1851), & Oscar Wilde Dorian Gray (1891) -Bob speculates that B5 may be the first show to tell a whole narrative across multiple seasons, in contrast to a show like Wiseguy (1987-90) that did multi-episode arcs or more improvisational soap opera like Dallas (1978-91), Crime Story (1986-8), Twin Peaks (1990-1) -Bob speculates that Harry Potter may be responsible for younger millennials’ and zoomers’ love for bildungsromans, in stark contrast to our elder millennial bitterness -Bob does like the new but sadly canceled Twilight Zone (2019-20) -Matt namechecks Banshee from the X-Men & Bob talks fondly about the Stepford Cuckoos’ disquiet that they lack telekinesis -Matt fails his Voight-Kampff test for Galaxy-class starship empathy -Bob, a UAW member, thinks highly of this radio episode on UAW president Walter Reuther’s death https://player.fm/series/history-conspiracy-podcast/the-death-of-walter-reuther-from-the-dave-emory-archives but not so highly of this podcast episode on Sen. Paul Wellstone’s death https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-strange-death-of-senator-paul-wellstone/id1235651909?i=1000501700367 -Bob hopes Black Lightning (2018-21) allowed Cress Wiliams to be as haughty in that role as he is as Talak’talan -Bob lies & says we’re covering the B5 comic Price of Peace next, but, instead, we held off a couple of weeks on the comic & did the B5 S2 premiere & 2part DS9 S3 premiere next

Babylon 5 vs. Deep Space Nine- "TKO" vs. "Collaborator"

TKO S1E20 (25 May 94) vs. Collaborator S2E24 (22 May 94) -Matt & Bob debate whether we’d be better off w/ the Mutai or The Purge franchise -Theodore Bikel also played Worf’s foster father in The Next Generation -Matt’s favorite boxing movies are Rocky (1976), Raging Bull (1980), & Pulp Fiction (1994). Bob’s are The Set-up (1949), Raging Bull, & Creed (2015) -Matt’s favorite martial arts movies are Drunken Master (1978) & Mortal Kombat (1995). Bob’s are both 1978 Shaw Bros films: 36th Chamber of Shaolin & 5 Deadly Venoms -Bob embarrassingly forgot that Johnny Blaze is a nom de guerre of Method Man -Twin Peaks & Sopranos are the best dream shows -Matt & Bob both co-sign that Danny McBride’s HBO comedies are the great examples of contemporary southern realism -Matt harasses Bob for not watching Logan (2017)

Babylon 5 vs. Deep Space Nine-"Quality of Mercy" vs. "Crossover"

Quality of Mercy S1E19 (17 Aug 94) vs. Crossover S2E23 (15 May 94) -Matt maybe coins a phrase for a common sf trope: hardluck telepathy, examples from the X-Men include: Jean Grey, Emma Frost, Betsy Braddock, Kwannon, David Haller, Xi’an Coy Manh, Dani Moonstar, Quentin Quire, David Alleyne, & Stepford Cuckoos -Matt educates Bob on ‘Cult of Personality’ -All the talk of spacing puts Bob in mind of the famous hard sf tale ’Cold Equations’, although it’s arguably a bit ridiculous & pretty sexist -Magneto gets mindwiped in the climax of Fatal Attractions (1993) -Bob was foolishly misremembering the concept of Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton as being introduced in Weapon X (1991), but it was much earlier in Proteus Saga (1979), although Wolverine’s unbreakable bones were alluded to before -June Lockhart played Dr. Maureen Robinson in the original Lost in Space (1965-8) & Dr. Rosen in this episode; sadly, there’s no reunion with Bill Mumy -The best popular book on M4A is Tim Faust Health Justice Now: Single Payer & What Comes Next (2019) -Bob references Sigmund Freud's very short essay “Medusa’s Head” (1922). The best & funnest popular introduction to psychoanalysis is Slavoj Žižek Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture (1991) -Bob & Matt compare the many episodes, comics, & novels set in the Mirror Universe -Bob again waxes nostalgic about Diane Duane Star Trek novels -Bob praises the Star Trek comics crossovers w/ Planet of the Apes (2015) & Legion of Super-Heroes (2012) & condemns the Dr. Who crossover (2012) -Matt references an Odo retcon in the David Mack Section 31 novel Disavowed (2014) -Great if controversial movies involving slavery include Burn! (1969), Mandingo (1975), Drum (1976), Django Unchained (2012), 12 Yrs a Slave (2013), Aferim! (2015), & Free State of Jones (2016)

Babylon 5 vs. Deep Space Nine-"Babylon Squared" vs. "The Wire"

Babylon² S1E18(10 Aug 94) vs. The Wire S2E22 (8 May 94) -3 interesting superhero examples of the unstuck in time trope in Captain America: Reborn (2009-10), Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne (2010), & Infinite Avengers (2014) -Matt gets Yaphet Kotto in Alien (1979) vibes from Garibaldi -Matt gets Labyrinth (1986) vibes from Zathras -Bob gets Tom Waits “What’s He Building?” (1999) vibes off Delenn -Bob’s favorite Flying Dutchman narrative is the William Hope Hodgson weird novel Ghost Pirates (1909), available on Librivox -Bob is very discontent w/ the climax of Fantastic 4: Grand Design (2019) -Matt & Bob are relieved we didn’t get the Kira equivalent of Batman: Venom (1991)

Babylon 5 vs. Deep Space Nine- "A Voice in the Wilderness- Part 2" vs. "Maquis"

A Voice in the Wilderness- Part 2 S1E17 (3 Aug 94) vs. Maquis p1-2 S2E20-1 (24 Apr & 1 May 94) -Bob gets annoyed at Matt’s spurious Star Wars Death Star references -Ron Canada played the crooked chief of LA police in The Shield (2002-8) -There’s a very good 2017 episode of The Dig interviewing Aziz Rana’ about his book 2 Faces of American Freedom (2014) on US settler colonialism -Bob’s about to start watching the short-lived, Thomas Pynchon-esque dramedy Lodge 49 (2018-9) that also features Bertila Damas

Babylon 5 vs. Deep Space Nine- "A Voice in the Wilderness- Part 1" vs. "Blood Oath"

A Voice in the Wilderness p1 S1E16 (20 Jul 94) vs. Blood Oath S2E19 (27 Mar 94) -Kor, Koloth, Kang, Curzon, & Sulu’s backstory w/ the Albino is explored in the Michael Martin & Andy Mangels Excelsior novel Forged in Fire (2007) -Before TNG, in the Star Trek paracanon, Klingons were more like TNG Romulans, careful strategists, & Romulans were more like TNG Klingons, honor-bound warriors. For the essential Klingon TOS novel, see John Ford Final Reflection (1984), &, for the essential Romulan TOS novels, see the 5 Diane Duane novels from the 80s & 00s -The failed Uncle Ruckus film kickstarter campaign was in 2013. A revival of the Boondocks is supposed to premiere on HBO MAX in 2022. -The Psi Corps novel Bob intends to eventually read is Gregory Keyes Fate of Bester (1999) -Matt & Bob reference Twin Peaks S3 The Return (2017), Catholic Twin Peaks aka Mare of Easttown (2021), Dexter (2006-13), & The Killing (2011-4) -Matt & Bob ponder the 2-part storytelling in a variety of cartoons -Bob connects the tropes of Halloween (2018), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), & Terminator Dark Fate (2019)

Babylon 5 vs. Deep Space Nine- "Eyes" vs. "Profit and Loss"

Eyes S1E15 (13 Jul 94) vs. Profit & Loss S2E18 (20 Mar 94) -Bob misspoke & references the great Hong Kong film trilogy Infernal Affairs (2002-3) remade into Marty Scorsese’s The Departed (2006) -There have been 236 Friends episodes (1994-2004) & 154 It’s always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005-) episodes so far. Bob stupidly misremembers Always Sunny episode title formats -Matt dubs Jeffrey Combs the Stan Lee of tv sf -Matt & Bob long for a rematch between The Rock & 7 of 9 in Picard S2 -Bob hates on Star Trek & Babylon 5 prequel novels, Matt hates on Arthurian parallels -Pavlovian conditioning is not to be mistaken with Pavel Chekov -Bob’s favorite book on climate change is Christian Parenti Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change & the New Geography of Violence (2011) -The Time for My Stories (2021) podcast did an interesting episode on Dallas (1978-91) -Ivanova has a dream with a Twin Peaks vibe

Babylon 5 vs. Deep Space Nine- "Grail" vs. "Playing God"

Grail S1E14 (6 Jul 94) vs. Playing God S2E17 (27 Feb 94) -Matt commences his ritual of torturing Bob by reminding him of Friends: The Reunion (2021) -Bob has been reading the Thanos v2 (2017-8) series, which has story arcs by Jeff Lemire/Mike Deodato & Donny Cates/Geoff Shaw & includes the conceit that Thanos tortures random people on earth, confident the Avengers won’t notice -Blowback S2 (2021) about US-Cuba relations is the best podcast of the year -Richard Poe did the audiobook for one of the great US novels, Cormac McCarthy Blood Meridian (1985) -Diane Duane’s excellent Star Trek novels include Wounded Sky (1983), My Enemy, My Ally (1984), Spock’s World (1988), & Dark Mirror (1993) --For a recent critique of meritocracy, see Daniel Markovits Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, & Devours the Elite (2019) & a critical interview with the author on The Genn [Loury] Show -Christy Marx, creator of Jem & the Holograms (1985-8), wrote this B5 episode -For some reason Bob goes to The Practice (19997-2004) as the pinnacle of 90s network tv drama, probably because he finds lawyers more interesting than doctors -Bob feels like Tolkein is a bigger influence on B5 than Arthurian legend, but there are many overt Arthurian references in B5 & the spin-off Crusade (1999) -Matt & Bob rhapsodize about David Warner’s long career in & out of Trek -William Sanderson plays the hotelier Farnum on the great Deadwood (2004-6) -The B5 novel Kathryn Drennan To Dream in the City of Sorrows (1997) is set on Minbar

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