Pulp genre fiction has produced some monumental successes (from a financial POV), and today we're tackling probably the second-biggest after Stephen King: Michael Crichton. His career as a novelist of the Campbell "hard Sci-fi" school got started in properly in 1969 with the first novel released under his real name, The Andromeda Strain. We look at this particular book and the movie that adapted it in the latest episode, and examine when "hard SF" becomes a gloss over...something else.

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Theme song by Jack Feerick

Additional Music: Cinematic Atmosphere Score 2 by Musictown

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.

Episode Notes

Historical adventures with swashbuckling, alternate identities, and criminals with a heart of gold seem to have been inescapable in early 20th century pulp, and Georgette Heyer's "The Masqueraders" is a fine example of the form. This one adds another common trope: cross-dressing!

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Theme song by Jack Feerick

Additional music: Franz Schubert's Piano Trio In E Flat

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.

We've talked before about how plainly world events have informed the subtext (and sometimes the regular-text) of classic SF, and The Moon Maid, a late-career offering from Edgar Rice Burroughs, proves that in spades. The politics that engulfed the world in the mid-1920s are on full display here in this seemingly escapist pulp fantasy, in which thinly-disguised Moon Communists invade America. Choose your side, citizen!

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Theme song by Jack Feerick

Additional music: "The Planets: Mars" by Gustav Holst

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.

Continuing from last week's theme of "advanced mutants walk amongst us", we're looking at an entirely different take on a similar premise, one that's entirely more sympathetic to the supposedly non-human subjects. In Wilmar Shiras' "Children of the Atom", the super-intelligent kids are more benign...mostly. Though the perils of raising kids who might someday conquer the world comes with its own pitfalls. Is the answer psychology and superior educational practices? The future will tell...

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Additional Music: "Sacred Church Organ" by Jay Man, Our Music Box

Theme song by Jack Feerick

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.

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They're everywhere! They're better than you! They can tinker with your brain! They'll inherit the Earth! And trying to stop them makes you into a monster! It's a common assortment of tropes from SF, with a subtext touching on everything from a Freudian fear of your children to even darker, frequently racist conspiracy theories. Slan, by A. E. Van Vogt, seems to be ground zero for popularizing these ideas in Science Fiction, and today we're diving into it, so listen before it's mysteriously deleted from the timeline...

CW: Anti-Semitism, sexual assault, statutory rape and inappropriate relationships with minors, incest, mind control, and headgames.

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Theme song by Jack Feerick

Additional Music: "Lost in Space" by Jupiter Wave

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.

Sometimes you just want to take a break from it all and find solace in some booze...and more importantly, good company. Of course, it doesn't help if your watering hole is constantly being invaded by aliens, vampires, talking dogs, and fairies...or does it? It certainly keeps things interesting. Spider Robinson's long-running Callahan's Place series, starting with Callahan's Crosstime Saloon in 1977, posits such a bar, and turns it into the kind of place you'd probably love to visit, even if you're not a raging Sci-Fi nerd. Come on in, friend, first drink's on the house!

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Theme song by Jack Feerick

Additional music: "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.

We're back for another look at Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, this time focusing on The Watch series. It's a social satire and police procedural in a fantasy setting, which means it has dragons, dwarves, trolls, and police who actually serve the public trust...you know, a fantasy.

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Theme song by Jack Feerick

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.

It's interesting to consider which characters fall into obscurity and which remain relevant. Johnston McCulley's most famous creation, Zorro, is of course still a household word. His other creations, Thubway Tham and The Crimson Clown, have been completely forgotten, even though they were nearly as popular in their day. Both thieves, albeit of two very different sorts, the two even met in the crossover novel Thubway Tham Meets the Crimson Clown, and it's that we're looking at today!

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Engineer/Producer: Alex Ross

Additional music: "Undercover Spy Agent" by David Fesliyan

Theme song by Jack Feerick

(c) 2024 Adam Prosser and Philip Rice. Music (c) its respective creators.

Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 International License.