Spocklight: A Star Trek Podcast

As part of our tributes to legendary Filmmaker, Richard Donner, who we had the honour of interviewing on the Podcast in 2017, we make good on our promise to him to watch and discuss what he considered to be one of his most unfairly overlooked movies, Inside Moves.    We explore this 1980 hidden gem from Donner's filmography, praising the incredible lead performance from John Savage and examining the weighty themes that the film deals with - Depression, suicide, disabilities and the importance of friendship.    Featuring excerpts from our interview with Dick, this is a celebration of a film that deserves a lot more eyes on it and a proper Blu-ray release in the UK so come join us for this very special episode, it will be one of the best moves you've ever made!   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   Credit for ou

With Paul waylaid by the possibility of football coming home, Liam and Matt welcome Cam Smith from the Spy Hards and Subspace Transmissions podcasts to discuss one of his favourite episodes of the often overlooked Star Trek series, Enterprise. Cam tells us the origins of his Star Trek fandom and his own experiences of hosting panels at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention. Then we dissect Cam’s episode choice, Twilight, discussing the Archer/T’Pol relationship, the timey whimey concept of the story and the history of alternative timelines in the Star Trek universe It’s been a long road getting from the last time we covered Enterprise on the podcast to here but the time is finally near, and all you have to do is stream or download this episode now!   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find Cam @camvsmith

Boyd Hilton of Heat, Empire and Pilot TV, returns to the podcast to discuss iconic Star Trek episode, The City on the Edge of Forever, and his love of The Original Series in general whilst calling James Dyer a bellend a lot. We break down the episode discussing the success of its emotional core, Harlan Ellison’s original vision, how the story went on to inspire many other Sci-Fi stories to come as far and wide as Alex Garland's Devs and 90s Nicholas Lyndhurst Sitcom, Goodnight Sweetheart, and Paul gives us the lowdown on the scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor thanks to previous guest, Roger Lay Jr’s Roddenberry Vault.   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find Boyd @boydhilton on Twitter and the Pilot TV Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you catch your pods. Credit for our wonderful theme

Back in 2017 we sat down to interview the legendary Director of Superman, The Goonies, Lethal Weapon and The Omen, Richard Donner, who sadly passed away earlier this week at the grand old age of 91. To commemorate the great man we decided to re-release the Interview with a newly specially recorded tribute from ourselves.   Join us as Dick shares anecdotes and behind the scenes stories on the making of Superman: The Movie, The Goonies, Scrooged, his episodes of the Twilight Zone and even Lethal Weapon 4. We also delve into the complicated history of Superman II and Dick's eventual Director's cut as well as getting some, at the time, exclusive news from the man himself on the sadly never to be, Lethal Weapon Finale.   We would never be able to thank Dick enough for giving his time for us to interview him in such an in-depth manner, the man was a Legend, Dick Donner R.I.P. 

We’re joined by Petros Patsilivas of the Caged In Podcast for one last ride as we put the pod into 5th gear to tackle Fast Five or as it was known in the UK, Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist. Liam explains how ‘Fast Five’ rejuvenated the series with the help of “Franchise Viagra” Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Matt dissects why the Furious films have become firm fan favourites while Fast & Furious Virgin, Paul, gives us his verdict on his first experience of the series and Guest, Petros shares his personal History with the film.   Ride or download now!   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find more information about Petros’s brilliant podcast at @cagedinpod on Twitter Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjo

The Spocklight crew take the turbo lift down to the Lower Decks to examine the entire first season of this new adult animated comedy iteration of Trek. It’s Phasers at Dawn as Liam, Matt and Paul discover they have severely differing opinions on the show. Paul connects with Boimler and tells the origins of the Willson effect, Liam reveals his seething hatred of Badgey and Matt’s obsession with the Lower Decks theme tune becomes clear. 5, 6, 7, 8...and download now!   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/ Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http://www.stephentrumble.com  Huge thanks to Russell Honeywell for post production suppor

The Spocklight crew reunite to analyse the 3rd season of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’. Liam bemoans what could have been, discussing the potential that the opening episodes of the season showed and makes a case for Grudge the Cat becoming the next Discovery Captain, Matt points out the continuing failure to flesh out the larger ensemble cast of characters and accuses of them being a bunch of nerds, while Paul waxes lyrical on his love for the new arch villain of the piece, Osyrra and is disappointed to return to the mirror universe.   All this and much more awaits you so download now and Let's Fly!   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/ Our beautiful artwork wa

Daryl Bar, host of Sudden Double Deep and new Podcast, Is Paul Dano Ok? returns to Spocklight to tell us why he, controversially, considers ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’ to be the finest time travel episode of Star Trek. Daryl tells us how the oddball humour of the episode delights him, Liam questions the quality of replicator grub, Paul points out Kirk’s hypocritical attitude towards Major Christopher’s backward views and Matt notes the similarities with a certain Futurama episode. We also discuss the surprising darkness of the episode, compare it to other time travel based Trek tales and examine how the pre-titles sequence must have wrong footed the contemporary audience.   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find more information about Daryl’s brilliant podcasts at @SDDFilmPodcast and @IsPaulDanoOk on Twitt

We’re joined by Total Film Writer and regular Evolution of Horror contributor, Tim Coleman, to discuss what he considers to be one of the greatest films of all time, 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie starring Leonard Nimoy as Galvatron.   We’re transported back to the days of Saturday Morning Cartoons as Tim gives us an education in Transformers taking in such revelations as the Optimus Prime as Christ analogy and poor highbrow Orson Welles being destroyed by trash culture at the end of his career. We also examine how the surprisingly brutal nature of the film came about, debate the differences between Optimus Prime’s characterisation in the original series to the later Michael Bay movies and of course, place the film within Nimoy’s illustrious career alongside such iconic roles as The Evil Moroccan Magician in Faerie Tale Theatre’s interpretation of Aladdin.   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ E

Prominent Neuroscientist and Author of best selling book, The Idiot Brain, Dr. Dean Burnett, drops by to educate the Spocklight crew on the neuroscience and psychology behind 3 episodes of Star Trek from different eras of the franchise: Spock’s Brain (The Original Series - Season 3, Episode 1) The Nth Degree (The Next Generation - Season 4, Episode 19) Hard Time (Season 4, Episode 18) Brain surgery, human intelligence, Post traumatic stress disorder and much more are discussed as Dean gives us the Science on the episodes and also tells us how his early Trek fandom led him to his current career in Neuroscience and the story of Next Generation alumni, Whoopi Goldberg, buying the rights to his book.    As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find Dean @garwboy on Twitter and buy ‘The Idiot Brain’ and Dean's oth

Merry Christmas Spocklighters! Our present to you this year is the gift that keeps on giving, 1997’s Batman & Robin. This festive season we’re giving Joel Schumacher’s much derided and camp as Christmas Superhero movie a full critical re-evaluation. We look over Schumacher’s eclectic directing career and explain our own history with the film before getting into a beat by beat breakdown of the movie, written of course by Star Trek: Discovery, Picard and Strange New Worlds Producer, Akiva Goldsman. We discuss Batman & Robin’s place within the Batman movie lexicon, comparing it with other iterations of the franchise over the years, reclaim George Clooney’s Batman as the natural successor to Adam West’s Bright Knight, admire Poison Ivy’s Drag Queen chic, lament at the treatment of Bane and Robin in the film, are moved by the emotional core of the story, discover that Barbara Gordon’s backstory literally doesn’t add up and even find time for a mini tribute to James Gandolfini.   Winter has come at la

Deputy Editor of Empire Magazine and Author of ‘Wild and Crazy Guys’, Nick de Semlyen returns to the podcast to discuss Buddy Cop movie Spoof, National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 starring Star trek alumni, Whoopi Goldberg, James Doohan and William Shatner.   Nick tells us what it was like to become Acting Editor of Empire Magazine just as the Corona Virus pandemic took hold of the world, then joins us in rhapsodising Loaded Weapon as we discuss the National Lampoon films and the world of Spoof cinema in general.   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find Nick @NickdeSemlyen on Twitter and buy ‘Wild and Crazy Guys’ at Amazon and all good booksellers. Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com

We’re joined by returning guest, David Trumble, as we dive into the rather small world of Turner Feature Animation exploring 1994 Live Action/Cartoon hybrid box office bomb, The Pagemaster, Starring Macaulay Culkin alongside the voices of Star Trek alumni – Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Picardo, and many more.   David explains his long personal history with the film and how it inspired him at a young age, leading to his current job as a Story Artist on major animated movies including Henry Selick’s forthcoming, Wendell and Wild, but do David’s nostalgic memories hold up or did The Pagemaster deserve to be the critical and commercial disaster it was all along, find out by downloading now - all the adventure your imagination can hold awaits you!   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff. David ca

Book a table at the Klingon Restaurant on the Promenade of Deep Space Nine and join us, as our first ever guest, Composer of our theme tune and host of Tabletop RPG Podcast, Pretending with Dice, Adam Johnston, returns to the show for a special Halloween edition of Spocklight as we tackle a Horror tinged episode of DS9, Empok Nor.   We rundown some of the scariest episodes of Star Trek, examine the genre blending in Empok Nor and compare it to Red Dwarf classic, Quarantine, while also exploring the characters of O’Brien and Garak.   All this, PLUS we reminisce over our Star Trek Adventures crossover with Pretending with Dice. If you enjoy the clip we play in this episode we strongly recommend going back to Episode 10 of Pretending with Dice if you want to hear us create our characters then episodes 11-13 for the main story.   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Ple

Come join the force...or should we say, farce, as the Spocklight crew and returning guest, Dan Thomas, take on ‘Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach’ starring Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s very own Rene Auberjonois as the central villain of the piece.   Liam begins by interrogating Matt, Paul and Dan as to their own personal histories with the Police Academy franchise, then we compare the series to Stripes and other comedy movies of the time and discover that our childhood memories of just how funny the film was may have betrayed us while Paul even argues that you can find superior laughs in an episode of Sooty & Co.   We explore Auberjonois’s Directorial career on DS9 while also agreeing that he’s one of the few good things about Assignment Miami Beach and Liam laments the absence of Steve Guttenberg’s Mahoney but praises the performance of G. W. Bailey as Harris, Robert Folk’s score and the iconic Drew Struzan series posters.   Will a watch party of ‘Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment’ ca

We're joined by Felix Trench, Star of Wooden Overcoats, the British Podcast award winning sitcom, to discuss 'Message in a Bottle' from Star Trek: Voyager and the birth of his own Trek fandom growing up in Belgium.    We commiserate missing out on visiting Star Trek: The Experience when we were holidaying in Las Vegas back in 2007, laugh at the bizarre 80s trend of adapting ultraviolent action movies into kids cartoons, get excited by the prospect of a fight between Seven of Nine and B'Elanna, reveal that guest star, Andy Dick, is a case of dick by name, dick by nature and analyse the pivotal nature of this episode in the overarching arc of the series.    As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share, subscribe, review and all that good stuff.   You can find Felix @felixtrench on Twitter and more about Wooden Overcoats at www.woodenovercoats.com 

Bob Fleming of the Progtor Who and Trek this Out podcasts joins us to discuss one of his favourite Star Trek episodes, Deep Space Nine 30th Anniversary celebration, Trials and Tribble-ations.   We compare Trek's 30th Birthday celebrations with that of Doctor Who's, debate Quentin Tarantino's proposed big screen reimagining of The Original Series Gangster classic, 'A Piece of the Action', celebrate the "lads lads lads" of DS9, Bashir and O'Brien, enjoy the drunken trash talking going down in the Enterprise bar, while Liam shamefully fails to remember who Jerry Fielding is and talks up the importance of Sisko meeting Kirk on the bridge.    As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share, subscribe, review and all that good stuff.   You can find Progtor Who and Trek this Out where all good podcasts are available. Credit for our wonderful theme music go

On our latest ‘On Screen’ episode we’re joined by The Empire Film Podcast host, Chris Hewitt, to discuss William Shatner’s 1976 guest appearance on classic Detective drama, Columbo. Chris gives us an education in all things Columbo as we discuss the shambolic Detective’s status as a class warrior and the duality of the character, the history of the show, Shatner’s second guest star role in a later 1994 instalment and his sparkling chemistry with Peter Falk, a surprise appearance from Walter Koenig, the original ending of the episode and Leonard Nimoy’s earlier guest spot as the only villain evil enough to make Columbo mad! But before all that, we pay tribute to the dearly departed Joel Schumacher.   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find Chris @ChrisHewitt on Twitter and @ctah1976 on Instagram   Cred

We finally take the time to examine the first season of Star Trek: Picard with the help of Comedian, Dan Thomas. We discuss why this is the first proper binge era Star Trek show, the lack of memorable new characters, its positive approach to depicting Male friendships, the joy of seeing some old faces, Picard’s character development, and Liam makes an apology to Composer, Jeff Russo. Engage!   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share, subscribe, review and all that good stuff.   You can follow Dan on Twitter @danthomascomedy and watch The Unmakeable Show at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDOWWas0qAZeYEUhS3d2DiQ Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/ Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http:

Black Lives Matter!   Before you get into the main section of this episode, we wanted to start with a special message from us here at Spocklight with a little help from Star trek: Discovery’s Ronnie Rowe Jnr. To make it clear where we stand. If you want to donate to the Black Lives Matter campaign, you can do so here:   https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019   And you can watch ‘Black Cop’ on Amazon Prime in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and France or on Hulu in the United States.   In the main portion of this episode, we’re joined by returning guest, Chris Johnston, from ‘Easy Riders, Raging Podcast’, to analyse 1951 Sci-Fi classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still, directed by Robert Wise (Star Trek: The Motion Picture).   We discuss the links between the film’s philosophy and Gene Roddenberry’s own vision, compare it with the 2008 remake starring Keanu Reeves, lament the fact that the film’s messages are still so relevant almost 70 years later and much more.   As usual you can find