Fusion Patrol

John and Eugene look at 2022’s Shin Ultraman from the creatives that brought you Shin Godzilla. Synopsis In the 21st century, Japan has begun to come under attack by giant monsters, or kaiju.   Six kaiju have appeared so far; in each case, the creatures were either defeated or departed.   During this time, the SSSP was created – a special team dedicated to developing strategies and wea...

Simon and Eugene discuss the effect of emotions on intelligence, taking out gods with technology, and they look back over a quarter of a century of poetry by Tarbolde from Canopius planet. Episode Synopsis The USS Enterprise is on a mission to become the first known Earth ship to explore beyond the edge of the galaxy.   As they approach, they discover and retrieve a ship’s recorder from the USS Va...

Kenneth and Eugene look at the episode where people should be court-martialed, but they aren’t. Episode Synopsis An Army team lands on the planet Tellus looking for survivors.   They come under heavy Chig attack and must evacuate, but not before they capture one survivor, who is rather unwilling to leave.   He madly raves about being “…the farthest man from home.” The Fightin’ 58th are await...

John and Eugene look discuss The Super Scouts, where we learn that Galacticas are really from the planet Krypton, that television kids are stupid no matter what planet they come from, and why revolving doors aren’t nearly complicated as out space people think they are. Episode Synopsis Episode One Dr. Zee has had a facelift and a bright idea.   He’s worried about the children of the fleet. Despite...

Simon and Eugene discuss why you can’t go back in time to before you went back in time, the possibilities for using a time machine for committing crimes rather than solving them, and the messages hidden in Crime Traveller, which prove the whole thing takes place in an alternate reality. Episode Synopsis Professor Hayward is found dead, murdered in his bathtub. Slade and Turner are on a date,...

John and Eugene look at George Pal’s 1950 Technicolor space extravaganza, Destination Moon. It’s the film about a plucky band of industrialists who shoot for the moon so they can save the U.S. Space Program by extracting massive government contracts. Synopsis At White Sands, Dr. Cargraves and General Thayer, Ret. are about to witness the culmination of two years of work.   Cargraves mi...

This week Kenneth and Eugene begin looking at a new series, Jarheads in Space! Sometimes called Space Above and Beyond, the failed 1995 Fox space war series from two of the creatives behind the X-Files. First up is the pilot episode, known as Pilot. It’s the episode where a rag-tag group of new recruits learns to be pilots. Episode Synopsis In the middle decades of the 21st century, mankind...

For four years, our coverage has endured the wilderness of space. And now we near the end of one of our journey. The Galactica has, at last, found Earth. This week we begin our look at Battlestar Galactica Season 2, aka Galactica 1980, John and Eugene discuss the three-part pilot movie, Galactica Discover Earth. Episode Synopsis After 30 years in the wilderness of space, the Battlestar Galactica a...

Simon and Eugene discuss whether time is a sentient trickster, the ramifications for gambling laws when time travel is possible, and we reminisce about the era of fax machines when mobile phones were as common as jacuzzis. Episode Synopsis Jeff Slade, still in the doghouse with Holly Turner, has brought flowers to apologize.   Danny, the building super, stops him before he makes a minor faux pas....

John and Eugene look at the TV movie starring Andy Griffith that inspired countless school children to shoot for the moon: It’s 1979’s Salvage (sometimes referred to as Salvage-1), where the owner of a junkyard builds and launches a rocket ship. Its destination: The Moon. Synopsis Harry Broderick is a highly-successful scrap and salvage man with a dream.   He wants to build his own roc...

This week it’s the moment we’ve all been looking forward to – the culmination of all the story-arc goodness when all the loose ends are tied up neatly with a bow in the two-part series finale of Starhunter Redux in Hyperspace parts I & II. Kenneth and Eugene discuss. Hyperspace I Episode Synopsis Marcus contemplates his recent almost-success at achieving hyperspace using nega...

John and Eugene look at the final episode of Logan’s Run entitled Stargate. When aliens from another world invade Earth, Logan and Jessica are put on ice, figuratively, and Rem is just spare parts, literally. Episode Synopsis Driving through the countryside, Rem and his pets come across a seemingly-injured man who appears to be freezing, despite the weather being temperate enough for Jessica...

Simon and Eugene discuss whether the Uk government has a time machine, we talk about referencing the TARDIS and the Doctor Who theme, and we discuss the technical implications of “…if they’d had mobile phones in this show to time travel with.” Episode Synopsis A dangerous gang known as the Apostles is meticulously planning a bank heist, unbeknownst to them, Slade and Turner...

John and Eugene look at George Pal’s 1951 end-of-the-world film When Worlds Collide and ask, “They really wouldn’t blow up the Earth, would they?” Synopsis Dr. Bronson, an astronomer at the Mount Kenna, South Africa Observatory, has made an unsettling discovery.   He calls in reliable freelance pilot and courier, Dave Randall, to delivery photographic observations and calcu...

Kenneth and Eugene discuss two more episodes of Starhunter Reduc. In Negative Energy, they’ll follow the convoluted quest to get the Trans-Utopian’s engines up to speed, and in License to Fill, they’ll try to figure out how you review a clip show. Negative Energy Synopsis The Trans-Utopian fails to catch a bounty because they are not fast enough. Also, their bounty is one of the...

John and Eugene look at two more episodes of Logan’s Run. In Night Visitors, they contemplate the role of Satan in science fiction, and in Turnabout, they ask if the writer had an axe to grind about Saudi Arabia. Night Visitors Synopsis In an homage to Bulwer-Lytton, it was a dark and stormy night.   The solar car is running low, and Rem and his pets may have to spend the night in the car.  ...

Simon and Eugene discuss massively violating the chain of evidence, the well-known Stockholm Guidelines on hostage situations, and getting to the point where a show can’t be bothered with an in-show explanation for obvious plot contrivances. Episode Synopsis There’s a big deal on down at the station.   Det. Gareth Oldroyd has come to Chief Grissom with a potentially very high-profile arrest....

Many people say Marcus is just a spare part, and this week that’s proven, and then it’s political hijinks on the High Seas – or the outer space equivalent thereof. Kenneth and Eugene discuss The Heir and the Spare & Just Politics. As we wind down our coverage of Starhunter Redux this week and for subsequent episodes, we’re covering two episodes at once. Of the remaining...

John and Eugene look at the 1955 George Pal classic movie Conquest of Space and its attempt at a realistic look at space exploration. We ask the questions, “is space for mankind or the exclusive domain of God?” and “will religion screw up space, too?”

John and Eugene look at two more episodes of Logan’s. First, it’s Futurepast, a story about androids in love, and then Carousel, the episode where Logan returns to the City of Domes to die. Futurepast Synopsis Two of Francis’ minions are hot on the tail of Rem and his pets, but through a bit of subterfuge, Logan stuns his pursuers, and Rem disables their vehicle. They proceed on until...

Simon and Eugene discuss whether and when the show needs to break its own temporal formula, what the advantage might be of having supper in Holly’s time machine, and the effect of temporal physics on the doctrine of act and omission. Episode Synopsis Holly Turner is giving a speech at the Institute of Time where she is discussing The Chronology Protection Hypothesis first put forward by Step...

Travis just isn’t scratching Callie’s itch, so she’s off with another band of plucky corporate bounty hunters. Will Travis find his scratcher in time? Kenneth and Eugene discuss Rivals. Episode Synopsis Callie is having a bad day.   Not only are the rolling blackouts and malfunctions of the Trans-utopian getting her down, but she’s got a troublesome prisoner that’s managed to ste...

Take a journey with us as we visit the past future history of Everytown, as John and Eugene look at H.G. Wells’ Things to Come. Synopsis It is Christmastime in 1940 Everytown.   Life at this joyous time of year goes on as it always has, with people laughing, shopping, enjoying the panto, and being with their family and friends, but there is an ever-present reminder that Europe is re-arming a...

This week John and Eugene look at two more episodes of Logan’s Run. First up, Fear Factor, the episode where Rem and his pets visit an upscale sanitarium thriving in a post-apocalyptic world, and we ask, “who thought that the first order of reestablishing a post-apocalyptic world was to set up an insane asylum?” Then we look at the Judas Goat, the episode featuring the Amazing Sp...

Simon and Eugene discuss the “Big Lie” in fiction, the Oscar-winning music of Anne Dudley, the difference between train length in the UK and the US, and how foreknowledge might affect your behavior in a time paradox. Episode Synopsis Fashion designer Sonia Duval is being interviewed about her upcoming show and about negative feelings about her in the fashion industry.   About this time...