Fusion Patrol

Simon and Eugene discuss how Ros has added biochemistry to her incredible and expanding skillset, the way that a show that is all about technology seems to portray innovation as having so little value beyond brute force criminal schemes, and TV music and how we used to tape theme music back in the days of cassette tapes. Episode Synopsis A new employee, Ms. Pyke, at the East European Monetary Comm...

“It’s easier to keep existing customers than make new ones,” said no one in this episode, as Travis and the gang are investigating a deadly new illegal drug on the market. Of course, Sherlock Percy has to try it herself. Kenneth and Eugene discuss. Episode Synopsis Titan City, Titan, Saturn Federation.   Two morons take drugs and beat themselves to death. The crew of the Trans-Ut...

Face-burning snails, cursed idols, murderous spirits, and Ippei’s soul being ripped from his body by Prof. Ichinotani’s quest for knowledge – it’s all happening in the next two episodes of Ultra Q, The Idol of Goga & The Devil Child. John and Eugene discuss. The Idol of Goga Synopsis At a shadowy underground meeting, an international art collector of dubious ethics anti...

While Godzilla has, in recent years, undergone a successful translation into the Hollywood movie-making machine, in 2016, it also underwent a renaissance revival in Japan with the release of Shin Godzilla. Like the very first Godzilla film, this was a movie with something to say about contemporary Japan, and it says it very well. John and Eugene discuss. Movie Synopsis An underwater disturbance in...

Simon and Eugene discuss how efficient it is to rob a bank using a power station, how not to dress a set to look like a real building site, and isotope implosions and the difference between fusion and fission. Episode Synopsis Ros is getting a tour of the NRGen Split Isotope Fusion Power plant, arranged by her friend, Alex.   She is, unfortunately, there when terrorists from the Pro Earth People’s...

Kidnapping at the speed of light?  Is this the cunning and lucrative crime bonanza of the future?  Kenneth and Eugene discuss Torment. Episode Synopsis Old man Santiago’s got a problem.   His parents were kidnapped 50 years ago, and now the kidnapper, Darnell, wants ransom to return them unharmed.   They’re just a pair of scared kids, but Santiago doesn’t have the money, but he promises to get it....

John and Eugene look at two more episodes of the cult classic, Ultra Q.  This time we ponder the connection between rare butterflies and the Yeti, plus, what happened to the stunt octopus after filming his big scene. Metamorphosis Episode Synopsis A mountain expedition comes across some bones and footprints.   Could it be the yeti?! The editor sends a couple of reporters.   Yuriko begs to be assig...

Simon and Eugene discuss memory and learning in SciFi shows in general and using scifi as a MacGuffin rather than a way to explore the human condition in Bugs in particular, and we’ll be talking about the physics of ejecting from a stealth jet, and how the Bugs vision of the 1990s is purely private with no state or public sector. Episode Synopsis Two men expertly infiltrate an airline’s secu...

Join John and Eugene as they listen to and talk about Big Finish Productions’ second Space: 1999 boxset, featuring the stories Mooncatcher, Earthbound, and Journey’s End. Mooncatcher Synopsis 11 months after leaving Earth’s orbit, the Alphans are celebrating the birth of the first child on Alpha – everyone except Paul, that is, who’s a big party pooper.   While on watch in Main M...

Kenneth and Eugene ponder the notion, “how bored does a holovision audience have to be to sit and watch a completely unedited feed?” and also, “do they watch when they go to the bathroom?” It’s Starhunter Redux’s Third Thing. Episode Synopsis Matilda is the saccharine, bitchy host of a holovision program called the Third Thing.   Next week’s show is coming up fa...

Does music soothe the savage beast? When does a scientist cross the line from brilliant visionary to quack? Do you know someone who wears sandals, and do you know where they came from? Primordial Amphibian Ragon Synopsis An undersea volcano forms near the fishing waters off Iwane Island.   The island is the home of Professor Ishii, a somewhat discredited undersea geologist who has predicted that J...

Simon and Eugene discuss how far futuristic shows should project from the present, and coincidentally where electric bolt guns fit with extrapolating the progression of genetic engineering.   We discuss baddies in Bugs and which we would and wouldn’t like to come back and somehow we end up exploring British and American naming conventions. Episode Synopsis At an agricultural experimental station,...

John and Eugene ask the question, “why not vampires,” consider if racial prejudice goes away if you lose your pigmentation, and why Chuck Heston never gets a good ending in a film. It’s the Omega Man! Synopsis Col. Dr. Robert Neville is a man with a problem:   He’s the last man on Earth, roaming the deserted streets of Los Angeles, but if he’s the last man on Earth, who is he sho...

Kenneth and Eugene discuss the Starhunter Redux episode Becoming Shiva and ask the question, are the terrorists playing Grand Master-level chess or deaf, dumb, and blind pinball? Episode Synopsis In a disused, restricted section of Ring Shepard Station, in orbit around Saturn, Salvatore and Nailson, two terrorists from Terra’s Children plant a bomb, and they leave.   To their surprise, two civilia...

John and Eugene ponder if eggs might have chains in the Rainbow’s Egg and marvel at the ejaculating alien in Challenge from the Year 2020. The Rainbow’s Egg Synopsis Two truckers are transporting a highly dangerous vaguely egg-shaped container of enriched uranium to a new industrial city in the country. They see blooming bamboo, which is an ill omen, then they see a golden rainbow, and...

We kick off our Series Two of Bugs coverage with the two-part openers “What Goes Up…” and “…Must Come Down.” (In that same order.) Simon and Eugene discuss Bugs. What Goes Up… Synopsis Because I refuse to call them “Gizmos,” Team Bugs have been called in by the Space Technology Agency or STA to ensure the security of the Rex satellite launch.   Rex is a to...

Percy gets some lovin’ from a spaceman. Kenneth and Eugene discuss.

Tick tock, goes the clock.  It’s the penultimate 13th Doctor adventure, Legend of the Sea Devils.  Simon and Eugene discuss. Episode Synopsis The year is 1807, and the infamous pirate Zhen Yi Sao is assaulting a statue of a sea devil over the protestations of one of the locals.   The statute cracks, and out pops a sea devil, killing the local. The Doctor and the Gang arrive, possibly searchi...

This week we look at two more episodes of Ultra Q.  Garamon makes a surprise return in Garamon Counterattacks.  Will he be less derpy? In the 1/8 Project, Yuriko accidentally undergoes “voluntary” over-population reduction. John and Eugene discuss. Garamon Counterattacks Episode Synopsis A strange man approaches the Astronomical Physics Lab at night.   He uses a small, hand-held radio...

Is there room for miracles in Dr. Ian Hood, Scientist’s worldview?  No.  Simon and Eugene discuss Miracle. Episode Synopsis In Clayton, the police, acting on behalf of social services, take a child, Alfie, away from his father and proceed with emergency tumor removal surgery against the father’s wishes.   He’s been treating the boy with magic spring water and that should be good enough.   On...

Callie has been shot. Kenneth and Eugene discuss. Episode Synopsis Travis and Callie are setting up to take in a smuggler named Strasser, but things go south when he recognizes Callie and shoots her.   She’s in a bad way and Travis doesn’t take her to the nearest ER, he takes her back to the ancient Trans-Utopian’s medical bay, where they put her in an obsolete and malfunctioning cryro pod. It’s b...

How does an investigation of the British Brain Drain turn into an expose on a secret US/USSR space program? Find out what is Alternative 3 as John and Eugene discuss this 1977 program. Synopsis Anglia Television’s science affairs program, Science Report presents the results months-long investigation, initially into the brain drain effecting Britain’s science community. The investigation takes an u...

Temperatures drop in Tokyo as an old friend returns and an exploration of the dangers of the power of gold. John and Eugene discuss Tokyo Ice Age & Kanegon’s Cocoon. Tokyo Ice Age Episode Synopsis It is a beautiful sunny summer’s day at Haneda airport when first a jet runs into trouble because its flaps are frozen, causing the plane to explode on approach and then, in a mysterious, yet s...

Climate Change and cryptography go hand in hand like seashells and fractals, and Dr. Ian Hood, Government Scientist soon finds out. Simon and Eugene discuss Kryptos. Episode Synopsis Richard Adams is a man who likes to walk on the beach, study shells, talk to himself, and run away from would-be assassins.   He also happens to be, formerly, one of Ian Hood’s best friends.   They fell out over Adams...

Episode Synopsis Marcus and Callie have been duped into a team-building exercise by Travis.   It doesn’t work.   There’s no Marcus or Callie in Team Marcus and Callie. While not team building they encounter Taryn, an old friend of Marcus.   Long ago, on the mean city streets, they were vagabond, drug-addicts, doing whatever needed to be done to survive or get their next fix.   Marcus got out of th...