Ancient Geeks

In the mid-1980s, we heard that a new Star Trek series was on the way. But it wouldn't include anyone from the cast of the original series. It was to be set decades in a future, with a new Enterprise, a new crew, and a new adversary, but still helmed by Gene Roddenberry. How did we feel about the series, when it was announced? And what were our initial reactions, when it premiered? In this episode, we journey back to the 80s to answer these questions, and provide some background on what was happening behind the scenes of the new series, including Roddenberry's role in the franchise.  Teaser trailers! Actors we knew, and others who were new to us! Klingon on the bridge! A weird-looking Enterprise! Day care centers on a space cruiser! It's all here.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

An episode the size of the Alpha Quadrant! We go back to 1987, the year when Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered. In this first part of the discussion, we discuss the state of Star Trek at this time. This was a heyday for Star Trek subculture, full of movies, novels, reference books, tabletop games, computer games, comics, you name it. Star Trek was flourishing, all based on the original series. Plus, the conventions were popular destinations for Trek fans. And a whole new series was on the way. Journey back with us to this bustling era of Trekdom. Non-canon novels! Fantastic gaming material that fleshed out the Star Trek universe! Comics that labored mightily to tell a coherent story between movies! Blueprints of the Enterprise! Some really good fiction! An incredibly complicated board game! It's all here.  In upcoming episodes, we'll talk about the run-up to The Next Generation, our initial reactions to the show, our reviews of individual episodes from season one, and our thoughts about how the series managed to survive in spite of a tepid first season.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor  

The second season of the political science fiction thriller Blake's Seven advanced and improved upon the first season. Characters and situations evolved as the crew of the Liberator continued their fight against the Federation. And the season ended on a cliffhanger that changed the show even further.   Intrigue! Wardrobe changes! Surprise twists! Supercomputers! Clones! Telly-porters! It's all here.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

In 1977, the other big science fiction film release, aside from Star Wars, was Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. Riding the wave of success from Jaws, Steven Spielberg wrote and directed the iconic UFO movie that was also a blockbuster success. From the special effects to the soundtrack, from memorable scenes to top-notch filmmaking, Close Encounters was a smash success, both commercially and artistically. While Jaws had been a blockbuster movie, Steven Spielberg wasn't yet Steven Spielberg (spoken in hushed, reverential tones). Close Encounters made us stand up and take notice of him. It was a showcase for his directorial style that we've seen in decades of movies, and part of one of the most amazing runs of films from a young director (Jaws, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, E.T., The Color Purple, etc.).  Come with us back in time, back to the metroplex, to see, through our eyes, Close Encounters for the first time, and the reasons why we enjoyed it. Messages from space! Benevolent conspiracies! Mashed potatoes! Living room art projects! Amazing cinematography! Criticisms of the parenting skills of fictional characters! It's all here.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

When we were youngsters, first exploring science fiction, Isaac Asimov's robot stories were a must-read. The short story collection I, Robot, anthologized Asimov's stories that centered on the famous Three Laws Of Robotics, the rules that governed thinking machines in his fictional setting. Now, in the real world, the Three Laws Of Robotics are not just often-quoted among SF fans, but also among people developing robots and artificial intelligences in the real world. In the history of science fiction, Asimov's robot stories were Important, with a capital "I." But how well do they hold up, when our older selves return to the robot series, 40 or 50 years later? And how well did Asimov's I, Robot anticipate the robot-related and AI-generated problems that would face people in the future? Well, um, that is, er...  Science fiction as a predictive tool! Robots going haywire! Robots going bananas! Robots going nuts! Robots getting poor performance reviews! It's all here.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

The Terminator was a surprise hit. We knew something good was coming with the sequel, but we had no idea what. T2 exceeded expectations, with sympathetic characters (including a friendly Terminator), a solid script, practically non-stop action, and breathtaking special effects. Yeah, we liked it then, and we still like it. What makes it a great movie, but not a perfect movie? Come with us back to the premiere of T2, when everything was unexpected. Catch phrases! Scary Sarah! A nice guy who's responsible for an apocalypse! Amazing (for the time) CGI! A closed time loop! It's all here.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

We'll be back...with a new episode! We knew Schwarzenegger from Conan, But who was this James Cameron guy? It was a surprise hit, one of those "you gotta see this" films. Was it an action movie? A science fiction movie? Or two, two, two things in one? Time travel! Bootstrap paradoxes! A climax in a factory! Guerrilla filmmaking! Unknown actors as the leads! Getting sued by Harlan Ellison! It's all here.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

In the early 1970s, the most popular TV movie was The Night Stalker, the story of a scruffy, disreputable reporter chasing a vampire across Las Vegas. A sequel, The Night Strangler, came a year later. Produced and directed by a producer/director with a penchant for supernatural stories (Dark Shadows, Trilogy Of Terror, Burnt Offerings), and written by Richard Matheson (Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Star Trek, and more), these made-for-television movies had a fine geek pedigree, and it showed. The basis for a later television series with the same intrepid journalists, and a monster of the week, these were the inspiration for The X-Files. A vampire preying on showgirls! Hostile city officials! An underground city! A strangling fiend! A blustering editor! Publishers who can't be trusted! It's all here.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

ZARDOZ IS PLEASED YOU ARE LISTENING TO THIS EPISODE! When John Boorman's movie Deliverance became a smash hit, Hollywood gave him $1.5 million to make any movie he wanted. The result? Sean Connery in a red leather thong, a giant stone head, and immortals who want to die. It's transhumanism, 1970s British style! Join us as we explore the dystopian, far future world of Zardoz. Was this as weird as people say? Or as bad? Listen to this episode to find out. Crystals! A lot of Connery's chest hair! An eternity of doing household chores! Nudity! Guns! Mutants! A small English village! Catatonia! It's all here.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

It's an arbitrary round number, but it's a great time to look back on almost a year of the Ancient Geeks podcast! Steven and Tom discuss what we've learned, about the evolution of science fiction, fantasy, comics, and games, based on our decades of lived experience. How has geek culture changed, and how have we? What books, movies, TV shows, and comics do we still love as much, or even more, than we did when we were snot-nosed youngsters? What do we like less? What treasures did we discover that we didn't know when we were young? How has geek content evolved? What is more popular, and what is less popular? And are the communities of geekdom any better or worse now than they were in decades past?   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor