Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Ancient Geeks
FictionScience Fiction

Ancient Geeks

Ancient Geeks

Two old geeks talk about being young geeks, at a turning point in popular culture. In the 60s, 70s, and 80s, the threads of modern geek culture emerged and wove together. Science fiction, fantasy, comics, movies, TV shows, tabletop games, computer games, ad all their incarnations. The great SF&F writers, Star Trek, Star Wars, monster movies, D&D, Doctor Who, the Marvel and DC superheroes, 2001, Planet of the Apes, conventions, Zork, Ultima...What was it like to experience these for the first time? Why did we love them? And how do we feel about them, decades later?

Play
Open in
  • 22 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 1 hr 9 min
  • English

Episodes 22

NewestOldestLongest
All2Unplayed2In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • #70
    May 25 · 1 hr 39 min

    Ancient Geeks episode 68: Harlan Ellison, part 4, The Starlost and A Boy And His Dog

    In this episode, the last of our four-part series on Harlan Ellison, Steven and Tom discuss more of Ellison's works on the big and small screen. Come for A Boy And His Dog, both the novella and the movie version. It's the rare film version of anything that Ellison wrote, and it's also not bad. You want to know what's really bad? Stay for The Starlost, the monumentally awful Canadian science fiction TV series, based on Ellison's idea for a show set on a giant space ark. But it was so mangled that Ellison disavowed it, as did its co-creator, Ben Bova. It's remarkable the actors and everyone else involved with this show didn't take their names off it, too. Is it the worst SF ever on television? We'll tell you our very strong opinions on that subject. Apocalyptic disasters! Screenwriting disasters! Acting disasters! A telepathic dog who's fun! Walter Koenig in his least fun role! The guy from 2001! The guy from Miami Vice! Piles of literal wreckage! Piles of metaphoric wreckage! 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

  • #69
    May 18 · 1 hr 22 min

    Ancient Geeks, episode 67: Harlan Ellison, part 3, the TV episodes

    We continue our in-depth look at Harlan Ellison, the man and his works, with some of his most famous television scripts. "City On The Edge Of Forever" is, of course, one of the most famous and beloved episodes of the original Star Trek TV show. "Soldier" and "Demon With A Glass Hand" are two episodes written by Ellison for the science fiction anthology show, The Outer Limits. All three are at the apex of Ellison's writing for television, a medium with which he had a...how to say it...complicated relationship. He battled with Roddenberry over his Star Trek script. His Outer Limits episodes were the basis of a law suit against James Cameron. We cover those backstories, but we also review the episodes themselves. Both of us enjoyed the heck out of these shows when we first saw them. How well do they stand the proverbial test of time (which is something, considering all three episodes involved time travel)? Were these quintessential Ellison stories? And which version of "The City On The Edge Of Forever" do we prefer, the one that Ellison wrote, or the modified version that was filmed? We also cover Ellison's TV appearances, playing himself, on talk shows at the height of his career. Time-traveling soldiers! Time-traveling robots! Time-traveling aliens! Time-traveling Shatners! A demure Joan Collins! Tom Snyder! Glorious black and white TV! Even more glorious color! It's all here. And stay tuned for the next episode, the last in this series, where we discuss first, a movie adaptation, and second, a TV series that Ellison completely disavowed. 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

Showing 21–22 of 22 episodes