In this second part of “What Is Science Fiction?” episode, we review our top 5 picks for science fiction across all forms of media. We make these choices through the lens of the ways in which we defined science fiction from part 1 of this episode. We discuss Star Trek, Star Wars, The Expanse, Ghostbusters and more. As always, be alert for poaching ahead.
00:00 James introduces the part 2 episode and we jump back into the podcast starting our discussion with our top 5 favorite science fiction across all media.
3:20 Jack kicks off our top five lists with his tied picks: “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “Forbidden Planet”
6:30 Chris gives us his number 5, “Dark City;" this starts a conversation about the movie and we end up comparing it to “The Matrix."
9:50 We turn to Joe, who came to the podcast with three lists for his favorites: one for movies, television, and books. His number 5 choices are the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," the movie “Ghostbusters," and the television show “Warehouse 13."
12:54 James reveals his number 5 pick is a tie between “The Fly” (1986) and “John Carpenters The Thing” - both horror science fiction.
17:10 Jack shares his number 4 pick: the movie “Gattaca.”
19:20 Chris gives us his number 4 pick: “Star Wars." Chris then explains how Star Wars was his gateway to other science fiction, despite itself being more sci-fi fantasy.
24:24 Joe gives us his number 4 picks starting with the novel “The Man in the High Castle." , “2001: A Space Odyssey.” His number 4 television pick is “Eureka."
31:35 James gives us his number 4: “Star Trek: First Contact." He uses it as a way to speak about Star Trek as being an important part of his love for science fiction.
35:15 Jack reveals his number 3, which consists of both the book and the movie - H.G. Wells “The Time Machine."Jack talks about the themes in the book and movie, as well as the visuals that the movie presented.
39:16 Chris warns that his number 3 pick possibly includes an asterisk: the television series, “Farscape.” Chris gives us an overview of the series and the highlights that drew him to it. 44:45 Joe gives us his number 3 choices, beginning with Alfred Bester's novel, “The Stars My Destination," continuing with the movie “Star Trek: The Voyage Home," and ending with his television pick, “Babylon 5."
50:03 James gives us his number 3 pick: “Jurassic Park,” both the movie and the book.
52:33 Jack’s number 2 pick is “Contact:” both the movie and the book. Jack shares an overview of the movie and book, noting how it has a very few miracle exemptions.
56:43 Chris reveals his number 2 choice: the book “Enders Game." He first notes that he does not agree with nor respect Orson Scott Card's publicly homophobic and hateful views, but moves into talking about the merits of the book and the importance of its message.
1:01:37 Joe gives his number 2 picks, starting with the book “The Foundation Series” by Isaac Asimov. His television series choice is “Star Trek: The Original Series," and his number 2 movie is “E.T”.
1:04:44 James gives his number 2 with an asterisk, the movie “Iron Man." James talks about Iron Man, but also how strongly the science fiction in the Marvel Universe influenced him.
1:06:45 Jack reveals his number 1 pick: the movie, “Arrival,” based on the work by Ted Chiang. He calls back to the first part of our discussion on how the introduction of the novum affects the main character.
1:12:10 Chris shares that his number 1 pick is the book series as well as the television series, “The Expanse." Chris gives a loving overview of both the written and filmed series.
