Strangers & Aliens

Ben and Steve got together to talk about DUNE Part One! Conversation topics include:DUNE 1984The Sci-Fi Channel’s DUNE mini-seriesThe BooksFoundationBen’s emotional reaction to the end of the movieSteve’s initial viewing without sound . . . on purposeJohn CarterStar WarsThe call to lamentation Is this the best sci-fi movie ever made? …

Ben and Evan take a road trip to see the latest MCU movie, ETERNALS!!! It’s a movie that tries hard to go big, but does it succeed? PART ONE: The Trip There – talking about expectations and other random thingsPART TWO: The Parking Lot – spoiler free review of the …

To celebrate 10 years of the Strangers and Aliens podcast, we’re reposting our first episode! In this episode, Dr. Jayce, Steve, and Ben talk about the question: “Why Sci-Fi?” This is the episode that started it all. Well, started it all in this corner of the woods, anyway. This is …

The CUBE franchise consists of three movies from the 90s and early 2000s. Each of these movies features strangers . . . moving through a strange setting consisting of rooms that are CUBES . . . and so

Steve and Ben explore Venus via the second book in C.S. Lewis’ celebrated “Space Trilogy,” Perelandra. Published in 1943, Perelandra is the story of a man, Ransom, who is transported to Venus and thru

A road trip to see Shang-Chi, featuring Ben, Evan, and Evan’s sister-in-law! Road trips include three segments: spoiler free discussion on the trip to the theater about what we’re expecting; a spoiler

Ben and Evan reunite for a good ol’ fashioned ROAD TRIP EPISODE!!! The movie this time? FREE GUY! An original concept, science fiction movie? In the summer? More importantly . . . is it any good?

Ben wants to talk. Ben wants to talk about M. Night Shyamalan. He wants to talk about M. Night’s style. M. Night’s risk taking. M. Night’s filmography. M. Night’s twist endings. And he wants to talk a

John Harju is back and that means we’re talking about horror . . . or at least suspense thriller . . . and for this episode that means we’re talking about the “not-quite-Saw-but almost” franchise, or

A few years back, Ben had the chance to write an essay for the book “Tarantino And Theology” (edited by Jonathan and Jerry Walls). The result was a chance for Ben to dive into his favorite Tarantino m

We continue our series about THE TWILIGHT ZONE (that started in 2013 . . . and only has one other episode in the series) by covering two season five episodes of the show: “Probe 7 Over and Out” and “T

This episode is why we created Strangers and Aliens! In this episode we: Explore a classic sci-fi story (“The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin)! Review a new sci-fi movie (STOWAWAY, on Netflix now – don’

Evan, Steve, and Ben take a look at some of their favorite stories that should be big budget motion pictures, and in the process explore some of their favorite stories . . . and there just may be a co

Ben and Steve are joined by frequent guest host Nathan Marchand to battle each other about how good Godzilla Vs. Kong was! Where did they watch it? (At the BOX OFFICE, or the HOME Box Office???) Did t

Just before we started recording about another topic, we became aware of some HUGE announcements Disney had made about upcoming Disney Plus series and also some movies and some interesting Hulu series. So we called an audible and switched our plans .

Ben is joined by John Hart for their semi-annual Halloween exploration of some classic horror movies! This time: THE THING. Starting with THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD and then going into the remake THE THING from 1982 (the most famous in the franchise)...

A good theme song may not save a TV show from being bad, but it definitely makes it more memorable. For this episode, we nominate our favorite themes songs and bring in some listener nominations, and we tally the votes to come up with the official Stra...

Ben and Evan ventured to the theaters to see Tenet, the movie they THOUGHT would be the first movie back in theaters. Instead, Ben had already seen a few movies and Evan went to a movie theater on the east coast . . . so Tenet was not the road …

Ben heads out on what could be an excellent adventure . . . or a bonus journey. This road trip has almost as many twists and turns as the movie he’s seeing, from the question of if he will even GET to the movie to the possibility of not seeing …

Ben heads out to the first new release movie he’s seen in theaters since the beginning of the shut down for the pandemic. After seeing The Empire Strikes Back (and The Greatest Showman), he gets to see a new movie that has been waiting for release for ...

Ben heads out to his first movie in theaters since the beginning of the shut down for the pandemic. It’s a different experience, with the masks requirements and the like, but it’s also a familiar experience, being a movie he’s seen many, many times .

For some, the pandemic has given the opportunity to read and watch more things than usual. In this episode, we discuss some of the new (to us) media we have read, watched, and listened to.

Strangers and Aliens returns to old time radio with this presentation of Earth Abides, a classic novel turned into a classic episode of the radio series Escape. This episode features an Old Time Radio show that adapts a classic novel, Earth Abides.

Ben and Steve explore Mars via C.S. Lewis’ science fiction novel, the first book in his celebrated “Space Trilogy”, Out of the Silent Planet. Published in 1938, Out of the Silent Planet is the story of a man, Ransom,

“From the vault,” so to speak, this episode is actually a couple months old and was the last movie Ben saw before theaters closed down. King Kong (1933) was a movie that changed everything and the results are still being felt today.

Pilot Season – when studios create the first episode of a new show and shop it around in hopes that a network will pick up the series for a full season . . . For us, it’s a fun exercise in checking out a new series and exposing ourselves to …

Ben, Steve, and Evan play Hobbit Tales from the Green Dragon Inn, a game by Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitello and published by Cubicle 7 Games. Join Benbo Baggins, Korg, and Mr. Dark . . . Black(?) . . . Dark(?) . . .

Ben, Evan, and guest host Nathan Marchand take on some appearances of Superman in comics and animation, wherein HE takes on some giant monsters. From the comics of the 90s to the cartoons of the 40s to the animated series of the 90s,

Ben is joined by horror aficionado and frequent guest host, John Harju, to take about the new HP Lovecraft adaptation, COLOR OUT OF SPACE. Is Nicholas Cage bonkers in the GOOD sense? Is the movie good sci-fi horror, or cheesy b-movie stuff?

Recorded a while ago and lost in the shuffle, this episode completes the CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths mega-crossover. It’s a game changer in many ways, and not just how the plot affects the CW’s series. There’s more cameos and more surprises and more...

With Frozen II being released early to Disney+, Evan, Ben, and Steve decided that this was as good a time as any to check out the franchise . . . especially since Evan has been wanting to do a Frozen episode for a long time and Ben was just dragging …

Ben, Evan, and Doug (Ben’s youngest) head out on a roadtrip to see SONIC THE HEDGEHOG the movie . . . Is it as bad as so many videogame movies tend to be? Does it rise above? Is Sonic able to outrun the bad press that came with those original …

And so the day has come to talk of LAST year. From 1979 to 2019, we’ve taken a look at sci-fi and fantasy cinema over the decades and while we didn’t know the focus or the title of this episode until it developed in our conversation, last year still had …

The promised follow up to episode 328 – when we talked about just the first episode of The Mandalorian. It’s thumbs up all around, but some are more enthusiastic than others as Ben, Evan, and Steve discuss the merits of this western in space . . .

Ben and Evan are joined by occasional road tripper Hudson to see this Alien-inspired Cthulhu pastiche, Underewater!

Venturing to just a decade ago, Ben, Evan and Steve reminisce about Avatar, Star Trek, Transformers, Terminator, 2012 and MORE big movies . . . along with some of the smaller movies that were made possible because of the lower cost for effects like the...

The Skywalker saga comes to an end with a movie that has to wrap up a trilogy and also wrap up a trilogy of trilogies, while also living up to fan expectations and tie up loose ends . . . In a Road Trip episode, we record about our expectations …

The CW has aired the first three episodes of the world’s biggest television crossover and we’re taking a look! From the CW’s current series to Christopher Reeves/Brandon Routh’s Superman to the 1990’s Flash,

We take a look back to 1999, a year filled with BIG money makers with BIG special FX! From The Matrix to Episode I to Toy Story 2 to Wing Commander to The Mummy, we take a trip down memory lane in a year that wasn’t the first year to …

NOTE: This episode starts with non-spoiler discussion of The Mandalorian. The spoiler-filled discussion is clearly marked . . . by our usual spoiler organ. Disney+ has arrived, bringing with it an open vault of old and new television and movies.

It’s a look back at 1989, a year filled with big money makers in the theaters – and a LOT of franchise connections: from the beginning of the Batman movie series to the fifth Trek film to the third in the Indiana Jones series to Ghostbusters and Back t...

Ben is joined by guest host John Harju to talk about three horror movies based on books by Christian writers Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker: THE VISITATION – by Frank Peretti THR3E – by Ted Dekker HOUSE – by Frank Peretti AND Ted Dekker They talk about w...

Ben takes another solo road trip to see another 40th anniversary showing of another classic sci-fi movie. This time: Alien!

It’s Ben vs. Rambo, as he watches through the entire Rambo franchise over the summer, culminating in seeing RAMBO: LAST BLOOD in theaters opening night. What’s good? What’s bad? What one will he definitely watch again?

Ben takes a solo road trip to see the 40th anniversary showing of Star Trek the Motion Picture in the theater! Solo because who else is going to see it with him? It’s an experience he enjoyed much more than he thought he would . . . and he was …

Ben and Steve journey back in time to talk about 1979 and it’s place in science fiction and motion picture history, and how the effects of the mega-blockbuster hit Star Wars began showing up forty years ago.

Ben and Evan talk about The Dark Crystal, the movie, in preparation for watching the Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.

Evan and recurring guest Hudson Farrell journey on a road trip to see the new Dora the Explora movie! Was this the best movie of the year? Find out!

Mister Freeze as depicted in the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series is one of the Batman mythos’ most tragic characters. Dive into the all 5 of his appearances in the DCAU continuity with Evan and Steve to find out why!

 It’s another family road trip to another Marvel cinematic universe movie. Evan, Ben, and most of the Avery clan head out to a theater close to home, and you get to ride with them to and from the theater as they talk about this new Spiderman cinematic ...