GWC Podcast #178: Alien

Podcasts Galactic Watercooler
#1

Up this week — Alien! Highlights: we hear about Chuck’s last viewing of this movie (as a child sneaking out to watch it on cable), love the model work and how well the films FX hold up 30 years later, discuss the Giger art we saw in the studio while recording our live ‘cast in NYC, talk asteroid mining and what it could mean to the world’s metals market, discover the magic of young Viper (”You opened the airlock — and broke a major rule of engagement!”), express an, um, different take on android blood, love Ripley’s foul miner’s mouth, note that “listen to Ripley” could save numerous lives on the Nostromo (and later as well), wonder why Ash selected (of all things) a magazine to choke Ripley, express our gladness that Jones survives (though Nimitz would’ve been a better companion), admit that Spaceballs spoiled us permanently on the Alien birth scene (”Hello, my baby…”), debate whether or not Alien qualifies as horror, hear the Audra panty report, and debut our first original geek rock tune, Geordi’s Lament (written recorded by Audra, guest Juan, and Chuck).

Direct DownloadBlog Post

Update: For those of you who’d like a higher quality (read: 192k) mp3 of Geordi’s Lament, click here.

#2

I’m stoked to hear this podcast. I love the film.

And for any who hasn’t heard:

Ridley Scott Confirmed to Direct Alien Prequel
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=57640

#3

You can also read about this at Galactic Watercooler’s blog. :smiley:

#4

Well I’m a dope. That’s what I get for going directly to the forums!

#5

I…dancealittlewhenthemusicstarts…

phew…confession is good for the soul… :smiley:

Let the downloading and listening enjoyment COMMENCE!!! :cool:

#6

w00t! Syncing podcast to my iPhone now! I am looking forward to this. Alien was the first and, to date, only film that made me actually get up out of my seat in the theatre! (yes, it was that scene where the alien baby pops out of Ash’s chest)

Alien is SUCH a classic piece of scifi/horror (yes, I think you could classify it as either). This was a great pick for a cast, guys. Thank you!

#7

I have yet to listen to this podcast, but just want to share a funny Alien story - my son (the same one that asked me if I knew the first rule of robotics) was constantly saying that his friend would “be scared and scream like a little girl” about watching some slightly scary kids movie. (I don’t remember what it was particularly) Anyway, I asked if he thought that he could handle scary movies he said oh yah and got very very very cocky about it. I asked if he was sure about that. He told me that he could handle any movie that I was to show him. I responded by saying, “Fine. We’ll see about that”

I went out and rented Alien :smiley:

He did ok until the obvious scene! hehehehehehehehehehehe

I had to show him Spaceballs the next day to show him how silly the scene really was :slight_smile:

Hehehehehe, that was about 2 years ago…I think that he has recovered…I think :slight_smile:

#8

I like the way you parent ,sir.

#9

Oh! You guys did an Alien 'cast! Great! One of my favorite Scifi movies.

#10

Hmm, the download keeps failing for some reason (maybe I should just stop using my podcasting program and just throw the URL into wget, since that’ll resume on an interrupted connection, but oh well) but I’m definitely quite interested to hear this.

I’m also wondering, how many people saw Aliens first? I remember seeing Aliens years before I ever saw Alien, although I don’t think that ruined Alien for me. Almost the opposite, really, since awe and dread really mingled as I finally started watching through it.

#11

It’s funny, I did it the complete opposite way! I had never seen Alien until I was frakking it the other day and was pretty squeamish until that scene. Then I had an aha moment when I said “So that’s what the scene in Spaceballs was a parody of!” :slight_smile:

Oh and it gets worse! The first time I watched Spaceballs I was young enough that I didn’t fully realize it was a parody and not a movie in its own right. But even though he’s not too much of a scifi geek, my father still realized that I needed help after he asked “You do know it’s The Force and not The Schwartz, right?” and I answered “The Force???” :slight_smile:

And speaking of that, I think we need a Spaceballs frak party!

#12

I’m halfway through listening to the podcast and first off, let me say that I loved Geordie’s Lament. And as a bit of an explanation for the old British X rating, that only applied to scenes in movies that were “sexy” or “scary”, where as Monty Python was funny.

And if there’s anything the English find funny, the human bum is definitely one of them.

#13

Finished the podcast, really enjoyed it. While listening I remembered that I did a project on Alien for a film class I was in back in college. Instead of a paper, the prof. made us do a website, which as luck would have it, is still up!

http://www.freewebs.com/mgutman/

I did this about 4 years ago, so some of what I wrote makes me cringe when I read it, but most of it I still think is pretty good. There were a number of things mentioned in the cast I remember writing about.

Sean talked about the look of the Alien and the look of the ship, you can see they are actually kind of the same:

Anyway, you guys should definitly take a look at it.

–
Also, on the cast they didn’t mention if you were watching the original theatrical edition of the movie, or the directors cut. There were some minor differences, the biggest one was a scene of Ripley finding Dallas and Brett in this cocoon made by the Alien.

#14

I’m gonna eat ya with my little mouth.

//youtu.be/klqLc_2MJgE

I like this one also.

//youtu.be/5xv992brTdY

Milk shakes!

//youtu.be/387FltTuEVA

#15

We did one over a year ago, I’d be up for doing it again :slight_smile:

#16

In the original continuity on the universe, pretty sure that the 20 ft aliens where using the Aliens as bio-weapons. That in the instance of the first film, one of the Aliens just managed to escape from the hold and kill the pilot. That later on in the comic book history, when the Aliens finally get to and infest Earth with Humanity forced off the planet, an attempt to contact the other aliens basically gets the reply of, “Cool. We hadn’t planned it, but after they kill all of you, we’ll move in. Thanks for the heads up.”

In other words, they’re utter bastards. Not that Aliens coming to Earth was because we wanted to use them as bio-weapons.

==============================================

Yeah, you know Kirk’s going to tap that…

#17

Sorry Chuck, but the Nostromo crew weren’t miners but crew on a space tug.

#18

Great cast guys.
There are a FEW examples of movies that mix the feeling of wonder / dread and do the slow build sci-fi thing a la Alien or 2001.
Most notably (and I’d HIGHLY recommend a 'cast on this one):

Danny Boyle’s SUNSHINE

Additionally, I remember the movie Sphere (based on the far-superior Michael Crichton book) doing this for me.
And I’ve heard that the new Sam Rockwell vehicle Moon is like this, but I’ve yet to see it.

#19

I wrote that last post while listening to this week’s cast. No sooner had I clicked “post” and Sean mentioned Sphere.
So.
Yes.

#20

I loved it, it was very funny and a great discussion about the movie (though I’ll never think of kabuki the same way again). Also the music was fantastic, ya’ll did wonderfully on that.