Tag: Sci-fi

Episode 144: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: Does it Hold up?

Andi and Lise watched the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (the whale movie!) to determine if it holds up after all these years. Here, the Star Trek crew has to save Earth from destruction by an alien probe. To do that, they need…whales. Trust us on this! It’s a great plot device! Unfortunately, whales have been extinct for centuries. So the crew devises a way to go back in time to late 20th-century Earth to find whales to save the Earth of the future. Does it hold up? Listen and find out! 

Also note the tribute to the crew of the space shuttle Challenger at the beginning of the film. Challenger exploded January 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members. Star Trek IV premiered in theaters November 26, 1986. More on the tribute at THIS LINK. 

Star Trek IV original trailer HERE. 

Shout-outs: Lise actually  has a HALP shout-out—she’s working on a project and would like recommendations for cozy mystery series, especially those that include animals. If you have some, hit LGO up on Twitter or Lise (see below for links). Andi shouts out the PS4 game Horizon Zero Dawn, which she’s currently playing on “story” mode because she’s decided she’s actually a hoarder gamer and would much rather explore the world and collect resources. 

Twitter links: @LGOpodcast, @LiseMacTague, @andimarquette 

And please like and subscribe! Thank you! 

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Episode 142: A Pale Light in the Black, by K.B. Wagers

Andi and Lise loved K.B. Wagers’ A Pale Light in the Black, the first installment of Wagers’ NeoG series. A fast-paced, diverse character-driven space opera meets sports story meets mystery with some of their fave elements: strong diverse characters with issues we can all relate to; space opera adventure; found family; sporting competition; creepy mystery. 

Find out more and get buy links at Wager’s website HERE. 

Shout-outs: Lise is getting ready to get her arm sleeve completed by a specific tattoo artist. It’s been five years, and she’s psyched about it. Andi has been playing the game Silk Rose Murders on Nintendo Switch, a fun murder/puzzle game set in an ancient Chinese dynasty. 

You can still find us on Twitter: @LGOpodcast; @LiseMacTague; @andimarquette 

Also find Andi and Lise on Facebook and Twitter (andimarquette, LiseMacTague). 

LGO is available on numerous platforms; please like and subscribe! THANKS!

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Episode 134: Paper Girls (TV Series)

Andi and Lise are finally back! YAY! And they wanted to rave about the series Paper Girls (2022), first season available on Amazon Prime. This is adapted from the comic series written by Brian Vaughn and illustrated by Cliff Chiang. The story is about four young teen girls who are paper delivery girls in the Midwest in 1988. One morning, after Halloween, they’re out delivering papers and end up inadvertently getting sucked into a time war between two factions. As a result, they’re flung into the future (2019) and have to navigate figuring out what’s happening and how to get back to their own time. They also end up meeting their older selves, and negotiating those relationships is tense. This is a fabulous coming-of-age story set against time travel and a time war. What is not to love???? 

Sad caveat—Amazon decided not to renew this for a second season, but it is being shopped around to other platforms and we hope this happens because this definitely needs another few seasons. Great story, great writing, and great characters. 

Trailer HERE. 

Comic info HERE 

Series on Amazon Prime HERE. 

Shout-outs: Lise watched Season 1 of The Sandman on Netflix, adapted from Neil Gaiman’s comic series. The Sandman is Morpheus/Dream, god of dreams, who is imprisoned in the human world for a hundred years, and as it turns out, dreams are important in the human world; without them, things go to crap. Once Morpheus is out, he gets to work trying to set things right. Andi is watching the latest Star Wars spinoff, Andor (Disney Plus) about Cassian Andor, who you met in the movie Rogue One. This is his backstory, detailing how he got into the Rebellion. Andi loved Rogue One, so getting Cassian’s backstory is really cool. 

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Episode 132: Everything Everywhere All at Once

Andi and Lise really enjoyed this movie starring Michelle Yeoh that explores various themes around the idea of connection and finding meaning in our lives against the backdrop of the multiverse, absurdist comedy, action adventure, and moments of poignancy. Here, Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang, who lives above the laundromat she and her husband own. They’re being audited by the IRS; her husband is trying to serve her with divorce papers but she doesn’t realize it because so much is going on; her father is living with them and she doesn’t have great history with him; and she’s practically estranged from her daughter. And then suddenly, she’s brought into the multiverse as the one person who might be able to save it from a potential threat.  

So many layers! This is one they’ll be thinking about for a while. A few minor spoilers, but they don’t detract from the impact of this movie. 

Movie Trailer HERE 

LA Times article with the movie writers (mild spoilers) 
Rent it on Amazon Prime. 

Shout-outs: Lise is jazzed about Adrian Tschaikovsky’s Final Architects sci fi series. She read the first book, Shards of Earth, and the world-building is amazing. She ran right out and bought the second because she had to know what happened next. Andi is reading the second in the Dread Nation series by Justina Ireland, Deathless Divide. Alt-history zombies. What’s not to love? She also started watching the TV adaptation of the comics Paper Girls on Amazon Prime and is really enjoying it. Tense and creepy! 

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Episode 128: The Fifth Element: Does it Hold up?

Andi and Lise dive into the 1997 dystopic sci fi film The Fifth Element, with Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, and Chris Tucker to determine what still works (or not) 25 years after its release. They find that it holds up surprisingly well in a number of ways, but needed work in others. Still, after 25 years, it’s a visually appealing film that does interesting things with cinematography, soundtrack, and gender expression. 

Original trailer HERE 

2017 Entertainment Weekly article about the film’s making HERE 

Shout-outs: Lise shouts out veterinarians; she’s been dealing with a sick kitty and hopefully all will be well soon. In honor of this shout-out, Andi shout-outs and recommends the show Critter Fixers: Country Vets, available on NatGeo. 

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Episode 126: Writing WLW Spec-Fic: A Conversation with Author Cathy Pegau

Andi and Lise chatted with award-winning author Cathy Pegau about her writing and publishing trajectory and about writing F/F spec fic, including her latest work, The Demon Equilibrium, a historical paranormal saga in which two women have to save the world from a demonic horde.  

Cathy’s website HERE 

Find out more about The Demon Equilibrium HERE 

Shout-outs: Lise is working on figuring out how to build caterpillar cages to help protect caterpillars in her backyard ecosystem. Cathy is stoked that her son is graduating from college very soon and Andi is once again planting things. 

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Episode 117: The Matrix: Does it Hold up?

Andi and Lise enthusiastically re-watched the sci fi dystopic action movie The Matrix (1999) to determine how well it holds up 21 years after its release. The movie became a sensation (still is) and they’ll tell you why it still holds up in most ways and things they noticed with their 2022 perceptions (as opposed to their 1999 perceptions) that they thought were problematic. 

Matrix trailer 

Lilly Wachowski on BBC, 2020 

Vox piece on how The Matrix universalized a trans experience 

Shout-outs: Lise got a Nintendo Switch for Christmas and has been enjoying it immensely. Andi has been getting back into DIY stuff and discovered HGTV’s Home Town, where there’s a lot of community revitalization and restoration of historic homes going on in Laurel, Mississippi. 

Link to the planner Lise and Andi talked about. 

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Episode 86: Cosmoknights

Andi and Lise highly recommend Book 1 of the 2019 web comic-turned full-color graphic novel Cosmoknights, by Hannah Templar and had a blast with it. Great story, intriguing world-building, excellent characters, fabulous art, and awesome queer rep that includes WOC (shout-out to the butch lesbian rep!). This tagline from the website will no doubt make you want to check it out: “For this ragtag band of space gays, liberation means beating the patriarchy at its own game.” 

Read the webcomic at the Cosmoknights website. 

And buy the graphic novel at all the places! 

Shout-outs: Lise would like to acknowledge the deliciousness of maple cream cookies at ALDI and Andi points out the simple fluffy joy of 80s movie Adventures in Babysitting and early 90s movie Clueless. 

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Episode 83: Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi

Andi and Lise greatly admire Jacqueline Koyanagi’s novel Ascension, an excellent space opera with elements of magic and mystic-ness layered in. Great diverse cast of characters; queer WOC main character who also deals with a chronic illness; fabulous world-building. This one stays with you in many different ways.

“Alana Quick is the best damned sky surgeon in Heliodor City, but repairing starship engines barely pays the bills. When the desperate crew of a cargo vessel stops by her shipyard looking for her spiritually-advanced sister Nova, Alana stows away. Maybe her boldness will land her a long-term gig on the crew. But the Tangled Axon proves to be more than star-watching and plasma coils. …” –from Amazon book description

Koyanagi’s website

Lise’s shout-out: super see-krit new project she’s working on but she’s not sharing it yet! Plus, finishing up via Netflix the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Andi’s shout-out: Wynonna Earp Season 4, people! Episode 2, “Friends in Low Places,” has what Andi predicts is a history-making F/F love/sex scene (and no, that’s not a link to the scene LOL).

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Episode 71: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

Andi and Lise chat about Rebecca Roanhorse’s debut novel, Trail of Lightning, the first in her Sixth World series.

“Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last best hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much more terrifying than anything she could imagine.” –Simon and Schuster

Roanhorse builds a post-apocalyptic world in what was the American Southwest, populated largely by Indigenous people. In this world of Dinétah, resources are in short supply, and myth and mythical beings roam freely among the humans.

Verge: “Trail of Lightning is a breathtaking Native American urban fantasy adventure”
Locus: “Rebecca Roanhorse: From Legend to Fantasy”
Lightspeed: Interview with Rebecca Roanhorse
Indian Country Today: “Trail of Lightning is an appropriation of Diné cultural beliefs”

Shout-outs!
Lise: Sex Education, the series on Netflix (Gillian Anderson, y’all!)
Andi: TGIF/Femslash convention in Long Beach

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