Before Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin famously blew up the White House, they sent Kurt Russell, and James Spader on a journey trillions of miles from home! Stargate (1994) was a combination of action/adventure, sci-fi, and ancient Egyptian mythology.

While a modest success at the box office, it failed to get a sequel on the big screen. Yet the movie contained the beginning of a saga and the seeds of potential that would grow into long-running TV show Stargate SG-1, and many other Stargate spin-off series and media.

Joining us as we step over the threshold into the Stargate is returning guest, sci-fi aficionado and long-time 'Gater' Mark Ali.

Credits:

Hosts: Dani Wray, Rebecca Wray, John Isles All music composed and performed by Steve Johnson https://www.idlebones.co.uk

Logo by Kevin Hiley. Cover composition by Dani Wray.

Directed and edited by Kevin Hiley

Produced by Kevin Hiley and Rebecca Wray

Contact details:

E-mail: idontdoscifi@gmail.com

Blue Sky: idontdoscifi.bsky.social

Facebook: I Don't Do Sci-fi

To tell the story of this episode of the podcast, it's best to tell the story of some of the minds behind it. A human from the planet Earth was one of them, though as our podcast opens, she no more knows the 1981 BBC2 television adaptation of the hugely successful radio series, and novels of Douglas Adams' Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy than chatGPT knows about … well, anything. Her name is Dani Wray, she is a five-foot tall ape descendant and someone is trying to convince her to like science fiction.

This episode our guest is Tim Reid, who was not descended from an ape, but was in fact from a small town somewhere in the vicinity of Glasgow and not from Guildford after all.

Will Dani award the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy the Galactic Institute Prize for Extreme Cleverness, or will it make her small intestine leap up her spinal chord and throttle her brain? Find out if you can, in this improbable episode of I Don't Do Sci-Fi!

Credits:

Hosts: Dani Wray, Rebecca Wray, John Isles All music composed and performed by Steve Johnson https://www.idlebones.co.uk

All artwork and logos by Kevin Hiley. Directed and edited by Kevin Hiley

Produced by Kevin Hiley and Rebecca Wray

Contact details:

E-mail: idontdoscifi@gmail.com

Blue Sky: idontdoscifi.bsky.social

Facebook: I Don't Do Sci-fi

Last season, we made Dani watch Star Trek II, III and IV for the podcast, and to our suprise/relief she actually enjoyed them!

Emboldened by this, we decided to initiate Dani into Gene Roddenberry's utopian 1960s TV series so she can experience the OG 'Five Year Mission!'

Star Trek (now appended by fans as 'The Original Series' or 'TOS' for short) ran for three seasons from 1966-69 on NBC in the States. Despite the modest initial run, its cultural legacy has been enormous, becoming arguably the most famous science fiction franchise of all time. There are more Star Trek related products out there than we could ever hope to list!

But how will Dani greet this creaky old show full of hastily painted chipboard sets, papier-mâché rocks, and unevenly tailored uniforms?

Will Dani's hailing frequencies be open to its charm and optimism of a wonderful future for humanity in space? Or will she be raising shields to this melodramatic old dinosaur that is long since past its best?

To counter the rabid fandom of hosts John and Rebecca, our returning guest this episode is author, and casual Star Trek enjoyer, Will Hadcroft!

Credits:

Hosts: Dani Wray, Rebecca Wray, John Isles All music composed and performed by Steve Johnson https://www.idlebones.co.uk

All artwork and logos by Kevin Hiley. Directed and edited by Kevin Hiley

Produced by Kevin Hiley and Rebecca Wray

Contact details:

E-mail: idontdoscifi@gmail.com

Blue Sky: idontdoscifi.bsky.social

Facebook: I Don't Do Sci-fi

Will Hadcroft's latest audiobook 'Dark Contract' is available now.

Back in the 1950s when there were only two TV channels, when there was just 405 scanlines on the screen, and where televised dramas were still being performed live, Britain's flagship scifi series was Quatermass! The show followed the perilous adventures of Professor Bernard Quatermass, Head of the British Experimental Rocket Group. Over three serials he would face off against a succession of terrifying extraterrestrial menaces.

Quatermass and the Pit was the third Quatermass serial penned by scriptwriting legend Nigel Kneale, airing on the BBC from December 1958 to January 1959. This time Professor Quatermass (André Morell) investigates a strange palaeontological dig site beneath a Knightsbridge street. There, a fossilised human skull has been found, and beneath it a vast, smoothly polished cylinder of unknown composition and purpose. What Quatermass and his friend, palaeontologist Matthew Roney (Cec Linder) do know is that both have been buried there for five million years. The revelations that follow will end with the whole of London in flames.

Legend has it that Quatermass and the Pit was such a phenomena in its day, that pubs closed early as folk rushed home to watch the series finale. Perhaps the hype was real too, because TV critics have continued to this day to laud the serial as one of the greatest British dramas of the 1950s.

Now, the big question is, would what lies "down t'pit" be enough to tempt Dani away from ordering another vodka blue at the bar? OR will she find this classic 80 year old scifi to be 'the pits'? Listen now and find out!

Credits:

Hosts: Dani Wray, Rebecca Wray, John Isles All music composed and performed by Steve Johnson https://www.idlebones.co.uk

All artwork and logos by Kevin Hiley (with some help from DALL-E 3) Directed and edited by Kevin Hiley

Produced by Kevin Hiley and Rebecca Wray

Contact details:

E-mail: idontdoscifi@gmail.com

Twitter: @idontdoscifi

Facebook: I Don't Do Sci-fi

For this festive edition of "I Don't Do SciFi" we strongly reccomend you watch the version on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/KBDjGdxV_jE

On it, you'll find more chat, a longer reaction, and a whole extra bonus section not featured in the podcast version. It's almost twice as long!

Before Torchwood... The Sarah Jane Adventures... Class (er, maybe not)... K9 & Company was the first Doctor Who spin-off programme back in 1981. Dani had never heard of it!
Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner arranged to have the popular robot dog, K9 written out of series in 1981. To keep young fans happy, he hatched a plan to make a spin-off starring the character. Realising he would need a human lead, he recruited Elisabeth Sladen to return as Sarah Jane Smith (Tom Baker's companion who left Doctor Who in 1976).
The result was K9 & Company, with a pilot titled 'A Girl's Best Friend'.
It was a tale of small English village life, black magic, and market gardening! It was broadcast on 28th December 1981 on BBC1, and repeated the following Christmas on BBC2. The new head of drama in 1981 killed any idea of a series before it had even been screened.
We're joined by guest Gareth Preston of the Very British Futures Podcast. Will Dani come away from this with a better understanding of soil analysis or will it be a case of "Crusty jugglers!"

Credits:

Hosts: Dani Wray, Rebecca Wray, John Isles  All music composed and performed by Steve Johnson https://www.idlebones.co.uk  All artwork and logos by Kevin Hiley  Directed and edited by Kevin Hiley

Produced by Kevin Hiley and Rebecca Wray

Contact details:

E-mail: idontdoscifi@gmail.com

Twitter: @idontdoscifi

Facebook: I Don't Do Sci-fi

Instagram: idontdoscifi

In this episode of I Don't Do Sci-Fi we enter the mirror universe!

In this tables turned edition, Dani wearing a beard (a reference we're sure she won't get!) will be introducing John and Rebecca to one of her favourite Science Fiction shows which they have never seen. So this time she gets to sit in the host seat!

The Silent Sea is South Korea's first TV series set in outer space. Released by Netflix in 2021, this 8-part series was directed and co-written by Choi Hang-yong based on his original short film The Sea of Tranquillity.

It is Earth of the near-future. The Great Drought has ravaged the global population leaving water, food, and the resources of the natural world in critically short supply. Water rationing is now based on your employment status, your worth to society, and of course, how rich you are.

The Silent Sea stars Bae Doona (Sense8) as a brilliant scientist whose sister died in a suspected radiation leak at Korea's Balhae lunar station. She is recruited to join a military operation to retrieve a sample of great value from the abandoned base. However, government conspiracy, corporate greed, and technical failures are not all that stand in their way. Balhae station has many terrors of its own in store for those who dare to enter.

This mixture of thriller, horror, and science fiction make The Silent Sea one of the most interesting shows to come out of South Korea in recent years.

So, for this final episode of Season One of I Don't Do Sci-Fi, what will John and Rebecca make of The Silent Sea. Will they make it home alive with the key to humanity's survival, or will they meet a gruesome fate in the dark, sinister corridors of the lunar base?

Joining our panel is guest Mark Ali, a Korean drama aficionado and sci-fi fan.

Credits:

Hosts: Dani Wray, Rebecca Wray, John Isles  All music composed and performed by Steve Johnson https://www.idlebones.co.uk  All artwork and logos by Kevin Hiley  Directed and edited by Kevin Hiley

Produced by Kevin Hiley and Rebecca Wray

Contact details:

E-mail: idontdoscifi@gmail.com

Twitter: @idontdoscifi

Facebook: I Don't Do Sci-fi

Instagram: idontdoscifi

Star Trek!

For years, all that name has meant to Dani is some cheesy, boring old nerd show that her sister watched. She didn't want anything to do with it.

That changed recently when Dani was pushed into watching an episode of 'Lower Decks,' the animated adult comedy that began in 2020 which is set in the Star Trek universe. To everyone's astonishment she loved it.

And now that we've pried the Starfleet door open a little, I Don't Do Sci-Fi has finally persuaded Dani to watch some 'real' Star Trek.

Namely 3 blockbusters: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan from 1982; Star Trek III: The Search for Spock from 1984; and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home from 1986.

So find out what Dani will make of her voyage to the Final Frontier. On the way she'll encounter genetically enhanced megalomaniacs, Klingon warriors and time travelling whales. Will she be boldly going, or will she drop out of warp?

Joining our panel with John and Rebecca will be Carl Bowler, who likes Star Trek so much he's willing to dye his hair purple and dress up as Ensign Boimler in public!

Credits:

Hosts: Dani Wray, Rebecca Wray, John Isles  All music composed and performed by Steve Johnson https://www.idlebones.co.uk  All artwork and logos by Kevin Hiley  Directed and edited by Kevin Hiley

Produced by Kevin Hiley and Rebecca Wray

Contact details:

E-mail: idontdoscifi@gmail.com

Twitter: @idontdoscifi

Facebook: I Don't Do Sci-fi

Instagram: idontdoscifi

So, what lies within a haunted mansion, under a dank staircase leading to nowhere, beside some hastily buried cans of spam, and a letter to Father Christmas asking to "please go away"?

...and do we really want to find out?

Well, Dani certainly finds out when we show her The Stone Tape. The Christmas ghost story written by Nigel Kneale for the BBC, broadcast on December 25th 1972.

Starring Jane Asher and Michael Bryant, The Stone Tape follows a team of researchers as they attempt to develop an electronic recording medium to replace magentic tape. They find inspiration in the most unlikely of places when they become convinced that the ghost stories about the building they work in may not only be true, but may also hold the key to a whole new technological breakthrough that could cement their place in history.

Kneale, famed for creating the Quatermass serials once again demonstrates his talent at fusing the horror and science fiction genres. Bringing the script to life on a BBC budget was director Peter Sasdy, a well practised hand from the Hammer Horrors. Despite being just a one-off 90 minute play that only got a single repeat, The Stone Tape is remembered as an atmospheric masterpiece in fear and tension. It caused many to sleep with the light on for several days after it aired!

And not content with just spooking Dani once, as a bit of a sneaky extra, Rebecca and John also showed her the infamous 1992 'mockumentary' Ghostwatch, which was bundled in with The Stone Tape DVD release.

So what will Dani make of The Stone Tape? Will she be hailing a great new discovery, or will she be inclined to wipe the tape?

Gareth Preston, avid fan of both horror and sci-fi, as well as producer of the Very British Futures podcast joins us as guide through the stuff of nightmares.

Credits:

Hosts: Dani Wray, Rebecca Wray, John Isles  All music composed and performed by Steve Johnson https://www.idlebones.co.uk  All artwork and logos by Kevin Hiley  Directed and edited by Kevin Hiley

Produced by Kevin Hiley and Rebecca Wray

Hear Gareth Preston's podcast Very British Futures. Twitter: @FuturesVery and Very British Futures – The Podcast.

Contact details:

E-mail: idontdoscifi@gmail.com

Twitter: @idontdoscifi

Facebook: I Don't Do Sci-fi

Instagram: idontdoscifi