Whatever happened to the man of the funky future?

4 min read

PRESS PLAY ON TAPEIt’s been well over a year since I appeared on the (apparently, and very sadly, now-dormant) MarkWHO42 podcast, talking about upcoming book projects, including a book that would be all about ’70s sci-fi, fantasy and superhero shows in the United States, and another book that would cover British telefantasy series (that really turned out to be heavily weighted toward the same decade, covering the likes of Space: 1999, UFO, Blake’s 7, Sky, Raven, and so on). Mark Baumgarden and his cohorts (including international man of mystery Christian Basel, who is now heavily involved in the rapidly-expanding Krypton Radio podcasting network) were enormously enthused about the latter book, and it was a really fun show for me. (I could detour here into how much I wish I had a co-host for my own podcasting ventures sometimes, but that could take up a whole other blog entry.)

So…where are those books?

Well, they’re still in progress; the research is being done, material is being written, shows that are to be covered are being watched, but sadly, overall, they’re moving at the speed of real life – which is to say, they’re subject to delays due to parent-teacher conferences, overtime at work, daddy duty, preparing for cross-country moves, and sometimes – this is a big trade secret here – the writer’s own lethargy and occasional bouts with depression.

I had a thought recently that might shock you: What if those books didn’t come out as books?

Here’s the second half of that thought: What if I covered this material in podcast form?

PRESS PLAY ON TAPELet me explain my thinking on that. Podcasting is an instantaneous medium. I speak, the microphone and the computer record, and aside from editing stuff together (or editing out coughs and sniffles), the product is done and ready to go.

Provided that I can keep pace on watching new material for the show, this means you could be getting me talking about (sometimes hilariously bad and wildly scientifically inaccurate) ’70s and ’80s sci-fi several times a year, rather than waiting for me to finish books, an endeavour in which it’s starting to look like I might be outpaced by the next ice age.

And here’s the thing: the books might still come out eventually as a companion to the podcasting venture. After all, the basic synopses are already appearing on the site well ahead of the book. Writing critical coverage notes for the podcast would also help generate the critiques for the book.

I know this is crazy talk. I know there are lots of TV podcasts out there covering specific shows. But this would be a TV podcast lavishing love (and occasional well-deserved ridicule) upon a specific decade and its entire zeitgeist, complete with historical context. Think of it as the Escape Pod‘s rambling crazy uncle.

Would anyone be interested in hearing this now and (maybe) reading it later? It’s not like I desperately need to do more podcasts, and on your end of things, you may not be thinking you need to hear any more of me blathering about sci-fi shows or anything else.

PRESS PLAY ON PETOr maybe that’s exactly what you want. Feel free to tell me, either in the comments below, or via comments on the Facebook and Twitter posts pointing to this blog entry. If there’s no audience for the podcast, there’s no point in me doing one. But if there is…let’s do this thing. Let’s get funky and futuristic. I can start recording and accumulating material now and maybe launch this thing late this year or early 2019.

Or maybe I just need to spend more quality time with my cats. You decide.

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