Alien In Character

Eric Moore has debuted another NEOZAZ-based program, this time having a look — with co-host Ian Marchant — at the characters of the Alien movie series. It is called, sensibly enough Alien In Character. And the first episode focuses on Kane, Nostromo’s Executive Officer. The show follows in the pod-steps of Eric’s Mad Max In Character. He brings the same attention to detail and entertaining conversation heard in his Effectively Speaking podcasts, and to this show. I’ve never met Mr. Marchant, but he holds up his end of the program “stick,” (so to speak), quite well. I suppose podcast-listening is down to personal preference. When podcasts became exercises in stream-of-consciousness navel-gazing rife with generalizations, I tuned out. To each his own. I prefer something prepared — even edited —- anything to save us from the endless free-form rabbit-chasing. Happily, Eric and Ian avoid the lure of boring sidebars racing down the rabbit hole of personal opinion. They are focused but relaxed, sharing movie lore, facts and figures, and information about the actor. If you’re new to the Alien films, you will learn quite a bit from these gentlemen. Resources mentioned in the podcast are: the Alan Dean Foster novelization, Dan O’Bannon’s ‘Star Beast’ script, Alien The Movie Novel, and Alien The Illustrated Story. Excellent touch-points. This first episode, Alien In Character – Kane, clocks in at a whopping 2 hours and 15 minutes. That’s a long time in today’s TL;DR mentality, right? Maybe I’m biased towards Eric’s podcasts, but by the time we’re walked through Kane’s scenes and treated to behind-the-scenes info and the famous Effectively Speaking tallies, the time flies right by: a very relaxing time, carried along by Eric and Ian’s fun with the content and hearing about one of my favorite movie characters. The audio quality is crystal clear and they both speak very clearly. A friend remarked to me once, when discussing an Effectively Speaking episode on the Nostromo’s undocking, his amazement that Eric can pull off an audio podcast that features a video segment of a movie. How does Eric do it? That’s part of the magic... And that may well be what it is that appeals to me about these podcasts of his: he and Ian appear to be part of my own generation, and have a way of channelling their love for the material — and their friendship for one another — into a program well worth the time spent with them.

Interesting info about the movies, but Ian’s audio quality is so poor it’s almost unlistenable at times.

These guys are the exact type of fan you need for a podcast such as this. Too many of the shows dedicated to cult or sci-fi series out there have people hosting them who don’t truly love the properties they discuss and it can show through. Thankfully Eric and Ian bring the love (and in some cases obsession) big time with all of their various shows. We fellow fans appreciate them bringing such affection because we share that deep nostalgia the hosts clearly have. It could almost be described as a form of protectiveness towards our beloved properties, be they Mad Max or Alien. If one is to discuss such important and beloved series as these you need to bring that love for the property the people who may listen will likely have. Otherwise you’re just another movie review podcast... As for this show, please be kind to Alien 3. I’m the biggest defender of it and considering how troubled its production was it is a miracle the film is even as good as it turned out. Doubly true for the much superior 2003 recut version. Keep up the great work fellas. - Ian