Ancient Geeks

Ancient Geeks
  • 5.0 (6)
  • Science Fiction
  • Updated Semiweekly

Two old geeks talk about being young geeks, at a turning point in popular culture. In the 60s, 70s, and 80s, the threads of modern geek culture emerged and wove together. Science fiction, fantasy, comics, movies, TV shows, tabletop games, computer games, ad all their incarnations. The great SF&F writers, Star Trek, Star Wars, monster movies, D&D, Doctor Who, the Marvel and DC superheroes, 2001, Planet of the Apes, conventions, Zork, Ultima...What was it like to experience these for the first time? Why did we love them? And how do we feel about them, decades later?

  1. 15h ago

    Ancient Geeks episode 76: George Lucas' THX-1138

    We begin a series of episodes about the first movies from directors who later made the classics of geek cinema.  In this first episode, we take a look at George Lucas' first feature film, THX-1138. A dystopian drama starring Robert Duvall and Donald Pleasance, this movie was based on Lucas' student film, Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB. (Frankly, we're stumped why Lucas didn't stick with this title.) The backstory is fascinating, including a significant role that Francis Ford Coppola played behind the scenes. But what did we think of THX-1138, then and now? And more importantly, can you see in this movie what kind of director Lucas would become? Are there any hints of Star Wars in THX-1138? All will be revealed in this episode. A computer-managed society that's rapidly breaking down! Casual tyranny! Drug-induced docility! Car chases! Nuclear accidents! Robo-Jesus! Holograms! Wannabe revolutionaries! It's all here.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

  2. Jul 13

    Ancient Geeks episode 75: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

    Harrison Ford and Sean Connery? More Nazi villains? A Grail quest In spite of the disappointment of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, we said, "Sign us up!" And it was glorious! A return to what made Raiders of the Lost Ark great! Exciting action scenes! Organic humor! Two different types of academics! Disturbing questions during Indy's faculty review! It's all here.     Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

  3. Jul 6

    Ancient Geeks episode 74: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

    Of course there was going to be a sequel... We had high hopes for the second Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Spielberg, Lucas, Ford...How could it go wrong? As it turns out, it could go very badly. We debate how badly, and what were the reasons why this sequel failed to come close to the original.  Was this Tom's first case of sequelitis? Leaving all the criticisms aside, what did we enjoy about the movie? How much better or worse did this movie seem, on rewatching it decades later? And what kind of archaeologist is Indiana Jones anyway? Bugs! Child endangerment! Colonialism! Screaming! More screaming! How about some more screaming! Unbelievable action scenes! Drab villains! Faceless goons! It's all here.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

  4. Jun 29

    Ancient Geeks episode 73: Raiders Of The Lost Ark

    You can hear the soundtrack start to play in your head already... No history of early geekery would be complete without Raiders Of The Lost Ark. In this episode, we talk about the roots of this movie in serials like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, in the pulp magazines like Weird Tales and Argosy, and in radio dramas like The Shadow and Suspense. And of course, we talk about the movie. What did we expect, when we heard that a high adventure movie was coming soon, from both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg? What was it like to see it for the first time, in the theaters, along with everyone else? What lasting impact did it have, not only on young geeks like ourselves, but in that intersection between geek culture and popular culture? And why were the imitators so reliably inferior to the original? Snakes! Nazis! Questionable academic practices! Fantastic filmmaking! And is this more of a Spielberg or a Lucas movie?   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

  5. Jun 22

    Ancient Geeks episode 72: Fantasy Star Trek crew draft

    We take a detour from our normal reminiscences of geekery past to recruit our favorite Star Trek crews. Across all of Star Trek, from the original series to the modern era, whom do we pick for captain, first officer, chief engineer, and all the other leadership positions in a Star Trek crew? Who are the worst picks for these positions? Which ship do each of us want to staff? And whom would we hire from outside the Star Trek universe? Hear two lifelong Star Trek fans wrestle over whom to recruit, and expect to hear some strong opinions as we draft our fantasy crews!   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

  6. Jun 15

    Ancient Geeks episode 71: Dangerous Visions, Harlan Ellison's ground-breaking anthology

    Aha! You thought we were done talking about Harlan Ellison! You fools! Actually, this episode is less about Ellison, and more about the contents of the anthology, Dangerous Visions, which Ellison organized and edited. The book is full of stories from well-known writers, such as Philip K. Dick, Damon Knight, Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, and others, as well as lesser-known authors whose work Ellison decided to promote. Dangerous Visions pursued a new model for anthologies, and is one of the important landmarks in the history of science fiction, speculative fiction, whatever label you want to apply. But was it dangerous? And what did we think of the stories, Ellison's introductions to each one, the authors' own afterwards, and the revolutionary manifesto in Ellison's introduction? Tune in to find out. Because Ellison wanted people to submit stories that made readers uncomfortable and stretched the limits of the genre, we discuss of a handful of stories that include mentions of incest and fetishism. The true face of reality! Organ banks! Transhuman groupies! God! Jack the Ripper! Bigotry against aliens! It's all here.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

  7. Jun 8

    Ancient Geeks episode 70: Beneath The Planet Of The Apes

    Planet Of The Apes was a classic. Beneath The Planet Of The Apes was supposed to be the sequel to end all ape sequels, just as World War I was supposed to be the war to end all wars. How did both of those efforts work out? Beneath The Planet Of The Apes carried the deep distrust of human nature into another film. But now, with another astronaut (who looked a lot like the first astronaut), a first act that looked a lot like the first film, and then, it added psionic mutants and a sacred doomsday weapon. Were they enough to make a good sequel? Return to Ape City! Voyages into the Forbidden Zone! An underground city that was once above ground! Near-identical men with beards fight to the death! Giant gorilla headpieces! The final confrontation between Taylor and Dr. Zaius! It's all here.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

  8. Jun 1

    Ancient Geeks episode 69: 2010 The Year We Make Contact

    In an earlier episode, we said that 2001: A Space Odyssey was one of the greatest SF movies ever made. Arguably, the greatest. Also one of the greatest films, period. And then in 1984 came the sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact. Was it as good as the original? Definitely not. But was it a good movie? A decent sequel? Good science fiction? An effective adaptation of the book sequel that Arthur C. Clarke wrote? We'll answer all these questions, and more, in this episode. Strange happenings near Jupiter! My old buddy HAL! My old gal SAL! Roy Scheider as Heywood U. Lookatthat! Helen Mirren as the serious Soviet superior officer! Spacewalks! Aerobraking! Something wonderful that's going to happen! Say Bob Balaban three times fast! It's all here.   Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

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About

Two old geeks talk about being young geeks, at a turning point in popular culture. In the 60s, 70s, and 80s, the threads of modern geek culture emerged and wove together. Science fiction, fantasy, comics, movies, TV shows, tabletop games, computer games, ad all their incarnations. The great SF&F writers, Star Trek, Star Wars, monster movies, D&D, Doctor Who, the Marvel and DC superheroes, 2001, Planet of the Apes, conventions, Zork, Ultima...What was it like to experience these for the first time? Why did we love them? And how do we feel about them, decades later?

Information

  • Creator
    Ancient Geeks
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    78
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Ancient Geeks

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