EPISODE 004: THE 5 BEST SCI-FI SERIES

DRINK INFORMATION

Tom’s Drink – Balvenie 12 year old single barrel

Link to Balvenie 12 year old single barrel

 Ian’s Drink – A Manhattan with Jameson (No cherry)

Link To Manhattan Recipe

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Ian Robertson
Welcome back to Drinking With Tom, the podcast where a couple of semi middle aged guys talk about stuff that we like and hope that you like it, too. How are you, Tom?

Tom Kubiak
I’m well, Ian, how are you doing?

Ian Robertson
Doing good. Thanks for being back on the show. I mean..

Tom Kubiak
Oh, happy to.

Ian Robertson
I say thank you. But I mean, it has your name in the name of the show.

Tom Kubiak
Well I was thinking the other day that, like, you know, for our listeners, Ian and I used to live across the street from each other basically for a little while, and we would be together all the time. And unfortunately, since he chose to leave the neighborhood, we don’t get to see each other anymore as much.

Ian Robertson
So this is how we hang out now, remotely. And in a podcast. And for everybody to hear.

Tom Kubiak
Exactly. Not awkward at all.

Ian Robertson
No, no modern life right. But um, you know, in the spirit of the show what you drinking, Tom?

Tom Kubiak
So I’m drinking a staple in my house, which is Balvenie 12 year old single barrel. It’s a go to, for me something that I’m comfortable drinking. I always have a couple bottles of it in line. So it’s a good easy to drink scotch.

Ian Robertson
Okay, cool. It’s not peaty obviously, because you don’t like the peat right?

Tom Kubiak
Not peaty. No, no peat. Zero peat. Negative peat.

Ian Robertson
I have never met somebody that says I love scotch. And then in the same sentences I don’t like peat.

Tom Kubiak
I know. It’s an odd it’s just my taste profile. I don’t like I don’t like I have it because I know people like it. Like especially Lagavulin or Laphroaig, but I just don’t like it.

Ian Robertson
It’s like saying I love the ocean, but I hate being wet.

Tom Kubiak
That is partially true with me too.

Ian Robertson
Okay, well dude, I guess we have some bigger issues to talk about here. This is gonna be more like a Frasier episode where we’re talking about your psychological problems. I don’t know.

Tom Kubiak
You can’t help me.

Ian Robertson
I will say though, I am one of those weirdos. I don’t like the beach. I don’t like, vacations bother me. Do they bother you? Like do you get bored on vacation? Like I need to do I need to like do something like maybe that’s a workaholic, it’s a disease I know.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah. I know. I know the feeling for that. Like I for me, I can’t be gone for too long. So three or four days into a vacation. I start to get antsy.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, like, I was on a cruise recently. And I was watching the waitstaff and I almost wanted to go help them because the way they were doing things. The way they were stacking the trays is actually interfering with the other station I almost got up and said you know if you guys just do this, I’m like don’t be that guy, don’t be that guy.

Tom Kubiak
Start revising their workflow process.

Ian Robertson
I’ll help you do the dishes just give me something to do. So me I actually broke one of my cardinal rules and you’ll see me do this once in a blue moon. I am a straight alcohol neat kind of guy. You need to give me a moonshine it’s 180 proof. I’m slipping out of the jar. You give me a nice 35 year old MacAllan. I’m drinking it knee. But what I did tonight was a made myself a Manhattan. Ah, okay. So it always sounded girly. But whoever came up with the Manhattan was a genius. They’re like, how can we mix this alcohol with other alcohol? It’s like, that’s what you’re doing is Yeah.

Tom Kubiak
And actually there’s varieties of the Manhattan for each of the boroughs.

Ian Robertson
There is? I did not know that. Tell me about that.

Tom Kubiak
I don’t know what they are. But it’s funny because we did a little zoom bartender class. And we went through the so they made a Manhattan and then they also said that there’s a Brooklyn variety of it. There’s a Staten Island variety of it. There’s a you know, Bronx variety of it, each one of them have little variations on the, you know, the basic theme of the Manhattan.

Ian Robertson
And then they had a Schenectady, New York variety with just a little bit like a crack around the rim of the glass.

Tom Kubiak
Do two lines of crack and then drink.

Ian Robertson
Exactly. There’s a heroin Ice Cube just to finish.

Tom Kubiak
What kind of cherries do you have?

Ian Robertson
No cherries. I don’t put cherries on it.

Tom Kubiak
No cherries. No. Okay.

Ian Robertson
So I just use some Italian sweet vermouth, so..

Tom Kubiak
Ok, do you have do you have a particular type of Vermouth you like? Rossi Martini. Yeah, no, no martini and Rossi.

Ian Robertson
Sometimes I’ll do that. But there’s a little bottle and I can’t read the label. But I get it from a little liquor shop and is is very expensive for what you get. It’s a tiny little bottle. And then I used in this particular one. I usually like to use Bullet Bourbon, which you’re not technically supposed to use. It’s supposed to be a whiskey, like a straight whiskey right or is it? Can you use a bourbon?

Tom Kubiak
No, you can. Yeah, there’s varitations.. I mean, some people use American whiskey. Some people use bourbon. Some people use Canadian whiskey, like, taste profile.

Ian Robertson
Okay. Okay. I like Bullet bourbon in mind. But this one, I used Jameson and I used the I think it was the stout and the Jameson stout. So they age it in old stuff.

Tom Kubiak
Okay, that’s an Irish whiskey, right?

Ian Robertson
Yeah, it’s an Irish whiskey. Yeah, it’s good and I use black walnut bitters. Nice. So that’s my favorite.

Tom Kubiak
Okay. All right, very nice.

Ian Robertson
So I think this is an appropriate beverage to have for a discussion and those listening to us on our audio platform and not on our YouTube channel, you wouldn’t notice that I’m wearing my Star Trek uniform and much to my wife’s chagrin actually wear this sweater out in public at times, just to..

Tom Kubiak
But here’s the thing. It’s sad that we are proud to have those Star Trek emblems when everybody else makes fun of us.

Ian Robertson
So I guess you reach an age where people are like, that is so dorky, which is anywhere between the ages of 12 and 97. So..I don’t care. You know, when I was a kid, it was like a comforting little world for me to watch sci fi, like, no matter what was going on, when I was a kid, I could watch Deep Space Nine. And commander Cisco would make me feel better. I could watch Dune and just feel better about the universe. Anything that was going on Sci Fi made it feel better, you know?

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, yeah. It one of the earliest memories I have of watching TV is watching the original Star Trek series. You know, with my dad.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, yeah. So somebody put it one time. And I don’t know who to attribute this quote to. We’re not searching for shows videos and music. We’re searching for memories.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah. Good point.

Ian Robertson
I came across a song the other day on YouTube that I’m just like, I haven’t heard the song and 20 years.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, that happens.

Ian Robertson
I was super busy and things were happening. And I literally just stopped and sat and listened to the song and like memories that I hadn’t thought about in 20 years, just like washed over me, I’m like, that was weird.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, that’s so true. That happens to be like, you know, I like to listen to a particular station or something, or with Amazon, you can set up playlists inside of their music app. And so when when those 80s songs come up that I used, like when I when I first was driving with my car. Yeah. And you could play whatever you wanted on the radio, I remember those songs. It’s true.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. And it’s amazing how you associate, like, you associated Star Trek The Original Series with your dad, you know, I can associate, you know, certain TV shows, like, I was really into anime and stuff like that, when I was younger. And there were certain science fiction in that genre that I really liked. Yeah, I can associate that with my brothers and stuff that we used to watch at night when our parents thought we were in bed, and we’d sneak downstairs. Exactly. You know, I mean, you can even go in to say things like cartoons like GI Joe and all that were, yeah, you know, sci fi to an extent, you know?

Tom Kubiak
Yeah. Yeah. It’s all it’s all the entertainment, basically. But sci fi the genre of sci fi is, is unique, because there’s so many varieties to it. Yeah. You know, you have the, the non earth based sci fi, which is no connection at all to earth, there isn’t even Earth in that in that, you know, system. And then you have the other ones where Earth is in it. And it’s either current day earth or future Earth or in some cases, even past Earth. You know, those? There’s a lot of variety.

Ian Robertson
Yeah and there’s, you know, some of the favorite genres are, are going to be like apocalyptic and post apocalyptic. You have your Yep, you’re mad max genre. Waterworld. You know, some of the more mainstream sci fi and, you know, a lot of people are like, Oh, that’s mainstream. I don’t care what’s mainstream or what’s not. I like what’s good. And what has a good story. Yeah, I agree with you. If it’s mainstream, cool, if it’s not whatever, I just like stuff with a good story. The only problem I have is, if it’s not mainstream, oftentimes, it’s hard to get into series because it gets canceled, or you can ever find it again.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, that’s the, that’s the terrible thing you have, sometimes you have really good shows. And unfortunately, they just don’t, they don’t get the traction they need with the audience. And it basically it comes down to money. You know, if the if the studio can’t make money or can’t get a, you know, enough advertisers or doesn’t have a big enough percentage of the audience, they’re not going to continue to make it. And they realize that sometimes later on when there’s a rabid audience that want that show, and it’s already too late, they’ve already gone out of production.

Ian Robertson
There’s actually a couple of those series that we’re going to talk about tonight that are in my list.

Tom Kubiak
I know that’s gonna happen, because I know they’re on my list, too.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, and so that’s what our podcast is about. We’re going to talk about our top five Sci Fi series. So we’re going to stay kind of out of the realm of movies, but if one drops in there, we’re not going to complain. But we’re going to talk specifically about series. If you agree or disagree at the bottom of all of our transcripts on our website, Drinkingwith tom.com you can actually go and leave your comments, argue with us, or tell us something that you did or didn’t like, I had a guy the other day introduce me to Jericho.

Tom Kubiak
Oh, I’ve never seen it but I’ve I’ve seen it advertised or seen it on lists. Is it any good?

Ian Robertson
Yeah, it was like early 2000s. Yeah, it’s not bad.

Tom Kubiak
Oh I’ll have to put it on my List.

Ian Robertson
I’m only partway through the first season. My wife likes sci fi, and my daughter is like obsessed with sci fi. She loves everything about it more so than me. So that’s nice. We can watch it together. But, you know, it was one of those series that I knew about, but never really watched. And he’s like, No, you got to watch it. So maybe we’ll introduce you to something. Or maybe we’ll just reaffirm something that you already liked. Yeah. So Tom, you wanted to start from our top five work our way up to our top one?

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, definitely.

Ian Robertson
So you didn’t want to start from the top? So what’s your what’s your fifth favorite Sci Fi series?

Tom Kubiak
I think you’re you’re gonna see a theme with my, with my shows, unfortunately, because I’m locked into a certain genre, a certain aspect of this genre. But my fifth favorite show is Star Trek Voyager.

Ian Robertson
Okay.

Tom Kubiak
And I apologize in advance to anyone who does not like it, or does not feel that that’s a fair evaluation. But I I know, there’s issues with the character development. And I know, you know, they made a lot of mistakes with plot lines and whatnot. But for, for me, that concept of being out there on your own, you don’t have Starfleet to rely on, you know, the so for anyone who hasn’t seen the show, the basic premise is the starship, which is a relatively small starship, from the perspective of the Star Trek universe gets flung to what’s called the Delta Quadrant, which is hundreds of light years away from Earth not possible at full speed, it would take them like 90 years to get back to to Earth. So they’re not and they can’t communicate with Earth. They can’t, they can’t, they don’t have to. They don’t have the infrastructure of Starfleet to rely on they’re basically on their own. And I love that premise. Now did they do a good job developing it? There’s some positives and negatives, but you know, they picked up characters as they went along. They made alliances with at factions, they, they had enemies that were, you know, that followed them for multiple seasons. So I think that deserves a place on my list.

Ian Robertson
So I love Voyager. I don’t know if I would have put it in my top five. We just got done watching the series for like the 19th time. My daughter has a poster of it up on her wall. She loves it, Janeway. She loves she loves Tuvok she thinks he’s hysterical. But I agree. It was a really good series. Once they got their legs under them. They had to get rid of the Kes element in my opinion.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, Kes was a weak spot. Yeah, definitely. And bringing on Seven of Nine, you know, was, you know, a genius move, you know, because they they added a character that added some things that the show that appeal to people who watch the show, so that was a good thing.

Ian Robertson
Well, they had they had a problem with Kes because Ocampa only lived a few years old. Yeah. So they’re like, are you going to have her die of old age after a few seasons? How’s this going to happen? They also..

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, not only that, but I think they they also had some I think they also had some issues with the the actress who played Kes. I think she wasn’t the easiest to work with or something like that. That’s what I’ve read.

Ian Robertson
I don’t remember that in particular, but it wouldn’t surprise me. But yeah, they they found their legs eventually, you know, the they had some good story arcs with Tuvok. And the caretaker, they brought him back towards the end, or at least his species, and we don’t want to give any spoilers but this show came out in the 90s. If you haven’t seen in the past 27 years. That’s kind of on you. So..

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, I agree.

Ian Robertson
I do agree that is a great Sci Fi series, especially because it was in the heyday of Star Trek, the 90s and early 2000s. Those are the best years for Star Trek in my opinion.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah. What’s your what’s your number five?

Ian Robertson
So my number five is 1234. So this is actually a movie.

Tom Kubiak
Okay.

Ian Robertson
So I have to qualify this when I was younger, my parents had HBO and so I decided when I was a little boy, maybe like seven or eight..dumb Ian..Dumber. I decided to watch the full length extended version of Dune which there I’m gonna be honest with you. There are some horrific scenes in that movie. That still pop in my head. Oh, really? Yeah, but as I got older I’m like Dune is cool. So I watched all..

Tom Kubiak
I’ve never seen it.

Ian Robertson
Oh, you’ve never seen Dune?

Tom Kubiak
No.

Ian Robertson
Okay, so the original the movies from the like the 80s they were awesome. Then they did a..

Tom Kubiak
Did you watch the remake?

Ian Robertson
Yeah, then they did a remake that well, so they did a remake again in the early 2000s. They did three three part series where they did the original Dune saga where they go over the whole Muad’Dib, and all that stuff. And then they do the second one where he rises again to power and then the third one where his sister goes nuts from the spice big long story. That one will actually wasn’t that bad. The newest dune movie, okay, I go into every remake of everything they’ve ever done from my childhood going in expecting the worst and not being disappointed every time because it’s usually garbage. They remake stuff and they make a garbage.

Tom Kubiak
True, that is true.

Ian Robertson
Because they take out the story, they add a whole bunch of special effects. And then they always have some weird political agenda that they’re trying to push in there. And I’m like, I just want to watch a cool story about big worms eating and then using their poo to see the future. That’s basically the whole premise of Dune. That’s the premise of the premise of doing that. And space travel, they use their poo for space travel and seeing the future. So that brings us back to our alcohol. We’re drinking yeast poo. So..

Tom Kubiak
That is, that’s true.

Ian Robertson
If you don’t know how alcohol is made, bunch of yeast eats all bunch of sugar excretes into your liquid and you drink it. So congratulations. We’re living in a miniature version of Dune.

Tom Kubiak
So was the Dune was the most recent Dune episode one right because there’s two episodes I think they haven’t they haven’t released the second one yet?

Ian Robertson
They haven’t released the second one and there may be a third it was spot on.

Tom Kubiak
Really?

Ian Robertson
Glorious, awesome. Even there’s a friend of mine who is the biggest sci fi critic I’ve ever met. He messaged me afterwards. And he goes, this is the first remake that I’ve seen that was just spot on.

Tom Kubiak
Wow, okay. Oh, that’s cool.

Ian Robertson
Glorious.

Tom Kubiak
See, I never read the book. I never I’ve never seen the stories. My dad is a Dune fan. Yeah. But he has the whole he’s a sci fi reader. And he has the whole series of books. And he you know, he read them. But I never I never got into it. So I never never saw any of the previous editions. And I didn’t take the time to see the current one.

Ian Robertson
So it is very mainstream. I think most stuff on my list is pretty mainstream as probably is yours, but they had the budget. Yeah. And they had a great story. So if you have that combination is going to be mainstream people are gonna like it. It has it has the classic story arcs and all the all the things that you want from sci fi, yeah, with originality mixed in with, it’s just awesome. I love Dune.

Tom Kubiak
I got to set aside six hours and watch it. Yeah, well, that’s the thing.

Ian Robertson
They do have different versions. They do have different versions. The version I watched when I was like eight was like the fully extended. It wasn’t like the 10 hour version that was like, Okay, five, six hours or something stupid like that. But yeah, don’t watch that version. It’s pretty messed up. Okay.

Tom Kubiak
But even even the current one is pretty is pretty long. Like, I think it’s a three hour movie plus.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, it’s not a short movie, but you can’t tell. Yeah, and that was the other thing I was worried about. I’m like, This is gonna be an hour and a half movie, you can’t cram that much story in because there’s build up. There’s lots of quiet moments where you have to reflect on the scene, but not in that weird, artsy way. Like, if, okay, so I won’t give it away. But there’s one scene where there’s one guy’s laying at the table just betrayed. And you and you just realize that it’s his cousin, his family was wiped out in his own mind. And he’s just laying at the end of the table paralyzed from this immobilization serum that he had given him. And he has one last desperate act. And it’s just a long, quiet, awkward scene. And it just builds those two characters sitting at each end of the table more than any amount of explanation could. It’s good.

Tom Kubiak
Really, interesting. Yeah, I have to put it on my list of to watch. Because I, I’ve heard other people that in fact, there’s a guy that I hang around with, and he he was all excited when it was coming out because he was a huge dune fan in school. He read the books when they originally came out. When this movie came out. He felt similar like he was he thought it was true to the story. So..

Ian Robertson
Okay, so I want to hear your fourth one, though.

Tom Kubiak
Okay, so, again, continuing my theme, sorry. Star Trek Enterprise is my fourth favorite. And again, I..

Ian Robertson
Hang on the one with what’s his name as the captain when they go back. And when the original..

Tom Kubiak
The one with the guy from quantum leap. Yes.

Ian Robertson
Well, that’s, that’s in your top five list?

Tom Kubiak
I’ll tell you. Again, I like the concept of the ragtag crew like so, you know, the other Star Trek shows they have the best technology and the and the ship that’s so powerful. And they are, you know, all experts in their field and an enterprise is not that like enterprise is the first time they go to space. And the ship is it can’t go that fast. And no one on the ship is experienced doing what they’re doing. Like they’re all because it’s the first time and to me, it’s and because it they’re out there for the first time. They’re experiencing new things and doing new things and meeting new meeting cultures and people that they are going to come up and meet again later on in the other shows. So to me, I just thought the concept was cool.

Ian Robertson
All right. So I’ve watched that series two and a half times now. Every single time I get built up for it. And then I hear “it’s been a long time”. It’s the opening song.

Tom Kubiak
I know that was the first time that they used music, a song to introduce enterprise to introduce a Star Trek show.

Ian Robertson
And it was terrible.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, well, a lot of people don’t like it and I will say I probably I have to say that You know, I’m still working on Star Trek, strange new worlds. So that probably will push enterprise out. Because I like the way strange new world is going. But I’ve seen shows, you know, have a good first season and then really below it the next season. You know, we’ll see what happens.

Ian Robertson
So strange new worlds, I would give that an 85 out of 100 I love strange new worlds. My only beef with it is their ship is so advanced. Yeah.

Tom Kubiak
And it doesn’t fit the time.

Ian Robertson
Everything is like, yeah, doesn’t fit the time. It should have been a little looser. Yeah, it should have been a little bit less technology. You know, it’s like, yeah..

Tom Kubiak
And that’s, that’s my beef with discovery. Yeah. Like, you know, it’s, you have a ship that can jump through space, like, and it’s the same time as the enterprise, but it makes no sense. So anyway, so that’s my number four. What’s your number four?

Ian Robertson
My number four is the Mandalorian. Okay, so I am I am gonna go there. Yes. I love the Mandalorian No, it’s not for baby Yoda. But my daughter and I just are obsessed with the Mandalorian. And we love it. So it’s a good story. So first of all, did they rip off Kurosawa films 100%. They basically ripped off every samurai movie and every cowboy movie that that was ever made. Did it come out really cool with lightsabers and blasters and Pedro Pascal? Yeah, and they’re playing off of all these like Star Wars characters. Yep. Like cad Bane. I wasn’t so thrilled with the Boba Fett thing coming in. But it brought in all these other characters that were part of the Star Wars universe that you never really saw it live action, like, like all the other Mandalorians? Like, yeah, it was. It’s a really good series. Yeah, I could watch that any day of the week.

Tom Kubiak
And they even wove in the cartoon series. Like they really fit nicely into that spot and pulled in characters from all kinds of different storylines. Yeah.

Ian Robertson
Well, you had you had a Ahsoka was getting her own series now. Yeah, you can’t really beat that. And then yeah, I like how they’re putting the Empire back together, because that actually fits with the timeline. So I read a lot of I don’t read a lot of the books, I read a lot of the, not fanfiction, but basically, from the Star Wars universe. I read a lot of the in between stuff because I like how it connects to stories. And I do like how they kept things continuous. Like the rerise of the Empire, the Empire never goes away in the Star Wars universe. And neither does the Emperor even at one point, Luke goes and communes with them just to say, hey, let’s call a truce on this or whatever happened. And yeah, you know, the Empire just keeps coming back and forth until that other species comes, that’s void of the force, and they have to fight together, you know, the way things connect, fit really well with this. And I’m looking forward to the movie that they’re talking about coming out. That will include the Mandalorian Ahsoka and some others, where they go and start to fight the first order. So I like the Mandalorian. Have you seen it?

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, I have seen it. I haven’t seen the third season. And I think I was more into the first season. The second season was so so you know, yeah, but I’m more Star Trek than Star Wars, even though I you know, I’m always open day Star Wars movie type of guy.

Ian Robertson
So what’s your third and wait, let me guess, is the Star Trek related? I’m gonna

Tom Kubiak
deviate. I’m going to deviate from my pattern so far and jump off of Star Trek. Okay, and go to Firefly.

Ian Robertson
No way.

Tom Kubiak
Definitely.

Ian Robertson
Okay, that was my number two.

Tom Kubiak
Okay. Yeah.

Ian Robertson
I can skip my number two.

Tom Kubiak
I could move it to two also. I mean, but my two like, I think you’ll see what the reason for my number two being where it is but Firefly is just..

Ian Robertson
That’s what the doctor told me.

Tom Kubiak
My number two was fine. The Firefly is just is just an awesome show. I again, I love the ragtag crew, I love the storylines. The character development is awesome. The thing that I don’t like is them, taking it off air too soon.

Ian Robertson
So I’m a total Browncoat. I am one. That’s why it’s number two on my list. And it was number one for many, many years, most of my adult life because I remember living with my friend, Jacob. And he’s like, you gotta check this series out. I’m like, when’s it on? You know, back in the day when you actually had to know when the show was on?

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, you had to actually watch it when it when it was live.

Ian Robertson
So it was some stupid time like Thursday at 9:30 for the premiere. And I’m like, what? Alright, so we watch it. And it was the first one that they aired was the train job, which is like three or four episodes into the series. He didn’t know who anybody was why they’re robbing a train in outer space. Yeah, they messed it up. And then they kept releasing different bits and pieces of it at different times. And that caused it to basically collapse. Yeah, and it hurts me every time. I actually have I haven’t watched it in years, because I get to the last episode.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, I know.

Ian Robertson
And I get angry. It breaks my heart.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, well, well written storylines. Excellent. You know, actors and actresses. Just yeah. It’s it’s one of those shows that like, you easily can watch it multiple times you wish there was more.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, it would have been one of the it would have been as big as Star Trek in a lot of ways. Because it’s also there’s also an expanded universe on it. But it was the beginning of an entire franchise. And they’re like no, trash it. Yeah. Then that was the one of the first series that actually had out of this world DVD sales, and they’re like, Oh, crud, they’re like, these went off the wall.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah. Yeah. They realize they missed the boat on that. Yeah. And then they did the movies. Which, you know, yeah, yeah, they’re okay. I just wished I wish they just would have made more episodes.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, no, I did too. We gotta stop talking about it because it’s actually just making me angry.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, what’s your third?

Ian Robertson
My third? Is the Flash TV show. With Grant Gustin.

Tom Kubiak
The old one or the new one?

Ian Robertson
No, Grant Gustin the newer one.

Tom Kubiak
The new one really?

Ian Robertson
Yeah so they just aired their last episode. And I know this sounds you know, it’s not it’s not a you don’t see a lot of hardcore sci fi fans liking that. But I realized the other day.. Like I don’t see any hardcore fans liking that. So the first six seasons of it were amazing. The rest of the seasons were garbage once they got past basically the season was cicada. Have you ever seen it?

Tom Kubiak
I so I stopped watching it like at season four. Okay, as soon as they started going, you know, multi show crossovers. Yeah. I just lost I like I wasn’t watching those other shows. So I don’t know who the characters are. And I and I would miss the episode connected to that. And there’s plotlines in there. And so I gave up on I loved it at the beginning. I loved it. Yeah. But then I just..

Ian Robertson
So the whole arrow verse thing kind of messed it up, because I didn’t watch. I didn’t watch the green arrow for the most part I got through a season of it. Maybe Yeah, I really didn’t like the legends. I got through maybe half an episode. So those and I didn’t watch Supergirl either. Again, maybe half an episode of that. But I really liked the flash and I only realized that it was on my top five. After watching the first six seasons now I realized about 16 times. So when I go down in my basement and they work out and stuff, I watched the flash. And no matter how many times I watch it, I’ll actually pause and wait for my sets. Because I’m like, this is the good part. I really think this is when the thinker gets them. And I’m like, okay, crud. Okay, the flash is one of my favorite Sci Fi series of all time, and I didn’t see that coming. But Grant Gustin did a great job, the writers blew it, who after season six..

Tom Kubiak
Why didn’t they let him do the Flash movie?

Ian Robertson
That was a big, that was a big problem. So Ezra Miller, caused all sorts of problems.

Tom Kubiak
Who is a mess.

Ian Robertson
He’s a mess. Yeah, although that new movie looks good with. It’s got Michael Keaton in it.

Tom Kubiak
It does look good. It looks it looks really good. Um, do you want to go to see that opening night?

Ian Robertson
Let’s do it. Okay, let’s do Michael Keaton is my favorite Batman.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah oh definitely. Well, Christian Bale is pretty good.

Ian Robertson
Michael Keaton.

Tom Kubiak
But of everybody else, Michael Keaton.

Ian Robertson
Let’s agree to disagree. Michael Keaton is Batman.

Tom Kubiak
You want to get crazy?

Ian Robertson
You want to hear a funny story? Is the kid who played Spider Man, what’s his name again?

Tom Kubiak
The new one or Toby?

Ian Robertson
The new one, he dates Zendaya or whatever her name is?

Tom Kubiak
Yeah. Tom Holland.

Ian Robertson
Tom Holland. So Tom Holland was shooting a scene with Michael Keaton. And he said the entire time they’re doing this fight scene. And every time you get them in a pen is Michael Keaton would whisper in his ear. And he said he couldn’t hold it together. He’s like, this is a multi million dollar movie, man. You gotta stop doing this. That’s why I like Michael Keaton.

Tom Kubiak
I’m actually when they said that he was going to be in it that like sealed the deal with me that I’m gonna see it. I would. I would probably have seen it eventually. But now I want to see it like opening night.

Ian Robertson
Oh, I love nostalgia, placate my entire childhood. Do it right. And I will pay you gobs of money. Just make Michael Keaton.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, the only thing that they could do better is to take Ben Affleck out of it. Yeah, cuz he’s the new Batman.

Ian Robertson
Oh, is Ben Affleck in it? Oh, okay. I didn’t like him as Batman.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, yeah, except for Robert Patterson. They don’t for the newest one. But But yeah, he’s Batman in the Justice League. You know, the one of the call that the whoever the director was of Justice League and a Batman vs. Superman.

Ian Robertson
So what’s your number two and three though?

Tom Kubiak
But anyway, okay. Okay, so my number three was Firefly my number two is for The same reason that you say about about the flash being your number three is Stargate. Okay, Stargate. Like every time I watch it, and I’ve, I mean, what is it? 10 seasons? Yeah, like it’s a super long running show. And every time I watch it, I just love it. I’d probably watch the whole thing.

Ian Robertson
Five times. Okay, I have a lot of respect for you there. I’m not a huge fan of the series, but I respect it a lot. Because it’s good writing. Yeah. And it’s original stories.

Tom Kubiak
It’s great writing.

Ian Robertson
Each time, like, yeah, there’s a lot of episodes in those seasons.

Tom Kubiak
But there’s but there’s overarching plots, you know, that that. So even though you have individual standalone stories, you know, a lot like Voyager, you know, where, you know, you have a theme that’s happening but you have individual stories happening, which I like that concept. I don’t like the new discovery concept where there the whole season is one story. I don’t like that as much. Yeah, then just feels like a long movie, but with Stargate. I love the fact that it is realistic. Like it could have really happened. You know, the end it ties in with the Egyptian mythology. It explains why the things are the way they are in Egypt. I just thought they did a great job plus the connection to the the original movie, you know that the original movie is a classic.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, no, we could do a whole nother podcast on movies even though I snuck a movie in there.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, we should. We should.

Ian Robertson
Movies are a whole different story. But my favorite, this is my number one. Okay, and you’re not going to appreciate it. Stranger Things.

Tom Kubiak
You know, I still have not even seen it. Oh, man. So you keep telling me to watch it. I haven’t seen it yet.

Ian Robertson
So it can be intense. But like most of the series, is just quiet anticipation and pseudo science that sounds like it could be real. I’m not I’m still not sold on the last season. I don’t like gore. I don’t like I don’t like a lot of, you know, crazy stuff that people like special effects. I like a good story. But it’s also set in the 80s. Yeah, so the the boys in the series are a little bit older than me. But like everything they’re doing. I’m just like, I remember that. Yeah. You know, you could ride your bikes thru the street at night and yelling And all the neighbors knew ya. And they were yelling back at you, hey, Get off my lawn.

Tom Kubiak
Me too. Exactly the things that I used to do. Yeah, I and in fact, when you told me originally, have you seen Stranger Things yet? And I haven’t. And you’ve said it to me, like for the past four years in a row. And you’ve said many times, like it’s nostalgia, you know, it’s it’s sci fi nostalgia, because it’s exactly what you go through in your in your childhood. But in a in a sci fi show what it’s like.

Ian Robertson
It’s like, stuff that you imagined happened as a kid, like there’s a big building in like.. So there was an Army Depot near where I grew up, and they got caught, you know, dropping off some toxic waste in the local river. And so we were always like, what’s really going on? Like, picture us having this adventure and all this crazy stuff happening? But that’s, that’s also part of nostalgia is like, that’s what you would have been picturing at the time. You’re probably more around the age of these boys. Yeah. And you would, you would totally appreciate everything that happens. Yeah. And the storyline is good, the nostaligia is spot on. Not too much, but just enough, and it’s just by far my favorite sci fi TV series.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, I gotta make time to watch it. Because I know you’ve said that. I’m gonna trust your opinion. You’ve said that a bunch of times. Alright, my number one. Okay.

Ian Robertson
Well I figured surprise. I’m going back to

Tom Kubiak
I’m going back to Star Trek Next Generation.

Ian Robertson
Next Generation. Okay.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah. Next Generation has to be.

Ian Robertson
So I want to tell you before you tell me why, next generation was actually number six on my list. Okay, so it’s very close. And I watch a lot of sci fi. I have a list of a couple hundred series here. But I agree with you 100%. I am wearing a next gen sweater right now.

Tom Kubiak
You are, you got a communicator badge on you.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, I got a communicator badge.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, a bunch of buddies and I, when the first crossover I think it was generations when when generations came out. So that was the crossover between the old crew and the new crew. And we went to the movie theater with klingon or with Vulcan ears and a communicator badge and some one of us had a phaser. Yeah, but yeah.

Ian Robertson
That’s true Treky. That’s true Trekiness.

Tom Kubiak
True treky, but next generation. Yeah. I think the consistency of the story, the character development, you know, the fact that it was a new story every week, the fact that there were morals and principles connected to Starfleet. Yeah, I just and Picard. I mean, you can’t go wrong with Picard.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, you can, because the new Picard series really missed the mark on.

Tom Kubiak
The first two seasons missed the season. The third season I actually I was a little bit more impressed with the the first season started out great. And then it kind of lost track. The second season they should just never show again. And the third season I was I was okay with Yeah, I thought it closed out the series.

Ian Robertson
It did close out the series. I mean the man’s like 90 or something like that. Yeah. And then the second one they just completely ignored it after that because they’re like, yeah, the friendly Borg whole storyline there is not working for us so stupid.

Tom Kubiak
That was so weird. I don’t know what where they were going with that. And that’s an example of, you know, you’ve got like, you’ve got a lot that you could do and to destroy it with stupid plotlines. Like it doesn’t make any sense to do that, you know? Yeah.

Ian Robertson
You know, certain things like I will respect Star Wars, Marvel, and Star Trek, for the most part, because now they do tend to listen to fans. So as fans tend to speak up, they tend to say, Okay, well, let’s see, they don’t make big adjustments. But they tweak.

Tom Kubiak
They should do that. Yeah.

Ian Robertson
But you want to hear an interesting fact about next generation?

Tom Kubiak
Yeah.

Ian Robertson
So I’m in the middle of the second season or the beginning of the second season watching it with my wife and daughter. And the second season is not the best season. And I found out why.

Tom Kubiak
Well, the first season wasn’t the best either.

Ian Robertson
No, but they’re just find their legs first season the most stuff is not really going to be the best.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, the characters are stiff.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. And the second season, I know they almost canceled the series, I found out it was during the writer strike. Oh, really. So which we’re having right now, which we’re having right now. So it made for good and bad television, because a couple of the best episodes came from that season. Guinan came from that season. But what happened was there like we were not going to write for you. You can’t use any of our copyrighted stuff. So they actually took episodes that were written for the original series.

Tom Kubiak
I didn’t know that.

Ian Robertson
And adapted them and adapted them for season two of next generation.

Tom Kubiak
Interesting.

Ian Robertson
So that’s why you watch some of the episodes and you’re like, boy, they’re writing in the old style. They’re not writing in the old style that was written for the original series.

Tom Kubiak
That was a written for..Ah, that’s interesting.

Ian Robertson
Never used the episode. Oh, yeah.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah. To me, Star Trek, the next generation has like a nostalgia connected to it too. Because, you know, it was on early, you know, just as I was getting to the point where I was on my own, and I got married and next generation was on and that whole period, and I was like obsessed with it. So I had a cataloged VHS recording of every episode. So I would set my VHS recorder to tape that every day when Star Trek would come on. And then I catalogued it, so I made sure that I had every episode. It was pretty funny. Crazy times. You know, the sad thing is you put all that effort into something like that. And now you can just click on and watch whatever episode you want to.

Ian Robertson
Crazy times. I used to etch into stone on my tablet. Yeah, it is sad. But it’s also nice, because sometimes I’ll find series and I’m like, yeah, totally forgotten about that. Now it’s digitized. Yeah. If anybody’s listening to this, if you’re ever visiting New York.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, I was hoping you’d bring this up.

Ian Robertson
Go to a place called Ticonderoga. Yeah. Ticonderoga we recently visited the Star Trek Museum. It was awesome. It’s it’s they recreated the original set with original pieces of the set. And with people that actually created the original set, and the owner of it actually designed costumes for the original series. It’s a perfect recreation. And it’s a and I say recreation. It’s almost original, because it’s built with a lot of stuff from the original set. I found out a couple years ago that they’re working on a next generation set in the building next door. Yeah, that’s gonna be cool. It’s in like an old Food Lion or Hannaford store. So it’s kind of funny. Like you’re walking in like there’s a weird, but there’s a shuttle out front. Does it get a lot of a lot of traffic? Yeah, they have a little conventions.

Tom Kubiak
Okay. So I’ve never been there. But we do need to go up and do it. And then hopefully the summer we can get up there.

Ian Robertson
So we got well, we got up there. And I’m like, let’s get here early because it was a little convention. And like, there’s nobody there and my wife is like there’s nobody here, it’ll be fine. By the time we came out. There’s people parking in the street, parking lot. Oh, a line going out the door. So people still go there.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah I’m looking forward to that. So if you if you Is there a show that you haven’t watched, but you want to watch right now.

Ian Robertson
Just Jericho. I really want to finish that and see how that goes. But if I see good sci fi that I want to watch, I immediately watch it because you never know when it’s going to disappear. Okay, yeah, how about you?

Tom Kubiak
There’s a couple of shows that are on that I have in my queue and Netflix that I that I do want to watch. I do want to watch Stranger Things. I like time travel shows. So I there’s a show that I’ve that I saw that I want to go back and watch again called Timeless. It’s a complicated plot, but they have a time machine and another group has a time machine and they’re competing to, to do things. It’s similar to Quantum Leap, they jump into a place and have to do something but not into the person. And I’m looking forward to the next season of the new quantum leap. I like kind of like that show when it came out.

Ian Robertson
Okay I haven’t seen that I haven’t had wanted to because yeah, that’s pretty good. I grew up on quantum leap and that yeah, that would make my top 30 At least.

Tom Kubiak
Yeah, me too.

Ian Robertson
I love quantum leap. Okay, so I think I think we went over that and..

Tom Kubiak
Awesome.

Ian Robertson
That’s really good information if you anybody listening have an argument one way or the other let us know. But Tom, you promised us at one point to give us a bad dad joke. What do you got for us?

Tom Kubiak
I finally got a bad dad joke. And I should preface this by saying I am not a dad. I’m an uncle. So it’s a bad uncle joke.

Ian Robertson
It’s well, it’s about the spirit of the joke. The spirit of the joke is bad dad joke.

Tom Kubiak
Okay, so here’s my bad dad joke. Why did the crowd boo the high diver?

Ian Robertson
Why?

Tom Kubiak
Because his performance was a flop.

Ian Robertson
Oh, that’s, that’s bad. That’s bad. You know, I had I had a bad dad joke moment recently. I was talking about how to go home and I’m like, I’m gonna go smoke some meat and have a glass of scotch. And a friend of mine was standing there. He’s like, Yeah, I have a couple of turkey breasts. And I look at him I go, you know working out could take care of that.

Tom Kubiak
With Seinfeld they had the manzier?

Ian Robertson
Well, on that note, I think manzier should be the final word of our podcast. Thank you, Tom. We’ll see you in the next episode.

Tom Kubiak
Thanks. Great to be with you.

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