Movie Meltdown: There’s Nothing to Do in Outer Space

Settle in for an extensive discussion of the sci-fi “classic” Battle Beyond the Stars. And this is a film that definitely gives us a lot to dig into, considering the movie is produced by Roger Corman, written by John Sayles, featuring music composed by James Horner, art direction and visual effects by James Cameron… just to name a few of it’s notable crew. Plus a star-studded cast including Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, John Saxon, George Peppard, Julia Duffy and of course Sybil Danning.

And while we come to realize we are vaguely humanoid in the wrong kind of ways, we also cover… Last Woman on Earth, electric kaleidoscope, Enter the Dragon, Harlan Ellison, Vincent Price, glitter is cool, a disgraced conquistador, a back alley that also just happens to be a space ship, George Lucas, Starcrash, Hephaestus, lots of dome shapes, The Wasp Woman, Eloi, sassy consciousness, protecting the village of the innocent, analog electronic toys, stealing from Kurosawa, he’s an old prospector stuck inside of a giant egg timer, create a new kind of a world, Ray Harryhausen, always be selling, this is a pretty bored universe, it doesn’t matter how many of the pools leak, Bucket of Blood, almost everything from a plumber’s supply store, in a brutal display of physical comedy, prancing lizard man, clone Borg, a space hell house, Gale Anne Hurd, perched on top of a pile of pirate treasure, Ingrid Pitt, space medieval, plasma balls, Bela Lugosi, high-concept science fiction, H. P. Lovecraft, finger on the pulse of the decade, a caulking gun, Bill Paxton, cycling through potential robot partners, the most awkward angle possible, spiral latex, hope for the future, shooting people from space, with a washable silk shirt, surreal pop art, why did your movies manage to become classics, five surgery-mutant thumbs up, Forbidden Planet, the league of local actors who all do the robot, a lot of uncanny valley, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Alec Gillis, Las Vegas in space, Caroline Munro, matte paintings, space hippies, captured by mimes, the development of special effects as a science, The Man Who Fell to Earth, a civilization of rubes, The Mission, Marcia Lucas and the worst Roomba ever. 

Spoiler Alert: We go into painstaking detail about the film Battle Beyond the Stars. So you should watch the movie before listening. You have been warned! 

“…this movie was like, it was trying to be, at times, a silly, sci-fi romp, but then would turn around and then just be utterly surreal, acid-trip of a film.”