Before the Future Came
Melissa Avery-Weir, Gregory Avery-Weir, and Dr. Lucy Arnold
Subscribe
Melissa Avery-Weir, Gregory Avery-Weir, and Dr. Lucy Arnold look at the ideologies of Star Trek as we voyage from one episode or film to the next, following a breadcrumb trail of motifs. How is the universe portrayed in Star Trek a truly egalitarian utopia, and how does the world subtly uphold the hegemonic values of our present day?
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
Nov 7, 2023
S00E03. The Collapsium
Content Warnings: discussion of sex, torture, self-mutilation, misogyny, body horror, brief mention of suicide.
With the AMPTP still refusing to pay actors properly, we discuss The Collapsium by Wil McCarthy! We talk about hard and soft science fiction, wealth and labor, and the book's strange use of appendices. We also touch on wizard battles, robotic freedom, princesses, cloning via teleportation, rivals in genre fiction, and Cherenkov light. The rocketship from A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit. Gregory's sketches of the rivals' respective homes. Cerenkov radiation at the Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory.
Our next episode will cover "SCP-6001: Avalon," by T Rutherford. Gregory has prepared a glossary for those unfamiliar with the SCP universe.
Please give us a five-star review on iTunes! You can send us asks at https://cohost.org/beforethefuturecame or hail us at onscreen@beforethefuture.space. Let us know what you think of the show!
Works Cited:
* Asimov, I. (1951). Foundation. Gnome Press.
* Barrie, J. M. (1911). Peter and Wendy. Hodder & Stoughton.
* Borges, J. L. (1962). Labyrinths (Irby, J. E., Yates, D. A., Fein, J. M., de Onis, H., Palley, J., Fitts, D., and Murillo, L. A. [Trans.]). New Directions. (Original works published 1931-1960)
* Bradbury, R. (1950). The Martian chronicles. Doubleday.
* Corey, J. S. A. The expanse [Novel series]. Orbit books.
* Elbow, P. (2009). The believing game, or methodological believing. Journal for The Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning, 13.
* Frayn, M. (2000). Copenhagen. Anchor.
* Heinlein, R. A. (1970). I will fear no evil. G.P. Putnam's Sons.
* Le Guin, U. K. (1974). The dispossessed. Harper & Row.
* Lee, S. & Ditko, S. (Creators). (1963-present). The amazing Spider-Man. Marvel Comics.
* Lucas, G. (Director & Writer). (1977). Star wars [Film]. Lucasfilm Ltd.*
* McCarthy, Wil. (2003). Hacking matter: Levitating chairs, quantum mirages, and the infinite weirdness of programmable atoms. Basic Books.
* McCarthy, Wil. (2021). Rich man's sky. Simon & Schuster.
* Park, N. (Director & Writer) & Rushton, S. (Writer). (1989). A grand day out with Wallace and Gromit [Film]. National Film and Television School, Aardman Animations.
* Roddenberry, G. (Creator). (1966-1969). Star trek [TV series]. Desilu Productions, Paramount Television.*
* Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone. Bloomsbury.
* Shakespeare, W. (1623). The tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. Edward Blount, William & Isaac Jaggard.
* We believe this may be struck work under the current SAG-AFTRA strike guidelines. Our discussion of these works should not be considered promotion. Please do not view these titles on streaming services because of our citation.
Before the Future Came is edited by Lucy Arnold, transcribed by Melissa Avery-Weir, and webmavened by Gregory Avery-Weir.
Our theme is “Let’s Pretend” by Josh Woodward, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
playlist_add
Oct 3, 2023
S00E02. The Wild Robot
Content Warnings: discussion of defecation, animal injury and death, misogyny, enslavement.
With Hollywood strikes ongoing, we discuss The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. We talk about community and ownership, philosophical wildness, and Object-Oriented Ontology. We also dip into practice, found families, refrain, robots in science fiction, individuality, and cheerful pooping.
Please share your thoughts! You can hail us at onscreen@beforethefuture.space, contact us on social media, or comment on our website at beforethefuture.space. We'd also love a five-star review on your favorite podcast platform.
Works cited:
* Akao, D. (Writer) & Suzuki, K. (Director). (2019). My roommate is a cat [TV series]. Zero-G.
* Asimov, I. (1950). Runaround. In I, Robot. Gnome Press.
* Asimov, I. (1957). The naked sun. Doubleday.
* Auel, J. M. (1980). The clan of the cave bear. Crown.
* Bogost, I. (2012). Alien phenomenology, or what it’s like to be a thing. University of Minnesota Press.
* Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In Richardson, J.G. (Ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (pp. 241-58). Greenwood Press.
* Čapek, K. (2014). R.U.R. (D. Wyllie, Trans.). The University of Adelaide. (Original work published 1920).
* DiMartino, M. D. & Konietzko, B. (Creators). (2005-2008). Avatar: The last airbender [TV series]. Nickelodeon Animation Studio.*
* Eastman, P. D. (1960). Are you my mother? Random House.
* Favreau, J. (Creator). (2019-present). The Mandalorian [TV series]. Lucasfilm, Fairview Entertainment, Golem Productions.*
* The forest [Video game]. (2018). Endnight Games.
* Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Pantheon Books. (Original work published 1975).
* Gunn, J. (Writer & Director) & Perlman, N. (Writer). (2014). Guardians of the galaxy [Film]. Marvel Studios.*
* Halberstam, J. (2020). Wild things: The disorder of desire. Duke University Press.
* Harman, G. (2018). Object-Oriented Ontology: A new theory of everything. Pelican.
* J.Deku [@TheJadedGuy]. (2017, March 21). David Cage: Can a robot learn to be human? Yoko Taro: Can a human? Cage: what Yoko Taro: Can a [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/TheJadedGuy/status/844352570470645760
* Kaba, M. (2021). We do this 'til we free us: Abolitionist organizing and transforming justice. Haymarket Books.
* Kreider, T. (2013, June 15). I know what you think of me. The New York Times. https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/i-know-what-you-think-of-me/
* Lewis, C. S. (1966). On three ways of writing for children. In Hooper, W. (Ed.), Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories. Geoffrey Bles.
* Shelter 2 [Video game]. (2015). Might and Delight.
* Moffat, S. (Writer) & Hawes, J. (Director). (2005, May 21). The empty child (Series 1, Episode 9) [TV series episode]. In Davies, R. T., Gardner, J., & Young, M. (Executive Producers), Doctor Who. BBC Wales.
* Morrison, Toni. (1987). Beloved. Alfred A. Knopf.
* Nietzche, F. (1968). The will to power (Kaufmann, W., Ed. & Trans. and Hollingdale, R.J., Trans.). Random House. (selected notes from 1883–88)
* O'Dell, S. (1960). Island of the blue dolphins. Houghton Mifflin.
* Paulsen, G. (1986). Hatchet. MacMillan.
* Sendak, M. (1963). Where the Wild Things Are. Harper & Row.
* Quinn, D. (1992). Ishmael. Bantam/Turner Books.
* Wordsworth, W. (1807) I wandered lonely as a cloud. In Poems, in Two Volumes. Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orms.**
* We believe this may be struck work under the current SAG-AFTRA strike guidelines. Our discussion of these works should not be considered promotion. Please do not view these titles on streaming services because of our citation.
**Lucy incorrectly quoted the poem in the ep. It should be "a thousand saw I at a glance," not a million. That's just how much Lucy likes daffodils.
Our next episode will cover the book The Collapsium by Wil McCarthy.
Before the Future Came is edited by Lucy Arnold, transcribed by Melissa Avery-Weir, and webmavened by Gregory Avery-Weir.
Our theme is “Let’s Pretend” by Josh Woodward, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
playlist_add
Sep 5, 2023
S00E01. Binti
Content Warnings: blood and injury; frank discussions of racism and xenophobia.
We're not yet a Star Trek podcast! Instead, we open with Binti, written by Nnedi Okorafor. We discuss the tension between violence and empathy, the nature of magic and mysticism in science fiction, and how it feels to be ostracized by every inch of your skin and finding a path forward anyway.
We'd love to hear what you think! You can hail us at onscreen@beforethefuture.space, contact us on social media, or comment on our website at beforethefuture.space.
Works cited:
* Clarke, A. C. (1968). 2001: A space odyssey. Hutchinson.
* Clarke, A. C. (1973). Rendezvous with Rama. Gollancz.
* Czerneda, J. E. (1997). A thousand words for stranger. DAW.
* Marron, D. (Host). (2023). The redemption of Jar Jar Binks [Audio podcast]. TED. https://www.ted.com/podcasts/the-redemption-of-jar-jar-binks
* Moon, E. (1992). The deed of Paksenarrion (1st omnibus ed.). Baen Books.
* Straczynski, J.M. (Writer & Producer). (1993-1998). Babylon 5 [TV Series]. Babylonian Productions, Inc., Synthetic Worlds, Ltd., Warner Bros. Television.*
* Verne, J. (1871). Twenty thousand leagues under the seas (1st collected ed.). Pierre-Jules Hetzel.
* Villeneuve, D. (Director). (2016). Arrival [Film]. FilmNation Entertainment, Lava Bear Films, 21 Laps Entertainment.*
* Vygotsky, L. (1972). Thought and language (Hanfmann, E. & Vakar, G., Trans.). MIT Press. (Original work published 1934)
* Wells, H. G. (1898). War of the worlds (1st collected ed.). William Heinemann.
* Williams, T. (1996). Otherland. Legend Books.
* Struck work under the current SAG-AFTRA strike guidelines.
Our next episode will cover the book The Wild Robot by Peter Brown.
Before the Future Came is edited by Lucy Arnold, transcribed by Melissa Avery-Weir, and webmavened by Gregory Avery-Weir.
Our theme is “Let’s Pretend” by Josh Woodward, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
playlist_add
Aug 1, 2023
00b. Programming Note – Binti
There's a actor's and writer's strike going on in Hollywood, and SAG-AFTRA recently clarified their guidelines on fan podcasts. We support the strike, and while the unions have not called for a general boycott, they've requested that folks not promote "struck work." That includes Star Trek, and we want to abide by that request.
Lucy and Melissa have been out of town for the end of July, so only Gregory was available to record a replacement episode. As a result, we're delaying our already-recorded-and-edited premiere episode discussing Star Trek: First Contact and we'll instead be reading and discussing the novella Binti by Nnedi Okorafor on our first released episode at the start of September.
You don't have to read the book to listen, but if you want to, you can get either the novella Binti or the omnibus Binti: The Complete Trilogy wherever you want to get books. Note that Binti: Home and Binti: The Night Masquerade are sequel books; those are included in the trilogy, but make sure not to get one of them alone instead of the first book, which is just Binti.
If you have any questions, you can hail us at onscreen@beforethefuture.space, contact us on social media, or comment on our website at beforethefuture.space.
Before the Future Came is edited by Lucy Arnold, transcribed by Melissa Avery-Weir, and webmavened by Gregory Avery-Weir.
Our theme is “Let’s Pretend” by Josh Woodward, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
playlist_add
Jul 11, 2023
00. Before “Before the Future Came”
Coming soon: a Star Trek podcast about the ideals of the franchise, wandering out-of-order by following a breadcrumb trail of motifs. We love Star Trek and we love much of what it sets out to say about the way the world will be, but we think it often falls short of its goals. We want to talk about that.
The first episode will discuss 1996's Star Trek: First Contact, the second movie featuring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. You don't need to watch it to listen, but if you want to, you can stream it on Paramount+ or find it elsewhere. At the end of each episode, one of us will surprise everyone else with the selection for the next one.
We'd love to hear what you think! You can hail us at onscreen@beforethefuture.space, contact us on social media, or comment on our website at beforethefuture.space.
Before the Future Came is edited by Lucy Arnold, transcribed by Melissa Avery-Weir, and webmavened by Gregory Avery-Weir.
Our theme is “Let’s Pretend” by Josh Woodward, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
playlist_add