The Incomparable Mothership

Once more unto the breach, dear friends! This episode kicks off a new recurring feature, Shakespeare Club. Our first subject is “Henry V.” We watch Kenneth Branagh’s 1989 film and discuss Shakespeare’s Expanded Henry Universe, tennis balls, d’elbow, and what a jerk young Harry actually is.

Our Old Movie Club takes on two Billy Wilder comedies from 1939 and 1959, to see if they still hold up 81 and 61 years later. Erika Ensign’s selection is “Midnight,” starring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche, and Philip Michaels counters with “Some Like It Hot,” starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe. Both films are about people pretending to be something they aren’t. And then the fun begins… hopefully!

Launch the Photon Torpedoes! In this episode we’re drafting mostly obscure characters from all of Star Trek lore, and creating our own TV series pitches with the results. If you think our drafts have gone off the rails before, you haven’t seen anything yet!

Grab a shotgun, climb on a stolen motorcycle, and get out your 90s slang phrasebook, because it’s time to watch one of the definitive summer blockbusters, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” We marvel at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s perfectly robotic demeanor, Robert Patrick’s steely stare and creepy walk, and Linda Hamilton’s—well, pretty much everything. Hasta la vista, baby.

Hop a flight piloted by a Dodo and leave behind the world you know! Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the perfect escape. Journey to a deserted island to do digital equivalents of chores you’re avoiding doing in the real world! One of the most subjective experiences in all of gaming turned out to be just what millions of us needed this summer. Guest host Moisés Chiullán and his six panelists are proof that “the friends you make along the way” really is the whole point after all. Well, that and draft-format podcasts.

Grab a wad of counterfeit cash and get ready to swim up a waterfall! Our Miyazaki Club goes back to the beginning, to the great animation director’s first feature, “The Castle of Cagliostro.” It’s a franchise work-for-hire being executed by a budding genius, which is a fascinating combination. The film mixes cartoony action and heist-movie tropes with clouds and landscapes and flying machines that come straight from Miyazaki’s brain.

Ten years ago today, The Incomparable began. To celebrate a decade of whatever this is, Jason gathered a dozen of the podcast’s top panelists for a round of toasts.

Inflate your pool floaties, prepare a wedding speech, and whatever you do, don’t go in the glowing red cave, because we’re discussing the delightful film “Palm Springs,” starring Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, and J.K. Simmons, and currently available (to Americans, anyway) on Hulu. It’s the kind of movie we’ve seen before, but with so many interesting twists on the concept that it always feels fresh. In addition to pointing out what makes the movie work, we’ve got a bunch of nerdy questions about its premise, the multiverse, where you can find C4 and a policeman’s uniform on short notice, and the ultimate disposition of one very strange goat.

Want to pick up a comic book or graphic novel and don’t know where to start? Our panel has a bunch of very different ideas for you to choose from! We’ve made a list of nearly two dozen for you to try—all available in collections, all ready to pick up without knowing anything about history or backstory or continuity or anything.

It’s our annual read of the annual science fiction and fantasy shortlist, the Hugo Awards nominees! Our panelists catch up on the three books that weren’t covered in our Nebula Awards episode, and then Jason and Erika spend a little time on the short fiction nominees. And the raging debate on whether a planet is space or not continues!