The Nextlander Watchcast

Our Halloween slate continues, and this week's dark temptation is the somewhat resistible Stephen King adaptation, Needful Things! Join us as we cackle together at this looney tale of regular folk driven to homicidal madness by the kindliest grandpa demon anyone's ever run afoul of.
CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 195: Needful Things (1993)
(00:00:20) - Intro.
(00:08:15) - Who is responsible (besides Stephen King) for this movie.
(00:12:48) - Launching into the film, and our introduction to Leland Gaunt (or his car, at least).
(00:20:17) - Meeting some of the townsfolk, and Leland makes his first appearance.
(00:27:55) - Leland makes his first offer.
(00:39:43) - Break!
(00:40:03) - We're back, and it's time to meet some more Castle Rock weirdos.
(00:46:17) - Really doesn't take much to get these people under your thrall.
(00:59:31) - Checking in at the local loser bar to meet homicidal Al Bundy.
(01:07:35) - Gaunt gets his hooks in Polly, and Brian is pulled deeper into Gaunt's employ.
(01:12:44) - Buster likes the ponies.
(01:17:22) - Poor Raider, and now it's time for people to kill each other.
(01:22:45) - Polly is handed a cure, and Brian can't take the pressure anymore.
(01:32:26) - We've concluded this man is a monster.
(01:35:30) - Let the mayhem commence.
(01:46:04) - "You wussy."
(01:51:02) - Evil endures, of course.
(01:54:02) - Final thoughts, and rankings.
(01:57:08) - Housekeeping for next week's movie: The Substance!
(01:59:46) - Outro.

October is always one of the best months for the Watchcast, if we do say ourselves, and for this month of dark temptations we've got one of the goopiest movies of the '80s in Clive Barker's Hellraiser! Join us as we meet Pinhead and the gang for the first time, compare the film against Barker's original novella, and ponder just how tempted we'd be to solve the Lament Configuration.
CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 194: Hellraiser (1987)
(00:00:17) - Intro.
(00:06:20) - On Clive Barker, Cenobite lore, and the origins of this film.
(00:19:25) - How this movie got made.
(00:31:15) - Some of Barker's inspirations for the story.
(00:33:30) - Break!
(00:33:57) - We're back, and it's time to tear Frank apart.
(00:43:26) - A little wallpaper, a few throw pillows, this house might just be livable.
(00:59:36) - Frank is reborn, after a fashion.
(01:11:53) - Time to murder some horny middle-aged men.
(01:20:44) - Frank continues to get more menacing, and Kirsty has concerns about Julia.
(01:30:30) - Kirsty has gone bye-bye, until the Cenobites wake her ass up.
(01:47:33) - Papa's got a brand new skin suit.
(01:58:16) - Jesus wept. Hell, anyone would looking at what we're looking at.
(02:04:10) - A lot of box touching to send the Cenobites packing.
(02:11:24) - Final thoughts (and bonus coverage of the Hellraiser NES game).
(02:26:55) - Housekeeping for next week's movie and the rest of October's slate.
(02:32:45) - Outro.

Star Trek Summer: Extended Edition is officially on hiatus for a couple of months after this week's Watchcast, and for our final batch of episodes until December, we've got Lee Merriweather as a tormented fembot in That Which Survives, followed by the rare Scotty romance episode The Lights of Zetar!
CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 193: Star Trek: That Which Survives and The Lights of Zetar
(00:00:18) - Intro.
(00:03:18) - Kicking things off with production stuff for That Which Survives.
(00:06:34) - Earthquakes and guest actors and ship problems, oh my!
(00:11:31) - The set-up for this stranded-on-a-planet episode.
(00:21:32) - This is the weirdest alien murderer we've come across yet.
(00:34:08) - Solving the engine problems, and the underground lair full of useful plot information.
(00:42:18) - Final thoughts on this episode.
(00:43:44) - Break!
(00:44:05) - We're back, and it's time for The Lights of Zetar.
(00:46:19) - The Lamb Chop connection, and other production notes.
(00:50:12) - Launching into the episode proper.
(01:01:01) - A whole planetoid of dead librarians.
(01:07:30) - Chased by a psychedelic storm, and Romaine's connection is deeper than anyone realizes.
(01:12:02) - Decompressing alien ghosts out of your brain.
(01:21:34) - Enjoy corpse cleanup duty, Lt. Romaine. And our final thoughts.
(01:27:02) - Housekeeping for October's lineup: Dark Temptations!
(01:32:52) - Outro.

This week's Watchcast brings us to a famous (or infamous) episode from Star Trek's later run in the blunt-as-a-hammer racism parable Let That Be Your Last Battlefield. Also this week is The Mark of Gideon, which is an episode of Star Trek, and that's about the most you can say for it.
CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 192: Star Trek: Let That Be Your Last Battlefield and The Mark of Gideon
(00:00:17) - Intro, which is actually just us launching us straight into Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.
(00:08:24) - Production notes for this episode.
(00:23:27) - Getting into the set-up for the plot.
(00:27:33) - An invisible ship, a Batman villain, and 50,000 years of running around the galaxy.
(00:36:41) - Another alien that can just kind of do whatever, and blowing up the ship.
(00:44:00) - Lokai spreads his message to the rank and file, and Bele continues to be an asshole.
(00:53:18) - There's a great, tragic ending in here somewhere if you squint hard enough.
(00:59:33) - Break!
(00:59:52) - We're back, and it's time to talk about The Mark of Gideon, such as it is.
(01:03:15) - Who's behind this one.
(01:10:37) - An abandoned Enterprise could be kind of a haunting idea, if it had been done any way but this.
(01:17:57) - Alex really needs to talk about this dumb virus plan ahead of schedule.
(01:26:15) - Bopping around the other parts of the plot.
(01:38:47) - Final thoughts, and housekeeping for next week's episodes.
(01:42:47) - Outro.

We're over the halfway hump in Star Trek's third season, and the campy nonsense hits a fever pitch in this week's episodes. First up is the Taming of the Shrew riff Elaan of Troyius, and then we're onto the simultaneously overheated and under-baked Whom Gods Destroy!
CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 191: Star Trek: Elaan of Troyius and Whom Gods Destroy
(00:00:15) - Intro.
(00:02:32) - Kicking things off with Elaan of Troyius.
(00:09:12) - Production notes for the episode.
(00:16:34) - We're a little all over the place discussing this one, but we start really getting into the episode here.
(00:21:38) - Veering back to a few quick behind-the-scenes notes.
(00:23:12) - And now beginning the episode in earnest.
(00:28:42) - Making the crew miserable, and talking some special effects stuff.
(00:34:39) - Kirk and Elaan hash it out, sort of.
(00:38:29) - The Klingon plot is revealed, and Kirk is cursed with a moderate amount of infatuation.
(00:48:10) - A good old fashioned space sub battle.
(00:56:01) - Say goodbye to Elaan.
(01:02:51) - Break!
(01:03:44) - We're back, and it's time for Whom Gods Destroy.
(01:05:57) - Who did this.
(01:16:55) - Alright, let's get into it.
(01:28:58) - The inmates can't get to the ship, but we've still got like half an hour to kill.
(01:34:25) - On the pain chair, and the blowing up of Marta.
(01:39:25) - I'm seein' double! Two Kirks and two marginally similar stuntmen!
(01:42:56) - Sure, a lady blew up, but we cured mental illness? Right?
(01:45:52) - Final thoughts, and housekeeping for next week's episodes.
(01:51:02) - Outro.