Journey Through Sci-Fi: Science Fiction Film History

Some of them came to warn us. Some of them just wanted to go home.
We Come in Peace is a new series from Journey Through Sci-Fi, tracing the friendly alien across a century of film and television. We start in the earliest days of visitors from other worlds and work our way to the present, asking how and why that image kept changing.
Along the way: The Day the Earth Stood Still, It Came from Outer Space, Warning from Space, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Starman, Cocoon, Alien Nation, Coneheads, Men in Black, The Iron Giant, Arrival and plenty more.
Episode one arrives (in peace) on 10 September, with new episodes every other week.
Journey Through Sci-Fi is part of the EOH network. Hosted by James Payne and Matt Willcock.
Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss the first episode.

New to Journey Through Sci-Fi? Start here.
Before we launch our next full series on friendly aliens, we're taking a journey back through the archive with a special starter pack episode, featuring some of our favourite clips from past series.
Across this episode, we revisit some of the biggest ideas in sci-fi cinema: the mythic storytelling of the original Star Wars trilogy, the artificial intelligence and uneasy humanity of Blade Runner, the time-loop perfection of Groundhog Day, the simulated reality of The Matrix, the collapsing world of Mad Max, and the haunted-house-in-space horror of Event Horizon.
Featuring discussions of:
Star Wars Original Trilogy
Blade Runner
Metropolis
Groundhog Day
The Matrix Trilogy
Mad Max
Event Horizon
Whether you're a longtime listener revisiting old favourites or a new listener looking for the best place to begin, this episode is a guided tour through the many worlds, subgenres and strange obsessions of Journey Through Sci-Fi.
Our new series, We Come in Peace, exploring the history of friendly aliens on screen, begins soon. Follow Journey Through Sci-Fi now so you don't miss it.

A little bonus transmission from the JTSF Patreon feed.
We've been chatting about Spielberg's Disclosure Day, and because our next main-feed series is all about the history of friendly aliens in sci-fi cinema, this felt like the perfect thing to share.
In this spoiler-light extract, we talk Spielberg returning to alien territory, why big first-contact movies feel rarer now, and how Disclosure Day turns the friendly alien story into something closer to a conspiracy thriller for the misinformation age.
The full spoiler episode is available now on Patreon, where we get into the ending, the film's bigger ideas, and whether good old Stevie has still got it when it comes to visitors from the stars.
Hear the full episode on Patreon
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We close out our Mad Science series the only way we know how: with a very serious, deeply prestigious and completely unofficial Mad Science Film Awards.
After 58 films and more than a century of sci-fi cinema, we look back at the scientists, monsters, labs, experiments and terrible decisions that defined the season.
From Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Invisible Man to The Fly, Re-Animator, Jurassic Park, Get Out and Poor Things, we trace how mad science evolved from gothic cautionary tales to atomic-age anxiety, body horror, corporate genetics, surveillance, consent and control.
Categories include Best Mad Scientist, Biggest Ego in a Lab Coat, Most Unethical Experiment, Best Creation, Best Lab, Hidden Gem and the big one: Best Mad Science Movie.

Plus we unveil what we will be covering the next series of Jounrey Through Sci-fi!


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This week on Journey Through Sci-Fi, we head into the Star Trek universe to explore one of its most enduring mad science taboos: genetic engineering. From Space Seed and the rise of Khan to Enterprise's Augments arc and Deep Space Nine's shocking Bashir reveal, we trace how Star Trek keeps returning to the dangers of trying to "improve" humanity.
Along the way, we get into the Eugenics Wars, creator-creation relationships, scientific hubris, and why a utopian future still casts a long shadow over forbidden science.
Plus: Brent Spiner being superbly awful, Bashir's identity crisis, and why this theme runs through Star Trek for more than 200 years of in-universe history.
Episodes discussed:
Star Trek: The Original Series — "Space Seed" (S1E22)
Star Trek: Enterprise — "Borderland" (S4E04), "Cold Station 12" (S4E05), "The Augments" (S4E06)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" (S5E16)
Also referenced:
Star Trek — "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
Star Trek: The Next Generation — "The Schizoid Man"
Star Trek: Voyager — "Tuvix"