Show Notes
The Watchcast is back for another year, and we're kicking off 2026 by laying waste to our plastic filled childhoods! The first entry in our trio of toy commercials disguised as films is one very near and dear to our youthful hearts in Transformers: The Movie, a film that simultaneously enthralled and traumatized an entire generation of budding robot enthusiasts, and tested the limits of how many popular characters you can kill off in the name of commerce. CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 164: Transformers: The Movie (1986 (00:00:25) - Intro. (00:05:57) - Let's talk about our own histories with Transformers fandom. (00:14:45) - On the trauma of Transformer murder. (00:20:49) - How did Transformers (generally) come into existence? And some other miscellaneous bits. (00:31:55) - Onto the movie, and who is responsible for all this. (00:38:14) - Killing off the old toy line. (00:44:54) - What a (bizarre) cast! And soundtrack! (01:00:19) - Break! (01:00:50) - We're back, and real quick, let's chat about the version we watched. (01:03:22) - Kicking off your kids movie with an entire planet being devoured. (01:10:46) - Leaping into the year 2005, and everybody's got moonbases now. (01:15:59) - Say goodbye to several Autobots. (01:19:48) - Hot Rod, Kup, Arcee, and the rest! (01:29:00) - Optimus is here to save the--oh no. (01:35:47) - The scene that middle-aged nerds still describe to their therapists. (01:40:18) - Unicron, Galvatron, and various Cyclonuses. (01:51:43) - Eat it, Starscream. (01:54:09) - On Arcee, and how the party gets split. (02:00:12) - Are the Quintessons interesting? A debate. (02:08:33) - Are the Junkions interesting? No. (02:13:02) - Unicron goes ham, and Rodimus is born. (02:29:14) - Final thoughts. (02:40:31) - Teeing up for next week's movie: G.I. Joe: The Movie! (02:43:46) - Outro.
More from 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:
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:
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:
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:
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.