Subspace Blog
Not on Subspace: Thundarr the Barbarian
by Chance Shirley • March 27, 2022
This is the first post in a planned series covering classic sci-fi movies and shows that aren’t readily available on any streaming services (free or otherwise).
Shortly after Star Wars hit movie theaters in 1977 and became a monster hit, a lot of people wanted to get into the sci-fi business, including Ruby-Spears Productions and the ABC television network. Ruby-Spears, founded by a couple of Hanna-Barbera alums, produced the animated Thundarr the Barbarian TV series, and ABC aired the show on Saturday mornings in 1980 and 1981.
Thundarr shows off some Star Wars influences — a princess character who is not just a damsel-in-distress, a good-natured creature sidekick in the Chewbacca tradition, and, most notably, the title character’s lightsaber-like “sun sword.” But the lead character is more of a Conan-style barbarian, and the series is set on a post-apocalyptic earth filled with plenty of weird creatures (rat people, lizard people, and ape people to name but a few), mad wizards, and devastated, overgrown cityscapes.
It’s a fun show and a cut above typical ’80s Saturday morning fare, thanks in no small part to the creative input of comic book writer Steve Gerber (co-creator of Howard the Duck) and artist Jack “King” Kirby (co-creator of half of the Marvel universe and several iconic DC characters). There was a plan for Kirby to do a newspaper comic strip based on the show that, sadly, never materialized.
Warner Bros. has the rights to Thundarr, so I keep hoping it will show up on HBO Max. But it’s currently not streaming there or anywhere else. It’s available for digital purchase through a couple of services, and you can buy it on disc from Warner Archive.
You can watch a bit of the first episode of Thundarr (remastered in HD) on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_4HBH6Z-Iw
Not on Subspace
March’s Guest Curator: Jeremy Burgess
by Chance Shirley • March 1, 2022
Many thanks to Jeremy Burgess for being our guest curator for March! Jeremy is a writer, and he (along with his many fans) is celebrating the first anniversary of his blog on Substack, Dust on the VCR, where he writes about movies. If you’d like to start digging into Dust on the VCR, let me recommend these two posts, where he writes about two of the movies he is recommending for Subspace’s audience: “Predicting the Future in Film is Hard, But Akira (1988) Did a Pretty Good Job” and “Steve McQueen was Far Too Old to Play a Teenager in The Blob (1958)”.
Jeremy also writes for the movies — his first feature film, Don’t Die, is currently in post-production.
Jeremy passed along these comments about his picks...
This list draws from several corners of my wheelhouse. I love giant monsters, so Destroy All Monsters — a kaiju favorite from my younger years — was an easy pick, as was The Host (which should be required viewing for anyone that loves Parasite). And while The Creature Walks Among Us may seem like a Universal cash-grab, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it’s much better than the previous Creature sequel. Beyond that, I wanted to throw in a few must-watch titles like The Blob, Akira, and Starman for those who’ve let those classic films fall through the cracks. And I’m always on a mission to evangelize for lesser-known indies when they’re available: Timecrimes is a thrilling debut from a modern genre mainstay, Pod is a vastly underseen/underrated gem (that I was lucky enough to catch at SXSW!), and Coherence is one of the best no-budget sci-fi concepts we’ve ever seen. Oh, and let’s not forget Turkey Shoot, an Ozploitation masterpiece that I plan on revisiting every other Thanksgiving (though it’s perfect for any time of year).
If you’d like to keep up with the latest on Jeremy’s blog and movie work, you should definitely follow him on Twitter — his handle is @jd_burge .
Jeremy’s picks...
- Akira
- The Blob
- Coherence
- The Creature Walks Among Us
- Destroy All Monsters
- The Host
- Pod
- Starman
- Timecrimes
- Turkey Shoot
Guest Curators
February’s Guest Curator: Anton Jackson
by Chance Shirley • February 1, 2022
Many thanks to Anton Jackson for being our >guest curator for February! Anton is the director of the very cool Montgomery Film Festival which is right down the road from me, in Montgomery, Alabama.
Anton described his picks as “a good cross section of cerebral, action, and weird.” I couldn’t agree more.
You can follow Anton on Twitter at @antonjackson .
Anton’s picks...
- The Prisoner (1967)
- Marjorie Prime (2017)
- The Brother from Another Planet (1984)
- Ghost in the Shell (1995)
- Speed Racer (2008)
- Under the Skin (2013)
- From Beyond (1986)
- Robocop (1987)
- Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
- The Visitor (1979)
Guest Curators
January’s Guest Curator: Patrick Anderson
by Chance Shirley • January 3, 2022
Many thanks to Patrick Anderson for being our guest curator for January! Patrick writes for Modern Horrors, hosts the Not Suitable for Anyone podcast, and is a tireless champion of indie movies.
Patrick gave us a wide-ranging list of titles, and he also passed along some comments about his picks...
If you ever want to see me break into a cold sweat, ask for a list of my “top” or “favorite” anything. But after I stare at you blankly for a few minutes and stammer out a few recent titles that I happen to remember, I’ll eventually compile a list of movies I regret not being able to recall in the moment.
Thankfully, Chance gave me a shot at sharing one such list. And just to prove I have range, this list includes both old and new sci-fi films that go largely overlooked. I can always be counted on to guide you toward something off the beaten path, so whether you crave a Dutch-made, English language, post-apocalyptic action thriller, heady British sci-fi, an alien invasion musical, the best invisible man film you’ve never heard of, ozploitation with over the top stunts, an analog version of The Matrix if it were directed by David Lynch and a budget of $12, an indie-pop infused apocalypse, Russian-made high concept multiverse thriller, George Kennedy in a low budget Alien ripoff, or a gross, twisted amnesiac thriller I once said I couldn’t recommend to anyone... yet here we are!
Enjoy!
If you’d like to say “hi” to Patrick, he is @FinHorror on Twitter.
Patrick’s picks...
- Molly (2017)
- Anti Matter (2016)
- Voyage of the Rock Aliens (1984)
- The Unseen (2016)
- Dead End Drive-In (1986)
- Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway (2019)
- Starfish (2018)
- A Rough Draft (2018)
- The Terror Within (1989)
- The Hive (2014)
Guest Curators
Runtimes and Banners
by Chance Shirley • December 6, 2021
A couple of friends on Twitter pointed out that they appreciate the “sort by runtime” option on our Movies page. Which reminded me that I probably needed to double-check the runtimes of the titles in our library. I had been basing them on their IMDB listings, but it is possible that various cuts of a given movie might be floating around, so I went through and checked the Subspace runtimes against the runtimes listed on the various streaming services that actually host the movies. I suspect it still isn’t perfect — different streaming services will play more or fewer commercials during a movie, and I’m not sure of a good way to factor that in to runtime calculations. Still, I feel confident saying that The Earth Dies Screaming will be a quicker watch than Brazil.
So if you want to plan your viewing around a short-ish movie or a long-ish movie, check out our Movies sorted by runtime.
I also updated a bunch of banner images for the individual movie and TV show pages. The banner style evolved while I was deciding what the site should look like until I finally settled on kind of a low-fi/old CRT TV look. I think all of our titles share that now.
And I managed to add three new titles over the weekend, including Tremors, a 1990 movie that is a fun and funny throwback to the desert-set Universal monster movies of the 1950s.
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