Geekklesia

 A few nights ago, I sat down (virtually) with three other geeky pastors to talk about our geeky hobbies, and how they are intersecting with our vocations as pastors in our different churches.  On the panel sat Ben Avery, one of the hosts of the Strangers and Aliens podcast and children's pastor at Nappanee Missionary Church in Indiana, Hector Miray, author of the Faith and Fandom series of books and host of the Faith and Fandom podcast and Location Pastor at Vertical Church in North Carolina, and Derek White, a.k.a. the Geek Preacher, one of the hosts of the Dungeon Pastors vlog and pastor at Matthews Memorial UMCin Tennessee. Part 1 was posted to the Geekklesia Facebook page . Part 2 has just been posted.

Michael Cassutt is a writer and producer of a number of television series, including THE TWILIGHT ZONE (1985), THE OUTER LIMITS (1990), and EERIE, INDIANA (1991) and most recently, Z NATION (2014). But he can also take credit for his work on MAX HEADROOM (1987), and during this 30th anniversary celebration, I am thrilled that he agreed to an interview on what is now regarded as “the first cyberpunk television series.”  The interview was conducted during the 25th anniversary, and reposted here. GK: Thanks for subjecting yourself to this interview- this is very exciting for me, as I was in college, majoring in Radio/Television/Film when MAX HEADROOM debuted, so you can imagine how it resonated with me. And that affection has only grown over the years. So, to begin, how did you become involved in the MAX HEADROOM TV series? MC: I got hired on MAX because of Phil DeGuere, who was my boss on TWILIGHT ZONE. A vastly experienced network showrunner, Phil had been teamed with Peter...

Having watched the entire series thanks to Shout Factory’s release of the complete series on DVD, I have noticed that there are some six distinct shade of morality present in the series. Morally Bankrupt Ned Grossberg, the original chair of Network 23 is clearly the most morally bankrupt person in the series. He was ousted as the chair of the largest network in the world after he authorized the failed Blipvert campaign. The blipvert technology compressed an entire 30-second advertisement into a fraction of that time. The intended result was the prevention of channel switching, thus ensuring Network 23’s hold on the ratings lead, but what actually happened was that particularly sedentary viewers had a nasty habit of spontaneously combusting because they’re nerve endings were over stimulated by the blipverts. Grossberg refused to pull them, choosing to profit above people.  He later resurfaces as the chairman of Network 66, a rival of Network 23.  Not long after joining ...

As a follow up to the previous post on Truth and Justice in the  Max Headroom  world, I wanted to reflect on the consequences for crimes and misdeeds as portrayed in the series.  One of the tropes in cyberpunk (of which Max Headroom is an example [1] ), is the subversion of justice in favor of the wealthy.  I’ve already explored briefly the fact that justice is outside of the means of the have-nots dwelling in the Fringes and beyond [2] . But on the other side of the equation, it appears that the Haves in the world of Max Headroom don’t have a problem securing sufficient cash to avoid much of the consequences of their actions.  In the pilot episode, “Blipverts,” Ned Grossberg is the chairman of the number one television network, Network 23.  Edison Carter is the largest ratings producer though his investigative journalism program [3] . Edison stumbles upon a conspiracy to roll out a revolutionary advertising system that has the unfortunate sid...

 There was once a disparaging comment about believing in something simply because “I saw it on TV.”   Max Headroom  takes that tension and makes it a central theme.  Many episodes deal with what people see and how easily they can be duped and the cavalier attitude that people in power have toward the truth. In a media and corporate-driven society, ratings are cash and cash is power.  If one has enough cash, one has enough power to shape truth to whatever form is most expedient to increase ratings and thereby increase revenue. In this world, network executives realize that they are playing fast and loose with the truth, but that knowledge is of no concern. One board member of Network 23 accuses Network 66 of theft by “falsifying ratings,” to which Network 23 Chairman Ben Cheviot responds “Nonsense, its merely ethically dubious, perfectly normal practice.”  [1] The same episode focuses tightly on the role of media and its manipulation of the t...

There are three episodes of the  Max Headroom  series which deal either directly or indirectly with religion and matters of faith. The first season episode ‘finale,’ “Blanks,” [1]  dealt with individuals who have elected to remove themselves from the computer databases of the world.  There is no official record of their existence and they are referred to as the “Blanks” of the episode title.  The plot of the story is one where the political chief executive officer, [2]  Simon Peller, has decided to wage a campaign against the Blanks. Because they have no records, they don’t officially exist, and therefore have no rights.  In a later episode where another Blank is arrested, [3]  we see that Blanks are matched up by a computer with unsolved crimes regardless of whether or not they actually committed them.  It’s almost as if racial profiling has gone berserk.  In “Blanks,” Simon Peller arrests and imprisons the Blanks because he finds the...

[Please forgive the stream of consciousness aspect to this post.]  We are now just two weeks away from the release of Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens in the US. I've been reflecting on this event for a while now. I was eleven years old when the original Star Wars movie (now branded as Episode 4: A New Hope ) was released and I saw it, that first, fateful summer of 1977. Then in 1980, this was followed by Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back . A new decade, and a darker turn, with an unbelievable (at the time) reveal. In 1983, I had just finished my Junior year of High School, and my best friend at the time and I were among the first in line to see the conclusion of what is now seen as the "Original Trilogy," Episode 6: The Return of the Jedi. There was  no camping out at my little theater near Texarkana, Texas. In fact, when I pulled up, we were the first to arrive. But rather than starting the line, we went back and sat in the car. When others arrived, ...

Last weekend, I was able to pull off a rare treat for myself: I got to see two movies, as it was Memorial Day and I had the time.  My wife and I together went to see Tomorrowland , and then on Monday I soloed at Mad Max: Fury Road (while she went to see Age of Adeline ). The two films together are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to our possible futures.  On the one hand, Tomorrowland wistfully presents us with the possibility thaht our future can be bright, hopeful and full of promise, while the latest installment (NOT reboot) of the Mad Max franchise is as far to the other side of the spectrum as one can get: dark, grim, violent, uncertain in morals or promise of a better life. Most reviews of Tomorrowland I have seen have not been positive. They seem to focus on the positive message of the film. When I was a kid, this was the future I was promised: gleaming skyscrapers, high-speed monorails, jetpacks and flying cars.  As I grew up, I discovered post...

I had been looking to this week for a few days. Friday is my birthday, and although my wife was scheduled to be out of town this week at a conference, she was due to return on Friday night, and we would be celebrating on Saturday, with a visit to an Irish pub in town.  While she was away, I thought about spending a little "me time" at my favorite big box book store just browsing. I should have seen it coming. First, we had been pounded two weekends previously with snowstorms which forced us to cancel many of our church activities, something I really dislike doing.  I also had to learn to shovel a precariously steep driveway at our home so that we could get out when the roads were clear enough. Not once, but twice. The second time, I didn't get as much cleared, and on Monday night (two days before my wife's trip), I slipped on a patch of ice, and went down hard. Not quite twenty years ago I severely sprained my right ankle, and thought at first that I had done the ...

Confession: I have never been a Whovian, that is a fan of Dr. Who. I stumbled across the character and the series on my local PBS affiliate when I was a young teenager and immediately dismissed everything about it as being irredeemably cheesy: the stories, the props, the sets, even (and I know I will lose some points for this) the Doctor himself (as played by Tom Baker).  As a youngster who was exposed to the glorious effects of Star Wars, I thought that the American science fiction TV series like Buck Rogers, the original Battlestar Galactica and others were more compelling to me. Even a series as dated as the original Star Trek was, it had better sets and effects than Dr. Who. As I grew older, Dr. Who faded even further into the background. I didn't know (or care) who played the Doctor after Peter Davison (Tom Baker's successor - the only reason I knew even that was due to an article in STARLOG Magazine that I read). I didn't keep up with much in traditional geekdom for...