What is the future of sex? Well, if it has anything to do with the way it’s been portrayed in the films we talk about this time around, we’ll all be in big trouble!

If I had to sum up, in one word, what watching most of these movies was like… arduous. This was not an easy episode for either of us. Not the recording of the episode, mind you… and certainly not the episode itself (or at least I hope not!) But the movies we had to watch for this episode… gah. Tedious!

There seems to have been, at one time, the belief that sex would eventually evolve into something obsolete or irrelevant. What a sad and stupid existence that would be. So, let’s look at these artifacts depicting such a world and take heed. This is not the future that we’re looking for!

Movies Discussed: Zardoz (1974), Barbarella (1968), Supernova (2000), Strange Days (1995)

Also Mentioned: CQ (2001), Modesty Blaise (1966), Demolition Man (1993), Cocoon (1985), Lawnmower Man (1992)

And you can find the Pinterest content here.

Before we head into the episode though, there’s a few things I’d like to add about our podcast in general.

We’re just two people here at NotPorn. Lyra & Laura. That’s it. Just us. We both have jobs and lives going on alongside this podcast. We’re not skilled marketers and certainly not skilled self-promoters. But we LOVE doing this podcast… we’re passionate about it! If you’ve been enjoying listening please like our Facebook page, join us on Twitter… re-post, re-tweet, or just pass the word around… we will be so deeply grateful!

And if you’re of the super-kind, able-to-financially-help and sorta-want-to-be-mentioned-on-the-show variety, you can donate toward production too (damn overhead!) There’s a place on the ‘Posts’ page for donations as well!

Also, feel free to start a dialog with us! Have things you want to say too? Favorite sex scenes or sexy movies you’d like to mention? Or just have some questions? Message us! Leave comments! Join the conversation! We’d love to hear from you!

Most importantly though, thanks for listening… you’re really why we’re here.

Now, on with the show!

Sex Machines! Well, sex with androids and artificial intelligence to be exact. We very sincerely expected this to be a typical, straightforward episode… and instead found ourselves overcome with all sorts of difficult to describe feelings!

Honestly, this episode didn’t turn out at all the way we expected it to. Oh sure, there were plenty of superficial responses and attractions, but then came all these strange emotional reactions and we found ourselves examining some much heavier shit, both about ourselves and about the ways in which we perceive humanity. Wow.

But don’t for a moment translate that into the idea that this wasn’t a whole lot of fun… we actually had a blast making this episode! In fact, aside from some craptastic audio problems with Laura’s half of the recording… which kept me up late trying to smooth it all out enough to be listenable (and I apologize that it’s a little crappier than usual… I did my best) this is probably one of our favorite episodes so far! We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Movies Discussed: Cherry 2000 (1987), A.I. (2001), Blade Runner (1982), Ex Machina (2015), Her (2013) and Black Mirror S02E01 – Be Right Back (2013)

Also Mentioned: Demon Seed (1977), Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and The Machine (2013)

You can also check out the Pinterest album for this episode here.

Sex with Aliens. Does that just sound creepy to you? I can imagine how it might. But this is our Sex in Sci-Fi month and how on Earth (or elsewhere) could we possibly pass up the subject?! Clearly, we aren’t the only ones who are curious. The genre has enough examples to assure us that it has crossed the minds of at least a few screenwriters.

So where did we go on this foray? Well, we started off pretty lightheartedly, with some silly 80’s fare… My Stepmother is An Alien and Earth Girls Are Easy. Then we veered right into the weird, head-scratching worlds of The Man Who Fell to Earth and Under The Skin.

You can find the Pinterest material for this episode here.

And for those of you interested in finding out more about the Under The Skin actor affected by neurofibromatosis that I mentioned in this episode, his name is Adam Pearson and you can find a great article on him here and information on the organization he’s a part of, Changing Faces, here.

So, originally we had come up with this idea that we would spend certain months covering sex in film as it’s portrayed by different genres. Sex in Sci-Fi. Sex in Comedy. Sex in Westerns. That sort of thing.

(With that in mind, you should be very excited about October! We will, of course, be covering sex in Horror for that month and we are both already excited about all the awesome material we intend to cover.)

For June, we decided that we would cover Sci-Fi, and went about planning four separate episodes. We had planned on beginning with a general ‘Sex in Sci-fi’ episode, followed by three more specific topics, ‘Sex and Genetics’, ‘Sex with Aliens’ and ‘Sex and Artificial Intelligence’. Now, what you may not know (and really, why would you?) is that we don’t always record our episodes in quite the order we intend to release them. Since we usually record a couple at a time, that’s not usually a problem, but this time around things didn’t work out so well. We only recorded a single episode on our last session, the one on sex and genetics, because we still had a couple of movies to watch before we recorded that first general sci-fi episode. Then that next week, Laura got terrifically ill and we weren’t able to record again before our deadline. So, we’ve had to do a little shuffling around and now our general episode will be airing last in the order. Not a big deal, I realize, but there it is anyway.

Laura is back to good and healthy and we are prepped and ready for our next recording session, so everything is back on track.

With that all covered, let’s take a quick look at what we have for you in this episode. We’ve gone all GMO on you this time around. Sexy-time with genetically modified organisms/orgasms. Sci-fi likes to toy with the concepts of scientifically engineered creatures, and once they get into the humanoid category, it’s really only a matter of time before a sweaty young man in his mother’s basement wonders what it would be like to boff it. And if Sci-fi, of all genres, can’t cater to just such a sweaty young man from time to time, what good is it for, really?

 

So, here we have a selection: Species (1995), Splice (2009), and Teknolust (2002)

 

It’s a slightly shorter than average episode, which I think can be blamed mostly on Species. That film just sucked our brains dry.

 Also, if you’ve been wondering what the hell a podcast needs with a Pinterest account, let me assure you, you’re not the first to think such things… we’ve already been asked about it, haha! Our Pinterest account consists of albums composed for each episode, containing stills, posters and trailers for the movies we talk about. It’s really rather cool. You can find the album for this episode here.