Ancient Geeks – Details, episodes & analysis

Our first real episode discussed how Batman in the 60s and 70s played a big role in our early geek lives. Now, we jump ahead to the 80s and 90s, a golden age of Batman in the comics and on the screen. In now-classic series like The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, A Death In The Family, Batman: The Cult, the writers and artists pulled out all the stops. Batman in a dystopian future! Robin dies! Batman loses his mind, repeatedly! This was an extraordinary period for both writing and art featuring the world's greatest detective.

We also discuss Tim Burton's Batman movie in the 1980s. To absolutely no one's surprise, we both loved it. What made this movie so very good? And how did it shape the future of the character?

The Batman we know today emerged during this Bat-Renaissance. Hear what it was like to read and watch all this Bat-goodness for the first time, and hear why it had an impact on not just future incarnations of Batman, but also superheroes in general. 

Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic!

For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, reviews on your podcast platform of choice are always appreciated.

© 2025 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

Put on your polyester shirts and bellbottom jeans, because it's time for Steven and Tom to journey back to the 1970s, when superhero TV shows were popular. You'd think that we would have been excited to see our beloved comic book characters translated to the small screen...But the results were mixed, at best. Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Captain America, The Six Million Dollar Man, and even Doctor Strange -- they're all here, kinda sorta.

See the world's greatest superheroes sandwiched into the TV tropes of the 1970s! Gasp at the avocado carpets and gold wallpaper! Be amazed at the extremely sub-par writing and acting! Thrill at all the vans! (So many vans...) 

Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic!

For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, reviews on your podcast platform of choice are always appreciated.

© 2025 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

Space, the final frontier...

These words started our lifelong love of Star Trek. In this episode, we talk about our first stage of that love affair, the original series (TOS).

The optimism about the future! The exploration of the unknown! The big ideas! The thinly-veiled social commentary! The original crew! The TOS best episodes! The TOS worst episodes! William Shatner at a jeans store opening! It's all here. 

Star Trek was pivotal in our young geek lives, and foundational for geek culture. This is an important episode that you don't want to miss!

For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend.

© 2025 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

Look! Up in the sky! It's the Superman episode!

Last time, we covered the Caped Crusader in the 60s and 70s last time. This episode, we talk about Superman in the same time period, on TV and in the comics.

See a man dangling from a zeppelin, in glorious black and white on The Adventures of Superman! Thrill as Superman fights Luthor, then he becomes a caveman, Jimmy turns into porcupine, and Lois demands his execution! Learn why, in spite of all these bizarre plots, Superman remained a beloved icon! And hear how the Superman movie catapulted the Man of Steel to even greater popularity!

For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend.

© 2025 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

WHAM! SOCK! POW!

We were big fans of the Caped Crusader in the 1960s and the 1970s, starting with both the TV show and the comics. In this episode, we focus on Batman during this pivotal era, when the TV show became hugely popular, and the comics started to grow out of their early Silver Age goofiness. You'll hear about what made us Batfans, the weird process of having to schedule your time around a TV show, the jaw-dropping greatness of Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams' run on the comics, other terrific writers and artists from this period, and our favorite Batman merch.

For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky.

© 2025 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

It all starts here! Welcome to Ancient Geeks, a podcast about the birth of geek culture, from two older geeks whose younger selves were there at the beginning.

In this inaugural episode, Tom Grant and Steven Taylor share their origin stories. Watching Batman, Star Trek, cartoons, and monster movies as kids. Reading classic science fiction and fantasy books by Tolkien, Burroughs, Asimov, and more. Being there at the premiere of Star Wars and Superman. Playing D&D and computer games. We were geek before it became chic.

What attracted us to all these shiny bits of popular culture? How did they all fit together into one big geek mosaic? And how do we feel about them today? That’s what we’ll be exploring in this podcast.

For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com

© 2025 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

Dragons and beholders and owlbears, oh my! During our geek formative years, we both discovered Dungeons & Dragons, and were instantly hooked. A sandbox where we have freedom to create our own heroic fantasy characters and stories, and we get to roll really cool-looking dice as well? Sign us up! In this episode, we cover the early years of D&D, from the white box edition through the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Grab your character sheet and painted miniature and join us at the gaming table!

Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic!

For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, reviews on your podcast platform of choice are always appreciated.

© 2025 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

The Empire strikes back, and so do we! In this episode, we discuss the rest of the original Star Wars trilogy. What was it like to await another Star Wars movie after the original smash hit? How did The Empire Strikes Back exceed expectations? Why were we less impressed with Return of the Jedi?

It's all here. Characters with actual arcs. High-paced excitement. Fantastic practical effects. The biggest plot twist ever. An expanding universe. Everything that made the original trilogy iconic, seen from the point of view of the 70s and 80s, when it was all new.

Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic!

For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, reviews on your podcast platform of choice are always appreciated.

© 2025 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

Star Wars, nothing but Star Wars...Steven and Tom re-visit the very, very first Star Wars movie. When it landed in the summer of 1977, it had an asteroid side impact on our brains, popular culture, and moviemaking. Come with us to the mall theater on opening day! Hear all the great things that practically knocked us out of your seats on that first showing! Listen to us talk about what it was like to see our friends and family follow under its spell! Gasp at how many times we saw it, and why, not to mention people who saw it even more! Cringe at the TV specials! Suit up in your home-made Han Solo costume!

Star Wars was the first epic success of geek culture in our lifetimes, even bigger than the Batman TV show and other topics we've covered.  Journey back with us to the late Seventies to hear how this culture-defining movie changed our young geek lives...And how it conquered the world!

Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic!

For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, reviews on your podcast platform of choice are always appreciated.

© 2025 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor

We were both early Doctor Who fans, back when the iconic Doctor was a British eccentric with a long scarf, a floppy hat, a pocket full of Jelly Babies, and a robot dog as a sidekick. Or was he an older gentleman wearing a puffy shirt, driving an antique roadster? Or a grumpy, grandfatherly figure who could be kind of a jerk? We discuss the first five incarnations of the Doctor, his companions, and his antagonists. This was the Doctor as he first arrived on American shores, courtesy of PBS (!).

Weird aliens! Imaginative plots! Epic science fiction TV on a low budget! It's all here.

For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend.

© 2025 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor