Old V. Gold

Season 2 of Old v. Gold moves, with Spockly logic, to Season 2 of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." First up: "Q Who," which, besides serving up big scoops (a word Worf should never say) of the title character, also introduces us to those lovable scamps, the Borg.

Season 2 premiere! Ah, the '80s. When Americans were obsessed with skiing contests, French foreign-exchange students, Howard Cosell-imitating drag racers, and dancing Claymation fast food - all rigorously documented in exacting cinéma vérité detail by director Savage Steve Holland via "Better Off Dead," Fall 1985's required dose of John Cusack.

Old v. Gold's second season begins Tuesday, Oct. 7. New to the podcast, or need a refresher course on the concept? Enjoy this preview, which includes clips from both seasons.

The Old v. gold season finale! When you think of "Chariots of Fire," one thing comes to mind: guys running down a gloomy British beach in long underwear to the iconic keyboard theme song. But did you know that the O***r-winning Best Picture for 1981 also contains OTHER SCENES? Yes! Those scenes feature Ian Holm, Ben Cross, and the Borg Queen in a low-key tale of athletic skill, heritage, faith, and the classiest way to practice hurdles at your posh manor. Also, surprisingly, trowels are prominent.

A bunch of us black-palms get together and set our analytical lasers to beautify and/or brutally dissect"Logan's Run," the iconic 1976 sci-fi tale in which the color-coded denizens of a future Epcot Center live an erotically convenient, hermetically sealed life — then die a state-mandated, Cirque du Soleilesque death at 30.

Two kids with what ought to be world-conquering powers and conveniently sporadic vague memories wind up on the run from a large number of disturbing adults in Disney's 1975 "Escape to Witch Mountain."

Someone remembered "Trainspotting," Danny Boyle's acclaimed tale of heroin-dependent and -adjacent young men in Scotland as a kind of, um, funny romp? So here we are (in a session recorded a couple of weeks ago, before certain grim recent Hollywood news), to find out what we get from this energetic and artistic 1996 movie in 2014. (A hint: depressed.)

Using the Charm of Making, we weave a mist ... in time! ... through which we watchExcalibur, John Boorman's 1981 telling of the legend of King Arthur, full of verdant hills and glades, orchestral music from a completely different legend, and shouting British AC-TORS!

Old v. Gold goes on location, huddling in a shaky house among the redwoods of Northern California to view the pilot episode of "Twin Peaks," David Lynch's groundbreaking 1990 mix of surrealism, humor, terror, and donuts.

Kirk, Spock, and the rest warped to the big screen in 1979's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." This first movie in the franchise isn't a five-year mission, but it is a, well, leisurely tour.

Joe Dante's "Explorers" presents, in their first theatrical-film roles, River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke - plus a third kid you haven't heard who more than holds his own against them - as young hobos or something who put their longing for the stars to the test. Speaking of tests, the third act ...

There's no movie or show to view this time! Instead, we gathered a few of our podcasters past and future to not just bring you updates on the oldies that we nostalgiamacated this year, but also share our favorite (and not-so-much) movies, series, and trends of 2013. Herewith, the meatiest chunks of our sprawling conversation.

Our two-part look at holiday classics wraps up with the stop-motion antics of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", an epic tale of non-conformity, questionable revenge, quality assurance in manufacturing, and lackadaisical snowman narrators.

Part 1 of our two-part look at classic Yuletide TV is a double feature: the decidedly downbeat, jazzy attack on commercial Xmas that is "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and the nonsense-encrypted holiday heist of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"

Save Ferris ... from the Middle Ages! Somewhere, sometime in Europe, Matthew Broderick is drawn into the cursed romance of Michelle Pfeiffer and Rutger Hauer in Richard Donner's 1985 "Ladyhawke."

In 1984's "The Last Starfighter," a bored young denizen of a strangely idyllic trailer park longs for something more - and gets it when his videogame prowess buys his ticket to adventure in a pioneeringly high-CGI universe,with the original Music Man, Robert Preston, as his charming huckster of a tour guide.

it's Ferris Bueller's Day Off, in which weirdly popular Matthew Broderick manipulates his friends, the mean ol' dean of students, a lot of answering machines -- and maybe the fabric of spacetime itself?

The NeverEnding Story brings us, all the way from Germany, weird capitalization and a truly interactive children's book. Follow the story within the story's hero, Atreyu, who's kind of whiny for a warrior but has fabulous hair, as he fulfills his random, seemingly goal-free quest in a dazzling and fragile wonderland.

1984's Red Dawn pits a gaggle of teenagers (and apparent Hugh Jackman fans) against the entire Soviet army, plus one Cuban guy, who have invaded the U!S!A! via one small Colorado town.

We return to the Enterprise, cruising at full impulse toward the end of Season 1 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. "Conspiracy" darkens the usual series tone as Picard is forced to cancel his beach vacation in Pacifica when he's lured into a (non-Tholian) web of suspicion and mistrust.