AG Monday
This week: "Beneath the Planet of the Apes"
Planet Of The Apes was a classic. Beneath The Planet Of The Apes was supposed to be the sequel to end all ape sequels, just as World War I was supposed to be the war to end all wars. How did both of those efforts work out?
Beneath The Planet Of The Apes carried the deep distrust of human nature into another film. But now, with another astronaut (who looked a lot like the first astronaut), a first act that looked a lot like the first film, and then, it added psionic mutants and a sacred doomsday weapon. Were they enough to make a good sequel?
Return to Ape City! Voyages into the Forbidden Zone! An underground city that was once above ground! Near-identical men with beards fight to the death! Giant gorilla headpieces! The final confrontation between Taylor and Dr. Zaius! It’s all here.
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 popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic!
For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice.
© 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor
I was surprised that there are five movies. then I recalled these were mentioned in an early ep of The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon gets sick, so Leonard, Howard, and Rajesh, escape the situation by going to a movie theater showing a Planet of the Apes marathon.
I don’t know. the Idea was to escape Sheldon, as he becomes (even more) intolerable when he’s sick. But look what they turned to instead.
I remember mutants and a missile, and nothing else. They showed these kinds of movies on Sunday on local TV, and I’m sure I caught parts of some of them.
On other things, I’m trying to re-read the Psi Corps Trilogy. I bought the books when they came out, followed shortly by the Technomage and Centauri trilogies. I did read all three series, but have never re-read the Psi Corps one. You can tell because the paperbacks look almost new.
BTW, there’s a concept in nuclear weapons circles called the backyard nuke. It’s supposed to be a bomb so powerful, it would destroy all life on the planet (NARRATOR: It would not destroy all life on the planet). The name comes from the fact that it wouldn’t matter where you detonated the bomb, so you may as well keep it in your backyard.
Nothing like that exists, and likely cannot exist (without present technology). Edward Teller, the sick puppy of the nuclear weapons establishment, proposed a 10 gigaton weapon for some reason. that’s 10,000 megatons, when a 10 megaton weapon is already kind of insane on its own.
A doomsday weapon like the one in TOS is rational, as it’s launched against other planets rather than within one’s only habitable world. I’m not saying it’s a good idea, or a moral one, but it makes logical sense.
@Kathy:
It’s probably best that he lets Penn do all the talking.
@Gustopher:
Zooty doesn’t speak, either. But that’s a more creepy situation.
I actually met Teller, briefly, after the Penn & Teller show in Vegas. Got his autograph, and he listened to my idiot question about Babylon 5. I forget what I asked, but it was stupid. a spur of the moment thing. he smiled and said “I don’t think so.” That was in 2008…
But that’s a different Teller.