A guest post: words and graphics by: Benjamin Taggart
Welcome to the second article in a three-part series discussing how to watch TV. The previous article used a variety of steampunk-related TV series and movies to create a diversified watchlist via the fulfillment of as many as nine differently themed time slots. And here are those nine slots illustrated in a very colorful graphic…
And, for the benefit of readers who think that the above graphic might be too small, here are those nine slots again, in numbered prose…
01. KIDS’
02. EDUCATIONAL
03. MOVIE
04. HALF HOUR №1
05. HALF HOUR №2
06. DRAMA
07. SCI-FI
08. FANTASY & HORROR
09. LATE NIGHT.
For a full explanation of the nine-slot formula, see the previous article, but the basic idea is that by looking for media to fill a specific slot, you’ll be able to find media that you otherwise might not have considered. Once all nine slots are filled, you can watch them in any order you choose, and this piece will demonstrate the idea’s potential by using a variety of atompunk-related media, focusing on a watchlist entitled Atompunk “Then.”
So, without further ado, here’s my example watchlist, illustrated in a graphic that’s colored similarly too but ordered differently than the previously-seen original…
And again, for the benefit of readers who think that the above graphic might be too small, here are those nine slots, numbered once more, with easy-to-follow hyperlinks to their corresponding pages on IMDb…
01. Astro Boy
02. Jonny Quest
03. The Magical World Of Disney
05. Doctor Who
06. Ultra Q
07. Joe 90
08. The Prisoner
09. Movie
If the steam in steampunk originally meant steam-powered, then the atom in atompunk was originally meant to indicate that the genre runs on atomic energy. And, for the benefit of readers who’re unfamiliar with the genre, the term atompunk commonly refers to a range of sci-fi and futuristic motifs centered on the aesthetic ideals of the 1950s and 60s. However, it’s advantageous to note that the author H. G. Wells is credited with having introduced the concept of atomic energy into fiction as early as 1914.
Wells’ 1914 novel, The World Set Free (about a war that begins with an atomic apocalypse before leading to an enlightened utopia), was followed by the strange tales seen in Amazing Stories, a magazine that began in 1926. And that same aesthetic torch was picked up again in the silver-screen adventures of Flash Gordon, a 13-episode series of short films seen just ten years later. And although none of the list items seen in the above image were made before or after the core 50s/60s period, the nine-slot formula is flexible, and readers are encouraged to explore the genre fully by taking full advantage of that flexibility.
That having been said, or, in this case, written, let’s get back to the list.
The first item on the example watchlist is Astro Boy…
First broadcast in 1963 and based on Osamu Tezuka’s manga of the same name, Astro Boy was the groundbreaking Japanese television series that set the aesthetic standard for what we in the 21st century call anime.
Set in an atom-age future, each episode begins with a rousing collegiate-style fight song celebrating the adventures of the series’ titular character as he battles gangsters, aliens, robots, and alien robots. And although the order of episodes most often seen in English-speaking countries differs from the original Japanese air dates, the series has no overall story arc once the premise is established in the first episode, but you can follow this link (to Wikipedia) to reconstruct the original Japanese watch order.
In any order, it’s a perfect fit for the KIDS’ time slot in the nine-slot formula because Astro Boy is himself a kid. But heads up, it’s also a perfect example of the differences between the average convictions of the 1960s versus the average compunctions of the 2020s, because the robot Astro Boy is in fact made in the image of Tobio Tenma, the human son of the PhD, engineer, and scientist Dr. Umataro Tenma, who only creates Astro Boy in an insanely misguided effort to fill the void following the violent death of the original Tobio before going even more insane (rejecting his creation) when he realizes that the robot version of his dead son can’t grow.
The next item on the example watchlist is Hanna-Barbera’s 1964 series, Jonny Quest…
Because the series was remade for a younger audience in both the 1980s and 90s, present-day viewers may only think of Jonny Quest as a kids’ show. But, believe it or not, due to its focus on adventure, sci-fi, and international intrigue, the much broader audience it was originally intended for included adults. In fact, while watching it in preparation for this article, I was so engrossed by the series’ adult content that I neglected to take a single screenshot of just Jonny (or his Indian-orphan companion, Hadji, the boy Guru). All I got in my screenshots were pictures of Dr. Benton Quest, Jonny’s ginger-bearded scientist father; Race Bannon, the family bodyguard; and a hot shot of Jezebel Jade, the red-hot-atomic female whom Race Bannon loves to hold helpless in woven-wicker chairs.
I used the adventures of an innocent Jonny to fill one of the formula’s half-hour time slots because the slots entitled HALF HOUR №1 and HALF HOUR №2 are usually filled with comedy, and the series is a wonderfully period-appropriate show with a great mix of both comedy and drama. Not every episode includes jet packs, hovercrafts, or atomic-powered lasers, but, to paraphrase the previous article, a successful atompunk watchlist depends on a person’s ability to broaden their personal definition of the genre, and each episode of the original Jonny Quest is a time-honored treat, jam-packed with both the atom-age look and mindset.
And remember, these articles aren’t just about me making my lists. Their purpose is to provide a formula that you and other atompunk fans can use to create lists of your own. If you like animation, consider filling your half-hour slots with shows like The Jetsons, Speed Racer, or even Space Angel. Or, if you prefer live action, I’ll provide examples of more “lively” sitcoms later. But, until then, the next item on the example list is a mix of both live action and animation, a series that many atompunk fans might overlook, The Magical World Of Disney…
The Magical World Of Disney has had several names over the years, including (but not limited to) Walt Disney’s Disneyland, Walt Disney’s Wonderful World Of Color, and The Wonderful World Of Disney. But, regardless of its many names, it’s always been a wonderful anthology series that’s often included documentary episodes. And that’s why select episodes make it a perfect fit for the watchlist’s EDUCATIONAL time slot.
You can find an amazing number of original episodes online, but the ones I chose for my list were Man In Space, Man And The Moon, Our Friend The Atom, Mars And Beyond, Spy In The Sky, and Disneyland Goes To The World’s Fair.
Just reading the titles, it’s easy to see why most of those episodes fit within the atompunk genre. But the one I wanted to mention specifically was Disneyland Goes To The World’s Fair.
The only screenshot of it that I was able to sneak into the above image shows a technician adding vegetation to the mouth of an animatronic brontosaurus, which was only one of several dinosaurs that Disney made specifically for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. And, in case you’re wondering, no, prehistoric creatures aren’t usually considered part of the atompunk genre. But what works about the episode in this context is that the genre isn’t just about rockets and ray guns and that the 1960s view of prehistory reveals just as much about the period’s mentality as its view of the future. So when you’re thinking about educational programs for your watchlist, feel free to consider any number of other period-appropriate options, like The Undersea World Of Jacques Cousteau, original episodes of the old National Geographic Specials, or even Dr. Mortimer J. Adler’s 1953 series, The Great Ideas.
Admittedly, finding authentic educational series from the 1950s and 60s online may present a challenge. I wasn’t able to find a definitive list, and even after deciding on Disney, I obviously didn’t go through every season. That’s why it’s helpful to make some sort of timetable (or TV-viewing schedule) before you begin watching. The original timetable for this list was just a bunch of scribbles…
But, for the benefit of readers who cringe at the sight of my handwriting, those scribbles were later refined into something less cryptic. And in the refined version, it’s easier to see that the nine-slot formula helps listophiles like me to avoid the bad habit of binge-watching…
Binge-watching is the guilty pleasure of watching several episodes of a single series in a row. And although it might make sense when you find a series you like, the whole point of fulfilling the nine-slot formula is to experience a daily, healthy variety.
Imagine spending several hours in front of a TV watching nothing but news. Of course news programs are informative, but if you watched nothing but news all the time, it wouldn’t be long before you were convinced that every stranger on the street was carrying a gun or that every bump you heard in the night was a burglar breaking in. And if your entire TV-viewing day was composed of nothing but horror shows, or, worse yet, nothing but the same horror show, then every bump would be made by the same ghost.
Even if you spent all day every day watching comedy, you’d still be missing out on the balance of drama, the fun of being occasionally scared, as well as the informative and up-to-date information on the news. So remember, creating a successful watchlist means exploring the difference between a world of pure fantasy versus a healthy alternate. A fantasy contains no perspective other than your own, but a well-rounded alternate can shock, challenge, and even inspire you. And yes, even though the timetable pictured above focuses on atompunk “then,” it deliberately strives to include more than one type of program from the “then” period.
And if it can be said that there was once an atompunk “then,” then it naturally follows that there must currently be an atompunk “now.”
The aforementioned timetable illustrates a 30-day plan for watching both my “then” and “now” lists with something special in between. That something special and the “now” watchlist will be discussed in the third and final installment of the How To Watch TV trilogy. In the meantime, let’s get back to “then.”
As illustrated, I only watched six of the Astro Boy series’ original four-season run, six episodes of Jonny Quest, and six select episodes of The Magical World Of Disney. But I enjoyed all seven episodes of the example watchlist’s next item, a German series entitled Raumpatrouille Orion…
Translated literally as Space Patrol Orion, Raumpatraullie followed the exploits of the starship Orion’s crew as commanded by Major Cliff Allister McLane. It was released not two weeks after the original Star Trek debuted in September of 1966 and featured bold sets and visual effects that must’ve been light years ahead of its time.
The series was also ahead of its time in the inclusion of stellar female crew members. In particular, the blond bombshell Lt. Tamara Jagellovsk (played by Eva Pflug) might easily have been a template for the character of T’Pol in Star Trek: Enterprise, as, like T’Pol, she was technically a member of a separate organization, wore a different uniform, and was only stationed onboard to keep the ship’s maverick commander under control.
But Tamara and the rest of the gang eventually became as close-knit a crew as in even the most contemporary versions of Star Trek, celebrating the success of each mission with a well-deserved round of drinks either onboard the ship itself or in the super-atompunky discotheque and undersea spaceport seen in most episodes. The only issue I had with the subtitled episodes I watched was that, believe it or not, I don’t like to read, especially while I’m trying to watch TV. So, although the series was a perfect fit for the nine-slot formula’s SCI-FI category, I scheduled it earlier in the day rather than later, knowing that I’d be relaxing in the evening with a few drinks of my own. And if you’d also prefer to avoid reading subtitles, then you might consider sci-fi alternatives like the original Lost In Space, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, or (in case it’s not obvious) the original Star Trek.
But the next item on the list was originally recorded in the king’s English, a British series that requires no introduction, Doctor Who…
If you’re a Doctor Who fan, then you already know about the BBC’s scandalous, reckless, and inexcusably gross mishandling of the series’ original master copies. But, for the benefit of readers to whom Doctor Who is new, as of 2025 there are an unforgivable 97 (out of 253) episodes missing from the program’s first six years. That means that if you’d like to start getting into the original program, the only way you’d be able to would be to see it as a mismatched hodgepodge of surviving footage, reconstructions, machinations, CGI interpretations, and colorized reinterpretations of the slide-show fan versions of the missing 97. And those fan versions only exist because way back in the dark times, before illegal MP4s, a group of junior-pirate kids decided to snuggle up to their old-fashioned vacuum-tube TV sets and dubiously obtain their favorite episodes’ audio by preserving it on their very old-fashioned junior-pirate tape recorders. It is therefore only owing to those early pirating efforts that the BBC has been able to reconstruct any of those missing episodes via the shameless exploitation of underpaid and underappreciated animators. Thus, as a proud member of the 4th estate, who’s duty-bound to protect his sources, I’m completely at liberty to thank those same pirate-spirited fans, without whose efforts I wouldn’t have been able to take the above screenshots in my sincere and completely non-profitable effort to just watch the show.
It’s a good show. And it fits in the FANTASY & HORROR time slot because it was always more science-fantasy than fiction.
But most fans might find it hard to track down enough of the original Doctor Who series to be able to include it on their own Atompunk “Then” lists. So it might be easier to go with something like The Outer Limits, Boris Karloff’s Thriller, or Out Of The Unknown. There’s no secret to finding something that works, because again, all you have to do is broaden your personal definition of the genre, remembering that it isn’t just about rockets and ray guns; it’s about exploring the mindset of the period that imagined them. And you can explore the fantastic (and horrific) aspects of that mindset in any way you choose.
🙂
And if you choose to keep reading, then the next item on the example list is the 1967 classic, Ultra Q…
Being a weird mix of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, comedy, and kaiju, Ultra Q is its own mindset and a perfect fit for the example list’s LATE NIGHT time slot. And again, once all nine slots are filled, you can watch them in any order you choose.
I chose to watch Ultra Q long before it was actually late at night because I was only able to find it subtitled, and, once more, for the record, I didn’t want to have to read TV at the end of my day. But, at the right time of day, I enjoyed following the subtitled and kaiju-filled investigations of the series’ three main characters: Jun Manjome, an aviator and amateur sci-fi writer; Ippei Togawa, his copilot and aviation partner; and a plucky female reporter and photographer named Yuriko Edogawa, played by the adorable Hiroko Sakurai, who can also be seen in the first Ultraman movie (consisting entirely of re-edited material from the original Ultraman series, which was a sequel to the original, Ultra Q). And I especially enjoyed the one-shot appearance of Akiko Wakabayashi, whom fellow atompunk fans might recognize from What’s Up Tigerlily and one of the greatest Bond movies ever made, You Only Live Twice.
But again, if you’d also prefer to avoid reading subtitles, then you might consider LATE NIGHT alternatives like The Twilight Zone, Tales Of Tomorrow, or One Step Beyond.
Until then, the next item on the example watchlist is Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s 1968 supermarionation classic, Joe 90…
The term supermarionation simply refers to the use of technologically sophisticated marionettes. And, before being revived in the 2004 film Team America: World Police, the technology, look, and other arts of the supermarionation art form had previously reached their apex with Joe 90, a series about a nine-year-old boy who becomes a secret agent after his non-ginger-bearded scientist father finds a way to boost his brainpower via the use of an analog supercomputer.
It’s an incredible show with a spectacularly period-appropriate theme song. But again, heads up, it’s another prime example of the differences between the mindset of the 1960s versus that of the 2020s, placing nine-year-old Joe at the center of more blood, guns, and murderous killing than some contemporary audience members will be able to handle. Still, I confess to being delinquent in submitting this article to my very patient editors at Dark Worlds Quarterly because I wanted to keep watching even after my “then” watchlist was done. And although it was heartbreaking when the series finally ended, the final episode was a comforting clip show that helped to provide closure.
But if marionettes aren’t your thing, try filling your half-hour time slots with any of these live-action alternatives: Batman, My Favorite Martian, My Living Doll, I Dream Of Jeannie, Bewitched, or Get Smart.
And if great final episodes are your thing, then the two-part conclusion of the watchlist’s next series is legendary. So, if you haven’t already seen it, it’s time to start watching Patrick McGoohan starring in the 1967 British cult classic, The Prisoner…
It’d be sacrilege to spoil any of it for you, so I won’t. I’ll only say that it has a little bit of sci-fi, a little bit of spy stuff, and a huge fan following more than 50 years after its one and only 17-episode season. It also has a healthy dose of the psychedelic, and if that worries you, try filling your DRAMA time slot with something like The Avengers, Mission Impossible, or even Danger Man (and FYI, not only did Danger Man also star Patrick McGoohan, but some fans consider it to be a Prisoner precursor).
And that leaves just one slot more on the nine-slot list, the movie…
The image above shows four scenes from the 1966 James Coburn film, Our Man Flint. But that was only one of several movies to be officially included in my “then” watchlist. So here are the rest, numbered according to watch order and again with easy-to-follow hyperlinks to their corresponding pages on IMDb…
01. Battle In Outer Space (1959)
02. Queen Of Outer Space (1958)
03. Our Man Flint (1966)
04. Terror Beneath The Sea (1966)
05. This Island Earth (1955)
06. The X From Outer Space (1967)
07. Invasion Of The Star Creatures (1962)
08. In Like Flint (1967)
09. Latitude Zero (1969)
10. Forbidden Planet (1956)
11. To Trap A Spy (1964)
Writing about each of these would mean writing an entirely separate article. But since I’m not going to do that, I’m only going to say that going through the above watchlist meant going through a fun mix of classic sci-fi that included spaceships, giant alien monsters, robots, mutants, submarines, and spies. And on the subject of spies, again, the genre isn’t just about rockets and ray guns.
Our Man Flint is a spy film. And it’s a perfect fit for an atompunk watchlist because the atomic age was also the age of the Cold War. You can follow the preceding hyperlink to read about Cold War espionage in fine detail on Wikipedia, but the bottom line is that it’d be remiss to overlook the importance of espionage when considering your watchlist. However, as much as I enjoyed watching the first Flint film, its sequel, In Like Flint, just didn’t have the same energy.
Without giving away too much, In Like Flint is more or less about an international organization of women working in secret to take over the world. But because it didn’t have the same vibe as the franchise’s first installment, I wondered whether there were other (possibly better) spy films featuring female operatives. So I found a few; then I asked a few members of my atompunk appreciation group on Facebook whether they knew of any more, and the highlights from that discussion include (my personal favorite) Doris Day starring in the 1967 film, Caprice…
Caprice is an espionage film, but the espionage involved has nothing to do with world domination or government secrets. Instead, Doris Day plays an industrial espionage agent trying to steal a secret formula from a cosmetics manufacturer. Visually, the film is extraordinary. Doris Day does a wonderful job in it, and again, without giving away too much, she even dodges a few bullets. But probably not as many as Raquel Welch in Fathom…
Fathom is another 1967 espionage film involving another female operative without specific government ties. I.e., Raquel Welch plays an American dental assistant on a three-week skydiving tour of Spain who’s convinced by a man calling himself Colonel Campbell that he’s a British agent working for NATO who wants her to help him recover the triggering mechanism for a nuclear weapon that’s gone missing. It’s supposedly based on an unpublished novel, but all you really need to know about it is that Raquel Welch’s character is non-stop awesome and that she’s nothing but a perfect lady, even when wielding a pitchfork. She’s also a decidedly more sensual female lead than Doris Day, offering an appropriately feminine opposite to James Coburn’s masculine side of the spy versus spy coin. But if there were a third side to that coin, it’d definitely be Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina starring in still another ‘67 classic, Deadlier Than The Male…
I think the film technically stars Richard Johnson as the gentleman adventurer who’s supposed to stop them. But I spent so much time focused on Elke and Sylva that I forgot about what’s-his-name altogether. Again, the film was supposedly based on a novel (i.e., The Female Of The Species, written by H. C. McNeile), but again, all you really need to know about it is that the two female leads are awesome.
And if you want to see even more awesome female leads starring in even more atom-age classics, then check out any or all of the following awesome options…
01. 13 Frightened Girls (1963)
02. Some Girls Do (1969)
03. Modesty Blaise (1966)
04. Agent 38-24-36 (1964)
05. Gambit (1966)
06. The Millionairess (1960)
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because there’s no wrong way to be an atompunk, and I hope you’ll enjoy making your own atompunk watchlists as much as I’ve enjoyed making mine.
I still have the Atompunk “Now” watchlist to go through, and I know I’ll enjoy sharing it with you soon in the How To Watch TV trilogy’s final installment. But until then, I hope you found this installment helpful… and thanks for reading!
Benjamin Taggart has been an author and illustrator since he was old enough to hold a crayon. His illustrations have appeared on countless posters for bands and special events, his three picture books have been enjoyed by at least three people, and his journalistic endeavors can be seen in The Monarch Review, NOW Toronto, and Gonzo Today.
He lives on Earth but is open to other possibilities and is currently considering a small patch of land in the vicinity of Epsilon Indi.
© Benjamin Taggart
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