Screens of the Stone Age Palaeoanthropological Society of Canada (PASC-SCPA)

Today we’re reviewing Evolution’s Child (1999), a made-for-TV movie in which a woman is accidentally impregnated by sperm from an Ötzi-inspired ice mummy, and ultimately gives birth to a child with magical bronze age powers—and one fatal weakness. We talk ancient diseases, DNA contamination, and genetic memory, and Ross reassures us that this probably won’t happen at your local IVF clinic.

We rarely the get change to review a newly released caveman movie, so we’re really excited about Out of Darkness (2022), the story of Upper Palaeolithic modern humans venturing into Europe for the first time, and encountering a mysterious enemy. What could it be? Well if you’ve kept up with the field of palaeoanthropology over the last twenty or thirty years, it’s probably exactly what you expect!

Today we’re travelling to the 24th century to discover humans’ earliest ancestors in The Chase, a 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which Captain Picard gets a chance to follow the road not taken and fulfill his dream of being an archaeologist. We talk pottery, ancient DNA, and linear progressive evolution.

The Beast from the Beginning of Time (1965) is a story we’ve seen many times: archaeologists find a caveman who wakes up and kills everyone. It doesn’t have the camp of Trog, or the star power of Horror Express, or the quotable lines of The Neanderthal Man, or the catchy surf-rock tunes of Eegah, or the budget of Neander-Jin... Well, enjoy the episode.

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) tells the story of Hushpuppy, a young girl living with her daddy in the Louisiana bayou, adapting to a changing world: her father is dying, the climate is warming, and prehistoric beasts are returning from the ice to haunt her. Aurochs, the titular beasts, were real Pleistocene animals – although the movie takes some artistic liberties. It’s a wonderful movie with many layers, but the only one we’re really qualified to dissect is the evolution of cows.

Today we’re diving into the music industry and reviewing seven stone age music videos: from Pearl Jam to Wu-Tang Clan, from folk to metal, musicians seem to love the ancient past. We explore the intersection of art and science, the way every generation projects their own ideals onto the past, and the disturbing amount of sperm in these videos!