It’s time to bring space back to the small screen, says Richard Edwards
Guardians Of The Galaxy has just become the biggest film of the year. To put that in perspective, a movie based on a littleknown comic about a tree man, a talking raccoon and a guy obsessed with an audio cassette has made more money than new Transformers, X- Men and Captain America outings. Even taking into account that Marvel could strike box office gold with pretty much anything at the moment ( yes, even a cigarsmoking duck), this wouldn’t have happened if cinemagoers didn’t really like going into space.
It’s been three years now since the cancellation of Stargate Universe marked the end of over 20 years of uninterrupted spaceship adventures on TV – these days only the entirely CG Star Wars Rebels ( see page 127) and November’s Syfy miniseries Ascension ( page 12) are flying the flag. It’s easy to see why networks fell out of love – despite the enduring popularity of Star Trek and love for the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, space was perceived as a niche sub- genre loved only by geeks. But surely Guardians and co have changed that, and shown that life among the stars can appeal to the masses – and given the popularity of a weekly trip
Supernotural
I noticed in issue 252’ s TV Preview that you included Supernatural season 10. What has happened to season 9? There was a time when we had caught up with the States ( nearly) but some of us are still waiting to find out what happens at the end of season 8.
Ann Hodnett, email Why is Supernatural treated so badly here in the UK? About to start season 10 in America, yet ITV dropped it after a few seasons. Then Living picked it up, rushed through a series, and now it seems they can’t be bothered with it.
Robert Graham, Lincoln Sky Living has certainly upset fans by dropping the show, but rejoice – the region 2 DVD of season nine hits UK shelves on 20 October. Hopefully that’s some small consolation. to Westeros, venturing out into strange new worlds of a more interplanetary persuasion can’t be too much of a stretch.
Right now the parallels with the late ’ 70s are obvious, when the universe- changing success of Star Wars prompted a brief dalliance with the original BSG and Buck Rogers In The 25th Century. The difference now, however, is that with modern visual effects and genre- literate, geek- savvy showrunners, there’s a very real possibility new shows could actually be good.
Life among the stars can appeal to the masses
And there’s no limit to what series set in space could do – they don’t just have to be another iteration of Star Trek. Starship shows could be fun, dramatic, adventure- filled… the only limit is the imagination of the writers.
It took long enough for comic book heroes to bring their movie success to TV with the likes of Arrow and an abundance of new shows starting over the next year. Hopefully TV networks will be slightly quicker embracing a wholesale return to outer space.
“Some of us can handle massive talking trees”
costumeitis that seems to be spreading. Hawkeye’s suit was not the purple I was hoping for, and they must have been under some contractual obligation to show the actor’s face as well because he never wears his iconic mask/ cowl either. I actually think this is also why Guardians was such a big hit, colour and action aside; they aren’t afraid to show a non- human side to their characters. Some of us can handle massive talking trees or wise- cracking raccoons.
Peter Gilbert, The Midlands Does this mean you prefer Batman in classic plum and lilac? Are Hulk’s bright magenta jorts due a comeback? More purple might be a solution to drab supers, but it’s probably not the right one.