FIRST CONTACT
You give us your thoughts on Game Of Thrones, Gotham and – spoiler! – spoilers.
Iain Aitken, Facebook One of the most exciting and upsetting seasons yet. I thought they’d never top “The Battle Of The Bastards”. But they did, and then some.
Gary Lee Kydd, Facebook I was blown away – the death of Littlefinger was epic! But no doubt the book readers will moan, they always do! Also, the battle scenes with the dragons were phenomenal… and the Hound and Tormund scenes were truly bromantastic – a true love/hate friendship forming…
Paul Martin, email Absolutely loved season seven – so much going on, and a real sense of urgency to get a truly epic tale wrapped up. It got me thinking, though. If I were George RR Martin, would I now have any incentive to write the final two books in the A Song Of Ice And Fire series? The TV show is so good – and will reach the end long before the novels – that I can’t see any point in him spending all that time at his word processor. What he writes is unlikely to surpass what’s been on screen – and indeed, may be considered inferior to it, whatever he does. He’ll see his story completed whatever he decides to do, and I wouldn’t blame him if he decided to focus his talent in other directions. He’s still the creator of the saga, and nothing can take that away. SFX Controversial, but a fair point. Martin now finds himself in a very unusual position – though, of course, his fans would still love to see his vision of the Westeros endgame.
James Bradley, email I had one major problem with the season: episode six, “Beyond The Wall”. Aside from the much-discussed implausibility of the speed Jon Snow got a message to Dany (Gendry ran to the Wall, an owl flew to Dragonstone, and Drogon flew back north of the Wall in the space of a couple of hours), how did seemingly every major character (no, Paul Kaye doesn’t count) make it out alive? Is Game Of Thrones getting soft in its old age?
Tom Barker, email Everyone always goes on about the big battle
Great series slightly marred by a sense it was all a bit rushed
episodes like “The Battle Of The Bastards”, but I think Game Of Thrones works best when it’s talkiest. In fact, now that the action quota has gone up, I’m missing the political scheming of the past. The likes of Tyrion, Littlefinger (farewell!), Varys and Cersei are the characters who’ve made the game worth playing. I hope the remaining six episodes aren’t just wall-to-wall dragon vs White Walker action.
FlangeBadger, Twitter Great series, only slightly marred by a sense that it was all a bit rushed.
David Chapman, Facebook Rushed. If you’re familiar with the occasionally stately pace of the show in past seasons, you can see them dashing now from one big moment to the next to cram them all in. SFX I’ll take this over the sometimes near-standstill of season five – it’s good to see a show with a sense of direction and purpose.
Charlotte Thomas, email Okay, Game Of Thrones isn’t currently quite as doom-and-gloom as the Red Wedding era, but would it be too much to ask for something truly joyful to happen? For example, as soon as Jon Snow and Daenerys get together, we’re reminded that they’re actually aunt and nephew, and the whole thing gets decidedly icky. I know Westeros has rather different moral values to us, but even so…
Kate Henry, email This isn’t a direct comment about Game Of Thrones, but I’m tired of people thinking it’s okay to post spoilery information about TV shows on Facebook as soon as they’ve watched them. You may be able to stay up to watch the show “live” at 2am, but work and family means some of us don’t have the option. Even big entertainment sites are at it – if I see another “[INSERT CHARACTER NAME] talks about that death scene” story with an easily identifiable photo, I shan’t be held responsible for my actions! SFX Yes! This! I was on holiday for the end of the season, and despite my best efforts, I was spoiled. Be considerate to your fellow fans! #OLD NEWS
Drew Gardner, email Just wanted to say “thanks” for the spoiler alert on page 119 [Collectables] of the July issue. I had been wanting to watch Twin Peaks for years, had finally found a copy of season one, and watched just one episode so far. You’ve saved me from having to watch the remaining episodes, and I needn’t bother with the new series now either. THANKS A LOT. SFX We take spoilers very seriously. So here’s a MASSIVE WARNING before we reveal that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s dad, Bruce Willis is dead in The Sixth Sense, and (only half a century old this one, so careful now) it was Earth all along in Planet Of The Apes. Important question, though: how long do you have to wait before a spoiler stops being a spoiler?
#THE TWIN DILEMMA
Sean Joyce, Co Mayo Kimberley Ballard’s lopsided viewpoint of Twin Peaks [SFX 292] is just plain wrong. As an atheist, vegetarian feminist, I find the depiction of women in Twilight and its slash/ fiction clone 50 Shades Of Grey to be far more demeaning to women than anything David Lynch has produced. I notice she never mentioned Ashley Judd, Laura Dern or the electrifying Grace Zabriskie – all powerful women. If you want to watch something utterly misogynistic and hateful, watch EastEnders!
What I feel for any victim is empathy, and empathy is what pervades the pilot episode of Twin Peaks back in 1989. David Lynch is not a misogynistic filmmaker. He’s a gosh darn genius. SFX Whatever your feelings about Twin Peaks, I think Kimberley raises a fair point about the general treatment of women in TV drama. And however liberal you are, you’ve got to be careful here – for example, as a man, I’m not sure it’s my place to decide what a woman should or shouldn’t find offensive.
#GIMME FIVE?
Rob Graham, email The treatment of Gotham by UK broadcasters has, I think, been dreadful [season three is yet to appear on the show’s original UK home, Channel 5]. But at last season three comes to the UK on Netflix, which hopefully means it’ll get treated better and season four will arrive closer to the US. It’s a fun show, in places almost as camp as the classic ’60s Batman TV series, in others as dark and gritty as the Dark Knight trilogy. Though I do have issues with the basic concept – just how old will some of the villains be when Bruce Wayne finally becomes Batman?
Larry Conway, email What has happened to Channel 5? It used to be home of shows like Hercules, Xena and Charmed, to name just three. But now it seems to be abandoning the genre – I have just seen the news that Gotham’s next two seasons are going to Netflix. This is not a new thing – Alias was relegated to late-night showings after arriving on 5 to great
fanfare – but in the last couple of years the station seems to have dumped all genre programmes in favour of keeping flogging the dead horse that is Big Brother. Such a shame for a channel that offered genre fans a lot over the years.
SFX It’s becoming increasingly difficult for a conventional broadcast TV channel to make a success of an imported sci-fi show with all the competition out there. The positive alternative viewpoint is that, with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Now TV, we now have (relatively) cheap access to more genre telly than we ever have before.
#REVIEW TO A KILL Alan Hibbert, email
I was happily thumbing through my copy of issue 291 until I reached the reviews section. Both
Ghost In The Shell and Starcrash received two-and-a-half star reviews in issue 291. I think this makes a complete mockery of your star rating system. I have seen both films. Ghost In
The Shell (reviewed by Dave Golder) is really very good and entertaining. It looks amazing, has a great story, is well made, well produced, well acted even.
Starcrash (reviewed by Ian Berriman) is, and even was in 1978, a risible, stinking dog poo of a film that looks like it was filmed and scripted by some seven-year-olds playing space ships. Its only potential value is to be ironically laughed at, and it’s even too toe-curling for that in places. I would defy anyone to watch these two films back-to-back and rate them the same.
SFX Reviewing a film is never going to be an exact science – and had Dave been just a tiny bit more generous to Ghost In The Shell and gone up to three stars, and Ian been a little harsher on Starcrash and dropped to two stars, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. We try to be as uniform with our scoring as we can, but as with referees in football, the subjective human element means total consistency is impossible. And let’s face it, Starcrash is, at least, entertainingly bad!
#GUILTY PARTIES Dave M, email
I’m happily embarrassed to say that I’ve been coming very close to using the phrase “guilty pleasure” when coyly explaining to others my enjoyment of various sci-fi entertainments. What do others mean when they use the phrase? Is it supposed to convey a knowing understanding of just how poor, or old, or childish, or childlike, or risible a show or publication is?” Help me understand! PS Currently enjoying Lexx – admittedly while the rest of the house is asleep – but I like it because it’s fun!
SFX I reckon it’s a hangover from the time when people would be ashamed to admit to being a sci-fi fan. Hopefully the world is a bit more enlightened now – everybody loves a bit of genre! – so I say if you like it, don’t feel guilty about calling it a pleasure.
#WE ALSO HEARD FROM John Porter, Facebook
Thoroughly enjoyed the first episode of Philip K Dick’s Electric
Dreams – although I note again Channel 4 seems to think that near-future dystopias always feature people driving ’60s and ’70s classic cars! SFX So is this a good time to invest in vintage cars?
Jessica Hardy, email
I was filled with a sense of tearful admiration when Sir Terry Pratchett’s hard drive was demolished by a steam roller as per his request. I couldn’t hope to imagine the wonders that were hidden within, but I think it’s right that we don’t get to read them unfinished. And how wonderful that, even beyond the grave, Sir Terry is able to entertain us – we may have no new Discworld novels to look forward to, but his legacy lives on! SFX We’re totally with you on that, Jessica!