JESSICA JONES IS BACK!

ON SET IN NYC FOR SEASON 2

THE
WORLD’S

No.1
SCI-FI
MAGAZINE
298

PLUS!
SOLO: A STAR
WARS STORY
A SERIES OF
UNFORTUNATE
EVENTS
ANNIHILATION
THE PRISONER
BILL BAILEY
LEGION

EXCLUSIVE PEEKS INSIDE

DOUGLAS ADAMS’ ARCHIVE

S
NEW CAST INTERVIEWS
RARE ON-SET PHOTOS

C K B U S T E R M O V I E
MASSI VE BLO TOMB
PACIFIC
RIM
UPRISING
READY RAIDER
PLAYER
ONE
Contents
FEATURES
298
ISSU E

APRIL
2018

39

39
THE HITCHHIKER’S
GUIDE TO THE
GALAXY
Douglas Adams’s genius creation
is 40 years old. Take that, Celestial
Home Care Omnibus! We celebrate
the anniversary as a new radio
series arrives.

54
READY PLAYER ONE
Duncan “Chase me!” Norvelle.
Challenge Anneka. Yazz. Just some
of the ’80s deep-cuts you won’t
find in Spielberg’s latest.

58
JEAN SMART
She’s been in Frasier. She’s been in
Fargo. She’s in Legion. And now
she’s in SFX. We call that a
glittering career.

60

60
JESSICA JONES
Alias Investigations is open for
business once more. We walk the
mean streets of New York to track
down season two.
70
HEROES &
INSPIRATIONS
What connects softball, the Sierra
Nevada mountain range and prog
rockers Yes? Kim Stanley
Robinson, obviously.
82
PACIFIC RIM:
UPRISING
Seconds out, it’s Kaiju vs Jaegers,
round two… All you need to know
about the grudge match sequel.

66
KRYPTON 74 88
EVENT HORIZON
Long before it went kaboom, a TOMB RAIDER No, our conventions page hasn’t
new TV show explores the untold Wave your Uzis in the air like you moved – we’re looking back at
BBC (1)

history of Superman’s homeworld. just don’t care! Lara Croft gets a Paul WS Anderson’s SF chiller
What The-El? Vikander-powered reboot. from ’97.

4 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 CONTENTS

SUBSCRIBE TO SFX!
Save money, have the mag delivered
to your door and get your hands on
a limited-edition copy of Metropolis.
Check out p36 for details.

RED ALERT
9 A SERIES OF
UNFORTUNATE
74
EVENTS
On set for season two of the
Lemony Snicket adap. The VIEWSCREEN
Count-down begins… 122 REQUIEM
It’s weird, it’s Welsh – but does
12 TIMELESS the Beeb’s new TV spooker deliver
The time-bending TV drama gets a the shivers?
surprise resurrection. Here’s how.
124 THE GIFTED
54 22 URSULA K LE GUIN Marvel’s mutants get a TV
SFX pays tribute to the life and spin-off. Is success in the genes?
work of the late SF author.
126 HAPPY!
26 DEVELOPMENT How did the new Grant Morrison
HELL comic book adap make us feel?
66 There are parallel dimensions

REGULARS
where every last one of these films
gets made.

REVIEWS
94 BLACK PANTHER
28 FIRST CONTACT
Oh, all right, it’s the letters. But
First Contact sounds way cooler.

Is Marvel’s hotly anticipated 33 FREESPEAK

Wakandan blockbuster worthy of Literary alchemist Mary Watson
the royal seal of approval? turns research into story. Behold!

98 THOR: RAGNAROK 34 BOOK CLUB

More Marvel, this time on Blu-ray. David Mealing celebrates Kushiel’s
By Odin’s raven, those guys make a Dart. One hundred and eighhhty!
lot of movies.
129 BLASTERMIND
82 108 THE TANGLED So just how well do you know The
LANDS Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy?
Reviewing the new fantasy novel
from Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias 130 TOTAL RECALL
S Buckell. Raise a glass of vintage port to late
genre icon Peter Wyngarde. Salut!
116 DOOMSDAY CLOCK
Dog carcass in alley this morning…
but we’re not here to review that, 108
Mr Rorschach.

120 COLLECTABLES
They stare at us with their huge,
accusing eyes. “Collect us,” they
whisper, as one. And we are
powerless to resist...

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 5


Rants & Raves
INSIDE THE SFX HIVE MIND
RICHARD EDWARDS
EDITOR
RAVES
I don’t have
enough words to
say how forking
brilliant season two
of The Good Place was. Both
exceedingly funny and
exceedingly clever.
Enjoyed Netflix doc The
Toys That Made Us, especially
the episodes on Star Wars and
He-Man – now I have some
idea of the thought processes
that allowed Moss Man and
Mekaneck to exist.
IAN BERRIMAN
REVIEWS EDITOR
RAVES
The second half
of Star Trek:
Discovery was
awesome. I love
how you never know
where the hell this series will
go next!
LP of the month: “Space
Museum” by Solid Space, a
vinyl reissue of a bedroom-
band duo’s 1982 cassette with
tracks inspired by Doctor Who
– including a great song about
“The Tenth Planet”!
JONATHAN COATES
ART EDITOR
RAVES
Watching Falcon
Heavy’s boosters
land in perfect
synchronisation
totally blew my mind!
Westworld season 2 is almost
with us. Hope we get to see
some of the other lands that
were teased at the end of
season one.
I’m a little late to The Good
Place, but can highly
recommend it. Never has
frozen yogurt looked so tasty!
MIKE SIMPSON
WRITER
RAVES
The three
Amazon Echo
Dots in my house
show that I’ve bought
into the Alexa hype. I just
wish they could respond in the
late Majel Barrett’s voice.
RANTS
I’m not sure what irks me
more: Discovery’s absurd
science or the argument that it
should be judged by the same
standards as the original Trek.
TOS was made 50 years ago!
Facebook Facebook.com/SFXmagazine •
The Ed Zone
Apr 2018
Issue 298
NICK SETCHFIELD
FEATURES EDITOR
RAVES
The Star Trek:
Discovery
cliffhanger was a
blinder.
RANTS
Never imagined the day
would come when I’d greet
the news of yet more Star
Wars movies with a Yoda-like
sigh. It’s a great modern myth.
Let’s not dilute it.
And be careful what you
slap the word Cloverfield on
while you’re at it.
KIMBERLEY
BALLARD
PRODUCTION EDITOR
RAVES
B
The
#VisibleWomen BC Radio 4 was like audio wallpaper in our
hashtag on
Twitter has been
house when I was a kid. Even now, the sounds
showcasing some
amazing sci-fi and fantasy
are incredibly evocative: the Archers theme,
artwork from women across for example, never fails to make me wish I was
the world. Have a look!
Loved the spooky, folksy somewhere else. But nothing made as big an impact
Requiem, but I loved Lydia
Wilson’s platinum-blonde on my small ears as The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The
fringe and powder-blue coat
even more.
Galaxy – hardly a surprise, seeing as Douglas Adams’s
universe is among the richest and most inventive ever
created. Where else would you encounter a being
NIC CLARKE
WRITER called Slartibartfast, understand every language in the
RAVES
Lumberjanes is universe courtesy of a fish in your ear, or learn that
still the best comic
about girls fighting
the answer to life, the universe and everything is… 42?
monsters at summer
camp ever.
Whether your first encounter was via radio, TV or
Looking like a great spring the least accurately titled trilogy of novels in history
for genre TV: can’t wait for
Jessica Jones, Westworld, The (let’s not mention the movie, eh?), it’s impossible to
Handmaid’s Tale and iZombie.
RIP deny the series’ massive influence on pop culture.
Thanks for everything,
Ursula Le Guin. You remade
So to mark the 40th (we couldn’t wait until the
my imagination in more ways
than I can count.
42nd) anniversary of THGTTG , we’ve assembled
a mind-bogglingly big celebration (p39), featuring
new interviews, rare set photos and world exclusive
SIMON BLAND
WRITER artefacts from the Douglas Adams archive.
RAVES
That Solo
We’re also looking ahead to the hottest new genre
trailer! Donald fare, with features on season two of Jessica Jones (p60),
Glover’s Lando,
young man Han, the new Tomb Raider (p74), and Steven Spielberg’s CG
same-looking Chewie. Oof,
this Star Wars Story looks retro fest Ready Player One (p54). There’s also loads
worth the wait.
RANTS
more great sci-fi to come this year – subscribe now to
Jurassic World: Fallen
Kingdom looks to have no
make sure you never miss an issue (see p36).
shortage of Pratt, explosions
and hybrid dinos but hopefully
it’s left room for a storyline
worthy of repeat visits.
GETTY (1)
Richard Edwards, Editor
See me on
Twitter @SFXmagazine page 20 @RichDEdwards
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 7
 APRIL
2018
NEWS //// INTERVIEWS //// INSIGHT //// MERFOLK edited by Richard Edwards

SHOWRUNNER EXCLUSIVE

COUNT DOOM
Barry Sonnenfeld oversees
more misery in season two of
A Series Of Unfortunate Events

12
EXTRA TIME
15
THE BAILEY
25
START YOUR
Turns out tales of SHOW ENGINES
its demise were Top comic Bill London’s on the
premature... How Bailey tells us all move as Mortal
Timeless came back about his sci-fi and Engines finally hits
from the dead. fantasy faves. the big screen.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 9

 Apr 2018

Subscribe at myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/sfx

SCI-FACT! Patrick Warburton, who plays Lemony Snicket, sings in a garage band that perform Pearl Jam covers.

“I literally walked in, sat down and

the first words out of my mouth were,
‘Okay, here are the reasons you want to
hire me’,” says Men In Black and Addams
Family director Barry Sonnenfeld of the
meeting that led to him becoming a
showrunner for the first time on Netflix’s A
Series Of Unfortunate Events. “‘You want to hire
me because I love the books and I understand
the tone of the books.’ The tone of the books
and the story of the books is that all children
are capable and wonderful and all adults,
whether they’re well-meaning or villains, are
equally ineffectual and horrible. I know that
because my parents meant well but they were
horrible creatures.”
Daniel Handler’s beloved series of novels
about three orphaned children – Violet, Klaus
and Sunny Baudelaire – who are trying to keep
their inheritance out of the hands of the
murderous Count Olaf, originally came to
Sonnenfeld’s attention when he started reading
it to his daughter 20 years ago. Even after she
lost interest he wanted to complete
all 13 books, he recalls. Moreover, when
Paramount decided to make the 2004 movie
adaptation starring Jim Carrey, Sonnenfeld
seized the opportunity to bring the quirky
world of Lemony Snicket to life.

We’re a little
darker now. I
would almost say
we’re better than
the books
“I was the original director of the feature
film A Series of Unfortunate Events when a guy
named Scott Rudin, who is a pretty famous film
producer, was involved,” Sonnenfeld recalls
during Red Alert’s tour of the Vancouver sets
built for the show’s second season. “Scott
produced The Addams Family and Addams
Family Values. When I heard he was involved
I very much wanted to do it.”
Unfortunately for Sonnenfeld, Rudin left
Paramount before shooting on the film began,
and soon Sonnenfeld was replaced by Brad
Silberling. It would be another 10 years before
he would get a second crack at bringing
Handler’s darkly comic stories to the screen.
“When I heard that Netflix was doing a show
I fought hard to get into the room to meet with
them," Sonnenfeld says. “They didn’t want to
meet me because I had an executive producer
credit on the film even though I had nothing to We’d rather
do with it. When you get fired you get a crappy stick with the
credit, and Netflix wanted to start afresh.” NHS, thanks.

10 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018


Despite their reservations, Netflix did
eventually talk to Sonnenfeld and they hired
It wasn’t time
to crack out the
Shirley Temple
him to direct the series’ two-part premiere.
They later promoted him to showrunner when
Handler and Netflix realised they weren’t on
costume. the same page as their original choice.
Sonnenfeld’s experience in movies worked in
his favour, too, because he believed the Lemony
Snicket universe could only be created with
cinematic production values.
“Each of these books is two episodes so
that’s somewhere between an hour-and-a-half
and two hours,” Sonnenfeld explains. “We’re
basically doing each book as a feature film in
terms of length, ambition, production design
and story except we have a tenth of the budget
and a quarter of the time.”
DARK SHADOWS
Aside from expanding a few of the books’
peripheral characters, the first two seasons
have been loyal to the source material,
Sonnenfeld contends. Even so, the young lead
actors are growing up each year. Hence, in
season two their characters won’t be as passive
as their literary counterparts, he says.
“I think we are a little darker now than the
books and, truthfully, I would almost say we’re
better than the books. The difference between
the books and a visual medium is that in the
book the reader can assume that Violet and
Klaus are off-camera so we can have three
pages of dialogue without Violet and Klaus
saying, ‘Hey, we’re out of here,’ or, ‘Go to hell!’.
In a visual medium, when they’re in the same
frame, you can’t just have them stand there so
our Violet and Klaus have become much more
proactive than in the books.”
Sonnenfeld relishes the creative control
because it allows him to realise a long-held
ambition on his terms. Since the series opener
he has directed several
episodes in the first two
seasons. Yet, it is his new
role as showrunner that
satisfies him the most.
“I love it because I have
even more power to tell
even more people what to
do than I could as a
director or producer,”
Sonnenfeld jokes. “We
have a crew of 500 people
and this facility, and I get
to be in charge, and I’m
Jewish and an only child
so what could be better?
And the material is great.
You can’t stop me!” MS
Count Olaf relished
Season two of A Series of
going undercover Unfortunate Events comes
as Karl Lagerfeld. to Netflix on 30 March.
Apr 2018
OUT FOR
THE COUNT
Neil Patrick Harris on being
endearingly awful as Count Olaf
What is the key to making Olaf more of an
appealing villain than an obnoxious one?
Olaf never learns from his mistakes. He
thinks that when he fails, if he just tries one
more time, he’ll succeed, and he gets more
and more desperate as the show goes on.
There’s something maniacal and delusional
about that, which makes it easy to play in the
repetition of it all. It’s been exciting to be
Olaf as random characters who are as
different from Olaf as possible to juxtapose
the darkness of Olaf with the ridiculousness.
That’s been the fun part, artistically.
What are the challenges of being an actor
playing an actor playing other roles badly?
It’s a little meta. I have to choose my times
to have his guises drop so that Olaf, who is a
bad actor, is not playing roles and being
good at them. Yet, I don’t want to be too
bad, so I, as Neil, look like a bad actor. It’s a
bit of a mind fuck but it’s what I get paid for.
As a producer how much creative input do
you have?
I get to have a lot of say in casting choices
and I think the guest cast for season two has
just been great. Tony Hale is great. He’s
always good and he was so funny. Roger
Bart plays Vice-Principal Nero and he just
knocks it out of the park. David Alan Grier is
in the second season as Hal and he’s great.
Lucy Punch plays Esmé and she’s amazing.
And Nathan Fillion is in the show.
Is the second season going to be darker and
scarier than the first?
We’re looking at a 13-book set so the first
third of that was establishing tone and story,
and just realising what the world is. Now that
we’re in the world, and Klaus and Violet and
Sunny realise that action needs to be taken
in order to get away from Count Olaf, or foil
him, or accomplish their goals, I think there’s
more of a drive in the second third of this
larger picture. Because of that there is more
action invested. I think we can go a little bit
darker and make it more threatening in
certain ways because the stakes get higher.
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 11
Red Alert
Apr 2018
SCI-FACT! Timeless star Matt Lanter voiced Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
SHOWRUNNER EXCLUSIVE
TIME’S
NOT UP
Rumours of
Timeless’s
cancellation
were greatly
exaggerated...
Veteran showrunners Shawn Ryan
(The Shield) and Eric Kripke
(Supernatural, Revolution) have both
experienced the untimely deaths of their
beloved TV creations, but neither has
previously experienced Timeless’s miracle of
resurrection Effectively cancelled by US
network NBC last May, it had a surprise
reprieve just three days later when some quick
budget tinkering led to it being renewed for a
ten-episode second season.
Now with all of season two but the finale
written, Ryan tells Red Alert that the last-
minute save, “certainly made us understand
and appreciate, if we didn’t already, just how
precious every episode is. If you get to make a
show you really care about like this, where
each episode travels back to a different time
12 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Subscribe at myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/sfx
and a different place, each episode feels like an
event to us.”
The season finale left historian and time
traveller/fixer Lucy Preston (Abigail Spencer)
reeling from the news that her mother was part
of the shadowy Rittenhouse organisation that
she’s long been fighting. “As the season opens,
we’ll see the ramifications of the reveal that
Lucy’s mother is part of Rittenhouse, and how
Lucy may, or may not, be caught up in that at
the beginning,” Ryan explains. “There’s a real
question of, ‘Where is Lucy in all this?’ because
Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) and Wyatt (Matt
Lanter) and company don’t know.”
Ryan says the impact of Rittenhouse’s Let’s cut
demise in the season finale will quickly through all
manifest itself. “There was this splinter group this tension
represented by Carol, Lucy’s mother, and Annie please.
 Red Alert
Apr 2018

Wersching’s character, Emma, that are still out

Lucy prepares there and still in possession of the mother ship.
to see some What they intend to do will be very different
brave new from season one, which was very much about
worlds. chasing Garcia Flynn (Goran Višnjic) and
trying to stop him from wreaking havoc on
history. However, we came to find out that AERIAL
there was a purpose to what he was doing.
Flynn was arrested so we’ll have new villains,
and that will be a clean reboot.”
ASSAULT
SCI-FI TV
Ryan clarifies that “the basic thread remains ROUND UP
in terms of our characters jumping in the
lifeboat and going back in time to try to Matt Berry and
preserve things. But a lot of the elements Kayvan Novak to
around that are new and fresh and exciting.” star in pilot of
What We Do In
He teases stories set in a Hollywood backlot The Shadows
with Hedy Lamarr, Kripke’s Robert Johnson TV spin-off.
episode and a Salem Witch Trial story inspired No happily ever
after for Once
by Ryan’s own daughter. “There are different Upon A Time,
people that they’re chasing after, different which is cancelled
after seven
seasons. The
AUTHOR EXCLUSIVE
We want to Shannara

COMPANION
Chronicles also

proceed as if the given the axe

after two seasons.
Bryan Fuller

show’s gonna go
PIECE
leaves his
showrunner gig
on Apple’s reboot
on for a while of Steven
Spielberg’s
Amazing Stories. Female friends are to the fore in
circumstances that they’re in and different HBO gives The Day She Saved the Doctor
personal dynamics between all of them.” greenlight to
new JJ Abrams
Does that mean a change between fan sci-fi show Ahead of Jodie Whittaker’s full
favourites Lucy and Wyatt? “Well, for the first Demimonde. debut later this year, four of the
time, since the death of his wife, Wyatt’s Disney boss Bob Time Lord’s previous female foils
Iger confirms that
looking at making a fresh start, and realising he more than one are taking centre stage in The Day She
could move forward in his life. I think we’ll Star Wars TV Saved The Doctor. Composed of four
really investigate the connection and attraction series is in stories by Susan Calman, Jenny Colgan,
development.
between Wyatt and Lucy at the beginning of Joanne Whalley
Jacqueline Rayner and Dorothy Koomson,
season two, and we’ll see where that takes him. joins Daredevil’s it focuses on four companions in Bill,
I don’t want to promise anything, but he’s third season as Clara, Rose and Sarah Jane.
someone who for the first time is looking Sister Maggie. “Elisabeth Sladen made Sarah Jane such
The CW is
forward rather than looking back.” going back to the a compelling character,” says Jacqueline
Asked if they’re planning a season ending ’90s for ideas, Rayner, who sends Sarah Jane to ancient
that could serve as a series finale, Ryan says, ordering pilots Rome to investigate why women are going
for reboots of
“We want to lay out a season two that will set Charmed and blind. “She had strength and compassion,
up a successful season three. We’re not trying Roswell. even when she was scared. And in The
to write an ending that could be conceived as a New Superman Sarah Jane Adventures, she effectively
prequel series
series finale, and maybe that’s optimistic, but Metropolis (set in
became the Doctor, so if you’re looking for
we feel emboldened and energised by our the city before the proof that the Doctor can be played by a
surprise renewal and we want to proceed as if Man of Steel’s female actor, just look at Sarah Jane.”
arrival) coming to
GETTY (1)

the show’s gonna go on for a while.” TB Stating that it “allowed her to look at the
DC’s new digital
streaming service. issues of self-confidence and self-image”,
Timeless returns to NBC in the US on 11 March. The Ice Cream Girls author Dorothy
The show airs on E4 in the UK. Koomson reveals what happens when Bill
goes shopping for the perfect date outfit.
“She tries on three jackets but discovers
DON’T QUOTE ME that the experience has changed her in
more ways than one,” she explains. “It does
“WHEN EVEN 5% OF THE PEOPLE feature the Doctor and someone else from
ARE SAYING, ‘YOU RUINED STAR Bill’s episodes but I can’t tell you who!” SJ
WARS, I HOPE YOU DIE,’ THAT’S
WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO LISTEN TO.” The Day She Saved The Doctor is published
Don’t worry, Rian Johnson, a lot of people loved by BBC Children’s Books on 8 March.
The Last Jedi.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 13

Red Alert
Apr 2018
SCI-FACT! Eline Powell has prior experience as a mer-person – she played a Syren in Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword.
5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT...
SIREN
A new mermaid tale with
a darker edge than Splash
NOT ALL MERMAIDS ARE
INTO DISNEY SINGALONGS
“What I think we are doing is going a
1 little bit deeper with the darkness of
mermaids,” says Emily Whitesell, executive
producer of Siren. The new TV show follows a
mysterious girl called Ryn (British actress Eline
Powell), who comes ashore in the coastal town
of Bristol Cove. However, her presence turns
the small community upside down and sets the
stage for a war between land and sea.
“We really do tell why mermaids might be
the way they are,” Whitesell explains. “We’re
trying to tell stories with deeper themes –
themes like global warning and why people
would be driven out of their homes. From
there, we tell the story of this mermaid who
would like to get home. Ryn is waiting for her
sister, who it turns out has been captured so,
there’s this story of Ryn on this incredible
journey to find her.”
RYN HOOKS A MARINE BIOLOGIST
One Bristol Cove resident torn between
2 head and heart is marine biologist Ben
(Alex Roe). The hunky local stumbles across
Ryn and almost immediately falls under her
irresistible spell.“Ben is this humanitarian, but
14 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Subscribe at myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/sfx
he’s also an environmentalist,” Whitesell tells
Red Alert. “Those issues have always
concerned him. Ben realises that mankind
might be damaging the oceans and that’s what
might be pushing these things to the surface.
But he develops feelings for Ryn and that’s the
real dilemma. Also, his family owns one of the
biggest, unfriendliest environmental
companies in the town… and the town relies
on that company. So, Ben has many facets
and problems.”
SHE CAN DEFEND HERSELF
Ryn can definitely take care of herself,
3 but that killer instinct has a tendency to
get her in trouble early on.
“As Ryn says at a certain point in the show,
‘Yes, I am part animal, but I am also part
human,’” notes Whitesell. “As human beings,
we see the animal side to ourselves sometimes.
Ryn is discovering her humanity and then
trying to understand what it means and
attempting to control both sides. We all have
these sides to us. Hers weighs more on the
animal [side] in the beginning.”
Get away before
you become
a slave to her
siren song!
HER SONG IS HYPNOTIC
Similar to the beautiful sea creatures of
4 legend that lured sailors to their deaths,
Ryn’s species possess a hypnotic siren song. Its
sound mesmerises anyone who hears it.
“I can’t tell you too much about it,” says
Whitesell cryptically. “The siren song is used in
different ways and it’s trying to figure out its
effect on Ben and other people, and what it’s
used for in the bigger picture. It will be an
enormous plot point.”
THE GOVERNMENT
IS UP TO NO GOOD
Conspiracy theorists know that secret
5 government organisations are always up
to something sinister. In this case, one division
snares a mermaid to study her.
“Could they weaponise a mermaid?”
Whitesell asks. “What is that siren song? Is that
something they could weaponise? Can they
imitate it? Then, within the army, you will see a
faction split off and have some sympathy, and
whether that has to do with being sirened or
not. That leads to a very dark place.” BC
Siren comes to Freeform in the US on 29 March.
A UK broadcaster is TBC.
 Red Alert
Apr 2018

SCI-FACT! Lansdale says his favourite Elvis song is currently “Promised Land”, “his version of Chuck Berry’s great song”.

Y SCI-FI
M It’s time to cut
down on the
fried banana
sandwiches.
•B

•
oo

ca
st
e

us
e fa an
m ou s re f
p e o pl e a

BILL BAILEY
COMEDIAN, ACTOR, MUSICIAN...
BILL BAILEY’S A TRIPLE THREAT
– BUT IS HE A SCI-FI FAN TOO?

FAVOURITE SF/FANTASY FILM

I have to say one of my favourites is a
film called Serenity. It was out a few years
ago and there’s sort of an ingénue, the
kind of person with the special powers
being protected from some evil empire,
and in that regard there’s echoes of the
Jedi or The Matrix or even The
Hobbit. It’s very stylish and
unique – what it’s WRITER EXCLUSIVE
characterised with is a

RETURN OF THE KING

very sharp and funny
script, and I think
that’s sometimes
lacking in the big
epics. They tend to
get rather lost under
the weight of the
expectation of the
whole thing and feel
ponderous. I think
Serenity had a real zip to it.
Elvis is feeling all shook up in the upcoming
FAVOURITE SF/FANTASY BOOK
I was always a big fan of Arthur C Clarke
Bubba Ho-Tep prequel comic
and Asimov. The books about robots I
thought were brilliant and still resonate
today. Obviously I read a lot of Tolkien Elvis didn’t die. He went into Lansdale was drawn back to the Bubba
when I was a kid and I enjoyed the films retirement and eventually teamed up Ho-Tep world by the idea of a prequel, first
greatly but I thought there was such a
wealth of detail in the books that never
with JFK to fight a resurrected mooted by Don Coscarelli, director of the 2002
quite translates to the screen. I’m also a Egyptian mummy – everyone knows that. But movie. “I considered a script and in the end I
huge fan of Iain M Banks, as well. His what was his life like before these events were wrote the novel... There is a contact to the later
Culture novels are brilliantly realised. detailed in Bubba Ho-Tep? story, but this one is more youthful, as Elvis
SF/FANTASY GUILTY PLEASURE If author Joe R Lansdale is to be believed, was, though certainly he wasn’t a kid.”
I used to love V. The world being taken
over by lizards? I thought that was just the answer is “strange”. Based on Lansdale’s Lansdale says that his creatures of the night
great, which then David Icke actually went 2017 novel, Bubba Ho-Tep And The Cosmic don’t owe much to traditional vampires. “Let’s
on to believe was true. I loved those old Bloodsuckers is a new comic miniseries just say they are more than blood suckers –
B-movies too, like Night Of The Leeches, co-written by Joshua Jabcuga with art from they are potential world suckers.” Despite that
and there’s a brilliant one called Night Of
The Lepus, about killer rabbits and it’s so
Tadd Galusha. It finds the King working with a global threat, however, it’s entirely possible
po-faced and serious. It’s like they’ve new team to take down the forces of darkness. that this is not the last we’ll see of the King’s
never seen the Monty Python sketch. [Er, “What I can tell you,” says Lansdale, “is that adventures in comics. Asked if he would like to
it was made before The Holy Grail – Ed.] before Bubba Ho-Tep, Elvis had a life he no work on more Bubba Ho-Tep stories, Lansdale
They had to call it Lepus because it’s the longer remembers. His contact with Bubba in simply states, “I would love to.” WS
Latin name for rabbit. Night Of The
GETTY (1)

Rabbit? That’s just not scary. SBl the old folk’s home was not his first encounter
with the strange. And in this new comic, the Bubba Ho-Tep And The Cosmic Bloodsuckers #1
Bill Bailey is currently on tour throughout strange is amped up to the hundredth degree.” is published in March.
the UK with his new show Larks In Transit.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 15

Red Alert
Apr 2018
SCI-FACT! First released in October 1992, Cyber Force was the sixth comic book to be published by Image.
WRITER EXCLUSIVE
BIONIC BUDDIES
Top Cow presents a new and shiny
Cyber Force for the interconnected age
Much has changed in the world of
technology since the Cyber Force
comic debuted in 1992. Now 26 years
later, the cybernetically enhanced super-team
are returning in a new monthly comic from
Marc Silvestri’s Image Comics studio Top Cow.
It’s co-written by Top Cow publishers Matt
Hawkins and Bryan Hill, and illustrated by
Transformers artist Atilio Rojo.
“Thematically, we’re asking the question,
‘Does technology affect our core humanity?’”
says Hawkins, whose masters degree in physics
has proved useful in developing the story. “In
the past couple of decades, we’ve seen how
radically some things have changed because of
smart phones and social media.
“Since I have access to the behind-the-
scenes of some tech that hasn’t made it to the
streets yet, I’m excited for the future, as our
relationship with technology is far more
personal than it was in 1992.”
Silvestri, who will supply covers and oversee
the new title, originally envisaged Cyber Force
as a souped-up version of Steve Austin. “Marc
Subscribe at myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/sfx
has told me that when he created this book, he
wanted to do a team of cyborgs, like The Six
Million Dollar Man,” laughs Hawkins. “He
wanted to differentiate this team from the
genetic mutations or superheroes that were
prominent at other companies. That distinction
and the evolution of technology over the past
25 years has made this a far more interesting
series to delve into today.”
Described by Hawkins as “a relaunch rather
than a reboot,” the first issue of Cyber Force
opens with Morgan Stryker and his daughter
Carin – aka Velocity – being completely remade
by his employers after being severely wounded
in a devastating explosion.
“I’ve always loved Stryker and Velocity’s
father/daughter relationship, and that will be
central to this story,” says Hawkins, before
revealing that Cyber Force members Killjoy
and Ripclaw will also feature in the first arc
along with “an unknown villain that will be
revealed in the third issue.” SJ
Cyber Force #1 is published on 28 March.
The night sky
was the shade
of a Jaffa Cake.
AFTERLIFE
CELEBRATING ICONIC
SCI-FI STARS
136
PATRICIA
TALLMAN
Barbara in
Night Of The Living Dead
THEN
NOW
One of sci-fi TV’s most recognisable
redheads, Patricia Tallman has been
demonically screaming, killing
zombies and reading our minds since
the ’80s. She played telepath Lyta
Alexander in Babylon 5 and Barbara in
the 1990 remake of Night Of The
Living Dead. These days she’s still
entertaining people but in a less
traditional and screamy manner,
as CEO of an adventure excursion
company. She’s also on the convention
circuit, where there’s probably still
some screaming involved...
Would you like to play Barbara again?
Yeah, but as my age – so an old
grandma zombie killer! Because I keep
seeing people as zombie killers and
they’re not doing it right. I think I need
to teach them how to do it!
What’s the best way to kill a zombie?
Definitely in the head, just shoot
them in the head. They want to get all
fancy – don’t get fancy, because then
you’re gonna get bit, I’m telling ya!
What would Barbara be doing now?
I think she’d be batshit crazy. Her hair
would be in dreadlocks, but she would
still be incredibly badass! And it’s kind
of how I am now actually, not far from
reality (laughs)! Though I do wash my
hair, I don’t think she does.
Did you keep any set souvenirs?
Yeah I have my wardrobe – my boots,
my tank top and my pants. I have my
script, that’s about it. I didn’t keep the
GETTY (1)
little stuffed alligator – I should have!
What would it say on Barbara’s
gravestone?
“She did it her way.” TP
 Red Alert
Apr 2018

SCI-FACT! The Florida swamp backdrop in Annihilation was actually shot in Windsor Great Park in the UK.

If only she
hadn’t openly
DIRECTOR EXCLUSIVE mocked The

WEIRD
Phantom
Menace.

SCIENCE
Director Alex Garland
brings Jeff VanderMeer’s
Annihilation to
breathtaking life
After the brilliance of Alex Garland’s
Ex Machina, the director has gone even
deeper into his exploration of the
existential congruence of humanity, science
and nature in his adaptation of Jeff
VanderMeer’s novel Annihilation. Arriving
on Netflix in the UK this March,
the trippy, thoughtful production Area X contains
casts Natalie Portman as a cellular a mysterious
biologist who embarks on a presence dubbed
journey with four other female The Shimmer.
science experts into a region of
Florida that’s been swallowed by
an unexplained alien presence
dubbed The Shimmer. Everything
inside is a subtle yet striking and,
at times terrifying, landscape of
evolving anomalies impacting
every living thing, which threatens Natalie Portman plays one
to overtake the globe. of five scientists heading images such as light refracting in the vapour
It’s a heady mix of gorgeous into Area X. trail of a plane, into an odd rainbow, Northern
visuals, thoughts about mortality Lights-y type deal, which became a good
and visceral thrills. Garland says, “The theme atmosphere. And in a way, this [film] is slightly reference point. And as it often happens with
that I was shooting for was self-destruction, more abstract to the experience of reading the visualisations of mathematical structures, they
and how self-destruction can relate to the fact book. So that’s what I oriented myself around have something about them which is oddly
that our cells self-destruct at a certain point, or and that allowed for all sorts of structural organic, and also not organic. At the end of the
stars have life cycles, or our universe has a life freedoms. So I wrote a first draft and showed it film, we present that shape, in pure form.”
cycle. And that people have psychological to Jeff and the producers, and they effectively As the visuals become more trippy, the
self-destructions, as well as physical ones.” gave me their blessing.” journey becomes unapologetically existential,
The film creates more concrete characters in akin to Kubrick’s 2001 with more tangible
Portman’s Lena, and her expedition peers who, conclusions. It’s smart sci-fi that Garland
STRANGE LANDS in the book, have no names and are referred to knows not all will embrace. “What happens
VanderMeer’s book itself is not an easy science simply by their expertise. The Shimmer, as is that the collective who make the film think
fiction story to crack, and in adapting it the visually conceived, is also mesmerising in its about it as hard as we can, we do as much work
director says, “I got sent the book in galley familiarity as it embraces mathematical form. as we can, we put as much of ourselves into it
form, read it and was struck by the originality Garland says to create it, and what secrets it as we can, and we trust our instincts. Then at
and atmosphere. Then what you do, if you’re reveals, he and his department heads found the end of it, that’s all you can do.” TB
going think about an adaptation, is try and particular inspiration from the Mandelbrot set.
figure out what it is that you think you’re “Michelle Day, who’s the set decorator I’ve Annihilation comes to Netflix in the UK in
adapting. With Annihilation, it’s the worked with for 20 years now, found some March and is now in cinemas in the US.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 17

Event Horizon
Apr 2018

Conventions, shows and beyond

ENTER DATE
Open Now
DATE
30 March-2 April

LOCATION

THE TITANS
LOCATION The Majestic Hotel,
O2, London Harrogate
SCI-FI
WEEKENDER
22-25 March
Want genre stars

GRAND
in their awesome

Prepare to have your minds blown by person? Look no

further! The likes
of Christopher
DC Exhibition – Dawn Of Super Heroes
FOLLY
Judge, William
Hope, Dawn Harris
and others will all
This month, a bunch of DC icons are arriving in London. After a be here in North
Wales.
successful run in Paris, DC Exhibition – Dawn Of Super Heroes is setting EasterCon morphs into scifiweekender.
down in our fine capital, bringing with it a wealth of memorabilia, much of it its 2018 form... com
never seen before, all of it guaranteed to drop jaws. “It took three years of research,”
curator Jean-Jacques Launier MARVEL
tells Red Alert. He first MADAME
unleashed the exhibit at Art TUSSAUDS
Ludique-Le Musée, the March
museum he runs with his wife The waxy wonders
are blasting off to
Diane, after garnering Blackpool for a
exclusive access not only to the four-part exhibit
archives of DC and Warner that puts you up
close and personal
Bros, but also the DCEU movie with Thor, Spider-
sets. “We went on the set of Man, Hulk and
Wonder Woman and Justice others.
League, we met [director] Patty madametussauds.
com/blackpool
Jenkins,” Launier says. The 69th British
“There’s never been an National Science MCM
exhibition like this; it’s the first
time the filmmakers have been
Fiction Convention is
kicking off in its annual Easter
BIRMINGHAM
17-18 March
so deeply involved.” We’ve dreamt of being slot. Pledging to deliver “a Guardians Of The
A life-long fan of comic this close to Wonder thoughtful and interactive Galaxy’s Michael
Woman’s lasso. Rooker and Sean
books, Launier was inspired to programme that will celebrate Gunn, Deadpool’s
delve into the DC archives to science fiction”, it’s lined up a Brianna Hildebrand
help celebrate the impact the comic titan has had on popular culture. The exhibit quartet of stellar wordsmith and Supernatural’s
Mark Sheppard
will include 200 original comic pages, around 300 movie sketches and concept guests of honour. lead the impressive
artworks, plus 45 original costumes (including Christopher Reeve’s Superman and They include graphic novel guest list at this
Heath Ledger’s Joker), alongside models and props from the films. “My family used writer Kieron Gillen (The NEC con.
to say, ‘Don’t read that, it’s crap! You should read books instead,’” Launier recalls. “It Wicked + The Divine), mcmcomiccon.com
wasn’t fair. I want to show young people that these artists are amazing.”
He adds: “We wanted to explain the sociological aspect of DC because they
Nova-winning author
Christina Lake, Arthur C SECRET CINEMA
21 March-10 June
brought us a lot of superheroes. Clarke Award shortlistee Secret Cinema
It’s 80 years of creation so it’s Nnedi Okorafor and US celebrates its 10th
spectacular. There’s a small author Kim Stanley Robinson. birthday, bringing
the total immersion
Joker card that’s the very first Additionally, there’ll be a movie experience
drawing of the Joker. There’s space for fan-made poster art to Blade Runner:
also a fantastic background (if you have something to The Final Cut.
secretcinema.org
painting of Gotham City from contribute, head over to the
the Tim Burton Batman movie.
It’s a masterpiece. When you
website for more info), plus
two big concerts to rock along
HOLLY BLACK
March
see the exhibition you can see to. Jon Boden, formerly of The US fantasy
the art of those superheroes folk legends Bellowhead, will author visits the
UK this month,
and it’s very important.” be performing, while with appearances
Preach. JWi singer-songwriter Keith at the Oxford
Donnelly will perform an Literary Festival,
the Northern YA
For more information on what evening set. JWi Literary Festival
Some of the amazing you’ll find at the exhibition and and more. Find out
costumes you’ll see to book tickets, visit To buy tickets, visit more on Twitter
at the exhibition. @HotKeyBooks
www.DCExhibition.co.uk www.follycon.org.uk

18 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 Apr 2018

SCI-FACT! Brian Taylor co-directed the two Crank movies and is co-creator of Syfy’s adaptation of Happy!.

DIRECTOR EXCLUSIVE

FAMILY
FEUD
Writer/director Brian
Taylor turns Nicolas
Cage and Selma Blair
against their kids
in horror comedy
Mom And Dad

Parenting can be a real killer. Just
look at director Brian Taylor’s Mom
And Dad, a frantic horror comedy that
pits brainwashed parents Brent (Nicolas Cage)
and Kendall (Selma Blair) against their
unwitting offspring in a mile-a-minute
bloodbath. What could inspire such a devilishly
dark idea? “Well, I am a parent,” smiles Taylor
slyly when Red Alert quizzes him on his latest
release. “Being a parent is interesting because
as soon as you have a kid you feel like you’ve
Nic Cage won’t
wear the bee
bonnet again!
fulfilled your basic purpose for being on this
planet. It’s what we’re here to do but at the
same time you become completely irrelevant
and obsolete other than to feed and care for the
next improved version of yourself. Humans
have all these delusions of our own importance
and it doesn’t work out so well for us. All that
stuff gets pushed aside.”
Talk about an identity crisis... “That’s really
what the movie’s about,” agrees Taylor. “All
good genre movies – and hopefully this is a
pretty good genre movie – are about subtext
and making metaphor literal. They’re turning
our metaphorical monsters that we’re afraid of
at night into actual monsters. That’s really
what Mom And Dad is about: two parents who
are lost in their lives and resentful of it.”
Resentful? That may be a bit of an
understatement. Especially when the film’s
unexplained madness infects a very pent-up
Nicolas Cage. “The guy’s so creative and so
unpredictable, yet at the same time he’s very
precise and thoughtful about everything he
does,” says Taylor on reuniting with his Ghost
Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance star. “He’s got so
many ideas it becomes about trying to guide
and funnel that. He’s kind of like Cyclops in the
X-Men, if you take the visor off the laser beams
from his eyes can level buildings! So directing
Nic is like being Cyclops’s visor and trying to
control the destruction, in a helpful way.”
As for what’s causing all this destruction,
your guess is as good as Taylor’s. “We never
reveal what turns them,” he explains “There’s
a lot of theories floated but there’s never
anything explicitly stated and the inspiration
for that was all Night Of The Living Dead, the
original black-and-white one. I always thought
that was so great. One day this thing starts to
happen and nobody knows why, you just have
to deal with it the way you would in real life.”
Needless to say, the parents in Mom And Dad
have a little trouble dealing with what takes
place. Luckily, that’s not the case for Taylor’s
own offspring. “I told my son about the idea for
the movie when I had it because I was really
excited and his first comment was, ‘Dad, what
the fuck is wrong with you?’” Taylor laughs.
“He ended up really liking the movie though.
My son is a musician and he actually composed
and performed the end song for the movie so
he’s all in. He loves it.” SBl
Mom And Dad is in cinemas from 9 March.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 19

FreezeFrame
Apr 2018

Top trailers dissected

SCI-FACT! Mimban, a planet first referenced in Alan Dean Foster’s 1978 novel Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye, will appear in Solo.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

A scruffy-looking nerf-herder: the early years OUT
25 MAY
2018

With the Empire in pursuit and Emilia Clarke’s We find out that Han was also kicked out of The smart money would suggest this is Han’s
Qi’ra in the passenger seat, Han’s voiceover the [Imperial probably] flight academy – could home world, Corellia – Expanded Universe
reveals he’s been scamming since he was 10. those brutalist grey buildings be it? sources mention its snow-capped mountains.

Before Han got his hands on it, the Falcon’s Woody Harrelson’s influential criminal Tobias Qi’ra steps out with Lando’s droid sidekick
interior was rather less shabby – it has an Beckett is “putting together a crew” for some L3-37 – a performance-capture character
almost Star Trek level of shininess. kind of heist. Han and Chewie are in. played by Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Donald Glover is not a system, he’s a man. A Thandie Newton plays Val, another member We’ve seen four-armed creatures in Star Wars
card player, gambler, scoundrel, and much more of the heist gang, and a long-time associate of before (notably Dexter Jettster in Attack Of The
besides – you’d probably like him. Beckett. That’s one hell of a blaster. Clones), but this looks like a new species.

This earlier iteration of Chewbacca comes Han goes classic gunslinger as he unfastens An encounter with some kind of giant space
with extra ammo – we’re sure it’s not just a his holster – arguably the most space Westerny squid gives us our best look at the pre-"special
good excuse to remodel the action figures. moment in the history of space Westerns. modifications” iteration of the Falcon.

The Buzz
NICK Promising, given
the behind-the-scenes
bloodletting. Howard
nails a consistent tone
and I like how Ehrenreich
suggests the soft centre behind
the scoundrel exterior.
KIMBERLEY Call me RICH Han’s a rogue, JON It’s Guardians Of
snooty but the trailer meets Lando, flies the The Galaxy, but without
isn’t very exciting. Why Falcon and there’s some the gags, the colours,
does everything look so heist element... Not and the cool tunes. Not
grey? Why is the tone so wooden? much we didn’t know before, impressed so far. And why change
And just where is Han’s roguish but I love the Western vibe, and that iconic shape of the Falcon?
charm? Do not like. Do not want. Ehrenreich has some swagger. Donald G looks promising though.

20 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

Red Alert
Apr 2018

Subscribe at myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/sfx

1929-2018

URSULA
K LE GUIN
We salute the passing of
an SF great, an author

GLORIOUS
both fiercely intellectual
and gloriously imaginative

GEORGE Ursula K Le Guin, who has died aged

88, was one of the towering figures
within science fiction and fantasy
literature. More than this, she was one of the
most important writers of the latter part of the
20th century, a novelist whose work
looks set not only to endure but
to grow in influence over the
coming decades.
That’s primarily because of
two novels she wrote in the late
1960s. A Wizard Of Earthsea
(1968) can be read and enjoyed as
a young adult fantasy, but it’s far
removed from sword-and-sorcery
or faux medieval fiction. As
novelist and io9 founder Annalee
Newitz noted when speaking to In the film, he’s a themes such as anarchism, the environment
SFX: “The world-building in those petulant white kid.” and religion in a series of fine, award-winning
books is so extraordinary. It’s an Despite her novels. She was of the left, and didn’t like the
archipelago world, and she really success, she was, more conservative era she witnessed in her
makes an effort to think about the she told SFX in final years: “The destructive forces in my
ecosystems on those islands and the 2014, “pretty slow country are very powerful at the moment
idea that there are different ethnic developing as a and it’s quite frightening.”
groups.” A few months later came The writer”. Inventing Yet to see Le Guin wholly as a political and
Left Hand Of Darkness (1969), set on Orsinia, an intellectual writer is to miss part of the picture.
Gethen, a world where the human-like imagined As Annalee Newitz notes, part of the reason
inhabitants are androgynous and only European country, was important Earthsea so connected with her as a child was
choose gender at the height of their because it gave her an “imaginative space” and because of its marvellous dragons: “[Kids are]
sexual cycles. helped her in key ways to break free from the surrounded by giant monsters telling them
With both novels, Le Guin was explicitly constraints of realistic fiction. “I could deal what to do all the time, so having a book where
challenging assumptions about the roles with matters that were morally important to you tame them and learn their language and
society assigns people, and about what kinds of me in an imaginative space,” she said, “so it’s become powerful is a great fantasy.”
characters should be represented within SFF. not all that different perhaps from the other She will be much missed. In the words of
This mattered, both to the subsequent planet in a science fiction story, which gives China Miéville, who interviewed Le Guin for
development of the field and to Le Guin you the same escape from Earth to a place Radio 4: “We have lost a giant. A generous,
herself. Writing in 2004 when a TV adaptation where your imagination can arrange things.” rigorous, critical, thoughtful, angry, curious,
GETTY (1)

of Earthsea aired, and clearly regretting selling And how she (re)arranged things. In the kind, steel-willed literary titan, the impact of
the screen rights, she caustically noted, “My years following her commercial breakthrough whose words and works has been, is, and will
protagonist is Ged, a boy with red-brown skin. in the 1960s, Le Guin explored recurring continue forever to be incalculable.” JWr

22 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 Red Alert
Apr 2018

SCI-FACT! Titan will also publish Jack Kirby, Gil Kane and Steve Englehart’s long-lost ’70s Prisoner comic this July.
NEW AUTHOR

LEO CAREW
MEET THE TRAINEE
DOCTOR BEHIND EPIC
FANTASY THE WOLF

Tell us about your protagonist, Roper.

He’s the young heir to the throne of
an alternate human race. His father dies CREATOR EXCLUSIVE He felt like a
in the opening chapter, which plunges

ROVER’S RETURN
him into a struggle of succession with shadow of
an extremely capable and manipulative his former self.
rival. He’s completely outmatched, and
has to learn very fast how to fight in a
completely new theatre.
Are there any echoes of real-life
historical situations?
History is stuffed with people who’ve
nailed extraordinary political coups,
The Prisoner is back in Milligan and
and that provided endless inspiration.
The Romans were delightfully Lorimer’s new comic
underhanded, and my
favourite devices in the
book are lifted Few TV shows have had as enduring about Number Six’s uncertainty had a pleasing
shamelessly from them.
How long did The Wolf a legacy as The Prisoner. Just over 50 quality for me.” The new four-issue miniseries
take to write? years since the iconic British spy-fi will hone in on that sense of disorientation
Actually writing it show came and went in a baffling blaze of while still remaining grounded. “It’s the weird
down took about six psychedelic glory, its influence is still keenly aspect of the story that most appeals to me, but
months, but the story
had been fermenting in
felt on everything from The Matrix to the I was intent on not making this a surreal-fest
my head for 14 years, recent Twin Peaks revival. And while the show right from the beginning. We’re trying to create
and I wrote the original itself lasted just 17 episodes, it has had an a hero in a recognisable world and then
version when I was 12! afterlife in novels, audio plays and an ill-fated examine how he reacts when the certainties of
A degree in biological TV revival that ditched the Morocco-by-way- his world are taken away from him.”
anthropology was the biggest catalyst,
and really helped develop my portrait of-Wales vistas of The Village in favour of, er, a Visually, the book will remain similar to the
of the alternate human species. desert. It’s to the iconic original, however, that original and for Lorimer part of the appeal was,
You’ve worked as an Arctic guide – did Titan Comics’ new series from writer Peter “the opportunity to draw those blazers!” He
that feed into the book at all? Milligan and artist Colin Lorimer looks. describes the comic’s tone as “real-world, but
Yes, mostly helping me understand
how it feels to be in extreme situations.
Milligan (no stranger to head-scratching with a pop art sensibility.” So while we can
I find it fascinating how group fare, having penned the likes of Kid Lobotomy expect the comic to be (at least a little) more
dynamics and the psyche can twist for IDW) admits to being drawn to the show’s grounded than the show’s famously nuts final
under pressure, and dealing with polar more out-there aspects. “I was a fan of its episode, we can still expect plenty of evil
bears, crevasses and avalanches gave weirdness and its hero in an existential crisis. weather balloon action... WS
me a little insight into what I was
putting my characters through! IB I was a borderline obsessive reader of Kafka
when I was younger – still am – and something The Prisoner #1 will be published in April.
The Wolf is out on 5 April.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 23

Red Alert
Apr 2018
SCI-FACT! Lilith, the Mother of Demons, has appeared in various mythologies, religions and TV shows, including Supernatural.
SHOWRUNNER EXCLUSIVE
MUM’S THE WORD
Big Bad Lilith arrives to take over the world
in season three of Shadowhunters
In Shadowhunters’ season two
finale, Clary killed the villainous
Valentine and wished a deceased Jace
back to life. Everyone should be breaking out
the bubbly and celebrating, right?
Unfortunately, the demise of the demonic
Jonathan/Sebastian triggered the arrival of
Mummy Dearest, the mother of demons, Lilith.
She’s determined to revive her son – and
unleash Hell on Earth in the process.
“The Shadowhunters have never faced
someone this powerful,” co-executive producer
Todd Slavkin tells Red Alert. “They’ve faced
great demons [but] this is the Queen of Hell.
This is the mother of all demons. She provides
an obstacle they’ve never faced before.
“It affects the world at large and the entire
Downworld,” he continues. “It’s this great
unifying factor where everyone is against this
Queen of Hell. And, they’ve never faced
someone as old as her. She goes back almost to
the beginning of man. She’s steeped in history.”
Besides this emerging threat, plenty of
bombshells dropped in the season two finale
24 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Subscribe at myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/sfx
will be addressed in season three. For starters,
Jace, who was murdered at the hands of
Valentine, quickly discovers there’s a price to
pay for his resurrection.
“The one thing we know is bringing people
back to life is never without its consequences,”
says fellow co-executive producer Darren
Swimmer. “Even from the final episode last
year, you see something is not quite right. As
we move through the season, it will become
clearer what Jace has gotten himself into.”
Last season also saw Simon brokering a
Faustian deal with the Seelie Queen in
exchange for Maia’s freedom. As a result,
Slavkin admits that the charming Daylighter is
now “in a real pickle”.
“The deal Simon made affects him
throughout the season,” Slavkin explains.
“Even though he thinks he might be able to
untangle himself, he and the Seelie Queen are
hooked together in a real profound way.
Alberto Rosende delivers some of his finest
work. He goes to some deep, deep places,
which is a testament to his acting.”
He couldn’t be
in the gang if
he didn’t have
a weird tattoo.
After struggling with her supernatural
heritage, Clary ultimately embraced being a
Shadowhunter. However, her recent actions
might have damned Jace instead of saving him.
“Clary achieved what she always wanted,
which is acceptance into the Shadowhunter
world,” says Swimmer. “Sadly, with that
acceptance comes the issue of Jace coming
back to life, which was her decision. She will
face the ramifications of that throughout the
entire season.”
When Slavkin and Swimmer took over as
showrunners last year, the duo wanted the
characters to develop an emotional gravity.
According to Swimmer, “we will continue to
see different sides of relationships,” which
includes shipping couples Malec and Clace.
“We are leaning into the domesticity of Alec
and Magnus in a big way,” Slavkin says of their
dynamic in the new season. “There’s comfort
and ease that’s really special. That relationship
has never been deeper.
“As well as Jace and Clary,” Slavkin
concludes, “we take them to a place they’ve
never been because finally they can be
boyfriend and girlfriend and do the things that
a couple does. They’ve always been grinding
against, ‘Oh, we’re brother and sister. No, we’re
not,’ and back and forth, and reconciling this
assortment of swirling feelings. In season three,
they embrace it and it’s a beautiful thing.” BC
Shadowhunters returns to Freeform in the US
on 20 March, and streams on Netflix in the UK.
 Red Alert
Apr 2018

SCI-FACT! Mortal Engines has spawned three sequels and three prequels, so there’s scope for a franchise.

AUTHOR EXCLUSIVE

NEWS
WARP MOBILE
HOMES
HIGH-SPEED
FACTS

This year’s
Academy Award
nominations are
the best for SF and
fantasy in recent
London’s on the
memory. Guillermo
del Toro’s The
Shape Of Water
move, as Peter
picks up most nods
with 13 (including
Jackson brings
Best Film, Best
Director and three
acting categories).
Philip Reeve’s
Get Out also in the
running for film, Mortal Engines
director and actor.
Ridley Scott
awarded BAFTA
to the big screen
fellowship.
Jurassic World
live touring show “Everything’s colossal,” says
in development,
featuring life-size
Mortal Engines author Philip
dinosaurs. Reeve. “That’s kind of its USP!”
Jason King star Based on Reeve’s 2001 novel, the Peter
Peter Wyngarde Jackson-produced adaptation of Mortal
dies aged 90.
Jodie Whittaker Engines could literally be the biggest
confirms she’s film ever. Directed by Christian Rivers,
being paid as it takes place in a post-apocalyptic
much as Peter Her new scarf
Capaldi was for future that’s reminiscent of Mad Max:
Doctor Who. Fury Road – aside from the fact it’s filled smelled like
Official range with vast travelling cities that consume boysenberry.
of new Firefly
novels coming
each other for precious resources.
from Titan Books. “The story takes place in Europe and then into central Having visited the film’s Wellington set last year, Reeve
George RR Asia but it’s so removed and so far away from our world that was able to witness London and some of the other
Martin launches those national boundaries don’t really matter anymore,” fantastical locations taking shape. “Most of what was shot
an annual
“Worldbuilder” Reeve tells Red Alert. “They’re gone and have been while I was there was set on Airhaven,” he says, referring to
scholarship to forgotten about, so it’s now just a huge playing field.” the flying city that is home to rebellious pilot Anna Fang,
help aspiring The first in a quartet of novels, Mortal Engines focuses on played by Korean singer/songwriter Jihae. “Out of all the
authors to
create their own the inhabitants of a now-wheeled London. However, there characters, she is pretty much as she looked in my mind and
“imagined are still a few familiar landmarks like St Paul’s Cathedral, her costume is just as it’s described in the book.”
landscape”. although they are not necessarily in the same place as they Reeve has no problem with how the changes that have
Nick Clark
Windo’s The Feed
historically have been. “As far-fetched and strange as it is, I been made to the source material, specifically, that the two
picked up as series wanted it to have some kind of foothold in reality,” Reeve main protagonists – Robert Sheehan’s apprentice historian
by Amazon/Virgin explains. “It’s important that it isn’t just a made-up city or Tom Natsworthy, and Hera Hilmar’s troubled rogue Hester
Media. another planet but some version of our world, and our – are now several years older than they are in the novel.
Alex Garland
working on TV London, but some things have been moved around or “That’s fine by me because when I first wrote the book, I
show with FX. shunted to and fro.” didn’t think of it as a children’s book but as a science fiction
novel,” he says. “So the characters were young adults of
around 18 to 20 years old, which in that kind of Victorian
DON’T QUOTE ME society meant that they were still under the thumb of their
elders. Then when a children’s publisher showed interest, I
“I’M NOT A PROPHET. PROPHECIES dropped their ages so they became 13-14, but now with the
ARE REALLY ABOUT NOW. IN movie they’ve gone back to what they used to be.” SJ
SCIENCE FICTION IT’S ALWAYS
GETTY (1)

ABOUT NOW.” Mortal Engines is in cinemas from 14 December. Philip

The Handmaid’s Tale may feel prescient – but Margaret Reeve’s new novel, Station Zero, is published on 3 May.
Atwood claims she doesn’t have a crystal ball...

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 25

 Apr 2018

Subscribe at myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/sfx

Nick Setchfield’s

DEVELOPMENT HELL
Your monthly glimpse into Hollywood’s hoped-for future

DUKING IT OUT!
DUKE NUKEM
’90s gaming icon Duke Nukem
is heading for the screen in the
suitably outsized form of wrestler
turned actor John Cena, the man
with the most frankly terrifying
arms in showbiz. He’s in talks to
star as the pixel-punching
defender of Earth in a movie
currently in development at
Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes
and Paramount Pictures. Created
by Apogee Software back in 1991,
Duke is a cigar-chomping,
pistol-packing, ego-stroking bad
boy equipped with jet pack and
blond flat-top. He’s starred in 19
games to date, including the recent
Duke Nukem 3D: World Tour – but
who knows if his traditional
lashings of gratuitous sex and
ultra-violence will make it to the
big screen intact. As yet there’s no
writer, no director and no release
date but Andrew Form and Brad
Fuller will produce alongside Bay.
IT’S NOT THE YEARS…
INDIANA JONES 5
Indiana Jones! Just like Marion
Ravenwood we always knew some
day you’d come walking back
through our door… That day just
came a little closer with the news
that Steven Spielberg is
prioritising a new Indy movie as
his next project. Apparently it was
a toss-up between that and a
remake of West Side Story, which
would have seen the mighty Beard
fulfil a career-long dream to direct
a big-screen musical. Looks like

26 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018


the snakes and the trucks won out
over the Sharks and the Jets.
Spielberg plans to shoot the fifth
film in the increasingly
inaccurately named Indiana Jones
trilogy next year, targeting a 10
July 2020 release date. The only
other intel we have from our spies
in Tanis is that Kingdom Of The
Crystal Skull’s David Koepp is
writing the screenplay. Oh, and the
Nazis are digging in the wrong
place, but what else is new?
SAM’S THE MAN!
THE KINGKILLER
CHRONICLE
Sam Raimi may have bailed on
the chance to bring Warcraft to the
screen but he’s finally set to
scratch that epic fantasy itch. He’s
in talks to direct this adaptation of
Patrick Rothfuss’s trilogy The
Kingkiller Chronicle for Lionsgate.
The books recount the adventures
of Kvothe, a bad-ass amalgam of
sword-fighter, sorcerer and
famous musician (think Ed
Sheeran – then think of somebody
else entirely). Scripted by Lindsey
Beer, who also numbers the
upcoming Dungeons And Dragons
on her resume, it all kicks off with
an adaptation of The Name Of The
Wind, the first novel in Rothfuss’s
saga. And that’s not all: a
companion prequel TV show is
also in development at Showtime,
exploring the world of Temerant a
generation earlier. Hamilton
creator Lin-Manuel Miranda
serves as creative producer and
Illustration by Paul Cemmick
musical overlord on both projects
– and yes, there may even be stage
productions in the future. Feel that
multi-platform synergy. Feel it.
DON’T FEAR US, CHEER US!
MEN IN BLACK
Quick, read this before some
sharp-suited git in Ray-Bans waves
a neuralyzer in your face… Sony
may have finally found a helmer
for their relaunch of the MIB
franchise, due for release 14 June
2019. F Gary Gray made his name
on The Fate Of The Furious and
Straight Outta Compton and is now
in talks to direct a new adventure
for the self-styled galaxy
defenders. Neither Will Smith nor
Tommy Lee Jones are expected to
Apr 2018
Looks like GAME OF THRAWNS!
STAR WARS
the snakes Peak Star Wars? We’re not even
close. David Benioff and DB
ALSO and trucks Weiss, the team behind Game Of
Thrones, will create a brand-new
BURNING won out over
the Sharks
series of movies, carving out their
own corner of the galaxy, one
that’s far, far away from the main
Skywalking saga, the Solo movie,
Emily
Blunt
and Jets Rian Johnson’s recently
announced trilogy and Mouse
boarding
Disney’s Droid: A Star Wars Story or
Jungle reprise their roles as Agents J and whatever other franchise-skinning
Cruise…
K but the movie is said to be a delights await us in the future.
Mike Flanagan
directing Doctor continuation of the world “David and Dan are some of the
Sleep, Stephen established in the original trilogy, best storytellers working today,”
King’s sequel to
The Shining…
just with fresher, hipper, says Lucasfilm’s Kathleen
Universal bringing potentially cheaper talent. Iron Kennedy. “Their command of
Image Comics Man scribes Matt Holloway and complex characters, depth of story
series Birthright Art Marcum are handling the and richness of mythology will
to the screen…
Screenwriter Ed screenplay, Steven Spielberg’s break new ground and boldly push
Solomon exiting onboard as executive producer Star Wars in ways I find incredibly
Universal’s The and it’s an entirely separate entity exciting.” Where? When? Why?
Invisible Man…
Paramount to the Men In Black/21 Jump Street How? Who? Disney Supreme
adapting the Ology crossover currently roasting in the Commander Bob Iger will only
books… Juan merciless bowels of Development say, “They are focused on a point
Carlos Fresnadillo
in negotiations to
Hell. Wait, what is this paragraph? in time in the Star Wars mythology
direct Disney’s Why are these words so hazy? and taking it from there.” Spoiler:
live-action version Stop waving that blinky stick everyone dies. Horribly.
of The Sword In thing, damn you! And why are you
The Stone… Agents
wearing sunglasses indoors?
Of SHIELD’s Rafe
Judkins rewriting SQUAD GOALS!
the Uncharted SUICIDE SQUAD 2
movie… Bill Nighy, BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR! Warner Bros are moving ahead
Ken Watanabe
and Suki ROBOCOP with a sequel to 2016’s Suicide
Waterhouse So what’s the future of the Squad. And yes, that sounds like a
joining Detective
Pikachu… Dileep
future of law enforcement? Seems potential suicide mission in itself.
Rao returning to it may be a new RoboCop movie “They are working intensely on it,”
Avatar… Hans that’s programmed to eliminate reveals Joel Kinnaman, who
Zimmer scoring without prejudice any and all played Colonel Rick Flagg. As he
X-Men: Dark
Phoenix… Jumanji sequels, remakes, reboots and tells Collider, “I know it’s a big
2 targeting Xmas off-shoots that have polluted the priority at Warner Bros, but it’s an
2019… Rachel streets since the original film was equally big priority to get right.
Weisz to star in SF
indie Cloud One… released in 1987. Details of this We all felt that we had lightning in
Stephany Folsom continuity-blasting zero tolerance a bottle, in a way, and it partly got
writing Toy Story policy come from screenwriter away from us, a little bit. It’s really
4… Tom Holland
Ed Neumeier, who wrote the important to harness everything
rumoured to
cameo in Venom… Verhoeven-helmed classic and that was great about it and then fix
Mary Elizabeth is now working on a franchise- what didn’t work.” So what kind of
Winstead the cleansing sequel. “There’s been a course-correction can we expect
female lead in Ang
Lee’s clone thriller bunch of other RoboCop movies from the most undemanded movie
Gemini Man, and there was a recently a of 2019? “I wouldn’t be surprised if
alongside Clive remake,” he tells Zeitgeist we see more of a grounded version
Owen and Will
Smith… Vacation Entertainment Magazine. “I would of the film,” Kinnaman shares.
directors John say this would be going back to the “The characters are so extreme, so
Francis Daley and old RoboCop we all love and I think it would be more effective
Jonathan
Goldstein set to
starting there and going forward. if we’re seeing them [around]
helm Flashpoint… So it’s a continuation really of the maybe less sorcery. I think the
Michelle first movie, a little bit more of the characters become more extreme
MacLaren
GETTY (1)
old-school thing.” Serve the public if you see them in conjunction
directing Chris
Pratt in Cowboy trust. Protect the innocent. Shoot with real people.” The Accountant’s
Ninja Viking… that ’90s cartoon show in the face. Gavin O’Connor directs.
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 27
 SFX HAILING FREQUENCIES OPEN!

Your views on the

month’s big issue

#HITCHHIKER’S text adventure on my brother’s Amstrad, aged

10 or 11. I didn’t get all the in-jokes, but it must

AT 40 have piqued my interest as I become a massive

Sam Gallagher, email
I was nine when dad introduced me to the
series by playing me his tapes of the original
radio broadcasts. I was instantly hooked. I was
such an insane fan that I managed to convince
my primary school music teacher to put on a
Hitchhiker’s Guide musical. While I did get to
play Marvin, little did I know this entailed also
singing a solo of “Catch A Falling Star”!
THIS MONTH’S COMMUNICATIONS MONITOR Simon Bromley, email
I remember borrowing a copy of the first book
IAN BERRIMAN, from the school library. The multicoloured
REVIEWS EDITOR cover was a faded blue. A year later, the library
sold a load of stuff, and I bought it – even more
Happy battered, held together with Sellotape – for
birthday, The 10p. Think I’ve still got it somewhere!
Chris Thornett, email
Hitchhiker’s I read the whole set in a sauna as a teenager! I
Guide To The have no idea why. Perhaps I felt some affinity
Galaxy! We with Ford Prefect, lying on a towel imagining
myself on the beaches of Santraginus V as I
asked for your reflections slipped in and out of consciousness between
on the whole 40-year paragraphs. Or perhaps I was a bloody idiot.
phenomenon, and were James Sugrue, GamesRadar+
I first encountered THGTTG by playing the
showered with memories
and musings. Also on the The adaptation was
divisive, but we all
agenda: The X-Files, The love Sam Rockwell.
Good Place and Netflix
nastiness. Something
you’d like to get off your
chest? Drop us a line and
ZAPHOD COSPLAY PHOTO BY PETER GATEHOUSE
fan of DNA’s work. I think I cried for an hour
when I heard of his passing. Such a colossus of
sci-fi, tech and all-round thinking. I’m
saddened DNA missed the smartphone. I think
he’d have loved the possibilities.
SFX I was maybe 11 when I was given cassettes
of the first two series (taped off the radio) by
my brother’s girlfriend. That put her in my
good books for life!
Thursnextus, Twitter
I remember meeting Douglas Adams at a
signing and having the guy in front trying to
pitch a boardgame! Douglas responded that he
needed to talk to BBC Enterprises, “Which is
an oxymoron if ever there was one!”
Jonathan Mock, Facebook
We did the first 10 minutes of THGTTG for
drama O-Level. The week before, mum saw
Douglas Adams at a signing, and he wrote me a
note that said, “Jonathan, good luck with the
exam – Douglas”.
Pete Fagan, email
Douglas Adams lamented being unable to do
with comedy in Doctor Who what he achieved
quite well in Hitchhiker’s – putting into sharp
relief the darker story elements. Destruction of
Earth, the desolation of Magrathea... Arthur

you could have your

name immortalised in
print alongside ours.
You might even win a
book from the Black
Library – just like Dan
Balcomb, who’ll be
receiving a copy of
Outer Dark by Robbie
MacNiven. Enjoy it, Dan!

28 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018


Get in touch!
Email sfx@futurenet.com • Facebook Facebook.com/SFXmagazine
Twitter @SFXmagazine, #SFXcontact • Post SFX, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA
Douglas Adams
was a colossus of
sci-fi, tech and all-
round thinking
Dent’s journey hits great highs and lows, and
rewards us with the notion that the loss of
one’s home isn’t the end of the universe.
David Haddock, email
The books have had a deep impact on my life.
While ostensibly comedy, there is also a
profoundness. The answer to the ultimate
question may be 42, but this can lead you to
thinking about what the right question is for a
particular situation – and about those who
claim to already have all the answers. Thinking
about these things in your teens affects you for
life. Forty years on, I can still find new insights.
Mark Ritson, email
I enjoyed the film, but Arthur Dent
and Ford Prefect were horribly
miscast. Martin Freeman didn’t Look out for
have the same delivery as Simon the next SFX
Jones did, with his furious wit;
he came off as just moaning. A
Hot Topic at
more suited British actor would bit.ly/SFXhottopic
have been David Mitchell.
Andrew Heczy, GamesRadar+
The movie is criminally
underrated. I love Martin Freeman,
Zooey Deschanel and Mos Def. Sam
Rockwell is perhaps the weakest of the main
cast, yet he has hilarious moments. The new
stuff is immensely fun. Remember the church
of the big sneeze? Everyone’s like, “Atchoo!”
then the minister is like, “Bless you!”
SFX I’d basically blocked the movie from my
memory. But I’ve dug out the DVD and am
going to give it another chance!
Peter Ray Allison, email
Here’s a photo of me as Zaphod Beeblebrox at
the Sci-Fi Weekender. The second head is a
polystyrene display head that I painted in a
skin tone with a glam-rock wig. This was
strapped to my body along
with the second arm – a
mannequin hand threaded
down a second sleeve,
padded with plastic bags!
Ashley Beeching, Facebook
I based my life on Marvin –
that’s how much the series
Peter Ray Allison influenced me!
cosplaying SFX Same here. Though I’m
as Zaphod more pessimistic than he is.
Beeblebrox.
FirstContact
Plot twist: Mulder
had been turned
into a grass Yeti.
#THE TINKERMAN
R
Cameron Hobbs, by email
SPOILE G!
WARNIN The first episode of the
latest season of The
X-Files was so very, very bad –
will Chris Carter ever stop
tinkering with the show’s
mythology to such an extent that
audiences are left annoyed?
(Warning: spoilers ahead) I mean,
seriously: the Cigarette Smoking
Man the father of Scully’s child?
Really? They expect us to accept
that? I give up.
However, just as I was about to
bin the entire season as a lost
cause, Darin Morgan saved the day
– as usual – with the brilliant “The
Lost Art Of Forehead Sweat”, so
all is forgiven. Thank heavens The
X-Files can still pull a few aces
from up its sleeve...
SFX All I want from The X-Files
is a show that alternates between
Darin Morgan scripts and
monster-of-the-week plots, with
no conspiracy arc whatsoever.
Why can’t they just make that?
#OUT OF TIME
Dan Balcomb, email
Can someone get on and
invent one of those
Time-Turner devices from Harry
Potter, please? I’m not sure I’ve
actually got enough time to write
this email. Back in the days of SFX
issue one, the number of genre TV
shows and movies was fairly
manageable. Now everyone seems
to have realised how great they are
Apr 2018
there’s a smorgasbord of media
competing for my attention.
I’ve got 19 genre shows on series
link, plus a stack of unwatched
DVDs next to the TV, not to
mention all the Netflix offerings
waiting on My List. The wife/
children/dog all require
interaction, work seems to insist I
turn up every day, the games
console is gathering dust, books sit
idly by waiting for my next holiday
and a certain level of sleep appears
to be a compulsory requirement.
Maybe I should be glad when a
show as poor as Inhumans
occasionally turns up and frees up
a little time in my schedule...
SFX Now imagine what it’s like if
you work for an SF mag and have
to keep track of them all! There
are shows that’d have been
essential viewing a decade ago
which I just don’t have time for.
I’ve had to learn to just let go of
the awful guilt.
#TED TALK
Charlotte Thomas, email
I felt I just had to shout about the
wondrous creation that is The
Good Place – has there ever been a
cleverer sitcom? That twist at the
end of season one could have
derailed everything, but instead
it’s meant the show is constantly
throwing new curveballs at its
afterlife survivors, and making
unexpected story choices – this
isn’t a series to watch while you’re
half asleep. Most importantly, it’s
incredibly funny and the cast are
uniformly brilliant – particularly
Ted Danson, who deserves more
recognition as the comedy god he
is. Cheers, Ted!
SFX Oh god, another show to add
to the list of ones I really need to
catch up with.
#CARBON CHOPPY
Paul Oldroyd, email
So I get to the bit in your article
about the Netflix version of Altered
Carbon (SFX 296) where the
showrunner says “the torture got
really nasty”, and I realise that I’m
probably not going to watch it
after all. A shame, as it’s one of my
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 29
FirstContact
Turns out the rave
had been cancelled.
favourite novels. There’s
altogether too much torture porn
on Netflix at the moment.
SFX To be fair, if you revisit the
novel, the torture gets pretty
nasty there too, so that’s really
only a matter of the TV series
staying faithful to the source
material. If it’s more family-
friendly fare you’re after, Netflix’s
new version of Lost In Space may
do the job. We’ll have an on-set
report next issue.
SPELLING IT OUT
Craig Stevens, email
I’m surprised that reviewer Sam
Ashurst expected to find “poetry”
in a book titled The Star Wars
Phenomenon In Britain (SFX 297).
As the author, I made a conscious
decision to take a straightforward
approach to the writing. There
really isn’t an elegant way of
explaining that the vinyl-caped
Jawa is the rare one.
The critical response
provides the author with an
opportunity to make
improvements, so I’m
grateful. I am however
concerned about your
reviewer saying that the
book contains spelling
mistakes. I made it
clear that I’d supplied
an uncorrected copy.
The new interviews
with “industry folk”
mentioned in the review
include key players at
20th Century Fox
and Lucasfilm
merchandising, Palitoy,
Marvel UK comics and
30 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Apr 2018
the Lucasfilm UK sales agents. It’s
packed with everything I could
find out about Star Wars in
Britain. There’s a decade of
research and a lifetime’s worth of
fandom in the book.
SFX It’s a fair cop: it’s always a
mistake for us to mention spelling
errors when we’ve reviewed an
advance proof. Apologies for that!
#WE ALSO HEARD FROM
Rosie Poole, email
How great is it that Get Out, an
independent horror film, got three
Oscar nominations? I’m really
pleased for Daniel Kaluuya – who
is, let’s not forget, only the second
black British man ever to be
nominated for Best Actor.
SFX And the first one under the
age of 30, to boot!
James Kinsley, Twitter
Did you guys see Neil Cross
claiming Hard Sun isn’t sci-fi,
because it could happen? Nothing
grinds my gears more on a pop
culture level than people who
hate/distrust sci-fi shows and
falling over themselves to tell you
it’s not sci-fi, because actually it’s
good. At least it settled the debate
I was having with myself over
whether or not to watch the rest
of the series. If, as a sci-fi fan, I’m
not wanted, so be it!
SFX I understood this 20 years
ago, when SF could be perceived
as “niche”, but why are people
still saying it now our genre
dominates pop culture?
Richard Garton, email
Love the mag – been buying it for
years. Problem: I’m running out of
storage space. Ever thought of
releasing Best Of special
editions, or even a book of the
best articles and interviews
from over the years? I feel
this would be not only a
nice nostalgic look
back, but also a
record of all the
great things you’ve
published.
SFX That would
give you an
excuse to bin
your back
issues, though
(shudders).
Can’t you just
buy a bigger
house?
Issue 298 | April 2018
Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA
Editorial
Editor Richard Edwards (RE) richard.edwards@futurenet.com
Art Editor Jonathan Coates (JC) jonathan.coates@futurenet.com
Production Editor Kimberley Ballard (KB) kimberley.ballard@futurenet.com
Features Editor zǣƬǸ³ƺɎƬǝˡƺǼƳ(NS) ȇǣƬǸِɀƺɎƬǝˡƺǼƳ۬ǔɖɎɖȸƺȇƺɎِƬȒȅ
Reviews Editor Ian Berriman (IB) ian.berriman@futurenet.com
US Editor Tara Bennett (TB)
Contributors
Penny Archer (PA), Louise Blain (LB), Simon Bland (SBl), Saxon Bullock (SBu), Bryan
Cairns (BC), Dom Carter (DC), Paul Cemmick (PC), Nic Clarke (NC), Anne-Marie Coyle
(AC), Kevin Davies (KD), Sarah Dobbs (SD), Luke Dormehl (LD), Penny Dreadful (PD),
Rhian Drinkwater (RD), Erlingur Einarsson (EE), Dave Golder (DG), Nicky Gotobed (NG),
Sam Greer (SG), Jo Gulliver (JG), Stephen Jewell (SJ), Stephen Kelly (SK), Catherine
Kirkpatrick (CK), Joseph McCabe (JMc), Miriam McDonald (MM), Jayne Nelson (JN), Cliff
Newman (CN), Steve O’Brien (SO), Andrew Osmond (AO), Tanavi Patel (TP), Jem Roberts
(JR), Will Salmon (WS), Mike Simpson (MS), Josh Winning (JWi), James White (JWh),
Jonathan Wright (JWr), Steve Wright (SW)
Thanks to Jake Benton, Kevin Jon Davies, Andy Quinn
Film Group, London
Group Editor-in-Chief Jane Crowther (JCr), Deputy Editor Matt Maytum (MM),
Art Editor Mike Brennan (MB), Reviews Editor Matthew Leyland (ML),
News Editor Jordan Farley (JF), Operations Editor Andrew Westbrook (AW),
Entertainment Editor (GamesRadar+) Lauren O’Callaghan (LO)
Cover images
Main image: Marvin © Kevin Jon Davies; Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect © BBC
Jessica Jones © ‫ז׏׎א‬ȇƳȸƺɯRȸƺǝƏٖzƺɎˢǣɴٕ³ȒǼȒ© 2018 Lucasfilm Ltd/Disney;
Ready Player One © 2017 Warner Bros Entertainment Inc; Tomb Raider © 2017
Warner Bros Entertainment Inc and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc;
Pacific Rim: Uprising © 2017 Legendary Pictures/Universal Pictures
Photography
Olly Curtis, Will Ireland
All copyrights and trademarks are recognised and respected
Advertising
Media packs are available on request
Commercial Director Clare Dove clare.dove@futurenet.com
Advertising Manager Simon Rawle simon.rawle@futurenet.com, 01225 687694
Account Manager Alex Choma alex.choma@futurenet.com, 01225 687463
International
SFX is available for licensing. Contact the International department to discuss
partnership opportunities:
International Licensing Director Matt Ellis matt.ellis@futurenet.com
Subscriptions
Email enquiries sfx@myfavouritemagazines.co.uk
UK orderline & enquiries 0344 848 2852
Overseas order line and enquiries +44 (0)344 848 2852
Online orders & enquiries www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk
Head of subscriptions Sharon Todd
Circulation
Head of Newstrade Tim Mathers
Production
Head of Production Mark Constance
Production Project Manager Clare Scott
Advertising Production Manager Jo Crosby
Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson
Production Manager Frances Twentyman
The Senior Partners
Managing Director, Magazines Aaron Asadi
Commercial Finance Director Dan Jotcham
Editorial Director Paul Newman
Head of Art & Design Rodney Dive
Printed in the UK by William Gibbons & Sons on behalf of Future
Distributed by Marketforce, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU
www.marketforce.co.uk Tel: 0203 787 9060
ISSN 1358-5959
“It’s a doughnut pandemic! Jam everywhere!”
áƺƏȸƺƬȒȅȅǣɎɎƺƳɎȒȒȇǼɵɖɀǣȇǕȅƏǕƏɿǣȇƺȵƏȵƺȸɯǝǣƬǝǣɀƳƺȸǣɮƺƳǔȸȒȅȸƺɀȵȒȇɀǣƫǼɵȅƏȇƏǕƺƳًƬƺȸɎǣˡƺƳ
forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. The paper in this magazine was sourced and produced from
sustainable managed forests, conforming to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards. The
ȅƏȇɖǔƏƬɎɖȸǣȇǕȵƏȵƺȸȅǣǼǼǝȒǼƳɀǔɖǼǼI³!٢IȒȸƺɀɎ³ɎƺɯƏȸƳɀǝǣȵ!ȒɖȇƬǣǼ٣ƬƺȸɎǣˡƬƏɎǣȒȇƏȇƳƏƬƬȸƺƳǣɎƏɎǣȒȇِ
All contents © 2018 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part
of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior written
permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in
0ȇǕǼƏȇƳƏȇƳáƏǼƺɀِ«ƺǕǣɀɎƺȸƺƳȒǔˡƬƺ‫ي‬ªɖƏɵRȒɖɀƺًÁǝƺȅƫɖȸɵً ƏɎǝ ‫׏׏‬ÈِǼǼǣȇǔȒȸȅƏɎǣȒȇƬȒȇɎƏǣȇƺƳ
in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press.
Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to
contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price of products/services referred to in
this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not
responsible for their contents or any other changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent
ƏȇƳȇȒɎƏǔˡǼǣƏɎƺƳǣȇƏȇɵɯƏɵɯǣɎǝɎǝƺƬȒȅȵƏȇǣƺɀȅƺȇɎǣȒȇƺƳǝƺȸƺǣȇِ
If you submit material to us, you warrant that you own the material and/or have the necessary rights/
permissions to supply the material and you automatically grant Future and its licensees a licence to publish
your submission in whole or in part in any/all issues and/or editions of publications, in any format published
worldwide and on associated websites, social media channels and associated products. Any material you
submit is sent at your own risk and, although every care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, agents,
subcontractors or licensees shall be liable for loss or damage. We assume all unsolicited material is for
publication unless otherwise stated, and reserve the right to edit, amend, adapt all submissions.
Future plc is a public Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne
company quoted on the
London Stock Exchange
(symbol: FUTR)
www.futureplc.com
Non-executive chairman Richard Huntingford
!ǝǣƺǔˡȇƏȇƬǣƏǼȒǔˡƬƺȸ Penny Ladkin-Brand
Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244

OVERFIELD
JJ Abrams has done it again, sneaking out a
new Cloverfield movie while no one was
looking – this time releasing to Netflix at the
same time as the first trailer was released. Full
marks for the surprise attack, I wouldn’t want
to play hide and seek against him. I’m a bit
worried he might have just buggered up the
franchise though. Don’t get me
wrong, I rather enjoyed The
Cloverfield Paradox , it had some
fun horror moments including
bits I’m calling “worm-face”, “give
us a hand” and “ice to see you”,
and it reminded me of Event
Horizon. But ultimately it was low
rent nonsense that cheapens the
series. 10 Cloverfield Lane was an
excellent movie, so whether you
thought the tie-in ending worked
or not, it suggested Abrams was at
least able to expertly curate genre
fare and give it mainstream
attention. But by launching on
Netflix a messy movie that’s been An exclusive look
given a critical mauling, he’s not at Sam Ashurst’s
doing the genre any favours. Frankenstein’s
Apparently Cloverfield 4 is coming Creature.
in October – currently called
Overlord (Cloverlord?), rumour suggests it’ll
feature Nazi zombies, which hardly bodes well.
In a year where a horror movie has been
nominated for Best Picture and Best Director
Oscars, it’s a monster waste of potential.
THE PARENT TRAP
Cheer up though – early reports from the
Sundance Festival suggest your favourite
horror of 2018 might be on its way. It’s called
Hereditary and it stars Toni Collette as a
woman whose difficult mother has recently
passed away, while her weird young daughter
is seeing ghosts. Getting rave reviews from the
fest, you can watch the trailer now – it’s packed
with awesome imagery and there’s a sort of
pervasive sense of dread to the whole thing. It’s
worth noting that Get Out premiered at
Sundance in the Midnight section, as
Hereditary did – I’d love to see another horror
32 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Opinion
Crocs, monsters and
how JJ Abrams may
have ruined horror
honoured during awards season next year, and
it sounds like this could be it.
CREATURE FEATURE
I had a cheeky peek at a new film coming
from Brit director and friend of SFX Sam
Ashurst – it’s called Frankenstein’s Creature
and it looks gorgeous. This is the story of Victor
Frankenstein told from the creature’s point of
view. It’s based on a one-man play, so it’s very
theatrical looking with a creepy and classic
aesthetic. The image above is a first look at the
movie, which is currently in the edit suite.
“This is the most faithful cinematic
rendition of Mary Shelley’s book. So if you love
the novel, you’re going to love this films,” says
Ashurst, “but there are elements of
Frankenstein’s Creature that are so unique I
hope it’s going to be unlike anything anyone’s
seen before.” Nice.
/ Subscribe at myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/sfx
GAME OF SNAP
I’ve been on a crocodile binge this month,
streaming Lake Placid and Rogue back-to-
back (you can see both on Netflix). There are a
number of striking similarities – both have a
giant croc, obviously, both movies have a
capable female expert, a heroic male
counterpart who isn’t an expert, a big old sexist
douchebag who redeems himself
by trying to save the day, an
environmental message and a
nutso ending that isn’t especially
convincing. Rogue is the far
superior of the two though,
eliciting serious scares and
sympathy with great performances
from Radha Mitchell and Michael
Vartan. Not surprising perhaps
since it comes from Wolf Creek
director Greg McLean (what a
shame that The Belko Experiment
was such a disappointment). I’ve
decided I’ll definitely check out
the sequels Rogue One and Rogue
Nation (groan). Also fun is giant
alligator movie Alligator from
1980, where a baby gator gets
flushed down the loo but survives
in the sewer by eating rats full of
growth hormones until he grows massive and
terrorises Chicago. Super-fun film which
inspired a kids’ board game, where each player
has to “feed” or take food from the mouth of a
giant plastic gator without triggering its jaw to
clamp down. Because the ’80s were weird.
Dreadful thing to do
DREADFUL OLD MOVIE
Wonderful news – George A
Romero’s 1968 movie Night
Of The Living Dead is getting
a Blu-ray release from
Criterion on 26 February.
It’s a two-disc restoration
that’s rammed with unseen
extras including a dailies
reel and a new documentary
featuring Frank Darabont,
Guillermo del Toro and
Robert Rodriguez.
 Opinion

THE ALCHEMY
OF FANTASY
Mary Watson on turning research into story

T
here are some places that feel a bit different. That affect the senses,
or the mind, or invoke an emotional response that’s hard to describe.
Maybe a copse of ancient oaks that you stumble upon. Or an unmapped
but-must-be-around-here-somewhere ring fort that you eventually find.
Visiting these stones or trees, or a ruined church on a small island, and
walking around, finding the faded carvings, creates odd sensations: why
are these here? What purpose did they serve? How on earth did they get
that top stone up on that dolmen without a machine?
I think that there are two kinds of research for writing fantasy. One is active,
where the writer goes into the world and experiences things for the sake of the
book. Places where a character walks, maybe digs a hole to time how long it takes
to bury the body. Tastes soil so that her description is just right. Visiting possible
landscapes, finding the artefacts of a book, ignites a spark and brings vitality to my
process. It makes me think more energetically. I have visited churches and jails
simply to be inspired by the structure of the space.
Unfortunately, fantastic places are not always possible to visit in ordinary life –
it’s not that easy to find a magical walled garden in a posh city suburb. Nor can all
experiences be simulated – say, off the top of my head, dungeon torture by an elf
king. But I think that every fantastic place is tethered to the real world; writers
take what they’ve experienced and transmute it through their imagination.
Because that’s the best part of writing – the alchemy of turning things into
something completely different. And while we probably shouldn’t simulate elven
dungeon torture, many of us would know what a thick stone walled cellar feels
like, how cold it would be and how it would affect sound. Similarly, I’ve never
been to a magical walled garden, but I have visited many Victorian walled
gardens with an eye to how I might turn it to magic. Nor have I met a tree prince
yet, but I like to go down to the woods and imagine tree people pushing their way
out of the bark.
Go for a stroll in The other kind of research is more reflective. It involves much sitting down,
the countryside usually plenty of tea and carefully selected books and articles. It might include a
and discover the dubious online search history with queries like “black magic, hair, fingernails” or
magic of nature. “how to know if someone is a doppelgänger”. Information can be gathered from
unlikely places, from obvious places, and also from the curated collections which
include access to old manuscripts. With reflective research, the writer reads a lot,
then comes to their own understanding. I tend to draw on folklore and history,
then blur the lines by bringing in strands of my own imagined myths and magic.
“FANTASTIC At some point, all of this must be put aside. Most of what is researched doesn’t
end up on the pages of the book. Instead, it’s dug into the foundations. In earlier
PLACES ARE drafts there may be paragraphs where I try to show “look I’ve actually thought this
through very carefully”, but eventually even these disappear. In writing fiction,
TETHERED TO research is, and should be, the invisible work: the searching for dolmens, the
reading of countless online entries about druids, and the rationale for how the
THE REAL rules of my world came to be. All of these get left behind, and what remains is
story. Hopefully stronger for how deep the foundations have been dug, but pure,
WORLD”
GETTY (1)

unfettered story.

The Wren Hunt by Mary Watson is out now from Bloomsbury.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 33


KUSHIEL’S
DART
by Jacqueline Carey, 2001
David Mealing revisits a genre-challenging epic
Kushiel’s Dart was the first
book that showed me what an
adult fantasy novel could be.
Obviously I’m winking at
the term “adult” here
(because yes, this book has a
lot of sex in it), but the fantasy part is why I
read it. I’ve loved grand, epic adventure yarns
since I was in grade school, and Carey’s debut
is every bit the magical, sweeping story of
larger-than-life heroes out to save their world.
It’s also deeply sexual, deeply feminine, and,
for me, challenged genre conventions in a way
that still serves as a guiding light for where I
see fantasy needing to grow.
Carey’s Terre d’Ange is built from the ground
up on love and sexuality. Aleister Crowley’s “do
as thou wilt” becomes “love as thou wilt”, with
the provision that consent is sacred; beyond
that, anything goes. Spending the first half of
the book among courtesans bred and trained to
exacting standards of beauty and skill highlights
the world’s allure. We’re meant to fall in love
with the splendour of the Longest Night’s
masquerade ball just as Phèdre does, even as
pieces are set motion for the political epic that
plays out in the latter half of the story.
Contrast this sort of world-building to
Tolkien’s sexless Middle-earth, or the fever
dream of Howard’s Hyboria. Romance and sex
in fantasy over the last century nearly always
tended toward one of these extremes: either
the fade-to-black romantic ideal, or the
adolescent chain mail bikinis of Frank Frazetta.
Carey has said in interviews that Phèdre nó
Delaunay’s character came to her rooted in the
conceit of feeling pleasure in pain. This steers
Like this? Try these!
DAUGHTER
OF THE BLOOD
by ANNE BISHOP (1998)
Politics, magic and betrayal,
focused on a girl destined to
become Queen of Hell. Dark
fantasy at its gritty, seductive best.
34 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
BOOK CLUB
CELEBRATING CLASSIC
SF & FANTASY NOVELS
the narrative toward BDSM themes – and
again, Carey isn’t shy here. But Phèdre is also
that rare breed of fantasy heroine with zero
combat prowess, even of the accidental,
“hit-them-in-the-head-with-a-frying-pan”
variety. Her nature as the ideal submissive
gives her a strength against adversity that
longtime readers of the genre are more used to
seeing in stiff-backed soldiers. Instead Phèdre
is a true willow – bending but never breaking.
A SONG FOR ARBONNE
by GUY GAVRIEL
KAY (1992)
GGK’s take on Medieval France
and French culture, interpreting the
historical events of the Albigensian
Crusade against the Cathar heresy.
The story isn’t without its flaws. Where
Phèdre shatters conventions of what a fantasy
hero should be, Joscelin, her romantic foil,
plays far too close to trope. Carey also commits
the sin of making it obvious who she wants the
heroine to end up with. I never believed her
pretensions of a love triangle between her,
Joscelin and Hyacinthe, which dulls some of
the impact of the story’s concluding events.
That said, Phèdre’s love for Hyacinthe as a
childhood friend instead of a romantic partner
highlights the book’s central theme: love, in all
its forms. Phèdre loves Joscelin romantically,
Hyacinthe as a true friend, Melisande as a black
widow, her country as a patriot, her queen as a
devoted subject, and her culture as a celebrated
courtesan and socialite. The book asks how far
each of these can take the heroine, and answers
with a resounding verdict: every bit as far, to
the heights of epic adventure, as wanderlust,
prophecy, duty, or any of the other major
motivations that have driven fantasy since King
Arthur and Beowulf. It’s a powerful addition to
the canon of our storytelling, challenging us to
demand more than adolescent versions of
romance and love. Both have as much power to
change the world as any legendary sword or
swordsman, and the genre will be better the
more we take Carey’s lesson to heart.
Soul Of The World is out now from Orbit.
NEXT ISSUE
In our next Book Club
(in SFX 299, on sale 28
March) SF author Rob
Boffard will be writing
about Lauren Beukes’s
violent and thrilling
2013 novel The Shining
Girls, set in multiple
timelines. If you’ve
never read this tale of
time travel and serial
killing, or fancy giving
it another spin, here’s
your chance to prep
before a top novelist
shares their thoughts.
 In the next

AVENGERS:
INFINITY
WAR
The MCU gets
together for the
biggest superhero
shindig ever
Plus! *
+ The Handmaid’s Tale
+ Ghost Stories
+ New Lost In Space
+ Westworld

* All contents liable to change. There’s probably an Infinity Stone for that.

SFX 299 ON SALE WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH

IN PRINT AND ON YOUR DIGITAL DEVICE

SUBSCRXIB! E
bit.ly/buySFXmag

T O SF
Turn ov
er for d
etails

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 35

 SUBSCRIBE TO SFX

Subscribe AND RELIVE FRITZ LANG’S SCI-FI CLASSIC

WITH THIS LIMITED EDITION BOX SET*

WL IOMRI T TE DHE D£I T2I O5N !

de )
(on ly 20 00 wo rld wi on
stored versi
Features re 84
ovie, the 19
of original m Gi orgi o
im ag ini ng with
re
undtrack
Moroder so
ore!
and loads m

SUBSCRIBE NOW!
Online myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/SFXMetro
or Phone 0344 848 2852
Quote SFXPG17P for print packages • SFXPG17D for digital packages
SFXPG17B for print + digital bundle packages
*Please use the full web address to claim your free gifts. Digital-only subscriptions do not include free gift.

36 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 SUBSCRIBE TO SFX

Other benefits of subscribing

to the world’s number one sci-fi
and fantasy mag include...

Exclusive
subscriber-only covers
Six months of SFX
E X C L U S IV E delivered to your door
S U B S C R IB E R -
O N LY Brilliant value – save ££s
COVERS! on the cover price
Money-back guarantee

Choose your package!

BEST
PRINT DIGITAL PRINT + DIGITAL VA L U E
Six months of SFX in print, plus Six months of SFX on your iOS Six months of SFX in print and digital,
a limited edition Metropolis box set or Android device plus a limited edition Metropolis box set

ONLY ONLY ONLY

£29
FOR 6 MONTHS
£ 14
FOR 6 MONTHS
£34
FOR 6 MONTHS
! ! !

TERMS AND CONDITIONS Gift is available to new UK print subscribers and print + digital subscribers. Please allow up to 30 days for delivery of your gift. Gift is subject to availability – only 50 copies
of Metropolis: Special Edition are available with promotion. In the event of stocks becoming exhausted we reserve the right to replace with items of a similar value. Prices and savings quoted are
compared to buying full-priced UK print and digital issues. You will receive 13 issues in a year. You can write to us or call us to cancel your subscription within 14 days of purchase. Your subscription is
for the minimum term specified and will expire at the end of the current term. Payment is non-refundable after the 14-day cancellation period unless exceptional circumstances apply. Your statutory
rights are not affected. Prices correct at point of print and subject to change. For full terms and conditions please visit myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/terms. Offer ends 28 March 2018.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 37

 40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 39

 40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE
HE NUMBER 42 ALWAYS LOOMS
large in the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The
Galaxy universe, but right now so does
40. On 8 March we mark four decades
since the first episode of the original
Radio Four series aired in 1978. What better
time for Douglas Adams’s creation to return to
its spiritual home?
Writer/director Dirk Maggs – whom Adams
sought out in 1991, impressed by his work on a
Superman drama – is at the helm again for
sixth radio series The Hexagonal Phase, which
over its half-dozen episodes adapts And
Another Thing… Eoin Colfer’s 2009
Hitchhiker’s book.
Centred on Nano, a colony of humans left
alive after the destruction of Earth, the story
sees its stereotypically Irish leader, Hillman
Hunter (played by an outrageously accented
The cast get
into character
in the West
London studio.
40 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Ed Byrne) interviewing applicants for the
position of the planet’s new God.
Not all fans were entirely convinced
when Colfer stepped into Adams’s shoes.
Any such sceptics may be interested to
know that significant changes have been
made here – and in a way which adds
more of an Adams flavour.
“The thing about Eoin’s story,”
Maggs explains, “is that Arthur and
Ford are sidelined in favour of
Zaphod. I can’t ignore the fact that
the radio series have had Arthur and
Ford as lead characters, and they
have to have an ongoing narrative
through the piece. If I’d stayed with
the book, Arthur and Ford would
disappear in episode two and not
appear again until episode five.”

The solution involved turning to the Douglas
Adams Archive housed at his alma mater – St
John’s College, Cambridge.
“Our researcher went through Douglas’s
papers,” Maggs continues, “and came up with
some very good snippets of Douglas, and some
really nice scenes where we’re able to get the
idea that Arthur and Ford not only are involved
in what’s going on, but are actively looking for
ways to influence the outcome of events.”
Some of this material saw print
in 2014 biography The Frood
– including a sequence featuring a character
called the Consultant (voiced by Lenny Henry),
from an early draft of third novel Life, The
Universe And Everything.
“He rewrote that a couple of times,” Maggs
explains. “In one version it’s revealed that the
Consultant is Satan. In another it’s a shaggy
dog story gag – I’ve gone for that version. So
Arthur and Ford are trying to find a purpose
for themselves, they go into a virtual world
where we meet the Consultant, and that’s
all Douglas.”
40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE
Other sizeable additions include new entries
for the Guide. QI creator John Lloyd is the
latest Voice of the Book.
“There’s a long sequence about the
Dentrassi,” Maggs says, “who we remember
being cooks aboard Vogon starships, but it
turns out were originally from a planet where
dental hygiene was worshipped! Then there
are snippets, which dropped in and fitted.
For example, he had a brief excursion about
Algolian Zylbatburgers, which are the most
inedible bits of an inedible animal.”
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 41
 40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE

The result is a hybrid which combines the The quirky and

book’s main story beats with slivers of Adams cool cast of The
which are either completely fresh, or familiar Hexagonal Phase.
only to hardcore fans.
“I’d say there’s about 18-20% Douglas,”
Maggs estimates. “I wanted to do justice to
Eoin, but also I knew there were nuggets by
Douglas worth having, and it’s turned out to be once more. “And it’s
a good marriage.” wonderful to be able
to use Douglas’s
material and Eoin
S PAC E J O C K E Y S Colfer’s. I was
At a recording studio on an unprepossessing pleasantly surprised
West London industrial estate, SFX is by what Eoin did.
privileged to see the team reunited. The call Over the years I’ve
goes out for the Hitchhiker’s veterans to been passed a few
assemble. “We need all the old sweats!” homages to
Seated behind Dirk Maggs’s mixing desk, Hitchhiker’s, and I’ve
we watch through a large window as the cast wanted to throw them
gather around microphones, reading from out of the window!
scripts on stands. A framed photo of Douglas Eoin, I think, really
Adams sitting by Maggs’s laptop serves as a pulled it off.”
touching reminder of the series’ creator. It’s an ensemble
“Anytime you see a line you can improve, if it’s where everyone
not in bold type, improve it!” Maggs declares. seems perfectly cast.
The bits in bold are Douglas Adams, and Much of the credit for
therefore sacrosanct. that must go to
“Fucking bollocks arseholes!” splutters Mark Douglas Adams, since
Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), upon Jones, Wing-Davey
immediately stumbling over a line. The cast and Geoffrey McGivern (Ford Prefect) – all of McGivern still vividly remembers the
then launch into action set on the bridge of whom Adams knew from his Cambridge recording of the radio pilot.
Zaphod’s ship, the Heart of Gold, which University days – were his suggestions. “I was only three years out of university,” he
presses all the fanboy buttons. It features an “I was surprised when he said he’d written recalls. “I can still feel the nerves. My first line,
ingratiating door chirping, “Glad to be of this part based on me,” says Jones, “I don’t go when Arthur’s lying in front of the bulldozer, I
service!”, and Arthur Dent grumbling, “I forgot wandering around saying, ‘I don’t understand!’ go, ‘Hello Arthur!’ and my voice is so high I
AND THE ESTATE OF DOUGLAS ADAMS. COPYRIGHT © COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED PRODUCTIONS, 2018.
ARCHIVE PAGES: BY PERMISSION OF THE MASTER AND FELLOWS OF ST JOHN’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,

about these stupid talking doors.” It also
includes Andy Secombe (son of Harry) as
Eddie the shipboard computer. “Hey guys!
We’re in the path of six converging death
beams!” he cheerily announces, before
launching into a rendition of “You’ll Never
Walk Alone” (“Can you end it at ‘When you
w-’,” Maggs asks, “Because I don’t want to pay
for it!”). Zaphod tries to maintain his sang-froid
in the face of impending doom: “I’d like to be
breathing 10 minutes from now…” Meanwhile,
Philip Pope’s camp reading of the line “Please
enter me from any direction” causes some
concern. “The door is enjoying itself a little too
much…” Maggs notes. “Ooh, he’s coming in,”
Pope gasps, as Maggs wanders through to give
notes. “It’s a beating for someone!”
During a break in recording we all grab
lunch, in the form of a Chinese takeaway. It’s
not quite the Restaurant at the End of the
Universe, but it’s still surreal sharing noodles
with Arthur, Zaphod, Ford and Trillian.
Thankfully the egg fried rice doesn’t pipe up in
a small voice, pleading to be eaten. Afterwards
SFX quizzes the cast, who are clearly relishing
being together again.
“It’s the comfort of putting on an old jacket
with patched elbows,” says Simon Jones, of
playing bewildered everyman Arthur Dent
and ‘Why can’t we get a decent cup of tea?’ I sound like a choirboy! We did it in the Paris
think Douglas was actually projecting some of Studio, Lower Regent Street, now alas defunct
his own characteristics onto Arthur. Maybe he – it’s a Carpet Warehouse! All those wartime
thought I could impersonate him better.” sitcoms like It’s That Man Again were recorded
Talking to Geoffrey McGivern, it’s obvious there. It had this lovely wood and these red
why Adams thought of him for a character as plush seats. We didn’t have an audience, but
loquacious as Guide researcher Ford Prefect. that was the space we used, and in this crimson
“Douglas once said, ‘Geoff can tell you for velvet womb it got born!”
half an hour about a new pair of shoes’,” He also has strong memories of later
McGivern says, “Which is true! So Ford was episodes, when recording days would find
always comfortable.” Adams – beginning to display his notorious
Listeners will
finally hear
this section
about the
government
on the planet
Erglefall
Sandwijhaven.
Written for the
opening page
of Life, The
Universe And
Everything, it
was later cut.

42 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018


issues with deadlines – holed up in the next
room with a typewriter.
“Douglas would be bashing out scenes at the
very last minute, with the clock at ten to six,”
McGivern smiles. “We had to do the last scene
of Earth being ruined by the B Ark people, but
we hadn’t seen it! Then we get handed
these Roneo-duplicated, onion-skin-paper
copies. We literally hold them by the top
corner, sight-read it into the mike, then it’s six
o’clock and that’s it – no overtime!”
The Hexagonal Phase’s cast also includes
Sandra Dickinson as Trillian, who stepped in
to fill the role after the original show’s Susan
Sheridan passed away in 2015. Studio days
were just as fraught when Dickinson played
the part for the 1981 TV series.
“We were always up against the clock,”
Dickinson says. “You were allowed 10 minutes
before you went into overtime, and we were
trying to finish everything before the 10
minutes were up every day. Our floor manager
did an awful lot of shouting! There was quite a
lot of crotchety bad temper, just because people
were uncomfortable for various reasons, but it
was also great fun. I learned to keep my mouth
shut as much as possible!”
Not many fictional worlds endure and still
inspire intense affection four decades later. So
why has Hitchhiker’s? Mark Wing-Davey has a
theory that the series is imbued with its
creator’s personality.
“The thing about Douglas was that he was an
enthusiast,” he explains. “He was always
This Marvin insult, dropped
from episode one of the
second radio series, was
aimed at Ford. In The
Hexagonal Phase, Arthur’s
on the receiving end.
40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE
This passage about Zaphod’s ancestor
(which dates from an unknown period)
has now made it into the first episode
of The Hexagonal Phase.
saying, ‘Hey, did you hear this?’ or ‘I want to
tell you this joke’. To a certain extent, that
enthusiasm is part of Zaphod. It’s a very
affectionate, warm group of people. I think
that’s partly because Douglas was like that;
that it takes on the character of the original
conceiver of the piece, and is a kind of
amorphous Douglas.”
Simon Jones has an alternative explanation.
“I think he goes for the universal truths,”
Jones says, “Like the frustrations of dealing
with bureaucracy. Mr Prosser is one example,
when he’s trying to knock Arthur’s house
down. Douglas takes an everyday problem and
projects it in a universal way, because then we
have the Vogons, who are bureaucrats par
excellence. And as time’s progressed,
everything he’s suggested seems to be coming
to pass. We’ve even got Zaphod Beeblebrox in
the White House! That’s an astonishing piece
of prophecy! This is an insane, egotistical
narcissist – I’m talking of Zaphod, of course –
and somehow it rings bells. I can’t think why!”
Hmm, yes. Now we think about it, Mark
Wing-Davey’s President of the Galaxy does
remind us of someone. The similarity hasn’t
escaped the actor, either.
“This time, when I was doing it, I thought,
‘Oh my god… I feel like I’m President Trump!’
It’s terrible! But I think Zaphod has more
self-doubt and humanity!”
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: The
Hexagonal Phase starts airing on BBC Radio 4
on Thursday 8 March, at 6:30pm.
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 43
 40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE

What bits of Hitchhiker’s do

the cast particularly cherish?

SIMON JONES
“I quite enjoy my argument with the
Nutri-Matic Machine, because it’s
something that happens to me in real life
– imbuing inanimate objects with a
perversely hostile personality. When they
don’t work, we have fierce arguments!
You should see me using an automatic
checkout. The things I say to that bloody
woman! “There is an unidentified object
in the bagging area.” “There isn’t! It’s my
bag! You said if I’m using my own bag to
put it there!” We have these dialogues.
It’s pure Arthur Dent, and I suddenly
realise and stop because people are
beginning to look at me rather oddly…”

GEOFFREY McGIVERN
“I liked it when it had all gone wrong with
the telephone sanitisers and everybody
from Golgafrincham, when [producer]
Geoffrey Perkins played in “What A
Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong,
because that song’s always got to me.
Oh, and the destruction of the Earth that
the Radiophonic Workshop and Geoffrey
worked out – that final hissing
disappearance of everything.”
MARK WING-DAVEY
“I very much enjoy The Restaurant At The
End Of The Universe in all three
incarnations. I liked it very much on the
radio, I very much liked it on the TV, and
then I liked it in the touring version,
because we had various people who
would come in and play the part of The
Dish Of The Day. What I like about the
series is its random ambition, with guest
people coming in – we had it back in the
day, and this new version has it too.”
SANDRA DICKINSON
“My favourite moment was when we were
filming and we were all getting into our
costumes. I looked over at Mark
Wing-Davey and said, ‘What are you
doing?’ and he said, ‘I’m just putting this
down my trouser leg’ – some very long
thing! I said, ‘Why are you doing that?’
and he said, ‘Well, Zaphod has two of
everything!’ That’s real method acting,
isn’t it? He was hung like a horse!”
HEN THE FROOD
first sprouted, nobody
knew just how significant
our timing was, to be
creating an all-new guide to
Douglas Adams and the monster he created.
The movie and new Radio 4 Phases had come
along in the 13 years since the previous
biographies, and another development only
became clear once Douglas’s (now sadly late)
agent Ed Victor gave us his blessing, and put us
onto The Douglas Adams Paper Archive at the
library of Adams’s alma mater, St John’s
College, Cambridge.
His family’s sad life laundry has proven a
kindness to Adams’ admirers, and a benefit
to the ancient college whose ghosts, should
they walk abroad, would include a teenage
Douglas in full turkey costume. A comedy
historian’s holiday allowance is laughable,
so you’ll forgive any cherishing of the memory
of October 2013 and that Shada-esque week
in shadowy St John’s, spending every day
feverishly peeling through ream after ream
of paper churned out by the great author’s
own rudimentary dot matrix printer – or
even better, covered in his own scrawl. In
recent years, the archive has been explored
by others – The Frood provided Dirk Maggs
with much material for the Hexagonal
Phase, but Hitchhiker stalwart Kevin
Davies paid a visit seeking extra ideas, as
did James Goss for his Doctor Who And The
Krikkitmen novel. But to be the first person
(bar the excellently monikered archivist
Mandy Marvin) to clap eyes on these notes,
drafts and scribbles was an honour even
beyond being handed the script for a lost
Blackadder Nativity by Richard Curtis, or
emailed the archive of unmade Fry & Laurie
sketches by Stephen.
M O S T LY H A R M L E S S
Many creative types reading this may cringe to
consider their own early outpourings – perhaps
they have old scrapbooks full of doodles,
autographs and titles in childish block
lettering, considered a testament to their total
amateurishness. The orange school exercise
book which Douglas emblazoned with the
legend “Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by
Douglas Adams” in bubble writing, surrounded
by stars crowned by a coffee ring (plus “and
bits by John Lloyd” scribbled in the corner)
would put anyone’s mind to rest.
The hushed library resounded to random
squeaks as, for instance, I turned a page and
learned that Zaphod Beeblebrox was originally
created as an intergalactic Beatles bootlegger,
who only visited Earth to steal their oeuvre
before the planet exploded. True, there was
litter to plough through – pages of forever
useless phone numbers and codes, multiple

44 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE

A passage about biro loss

from the original radio series,
handwritten by Douglas Adams
in his notebook. Amusingly, it
looks like he mislaid a blue biro
himself halfway through!

copies of the same manuscripts towering into

the rafters, and so on. But although many of the
most apposite and entertaining lost Hitchhiker
AND THE ESTATE OF DOUGLAS ADAMS. COPYRIGHT © COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED PRODUCTIONS, 2018.
ARCHIVE PAGES: BY PERMISSION OF THE MASTER AND FELLOWS OF ST JOHN’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,

passages found their way into The Frood

when it was published in 2014, there remain
unshared many rich seams of invention. The
Adams estate outlaws too much loose talk, but
besides most of the original third Hitchhiker
book, there’s a distinct unfinished Dirk Gently
yarn equally as mind-blowing – and frustrating
– as The Salmon Of Doubt.
Writing a biography of a hugely loved and
mourned genius is an assault course of moral
quandaries, and the publication of rough
material from an author with a reputation for
perfectionism (which is mainly mythical,
considering the pressure under which some of
his latter novels were written) isn’t a decision
to be taken lazily. But ultimately, what Douglas
loved above anything else, man and boy, was
making people laugh.
The archive is filled with thousands of his
jokes which never had an opportunity to get
that reaction out of his fans, and so to give
them a fresh chance in a century he barely got
to glimpse was a move which seemed very
Douglas – he’s still getting laughs 17 years This notebook, complete with hand-drawn
after his death, and long may it last. Hitchhiker’s logo, dates from when Adams
was still writing the original radio scripts.
The Frood: The Authorised And Very Official John Lloyd co-wrote episodes five and six of
History Of Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s series one after Adams “ran out of words”.
Guide To The Galaxy is published by Arrow.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 45

 40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE

2 TO THE
POWER OF Douglas Adams’s fee
276,709 TO 1 for the first radio series
£165 for the pilot; £180 each for episodes 2-6.
AGAINST This rose to £345 an episode for series two

Odds of rescue after

ejection into space
In the book, anyway. In the
TV series it is 2 to the power of
260,199 to 1 against
[THGTTG]

Chart placing Answer to Life, the

of “Marvin” Universe and Everything
The 7” single by Marvin Why 42? Adams just wanted “an ordinary, smallish number”
The Paranoid Android,
released in 1981

By the time of his “death” in So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish he’s 37 times older than the Universe [TRATEOTU]

Number of legs everyone At the point

when he steals
in the galaxy has the Heart of
Gold
According to the latest galactic census [SLATFATF] [HGTTG]
Five by Douglas Adams, one by Eoin Colfer

46 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE

Marvin’s
Best distance capacity for
for listening to
Disaster Area mental activity
From within a concrete bunker According to Marvin, at least – except his capacity for
[TRATEOTU] happiness [LTUAE]

Years Deep Thought takes to

calculate the Ultimate
Answer [THGTTG]

BAFTAS won by the

TV series
For graphics,
video editing
and sound Height
of Douglas
Adams, in inches
Types of rain

Diameter of Eccentrica Gallumbits’s

As documented by Rain God Rob McKenna [SLATFATF]
erogenous zones
They begin at a distance of 4-5 miles from her body [LTUAE]

Worldwide gross
of the movie
According to boxofficemojo.com

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 47

 40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE

ack in 1980, a young

KEVIN JON DAVIES

Kevin Jon Davies was
working as an animator at
Pearce Studios in West
London when he had a
chance meeting with Alan Bell,
producer of the Hitchhiker’s TV show.
After successfully recommending his
boss, Rod Lord, as the right man to
oversee the animated sequences of
The Book, Davies went on to work as
his assistant on the series. While doing so, he had
the opportunity to go on set and take these
fascinating behind-the-scenes photos, many of
which have never previously been published.

“A costume fitting
in September 1980,
just prior to Sandra
Dickinson’s first
location shoot in
Cornwall. Polaroids
like this were supplied
as reference for
our animation.”

“Producer Alan Bell

(blue shirt) selected
Edmunds Farm,
Balcombe, Sussex,
as Arthur’s home. I
was working on the
series’ animation, so
couldn’t attend the
location shoots – AFM
Cliff Pinnock took this
shot. I first saw Simon
Jones in rushes, and
CLIFF PINNOCK

was astonished that

he looked just how I
imagined Arthur Dent
from the radio!”

48 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE

KEVIN JON DAVIES

“Douglas Adams
loved hanging
out with the cast
whenever possible.
Here he is chatting
up Sandra Dickinson
(Trillian) on the
revolving Heart
of Gold set – a
mechanism borrowed
from Blankety Blank!”

“David Learner
wore ‘the tin can’,
as he called it, but
Stephen Moore
dubbed the iconic
KEVIN JON DAVIES

voice. At the Rainbow

Theatre, David had
already played
Marvin on stage,
and later toured the
role for two years.
Incidentally, that
chest unit was a
“Here, Simon Jones is comms wall panel
waiting to be bundled from Ridley
into an airlock by Scott’s Alien!”
Michael Cule as the
Vogon Guard. Mike
has played Vogons in
KEVIN JON DAVIES

several Hitchhiker’s
projects, including the
2005 radio series.”

“There was no official

BBC photocall with
all the main cast
together, so I asked
KEVIN JON DAVIES

them to pose with

Marvin fresh from the
set of Milliways, The
Restaurant At The
End Of The Universe.”

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 49

 40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE
CLIFF PINNOCK

“The planet Magrathea was the

West Carclaze china claypit in
Cornwall, close to where the Eden
Project now stands. Slartibartfast’s
aircar was on a gimbal mount
buried in the sand, which was
turned towards the camera by a
crouching scenehand.”

“I snuck up the studio

gantry of TC1 at TV
Centre to get an
angle down on this
scene with Marvin
meeting Ford and
Arthur. Top left is a
bloke operating the
talking door.”

“Richard Vernon
as the venerable
Slartibartfast, getting
wired for sound in
front of the whole
studio. I couldn’t
KEVIN JON DAVIES

resist taking a cheeky

snap! Another ignoble
moment, according
to Simon Jones,
was when Slarti fell
KEVIN JON DAVIES

down a fissure in the

quarry and was ‘like
an upended beetle,
all arms and legs in
the air!’”

50 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE

KEVIN JON DAVIES

KEVIN JON DAVIES

“Mark Wing-Davey
was saddled with
Zaphod’s costly radio-
controlled second
head, plus a third arm.
According to Mark,
the fibreglass harness
moulded to his body
felt like wearing ‘a
suitcase’, adding to
“Mark Wing-Davey is
his discomfort.”
not quite dressed for
dinner at Milliways –
without his Zaphod
wig during rehearsals.
Garkbit the waiter
was Jack May, voice
of Nelson Gabriel in
The Archers and Igor
in Count Duckula!”

“In studio for episode

five, producer Alan
Bell asked me to
graffiti a wall with
42s. Intimidated by
everyone watching, I
bottled out. Douglas
Adams volunteered – “Mike Kelt, the
and even wrote 42 effects assistant

KEVIN JON DAVIES

in binary.” responsible for the
head, doubled behind
Mark as Zaphod’s
extra arm. His green
sweater and jeans
were accidentally just
visible on air.”
CLIFF PINNOCK

CLIFF PINNOCK

“BBC memos I’ve

read reveal tensions
between producer
Alan Bell and the film
camera department at
Ealing Studios. Here,
veteran cameraman
Fred Hamilton has
expertly lit the Vogon
spaceship – and
his cigarette!”

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 51

 40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE
OR SOMEONE WHO IS
often described as a humourist,
Douglas Adams certainly carved
a niche for himself as a futurist
of some repute. He was an early
adopter of the latest technologies: always in
enthusiastic search of the next exciting thing
to provide some clue at the direction we might
be headed in. He used email regularly, long
before most people had even heard of it; started
using a word processor and USENET groups
back in the early 1980s, and was supposedly
the first person in Europe to own an original
Macintosh computer.
For someone with his eye on the future, it’s
unsurprising that Adams’ books and other
works are littered with references to
technologies that, frankly, seem far more
science fact than fiction these days. The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, for instance,
describes electronic books like today’s Kindles,
touchscreen interfaces you command “merely
[by brushing] the panels with your fingers”,
voice controls you can trigger simply by
speaking the computer’s name (Eddie for the
Heart of Gold’s shipboard computer, Siri or
Alexa in real life), and the Wiki-style guide
itself – a collection of
crowdsourced entries written on
any topic, “by any passing stranger
who happened to wander into the
empty offices of an afternoon and
saw something worth doing.”
Heck, even some of the concerns
Adams jovially voiced about
future-predicting AI elevators that
get bored of going up and down
now seem prescient in a world
where some folks seriously talk
52 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
The imaginative
and forward-
thinking
Douglas Adams.
about granting legal rights to machines.
Unlike so many technology soothsayers who
take themselves far more seriously in the role,
Adams didn’t brag about the accuracy of his
predictions, however. In the case of predicting,
well, pretty much the gist of today’s internet,
he simply said that he had “inadvertently had a
terribly good idea.” Clearly many others are in
agreement, too, because many a post-Adams
technology has referenced him in some way
– such as Yahoo calling its first-gen web-based
translation app Babel Fish after the “small,
yellow, leech-like” creature which sits in
people’s ear canals and translates languages.
Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk has also
talked about naming his first ship which goes
to Mars after the Heart of Gold vessel from The
Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. The recent
Falcon Heavy launch prominently displayed
the words “Don’t Panic” on its onboard car –
in big, friendly letters, naturally.
How much of this is Adams predicting the
future and how much is him helping to create
that future by writing whimsically about
technologies that fans then hurried to invent?
That’s a brilliantly Hitchhiker’s-style paradox
in its own right. Luke Dormehl
The phrase “Don’t
Panic” was written
on Elon Musk’s
Tesla roadster.
 40 YEARS OF THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE

The man behind Hitchhiker’s spoke to SFX a

number of times over the years. Here’s some
of the wit and wisdom he shared.

“Having immersed myself in the British comic heritage, from

Wodehouse right the way up to Monty Python and beyond,
it’s hardly surprising that The Hitchhiker’s Guide turned out as
bizarre as it did.”

“If I had to select just one seminal influence it

would have to be Doctor Who. It’s interesting to
remember how very good and utterly original
Doctor Who was when it started. It genuinely
conveyed the sense that you were embarking on
a journey into the utterly unknown.”

“2001: A Space Odyssey was another

major influence. I saw it several times
at the cinema soon after it came out,
and [I’ve] watched it at least once a
year ever since. Talking of Kubrick, I
would love to write a script which he
directed. Although people in the
business caution me that I would be
eaten for breakfast and spat out…”
“[Hitchhiker’s] is just one of the main story
archetypes, and one that seems to appeal
particularly to the English character – the innocent
abroad, the stranger in a strange land.”
“I was slightly anxious when I discovered that in the Italian version
[of The Hitchhiker’s Guide] the phrase ‘Don’t panic’ was translated
as ‘Non fateve prendere del panico’, which seemed to lack pace.”

“I think it’s often good to have limitations.

To have or make do with scant resources,
whether they’re of a budgetary or a
technical nature, tends to make people
more creative and imaginative.”
“Three things always work their way to the top of
my most despised list: airline food, hairless cats
and Michael Portillo.”
“Is it time to reassess my opinion of digital watches? No. When I
find a good joke I stick to it.”

“Many people are waking up to the fact

that science, and even certain works of
science fiction, can help us understand our
own lives and the world in which we live.”
“Am I religiously inclined in any way? Yes. I am utterly convinced
REX (1)

that there is no such thing as a god.”

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 53

 READY PLAYER ONE

54 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 READY PLAYER ONE

AS READY PLAYER
ONE BOOTS UP ON THE
BIG SCREEN, WRITER
ERNEST CLINE TELLS
JOSH WINNING ABOUT
CREATING A MODERN
POP CULTURE CLASSIC...

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 55

 READY PLAYER ONE

OU KNOW THE STORY. Boy

meets girl. Girl gets pissed that boy
beat her to the first Easter egg in a
virtual treasure hunt. Boy and girl
end up working together to take
down an evil empire. They all live
electronically ever after. All right,
it’s not exactly a tale as old as time, but then
there’s nothing straight-forward about Ready
Player One. How long
Published in 2011, and heading to screens have you been
next month courtesy of director Steven skipping school
Spielberg, it’s the brainchild of author Ernest in that van?
Cline. A “stereotypical nerd” raised on
videogames (he got his first Atari in
1979) and Star Wars (right after
watching A New Hope, he went into
the lobby to play Space Invaders),
Cline crafted a loving ode to the icons
of pop culture he adored growing up,
while peering into an all-too-possible
sci-fi future.
That future is the year 2044, where
young Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan)
lives in the urban crapheap that is
Oklahoma City. In a time ravaged by
global warming and energy crises,
Wade escapes his crummy life via the
OASIS, a virtual reality operating Bloody hell, lad,
system used by most inhabits of Earth tone it down with
for everything from shopping and the explosions.
gaming to education. It’s a place where
the imagination is the limit; bright and Fanboys – the much-beleaguered 2009 sci-fi see why Spielberg You know it’s a
colourful and everything that Earth now isn’t. comedy about a geek’s dying wish to watch The might have been put dystopia when
Using the avatar he calls Parzival, Wade goes Phantom Menace – was all-but put through the off. In his time as a everything is
on an epic, seemingly impossible VR quest to mangle during production. The final film, he director, the Beard smoky and grey.
complete a treasure hunt left by the creator of says, barely resembles the film he had has never been
the OASIS, James Halliday (Mark Rylance), envisioned when he wrote the script. much for self-
after his death. Whoever solves the puzzle will Rebounding from that experience, Cline congratulation or
inherit the OASIS and a very-not-small fortune. realised that the only writers who have almost self-reference (1941
Teaming up with another player, Art3mis total control over their stories are authors, and aside) and, among
(Olivia Cooke), Wade makes it his mission to he set out to see if he could write a novel that other things, Ready
both win the game and show evil multinational drew on everything he loved about pop culture, Player One is
boss Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) that the geeks while telling an entertaining sci-fi story. practically a love
should inherit the keys to the kingdom... The result was Ready Player One, a book letter to all things
that – thanks to its numerous pop culture Amblin. Luckily, when Spielberg read Cline’s
THE ORIGINS references – he accepted would be script, he saw what everybody else did: a fun
“If Willy Wonka was a videogame designer “unfilmable” if anybody was crazy enough to adventure with some very cool ideas.
instead of a candy maker,” explains Cline, “and try to bring it to the big screen. What he failed “He wanted to make something fun,” says
he held his golden ticket contest inside the to predict was the publishing storm that his Cline, who reveals that Spielberg told him he
world’s greatest videogame, that’s the essence little book would stir up. When his agent hadn’t read anything anywhere near as exciting
of what the story is.” Roald Dahl’s wildly pitched Ready Player One to publishers in in years. Flattered and ecstatic that the perfect
popular children’s book wasn’t the only New York, it created a bidding war that was director for the job had signed up, Cline spent
inspiration for Cline’s debut novel, though, eventually won by Random House. That the next three years helping the auteur
which drew on just about every big franchise publishing war drew Hollywood’s eye, and a shepherd his world onto the screen – and even
from the ’80s, making it a veritable nerd’s second bidding war erupted, this time over the though the book’s complex nature would prove
paradise of pop culture references. A self- movie rights, which Warner Bros snapped up tricky to adapt, Cline reveals: “As soon as
confessed “full-time geek” who grew up in the before Cline’s novel had even been published... Steven signed up, I pretty much stopped
era of videogames and VHS (the release of worrying about anything.”
Pong had a huge impact on him), Cline’s THE DIRECTOR Of course, he admits he was a mess at their
decision to write Ready Player One was born “When I heard Steven Spielberg was reading first meeting. “The first time anybody meets
out of his frustration with Hollywood. the script, I got really depressed,” laughs Cline, Steven Spielberg, they’ve had a hair cut and
At the time he put fingers to keyboard, he “because I figured he’d never want to do it.” As they’re wearing their best clothes,” he jokes.
had watched in despair as his script for fantastic as Cline’s novel is, it’s not difficult to “They’re the best version of themselves.”

56 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018


Olivia Cooke plays
Wade’s partner in We loved your
crime, Art3mis. film debut in
The Iron Giant!
better go learn something new from a different
filmmaker’, is pretty amazing,” said co-writer
Zak Penn at last year’s Comic-Con.
For Cline’s part, after watching another
recent Spielberg film, he had no qualms about
You’re telling the extensive use of CGI to create the world of
us there are still the OASIS. “I was amazed when I saw The
newspapers in BFG,” he marvels. “The facial detail looked so
this world? real. It felt like we’ve finally conquered the
uncanny valley.”
Working closely with
the legendary THE EASTER EGGS
director, though, If you thought JJ Abrams and Marvel had the
Cline gradually began monopoly on movie Easter eggs, you haven’t
to see his childhood seen anything yet. While Ready Player One is a
hero as a real person. story in its own right with its own characters
“It took a long time,” and themes, it cherry picks the best of popular
he says, revealing culture to create its world. The film’s trailer
that what made has already revealed that the Iron Giant,
working with Chucky, Lara Croft, Freddy Krueger and
Spielberg so great various videogame characters are all present
was that, like Cline and his readers, the and correct, while the book referenced
director was really just a big nerd. “We’d geek everything from The Dark Crystal and The Last
out,” the author says gleefully. Starfighter to Zork and Zaxxon.
Getting the rights to so many characters was
THE OASIS surprisingly easy. “Having Steven Spielberg
Perhaps the biggest challenge Spielberg and attached helped,” reveals Cline. “Every
his crew faced was bringing the book’s virtual company we went to said yes because he was
world to life. While Wade’s real-life Oklahoma directing.” Of course, Ready Player One was
City is a grubby urban sprawl – Wade lives in at least partially built on Cline’s love of
the “stacks”, which basically look like a load of Spielberg’s Amblin movies, and his book
caravans doing an impression of a stack of contained a treasure trove of references to the
pancakes – the world of the OASIS is a director/producer’s past glories. Back To The
candy-pop treat that makes Tron’s Grid look Future. The Goonies. The Twilight Zone: The
like a mouldy old circuit board. Movie. Wade even carries a grail diary just like
With little experience in motion-capture Indiana Jones.
beyond his work on Tintin, Spielberg turned to “Steven had already been self-referential in
a post-Avatar James Cameron for advice on all 1941, which had recreations of scenes from
things visual effects. “The idea that Steven Jaws and Duel,” Cline points out, but that didn’t
Spielberg is going out there and saying, ‘Oh, I’d stop Spielberg from stripping out many of these
READY PLAYER ONE
nods when he signed on. Happily, he retained
the most important: the DeLorean from Back
To The Future, which Parzival drives in the
OASIS. It helped that Cline had his own
DeLorean lying around: the uber-geek drives
one himself, and the car in the movie is his.
And while Spielberg removed some of the
book’s more on-the-nose references, Cline
worked with the film’s
production designers to
incorporate more subtle
nod-winks into the film’s
environments, among
them a sign reading
‘FRATELLI’. “We figured
if Steven didn’t notice
them, we were good,” the
author snickers.
In other words: keep
those peepers peeled
throughout, because Ready
Player One is going to be
packed with some very
cool stuff. (In fact, the first
time Cline watched the film, he watched it
twice, back-to-back, to make sure he didn’t
miss anything.)
THE FUTURE
Naturally, this is only the beginning of what
could be the next big sci-fi franchise. “I always
thought this could be a book franchise, which
is why I bought the domain names for Ready
Player Two and Ready Player Three before the
first book came out,” Cline reveals. Having
been shocked by the bidding wars that erupted
around Ready Player One, Cline decided he
should probably be more prepared in case a
sequel suddenly became in demand. “I figured
I better have a story for them to adapt if they
wanted to make another movie,” he reasons.
Cline started writing the book sequel before
Spielberg had even signed on to direct the first
movie, and says that watching his world come
to life on set helped him write the sequel.
“There’s no better inspiration for a writer
[than] to return to a world they’ve already
worked on when they’re watching Steven
Spielberg bring that world to life,” he says.
While he reveals that Ready Player Two
(as-yet-unconfirmed working title) will be a
sequel to the first book rather than the movie,
Cline has said that he wants to make sure it will
be accessible to readers and movie-goers alike.
“I know that some people will read the sequel
after seeing the movie, even if they haven’t read
the first book,” he says. The plot remains a
mystery, but if we’ve learned anything from
Ready Player One, it’s that there could be clues
anywhere. You might want to take your grail
diary to the cinema with you just in case...
Ready Player One is in cinemas from 29 March.
Ernest Cline’s novel is out now.
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 57
 Close
Encounters
FACE TO FACE WITH THE
JEAN SMART
Getting existential in the Marvel Universe for Legion
Words by Tara Bennett /// Photography by Maarten de Boer
I
f you’ve followed Jean Smart’s illustrious career at
all over the last four decades, then you know just
about every character she plays becomes a
standout. From classic US comedies like Designing
Women and Frasier, to her recent work on the TV
series Fargo, where she terrified everyone playing
a Midwestern crime family matriarch, Smart
proves again and again that she’s a chameleon of
frightening ability. However, genre fans have been
robbed of her talents... until now. Bless Noah Hawley
for correcting this sin by casting Smart as Dr Melanie
Bird in X-Men series Legion. As the resourceful
Professor X-ish defender of humans with mutant
powers, she’s sacrificed love, stability and more to
help the greater good. With season two imminent,
she teases Bird’s personal journey to come.
You’ve said season one was a leap of faith because you
knew little about Legion aside from the fact that it was
Hawley’s show. What ended up hooking your interest?
Noah’s take on mental illness, I found fascinating. The
first season is certainly not what people expected when
they heard that it was a Marvel show. It was much more
cerebral and intellectual. In the second season, he makes a
massive step further with that in the sense that there are
very real threats, there is very real evil, but in a way, the
biggest danger is how we can create our own madness.
As someone who has done a bit of everything, does this
show feel genuinely unique to you?
Everything about it is kind of new and different. At this
stage of the game, I really welcome that.
So did Hawley prep you with more specifics about what
was to come for Dr Bird this season?
Well, he told me that Melanie was going to definitely be
going through some changes.
Last year, we learned she’d been waiting 20 years for
her husband, Oliver (Jemaine Clement), to escape the
astral plane, only for him to return and get possessed by
a mutant and disappear. Has that broken poor Melanie?
She was so devastated. I think she felt like she’d been
robbed of her entire adult life. She had lived to be part of his
work, and continue his work, and wait and wait. What a
lonely existence, you know? To have it all come crashing
down, yeah, she’s kind of gone into the depths of darkness.
58 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
BIGGEST STARS
In the first episode of the new season, we see that
reflected in a far more detached Melanie. Biodata
Yeah, she’s a little high. (Laughs)
Occupation
Does she still feel responsible for David (Dan Stevens) Actress
and the others she took care of at Summerland? Born
She’s abdicated responsibility. I think she just doesn’t care 13 September
right now. 1951
From
What is her path to reconnecting again? Is it in finding
Seattle,
Oliver, or does Melanie have a new purpose? Washington
I think it’s both. When she and Oliver do communicate Greatest hits
again, I think they realise that things are never going to be 24, Designing
the same. But then, all of a sudden, towards the end of the Women, Batman:
The Animated
season, it gets really weird with her again. Series, Static
Can we look forward to a reunion for them? Shock, Project X
There’s a scene with Oliver that I’m very curious to see Random fact
how it comes across. Smart played
serial killer Aileen
Last season, Bird had her posse of empowered mutant
Wuornos in
finders in Cary and Kerry Loudermilk (Bill Irwin and Overkill: The Aileen
Amber Midthunder) and Ptonomy Wallace (Jeremie Wuornos Story
Harris). Who runs with Melanie this season? a decade before
Actually this year, although I loved some of the stuff that Charlize Theron
did in Monster.
I’ve gotten to play, unfortunately I’ve only interacted so far
with Rachel (Keller) and Dan (Stevens). I haven’t had
anything to do with Aubrey (Plaza) or Amber or Jeremy,
and I miss that. They moved the show to LA, so I’m still
pinching myself. The only downside is that we also don’t
see each other as much because everybody goes home at
night. Yeah, so that, on top of not having scenes with them,
I miss. But I had the cast over before Christmas and we had
a fun evening at my house.
Noah’s built a beautifully realised world with period
costumes and sets. Watching the episodes, they feel like
theatre sets. As someone with stage experience, does it
feel like you’re working on a stage play?
Oh, I think our sets are so inspiring and breathtaking. It’s
always fun to have a fabulous set. For instance, you’re
reading the script, and then you suddenly see the physical
world. It’s fantastic. It is sort of like doing theatre and being
in a giant dollhouse. There’s nothing worse than just having
just a chair on a blank stage. And I love watching the final
[episodes] because to see the special effects added, and the
scoring and the editing, it’s just a thrill. Also to see all the
scenes that you had nothing to do with that you weren’t a
GETTY (1)
part of, you go, “Oh my God, that was so cool!”
Legion comes to FX in the US and FOX in the UK in April.
 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
JEAN SMART

“THE
BIGGEST
DANGER IS
HOW WE
CAN CREATE
OUR OWN
MADNESS”

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 59

 JESSICA JONES

Marvel’s private eye is back in JESSICA JONES season two, facing

new trouble, new trauma. As Nick Setchfield discovers on the
New York set, “This one goes right to the heart!”
60 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
 JESSICA JONES

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 61

 JESSICA JONES
THERE ARE BODIES HIDDEN IN THIS NEW
York apartment building.
Follow the hallway, past the mud-spattered bicycle tipped against the
peeling walls. There’s a door ahead, its bronze handle curiously
crumpled, as if wrenched by someone of uncanny strength. The pane of
frosted glass declares Alias Investigations. For once it’s intact.
Step into the office. Two distressed chairs face a desk that holds a
packet of joss sticks, so useful for clearing the fug of dubious lifestyle
choices that clings to this place like a Jim Beam hangover. The walls are
slashed with random streaks of white paint, as if someone’s recently
abandoned a half-hearted stab at redecoration. There’s a dilapidated sofa
in the corner, a familiar – iconic, even – black leather jacket casually
slung upon it. For a moment you consider the fortune you could make
with a little light theft, but you’re an upstanding citizen at heart, so you
kill the thought.
Move into the bedroom and you’ll find the first of the bodies. It’s in
the chair, opposite the unmade bed. The other body’s tucked in the
corridor, just outside. No need to summon forensics: no one’s dead,
merely sleeping, two zonked-out crew members catching a crafty nap
between takes.
Welcome to the set of Jessica Jones season two. It’s clearly exhausting
work following a success. Exhausting and not a little daunting.
“Oh, it’s terrifying!” laughs showrunner Melissa Rosenberg, returning
to oversee the next chapter of the embattled PI’s life. “It had such a
tremendous reaction, the first season. The bar was fairly high, so going
into the second season you’ve got to hit that bar and go beyond. Our
approach was to not even look at that bar and set a new one that’s
completely different.”
Netflix launched Jessica Jones in 2015 as part of a street-level quartet
of Marvel adaptations that built to The Defenders two years later. A slice
of urban noir, it dealt in mental damage as much as detection or
superheroics, winning acclaim for its portrayal of a woman battling the
toxic legacy of psychological abuse. Season one climaxed with Jessica
killing the lethally manipulative Kilgrave, an act whose ramifications
will be explored in this new 13-episode run.
“At the end of season one she took a life,” states Rosenberg. “Whether
or not that was justified, whether or not it was the right thing to do,
taking a life has changed her. It’s raised some real questions for her, in
terms of who she is. Is she a killer? How deep does that go? Was that just
her dealing with Kilgrave or is it part of who she is? So she’s going to be
62 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Jessica is
calling her
lawyer,
bitches.
digging deeper into her past and the nature of Season two sees
her origin story. Trish packing
“The new season takes her into the very core some new heat.
of the question ‘Who am I?’ It’s this turning
point in her life – ‘Who am I going to be? What
am I going to do with my life?’ She’s been
treading water but she’s going to be confronted
with the very DNA of her character. And once
she has that information, what now?”
C R E E P E R F E AT U R E
As Rosenberg tells SFX, the episodes will
continue to map Jessica’s emotional scar tissue.
And these newly uncovered wounds may be
even rawer than before.
“Last season Kilgrave was messing with her
mind and it was her trying to hold on to her
own thoughts. This one goes right to the heart.”
One thing’s certain. There’s precious little
sense of closure in Jessica’s world. We may
have seen Kilgrave die but David Tennant’s
compellingly vile ubercreep is back to whisper
in her psyche once more.
“We wanted to bring him back in a different
way,” says the showrunner, keeping the details
of the character’s resurrection a surprise.
 JESSICA JONES

How did it feel having all women directors

this year?
This is already such a girl-heavy show. It’s
created by a woman, it stars a woman, it has
a heavily female cast, so it feels exactly the
same to me. But it’s obviously really
exciting. It feels very much a part of our
world on this show. We have amazing
women in the crew, our costume designer,
The series we even have some female grips and female
ACs in the camera department. We have a
was filmed lot of chicks on our show. We’re trying to
on location in empower a lot of women and give
New York. opportunities to people who maybe
weren’t getting them elsewhere.

What’s your take on Jessica’s look?

I love that she doesn’t look a certain way.
I love that she’s riding that line, that she’s
very androgynous, she doesn’t wear
form-fitting clothes or body-conscious
things. She doesn’t look how stars of TV
shows have looked my whole life. Everyone’s
whole life. A big group of young girls and
boys are looking at that like, ‘Yeah, I’m like
that! I’m also different! I’m also maybe not
like the perfect 10…’ And I think that’s a
All 13 episodes really cool thing.
of the season
are directed Why do you think the Kilgrave story
by women. resonated so strongly?
People often come up to me and say they
feel very deeply personally connected to
Jessica. We live in a supernatural world but
our show is very grounded, so you can play
with real themes and make them so much
bigger. Some people have been very
emotional with me. They were survivors
themselves and felt like they saw
themselves on screen. They loved that
Jessica didn’t let her past traumas define
her. They loved that she wins at the end,
even though it’s a small victory, even though
she doesn’t know what the next day will
Rachael Taylor bring. She’s still putting one foot in front of
prepares for the other and a lot of people connected
with that storyline. Sometimes I’ll get tears
her scene. from people and of course you’re crying
too. It’s been completely life-changing.
Nick Setchfield

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 63

 JESSICA JONES

“David Tennant is just masterful. He embodies

this character so wonderfully. His every
nuance. He takes delight in torturing Jessica
and it’s just delicious for him. He brings this
incredible sense of humour. Kilgrave’s her
tormentor, of course, and in some ways he’s her
match, so he brings out some of the darker and
more exposed parts of Jessica.”
And, like all the best villains, he’s a gift to
write for. “Oh my god!” laughs Rosenberg.
“Whenever we have a Kilgrave
scene we find ourselves three
pages of dialogue later saying, Manipulative and
‘Oh, wait a second! This is a dangerous lawyer
10-minute monologue – maybe Hogarth returns.
we need to dial it back!’ He’s
just so much fun.”
Rosenberg also enjoys
writing for the strengths of
star Krysten Ritter, whose turn
as Jessica – bruised but
resilient behind a carapace of
sour looks and leather –
remains the engine of the show.
“Just her ability to deliver a dry
line,” she marvels. “You can
write a one-liner and she’s Jessica’s neighbour
going to deliver it, even with a Malcolm is one of
look. She has a rare comedic the only people
timing that’s just a blast to write she can trust.
for. But then she also goes to
these really dark places too.
“It’s an interesting dynamic.
She manages to convey a tough,
strong woman but allows you
into the vulnerability of that
character. She lets the audience
see inside, behind that tough
exterior. So those are the
moments that you want to build
for her. She’s playing so many
different layers at once, and then spins on a
hairpin into a funny line. It’s fun to write.”
Does it help to have Ritter’s voice in her
head now? “Absolutely. So much of the first
season was written before she played it, and in
part before she was cast. We found ourselves
evolving the character as we went. So for
season two the character was worn in and
comfortable and we could ask, ‘Okay, where
else can we take it? We know who she is now
– where can we go from here?’ That was a
really refreshing place to start.
“She’d get bored, I’d get bored, the audience
would get bored if we just kept playing the
same note over and over,” Rosenberg continues.
“There are some notes that are quintessential
Jessica Jones, that dry humour and that tough,
strong kick-ass chick – those are notes that we Jessica is
love and thoroughly enjoy and I’ll never get still drinking
tired of them. But if you’re playing the same heavily. Or
story beat or the same dramatic beat over and maybe that’s
over you really need to push past them to get to just apple
something new.” juice.

64 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018


That dry
humour and
being a strong
kick-ass chick is
quintessential
Jessica Jones
While season two deepens Jessica’s
relationship with best friend Trish Walker
(Rachael Taylor), it also finds new characters
entering her orbit. “Everyone brings something
different. They’re all relevant to Jessica’s
journey. It’s about bringing in characters who
force Jessica into new territory, emotionally.”
WO M E N O N T O P
Arrow’s JR Ramirez is a new romantic interest
as Oscar, a single father who moves into
Jessica’s apartment block, determined at first
to keep a wary distance from his superpowered
neighbour on the fifth floor. Janet McTeer,
meanwhile, plays what Rosenberg will only call
“an ominous figure. It’s a surprise. My god, that
woman is an extraordinary actor.”
Elsewhere the show is making a mission
statement. Every episode of season two is
directed by a woman. It’s an assured move by a
series that feels at the forefront of 2018’s
cultural conversation, redefining not only the
complexities of a female hero but the
opportunities for female talent.
“I think this show’s been having that
conversation for as long as it’s existed,” says
Rosenberg. “The movement is catching up
Jessica’s
handy to have
around if you
need to move
furniture.
to us. I’m really proud of what we’ve done to
date and I’m optimistic about the movement
that’s happening, and proud to be a part of it, in
any way, shape or form. Not only is our
storytelling with several strong female leads,
it’s also diverse behind the camera.”
Jessica’s not one for embracing the holy writ
of comic books. Season two sees her trashing a
cornerstone Stan Lee commandment with
characteristic disdain: “If you say with great
power comes great responsibility I swear I’ll
throw up on you.” Rosenberg, however, knows
those words are righteous.
“Very much so. I learned that when I was
writing the Twilight movie and going to fan
events, seeing little 12-year-old girls and
realising oh my god, they are just these
sponges, taking in this information in ways you
may or may not intend. That made me very
conscious of the messages that I put out there,
and the fact that whoever sees them, whether
they’re aware or not, is absorbing them.
“And because this particular issue is close to
my heart and Krysten’s heart – to all of us
involved – it is a profound responsibility.
Sometimes it’s scary.”
Jessica Jones is on Netflix from 8 March.
JESSICA JONES
What does Trish and Jessica’s relationship
give to the series?
At its core it’s a show about female
friendship. Melissa [Rosenberg] has created
a female friendship that’s not perfect; it’s
not two girls that are endlessly in this
perfect happy warm tone where nothing
ever goes wrong in their relationship.
We get to play feelings of jealousy and
occasionally mistrust. Occasionally my
character is quite covetous of some of the
gifts that Jessica has. So it’s not like a
perfect oversimplification of a female
friendship. I think we expand on that more
in season two.
How political does the show feel to you?
I think why the show works is because
Melissa doesn’t write to be deliberately
political. She writes great story and she
writes honest characters and some of the
conversations spin off as a result of that,
which is just icing on the cake for us. But
we’re always encouraged to play the truth
of the scene and drive story along rather
than trying to wedge some kind of political
argument or something didactic in
alongside. There’s so much great story for
us to play.
Are you good with Marvel-level secrecy?
Every now and again I’ve started a
conversation and then gotten a bit paranoid
and felt like the Marvel SWAT team was
going to descend on me in the middle of a
restaurant. I know it’s difficult to do these
kind of interviews because even as I’m
talking I’m triple-checking that I haven’t said
anything that I wasn’t supposed to say. But I
think where the ethic comes from is that
Marvel put the fans’ experience of this show
before anything else, and they want to save
these 13 episodes of television to be
streamed all at once, so that the fans can
get the first serving of it. And I think that’s
awesome. I play a character based on a
character from the comic books, so in lots
of respects I feel like I’ve just borrowed her
from the fans.
Nick Setchfield
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 65
 KRYPTON

66 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018


The history of Superman’s birth planet is now
told in KRYPTON. Joseph McCabe
discovers this is more than a prequel...
T’S A WORLD ON WHICH SUPERMAN
lived for a mere fraction of his life, before
it exploded into space dust. Yet it’s been
kept alive by generations of creators, its
name alone evoking the same sense of
pulpy wonder as Flash Gordon’s Mongo or
Luke Skywalker’s Tatooine. Now the
planet has been restored to its full glory
for fans to visit on a weekly basis –
courtesy of Warner Bros and Syfy US’s
new series Krypton.
Chronicling the adventures of the
twentysomething Seg-El, the Man of Steel’s
grandfather (played by Cameron Cuffe),
Krypton shines a light on a forgotten period of
its titular world’s history, while telling a story
that today’s superhero aficionados should find
strangely relevant.
“The thing about Krypton,” executive
producer Cameron Welsh tells SFX, “is it’s a
relatively unexplored part of the DC Universe.
Which gives us a lot of freedom in the
world-building of it all. The challenge of a
show like this is people think of it as a prequel.
KRYPTON
People think they have a sense of how the
story’s gonna end, with the destruction of the
planet. What we’ve done is challenge that
expectation.”
The show’s Krypton, Welsh explains, is a
world that’s tearing itself apart.
“It’s becoming divided into classes. There’s
an underclass known as the rankless. They’re
the lowest class in [capital city] Kandor. Then
there’s the guild society – the lawmaker’s guild
or the science guild – the upper class. That
includes the House of Zod and the House of El.
They live in these towers and the rankless live
below. There’s a really palpable tension.”
Though Seg-El begins his journey as a
member of Krypton’s upper class, his life
quickly takes a turn for the worse.
“This is not the shiny utopian Krypton,” says
executive producer Damian Kindler, who
developed the show with Man Of Steel
writer-producer David Goyer. “The rankless
is a much more hard-scrabble existence. The
rules and regs of that society dictate very harsh
laws to keep everybody alive on a harsh planet.
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 67
 KRYPTON

SEG-EL ISN’T A SHINY

BOY SCOUT. HE’S ROUGH
AROUND THE EDGES. HE’S
GOT TO FIGHT TO RESTORE
HIS FAMILY’S NAME
“So when we meet Seg-El, at first he’s part of
the venerable House of El, but they fall from
grace and are stripped of their rank. He comes
of age as a rankless. So we’re starting in a place
that a lot of us can identify with, which is a
place of starting with nothing. We don’t start
with him as this shiny boy scout. He’s rough
around the edges. He’s got to use his brain and
his fists to get by. And he’s got to fight his way
back to honour, and restore his family’s name
– and save his planet. I think there’s gonna be a
lot there for audiences to grab onto.” Shaun Sipos
“Seg-El,” adds Welsh, “is really disconnected plays Adam
from the House of El and everything it stands Strange, sent
for. So part of the journey of the show is him into the past
learning what that means. What it is to be an El to help Seg-El.
and the responsibility that is associated with
that and the power of their symbol. Seg’s not a
hero, and he’s very quickly thrust into a
situation where he needs to become that. It’s a ushering in that golden age to give us the conspiracy where some villains from present-
hero’s journey, and he has to take all those Superman that we need.” day Earth have travelled back in time to the
steps that we know in a hero’s journey. Complicating Seg’s hero’s journey, however, Krypton of 200 years ago to try to prevent
“He’s really tasked with the job of ushering is a plot to erase Superman from history, by Superman’s birth. So very quickly the show
in the golden age of Krypton that everybody’s preventing him from being born. is no longer about the events of the past. It
more familiar with. The Jor-El generation. “One of the challenges a lot of prequels face,” makes the show much less about things that
Seg’s job is to almost lead a revolution that will says Welsh, “is the sense that we know how happened on this planet before Superman was
usher in that golden age. Because it’s from that this story ends. ‘Krypton is gonna blow up and born, and much more about the here and now,
golden age that the bloodline that eventually that’s the end – what do I invest in that?’ What about the greatest hero in the universe. Will he
becomes Superman is born. When we start the we’re doing with our show is, there’s a even be born? It becomes a show where
show, the political landscape of Krypton, it’s anything can happen.
more like totalitarianism. It’s a fundamentalist “At the forefront of that are the villains, who
theocracy. If Kal-El’s rocket ship left from that are behind this conspiracy. It’s a very cool
world, we would have a way to get into the show,
very different and it just kind of
Superman to the bends people’s

THE
one we have expectations
today. So it’s for what the

KRYPTON FACTOR
really about series will be.”

Krypton’s debut
occupied just one panel
of Superman’s first
appearance in June 1938’s
Action Comics #1. The
following summer, in
Superman #1, it received
its chemical-derived name.
When the first
Superman newspaper
comic strip arrived in 1939,
History of a Super-planet
it described Krypton as In the 1940 Superman Max Fleischer animated
Earth’s twin planet, radio serial, Krypton was Superman short. In live
populated by a race of described as existing on action, it was first seen
supermen. the “opposite side of the in the 1948 Superman
sun” from Earth. film serial.
While Superman was Throughout the Silver Age
initially unaware of of comics in the 1950s, its TV welcomed the
Krypton’s existence, he location moved further doomed planet, and its
finally learned of the into space. governing council (with
planet in November 1949’s head scientist Jor-El), in
Superman #61 (“Superman Krypton’s first screen the first episode of the
Returns to Krypton!”). appearance was in a 1941 1952 Superman TV show.

68 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018


Aiding Seg-El will be several
time-travelling characters long
familiar to fans of the DC universe,
including Adam Strange (Shaun
Sipos) and Hawkwoman.
Kindler tells us that setting the
show 200 years in the past has
proven to be both advantageous
and challenging.
“There’s been a lot of canon
[stories about Krypton], but we do
also have a lot of freedom to
world-build by going back that far,
before Jor-El. That’s wonderful.
But this is not an IP that you can
suddenly turn into a Metallica soundtrack
death/blood sport kind of thing. Because that’s
not what the ‘S’ means. It’s about hope and
inspiration and truth and justice and good
stuff. So you walk this line. Look, we’ve all
grown up with this IP. We’re ready for it to take
a nice, big, deep grounded leap forward. We’re
living in a post-Frank Miller/Alan Moore
world where we can’t make it broad anymore.
But we have to also be respectful to the lineage.
It’s the challenge of ‘Let’s world-build. Let’s
[make] something deeper and cooler, but let’s
make sure that it really is honest to the feeling
that we want to evoke.’”
SUPER TROOPER
But Krypton’s biggest challenge, according to
Kindler, is one faced by generations of genre
TV creators, from the early days of Star Trek
and Doctor Who…
“You’re setting the show on an alien world
that a lot of people have a lot of opinions about.
So everything has to be either built or is a
visual effect or both. That means a lot of
construction, a lot of CGI, a lot of conceptual
work. If you get lazy, the world-building falls
apart. So just from a practical standpoint that’s
a big challenge. But it’s also an awesome thing.
Because you honestly feel like you’re playing in
the most awesome sandbox in the world.”
Ultimately, Kindler’s hope is that Krypton
evokes the same sense of wonder he
experienced when he first encountered
KRYPTON
Georgina Campbell is
Krypton warrior and
Seg-El’s secret
lover, Lyta Zod.
Superman’s birth planet during the hero’s
debut on the big screen.
“As a kid I went to see the 1978
Superman. I wanted to believe a man
can fly. We will never let go of that tone.
It will never get so dark with navel-
gazing that we forget it’s about wonder and
awe and humour and friendship and about
the choice to do good. That’s the thing that’s
amazing about Superman,
and about his family.
They could have given
into corruption or
self-interest or
not giving a
MAN OF STEEL
damn. But they
actually chose to
fight and
struggle for
a better Actor Cameron Cuffe on
tomorrow. They playing Superman’s grandad…
believed in hope.”
How similar is Seg-El to Superman?
The great thing about him is that while there
Krypton is on Syfy in are similarities – there is this hatred of injustice
the US from 21 – he didn’t have the benefit of growing up with
March. Ma and Pa Kent in a loving, nurturing
environment. He grows up in a society that’s
seemingly utopian, but is edging towards
authoritarianism. So it makes him a bit harsher.
A bit rough around the edges. These lofty
things like truth and justice seem very, very far
away. The story is about how he grows into
that role and how that symbol comes to mean
what it means now.
What was it like playing in this world as a fan?
It’s awesome. This is an immensely ambitious
show, and the sets are incredible. It’s a big job.
But the thing is, it’s all real. All the interiors and
all the costumes and every single prop has a
purpose. This society is so well fleshed-out.
Because it has to be. There has to be political
drama, there has to be personal drama. So it
has to look and feel real to an audience.
Your character learns of the legacy he
leaves…
While there is the political intrigue and drama
of Krypton 200 years ago, the ramifications of
every choice that Seg makes will affect the
legacy of Superman here in the present day. So
there’s a lot going on in the show. It’s an epic,
REX (1)
high-concept science fiction story that
[transcends] time and outer space.
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 69
 HEROES & INSPIRATIONS
KIM STANLEY ROBINSON

70 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 HEROES & INSPIRATIONS
KIM STANLEY ROBINSON

KIM STANLEY
ROBINSON
From prog rockers to Paleolithic art, the SF author
shares his passions with Jonathan Wright
Portrait by Will Ireland

The working life of writers is necessarily solitary, and paintings that are in the Herzog movie.
Shaman, being a prehistoric novel, is by no
many novelists come across as loners. But there are means my most popular work, but it meant a
exceptions. Californian Kim Stanley Robinson of lot to me and it stays part of my life.
Red Mars fame – who lives, in his own words, in a Ötzi the Iceman is connected to this. He’s an
inspirational figure. They found him in the ice,
kind of “hippy, yuppie suburbia” cohousing between Italy and Austria, a dead body in a
community – is a man whose work constantly glacier right up there on the ridge. He turns
out to be about 5,000 years old and all of his
explores the idea of people working together to gear survived. And his gear is precisely my
overcome shared challenges. backpacking gear and that’s what struck me,
and so for 20 years I’ve been thinking, “They
This emphasis on the collective over individual were just like us.”
endeavour is again to the fore in New York 2140, a tale
of rising waters turning the Big Apple into a new
YES
Venice that was recently published in paperback. It I’ll choose Yes because SFX is a British
also came through loud and clear when SFX sat down magazine, Yes is a British band, and they’re also
a science fiction band, a utopian space cadet
for an hour with Robinson, and asked him to select progressive rock band. And also I love Steve
his heroes and inspirations… Howe, and I feel like he needs maximum

THE CHAUVET-PONT-D’ARC
CAVE PAINTINGS AND THE CAVE
OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS
Hearing about these Paleolithic paintings
was one of the reasons I wrote Shaman.
They’ve stayed with me as a permanent
inspiration because that means that humans
32,000 years ago were thinking as artists, and
that art was sacred and was accurate to the
animals. I love those things.
REX (1), GETTY (1)

I still have the paintings on my walls; and the Ötzi the

Werner Herzog film, Cave Of Forgotten Iceman was
Dreams, is a beautiful thing because if I want I found by
have a 3D movie about the very paintings I was Mystical images in cave two German
writing about. My characters paint those very paintings inspire Robinson. tourists.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 71

 HEROES & INSPIRATIONS
KIM STANLEY ROBINSON

props for being one of the great musicians

alive, and I mean composer as well as guitarist.
I was a hippy kid, I was at university, they
came through San Diego on tour and Yessongs
was the live album that came out of that tour. I
went to see them and I thought, “Woah, this is
a whole new stage of music for me.” And ever
since I’ve been listening to them.
I just play Steve Howe a lot for inspiration,
he has a very energetic and beautiful style.
When I was writing Red Mars I would have a
cup of espresso and listen to his album
Turbulence just to start the day. Forty minutes
of intense, vibrant, beautiful music and then I’d
be off to work. That one is all instrumentals,
which is important when you’re writing so you
can write without hearing lyrics, and it’s him at
his purest – he’s a post-modern, I’ll-try-
anything kind of guy.

THE SF NEW WAVE

If I could pick one writer, it would be Gene
Wolfe because we need to remember what a
genius he is. But if I could pick more, it would
be Wolfe, Ursula K Le Guin, Joanna Russ,
Samuel R Delany, Stanislaw Lem, the
Strugatsky brothers… There was an era, a
specific moment, and that moment was to me
astonishing, a high point for science fiction.
I don’t think it’s been matched since. They
were talking about the real world, but they
were also talking about all possible worlds, and
they were doing literary modernism and
willing to take risks.
They had caught the time. The reason I
think they were so hot from 1965-75 was that
was a revolutionary and crazy time. It was a
science fiction moment where technology and
history accelerated, and intertwined and went
crazy, and it was the first time people felt that.
Gene Wolfe’s books are so beautiful. He
follows his own road, he’s got his own
concerns, he’s peculiar but he doesn’t care
about that, and he teaches you how to read
him. If you go ahead and enter his world, you
are in a quite amazing world, and I think of him
as a kind of Proust – a Proust of the pulps.
GLORIA ROBINSON
My mother was a piano teacher and brought
up in a religious utopia, Zion, Illinois, which
was founded by a Scottish-Australian faith
healer, John Alexander Dowie, who was
mentioned in Ulysses by James Joyce. My mom
was born and brought up in that community,
and she became quite an ordinary Christian. I
think it was a success for her to be as normal as
she was, given her upbringing. Her mom, my
grandmother, was a raving mystic, like Teresa
GETTY (4)
Steve Howe
shows off
his guitar
collection.
me early on that as part of life you had to have
music, sports and academia. All three of those
are super-important to me and that comes from
her – and also a kind of basic optimism.
I’m naturally lucky in terms of my mood,
sanguine, upbeat and when I’m in a normal
state things seem good. But also, when things
got hard, she thought it was important to stay
optimistic no matter what, so she was like
Antonio Gramsci, pessimism of the intellect,
optimism of the will – if things get difficult you
just hang tough. It’s a beautiful lesson.
THE SIERRA NEVADA
MOUNTAIN RANGE
I organise my life, my physical life, to stay in
good enough shape to go up to the Sierras and
hike. I’ve concocted a game with my friend
where we play Frisbee golf at a running pace.
I do that through the year and what that
allows me to do is get up in the Sierra, and
it’s pretty rigorous, especially now we’re as
good and light are pretty much the same thing
when it comes to mountaineering gear
And then walking poles. If you hike with
hiking poles you become a quadruped and it
saves an enormous amount of stress to your
hips, knees, ankles and feet, and it keeps you
from falling when you might have fallen. You
learn to use them in an hour, they’re startlingly
intuitive, and I have this theory that’s
evolutionary in nature, that we were
quadrupeds for way longer than we’ve been
bipeds, so you get your hands back in
locomotion and there’s a part of your brains
that goes, “Oh yeah, I used to do this.” I go
to the Sierras because it renews my heart,
I love it up there.
EO WILSON,
SOCIOBIOLOGIST AND
SCIENCE WRITER
He’s an important American intellectual
figure. He’s tried to say, “Look folks, science is

of Ávila, quite brilliant but quite mad. old as we are. everywhere and you have to understand that,
My mom was a rock. She died in 2016 and so There have been some innovations that help take it in, use it, humanise it, but also believe in
I’ve been thinking about her a lot. She taught us too. The gear has got really light – in fact, it and not cherry-pick it.” His latest book is

72 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 HEROES & INSPIRATIONS
KIM STANLEY ROBINSON

John Kerry
visits McMurdo
Station in
Antarctica.

are down there because of my

Antarctica novel. It’s sort of like
how space is going to run, I think,
yet you can already visit it.
It is a kind of scientific utopia
where actually when you’re down
there there’s no money. You go
into the galley and the food’s for
free. There is a gift shop where
you can pay for things but they
loan you your clothing so that you
can stay alive, and you give it back,
In Robinson’s and the shelter is just part of the
words, softball deal. You’re assigned a dorm room.
turns you into It’s almost like Sir Thomas More’s
a child again. Utopia: communal living,
communal eating and everybody is
equal because the guy running the
station will be sitting in the galley
right next to you. The more you
begin to add things up, the more
you begin to realise this is a funny
pocket utopia – and it feels good.

called Half-Earth and
advocates that human
beings abandon half
of the Earth’s surface
and leave it to the
animals.
I think people saw this and thought, “My that the city would quickly return to a natural
God, that’s just so radical,” but the truth is that space that would be quite beautiful.
people are flocking to the cities and many of You don’t want to present climate change as
the smallest villages on Earth are being a fortunate fall because it will create a refugee
abandoned anyway. The rewilding of Britain crisis of unprecedented proportions, but it’s
would be a glorious thing because it’s got so worth saying that won’t be the end of
much rain, and life will pour back. That was civilisation and you’ve got to fight zombies at
one of the things that was fun about writing that point. It’s better to say, “Look, that is bad,
New York 2140, imagining with sea level rise but after the bad people will still be coping.”
Robinson is
interested in THE UNITED STATES
the changing ANTARCTIC PROGRAM
face of nature. Twenty years after first visiting Antarctica,
I went back and it was wonderful. I’m hosted
on these trips by the US Antarctic Program.
I went as a journalist and I had 11 days in
[research centre] McMurdo.
I like the way this group of people loves
Antarctica. Some of them, the younger people,
SOFTBALL
It’s a kids’ game, and you play it
and you turn back into a kid. It’s a
difficult sport in this regard: you’re
hitting a round object with a
cylinder and so it means that the
point of maximum effectiveness is
almost infinitesimally small.
Timing is all, you have to time
your swing such that you hit the
ball in the right spot with the right
momentum. It’s screamingly difficult, even in a
game where we’ve slowed it down – a
slow-pitch softball is nowhere near as difficult
to hit properly as in baseball.
Nobody bats a thousand as we say, and so it
teaches you about how to accept reversals and
how to be good at a kind of regular humbling
– because you make mistakes, you make errors
in the field and you make bad hits at the bat,
and there’s no way to avoid it.
My team is a two-generation team, in that
literally the short stop is the father of the left
fielder. So we have one half of them that are too
stubborn to give up, that are my age, then
there’s a second generation of guys who are
about 30-35. I wouldn’t just play now with any
team, at my age when this team falls apart I
will probably call it a day.
New York 2140 is out in paperback on 8 March.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 73

 TOMB RAIDER

I T M A Y
C O N C E R N
Lara Croft gets a gutsy reboot in origin tale TOMB RAIDER. “I want
her to be fierce, cool, witty,” star Alicia Vikander tells Nick Setchfield
74 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
 TOMB RAIDER

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 75

 TOMB RAIDER
THE WOMAN WHO WOULD BE LARA
Croft was terrified.
Was she cage-fighting with a leopard?
Suspended from a fraying rope over a
flesh-crazed shoal of piranha? Squeezing
between tumbling boulders as the ruins of an
ancient Mesopotamian temple flooded with
blazing oil?
Nothing so mundane. We’re talking serious
threat level. “We had on set what are called
social influencers, like the biggest gamers,”
Alicia Vikander tells SFX. “And I was terrified,
for obvious reasons. It’s a very beloved
character. People who have followed Lara Croft
over the years know her inside out. I want to
make a character that lives up to the character
that they all love.”
Tomb Raider is a cinematic reset for the
relic-chasing gaming icon, first upgraded from
pixels to flesh in the form of Angelina Jolie,
who headlined two middlingly-received Lara
Croft movies in the early noughties. It draws
inspiration from 2013’s prequel game of the
same name, a grimmer, more bloodied take that
stripped the character to survivalist basics.
“It’s still the most commercially successful of
all the games,” says Vikander, who won an
Academy Award for The Danish Girl and
crossed over into genre with Ex Machina and
The Man From UNCLE. “It’s much more of an
origin story, and suddenly it’s a character set in
a reality that we can relate to. In our film she
works as a bicycle courier in East London and
you meet her with her girlfriends. She’s not a
posh British girl in a manor.
“Her dad disappeared when she was 13. She
hasn’t been able to mourn him because he was
just gone one day. There’s this huge trauma and
pain that she carries with her, not knowing
what happened, and why she was abandoned.
76 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
But then she finds a little clue that might give great adventure and has to deal with
her an answer to all of her questions about everything new coming at her. And as Alicia
what happened to him. So she goes out in the did in the shoot, so Lara does in the movie
world and then she is faced with this… – she rises to the challenge, and even though
amazing adventure!” she gets knocked down she pulls herself up and
Vikander has a smile in her voice as that keeps fighting. That’s really the story of how
sentence ends, aware she’s sounding perilously Lara Croft becomes the Tomb Raider.”
close to Hollywood promotional blarney. It Uthaug might seem as improbable a choice
reminds you it can’t hurt to have an Oscar as his star. Best known for the cataclysmic
winner selling a more grounded, believable spectacle of The Wave, the first-ever
take on Lara. Scandinavian disaster movie – and the highest
“I felt we hadn’t seen on the big screen how grossing film in Norway in 2015 – he is stepping
Lara Croft becomes the Tomb Raider,” says into the Hollywood blockbuster machine for
director Roar Uthaug. “I loved what they had the first time. But it’s a debut made with a
done with the game, making her feel very real, lifetime’s love of big-screen thrills behind it.
making it gritty and authentic. That’s “Raiders Of The Lost Ark was one of my
something we wanted to do with the movie as a favourite movies growing up,” he tells SFX.
whole, but also with the action sequences. “That mix of action, adventure, humour and
“We were looking for someone who could great, memorable characters is something that
handle all the action and stunts and fights that Spielberg does wonderfully. That’s a big
Lara has to go through in an action-adventure influence, and also the early works of James
like this. We also wanted someone who could Cameron, like Terminator 2.
create the vulnerability we needed, and that’s
something that really pulls the audience into You okay shuffling
the movie. Alicia really ticked off all those across that log, hun?
boxes, being a great actress with a great
emotional register, but also the way she
dedicated herself to preparing for this role,
training to get in shape for all the stunts,
working with the archery instructors and fight
choreographers. She was just ferocious.”
D OW N A N D D I R T Y
As Uthaug admits, Vikander wasn’t the obvious
choice. “I think that’s what’s so interesting
about Alicia. You haven’t seen her do a part like
this before. We wanted to create this very real,
down-to-earth girl who gets pulled into this
Vikander’s abs
were so sharp
they could
grate Cheddar.

“One throughline with my Norwegian
movies is strong female characters, and we
definitely have it with Lara Croft in this movie.
It’s something I’ve always been a fan of, from
the Alien and Terminator movies, and the
Tomb Raider games.”
Vikander first played Lara Croft as a kid,
manoeuvring those peril-defying polygons
with the aid of a controller. “I was pretty
scared,” she laughs. “I was quite young, 9 or 10,
so I mainly spent my time in the training area
in her manor. But I was intrigued, because I
didn’t like computer games. Girls didn’t really
How was Lara supposed play them. It was sad, because it was mostly
to decipher an ancient boys when I grew up playing. When I asked my
language in this lighting?
Not sure how good
that stick will be
against tigers...
Alicia Vikander
did a lot of her
own stunts. You
rock, Vikander.
TOMB RAIDER
girlfriends to play they were like, ‘Really?’ So I
kind of did it by myself. I saw the first Tomb
Raider game and like everyone else I was kind
of shocked… ‘Oh my god, it’s a woman that’s
the protagonist!’”
Lara’s new incarnation is far from the
Loaded generation pin-up of old. Long gone are
the legendary micro-shorts, for one thing. “It’s
not just the character of Lara Croft, it’s the
society that has changed,” argues Vikander.
“I think what we actually express as being
extremely attractive and sexy is just different.
Even young boys or girls on the street wouldn’t
comment, ‘Oh, a pair of shorts is what I find
sexy…’ It’s actually changing, which is a lovely
thing. People say, ‘Oh, you don’t want to make
her sexy?’ No, I want to make a young woman
who’s sexy, but I want her to be fierce, cool,
witty, funny. I want her to be somebody who
you want to hang out with, as a woman and a
man. Society’s changing, so this is more up to
date with what we find sexy.”
The movie charts Lara’s journey from
fiercely independent orphan to adventurer.
Girls didn’t
really play
videogames
when I was
growing up.
It was sad
Teaming with Daniel Wu’s badass mariner Lu
Ren in Hong Kong, she heads in search of her
father’s last known destination: a mythical
tomb on a lost island rumoured to lie
somewhere off the coast of Japan.
“I wanted to really create a bond with the
character,” says Uthaug, “to create someone
who you really root for, that’s not a Teflon
person but a real person of flesh and blood.
When she falls she gets bruises and gets hurt
but she picks herself up and keeps going.”
The bruises she accumulates on the way
were matched by Vikander’s own.
“At first it hurts,” she says, of the rigorous
training that prepared her for Lara’s
adrenalised lifestyle. “So much so that you can’t
walk or get out of bed for the first three weeks.
I was, like, crippled. I had pain in places I
didn’t know existed.”
As she shares with SFX, it was all a
muscle-punishing, mettle-testing world away
from the set of The Danish Girl. “It’s interesting
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 77
 TOMB RAIDER
when you overcome fear in doing things that
you just haven’t done before. The first time you
throw yourself off something that is 12-15
metres high, it’s a gutsy feeling. Then I was
thrown into these rapids, which was definitely
the toughest of all the things I did. We went
down these rapids that are normally used for
the Olympic games, where you’re always in a
raft or a boat – I had my hands tied and I went
down at least 30 times in a day, and it was 11
degrees in the water.”
“I think that was a pretty exhausting day for
her,” Uthaug smiles, dismissing SFX’s
suggestion that a movie shoot is surely just as
exhausting for the director as it is the actors.
“Yeah, but I’m dry inside the tent, in a chair in
front of the monitor! I’m not in the water. The
actors definitely get put through a lot more
than me!”
G I R L M E E T S WO R L D
Alicia Vikander clearly earned those bruises in
the name of her inner kid, the one who’s finally
ventured beyond the training area of Croft
Manor into the wilds beyond.
“We always wanted to find ways to base our
story in reality. I also love when sequences
come and you start to question if there’s
anything supernatural. It’s something I felt as a
child. I always wanted that door in the closet to
be there, or maybe if you go and travel far away
in the world, and you go back to these ancient
cities, you might find something larger than
life, or take you to an insight that something
supernatural might exist.
“I think mystery is a lovely thing,” she smiles.
“It’s like the kid within you, why you love
adventure films, why I did.”
Tomb Raider is out 16 March.
Lu Ren hoped the
sling would make
him more dashing.
78 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
S A I L O R ’ S
Daniel Wu is Captain Lu Ren
What sort of dynamic does your character have with Lara?
It’s a very interesting dynamic. It was an interesting choice not to
make it your stereotypical love interest relationship and not have this
testosterone-filled sexual tension all the time. We’ve gone past that in
films. I think it’s really cool that they are these two young kids that
really share similar stories but come from two different worlds
completely. They see their commonalities. As we know a lot of
movies now are trying to get into the China box office, so therefore
they throw in some token characters, but this wasn’t a token
character, he was really real.
Did you play the games?
I played the first two versions a lot, back in 1999 or 2000, but I quit
gaming around that time because I have an obsessive personality, so
it was just taking too much of my time and affecting my work. I chose
to quit watching sports and videogames around the same time. But I
did play a lot – it was the first videogame with a female lead, so that
was a really cool thing to see. Even though I was a guy it was really
cool to play a female character. That was groundbreaking for the
videogame world at the time, because it was very male dominated,
all these nerdy, horny guys making games. So this brought in a whole
female audience to gaming, which was pretty revolutionary.
How is the move to greater diversity changing movies?
There are so many girls out there who have grown up in a comic
book world or whatever but they are male-dominated worlds, so to
see strong female characters that they can feel something with is
great. And also multi-ethnic as well. You’re seeing it become more
diverse racially as well as sexually. It’s a great thing. It’s so different
than when I was growing up in America. I never really ever saw an
Asian face in TV or movies, or if I did it was like David Carradine in
Kung Fu, who was pretending to be Chinese, with tape-slanted eyes.
That was really fucked-up. It’s totally different now and I think it’s a
great change. I’m ready to ride that wave.
Nick Setchfield
Lara’s arsenal
doesn’t include
dual Uzis yet.
 TOMB RAIDER
GETTY (1)

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 79

 TOMB RAIDER
M I N D
Louise Blain looks back at two decades of the first lady of videogames
22 YEARS. 17 GAMES.
Probably too many accidental
painful deaths. Can we have an
RSI-plagued thumbs-up from
everyone who can still
remember their first Tomb
Raider experience? Perhaps
you’ve been acquainted with Ms
Croft since her first appearance,
cool and collected in her
Dracula-esque round sunglasses
phase as she prepared to hunt
down a McGuffin known as the
Scion. Or maybe you started
out a little later as she took in
the sights of Venice from
behind dual Uzis in Tomb Raider
2. If you’re part of the latter
group, yes, everyone locked the
farting butler in the freezer.
But who is Lara Croft? Where
did she come from? And, more
importantly, why are we still
talking about a heroine who
was once best known for her
spinal-injury defying assets?
Super Mario definitely never
had this problem. Born as Laura
Cruz all the way back in 1993
when she was created by Toby
Gard and his team at Core
80 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Madonna called
and needs her
cone bra back.
Designs in Derby, Lara’s true
origins story, like the best
myths, is a little hazy. Was she
really based on Gard’s sister?
Was she actually crafted as a
copyright avoidance for Indiana
Jones? No matter where Gard
took his inspiration, Lara Croft
was the perfect storm. She
ushered in a whole new world
of 3D game design with
sprawling open levels of puzzles
and traps and she had the sheer
audacity to do it as a woman.
Sure, her pixelated bust size
was intimidating but from the
get-go, there was something
about Lara. The last surviving
member of the Croft family was
no damsel, her clipped English
tones such a perfect female
Bond that all she was missing
on some occasions was a
cocktail that her escapades
would definitely mean was
shaken not stirred. And where
was the fun in staying in the
game where she belonged?
You didn’t need to own a
PlayStation to know Lara in the
late ’90s. She famously made
Y O U R
herself at home grinning on the
cover of The Face magazine and
happily advertised Lucozade to
the world. She had to get her
energy for those life-
threatening trips around the
globe somewhere, after all. In a
dizzying release schedule, Ms
Croft risked her polygons in a
new game a year from 1996 to
2003, even debuting on the
silver screen in 2001.
In all this time, Lara never
became a princess, never a
victim. She didn’t need anything
as lowly as a love interest, she
had a brain and an arsenal that
included a grenade launcher,
damn it. An icon with her
signature plait, tiny shorts, vest
top and dual pistols, Lara was
gently rebooted through the
noughties and even sent
through her original adventures
in higher resolution for her sins.
It wasn’t until 2013 though that
she underwent a complete
redesign. Studio Crystal
Golly, and we
thought the
lizards at the
zoo were big.
Dynamics reclaimed the sole
term Tomb Raider and made a
Lara for the modern age.
Don’t worry, there was no
avocado toast in sight but Lara
Croft became a millennial as the
giant reset button was pushed
on her origins story. Gone was
the aloof, manor-owning lady of
video games – this new Lara
Croft only gained her dual
pistols at the end of a thrillingly
gruelling trial by death on a
mythical island. With Rhianna
Pratchett on the writing team,
this Lara – wisely wearing more
than just a pair of shorts –
worried about killing and
struggled through life-or-death
decisions before obviously
carefully filing away that
particular empathy chip and
murdering her way across the
island to save her friends. The
follow-up, Rise Of The Tomb
Raider, cemented her position
as a force to be reckoned with.
In short? After 22 years, Lara’s
still got it. And by it we mean a
flaming arrow. Pointed at your
skull. Good luck.
 PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING

82 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING

The Jaeger v Kaiju

smackdown is back
in PACIFIC RIM:
UPRISING.
Director Steven S
DeKnight and star
John Boyega tell
Richard Edwards
about round two...

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 83

 PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING
T LOOKS LIKE ALL THOSE CLAIMS
about apocalypses being cancelled were
premature. The brave men, women and giant
robots [aka Jaegers] of the Pan Pacific
Defense League may have sealed the breach
between dimensions that brought city-
crushing Kaiju to planet Earth en masse,
but it seems you can’t keep a good (or bad)
monster down. A decade has passed since
the events of the first Pacific Rim, and in
follow-up Uprising, there’s something
stirring in the ocean once more...
“It’s been 10 years since the end of the first
movie where the breach was closed, and there
hasn’t been a peep out of the Precursors, the
aliens on the other side of the breach, or the
Kaiju,” confirms Uprising writer/director
Steven S DeKnight. “Humanity has been
preparing for another attack by rebuilding the
Jaeger programme from the ground up as
everybody believes that more than likely there
will be another attack – it’s just nothing’s
happened yet...”
“The challenge is that the Precursors didn’t
stop brainstorming, even though they were
defeated in the first film,” adds John Boyega,
the franchise’s new star. “They’ve come up
with another way [to attack].
“Most people live and survive day-by-day
with no thought of where the Kaiju come from
or if they’re going to come back. The shadow of
the past is still apparently there, but if you have
enough money and opportunity, you have the
chance to live away from that. So cities have
been rebuilt, a system has come back. You find
the world in a state of comfort. But of course
that all changes...”
MONSTER MASH
Change was also afoot behind the camera,
where scheduling conflicts meant that Pacific
Rim creator and director Guillermo del Toro
opted to go off and direct awards darling The
Shape Of Water instead. “I’m grateful purely
from a fan point of view that he didn’t
postpone The Shape Of Water,” DeKnight
laughs, “because it’s such a gorgeous movie.”
That left the shot-calling vacancy that
DeKnight subsequently filled. While Uprising
marks his debut as a movie director, he has
plenty of experience in TV, as a regular writer
John Boyega
gets ready to
smash some
Kaiju butt.
84 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
The film introduces
some cool new
Jaeger designs.
in the Whedonverse, and showrunner of both
Spartacus and the brilliant first season of
Daredevil. And of course, he had the producing
del Toro on speed dial if he needed him.
“He’s just the sweetest guy in the world, and
he was 110% supportive,” says DeKnight. “He
told me early on, ‘Look, if you ever need me,
call me. Otherwise take the movie, make it your
own, I’m going to stay out of your hair.’ And
he’s a man true to his word.”
DeKnight realised his follow-up required
three key elements to work. Bringing back
Jaegers and Kaiju was effectively a no-brainer,
as was the “drift”, the psychological connection
shared between two or more Jaeger co-pilots
– essential because mental stress of driving one
would be too much for a single
brain to handle. Scott Eastwood
“The other thing for me was joins the film
really this whole concept of the as Jaeger pilot
world coming together, putting Nate Lambert.
their differences aside, where it
doesn’t matter where you’re from,
it doesn’t matter who your parents
are,” DeKnight adds. “It just
matters that we’re working
together, that we’re stronger
together. I think that in these
turbulent times it’s a message that
really resonates.
“I approached it very much in
breaking a story the way we do it in
television,” he continues. “I put
together a team of writers for two
weeks, and I came into it knowing
a basic layout. When I was first
approached about doing this
movie, I went back, I watched the
first one, I listened to everything the executives “I found that very intriguing and terrifying!”
had to say about what they were looking for in DeKnight recalls. “I had to figure out why he
this next chapter and it fell together pretty wasn’t in the first movie. But I loved the idea of
quickly. The idea was always to take the first that connection, so then the question became,
movie as a jumping-off point, and expand the ‘Who do you get to play the son of Idris Elba?’”
mythology and the universe with the idea that The answer was a man with a fair bit of
if enough people show up for this one, we have experience with big-budget sci-fi franchises
a firm idea of what the next one will be.” featuring state-of-the-art hardware.
Then, another of those pesky “scheduling “I love movies about larger-than-life tech,
conflicts” struck the film. Charlie Hunnam, and I love movies that are fun,” says Boyega,
who played lead Jaeger pilot Raleigh Becket in the Star Wars actor hanging up his blaster for a
Pacific Rim, was all set to reprise the role. But moment to take the lead in Uprising. “When I
within 48 hours of DeKnight finishing the watched the first Pacific Rim I was looking
script – before Hunnam had even had the forward to a sequel, and hearing the ideas Steve
chance to read it, in fact – the star was out, had, and seeing the pictures, got me excited.”
opting instead to make his own passion project, As for why we’re only learning about Jake
a remake of Papillon. While DeKnight says “the Pentecost’s existence now…
big stuff, the action was all working”, it meant a “He’s purposefully stayed away from the
major retooling of the human side of the story. PPDC, and we find him in the movie just
It was producer/Legendary Pictures exec Mary stealing Jaeger tech and being a crook, to be
Parent who suggested focusing on the son of honest. Jake’s a bit of an arsehole, and he’s a bit
Stacker Pentecost, the brave (but late) egotistical, because he’s always been by himself
commanding officer of the PPDC played by and everything goes on his terms. The film’s
Idris Elba in the first movie. One minor about him learning how to get a bit of humility
problem: Pentecost Jr hadn’t even been in him and learning how he can be the best he
mentioned before... can be to lead others.”

WE DIDN’T WANT OUR
FILM JUST TO BE A PALE
IMITATION OF THE FIRST
It didn’t help that Stacker had such a strong
relationship with his adopted daughter Mako
– Rinko Kikuchi reprises her role in the sequel
(where Mako’s now running the PPDC), as do
Charlie Day and Burn Gorman as scientists
Newton and Hermann.
“What his father didn’t see in Jake, Stacker
saw in Mako, so there was much more of
emphasis on her and her journey through the
PPDC. Jake and Mako always had a cool
relationship but I think when Stacker had more
vision and dreams for her future within the
PPDC, Jake fell away. I think Jake interpreted
that as Stacker not loving him enough.”
ROBOT WARS
When we put it to Boyega that it must be a big
step up from the Star Wars ensemble to leading
man duties on Pacific Rim, he’s magnanimous
enough to admit it’s a group effort. “I definitely
do feel a sense of being at the forefront of this
project, but I’m not alone. As much as Jake is
the character [we follow], I’m backed up by
some really great performances. And there’s big
robots in it, so you can’t take all the credit!”
And that hits the nail on the head, because
– like Transformers – Pacific Rim: Uprising will
live or die on the strength of its mecha.
“I was heavily involved as a producer in
many aspects of the film, and I was conscious
of all the Jaegers,” Boyega explains.
“Sometimes with robots you can’t tell which
one is which, and in the craziness of the battle
and visual effects, you always want the
audience to have the information as to who’s
fighting who. I think just making them look
different as a starter was a great way to go. We
said at the beginning of the process that each
robot must have a special power or move that
makes them specific.”
“What we didn’t want to do was just present
the same thing again,” adds DeKnight. “That’s
the reason most of our action scenes take place
during the day rather than at night. Guillermo
del Toro did such an amazing job with the
action in the night in the rain and underwater,
it felt like if we went down that path again it
would just be a pale imitation. With the Jaegers
the design is so important, we sweated over
every decision, because we wanted each one to
be cool and unique.
“With the Kaiju it’s the same idea. The
Precursors have also had 10 years to reconsider,
rethink and redesign their biological weapons,
their Kaiju, so we wanted each one again to be
very distinct with distinct abilities. They
actually turned out to be harder than the
Jaegers, because you see a lot of really
out-there designs, and my comment was
always, ‘It’s cool, but when I see it I don’t know
what it is.’ I didn’t want the audience to have to
try to figure out what it is. You want
them to be unique but not too
unique. But the team had some
very interesting updated
Kaiju that tip their hat to
the first movie, but also
push it forward.”
Pacific Rim: Uprising is
released on 23 March.
PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING
NATE
SCOTT!
Scott Eastwood
is Nate Lambert
What’s Nate’s involvement in the
Jaeger programme?
He’s been in the Jaeger
programme since he was a kid,
and Nate is the tip of the spear.
He’s also an instructor, so he’s
instructing these kids, and that’s
sort of his mission. He has to push
them and not take it easy on them.
There are no real-world Jaegers,
obviously, but did you speak to
pilots to get an idea of what it’s
like to drive something like that?
I’ve flown since I was a kid, so I
didn’t need to talk to many pilots
because I already was one. And I
have been in a few military films,
so I know how chain of command
works, so it wasn’t a huge stretch.
Ten years have passed since the
events of the first movie. Are the
Jaegers significantly different?
Yeah, we’re going to see a lot of
cool stuff we haven’t seen before
on this one. I can’t give away too
much, but they’ve got some really
cool updates.
The Jaeger suits don’t leave much
to the imagination. How were
they to wear?
I wouldn’t call that suit
comfortable! That was not
comfortable at all. It certainly
wasn’t like lying in my bed, but
it’s part of the deal.
Did you feel self-conscious
doing the moves that would
later be translated into
Jaegers fighting Kaiju?
It’s interesting fighting
something that’s not there.
You need a lot of
imagination, and you’ve
got to trust the
director. You’ve got to
GETTY (1)
trust they’re going to
make you look good
and not look silly.
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 85
 Brought
ANNALEE NEWITZ
The American writer tells us why science economics really matter
Words by Jonathan Wright /// Photography by Jonathan Wilkins
D
oes it matter much how science is funded? If
that sounds like a dry question, Annalee Newitz
begs to differ. “A lot of scientific research is either
funded by corporations or research institutions
that really limit the scope of what scientists are
allowed to study, but even more the scope of how
they’re allowed to talk about what they study.”
One result of this, she says, is that working scientists
sometimes get into “grey areas” according to what’s
“permitted within the scope of their grants” when it comes
to doing research. “I’m not talking about anything dramatic,
like stealing research equipment or murdering rivals,
though that would be kind of exciting. They’re just breaking
the rules, so that they can gain access to information.”
But what if one day a scientist cracked because of the
pressures of such constraints, especially around who owns
data and the fruits of previous research? This is the scenario
that underpins Newitz’s novel Autonomous, a cyberpunk-
tinged thriller set in 2144, which sees wannabe “heroic
science ninja” Jack become an anti-patent drug pirate who
travels the world in a submarine and hacks drugs for those
who can’t afford them. Adding to the fun, she’s chased by a
military agent and his indentured robotic sidekick.
“Like all science fiction, it’s a meditation on what’s
happening now, but it’s a likely scenario if we continue in
this direction with corporate control of science, government
limitations on science,” says Newitz. “I think things are
going to become more urgent and deadly.”
HACK THE PLANET
For an example of the issues that worry her, consider the
story of Martin Shkreli. Infamously, his company, Turing
Pharmaceuticals, increased the price of Daraprim, used in
the treatment of HIV, from $13.50 to $750 per pill after
purchasing the drug’s manufacturing licence. And this
wasn’t even a case of a cutting-edge treatment, but of a drug
first introduced in the 1950s and long out of patent…
As to why we should consider taking Newitz’s warnings
seriously, it helps to understand her background. A geeky
kid, she eventually “decided it was more serious to think
about reality”. She became a journalist covering the
dotcom boom and “the social impact of technology” in
San Francisco at the turn of the millennium. “It was a fun
time to be alive, making fun of bad companies.”
Later, after getting interested in the “overlap between the
life sciences and technology” she studied at the Knight
Science Journalism Program at MIT. She went on to
co-found the website io9, which launched in 2008 with the
86 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
THE SFX AUTHOR
INTERVIEW
To Book
aim of mixing “great writing about science to help people
understand cutting-edge research and where it was going” Biodata
and “really good” SF coverage.
“I’m always surprised by how much people were Occupation
influenced by it,” she says, “and now of course I meet people Novelist
Born
who say things like, ‘I grew up reading io9’. It’s so cool 7 May 1969
though because I would have loved to have something like From
io9 when I was growing up. I really think in some ways we California
created it for our younger selves because it’s something that Greatest Hits
As well as being
we desperately wanted.”
co-founder of io9
In Newitz’s case, this younger self read the likes of Ursula and a novelist,
K Le Guin (see her comments in our obituary on p20), Newitz’s non-
Andre Norton and Ray Bradbury (“His short stories really fiction books
blew my mind”). She thought the first Star Trek movie was include Scatter,
Adapt, And
“super-deep”, an opinion she may have revised. Later, when Remember: How
she came back to SF, Ken MacLeod was a huge influence Humans Will
because “his books were so smart and political and weird”. Survive A Mass
Extinction.
Random Fact
REBEL YELL Newitz admires
As we’ve already seen, political ideas are central to Newitz’s NK Jemisin’s
fiction, and even talking about a forthcoming non-fiction Broken Earth
book, which will deal with why cities are abandoned, takes books in part for
us into political areas. One reason people leave cities, she an unusual reason:
because they put
says, is because, “You have a leader or a group of leaders geology rather
who just won’t repair the streets, or because they just won’t than the usual
repair the water system.” This kind of “deliberate neglect” SFF standby of
leads to “a tipping point”, hardly a reassuring observation physics at the
from the perspective of, say, Detroit, or austerity Britain. heart of the story.
It’s not surprising to learn that Newitz isn’t comfortable
with aspects of life in Trump’s America. This is, she says,
“the weirdest time I’ve lived through, it’s very scary”. A
measure of how weird is that an early draft of Autonomous,
a book that sat on a Syfy-branded USB stick for a number of
years before being reworked for publication, assumed that
nation states would wither away to be replaced by
“economic coalitions like the EU”.
But Newitz refuses to be downhearted, at least when she
looks ahead. “I am actually quite optimistic in the long
term,” she says. “I think in a thousand years we’re going
to be okay, I think in 10,000 years we’re going to be okay.
I think in the near term we’re headed towards a struggle.
It is survivable for sure, but I’m very worried that in the
near term, we’re going to look back on this period as like
the Punic wars of the early 21st century.” Perhaps it’s not
coincidental that Newitz’s sophomore novel will be a
time-travel tale.
Autonomous is published by Orbit on 15 March.
 BROUGHT TO BOOK
ANNALEE NEWITZ

“THIS IS THE
WEIRDEST
TIME I’VE
LIVED
THROUGH”

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 87

 TIME MACHINE
EVENT HORIZON

It disappeared without a
trace – only to re-emerge
as a terrifying cult classic.
Erlingur Einarsson revisits
Paul WS Anderson’s deep
space shocker

UCH LIKE ITS TITULAR SPACESHIP, WHEN

space horror Event Horizon came out in August
1997, it quickly and quietly disappeared after
launch, only to reappear in the public
consciousness much later. But why did that
happen, and what brought it back, making it the genre
classic it is today?
Director Paul WS Anderson’s third full-length film, Event
Horizon was his first fully studio-backed feature. “I was sent
the script by Paramount,“ Anderson tells SFX. “Mortal
Kombat was a big hit, and I had multiple options and offers,
because that’s the way Hollywood works. When you have a
hit, you’re a genius; when you don’t, you’re an idiot. I read
Philip Eisner’s script for Event Horizon and it really stuck
with me.”
Indeed, Paramount planned Event Horizon as one of their
big 1997 films, originally scheduled for a late-autumn
release. However, another film about a large ship in peril,
Titanic, was famously delayed from its intended summer
tentpole slot. As its release was moved to Christmas,
Paramount needed a replacement. “Our release was brought
forward, so post-production got even shorter, which put a
lot of strain on me and the editor, Martin Hunter, and the
visual effects team,” says Anderson.
Anderson had already sprinted through a heavily
condensed pre-production schedule and a frantic shooting
period at Pinewood Studios. “We didn’t have a huge amount TH E ST OR Y BE HI ND
TH
of time for designing the film and constructing the set, FA NTAS Y OF YE ST ERE SF AN D
which was quite glamorous. We went to several YE AR
construction managers, a lot of people refused to take the
job on because they thought the set was too complicated to 19 9 7
REX (1)

film in the amount of time we had. Fortunately, we found

someone bold enough to jump in, and we got it done.”

88 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 TIME MACHINE
EVENT HORIZON

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 89

 TIME MACHINE
EVENT HORIZON
The release timing never felt right to the
director. “It’s not really a summer movie. It’s
more of a fall movie, when the nights are
getting longer,” he says. And that may have
contributed to its flat reception at the cinema.
“It didn’t do bad box office, if it had been
September or October,” Anderson explains,
“but the fact we’re in the summer, your
anticipation is higher. And we were looking at
movies like Air Force One, a popcorn summer
movie with a giant movie star and a giant
concept. And we weren’t that kind of film.”
Anderson freely admits he was disappointed
that it didn’t become a hit upon release, but
after its muted theatrical run was over, Event
Horizon would find its return via video.
Viewers were able to appreciate its strengths
outside of the misguided framework of a
summer blockbuster. These included the
uncompromising visuals, the visceral score and
its genre-defying performances.
Instead of A-list stars, though, “we
deliberately went for a cast that were
recognisable faces and great actors,” Anderson
explains. “I was inspired by the casting in Alien,
for example. When you’re making a horror
movie, and you put a star in it, the audience
feels safe, because they go, ‘Well, that guy isn’t
gonna die.’” Instead, the ensemble approach
A TRANSYLVANIAN
TRAGEDY?
WHY A DIRECTOR’S CUT
WILL NEVER HAPPEN
Ever since its premiere, rumours of a
mythical director’s cut of Event Horizon have
abounded, especially in relation to the
heavily edited hellscape sequences, where
we glimpse the dimension of chaos through
various characters’ visions. These scenes
were cut drastically to help the film achieve
an R rating instead of the dreaded
commercial kiss of death, an NC-17.
As archiving material wasn’t as common at
that time, many scenes were lost, seemingly
for good. Years later, however, original prints
were allegedly found in a salt mine in
Transylvania, but had deteriorated too much
to be included in any subsequent release.
90 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
That’s one way
to quit Twitter,
we suppose.
Don’t you just
love the fresh
morning air?
would keep the audience on their Simpler times,
toes. With Sam Neill, Laurence before the mass
Fishburne, Joely Richardson… you self-mutilation.
never thought anyone was safe,
and I think that adds to the
unpredictability, the horror and
the viewing experience.”
In particular, the casting of Sam
Neill felt like perfect timing for
Anderson, who had been a fan of
his since the early ’80s. “I like him
because of the third Omen movie,
The Final Conflict, where he was
charming but evil. It was
wonderful,” Anderson says. “But
most people just went, ‘Oh, he’s
the guy from Jurassic Park, he
saves the kids.’ I think people had
forgotten these horror-thriller
roots [of Neill’s career]. He had
become very clean-cut, almost parental, and I beforehand, so we were all thrilled every day
thought that was great, because if we put the we went to work. We’d touch each other in the
guy that’s the clean-cut parental figure from morning and go, ‘Can you fucking believe this?’”
Jurassic Park in the movie, no one’s gonna The impression the set made didn’t escape
expect he’s the one who’ll end up going insane, the film’s composers either. Paul Hartnoll of
tearing his own eyes out.” Orbital particularly remembers his trip to the
set. “It was one of the last big films to be made
without CGI,” he tells SFX. “While we were
DEAD SPACE there, we saw the burning man (from the
Unlike the big-budget hires, Neill and climactic sequence with Laurence Fishburne).
Fishburne, the spine of the ensemble had That’s a real object, a real latex mechanism,
followed Anderson from Shopping, Anderson’s and there were two or three guys operating it,
debut feature. “We were thrilled,” Anderson this kinda squiggling man, looking like he’s
smiles, “we’d basically taken over every stage of burning. They catch him alight, and then film
Pinewood Studios, and we’d built these him for a second and then put him out, cool
elaborate sets that moved, the rotating corridor him off, catch him alight again, film it a bit…
and the huge containment room with the core It was for real. They built this huge, great
that spun around. These were all impressive corridor down the centre of the ship, it’s all
sets. We’d all been in the East End shooting our there! So often now, they film everybody on a
low-budget Channel 4 movie just three years green screen and then put a CGI corridor in.”

Instead of using
CGI, all of the sets
were hand-built.
[we’d be working with] Kamen,
I nearly fell over, because my
all-time favourite film was Brazil,”
a film Kamen had scored. Hartnoll
continues, “I rung him up, and I
was terrified. I spoke to him and
said, ‘Listen, I know absolutely
nothing about writing music.’ I
can’t read or write music, but I
liked him straight away. He said
He hadn’t something like, ‘That’s all right, I
got to grips know nothing about electronic
with his new dance music, we’ll get on fine.’”
electric razor. The process of working with
Kamen would turn into a great
Even the “bigature” Event Horizon itself had learning experience for Hartnoll. He visited
its own vast chamber, decorated with a starry Kamen’s studio in London. He assembled a
sky, for all exterior shots of the ship. small orchestra to record material for Hartnoll
The old-school approach to the filmmaking, to work with, to have, as Hartnoll quotes
infused with the youthful energy of the Kamen, “a bit of a jam to see what happens”.
director and cast, was reflected in the score, “This was at the beginning of writing his
too, a unique collaboration between Hollywood score,” Hartnoll continues, “and Kamen went,
veteran Michael Kamen and British electronic ‘I’ve got a few ideas, I’ll have to write it down,
pioneers Orbital. Hartnoll shared a history they don’t like it if you don’t give them some
with director Anderson. “We wrote a little sheet music, but we’ll just jam with them
piece of music for their first film, Shopping,” anyway.’” This free-spirited approach
Hartnoll explains. “We got to know them, and permeated the entire process, and pushed
he used ‘Halcyon’ at the end of Mortal Kombat Hartnoll to experiment in ways he hadn’t
too.” Event Horizon, however, was the first time before. Hartnoll imitates Kamen pointing
Anderson had been told he needed to use a around the orchestra in the studio: “‘You do
“proper orchestra”, as Hartnoll puts that, you do that, let’s see!’ He’d just get
it, who says of him and producer them cranking away, and after that he
Jeremy Bolt, “being of the rave turned around to me and said, ‘So, what
generation, they were a bit afraid of do you want them to do?’ And it’s just,
that, so they got in touch with us like, ‘Oh, shit!’ I’m just standing there
and said, ‘Would you help us with the orchestra, and I hadn’t
modernise this score, make sure it thought about anything! I said, ‘Okay,
doesn’t go too classical?’” er, how about everybody’ – and I just
But to achieve that, Hartnoll had made it up – ‘How about everybody
to face his idol. “When they told me plucks randomly, just random
TIME MACHINE
EVENT HORIZON
THE PLISSKEN
PERSPECTIVE
KURT RUSSELL LOOKED
INTO THE FUTURE
After Event Horizon, Anderson went straight
on to filming Soldier, with Kurt Russell. He
decided to show Event Horizon to the star
first, though. “He came around after the
screening,” Anderson says, “and he said, ‘You
know what, in 15 years’ time, that’s gonna be
the movie you’ll be glad you made,’ which is
incredibly generous from an actor who
you’re just about to make a movie with, and
he wasn’t going, ‘My movie’s gonna be
better,’ but ‘that’s gonna be the movie’. And
sure enough, you catch it 15, 20 years later,
it’s the movie I’m really glad I made.”
plucks, and have it all boil down to one note?’
He said, ‘Okay, great! You heard the man!’ And
we used that in the film! It was an eye-opener,
working with someone so confident.”
The effect of the music on the film’s legacy
isn’t lost on Anderson, either. “It was a great
run with the Hartnoll brothers,” he says. “They
brought a lot to Event Horizon. When I first
had this idea of combining Kamen with Orbital,
we thought Kamen would be 90% of the score
and they would be this interesting additive. I
think in many ways, they became the driving
force of the score. It became almost musical
sound design. Kamen had done some great
scores, and I think, personally, Event Horizon
was one of his best, and the reason is because
of Orbital. I think they pushed him, and pushed
him in directions that he himself would never
have anticipated going in.”
The film found another lease of life after its
theatrical release, but given the benefit of
hindsight, would Anderson change anything
about it if he could do it all over again? “The
original is the original. That’s what’s built the
reputation of the film, so of course, that’s the
movie I’m happy with. But would I go back and
tinker with it? Abso-fucking-lutely! Because of
the compacted post-production, we rushed
into some decisions. I would move the speed
dial a little bit. If it’s doing 85mph right now,
I think I could push it up to 90.”
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 91
 APR
2018
edited by Ian Berriman

CINEMA 94 HOME ENTERTAINMENT 98 BOOKS 108 COMICS 116 GAMES & STUFF 118 COLLECTABLES 120

BLACK 94 THIS ISSUE

PANTHER
T’Challa
62 REVIEWS

rules, okay?

96
MOM AND DAD
98
THOR:
108
THE TANGLED
Nicolas Cage RAGNAROK LANDS
unleashes the rage as Taika Waititi’s A city’s blighted
a dad who goes mad gloriously funny, by poisonous
in this schlocky Day-Glo Marvel movie bramble in this
infection horror. comes to Blu-ray. four-part fantasy.

RATINGS EXPLAINED SUPERB GOOD AVERAGE POOR TERRIBLE

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 93

 Get sci-fi news, reviews and features at gamesradar.com/sfx
CINEMA

BLACK
PANTHER
Claw of the jungle
RELEASED OUT NOW!
12A | 134 minutes
Director Ryan Coogler
Cast Chadwick Boseman, Michael B
Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright,
Andy Serkis, Danai Gurira
Superhero stories have always
been fables of empowerment. So
it’s no surprise Black Panther
arrives loaded with expectations
beyond our usual demands of a
blockbuster. An emphatically
Afrocentric tale, fronted by a
predominantly black cast, it hits
cinemas just as diversity becomes
a watchword in Hollywood. Its
goal? Nothing less than the
empowerment of an entire race, an
entire culture. It can’t simply be a
good film; in these turbulent times
it feels as if it needs to be a great
film, an important film, moving
the needle for black stars, black
filmmakers, black audiences.
That it succeeds is largely
because writer and director Ryan
Coogler understands the power of
myth. At the heart of his movie is
Wakanda, one of the keystone
kingdoms of the Marvel universe.
It’s a shimmering technological
utopia but Coogler cleverly frames
it within folklore. “Tell me a story,”
asks a kid as the film begins. “The
story of home.” An old man’s voice
clues us in: a proud ancestral
history of mighty warriors, tribal
battles, panther goddesses and the
power of vibranium, mined from
an ancient meteorite and the
strongest, rarest metal on Earth.
For Coogler, Wakanda is as much
an idea as a place; a notion, not
just a nation. And this hidden
African land is brought to the
screen with vivid, immersive
detail: the vibrant hues of
ceremonial robes, the rush of
towering waterfalls, the peddlers
hawking hi-tech trinkets in
bustling markets. The camera
glides over sunlit valleys and into
a shining, impossible city and you
feel as though you’re jetting into
a dream. It’s the legend of an
African homeland, the promise
of an African future.
We glimpsed Wakanda in 2016’s
Captain America: Civil War. Black
Panther picks up just after the
events of that movie, with heir to
the throne T’Challa (Chadwick Chadwick Boseman
Boseman) mourning his late father plays the steely
and facing the responsibilities of King T’Challa.
kingship. Is he “just a boy, not fit to

Just don’t mess with

lead?” as tribal rival M’Baku (Winston Duke) insists? Or should
he, as former girlfriend Nakia
fierce female guards
the Dora Milaje.
(Lupita Nyong’o) tells him “decide
what kind of king you are going to
be”? Boseman makes for a noble,
soulful hero, armed with an
uncompromisingly authentic
accent and illuminated with
occasional flashes of self-doubt
and righteous fury.
He’s the straight man here,
essentially, and just about
everyone gets a crack at stealing
the movie from under him. Black
Panther’s populated with a strong,
charismatic supporting cast, from
Letitia Wright’s winningly cheeky
There’s a
real-world
resonance to
the story
little sister, Shuri – the Q of
Wakanda, overseeing the
Panther-tech – to Danai Gurira’s
fierce, loyal bodyguard, Okoye,
wielding a scowl that could kill at
50 yards. Of the villains, Andy
Serkis is a magnificently
watchable bastard as Ulysses

94 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 BLACK
POWERS
Think Black Panther
is cinema’s first
black superhero
movie? Well
think again…*

METEOR MAN
In this 1993
comedy, writer/
director Robert
Townsend
plays a mild-
mannered
teacher who’s
given powers like

* We didn’t forget about Blade. After lengthy debate, we decided he was a vampire, not a superhero. So there.
super-breath and dog
telepathy by a glowing
green meteorite, then
uses them to take on a
drug gang.

BLANKMAN
Damon Wayans
is the titular
hero in this
childish 1994
spoof. A
bumbling,
bespectacled virgin,
he fights crime using
ramshackle gadgets
built from junk, wearing
a costume made from
long johns and his
gran’s housecoat!

Klaue, the crooked arms dealer
whose plundering of vibranium
starts the story, while Michael B
Jordan brings surly charm to Erik
Killmonger, a former mercenary
out to usurp the throne.
T’Challa sets out to hunt down
Klaue, teaming with Martin
Freeman’s CIA man Everett Ross
along the way. It’s a refreshingly
clean, linear plot and the movie
strings its set-pieces along it. A car
chase through the neon-lit streets
of Korea gets an inventive wrinkle
with the addition of Wakandan
tech. A trial by combat at the edge
of a waterfall has the kind of
crunch that Coogler brought to
his Rocky sequel Creed. Only in the
climax does the action truly tap
the glorious nuttiness of the early
comic strips, unleashing a
stampede of armour-plated rhinos
that feel torn from Jack Kirby’s
drawing-board.
It’s not as relentlessly glib as
some other Marvel movies.
There’s humour, and plenty of it,
with gags that land perfectly (a
genius, taboo-teasing cannibalism
joke especially). But there’s a
real-world resonance to this story,
a genuine political bite beneath
the fantasy. It’s unafraid to pick at
STEEL
This 1997 DC
movie was
Incredible
Hulk/V/Alien
Nation creator
Kenneth
Johnson’s brainchild.
Basketball star Shaquille
O’Neal is the ex-army
weapons designer who
takes on the gangs with
an armoured suit and a
giant electrohammer.
the scabs of colonialism and Does he say “It’s
there’s an intriguingly persuasive hammer time”?
ambiguity to its antagonist’s goals. You betcha.
Crucially, Coogler roots the film
in his own experience, connecting CATWOMAN
Halle Berry is
Wakanda directly to Oakland, Patience
California, the place he was born Phillips, a
and the setting of his bruising 2013 graphic
debut Fruitvale Station. This is designer who
acquires feline
“the story of home”, don’t forget. abilities after being
One where the myth, and the mysteriously brought
truth, of Wakanda can empower back from death by an
any kid who asks “Tell me a Egyptian moggy. Pitof’s
story…” Nick Setchfield 2004 turkey bagged
four Razzies, with Berry
having the good grace
The creation of Don McGregor, Erik
Killmonger debuted in the classic to collect her Worst
“Panther’s Rage” storyline in 1973. Actor gong in person.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 95


CINEMA
Cage got a bit
enthusiastic with
the Lucky Charms.
WINCHESTER:
THE HOUSE THAT
GHOSTS BUILT
House Of Gun
RELEASED OUT NOW!
15 | 99 minutes
Directors Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Cast Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke,
Sarah Snook, Finn Scicluna-O’Prey
Not, as you might think, a
movie spinoff from Supernatural,
this is actually another visit to
the Winchester Mystery House,
a real-life haunted mansion that’s
pretty infamous – so anyone using
its story now needs to find an
interesting way to exploit it...
Unfortunately for Winchester,
it never delivers.
96 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Get sci-fi news, reviews and features at gamesradar.com/sfx
That’s surprising, given that the
Spierig brothers have become
reliable suppliers of scares. Here,
they seem content to rely on tricks
so old they creak as much as some
of the house’s warped floorboards.
Taking inspiration from the
house’s eccentric owner, Sarah
Winchester, the film deviates into
fiction by inserting Dr Eric Price
(Jason Clarke), dispatched by the
Winchester Repeating Arms
Company to see if Sarah (Helen
Mirren) is going mad after the loss
of her family. Their concerns are
not unfounded: she’s claiming to
be visited by the spirits of those
MOM AND DAD
Family Misfortunes
RELEASED 9 MARCH
15 | 83 minutes
Director Brian Taylor
Cast Nicolas Cage, Selma Blair,
Anne Winters, Zackary Arthur
Horror films that explore the
dark side of suburbia through
some kind of madness are hardly a
new idea, but the sort of frenzied
action beats beloved by writer/
director Brian Taylor (especially in
his work with Mark Neveldine,
such as Crank) bring something
fresh to the table. Ostensibly a rage
infection film, Mom And Dad
posits a world where something
mysterious triggers all parents to
turn on their own kids – and just
their own children, unless you
happen to get in their way.
If you’re looking for someone to
play a father who already seems a
little off-kilter, Nicolas Cage is
Poor Jason Clarke
didn’t get a cool
goth outfit.
who’ve died at the muzzle of her
business’s weapons and, gliding
around her house as if haunting it
herself, has been endlessly adding
extensions. Price, meanwhile, is
marinating in his own grief over
the loss of his wife, but still
sceptical of anything spectral.
Guess who’s right?
There is a great ghost story to be
made from the true-life tale, but
among the top choices. He throws
himself into the role of frustrated
father Brent Ryan with gusto,
leaving subtlety at the soundstage
door as usual and really letting
loose once the craziness hits.
Selma Blair’s right up there with
him, turning a bored mother into
the sort of cunning, cursing,
saw-wielding psycho who would
give The Shining’s Jack Torrance
the warm and fuzzies. And while
they mostly just get to react to
everything going nuts around
them, the kids, played by Anne
Winters and Zackary Arthur,
balance out the story well.
Fully embracing schlocky
horror, Mom And Dad won’t be for
everyone, but it’s got something
more satirical on its mind than just
shock and gore. James White
Cinematographer Daniel Pearl’s first
job in cinema was The Texas Chain Saw
Massacre, which feels fitting for this movie.
this isn’t it. Mirren is good, but the
frights are lacking. There are only
so many jump shocks you can dole
out before everyone watching feels
numb, and the emotional subplots
never generate empathy. Sadly, the
foundations are shot, and the place
should be condemned. James White
You can hold your wedding or social event
at the real-life house, if that appeals. No
idea why you would, mind…
STATUS UPDATE
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2018 | 12A | 106 minutes
Director Scott Speer
Cast Ross Lynch, Olivia Holt,
Harvey Guillen, Courtney Eaton
Ever been tempted to make
your online self seem cooler,
more interesting, or generally
better than you really are? Well,
what if an app could make that
better you a reality?
After moving from California
to Connecticut, skateboard-
loving Kyle (Ross Lynch)
struggles to fit in at his new
school. But when bullies smash
his phone, he visits a
mysterious repair kiosk and
comes away with a magical new
app. Anything he types into its
status box comes true, and soon
Kyle’s blagging his way into
everything he ever wanted.
Inevitably, there’s a catch.
This is a pretty straightforward
be-careful-what-you-wish-for
fable: think Mean Girls meets
Wishmaster. Predictable?
Sure, but it’s also incredibly
charming. Disney alumnus Ross
Lynch makes a likeable lead,
gleefully barrelling from one
scene of improbable physical
comedy to the next, while
Harvey Guillen, as nerdy
Lonnie, nabs all the best lines.
Even the adults (including
Wayward Pines’s Tyronne
L’Hirondelle as a tyrannical
teacher and X-Men star Famke
Janssen as a boozy parent) look
like they’re enjoying it.
Status Update is the kind of
good-hearted, lightweight teen
comedy that seemed to have
died out in the late ’00s. And
while its naivety can feel dated,
its non-stop energy and smart
dialogue make it irresistible –
throwaway Snapchat jokes
and all. Sarah Dobbs
TAD THE LOST
EXPLORER AND
THE SECRET OF
KING MIDAS
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2018 | U | 85 minutes
Directors David Alonso,
Enrique Gato
Cast Trevor White, Alex Kelly,
Ramon Tikaram, Gemma Whelan
This is the sequel to Tad,
The Lost Explorer, a 2012
animated film which was a hit
in Spain, though you don’t need
to have seen that to figure out
what’s going on here. While it’s
a bog-standard adventure romp,
it’s had a lot of love and a fair
bit of money lavished on it (by
Spanish standards, at least),
though it’s still lightyears away
from the kind of quality you’d
expect from an animation
studio such as Pixar.
It follows the titular Indiana
Jones wannabe (voiced by
Trevor White) on his quest to
find King Midas’s golden
necklace, all the while pursued
by the sleazy Rackham (Ramon
Tikaram) and given heartache
by the woman of his dreams,
the Lara Croft type Sarah
(Alex Kelly). Cue lots of
rambunctious action
FEATURING
Jennifer Lawrence talks
involving chases, magic and
daft animal companions – a
dumb dog and long-suffering
sex, spies and Soviets in TF’s
parrot, both great.
The downside is that
world-exclusive Red Sparrow chat.
everyman Tad is a bit of an
uninteresting protagonist; you
Plus the stars on Gringo, Mute,
can’t help wishing the film had
made kick-ass Sarah the lead
Game Night and Jessica Jones.
instead. Still, the mummy –
who spends most of the movie
channelling RuPaul – is good
ON SALE NOW
for a few belly laughs, at least.
Jayne Nelson
 Get sci-fi news, reviews and features at gamesradar.com/sfx
HOME ENTERTAINMENT

THOR:
RAGNAROK
Korg values
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2017 | 12 | Blu-ray (4K/standard)/DVD/
download/SVOD
Director Taika Waititi
Cast Chris Hemsworth,
Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett,
Mark Ruffalo, Tessa Thompson,
Jeff Goldblum
One may be a rip-roaring,
space-set adventure comedy, and
the other a dour, earthbound
Western about a couple of old guys
whose glory days are behind them,
but 2017’s two best comic-book
movies have one big thing in
common – Thor: Ragnarok and
Logan both push the boundaries of
what a superhero movie can be.
Turns out there’s more to the
super life than origin stories and
ever-expanding fight scenes...
Of all the Marvel Cinematic
Universe’s big-hitters, Thor was
the one still waiting for a truly
great solo movie. Marvel’s solution
to the problem is ingenious:
jettison the slightly pompous
fantasy of the first two instalments
and perform a massive course
correction by plunging Thor into
the most wonderfully high-camp
sci-fi world since Flash Gordon.
Yes, the Asgardian intrigue and
backstabbing are still there, as Cate
Blanchett’s goddess of death Hela
arrives with designs on taking the
throne for herself. But the movie
soon changes gear spectacularly as
Thor crash lands on the cosmic
scrapyard world of Sakaar – where
the Hulk is making a living as a
gladiator, and the backing music
is more videogamey synths than
the traditional orchestral score.
While the story is as solid as
we’ve come to expect from the
MCU’s best outings, it is – like
everything else in the movie –
subservient to a good laugh.
Director Taika Waititi (fresh off
the brilliant What We Do In The
Shadows and Hunt For The
Wilderpeople) is given full rein to
make a gag-loaded comedy that
just happens to wear superhero
spandex, and where everyone gets
something funny to say. Indeed, if
Loki is less of a standout this time,
it’s more about everyone else
raising their game than Tom
Hiddleston dropping his.
Blanchett relishes creating a Thor and Bruce are
baddie evil enough to slaughter friends forever!
Asgardian regulars, without ever (Don’t tell Hulk.)
losing her pantomime archness;

Why wear a hat

Jeff Goldblum goes maximum, well, Jeff Goldblum, as Sakaar’s
sardonic ruler the Grandmaster;
when you can
wear a hat-stand?
Mark Ruffalo pitches it perfectly
as the neurotic Bruce Banner and
a newly talkative and self-aware
Hulk; and Waititi has the best
supporting role as Korg, a softly
spoken, Kiwi-accented rock man
who wants to lead a revolution.
But make no mistake, this is
Chris Hemsworth’s movie. We all
knew he can do the muscle-bound
action stuff in his sleep, but here
he shows the comedy chops
revealed by Ghostbusters were no
fluke. This latest incarnation of
Thor is hilariously egotistical and
Everything
is punctuated
by the perfect
one-liner
often out of his depth, yet he’s still
a great leader – and practically
everything he does is punctuated
by the perfect one-liner. You feel like
you’re watching a star prepared to
totally embrace the ludicrousness
of the plot – this is a frequently
ludicrous movie – and run with it.

98 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

 MIND
PROBE

TAIKA
WAITITI
Director of
Thor: Ragnarok

This film must have been

huge fun to make.
A friend was like, “This
is the perfect film for you.
You’re basically a
six-year-old. And it’s like a
bunch of six-year-olds got
together and each put
things into a movie idea.
And then you went and
shot it.” It really does feel
like kids in a sandpit
throwing stuff around, and
suddenly it’s a movie.

Are you very hands-on?

Like fellow threequel Captain
America: Civil War, Ragnarok
performs a major reset on the
MCU that will surely have
ramifications for April’s Infinity
War. It also ranks among the very
best the series has had to offer.
Extras Just like Ragnarok itself,
the Blu-ray and download extras
(there are none on the DVD) are
made all the better by Waititi,
whose wackiness elevates the
usual fare. This especially goes for
his director’s commentary, and an
around 10 minutes each. “Getting
In Touch With Your Inner Thor”
offers interesting insights from
Hemsworth on making Thor
more colloquial. “Hulk Vs Thor”
explores the film’s comic book
origins, “Sakaar: On the Edge Of
The Known And Unknown”
encompasses the planet’s Jack
Kirby-inspired production design,
while “Finding Korg” features
funny behind-the-scenes footage.
Sadly, “Marvel: The First Ten
Years” is a fairly thin retrospective,
male interviewees. Elsewhere,
there are five deleted/extended
scenes, a gag reel and a fantastic
feature where scenes are recreated
in 8-bit. The biggest draw is
exclusive short “Team Daryl”,
another instalment in the parody
series where Thor shares a flat
with a guy called Daryl; this time
though, Daryl’s flatmate is the
Grandmaster. It’s surprisingly
underwhelming – as if the joke
has finally run its course.
Richard Edwards/Stephen Kelly
I definitely get in there
– ruffle up the clothes,
smooth out someone’s
hair. Coming from a world
where you had to do it
yourself, you get used to
operating cameras and
moving people around.
You don’t have time to
wait for things to go down
the chain to the right
person. I guess we’ve got
slightly looser union laws
in New Zealand!
Was it a learning curve?
Yes, in the idea of
having to learn about
energy conservation. All
my [previous] shoots have
been 25, 30 days. This was
around 85. So it’s trying to
deal with fatigue and
stress and figuring out
how you still come up with
good ideas. It’s one of the
most exhausting things
that you could do. You get
a little bit of sleep… but
GETTY (1)

introductory message in which he and “Unstoppable Women: Hela & not really, because you’re
The film’s play-within-a-play features
laments that he’s not JJ Abrams. Valkyrie”, a featurette about strong cameos from Matt Damon, Sam Neill and dreaming about work!
There are six featurettes, averaging female characters, is swamped by Luke Hemsworth (as Loki, Odin and Thor). Jordan Farley

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 99


HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Ghosts always
have to ruin
the party.
MIDNIGHT, TEXAS Season One
True Blood, but on Valium
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2017 | 15 | DVD
Showrunner Monica Owusu-Breen
Cast François Arnaud, Parisa
Fitz-Henley, Jason Lewis, Sarah Ramos,
Peter Mensah, Arielle Kebbel
Midnight, Texas is the latest
show from Charlaine Harris,
creator of True Blood, and is
ostensibly set in the same universe
as the supernatural goings-on in
Bon Temps, Louisiana. There are
differences: a dead vampire
doesn’t explode like a bloody bag
of paint, there’s no swearing (this is
NBC, not HBO) and what little sex
occurs is so covered up you almost
forget what nipples look like.
More importantly, the shows
differ when it comes to quality.
100 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Get sci-fi news, reviews and features at gamesradar.com/sfx
True Blood, when it was on form,
could sheer off your jaw in shock
and send it rolling under the sofa.
There are very few shocking
moments in Midnight, Texas: a
cool gross-out involving a bad guy
tearing off a face, perhaps, and...
er... well, an underused talking cat
named Mr Snuggly. Ahem. Still,
that’s not to say this new show
isn’t fun, with a likeable cast and a
comforting, familiar vibe – you’ll
recognise everything from Buffy’s
Hellmouth to Supernatural’s
angels to Charmed’s witches. Even
the sun-drenched New Mexico
locations reek of Preacher.
The series opens with François
Arnaud’s medium Manfred
arriving in desert town Midnight.
He soon discovers that while he
can see ghosts, the other residents
have their own skills: Peter
Mensah’s brooding Lemuel is a
vampire, Parisa Fitz-Henley’s
hippy Fiji is a witch, Jason Lewis’s
hunky Joe is a fallen angel... there’s
even a were-tiger, although the
CGI budget doesn’t allow us to see
him for more than one episode.
Anyway, it transpires that
Midnight, Texas is a Mecca for
“supernaturals”, and they all start
feeling antsy because something
evil is lurking beneath the sand.
The show’s core message is
about how people have to pitch in
and help each other, and there’s
certainly enjoyment to be gleaned
from watching the characters
make friends and team up. But
there are missteps, often in the
casting or characterisation.
Manfred falls in love with a
DRINKING
GAME
Knock back a
beverage of your
choice every time...
You see the
Midnight, Texas
road sign (the opening
credits don’t count).
Fiji is threatened
in some way.
Manfred sees a
ghost but doesn’t
bother mentioning it.
Lemuel uses his
super-speed.
Joe the angel gets
his bloody
enormous wings out.
The cast all gather
in the main street
at night to look at
something.
Someone mentions
demon Colcannar,
but it sounds like
“coconut”.
dull-as-dishwater waitress and the
two actors have so little chemistry
they could be dead. Assassin Olivia
is barely more than “the vampire’s
girlfriend who can also fight” until
the final few episodes. And as for
town nice guy Bobo, played by
Orphan Black’s usually excellent
Dylan Bruce? Blandness, we name
thee Bobo. There are others, but
thankfully Manfred and Fiji have
enough charm between them to
paper over the cracks.
Midnight, Texas also boasts
some pleasing effects work, decent
fights and... well, did we mention
the talking cat? Okay, so it’s not up
to True Blood’s sophistication, but
it’s not trying to be; consider it
the diet version, like Coke Zero
compared to Coca-Cola. It’s still
tasty, but you never forget you’re
not drinking the real thing.
Extras Just over 10 minutes
of deleted scenes (none of them
startling) and a mildly amusing
gag reel. Jayne Nelson
Manfred Bernardo first appeared in 2006’s
Grave Surprise, the second of Charlaine
Harris’s Harper Connelly Mysteries.

Root vegetables
can just be so
hard to chop.
THE CLOVERFIELD
PARADOX
Accelerated development
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2018 | SVOD
Director Julius Onah
Cast Gugu Mbatha-Raw, David
Oyelowo, Daniel Brühl, John Ortiz
NETFLIX All of a sudden, we’re
starting to wonder if Paramount
will ever release a full-on sci-fi
movie into UK cinemas again.
First came the news that Jeff
VanderMeer adaptation
Annihilation would be debuting in
Blighty on Netflix. Then the third
Cloverfield movie dropped out of
nowhere. So: innovative
“disruption” of the distribution
model? Or just a guaranteed way
of recovering the investment on
films they’ve lost confidence in?
With Earth teetering on the
brink of global conflict as energy
reserves near exhaustion, the
international crew of a space
station strives to solve the crisis
using a particle accelerator (quite
why this needs to be tested in orbit
is never adequately addressed).
Unfortunately, when they do
succeed in activating the device, it
rips open the membrane of space/
time, transporting them to an
alternate dimension.
From here on in, anything is
apparently possible, whether it be
earthworms exploding from a
human body or a disembodied
arm writing a helpful message for
the crew… though mostly what it
delivers is a payload of baffling
logic and space-survival clichés.
HAPPY DEATH DAY
Groundhog Slay
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2017 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD/download
Director Christopher B Landon
Cast Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard,
Ruby Modine, Rachel Matthews
This tongue-in-cheek slasher
in the vein of Scream shamelessly
riffs on Groundhog Day – and has
the decency to acknowledge as
much (eventually).
Jessica Rothe is likeably
disreputable as Tree (Teresa),
a mean girl with a knack for
putdowns (“Who takes their first
date to Subway? It’s not like you
have a foot-long...”) who’s stabbed
by a mystery killer in a creepy baby
mask... then wakes to repeat the
same day, over and over. Only by
solving her own murder can she
break the time loop.
The solution, once all the red
herrings have been discounted,
We’re just as
confused as
the characters.
While comedy is very deliberately
part of the mix (The IT Crowd’s
Chris O’Dowd, the standout
among the cast, supplies regular
chuckles), you’re just as likely to
find yourself guffawing in
disbelief. It’s all just a bit too silly.
If Paradox achieves one thing
quite successfully, it’s to finally
make the Cloverfield movies feel
like a proper franchise, chiefly by
isn’t exactly plausible given the
shallowness of the killer’s
motivation, but then that’s
generally true in movies like this.
Along the way director
Christopher B Landon and
original screenwriter Scott
Lobdell have goofy fun with the
premise, but inject enough
emotion to stop it feeling like
hollow hijinks. As Tree comes to
acknowledge that she’s “not a
good person” and turns over a new
leaf, it’s surprisingly moving.
Extras Skip the pointlessly brief
promo pieces (eight minutes) and
three extended scenes, but make
sure to watch the alternate ending.
Throwing in an additional blackly
humorous twist, it’s rather good,
but would have had audiences
howling in disbelief. Ian Berriman
Why a baby mask? The director explains
that he was expecting his son during prep,
and probably “had babies on the brain”.
presenting an explanation for the
giant monster from the first film.
But briefly visiting a location oddly
similar to one from the second
adds nothing. And ultimately the
movie’s clashing tones make for
a weird, ungainly hybrid that’s
neither fish nor fowl. Ian Berriman
Simon Pegg has an audio-only cameo.
He’s the first voice we hear: a radio news
reporter talking about the energy crisis.
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 101

HOME ENTERTAINMENT
RAY HARRYHAUSEN
Kraken stuff
RELEASED OUT NOW!
1953/1969/1981 | PG/U/12 | Blu-ray &
DVD (dual format)
Directors Eugène Lourié, Jim
O’Connolly, Desmond Davis
Cast Paul Hubschmid, James
Franciscus, Harry Hamlin, Judi Bowker
BLU-RAY DEBUT Spawning like
sword-wielding skeletons, three
more Ray Harryhausen classics
arrive in HD as HMV exclusives.
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms
( ) finds the stop-motion
magus in archetypal ’50s monster-
flick mode, all lurid title font,
A-bomb paranoia and city-
crushing climax. An atomic test
in the Arctic springs a prehistoric
creature from an ice shelf –
nature’s payback, clearly, for
those pesky scientists writing “the
first chapter of a new Genesis”.
102 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Get sci-fi news, reviews and features at gamesradar.com/sfx
It’s inspired by Ray Bradbury’s
“The Fog Horn” but misses the
strange melancholy of the original:
instead of a frustrated encounter
between a lovesick dinosaur and a
lonely lighthouse, it’s content to
deliver an aquatic retread of King
Kong, unleashing the beast on New
York. Harryhausen’s rampaging
Rhedosaurus is glorious, rearing
among the skyscrapers as
bazookas blast its scaly hide.
The Valley Of Gwangi ( ) awesome. Shuddering with gypsy
collides genres like a kid smashing
together the random contents of a
toy box. It’s dinosaurs meets
cowboys – a pitch that needs no
further justification. We’re
“somewhere south of the Rio
Grande” – in reality the Spanish
desert, which gives the movie the
naggingly inauthentic look of a
’60s Euro-Western – where a
“All right, mate,
got a light?”
Forbidden Valley holds Gwangi,
the Evil One, a ravenous purple
T-rex that roars defiance at the
very notion of extinction. James
Franciscus’s roguish chancer sets
out to capture Gwangi for his
travelling Wild West show; the
sequence where cowpokes
attempt to lasso the beast is still an
astonishing interplay of live and
animated elements, Harryhausen’s
craft at its most meticulous and
superstition, this is grand hokum
with a vicious edge (at one point
the circus curtain rises on Gwangi
chowing on a hapless dwarf ).
By the early ’80s Harryhausen
was in retreat, overtaken by Star
Wars and the new, computer-
assisted boom in effects-led
blockbusters. A last stand for this
one-man Artisanal Light and
Magic, Clash Of The Titans
( ) was a fine way to go,
returning to the wellspring of
Greek myth that powered 1963’s
Jason And The Argonauts. Yes,
there are concessions to the fact
this is George Lucas’s world now
– owl Bubo is R2-D2 by way of
Homer – but its best moments, like
Perseus stalking a legitimately
terrifying Medusa, prove the old
master’s magic was intact.
Extras Nothing new – it’s all
carried over from DVD releases.
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms
( ) pairs a Making Of (six
minutes) with “Harryhausen &
Bradbury: An Unfathomable
Friendship”, a 16-minute chat
between the two men. The Valley
Of Gwangi ( ) has “Return
To The Valley” (eight minutes),
another featurette. Clash Of The
Titans ( ) features a
12-minute conversation with
Harryhausen and a “map of myths
and monsters” comprising short
discussions of the characters (nine
minutes). Each release comes with
four artcards. Nick Setchfield
The dinosaur skeleton in The Beast From
20,000 Fathoms was a recycled prop from
1938 screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby.
BATMAN: GOTHAM
BY GASLIGHT
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2018 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD/VOD/
download
Director Sam Liu
Cast Bruce Greenwood, Jennifer
Carpenter, Scott Patterson
There’s something
malleable about the Batman
myth. Over the decades he’s
been incarnated as everything
from upstanding scoutmaster to
pseudo-psycho, sleek creature
of the night to camp icon. 1989
one-shot Gotham By Gaslight
gave him a Victorian spin.
This new DC animated
movie springboards from that,
preserving the essence of the
concept – Jack the Ripper stalks
an antique Gotham – but takes
liberties with the plot, one so
audacious that it mutates the
original tale into an essentially
new experience for anyone
familiar with the graphic novel.
The Ripper makes for a
wearily predictable choice of
villain. A Dickensian riff on
one of Batman’s classic rogues
would have felt fresher than the
boilerplate iconography of top
hat, surgeon’s bag and doomed
tarts. But there’s much to relish:
the texture of this world, all
mustard-coloured clouds and
amber gas-lamp shadows;
a whip-snapping, proto-
suffragette riff on Selina Kyle;
a deliciously pulpy battle on an
airship that nudges Batman into
the steampunk realm.
Extras Writer/director/
producer commentary; Making
Of (20 minutes); a sneak peek at
next DCU entry Suicide Squad:
Hell To Pay; two bonus episodes
of Batman: The Animated Series
and Batman: The Brave And The
Bold. Nick Setchfield

LAIR OF THE
WHITE WORM
RELEASED OUT NOW!
1988 | 18 | Blu-ray
BLU-RAY DEBUT Ken Russell’s
Bram Stoker adaptation is an
absurdist, ultra-camp spectacle
about a man-eating aristocrat
trying to raise a demonic snake.
Peter Capaldi and Hugh Grant
are charismatic, but it belongs
to Amanda Donohoe’s seductive
Lady Sylvia, emerging from a
wicker basket in thigh-high
boots. It’s daft, but its melange
of pagan and Catholic imagery
has a hallucinatory quality.
Extras Two commentaries;
effects doc; two interviews;
galleries; trailers. Will Salmon
Her teddy wasn’t
amused at being
used for a pillow.
THE GATE
RELEASED OUT NOW!
1987 | 15 | Blu-ray
BLU-RAY DEBUT Attention, all
Stranger Things fans! This is
just the sort of thing the Netflix
series pays homage to.
Stephen Dorff plays Glen,
one of two 12-year-olds who
open a portal to hell. Crimped
hair, backmasking and casual
use of homophobic epithets
make it an ’80s time capsule,
while likeable characters, pop
surrealism and solid stop-
motion effects (particularly the
creepy, foot-high demonic
minions) ensure it’s great fun.
Extras Three commentaries;
seven interviews; Making Of;
galleries; trailers. Ian Berriman
NAPPING PRINCESS
Snooze Of The World
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2017 | PG | Blu-ray/DVD
Director Kenji Kaniyama
Cast Mitsuki Takahata, Shinnosuke
Mitsushima, Yôsuke Eguchi,
Arata Furuta
Ancient magic gets a modern
makeover in this tale of a sleepy
schoolgirl and the fantasy land
she visits in her dreams. When
suburban teenager Kokone finds
out her father has gone missing,
she teams up with childhood
friend Morio to find him, though
the answers she seeks could be in
her sleep, where she becomes the
oppressed princess of a world
warring with giants and machines.
Whereas last year’s Your Name,
another anime which tackled two
separate storylines, explored
adult themes through a young
lens, Napping Princess just feels
THE HOLLY KANE
EXPERIMENT
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2017 | TBC | VOD
Psychologist Holly Kane
(Kirsty Averton) reckons she’s
developed a radical therapy for
altering subconscious thoughts.
But while she plans to use it for
therapeutic purposes, a creepy
government agency has other
ideas. Cue deceit, manipulation,
eerie whispering – and way too
many rape scenes. There’s
something in here about how
people in positions of power
(particularly men) abuse that
power, but it’s a bit too dreary.
Nice use of the Brighton
locations, though. Sarah Dobbs
overly kiddie – two of the main
characters are a talking teddy and
a kind motorcycle called Heart. It
also lacks any real menace, and
Kokone is far too capable and
confident a protagonist for you to
ever fear for her safety.
There are moments of wonder
to be found. The film is really a
testament to the power of a teen’s
imagination, and its replacement
of conventional fantasy objects
such as wands and crystals with
smart devices is a cute touch. But
the dialogue is weighed down with
exposition, the crossover between
the two storylines is confusing,
and we’ve already seen huge
robots fighting grotesque titans in
Studio Ghibli’s classic Nausicaa Of
The Valley Of The Wind.
Extras None. Kimberley Ballard
The team behind the film was so small, key
animator Motonobu Hori says they didn’t
have time to draw shadows on faces.
THE NIGHT OF
THE HUNTED
RELEASED 5 MARCH
1980 | 18 | Blu-ray
BLU-RAY DEBUT Somewhere
between nudie and New Wave,
this Jean Rollin film sees
Elysabeth (Brigitte Lahaie,
terrific) found in a lane with
apparent amnesia. Quickly
captured, she’s returned to a
tower block where similarly
afflicted people are left to rot.
Copious sex plays to Rollin’s
reputation as an exploitation
director, but his meditations on
memory are more intriguing,
and he evokes a disturbingly
empty Paris. A strange, sad film.
Extras Trailers. Will Salmon
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 103

HOME ENTERTAINMENT
JUPITER’S MOON
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2018 | 15 | DVD
Director Kornél Mundruczó
Cast Merab Ninidze, Zsombor
Jéger, György Cserhalmi, Péter
Haumann
Given the torrent of
superhero movies that are
currently raining down on us,
we’ve almost become numb to
the wonder of seeing people
bestowed with out-of-this-
world powers. But Jupiter’s
Moon isn’t telling a capes-and-
masks superhero story.
When Syrian refugee Aryan
is shot through the heart by a
trigger-happy cop on the
Hungarian border, only to find
himself resurrected with the
power of flight, nobody
references Superman. “Do you
believe in angels?” disgraced
doctor Stern (Merab Ninidze)
asks his girlfriend, after
witnessing the miracle. “Why is
the Bible full of angels and yet
we never see a single one?”
Visually, Jupiter’s Moon is
ravishing. The shots of Aryan
(Zsombor Jéger, looking like a
young Gael García Bernal)
floating into the air have a grace
and a magic to them that Zack
Snyder could only dream of. But
narratively it’s all a bit of a
jumble. Although early scenes
suggest a retelling of the
Superman story through a cool
arthouse lens, the film soon
appears to lose confidence in
itself, indulging in some
Bourne-esque thriller moves
that seem beneath it, given the
lofty ideas it began with. Still,
while Jupiter’s Moon may not
quite have the profundity it
thinks it has, it remains a
refreshingly unvarnished take
on a well-worn story.
Extras Trailer. Steve O’Brien
104 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Get sci-fi news, reviews and features at gamesradar.com/sfx
THE KILLING OF
A SACRED DEER
Altared reality
RELEASED 5 MARCH
2017 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD
Directors Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman,
Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy
The Lobster director Yorgos
Lanthimos’s latest opens with an
extreme close-up of a beating
heart, shot during bypass surgery.
It speaks volumes that this barely
scrapes into its top five most
bewildering moments.
It’s centred on a middle-class
family: cardiologist Steven (Colin
Farrell), his ophthalmologist wife
Anna (Nicole Kidman), and their
children Kim and Bob. When Bob
inexplicably loses the ability to
walk or eat, it emerges that a curse
has befallen the family, one that
could claim all their lives. And the
only way Steven can break it is by
making a terrible choice…
It’s the sort of ticking clock
high-concept you might find in a
Japanese horror film, but A Sacred
Deer feels far removed from that
genre. The tonal oddness is so
Colin Farrell was
alarmed that his
reflection looked
so blonde.
pronounced that you may find
yourself wondering whether this
story’s unfolding in an alternate
universe. There’s something of
Luis Buñuel or Chris Morris’s
Jam about the way Lanthimos
repeatedly treads on taboos,
daring you to chuckle darkly at
punchlines that may also elicit a
shiver. This is a world where lying
on the bed motionless, as if
anaesthetised, is a seduction
technique, and a child thinks
nothing of asking their little
brother, “Can I have your MP3
player when you’re dead?”
With its bathetic dialogue
(delivered with a curious lack of
affect), constant use of ominous
slow zooms, and shuddering
strings, it’s a film which proceeds
towards its desolate destination
with an eerie grace – and will
haunt your thoughts long after.
Extras A Making Of (23
minutes); a Q&A with the director
and four of the cast. Ian Berriman
We’re told Kim wrote a paper on Iphigenia
– who was sacrificed by her father,
Agamemnon, after he killed a sacred deer.
THE MIMIC
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2017 | 15 | DVD
Director Huh Jung
Cast Yum Jung-ah, Park Hyuk-
kwon, Shin Rin-ah, Bang Yu-seol
Director Huh Jung conjures
both monsters and melancholy
in this South Korean ghost story.
Min-ho’s elderly mother is
deteriorating, but he and his
wife Hee-yeon (A Tale Of Two
Sisters’ Yum Jung-ah) hope that
a trip home to rural Mt Jang
will lift her spirits – and
perhaps jog a few memories of
what happened to their young
son, who vanished five years
previously. But the town is a
strange place and something
nasty dwells inside the local
caves. When Hee-yeon brings
home a mute little girl (Shin
Rin-ah) found wandering in the
woods, she draws the attention
of a demon with the power to
copy loved ones’ voices.
The Mimic is at its most
effective in its explorations
of parental grief, a more
frightening beast than any
malevolent spirit. The scenes
between Hee-yeon and the girl
straddle the line between
touching and menacing,
with Shin Rin-ah giving a
wonderfully eerie performance.
Where it falls down slightly
is in the climactic shift into
full-on horror. The folkloric
threat is well realised with
subtle use of CGI, but an
explanatory flashback detracts
from the earlier ambiguity. Still,
while it’s not quite the match of
fellow South Korean horror The
Wailing, with which it shares a
few clear similarities, it’s still
beautifully shot, spooky and
occasionally has moments
where it’s powerfully moving.
Extras None. Will Salmon
 THE EVENT FOR THE CG COMMUNITY

CHRIS NICHOLS SCOTT ROSS ADAM DEWHIRST SÉBASTIEN DEGUY

VERTEXCONF.COM
13 MARCH 2018 OLYMPIA LONDON TICKETS ON SALE NOW
TOP TALKS WORKSHOPS PORTFOLIO REVIEWS ASK AN ARTIST RECRUITMENT NETWORKING

HOME ENTERTAINMENT
She regretted
agreeing to The
Jeremy Kyle Show.
GEOSTORM
Making heavy weather of it
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2017 | 12 | Blu-ray (3D/standard)/DVD
Director Dean Devlin
Cast Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess,
Abbie Cornish, Daniel Wu
What do Roland Emmerich
and Dean Devlin have against the
human race? Having taken great
pleasure trashing legendary
landmarks in Independence Day,
the director/producer duo
unleashed Godzilla, then a second
wave of murderous ETs in ID4
follow-up Resurgence. Even when
they’ve gone their separate ways
(notably with Emmerich’s The Day
After Tomorrow and 2012),
disasters loom so large on their
CVs it’s no surprise that Devlin’s
directorial debut scratches that
apocalyptic itch once again.
In a ridiculously high-concept
twist, the Armageddon-shaped
106 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Get sci-fi news, reviews and features at gamesradar.com/sfx
threat in Geostorm isn’t so much
climate change itself as the orbital
technology installed to counter
global warming. It’s gone rogue
and is triggering gargantuan
man-made storms that might just
spiral out of control to create the
eponymous world-flattening
maelstrom…
It’s an excuse to play out the
greatest hits of the disaster genre
on a massive scale: there’s a
colossal tsunami engulfing Dubai,
killer frost on the Copacabana, and
exploding gas mains in Hong Kong
making skyscrapers topple like
dominos. The filmmakers are
clearly having fun with the
carnage, but many of the
sequences have the flat, glossy feel
of not-quite-top-drawer CG, while
the fact that many of the people
running from certain death have
zero backstory makes it very
difficult to care.
THELMA
Undergrad the influence
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2017 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD
Director Joachim Trier
Cast Eili Harboe, Kaya Wilkins,
Henrik Rafaelsen, Ellen Dorrit Petersen
First there was Carrie. In its
wake came Jennifer and Patrick.
When a horror title puts you on
first-name terms with a character,
you should know what to expect...
Eili Harboe plays the protagonist
of this Norwegian film, a shy
student from a rural Christian
background who slowly emerges
from her shell – and out from
under the thumb of her controlling
parents – as a friendship with Anja
(Kaya Wilkins) blossoms into
something more. But after
suffering a series of frightening
fits, Thelma learns the truth about
her past, and the full extent of her
emerging abilities…
It was hard trying
to save the world
with just one arm.
The destruction also plays
second fiddle to a conspiracy tale
that’s even more implausible than
the weather. If the heroes (Gerard
Butler as a space-based scientist
and Jim Sturgess as his politician
brother) had the chemistry and
sense of humour of Jeff Goldblum
and Will Smith in Independence
Day, this could have been a lot of
fun. They don’t – and it isn’t.
Melding supernatural thriller
and romance to weave an allegory
for coming to terms with your true
self, it’s an understated film, heavy
with languorous slow zooms and
high-angle shots which dwarf its
heroine in the frame. It portrays its
central relationship with touching
sweetness. And it retains your
sympathy for Thelma’s parents
even as they take extreme
measures, encouraging a
see-both-sides approach. Add a
weirdly erotic dream sequence
and a dash of surreal geographical
dislocation and you have an artful,
sensitive take on material which is,
at heart, pure pulp.
Extras Short interviews with the
director/star (15 minutes); brief
behind-the-scenes glimpses (six
minutes); trailers. Ian Berriman
As a teenager, director Joachim Trier was
an expert skateboarder – he won Norway’s
national championship, twice!
Extras Three slick-but-shallow
featurettes (totalling 16 minutes)
discuss the effects, the genesis of
the story and the cast – without a
single mention of the extensive
reshoots directed by Danny
Cannon due to Devlin being
unavailable. Richard Edwards
Devlin’s inspiration was his daughter
saying, “Why can’t we build a machine
that fixes that [climate change]?”

PRINCESS ARETE
RELEASED OUT NOW!
2001 | PG | Blu-ray/DVD
Director Sunao Katabuchi
Cast Houko Kuwashima, Tsuyoshi
Koyama, Minami Takayama,
Yûsuke Numata
Princess Arete is a beautiful
tangle: a Japanese animation set
in medieval Europe, not Japan,
that was dubbed in French but
never English. Released in
2001, it was overshadowed by
Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away,
and while it’s easy to see why
– Princess Arete feels cosily
old-fashioned in comparison
– there is a lovely story here.
Informed by the sort of
narratives so often found in
books of fairytales, it follows a
young princess who is locked
away while her father chooses
a worthy suitor for her. Soon,
Arete is married off to a cruel,
corrupt wizard who imprisons
her in his castle the moment
she arrives, frightened by a
prophecy that foretells his
death at her hands.
Arete is a worthy heroine for
young women – unimpressed
with her suitors, she spends the
first part of the film planning to
escape her father’s tight grasp.
There is a beautiful moment
later on, too, where Arete
breaks free of the subservient
spell her new husband has cast
on her, remembering the
headstrong, brave girl that she
once was. As the spell falls
apart in a puff of smoke, our
hearts swell for her.
It may be too slow and
reflective for some children,
but it’s still a wonderful film for
girls who aspire to be more
than pretty princesses.
Extras Nothing on the disc –
though the Blu-ray has four
artcards. Kimberley Ballard
NIGHT OF
THE LIVING DEAD
Ghouls On Film
RELEASED OUT NOW!
1968 | 15 | Blu-ray
Director George Romero
Cast Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea,
Marilyn Eastman, Karl Hardman
The black guy didn’t always
die first. At the height of the civil
rights struggle, George Romero
cast an African-American as the
resourceful hero of his feature
debut. At the same time, he
birthed a new genre, overwriting
the voodoo-controlled zombie
with the flesh-eating variety.
Made by Romero and colleagues
at commercial filmmakers Latent
Image, it’s rough around the edges
– the director later bemoaned his
ignorance of basic film grammar
– but still effective, due to snappy
editing and a downbeat tone.
Hugely influential, rarely bettered.
Extras There was already an
adequate Blu-ray, but the Criterion
Collection’s restoration warrants a
double-dip. Carried over from
previous releases are two
commentaries, excerpts of an
She’d made
a mess of the
chocolate
pudding.
audio interview with star Duane
Jones, another cast interview, and
trailers. Night Of Anubis, a
previously unseen work-print edit,
is less exciting than it sounds: only
the title card and one alternate
shot differ. The highlight is 18
minutes of silent dailies, including
sights like the crew blowing
cigarette smoke into shot to show
the aftermath of a gun being fired.
Four featurettes see Frank
Darabont and Guillermo del Toro
pay tribute (24 minutes); co-writer
John Russo talking Latent Image
(12 minutes); the score’s library
music discussed (11 minutes); and
locals cast as zombies interviewed
(13 minutes). Plus: a perceptive
video essay (12 minutes), excerpts
from a 1979 chat show (18
minutes), and a 2012 screening
Q&A (45 minutes). The latter,
which sees the late director on
candid, good-humoured form, will
give Deadheads a twinge of loss.
We miss you, George. Ian Berriman
Some of the library music used on the
score featured in Teenagers From Outer
Space and The Killer Shrews (both 1959).
ROUND UP
ATTACK ON TITAN
SEASON TWO (out now,
Blu-ray/DVD) is a splendid
12-episode continuation of
the anime series where
humanity is besieged by
grotesque flesh-eating
giants. Despite some
clumsy storytelling, it
boasts gripping set-
pieces and complex new
characters (mostly female)
who threaten to usurp the
established leads. “Be
careful what you wish for”
is the takeaway from 1997
horror WISHMASTER (out
now, Blu-ray). When a
demonic djinn is
reawakened in the modern
day, he sets about
harvesting souls by
granting people’s wishes
in a tricksy manner. Fans
of trash will enjoy gory
moments like a skeleton
bursting out of a guy’s
skin, and appearances by
horror icons Robert
Englund, Tony Todd and
Kane Hodder. Also getting
a first HD release: the 1990
film of THE HANDMAID’S
TALE (out now, Blu-ray/
DVD), starring Natasha
Richardson as Offred, the
woman forced into the
role of baby-breeder in a
dystopian USA. Faye
Dunaway is amusingly
villainous as complicit wife
Serena Joy, but in the
absence of narration,
Offred comes across as
strangely passive, and the
action-based ending fails
to convince. The latest
edition of Jim Henson’s
1982 puppet fantasy THE
DARK CRYSTAL (5 March,
Blu-ray/DVD) has a new
10-minute featurette with
insights from Toby Froud
(son of creature designers
Brian and Wendy Froud)
and Henson’s daughter
Lisa, and comes with a
30-page booklet. It’s also
available in 4K for the first
time. Finally, a mention for
BBC supernatural drama
REQUIEM, coming to DVD
on 12 March – check out
our review on p122.
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 107

THE TANGLED
LANDS
A prickly situation
RELEASED 8 MARCH
Available now in ebook
297 pages | Hardback/ebook
Authors Paolo Bacigalupi,
Tobias S Buckell
Publisher Head Of Zeus
Books with more than one
author can sometimes feel a little
strange. Is one creating characters
and the other crafting the prose?
Is one author “carrying” the other,
in a celebrity/ghostwriter pairing?
Here, the split is simple: there are
four sections to this novel, and
parts one and three are written by
Paolo Bacigalupi, parts two and
four by Tobias Buckell.
The Tangled Lands is a history
of the city of Khaim. Filled with
refugees from Alacan, dreaming of
the lost grandeur of Jhandpara,
Khaim is a city under siege, but
not from soldiers or conquerors
– instead, by the deadly bramble.
A virulent weed, bramble spreads
like wildfire, is deadly to the touch,
near-impossible to cut back, and is
both created and encouraged by
humans’ use of magic. Laws
108 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Get sci-fi news, reviews and features at gamesradar.com/sfx
BOOKS
against magic have been passed,
but when a child is ill, or a
business about to fold, people are
weak – and more bramble grows.
The different sections tell the
tales of four individuals and their
impacts on Khaim. The first, “The
Alchemist”, is the story of Jeoz,
who creates a weapon that can
drive back the bramble – but sees
it subverted into a way to detect
users of magic, manipulated by the
Mayor and Majister Scacz, the one
person in the city allowed to wield
spells. This is the most plot-driven
of the four segments, setting up
the political machinations of Scacz
and the terrors of a city where
transgressions are punished by
bloody beheadings.
Second instalment “The
Executioness” tells the story of
It’s a world
of imperfect,
believable
people
one Khaim woman who sees her
family killed and her sons
kidnapped by raiders. Taking up
her father’s axe, Tana sets off to
rescue her children, becoming
part of a larger movement of
vengeful women along the way.
“The Children Of Khaim” is of a
smaller scale, following refugees
Mop and his sister Rain, who were
once, before Alacan succumbed to
thorns, children of wealth and
privilege, but are now eking out a
living in the streets, risking the
scratch of bramble for a few
coppers as they help to cut it back
at the edges of the city. Finally,
part four, “The Blacksmith’s
Daughter”, delves into the politics
and abuses of power within the
city, as a poor family attempts to
complete a job for a wealthy Duke.
This is a book of hope and
despair, men and women, power
and class, all centred on one very
exceptional city and its corrupt
rulers. Though the two writers do
a wonderful job of maintaining the
same style, creating a coherent,
rounded world peopled with
imperfect, believable characters,
the two sets of chapters have
distinct themes. Both of Buckell’s
stories – “The Executioness” and
“The Blacksmith’s Daughter” – tell
tales of downtrodden women who
rise up against adversity and fight
for their families, with varying
degrees of success. It’s an
interesting subversion of the story
cliché in which women’s pain is
used as motivation for the men
who love them, though the first
(following a more traditional quest
structure) works better.
Bacigalupi’s stories, meanwhile,
delve more into the minds of men
who were once wealthy but who
then lost everything. Bacigalupi is
known for stories of environmental
disaster, and this world, in which
people are harmed every day by
their use of magic, but still can’t
bring themselves to live without it,
has uneasy parallels with our own
addiction to polluting industries
in the face of climate change.
Although some of these tales are
more enthralling than others,
the whole is well worth the
investment. Rhian Drinkwater
The first two parts were originally released
via Audible, before being put into print as
novellas and then expanded here.
THE SMOKE
RELEASED OUT NOW!
298 pages | Paperback/ebook
Author Simon Ings
Publisher Gollancz
With its title redolent of
smoggy streets and its setting
on an alternate Earth where
“the bloody farrago of the
world’s Great War” was Berlin
being nuked in 1916, Simon
Ings’s new novel borrows freely
from the toolkits of steampunk
and alternate history. But there,
most comparisons with
contemporary genre fiction
end. In truth, Ings doesn’t seem
much interested in SF&F as, to
use a hoary phrase, a literature
of ideas. Rather, he co-opts its
weirdness to explore identity,
regret and loss.
For The Smoke, this means
imagining humanity splitting
into distinct species, none of
whom truly understand each
other. Whether intended as a
metaphor for Brexit or not, it’s
difficult not to think of recent
events as Ings first shows us a
gritty Yorkshire where factories
manufacture spaceship parts –
and where our protagonist
cannot stay because it grinds
him down – with a London
where the cosmopolitan,
and rather smug, “Bund”
increasingly hold sway.
That’s not to say this seems
like an overtly political novel.
Rather, it has the unsettling
quality of a Kafka story, or even
a kind of slipstream first cousin
to the similarly Kafkaesque
magical realism of Kazuo
Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled.
Holding it all together, as with
Ings’s Wolves, is the way The
Smoke is a love story, albeit one
without an easy resolution. A
strange and strangely lovely
novel. Jonathan Wright
A HERO BORN
RELEASED OUT NOW!
400 pages | Paperback/ebook
Author Jin Yong
Publisher MacLehose Press
Inevitably, Jin Yong gets
described as “the Chinese
Tolkien”. Both The Lord Of The
Rings and his series Legends Of
The Condor Heroes saw
publication in the ’50s, both
authors drew on much older
literary forms, and both had a
huge impact on popular culture.
However, if you’re expecting
high fantasy, A Hero Born
won’t be what you’re looking
for. This is wuxia, Chinese
martial arts literature.
It’s set in what’s now China
in 1200AD. The Jin Empire is
slowly conquering the Song
Empire, seeking the aid of
Temujin – Genghis Khan – and
his Mongol warriors. Against
this sweeping backdrop runs a
story of two good men killed,
their pregnant wives separated,
and their two sons raised
separately, fated to meet one
day to take part in a test of
martial arts. In classic wuxia
fashion the fantastic element
doesn’t take the form of
outright supernatural beings,
but in the martial artists who
teach and test the boys. Their
skills are way beyond what’s
humanly possible, their fights
impressive and balletic.
Because of the scope of the
narrative, both in terms of time
scale and geography, and the
sheer number of characters, it’s
the unreal action and clever
plot twists that captivate rather
than the emotions that engage
you, and that sets it apart from
modern genre fiction.
Nonetheless, it’s enjoyable:
you’ll be rooting for the heroes
to the end. Miriam McDonald
DREAMS MUST
EXPLAIN THEMSELVES
A Wizard Of Essayists
RELEASED OUT NOW!
400 pages | Paperback/ebook
Author Ursula K Le Guin
Publisher Gollancz
The outpouring of tributes to
the late Ursula K Le Guin has been
a testament to how widely she was
respected and loved. This book of
essays, most new to print in the
UK, is a chance to find out why.
In 2014, Le Guin declared that
our need for fantasy, with its
capacity to imagine “alternatives
to how we live now”, had never
been greater. Her interest in
fantastic alternatives features in
the collection’s earliest essays. In
“From Elfland To Poughkeepsie”
(1973), she argues that fantasy is
centrally about unfamiliarity: by
presenting us with new worlds,
genre fiction upsets assumptions
and lets us dream differently.
Showcases
her love for
reading and
language
Le Guin’s most enduring
contribution to imaginative
destabilisation was The Left Hand
Of Darkness, with its thought-
experiment planet where sexual
dimorphism is temporary and
variable. “Is Gender Necessary?
Redux” sees several Le Guins in
dialogue about the book: novelist
(1969), essayist (1976) and
footnoter (1988). It’s a fascinating
lesson in an author’s evolution.
Imagination is also valued for
itself. In “Why Are Americans
Afraid Of Dragons?” (1974) and
“The Critics, The Monsters, And
The Fantasists” (2003), Le Guin
dismisses the idea that reading fun
stuff is something to grow out of.
Other pieces showcase her love of
reading (from Twain to Tolkien),
language (both its grammatical
and social dimensions) and
performance (the live version of
“Off the Page: Loud Cows” saw Le
Guin mooing at her audience…).
The selection could have been
leaner. Nonetheless, it’s a perfect
way to remember Le Guin: like
her, it’s forthright, nuanced and –
above all – wise. Nic Clarke
A documentary about Le Guin is finally
nearing completion after 10 years in the
making! See http://worldsofukl.com
THE CITY
OF BRASS
RELEASED 8 MARCH
544 pages | Hardback/ebook
Author SA Chakraborty
Publisher HarperVoyager
It’s probably too soon to
call it a trend, but it’s been a
refreshing change in the genre
landscape, lately, to see more
stories set in the Middle East.
The likes of Saladin Ahmed and
G Willow Wilson are now
joined by SA Chakraborty,
whose highly engaging debut
novel blends legend and history
to create a fascinating world
we’d be more than happy to
spend a trilogy in.
In the streets of Cairo at
the turn of the 19th century,
orphaned thief and would-be
healer Nahri gets more than she
bargained for when she dabbles
in a spot of exorcism. With
demons on her tail and a
really annoying but really
attractive djinni by her side,
she’s soon legging it (well,
magic-carpeting it) to the
magical brass-walled city
of Daevabad.
Yes, she has a destiny. Yes,
there’s a love triangle in the
offing. And yes, in places the
book’s first-novel enthusiasm
for its own world-building gets
the better of it; there’s some
supernatural being backstory
overload, and Daevabad feels a
touch more constructed than
lived in. But it’s all thoroughly
enjoyable, and Chakraborty –
retelling Arab/Persian rivalry
and other core themes of
Islamic history in wonderfully
clever ways – brings real
nuance to both her characters’
motives, and her invented
society’s tensions.
Nic Clarke
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 109

AUTONOMOUS
Live to work
RELEASED 15 MARCH
320 pages | Paperback/ebook
Author Annalee Newitz
Publisher Orbit
Free will – what it is, whether
we have it, what its limits are – has
been debated since the dawn of
time. It’s a topic Autonomous
tackles head-on, and from
multiple angles.
In the 22nd century,
corporations have replaced nation
states, the US model of pay-to-play
healthcare has gone global, and
property ownership – of goods,
ideas and people – is everything.
With employment a literal
life-or-death issue, there’s a huge
market (both legal and illegal) for
productivity drugs. Creating a
patent-breaking copy of the hot
new drug in town, Zacuity, rogue
biologist Jack Chen discovers its
deadly side effect. Designed to
give users a high from doing their
jobs, Zacuity in fact leaves many
addicted – unable to eat, sleep, or
do anything except file that next
report. Keen to suppress the bad
publicity, Zacuity’s makers decide
to terminate Jack with extreme
prejudice.
What sets Autonomous apart
from your standard on-the-run
thriller are the smaller stories
110 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Get sci-fi news, reviews and features at gamesradar.com/sfx
BOOKS
THE FEED
RELEASED OUT NOW!
352 pages | Hardback/ebook/
audiobook
Author Nick Clark Windo
Publisher Headline
If you enjoy post-
apocalyptic fiction and tutting
passive aggressively when your
friends whip out their phones
at the pub, you’re precisely the
target demographic of Nick
Clark Windo’s debut.
The Feed is a sort of
super-charged futuristic
extrapolation of social media.
around this plot, which Six years after its catastrophic
thoughtfully explore the impact of collapse killed millions,
this world’s rampant capitalism on survivors who had come to
free will. There’s Threezed, sold depend on the service for
into indenture (ie slavery) at an quasi-telepathic
early age, and with little choice but communication and memory
to use his body in exchange for storage face a struggle to
Jack’s protection – even as Jack survive, lacking the necessary
tells herself that the relationship is skill sets. What’s more, they
“real”. There’s the robot Paladin, must watch one another while
whose programming causes it to they sleep, in case they’re
“love” its human master Eliasz so mysteriously taken over. When
much that it accepts a gender Tom and Kate’s daughter is
change, simply because Eliasz abducted, it looks like a basic
can’t handle the idea he might quest narrative is in store. But
fancy a male robot, but also can’t about halfway in, a twist throws
escape the chemistry of his everything in the air.
emotions. Paladin’s side of the The way the book reiterates
story imagines, brilliantly, artificial the same points can frustrate; at
intelligence from the inside, but it times the author seems to
also examines fascinating suspect the reader may be
questions of personhood and checking their retweets rather
agency as the bot is finally allowed than paying attention.
to make (some) decisions for itself. Certainly, you’ll guess the big
Given the strictures of reveal about The Taken long
programming, biology, social before it arrives, and may
conditioning, and economic conclude that it doesn’t make
necessity, to what extent can sense. But the book’s post-
anyone – robot or human – ever be apocalyptic landscape is
truly autonomous? The thoughts evocatively sketched, and the
provoked by this powerful debut breathless passages simulating
will linger long after the final page. the rush-inducing flow of The
Nic Clarke Feed are effective and eerily
plausible. Here’s hoping Mark
Newitz says making the characters
likeable was the hard bit. “In the first draft,
Zuckerberg doesn’t get his
pretty much every person was a jerk!” hands on a copy… Ian Berriman
BULLET TIME
A BOOK IN
BULLET POINTS
TALES OF INDIA
RELEASED OUT NOW!
168 pages | Hardback/
ebook
Authors Various
Publisher Chronicle Books
This handsome
illustrated hardback
selects folktales from the
Indian regions of Bengal,
Punjab and Tamil Nedu.
There are 16 in total,
ranging from three to 15
pages in length. A ribbon
marker helps you to keep
your place.
These tales of shape-
shifting witches, ghosts
and talking animals were
collected by folklorists
in the late 19th/early
20th century, in collections
that are now in the
public domain.
Like the stories the
Brothers Grimm collected,
they’re surprisingly
gruesome at times:
“The Son Of Seven
Mothers”, for example,
features a necklace made
of eyeballs, and mothers
eating their babies!
The main draw is the
full-colour illustrations
(one for each story) by
Goan artists Svahbu Kohli
and Viplov Singh. Slightly
cartoonish, they’re
hugely charming.

MAX AND THE
MILLIONS
RELEASED 1 MARCH
272 pages | Paperback/ebook
Author Ross Montgomery
Publisher Faber & Faber
There’s a delightful whiff of
Monty Python about this very,
very silly little book, which is
aimed squarely at children who
like the idea of plucky young
schoolkids thwarting beastly
headmasters or, if they’re of
a more fantastical bent,
miniature kings riding around
on domesticated fleas. Well,
we did say it was silly.
The hero, Max, is a hearing
aid-wearing outcast at a
boarding school who discovers
a tiny world on the floor of a
teacher’s room: a world divided
into three tribes (Red, Blue and
Green) and full of bickering,
teeny-tiny folks he must save
from evil headmaster Mr Pitt.
Ross Montgomery’s writing is
often pure Douglas Adams – he
can be very funny – and making
the lead character deaf is a
lovely, inclusive touch which is
handled skilfully. However, the
book is slightly let down by its
needless sidelining of female
characters – three male leads in
a kids’ book is rather pitiful,
particularly when one is a king
who could just as easily have
been a queen. Why wasn’t he?
Otherwise we just get a little
sister who spends most of the
book being perceived as a
nuisance, and a feisty barmaid
who’s paper thin. It’s a boys’
club all round, otherwise, and
that’s a shame.
Still, despite this, Max And
The Millions is jolly good fun
and should get sprogs staring
at the carpet, imagining
minuscule worlds. Jayne Nelson
THE
IMMORTALISTS
RELEASED 8 MARCH
416 pages | Hardback/ebook
Author Chloe Benjamin
Publisher Tinder Press
How would you live your
life if you knew the date of your
death? That’s the dilemma
facing the four children of New
York Jewish family the Golds,
who learn their expiry dates
from a Romany woman in 1969.
The book then details the lives of
each sibling, from Simon (who
dies first) to Varya (who dies
last) over the next half century,
as Chloe Benjamin explores
whether this arcane knowledge
shapes their life choices.
The fantasy elements pretty
much end with the opening
prediction (later possibly
supernatural events can be
explained away). But that
prediction powers the story, as
the siblings choose very
different paths. Simon decides
that if he’s going to die young
he may as well live fast (he
moves to San Francisco in the
’80s… you can guess the rest).
Varya, who’s destined for a long
life, goes into a holding pattern.
The central conceit is
certainly appealing and it’s an
engaging tale, but hardly the
most thought-provoking or
surprising. Aside from a
controversial parallel between
one sibling’s monopoly on
misery and the alleged Jewish
persecution complex, the book
has a largely lightweight take
on religion, sexuality and
morality. There’s also an
over-reliance on melodramatic
twists to bring things to a head.
Enjoyable fluff, then, but we
doubt you’ll be dying to get to
the end. Dave Golder
THE GEEK’S GUIDE
TO SF CINEMA
RELEASED OUT NOW!
272 pages | Paperback/ebook
Author Ryan Lambie
Publisher Robinson
The Geek’s Guide To SF
Cinema is a slightly misleading
title. Far from being super
in-depth and nerdy, this slim
volume is very much targeted at
the newer fan, or someone
looking for a way into science
fiction cinema. The 30 films
studied here are classics that
most will have seen at some
point – Godzilla, 2001, Alien,
Star Wars, of course – which
gives it a fairly broad appeal.
Each chapter looks at a
specific film, before briefly
examining movies related to a
relevant theme. The Terminator
2 section, for instance, also
covers films about the perils
of rampant technology, while
Independence Day is
accompanied by an essay on
disaster movies. It’s a smart
way of telling a coherent,
chronological narrative while
also showing the web of
influences that connect, say,
Aliens and Slither.
That said, the last film
examined in any real depth is
Nolan’s Inception, released in
2010. That’s a shame. The last
decade has seen a resurgence of
populist SF flicks – Her, Ex
Machina, Under The Skin and
Arrival, to name just a few, that
the book only briefly touches
upon. It’s also light on quotes
and first-hand accounts from
the people involved in making
the films. The result is an
engaging, if slightly shallow,
guide to the first century and
a bit of SF cinema.
Will Salmon
ALSO OUT
We rather liked Thomas
Sweterlitsch’s future-noir
debut Tomorrow And
Tomorrow, calling him
“a master of mood”. His
latest, THE GONE WORLD
(out now, Headline), sees
an investigator looking
into the murder of a Navy
SEAL’s family by travelling
forward in time, and there
witnessing the end of
humanity. Neal
Shusterman’s latest YA
book, SCYTHE (out now,
Walker Books), is set in a
world where disease, war
and crime have been
eliminated, so the only
way to die is to be killed
by professional “Scythes”.
Meanwhile, Jen Williams’s
epic fantasy trilogy The
Winnowing Flame hits
second instalment THE
BITTER TWINS (8 March,
Headline). Our reviewer
loved volume one, The
Ninth Rain – especially its
eccentric scholar/vineyard
owner/adventurer heroine.
Also ongoing: RJ Barker’s
The Wounded Kingdom
series. Book two, BLOOD
OF ASSASSINS (out now,
Orbit), continues the
adventures of apprentice
assassin Girton Club-foot,
who finds himself trying to
uncover a plot to murder
an old friend. Turning to
tie-ins, fans of Michael
Burnham and co can learn
more about the real
Gabriel Lorca in STAR
TREK: DISCOVERY –
DRASTIC MEASURES (out
now, Pocket Books). Set a
decade before the Battle
at the Binary Stars, it sees
Lorca and Georgiou
hunting for Kodos the
Executioner – later
encountered by Kirk in
“The Conscience Of The
King”. Also imminent: a
hardback novelisation of
STAR WARS: THE LAST
JEDI (8 March,
Century). Described
as an “Expanded
Edition”, it
includes scenes
from alternate
versions of
the script.
But don’t get
your hopes
up for a
proper
explanation of
who the hell
Snoke was.
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 111

REISSUES
Leading the
charge when
it comes to
this month’s
paperback
editions is
Neil Gaiman’s
NORSE
MYTHOLOGY ( ,
8 March, WW Norton &
Company). It includes 15
stories of Thor, Loki, Odin
and co, organised in a
chronological cycle,
recounted with a lightness
of touch and humour. We
said: “The ancient tales are
very much retold, not
reinterpreted... Although
marketed at adults, it’s
suitable for all ages – a
confident 10-year-old
could handle it.” What
would it be like to wake up
in a skyscraper built on
what was once Manhattan
Island, and look out at an
intertidal world of boats
and canals? Kim Stanley
Robinson’s NEW YORK
2140
( ,8
March, Orbit)
shows us by
focusing on
the residents
of a single
skyscraper in
a mid-21st century future
transformed by global
warming. We said:
“It sometimes has a
pedagogic quality… but
there’s a leanness to the
prose that keeps the plot
moving forwards, and
Robinson handles
set-pieces such as a
hurricane hitting
downtown with aplomb.”
Finally, Jeff VanderMeer’s
BORNE
( ,8
March, Fourth
Estate) is set
after botched
biotechnology
experiments,
resulting in
a cartoon menagerie of
monsters, weapons and
drugs. The titular Borne is
a piece of sentient biotech
resembling a man-sized
vase crossed with a squid,
and the main threat is a
gigantic, genetically-
engineered flying bear!
We said: “A spooky, funny,
beautifully written novel,
with moments of
impeccably rendered
wonder and horror.”
112 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Get sci-fi news, reviews and features at gamesradar.com/sfx
BOOKS
THE BELLES
RELEASED OUT NOW!
434 pages | Paperback/ebook
Author Dhonielle Clayton
Publisher Orion Books
Fashion and make-up are
– and have always been – big
business. Though often seen as
female-focused, the desire, and
pressure, to perfect our bodies
is near-universal. But even the
most beauty-obsessed of our
societies has nothing on the
world of Orléans…
Its people are born “ugly”
– grey skin, red eyes, dry hair –
all except for one select group
of women, the Belles. But the
Belles aren’t just beautiful
themselves: they have the
power to change the
appearance of others, altering
skin tone, hairstyle, body shape
and more to literally – and
painfully – sculpt people’s
bodies into “better”, more
appealing shapes and colours.
Camellia is a new Belle,
working with the upper classes
of society and setting new
trends. But there’s more to this
world of beauty and power than
she ever expected, and secrets
are around every corner.
Inspired by overheard
conversations as men talked
about all the things they’d
change about their girlfriends’
bodies, this is a gripping and
powerful read, packed with
palace intrigue and monstrous
implications. Although one
particular personality borders
on pantomime evil, the
characters are for the most part
complex and nuanced, with
conflicting loyalties and desires.
The Belles’ weakness is its
ending, as the book finishes
with far too little resolution, but
at least you’ll be hungry for the
sequel... Rhian Drinkwater
DOCTOR WHO:
THE MISSY
CHRONICLES
RELEASED OUT NOW!
224 pages | Hardback/ebook
Authors Various
Publisher BBC Books
The moment that Missy
revealed herself to be the
Master was a proper show-
stopper, and her time on-screen
felt oh-too-short. This six-story
collection gives more insights
into her lifetime, from shortly
after regeneration to the events
of the most recent series finale.
James Goss’s playful story
“Dismemberment” sees Missy
visit her former members’ club,
where her femaleness doesn’t go
down well. As to what happens
next... the clue’s in the title.
A fun adventure with echoes
of Narnia and E Nesbit, Paul
Magrs’s “Teddy Sparkles Must
Die!” sees Missy take on a
governess role to influence
children who go on to powerful
positions. There’s also a
reality-altering teddy bear!
“Girl Power!” by Jacqueline
Rayner is the highlight, as the
imprisoned Missy tries to
organise powerful women
throughout history to rise up
against men and battle the
patriarchy. It’s wonderful fun,
and her feminist commentary is
worth the cost of the book alone.
It can be difficult to make
stories work emotionally when
the protagonist is evil (who
exactly are you rooting for?), so
the fun tales are best – though
reminders that, entertaining as
Missy is, she’s also vicious and
without conscience do work
well. It’s an enjoyable collection
that’ll make you feel her loss all
the more. Rhian Drinkwater
DRACULA:
RISE OF THE BEAST
RELEASED 13 MARCH
308 pages | Paperback/ebook
Editor David Thomas Moore
Publisher Abaddon Books
Letters, diaries, journals
and inventories are some of the
sources used to build this
five-part, century-spanning
story of the changing fortunes
of Dracula and his kind. Five
authors take on the task; hailing
from different parts of Europe
and America, each has a distinct
voice, with some weaving in
snippets of non-English
language and dialect.
It’s a technique that makes
the reader work harder, but it
also adds authenticity and a
folkloric quality to a novel
attempting to build a wider
mythology extending right up
to the present day. It also brings
in familiar faces – both real and
fabled – like Elizabeth Bathory
and Baba Yaga.
Framed via emails sent from
Jonathan Holmwood, great
grandson of Mina Harker, to the
mysterious Dani Vaduva, it’s
ambitious and packed with
Easter eggs for fans of Bram
Stoker. Although Vlad’s blood
runs throughout, the most
interesting chapters widen
their scope to focus on subjects
such as Romany traditions, the
women’s movement and
transgender issues.
Impressive, occasionally
academic and not always that
easy to follow (you might find,
by the end, that you need to go
back to the beginning and work
out exactly who everyone was),
it’s a solid expansion of Stoker’s
myth which will leave you
Wiki-ing more about it.
Penny Archer
 ON SALE NOW!

Available at WHSmith, myfavouritemagazines.co.uk

or simply search for ‘T3’ in your device’s App Store

SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE!

www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/T3
First
Read
AN EXTRACT FROM
A NEW BOOK
EMBERS
From BSFA Award-winning author Gareth L Powell comes the first in a
new epic sci-fi trilogy exploring the legacies of war.
The sentient warship
Trouble Dog hurtles
through higher-space
to rescue the
distressed ship Geest
Van Amsterdam,
whilst ruminating on
its new role in the
House of
Reclamation.
W
hen we were far enough from
the planet’s gravity well, I began
to oscillate, skimming the
membrane of the universe like a
pebble flicked across the clear
waters of a tropical bay. I could
feel the faint touch of raw
starlight on my hull, and hear the tortured
howls of the solar wind. I heard the faint
overspill of comms chatter from other ships in
nearby systems, the echoes of their signals cast
across the intervening light years by the
peculiar physics of higher-space. Some of these
ships were from the Human Generality, some
from the other races of the Multiplicity. My
hull rippled in response to each of those distant
data bursts as – now free from the drag of the
atmosphere – my sensor suites stretched
outwards to glean more intelligence, and
long-disabled weapons systems swung into
place, impotently tracking potential threats.
114 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
The Author
I was designed to annihilate.
Before I was decommissioned, I
House of Reclamation, with my
talents intact but my usefulness
carried an arsenal with the
potential to ruin worlds and
as a killing machine at an end, I
had become instead a means to
incinerate hostile armadas.
When I later grew a conscience
save lives.
It was almost enough.
and became a ship of the House
of Reclamation, I was permitted
As far as I could tell, human
beings were only really capable
to retain a range of defensive
weaponry – ECM missile
of thinking about two or three
different things at once, half a
screens, chaff launchers,
point-defence cannons – but the
dozen at most. My attention
swathed the entire structure of
inability to kill, to inflict terrible
and decisive damage, itched like
Gareth Powell is
the author of five
the ship, encompassing and
supervising the functionality of
a severed limb. My combat
reflexes were hardwired. They
science fiction novels
and two short story
power circuits, plasma chambers,
navigation systems, backup
collections. His third
couldn’t have been removed
without fundamentally altering
novel, Ack-Ack
Macaque, book one
generators, cryogenic fuel
containment systems, long and
what or who I was – and I had
not been about to agree to that.
in the Macaque
Trilogy, was the
short range sensor packages, and
the other million or so
Instead, I found a way to put my winner of the 2013 components essential to my
skill set to good use. Flying BSFA novel award. continued operation. I also
He lives in Bristol, UK.
search and rescue for the House Find him on Twitter monitored the human quarters.
of Reclamation, I needed to be @garethlpowell. I watched my inhabitants grieve
fast, sharp and fearless. I needed for their lost comrade and
every scrap of guile and tactical searched my own feelings for a
experience I had gleaned in the navy. To corresponding reaction. However, I struggled
effectively perform my duties, I had to be to locate anything more acute than passing
willing to enter dangerous environments and regret. George Walker had served as a member
situations that had already wrecked at least one of my crew for many years, but I wasn’t built to
other ship; and, if that ship and its crew had mourn. I could be concerned about the welfare
been lost to piracy or enemy action, I had to be of my inhabitants, but not crippled by their
prepared to defend myself. For these reasons,
decommissioned military vessels like me were
particularly suited to service in the House of
Reclamation. Instead of belonging to individual Before I was
governments or corporations, we now served
the whole of the Human Generality, and our decommissioned, I
duties brought us challenge, risk and the
occasional chance to engage with hostile craft carried an arsenal
– although without being able to bring to bear
the bite we could once have inflicted. with the potential
As a heavy cruiser, I had been an instrument
of hard diplomacy and destruction; in the to ruin worlds
 SPONSORED
EMBERS OF WAR

OF WAR
passing. I had lost personnel before. Their
ghosts walked the empty corridors of my
barrack decks. During active service, I had
been home to three hundred and seven men
A tingle in my ventral and dorsal antennae
informed me that, during the last oscillation,
fully three-quarters of my mass had dipped
into the howling void of higher-space. The time
by
Gareth L
Powell

The jump alarm echoed through the rooms

and corridors of the crew’s accommodations.
In the infirmary, Alva Clay checked the
survivors were securely strapped to their beds,
and women of the Conglomeration Fleet. Now, had come to make the full transition. Captain and then fastened herself into the nearest chair.
with the loss of the medic, my remaining Konstanz was at her station on the bridge, so I In the cramped, ill-lit and complicated depths
complement (not counting the two survivors signalled my readiness and she assented to the of the engineering decks, Nod curled into a
from the Hobo) consisted of immersion. makeshift nest of plastic tubing and copper
Captain Sally wire.
Konstanz, Rescue They all knew this would be
Specialist Alva Clay, rough.
and the engineer, Nod. I could jump further and run
Three people rattling faster than most civilian vessels,
around a ship but even I was going to struggle
designed to hold a with the effort required to reach
hundred times that Camrose Station within the time
number. frame demanded. I wouldn’t have
Konstanz and Clay time to finesse the transition
were fairly ordinary between normal space and the
humans, although they hypervoid. Instead of a graceful
hailed from different leap, I would have to crash through
cultures within the like a breaching whale.
Generality, and Clay “Five seconds,” I announced over
still carried a number the internal speakers. The captain
of augmentations left clung to the arms of her chair. Her
over from her days as a knuckles paled.
marine. Nod, on the “Four.”
other hand, was a Alva Clay kissed the ceramic
blue-skinned pendant that hung around her neck,
hermaphroditic Druff and muttered a prayer in the
from the planet language of her ancestors. Down
Lestipidese. below, the Druff whimpered in its
Short, solitary, nest.
cantankerous and “Three.”
apolitical, the Druff For a second, I pulled back from the
possessed a natural shimmering boundary between
aptitude for mechanical realities and gathered my energies like
and electrical a fish preparing to leap into sunlight.
engineering that placed “Two.”
them in high demand Non-essential systems and
across the Multiplicity, peripheral apps slowed as I redirected
and, in the last two power to the jump engines.
hundred years, few “One.”
ships – human or Zero.
otherwise – had flown
without numbering at To find out what happens next, pick up
least one member of the Embers Of War, out now from Titan
species among their Books (RRP £7.99). Ebooks also
crew. available. www.titanbooks.com

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 115


DOOMSDAY CLOCK
Botching the Watchmen
RELEASED OUT NOW!
Publisher DC Comics
Writer Geoff Johns
Artists Gary Frank, Brad Anderson
ISSUES 1-3 In theory, it’d be great
to review Doomsday Clock free of
its complicated history. This is a
sumptuous series that’s
undoubtedly a cut above many
recent event comics, offering
gorgeous art alongside a complex
storytelling approach, and under
normal circumstances that would
be enough. However, Doomsday
Clock is also a follow-up to
Watchmen, one of the most
influential graphic novels ever
published. It’s a book that
wouldn’t be happening if original
co-creator Alan Moore had any
say, and it’s the centrepiece that
116 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Get sci-fi news, reviews and features at gamesradar.com/sfx
DC’s current Rebirth saga has
led to. It’s an attempt to stitch
Watchmen’s characters into the
fabric of the DC Universe, and the
end result is a comic that’s both
beautifully produced and
conceptually broken.
The story picks up seven years
after the events of Watchmen, as
Adrian Veidt’s masterplan for
peace collapses and the world
faces nuclear holocaust. The only
person who can prevent this is
missing superhuman Dr
Manhattan, and when an
unconventional group of heroes
set out to find him, their quest
takes them across realities, to
the DC Universe.
Here, Manhattan has apparently
been manipulating history and
toying with the lives of various
superheroes… and it’s also here
Rorschach upstages
Batman as DC’s
most morose hero.
COMICS
that the problems of Doomsday
Clock really set in.
In terms of surface pleasures,
there’s lots to enjoy in these first
three issues. Geoff Johns will
never equal Moore as a writer, but
here he’s stepping up his game
with some ambitious and intricate
storytelling. The art from Gary
Frank is lush and detailed, largely
maintaining the same strict
nine-panel grid structure as
Watchmen, and often capturing
the same quality and character as
original artist Dave Gibbons.
Unfortunately, when you look at
what Doomsday Clock is trying to
accomplish, things start falling
apart. Johns is good at copying
Watchmen’s elaborate toolbox of
Johns steps
up his game
with intricate
storytelling
storytelling techniques, but
he’s rarely able to make them
meaningful. Instead, Doomsday
Clock feels like it’s shamelessly
leaning on Watchmen’s greatness
while applying traditional
superhero storytelling devices
– shocking returns, unexpected
resurrections – to a story that was
defined by its uncompromisingly
violent and finite nature (most
notably in a sequence from issue
three that “rewrites” one of
Watchmen’s key moments).
With nine issues still to go in the
series, there’s a slim chance that
this could all ultimately pay off,
but so far Doomsday Clock feels
too much like the latest phase in
DC’s plan to treat Watchmen as a
valuable corporate property and
squeeze it for all it’s worth.
Saxon Bullock
Issue three briefly features a comedian
who looks just like Stewart Lee, telling a
terrible light bulb joke.
MACH 1
THE JOHN PROBE
MISSION FILES
RELEASED 22 MARCH
Publisher Rebellion
Writers Various
Artists Jack Kirby, Wally Wood
COLLECTION British comics had
kleptomaniac tendencies in the
1970s, pickpocketing the latest
TV and movie fads. Rollerball
was reskinned as Action’s
Death Game 1999; Dirty Harry
rebranded as One-Eyed Jack.
Punkish upstart 2000 AD
was no exception when it came
to opportunistic thievery.
MACH 1 is a brazen heist, a riff
on the playground popularity of
The Six Million Dollar Man. The
strip trades the show’s bionic
augmentation for “compu-
puncture hyperpower”,
essentially a fantastical spin on
acupuncture. Needle-charged
British agent John Probe even
looks a little like Lee Majors.
High-concept steal aside, this
is energetic but trad fare for
’70s boys weeklies. “Not so
much a secret agent… more a
secret weapon!”, Probe is flung
across the globe, from Peking to
Munich to atlas-defying nations
like Irania and Turkostan. Some
missions have a muscly,
Professionals feel, pitting Probe
against terrorists; others lean
into the weird, marshalling
everything from Yeti to UFOs. A
revolving door of artists leaves
the strip without a consistent
identity but it’s never less than
kinetic, matching the breathless
junior pulp of the stories.
This collects the first half of
MACH 1’s adventures. Treat it
as a taster for the rest, which
deepened and darkened the
strip considerably. Nick Setchfield
PHOENIX
RESURRECTION:
THE RETURN OF
JEAN GREY
RELEASED OUT NOW!
Publisher Marvel Comics
Writer Matthew Rosenberg
Artists Leinil Yu, Carlos Pacheco,
Joe Bennett, Ramon Rosanas
ISSUES 1-5 Soon to play a
starring role in X-Men: Dark
Phoenix, the adult Jean Grey
has returned from the dead in
this weekly mini-series.
Writer Matthew Rosenberg
deftly juggles paying tribute to
the Children of the Atom’s rich,
convoluted history, and making
his tale accessible to new
readers. He contrasts the Merry
Mutants investigating bizarre
worldwide events that appear
linked to a malevolent cosmic
force with Jean leading a
tranquil existence in an afterlife
populated by deceased X-Men.
Despite reviving the former
Marvel Girl for the second time,
Rosenberg changes the
symbiotic relationship between
Jean and the Phoenix that’s
existed since 1980’s Dark
Phoenix Saga. He also has fun
with Jean’s confused reaction
when she meets the time-
displaced teenage version of
her former lover Scott
Summers (though Jean’s young
counterpart is wisely restricted
to an epilogue in her own solo
title, Jean Grey).
With no less than four
pencillers, Phoenix Resurrection
could have been a mess. But
between Leinil Yu’s kinetic
figurework and Carlos
Pacheco’s subtler lines, there’s a
solidity about their work that
holds it together. Stephen Jewell
AVENGERS:
NO SURRENDER
The Stolen Earth
RELEASED OUT NOW!
Publisher Marvel Comics
Writers Mark Waid, Jim Zub, Al Ewing
Artist Pepe Larraz
ISSUES 1-4 Marvel’s retro-themed
Legacy relaunch hasn’t exactly
gotten off to a rousing start, but
the House of Ideas is hoping to
reclaim momentum by melding
their three current Avengers titles
to create a weekly 16-issue saga.
The result is No Surrender, a tale
that kicks off with the Earth being
mysteriously hijacked from its
normal location in space. As all the
Avengers trapped on the planet
are forced to battle a wave of
natural disasters alongside a group
of hostile, game-playing aliens,
their one hope may be the return
of Voyager – a founding member
Narrative
beats barely
register
Just how much
property damage
are the Avengers
responsible for?
of the Avengers who was
previously wiped from history…
These first four issues are
packed with an abundance of
widescreen action, and the trio of
writers pull off a consistent tone
across the many plot threads with
their massive cast of characters.
They’re helped in this by energetic
visuals from Pepe Larraz (with
artists like Kim Jacinto and Paco
Medina due to take over later
issues), but although No Surrender
throws in plenty of twists, shocks
and melodrama, it ultimately falls
short thanks to its sheer excess.
With the story cranking
everything up to 11, there’s so
much going on that there’s barely
enough time for narrative beats to
fully register before the next
shocking cataclysm has hit. No
Surrender is daffy fun and a lively
action romp, but it remains to be
seen whether 12 more weeks of
this full-tilt pace will be thrilling
or simply exhausting. Saxon Bullock
The return from death of the Hulk (killed
in Civil War II by Hawkeye), will feature in
March’s second half of the series.
MAESTROS
RELEASED OUT NOW!
Publisher Image Comics
Writer Steve Skroce
Artists Steve Skroce, Dave Stewart
ISSUES 1-4 An old king dies, a
young prince takes his place.
It’s a story as old as time, but
Steve Skroce and Dave
Stewart’s new fantasy comic
subverts these ancient clichés,
to mixed effect.
The comic’s multiverse is
ruled over by the Maestro –
an all-powerful wizard king.
Except he’s dead, killed off
inauspiciously in the comic’s
first panel by the monstrous
Mardok. It falls to his son Will
to take over the family business
– but he’s on Earth, using his
powers to make money. When
Will finally accepts his magical
birthright and returns home, he
decides to reform things and
make the magical realms more
democratic, abolishing slavery
in the process. The forces of the
status quo won’t relinquish
their hold so easily, however...
Maestros both celebrates and
mocks the genre, making
pointed digs at the stock feudal
societies of many fantasy
worlds, while also tipping a
wink to the classics of the
genre. Unfortunately, there’s an
occasional blokey coarseness
that grates, and even with his
noble intentions, Will isn’t an
especially likeable lead. Despite
being regularly mortally
wounded and tortured, he still
comes across as smug.
Still, Stewart’s art looks
glorious, mining influences as
diverse as cosmic Steve Ditko,
world mythology and HP
Lovecraft, and there’s enough
invention and wit here to
suggest that Maestros may
mature with time. Will Salmon
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 117

MONSTER
HUNTER: WORLD
Do the monster mash
RELEASED OUT NOW!
Reviewed on PS4
Also on Xbox One, PC (in autumn)
VIDEOGAME Monster Hunter:
World sees Capcom bid to not only
deliver on the huge ambitions of
the Monster Hunter series, but
open it up to a new audience. And
hot damn, they’ve managed it.
Once again we’re in a world in
which humans are under constant
threat from the giant monsters
that share it. This time you’re off
to the New World, a continent
that’s partly unexplored, chasing
an Godzilla-sized beastie. They
migrate here each decade, and you
need to discover what draws them.
Don’t expect to be caught up in
some grand narrative – you won’t.
What you will get is an awesome
world to lose yourself in. The New
World is breathtaking, with lush
environments crawling with
118 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Get sci-fi news, reviews and features at gamesradar.com/sfx
wildlife both small and gigantic.
You’ll start in an impressive jungle
but soon you’ll be wandering
through rocky deserts, swamps
and more, all of which have their
own monsters and intricate
ecosystems, requiring new tactics.
Combat involves wielding
absurdly large weapons with real
heft. As you struggle to take down
a monster while it throws its
weight around, it’s completely
engrossing. Each encounter feels
like a battle for the ages. Once
you’ve slain your foe you’ll gather
resources from it and use them to
build weapons and armour. That’s
the loop that makes the game so
compelling: hunt and upgrade.
While that loop’s pretty simple,
what’s involved in each part is
incredibly complex. There are
traps to research and build,
ingredients to gather for
potions, and loads of weapons
combinations. Monsters can flee
GAMES & STUFF
when in danger, and some are too
tough to take head on. So you’ll
come to rely on a variety of traps,
bombs and projectiles. Even the
environment can be an aid.
World offers robust co-op for up
to four players. Sorting out a
hunting party transforms the
game, turning it from an action
RPG to something almost akin to
a tactical squad game. Everything
great about it’s improved by the
presence of other players.
But it’s the pace that keeps it
compelling, fluctuating between
moments of exploration and
intense battles. That juxtaposition
means it never loses its magic.
A behemoth of production
values, clever design and
imagination, World is truly special.
Grab a few friends and enjoy one
of 2018’s best games. Sam Greer
The sound of the Rathalos’s flapping wings
was based on recordings of an umbrella
being opened and closed.
“Get out of here,
you hot head!”
DOCTOR WHO:
THE THING FROM
THE SEA
RELEASED 1 MARCH
77 minutes | CD/download
Publisher BBC Audio
AUDIOBOOK The expanded
Doctor Who universe is
brimming with new
companions, and in Paul
Magrs’s The Thing From The
Sea one of the more recent ones
gets to take centre stage.
Housekeeper Fenella
Wibbsey (Susan Jameson)
previously appeared alongside
Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor in
three series of full-cast BBC
audios, but here the character
leads proceedings as she
recounts a tale that sees the
Time Lord whisking her away
from his countryside home,
Nest Cottage, to 18th century
coastal Italy. Here they become
involved with a community
of mysteriously long-lived
villagers excited by the landing
of a miraculous serpent, a
Byronesque Count who wants
the sea creature for himself,
and the occult influence of
self-styled magician
Alessandro di Cagliostro.
These elements call to mind
the more swashbuckling Fourth
Doctor stories, and Magrs does
a fine job of creating a pastiche
that stays fresh, aided by
Jameson’s characterful and
enjoyable reading. Plot points
from previous Mrs Wibbsey
stories are thrown in to keep
fans happy, but they don’t get in
the way for new listeners.
Pleasantly diverting if not
groundbreaking, this is a sound
way to kick off a new run of
BBC audios; expect four more
later in the year. Dom Carter
SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS
Some Kind Of Wander Cull
RELEASED OUT NOW!
Reviewed on PS4
Publisher Sony
VIDEOGAME This remake of the
original Shadow Of The Colossus
(2006) – arguably one of the
greatest games of all time – tells
the story of Wander, who has
travelled to the secluded
Forbidden Lands with the aim of
bringing a young woman back to
life. Upon his arrival, a
disembodied voice in a shrine tells
him it can indeed raise the dead
– but only if he can slay 16 Colossi
that roam the land.
Each Colossus is a huge, unique
creature that is, in essence, an
outsized organic puzzle. You’ll
need to observe it to learn how to
climb it, gripping its fur to do so, to
get to where you can hit its weak
points. When one is defeated,
LOST SPHEAR
The Vanishing
RELEASED OUT NOW!
Reviewed on PS4
Also available on Switch, PC
Publisher Square Enix
VIDEOGAME We all lose things;
from keys to purses, objects are
always going missing. The
inhabitants of Lost Sphear’s
universe have more to fear than a
few misplaced doodads, however.
Their world suffers from a strange
affliction whereby items, people,
and even whole areas suddenly
disappear, leaving only an eerie
white mist in their wake.
Protagonist Kanata and co are
going to have to look a lot further
than down the back of the sofa for
this missing matter.
The phenomenon, rather
uninspiringly referred to as
“lost”, serves both the narrative
and gameplay of this traditional
you’ll be returned to the shrine at
the map’s centre, moving the story
along before you venture out
again. It risks repetition, but
thanks to the landscape the
journey to each Colossus feels as
important as the fight.
Japanese role-playing adventure
– Kanata has the ability to restore
what’s lost using the power
of memories. But while the
story provides its fair share of
mystery, interspersed with
elements of humour, this is by
That doesn’t look
foreboding at all.
The graphical overhaul is
extensive, giving a truly stunning
level of detail that makes this a
contender for the title of
best-looking game around. What’s
more important, though, is how
well it retains the art direction of
David vs Goliath
round two took
a rocky turn.
far the least interesting aspect of
Lost Sphear.
The lost aspect works much
better when it comes to gameplay,
serving to expand the game’s
mechanics in some inventive ways.
Areas are regularly blocked off,
A decade
on, none of
its magic has
diminished
the original. For all the new detail,
the game’s essence has remained
untouched. The makeover simply
achieves the effect of making
Shadow Of The Colossus feel brand
new, even for those intimately
familiar with it.
What impresses most is that a
decade on, absolutely none of its
magic has diminished. The game
still feels brand new and powerful,
and its tale still moves you deeply.
This makeover is incredible, but
it’s just a new lick of paint on
something that was already a
masterpiece. No game out there
reaches so high and actually
manages to achieve its lofty
ambitions. Sam Greer
Developer Bluepoint built every single
model for the update from scratch, to
make the most of new tech.
requiring specific memories to
restore things like doors and
bridges in order to move forward.
Monsters hold these memories,
and you usually need to clear
whole areas to progress.
Encounters with enemies use a
Chrono Trigger-like real-time-
meets-turn-based combat system.
It’s incredibly enjoyable.
Skills can be active abilities or
passive perks such as extra
damage or defence, effectively
catering to all playstyles. Lost
Sphear offers an authentic
old-school JRPG experience that
borrows aspects from classics
such as Chrono Trigger and
Final Fantasy, and weaves them
with a modern styling similar
to the studio’s previous title, I
Am Setsuna.
While the narrative doesn’t
provide the kind of gripping
plot that is present in the genre’s
greats, the superb battle system
makes up for those shortcomings.
Anne-Marie Coyle
London Underground’s lost property
department processed 332,077 items in
2016-17 – including 34,322 mobile phones.
APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 119

2 THE MONTH
COLLECTABLES
Things we’ve been playing with this month
1 The Dark Tower was
extremely disappointing,
but these collector’s action
figures of Roland Deschain and
the Man in Black (FPI price
£26.99 each; product codes H3127,
H3128) almost make up for it.
Roland comes with his legendary
guns and the mystic Horn of Eld,
though his pouty expression
makes it look like he’s about to
120 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Get sci-fi news, reviews and features at gamesradar.com/sfx
sashay down a catwalk. The Man
in Black also looks suitably shifty,
so expect to come home one day to
find the two figures fighting over
the fabric of the universe.
2 Presumably there’s
something in the Star Wars
cast’s contracts about the
use of their likeness on toys.
However, we’re not sure if Daisy
PRODUCT OF
Ridley will be getting a cut of the
sales of these Lego Brickheadz
The Last Jedi figures (FPI price
£9.99 each; product codes H5249,
H5250) seeing as this incarnation
of Rey looks nothing like her
– indeed, it only bears a passing
resemblance to homo sapiens as a
species. Kylo Ren fares slightly
better, thanks to his characteristic
hairdo and that famous facial scar.
COLLECTABLES
3 DC and Marvel go all
Wacky Races with these
Lego Mighty Micros (FPI
price £8.99 per set; product codes
H5259, H5260, H5261, H5262,
H5263). Each set pairs a hero and
a villain and puts them in their
own tiny, preposterously themed
vehicles; then presumably they, er,
have a race?! Each character
comes with a prop, ranging in
usefulness from Thor’s hammer,
Mjolnir, to Supergirl’s famous (?)
magnifying glass and Scarlet
Spider’s shovel – no, we’re not
making this up. A Batman/Harley
Quinn set is also available.
4 Ian Fleming may be
spinning in his gilt-edged
casket as his superspy gets
the Funko treatment in the James
 All products are available at

www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk
01621 877 222

THINGS
7 TO COME
More goodies on
their way soon

ETA
MAY

EXPECT TO PAY
£40
GLADIATOR
HULK BUST
5 Trump has busts of
luminaries in the Oval
Office, but wouldn’t it
be fun if someone
swapped one for this
polystone rendering of
a narked Hulk, in his
gladiator get-up from
Thor: Ragnarok? Come
on, he’d never notice.

ETA
JUNE

6 EXPECT TO PAY
£20/£40

Bond Pop! vinyl figure range
(FPI price £9.99 each; product
codes H5942, H5943, H5944,
H5945, H5946, H5947). Moore
strikes the gunbarrel pose from
The Spy Who Loved Me, while
steel-gobbed nemesis Jaws looms
Candy vinyl figure of Maleficent
(FPI price £10.99; product code
H4916) is a goddess of dark magic
and glamour, with perfectly
arched horns and brows. Sit her
next to your bed to ward off
mischievous fairies – but not too
quote on the reverse, such as
“Driver picks the music, shotgun
shuts his cakehole!” The colours
aren’t that attractive (especially
the bogey green), but you won’t
care after the fourth or fifth shot.
STRANGER
THINGS FIGURES
McFarlane Toys’
deluxe action figures of
Dustin, Lucas and the
Demogorgon stand an
impressive 18-25cm tall.
The latter, standing with
its mouth splayed open
in attack mode, is
definitely our favourite.
Yeesh, just look at it.
ETA

7
SEPTEMBER
menacingly in trademark braces. close to your face, as she may start Cover your cuppa and beer
Blofeld from You Only Live Twice to resent your beauty and hex you needs by buying both these EXPECT TO PAY

holds a ridiculously cute
SPECTRE-kitty and Shirley
Eaton’s Golden Girl almost
persuades you that you’re not
fetishising a corpse. Also available:
Sean Connery’s Bond and Oddjob,
into an eternal slumber.
6 After a hard day battling
demons it’s good to relax
with 10 or 20 tequila
slammers, so we’re sure the
Black Panther mugs (FPI £135
price £10.99/£24.99; product
codes H7021, H7020), from Half
Moon Bay. Keen to develop your
PRAETORIAN
GUARD STATUES
Japanese company
bicep? Then reach for the hefty Kotobukiya is behind
stein mug, featuring the Panther’s
Photography by Olly Curtis

this two-pack of “snap-

ready for a Goldfinger rematch.
5 The mistress of all evil has
been reduced to a small
size, but that doesn’t mean
she’s bowing down anytime soon.
This Sleeping Beauty Rock
Winchester brothers would
approve of this set of
Supernatural shot glasses (FPI
price £9.99; product code H6215).
There are four designs: an orange
Sam, a green Dean, a blue Castiel,
and a red Crowley. Each features a
emblem and Wakandan tribal
stylings. Prefer to swerve the
danger of wrist strain? Then stick
with the ceramic mug shaped like
T’Challa’s bonce. They can’t be put
in the dishwasher mind, so you’ll
have to get your Marigolds on.
fit” kits of Snoke’s
goons, standing 18.5cm
high. Features: three
heads, two arms, six
weapons, and zero
likelihood of ever
drawing a pension.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 121


SERIES 1
REQUIEM
Through a glass, darkly
UK Broadcast BBC One, finished
US Broadcast TBC
Episodes Reviewed 1.01-1.06
In a modern horror landscape
dominated, for the most part, by
cheap jump scares, BBC One’s
six-part supernatural drama
Requiem proudly stands apart.
Very much in the tradition of Don’t
Look Now and Rosemary’s Baby
(with the odd echo of the likes of
The Wicker Man) it’s admirably
concerned with understatement,
ambiguity and atmosphere.
Lydia Wilson impresses as
Matilda, a self-destructive cellist
whose world is rocked when her
122 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
mother suddenly, inexplicably,
slits her throat right in front of her.
Finding a box of cuttings on her
bed relating to the disappearance
of a four-year-old girl from a
Welsh village back in 1994,
Matilda heads to Penllynith to
investigate. She quickly concludes
that she is the missing Carys
Howell… and gradually, some of
the villagers come round to her
way of thinking.
This investigative throughline is
deeply satisfying, thanks in part to
the number of smaller mysteries
branching off it. Requiem is almost
Broadchurch-esque in the way that
the finger of suspicion seems to
“Mirror, mirror
on a rope,
who is looking
really dope?”
point at practically everyone at
some point. Though there are a
couple of clichéd horror tropes –
can we declare a moratorium on
bird strikes, please – the story’s
core supernatural lore, which
involves magical “black mirrors”,
feels fresh, despite the fact that it
stretches back to the 16th century.
It helps that it’s firmly tethered to
a plausible, workaday reality. The
unsoothable pain of losing a child
is at the heart of the piece, and
some of Matilda’s confrontations
with Carys’s mother Rose (Claire
Rushbrook, also excellent) are
deeply moving.
Director Mahalia Belo and her
cinematographer Chloë Thomson
both deserve to be showered with
critical bouquets. The principal
weapon in their armoury is the
slow, sloooooooow zoom.
Sometimes it’s a slow zoom in,
followed immediately by a slow
zoom out. Always, the effect is to
/ Subscribe at myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/sfx
ZOOM I N
LOCATION LOCATION
LOCATION
Dolgellau in Gwynedd
doubled for Penllynith. The
central country house is
Cefntilla House in Usk,
Monmouthshire. A Cardiff
café called Brod (above)
also featured.
BEST BIT
When Matilda tears off a
layer of wallpaper in a
bricked-up room, and we
realise what the otherworldly
voice talking of “a field of
yellow flowers” was on about.
FEATURED MUSIC
After landlord’s daughter
Trudy turns Matilda’s friend
Hal onto the joys of Billie
Holliday, he listens to her
recording of jazz standard
“Crazy He Calls Me”.
A REQUEST
The score is available to
download, but we’d like a
vinyl edition as well, please!
NITPICK
Why would a Welsh
newspaper use American
date order under its
masthead in 1994 (as in
March 27 1994)? This kind of
thing always annoys us…
 BEST IN SHOW
The characters who make TV great

The real star

make you feel – even if only on a
subconscious level – that the
image contains some hidden
significance to be decoded, some
detail waiting to be spotted. This is
very effective at helping to create
an air of unease – though just
occasionally, it’s taken to the point
where it becomes faintly comical.
In episode five, for example,
there’s a meaningful zoom into a
washing machine mid spin-cycle…
In episode four, meanwhile, the
camera lingers significantly upon a
bathroom pull-cord!
The sound design, with its
compendium of sinister screeches,
whispers and thumps, is even
more of a triumph – genuinely
unnerving. Watch with subtitles
turned on and you can expect
captions such as [INDISTINCT
ECHOING VOICE] and
[RASPING HOWL] to pop up with
amusing regularity. These are
layered beneath a stunningly
pretty, mournful score by Dominik
Scherrer and Bat For Lashes
singer Natasha Khan (we detect
echoes of Brummie band
Broadcast in the eerie opening
theme). At the very least, Requiem
of the show is
that powder-
blue coat.
It’s firmly
tethered to a
plausible
reality
deserves to bag multiple Baftas in
the craft categories.
It only lets itself down a little in
its final movement, as Matilda
reaches the end of the road. As
certain subplots are revealed to be
red herrings, one or two seem
particularly fishy. After all that
investigation, simply showing us
who’s responsible rather than
allowing our heroine to work it out
seems a questionable choice. And
the motivation of all concerned
seems sketchy. After five episodes
which grounded the fantastical in
kitchen sink drama, we’re left with
people apparently doing wicked
things simply because the story
demands it, for reasons that are at
best unclear. Even so, there’s no
denying the power of this artisanal
exercise in hauntological dread.
Ian Berriman
She was in
Doctor Who’s
“The Satan
Pit”, y’know.
SYLVIA TILLY
Star Trek: Discovery’s motor-mouthed
cadet is the show’s beating heart
UK Broadcast Netflix US Broadcast CBS All Access
It’s tough to stand out in
an ensemble as strong as
Discovery’s, but Mary
Wiseman has managed it as
the ship’s excitable ensign.
Early on, they laid it on a
bit thick with Tilly’s verbal
diarrhoea, to the point
where you would understand
if some viewers found it a
little irritating. But as the
season progressed we saw
another side to the character.
While Tilly’s childlike sense
of wonder is endearing (the
character was named after
co-showrunner Gretchen
Berg’s three-year-old niece),
it’s wedded to serious
capability and drive. Time
and time again, it was Tilly
who came up with the
solution to a pressing
problem (like how to save
Stamets). She’s as smart as
Wesley Crusher was… but
she’s a character you actually
want to spend time with!
Surprising though it was
to discover that her Mirror
Universe counterpart was
captain of the Discovery, it
makes sense, because if Tilly
channelled all that drive into
ruthlessly scaling the ladder,
she’d soon reach the top.
Play-acting “Captain Killy”,
she demonstrated previously
unguessed-at nerve – and a
gift for improvisation.
Thankfully, our Tilly has a
strong moral compass. You
can always rely on her to do
the right thing. She’s
prepared to give Michael
Burnham – a notorious
mutineer – a fair shake. And
when the crew shuns Ash
Tyler in the wake of Dr
Culber’s death, it’s Tilly who
turns the tide by sitting down
next to him in the mess hall.
And there’s still so much
about the character to
explore. We know very little
about what she likes doing in
her spare time (aside from
playing beer pong…). We
don’t know anything about
her family, or where she’s
from! We can’t wait to get to
know her better in season
two – and see what F-bombs
she’ll drop next. Ian Berriman

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 123


SEASON 1
THE GIFTED
Is it First Class or an Apocalypse?
UK Broadcast Fox, finished
US Broadcast Fox, finished
Episodes Reviewed 1.01-1.13
Given the convoluted and
often contradictory nature of the
on-screen X-Men universe(s), it’s
probably a good job that The Gifted
doesn’t try to fit in with any
pre-existing continuity. All we
need to know is that in this
alternative timeline, the X-Men
are AWOL, but have left behind a
small “Mutant Underground” to
protect mutant-kind from a
government hell-bent on
controlling them.
It’s a clever way to translate the
franchise to the small screen. The
X-Men are a presence without
being front-and-centre. Making
the focus (initially, at least) an
ordinary family who have to go on
124 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
the run when they learn their
children have mutant abilities is
new territory. And replacing
fan-fave giant killer robots the
Sentinels with a government
agency called Sentinel Services is a
neat (and comparatively cheap)
way of alluding to the source
material. (It’s the most obvious of
numerous comic book nods that
are satisfying for fans of the series
while being completely
unobtrusive for newbies.)
Beyond that, it’s by-the-
numbers stuff – if fellow spin-off
Legion was a freeform jazz riff on
an X-Men story, The Gifted plays
it so safe that it feels like a
throwback to US network TV of a
decade ago. You know the drill: the
mutants are ridiculously good-
looking (as if that’s a superpower
in itself ); they hang out in a
Their new living
quarters didn’t
have Wi-Fi.
dilapidated building that – while
shabby – has the fun social life of a
university hall of residence; there’s
a constant drone of intrusive
nondescript backing music; and
you can tell when a commercial
break is nearby because the
quantity of overly dramatic
pauses increases.
And yet, when season one
wraps up, you’re desperate to see
what happens next. Because
around the eighth episode The
Gifted suddenly realises it’s got a
story to tell, and doesn’t slow
down until the finale. Sentinel
Services up their game with
Hounds, mutants brainwashed
into infiltrating the Underground.
The mutant ancestry of the
Strucker family comes into play.
And crucially, the Hellfire Club
(brilliantly personified by the
Frost triplets Esme, Sophie and
Phoebe – aka the Stepford
Cuckoos in the comics) start a
Magneto-like play for the hearts
and minds of mutants, urging
them to take the fight to the
humans. An X-universe worthy of
its predecessors. Richard Edwards
/ Subscribe at myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/sfx
ZOOM I N
BEST EPISODE
By bringing a Hound into
the Mutant Underground,
introducing Esme Frost and
revealing the Struckers’
previously secret Hellfire
Club heritage, “threat of
eXtinction” (1.08) lifts
the season to a new level
that’s sustained to the finale.
TITLE TATTLE
Every episode has an X in
the title. Examples include
“eXposed”, “i got your siX”,
“boXed in” and “3 X 1”.
TRIVIA
In the comics, Blink is
named Clarice Ferguson, but
in both Days Of Future Past
and The Gifted she’s Clarice
Fong. There are also five
Frost sisters in the comics –
the missing pair are Irma
and Celeste.
MORE TRIVIA
Stephen Surjik, who
directed a couple of
episodes, also helmed
Wayne’s World 2. Excellent!
DID YOU SPOT?
The proprietor of the food
storage plant where the
Underground regroup in the
season finale is one J Kirby
– a nod to the X-Men’s
co-creator, Jack.
 Would you

LINE UP
follow Jessica
Jones to a new
platform?
The month’s most quotable dialogue

MARCUS
“I’ve been
everywhere there is
to go, tried every kind
of food, sex, music...
Nothing surprises
me any more.”
AMENADIEL
“Have you
tried Game
Of Thrones?”
Lucifer, 3.14

SHAWN
“‘Fair’ is the
stupidest word
humans ever WATCHING BRIEF
TV TALKING POINTS TACKLED
invented. Except
for ‘staycation’.”
The Good Place, 2.11
More and more streaming
MULDER
services may not
“Do you know who I
am? I’m Fox Mulder! I
be great for viewers
was fighting the power
and breaking conspiracies Richard Edwards Imagine this scenario. You’re currently
writes: spending around £16 a month (total) on your
before you saw your first Top US telly is now more subscriptions to Now TV and Netflix, giving
chemtrail, you punks. accessible (legally!) than you access to Star Trek: Discovery, Game Of
I’m Fox freakin’ Mulder, it’s ever been before. Thrones, the Arrowverse shows and more.
you punks!” Rather than having to Then Disney’s new service comes along, with
The X-Files, 11.04 commit to a lengthy the promise of an exclusive live-action Star
satellite or cable TV contract, online streaming Wars TV show. What if we then learned (and
means you can now have access to the vast this bit’s just wild speculation) that the
majority of top genre shows with a TV licence Marvel/Netflix likes of Jessica Jones were
and a (relatively cheap and easy-to-cancel) moving to the Disney service?
LORCA subscription to your choice of Netflix, Sky’s Even if, as Disney CEO Bob Iger has hinted,
“I was just thinking Now TV or Amazon – and you can watch them their new service is cheaper than Netflix,
when you want to, often within 24 hours of would you be prepared to subscribe to an extra
about everyone who their US broadcast. platform? Or would you chop and change
has ever said that But now that Disney and DC (there’ll every month, cancelling and renewing so you
victory felt empty when doubtless be more to follow) have announced have Netflix one month, Disney the next,
it was attained. What a plans to launch their own bespoke streaming Amazon the month after, then DC? What if
services in the US, I can’t help feeling that Game Of Thrones, Star Wars and Star Trek all
bunch of idiots we’ll never have it as good as we do right now. aired at the same time… You could spend as
they were.” Okay, I see the logic from the companies’ point long planning how to watch telly as you do
Star Trek: Discovery, 2.13 of view – why pay a middleman when you can actually watching it!
broadcast your “content” yourself? – but It looks like being a TV viewer is about to
ultimately I think it’ll be viewers who lose out. get a lot more complicated.

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 125


SEASON 1
HAPPY!
My Little Pony meets Kill Bill
UK Broadcast TBC
US Broadcast Syfy, finished
Episodes Reviewed 1.01-1.09
By thrusting a child’s cute
imaginary friend into a world of
ultraviolence, Happy! may be a
subtle metaphor for the death of
innocence. Or it may be a show for
people who used to love stabbing
their siblings’ soft toys with
kitchen knives in front of their
horrified faces.
Part gonzo, part grindhouse,
part Pixar, Happy! is based on a
comic by enfant terrible Grant
Morrison. Christopher Meloni
plays Nick Sax, the grizzled ex-cop
turned hitman forced into a
crimefighting partnership with his
daughter’s imaginary friend,
Happy, a small, flying unicorn with
irritatingly irrepressible optimism.
126 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018
Happy enlists Sax’s reluctant
help when his daughter is
kidnapped by a Very Bad Santa.
This kicks off a twisty-turny plot
involving mobsters, bent cops, a
creepy children’s entertainer, a
reality show about the wives of
gangsters, and resurrection. And a
host of other imaginary friends.
It’s easy to think of Happy! as a
successor to the cancelled Blood
Drive. It has a similar crazed
energy, warped humour and
designer violence. But Happy! is a
more nuanced show; which is,
admittedly, like saying The
Flintstones is more socially
relevant than Wacky Races. Happy!
tries to inject a more human story,
a bit of pathos and relationships
you care about. It also boasts a
phenomenal, bludgeoning
performance from Meloni,
He really should
have gone to
Specsavers.
visually inventive action and a host
of truly loathsome villains. Happy
himself is just adorable.
However, Sax and Happy are
such vibrant, scenery-chewing
characters that they can act like a
gravity well, sucking the life out
the scenes they’re not in; a plot
strand featuring Sax’s exes is
especially lifeless. The more
serious storylines often sit
uncomfortably alongside the gung-
ho hijinks, with crunching gear
changes between, say, scenes of
child abuse and Sax merrily
shooting hoodlums in the head.
Dubious moments aside, Happy!
is a quirky curio for lovers of
extravagore. For all the blood and
guts, though, it’s never as genuinely
disturbing as Sid in Toy Story, the
kid who performs Frankenstein
operations on his toys. Dave Golder
/ Subscribe at myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/sfx
ZOOM I N
BEST EPISODE
“The Scrapyard Of Childish
Things” (1.06), with its
imaginary friends support
group, evil three-headed dog
and the kids making an
escape attempt, is the show
at its bonkers best.
SPECIAL GUEST STAR
Raspberry, the evil,
three-headed dog, is voiced
by Billy West, better known
for providing the voices of
Fry, Farnsworth and Dr
Zoidberg in Futurama.
BEST ACTION-LITE
ACTION SCENE
“When Christmas Was
Christmas” (1.03) has a car
chase filmed entirely inside
the car Nick’s driving, and it
works beautifully – especially
the crash at the end.
TRIVIA
Happy was originally
voiced by Saturday Night
Live comedian Bobby
Moynihan in the pilot, before
being replaced by Agents Of
SHIELD’s Patton Oswalt.
BEST MOMENT
Happy interrogating Sock
(Very Bad Santa’s own
imaginary friend) to the
soundtrack of Stealers
Wheel’s “Stuck In The
Middle With You” in “I Am
The Future” (1.09).
 SPURIOUS A W A R D S
Celebrating the silliest and strangest moments from the month in TV

SIDE-EFFECT OF THE MONTH ARTISTIC DISCOVERY OF THE MONTH

Mulder’s use of anti-ageing cream backfires disastrously in The X-Files 11.04. Experts think they may have found the childhood home of Banksy in Requiem 1.04.

CRAP COSPLAY OF THE MONTH COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH FAKE GOODS OF THE MONTH
Holby A&E decides to upgrade its receptionist, but NHS Customers at LA’s Lux nightclub remain unconvinced by Fitz and Simmons realise that the lava lamps they bought
cuts lead to a botch job in Casualty 32.20. the owner’s new range of drinks (Lucifer 3.12) off eBay are cheap knock-offs. (Agents Of Shield 5.09)

NOVELTY PENCIL SHARPENER OF THE MONTH LIFE LESSON OF THE MONTH

2B or not 2B? Renko threatens to “fill someone full of lead” in Hard Sun 1.06. Never fart in a wetsuit after eating a chicken vindaloo, warns The Flash 4.11.

MUGSHOT OF THE MONTH GUEST STAR OF THE MONTH FOOD FIGHT OF THE MONTH
Kara and Winn pick the winner of the Worst Passport As if The Magicians wasn’t Narnia-influenced enough Pancake is a victim of assault and batter-y* in
Photo competition in Supergirl 3.11. already, Aslan gatecrashes a party in 3.01. Happy! 1.06. (* Sorry.)

APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 127

 Blastermind
The SFX quiz
THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE
TO THE GALAXY
Never mind the Ultimate Answer, we want 20 trivial ones!
Quizmaster Ian Berriman, Reviews Editor

QUESTION 1 QUESTION 4 QUESTION 8

Which part of the planet Earth did
Magrathean planet-builder
Slartibartfast win an award for his
work on?
QUESTION 2
Name the instrumental Eagles
track used (re-recorded) as the
theme tune for the radio series, the
TV show and the film?
QUESTION 3
What’s the name of the Restaurant
At The End Of The Universe?
QUESTION 4 PICTURE QUESTION
Name this unusual lifeform, vital
for inter-galactic communication.
QUESTION 5
Who co-wrote two episodes of the
first Hitchhiker’s radio series?
QUESTION 6
Which Hitchhiker’s character did QUESTION 12 QUESTION 16
Douglas Adams name after an
estate agent’s in Islington, after QUESTION 11 QUESTION 16 PICTURE QUESTION Marvin 20 Rich Tea
spotting one of their signs? A Hooloovoo is a super-intelligent Whose backside is this (featured Daleks” 19 Both were operators of
17 Random Dent 18 “Destiny Of The
shade of which colour? in episode two of the TV series)?
QUESTION 7
15 The Ashes 16 Douglas Adams

QUESTION 12 PICTURE QUESTION QUESTION 17

In So Long, And Thanks For All The
Fish, which band’s music does
Arthur Dent put on while he’s
seducing Fenchurch?
QUESTION 8 PICTURE QUESTION
Which Doctor Who star is hidden
under heavy prosthetics here in
the TV series?
QUESTION 9
Who directed the 2005 movie of
Hitchhiker’s?
QUESTION 10
In which Hitchhiker’s book did
Douglas Adams reuse elements of
a never-made Doctor Who
treatment of his story Doctor
Who And The Krikkitmen?
What’s the name of this character
from the movie?
QUESTION 13
What is the motto of the Sirius
Cybernetics Corporation
Complaints Division?
QUESTION 14
Which actor makes a cameo
appearance in the movie version,
as the holographic warning
announcement which is broadcast
from Magrathea?
QUESTION 15
Which famous Earth sporting
trophy is actually one fifth of the
Wikkit Key?
13 Share And Enjoy 14 Simon Jones
Everything 11 Blue 12 Humma Kavula
Jennings 10 Life, The Universe And
What is the unusual name of 7 Dire Straits 8 Peter Davison 9 Garth
Arthur Dent’s daughter? Fish 5 John Lloyd 6 Hotblack Desiato
Sorcerer” 3 Milliways 4 The Babel
QUESTION 18 1 Norway 2 “Journey Of The
Answers
Which Doctor Who story briefly
features a book written by Oolon
Colluphid, author of Well That How did you do?
About Wraps It Up For God? Which futuristic device are you?
QUESTION 19 0-5
Nutri-Matic machine
What do Warwick Davis and David 6-10
Learner have in common? Eddie
11-15
QUESTION 20 The Milliard Gargantubrain
In So Long, And Thanks For All The 16-19
Fish, Arthur tells Fenchurch Deep Thought
an anecdote about a stranger 20
apparently stealing his biscuits. The Earth
What type of biscuits were they?

/ Subscribe at myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/SFX APRIL 2018 | SFX MAGAZINE | 129

TotalRecall Personal recollections of cherished sci-fi

PETER WYNGARDE Nick Setchfield, Features Editor

T
he late Peter Wyngarde always suited the outlandish. A
carafe of vintage port in human form, he was a magnetic,
flamboyant presence who seemed to live his life between
inverted commas; too outsized to be contained by the
real world but utterly at home in the imaginary.
Certainly it’s his genre turns that made him an icon. In
The Avengers episode “A Touch Of Brimstone” he’s John
Cleverly Cartney, a bullwhip-snapping dandy who leads a resurrected
Hellfire Club. “Checkmate” in The Prisoner casts him as a memorably sly
Number Two, matching wits with Patrick McGoohan’s Number Six.
1980’s Flash Gordon hid his imperious, vulpine features behind the
glittering mask of Klytus, kinkster-in-chief of planet Mongo and master
of the royal bore worms. It was left to that majestically louche voice to
stamp Wyngarde’s brand of gently decaying decadence on the role. 1961’s
The Innocents gave him no voice at all, but his wordless ghost, gliding
like a kite on the edge of reality, is unforgettable.
Jason King made him a household name. Wyngarde first played the
foppish sleuth in Department S (1969-70) before winning his own, more
outrageous spin-off show in 1971. Dismissed by the star as a “blasé idiot”,
King was a colossus in crushed velvet who seemed to have Hai
Karate aftershave swilling in his veins, a genuine sex symbol who
now looks like a merciless parody (the Austin Powers films took
inspiration). Made obsolete by punk, naff as nylon in the ’80s, he
was reclaimed by ’90s ironists as the ultimate bossa nova action
hero. Wyngarde and his creation blurred, but then they always had
done: “Jason King has champagne and strawberries for breakfast, just as
I did myself.”
The finer details of his personal history were elusive (“I prefer to be a
man without a past”). Was he born Peter Paul Wyngarde, as he claimed,
or Cyril Goldbert? In Marseille? Or Singapore? Was his father a British
diplomat, his mother a racing driver, or were those the glamorous
longings of a natural shapeshifter who once admitted, “As a child it was
difficult to differentiate sometimes between fact and fantasy”?
No matter. Print the legend and live it too. As he said of Jason King,
“He was the right character at the right time. I guess he just brought
some colour into people’s lives.”
Nick is from an obscure body in the S-K system, your majesty.

Fact Attack! SEE YOU

Hellfire Club supremo Jason Wyngarde divulged that Apparently the sequel to For Wyngarde’s unearthly
NEXT MONTH!

Wyngarde in X-Men comics is
named for Jason King and
Peter Wyngarde. “Of course I
REX (1)
28 MAR
producer Dino De Laurentiis Flash Gordon would have seen appearance at the window in
told him it was Klytus who the resurrected Klytus ruling gothic horror The Innocents he
picked up Ming’s ring at the over the lost city of Atlantis, a was placed on rollerskates and

was flattered,” said the star. end of Flash Gordon. far more ghastly kingdom. given a gentle push.
DETAILS ON
PAGE 35

130 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2018

9000
9001