Spoiler Warning: Beware of spoilers for A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones.
Remember Game of Thrones? Well the series of novels that it was based on – George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire – remains conspicuously incomplete more than five years after the show finished its run. Recent comments by Martin – and his evident lack of progress on the next book in the series, The Winds of Winter – have left some fans of the books feeling quite worried and even angry. I thought we could get into that today and consider whether A Song of Ice and Fire will ever be complete – and if not, why not?
For context, here’s what George R R Martin had to say about writing The Winds of Winter in an interview in December 2024. In his own words: “That’s still a priority. A lot of people are already writing obituaries for me. ‘Oh, he’ll never be finished.’ Maybe they’re right. I don’t know. I’m alive right now! I seem pretty vital!”
Firstly, I think some people have seized on this idea of Martin “admitting” that he might never finish A Song of Ice and Fire based on that statement. But for me, there’s a world of difference between saying “maybe those people are right” and something like an admission of defeat. Martin is clearly still dedicating at least some of his time to The Winds of Winter, and in my view, headlines proclaiming that “George R R Martin says A Song of Ice and Fire might never be finished!!1!” are overstating things in a pretty clickbaity way.
But that isn’t all there is to say, obviously.
A Dance With Dragons, the most recent novel in the series, was published in 2011. For context, the television adaptation of Game of Thrones had only just finished airing its first season at the time of the book’s arrival in shops, and there was an expectation from fans, from broadcaster HBO, and everyone involved that The Winds of Winter would take at most three or four years – putting its publication in 2014 or 2015, in time for Game of Thrones’ fourth or fifth season. That did not happen!
A Dance With Dragons was published a few weeks after the first season of Game of Thrones aired.
Game of Thrones was not a totally faithful adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, and the show diverged from the books more and more as it went along. There are whole characters and storylines that are absent from the series, a couple of characters were amalgamated or changed entirely, and there were other alterations made as the story was adapted for a new format and a new audience. But Game of Thrones still followed the basic outline of Martin’s story, and showrunners David Benioff and D B Weiss have said on the record that Martin gave them an outline of where the story was headed and where most of the characters were supposed to end up.
It was this story treatment that formed the basis for Game of Thrones’ latter seasons once the material available in the books had been used up. And if you’re familiar with the timeline of criticism and reaction to Game of Thrones, you might notice something! Around the show’s fifth season, more and more fans started voicing concerns about the quality of the writing, and particularly the direction of character arcs and major storylines. When the show reached Season 7, this had escalated a lot, and by the time it ended its run a year later… a lot of people were disappointed, upset, and even downright angry at the direction the story ultimately took.
Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D B Weiss.
For George R R Martin, I can only imagine that this was pretty devastating. Martin continued to work on Game of Thrones for all eight seasons, being credited as an executive producer. He’d written the books upon which the show was based, and he’d given the writing team his story treatment or outline for where it was going to go after the show overtook his novels. And fans hated it. Game of Thrones went from being the most popular show of the decade to something that seemed to have pissed off basically its entire audience.
And then, as I’ve noted before, Game of Thrones disappeared. The show, which had been at the forefront of our collective cultural conversation for close to a decade, vanished almost without a trace. No one wanted to go back and re-watch it; the ending was so universally panned – for a wide range of reasons – that it tainted the entire series. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a television series collapse and lose its fanbase as quickly and as spectacularly as Game of Thrones did in 2019. And for George R R Martin, the man who created the world, the characters, and the story… that’s bound to sting.
George R R Martin with an ice blade prop on the set of Game of Thrones.
I’m not pretending to analyse George R R Martin’s mental state from thousands of miles away. But I know that, speaking for myself, if something I’d written or created had been received so universally poorly… I’d be pretty upset about that. It might even cause me to reevaluate what I’m working on. And because The Winds of Winter was unpublished at the time of Game of Thrones Season 8 and all of the backlash… part of me wonders if that’s exactly what George R R Martin has done.
More than five years ago, Martin claimed that he was “three-quarters” of the way to completing The Winds of Winter, but later seemed to suggest he was revising or re-working some of what he’d already written. Could that be in response to the backlash? And if so, how much of the story would he really be willing to change? If he was genuinely upset by what happened with Game of Thrones, he might almost have to start from scratch, re-doing entire character arcs and storylines to change the outcome.
Game of Thrones diverged significantly from the books. Image Credit: zippo514 on DeviantArt.
Beyond the end of A Dance With Dragons, it’s hard to say to what extent Game of Thrones may have continued to diverge from Martin’s original story. So he could reasonably make the case that the “book ending” is the true way the story was supposed to go, even if that wasn’t even close to the story treatment he gave to the Game of Thrones production team! I think we are gonna see significant differences if The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring are ever published – partially because the books were already on a different trajectory. But also, at least in part, because of the reaction to Game of Thrones.
Whenever this conversation crops up in fan communities online, it isn’t long before you’ll hear some variation of the following expression “well, George R R Martin doesn’t owe you a finished book!” And I gotta be honest with you: I find that to be an incredibly petty and asinine argument. Sure, technically there’s no binding legal contract. But Martin started writing a series of novels and hasn’t finished them; there’s an unsaid expectation on the part of readers and fans that the story will, one day, be complete. That doesn’t mean The Winds of Winter needs to be published next Thursday… but fans want – and reasonably expect – to see Martin continuing to work on it.
Are fans being too demanding?
And that brings me to the next issue: George R R Martin is, apparently, quite easily distracted. Since A Dance With Dragons in 2011, Martin has published ten books, worked on at least four potential and ongoing television shows, and even found time to contribute to the development of the video game Elden Ring. It’s great to be busy, and no one is really demanding that Martin lock himself away and do nothing except work on The Winds of Winter. But it does raise eyebrows when he’s clearly procrastinating and doing other stuff – especially when a lot of what he’s doing seems to be, to put it bluntly, pretty unimportant fluff.
Imagine if J R R Tolkien had published The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers… then spent the next fifteen years working on side-stories with titles like The Baggins Family Tree, Gandalf: The Man, The Myth, The Legend, or 101 Hilarious Quotes From Grima Wormtongue. As time wore on, fans would begin to wonder whether The Return of the King was even still being written, or whether Tolkien planned to publish it at all. That’s basically where we’re at with A Song of Ice and Fire, if you’ll forgive the rather crude analogy.
Imagine if Tolkien wrote a book about Gandalf’s backstory instead of Return of the King…
With his interviews, photoshoots, and public appearances, it’s clear that Martin likes being in the public eye; a “celebrity,” for want of a better word. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all – after a lifetime of toiling behind the scenes, it must be cathartic to have the level of recognition that the TV adaptation of Game of Thrones won him. But could his celebrity status and public image also be a contributing factor to his writing slowing down? It seems an odd coincidence that 2011 – the year Game of Thrones premiered – is the last time Martin published a book in the main series.
Martin strived for a long time to work in Hollywood, moving to California in the ’80s with the hope of working in film or television. And he’s finally able to do that now, thanks to the success of Game of Thrones. Perhaps the appeal of writing a complex multi-novel saga has diminished for him in light of belatedly achieving that career objective. It would certainly explain why Martin has spent so much time over the last decade-plus working on television pitches, serving as an executive producer, and even contributing to unrelated projects like Elden Ring.
George R R Martin found the time to work on the video game Elden Ring.
I think fans have every right to be upset with George R R Martin. He started writing a saga; his magnum opus. But for a variety of reasons, he now seems pretty uninterested in finishing it. Having built up an audience and seen huge numbers of people get invested in his characters and his world, to then spend years procrastinating and putting it on the back burner was always going to lead to a lot of people feeling disappointed.
I don’t want to be seen as “attacking” George R R Martin personally. He’s a great writer in many ways, and he’s created a world that will outlive him – something very few people can really say. But he also hasn’t been totally up-front and honest with his fans and readers since Game of Thrones premiered – and especially since it ended. While it’s totally understandable to think he’d feel upset or disappointed at the reaction audiences had to the show’s final season, there’s been a lot of time since then to re-work The Winds of Winter and make changes. But Martin still seems distracted by other projects.
The end of Game of Thrones upset a lot of viewers and fans.
I think my little Tolkien analogy above is an interesting one. But you could also make the same argument using any number of popular series and stories. Imagine if Lucasfilm took a fifteen-year break after The Empire Strikes Back, working on the prequel trilogy, the Clone Wars TV series, and other such things instead of getting to work on Return of the Jedi. Martin has left his fans on a cliffhanger for more than a decade – and part of that cliffhanger has already been spoiled for a lot of people by what was seen on screen in the final seasons of Game of Thrones.
Writer’s block is awful – trust me, I know! And it can’t be nice to feel an ever-growing amount of pressure from a fan community that’s clearly losing patience and losing trust. In some ways, that makes working on The Winds of Winter even harder, I expect. But Martin does himself no favours with his public appearances and by working on so many other projects, books, films, TV shows, and video games. He invites that criticism by those actions, unfortunately.
George R R Martin is under a lot of pressure to finish A Song of Ice and Fire.
My personal read on the situation is that Martin has been working to re-write either huge chunks of The Winds of Winter or possibly the entire book. In large part that’s because of the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the way Game of Thrones ended – an ending that will have contained at least some ideas and storylines that Martin intended to use in his remaining books. That’s why a book that was allegedly three-quarters of the way to being finished almost a decade ago is still unpublished in 2025.
But Martin is also enjoying his life in Hollywood and working in television, and his newfound fame and status basically gives him carte blanche to ignore deadlines and do what he wants, when he wants. No publisher or editor is able to make demands of him anymore or set deadlines – and that means he’s been freed up to write other things and dedicate his time to other pursuits. On an individual level, you can’t begrudge a seventy-six-year-old man for that!
But as a fan, I get where the dissatisfaction is coming from. I’m not getting any younger, and with my health issues, I don’t know for sure whether I’ll be around by the time The Winds of Winter is ready – let alone A Dream of Spring! If it takes another fifteen years to get that book ready, well… I’ll probably have checked out by then. I don’t think it’s wrong for fans to feel the way they feel and to ask questions about The Winds of Winter. I also think, to be realistic, fans of A Song of Ice and Fire should begin preparing for the eventuality of the saga never being completed.
At least Game of Thrones Season 8 told the final chapter of the story, right?!
I hope this wasn’t too depressing and didn’t come across as a personal attack. I’ve seen a lot of discussion of The Winds of Winter over the last few weeks since George R R Martin was quoted in that interview, and I wanted to share my two cents on why I think the book is taking so long. I hope he’s still working on it and I hope that, one day, A Song of Ice and Fire will be complete. But at this point… I wouldn’t bet on it.
A Song of Ice and Fire and all other books and novels mentioned above are the copyright of George R R Martin, HarperCollins, and/or Bantam Books. Game of Thrones is the copyright of HBO/HBO Entertainment. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
Spoiler Alert: There are spoilers ahead for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Seasons 1 and 2. Spoilers are also present for The Lord of the Rings novels/film trilogy and other works by J.R.R. Tolkien.
In 2022, I was one of the people who generally enjoyed The Rings of Power’s first season. I didn’t think it was perfect, and I wrote at the time that the series still had work to do to justify its ridiculously high budget. But a return to the world of Middle-earth – a fantasy realm I’ve adored since I first read The Hobbit as a geeky little kid back in the ’80s – was incredibly welcome. While there were some stumbling blocks in Season 1, there were enough positives for me to be excited to see where Season 2 might go.
Let’s clear something up: despite what you may have read in some online tabloid rags, The Rings of Power isn’t going to be cancelled. Amazon is committed to a five-season run – I believe that was actually one of the stipulations the corporation agreed to when dealing with the Tolkien Estate – and even though there has been some criticism of Season 2 (as there was with Season 1), The Rings of Power isn’t going away any time soon. I don’t believe that the argument “trust me, it gets good later on” is particularly convincing… but there are still, in my view, reasons to be positive as the series continues its run and its various storylines unfurl.
Behind-the-scenes during production on Season 2.
I’d like to start this review by talking about some of the dialogue in The Rings of Power’s second season. There seems to be an effort on the part of the show’s writers to use a deliberately archaic style of language – presumably as an attempt to emulate Tolkien’s writing style. Some of the choices of words, the order of words in sentences, and the length of some lines of dialogue all feel like they’re from the first half of the 20th Century… and that gives The Rings of Power an almost anachronistic feel at points. Surrounded by modern CGI and in full 4K, characters are speaking like they’re in a film or play from the 1920s or 1930s. Maybe there’s a bit of a disconnect there, and perhaps if I were to be critical I’d say that some of the writers may be leaning into this style a bit too much – at least for my taste.
Particularly with Elvish characters – Gil-Galad, Elrond, Galadriel, Celebrimbor, and others – there are a lot of rolled R sounds and other “accent” attempts, and again I feel this may have been overdone. I don’t remember these “Elvish accents” getting in the way so much in Season 1, but it’s possible I just overlooked it last time or it wasn’t as present. This time around, though, it was a bit too much; it felt rather like when you hear a native English speaker randomly use the Spanish or French pronunciation of a word in the middle of a sentence. It was distracting and offputting, and once I noticed it I found that I kept noticing it every time these characters would speak.
Galadriel with her ring, Nenya.
The Rings of Power is telling a complex set of intertwined stories focusing on different groups of characters. Care has to be taken to ensure that these stories don’t feel constructed and artificial… and for me, parts of Season 2 missed the mark. Several characters – Galadriel, Adar, and Sauron most notably – seemed to zip around the story at the behest of a team of TV writers rather than in ways that felt natural, and especially by the latter part of the season, this sense of an artifically-constructed narrative had begun to set in.
Partly this is because the abilities and motivations of these characters weren’t always made clear ahead of time. Sometimes it seemed as if a character was doing something “just because,” or had discovered a new ability, power, or desire out of thin air. The titular rings had an effect on a few characters, changing their motivations and actions (again to suit the plot), but that isn’t really what I mean. Those changes for Gil-Galad, Galadriel, and King Durin are built into the story; Adar’s decision to take his army north – and his ability to do so apparently unseen – didn’t really track, at least not for me.
Adar with his Uruk army.
That being said, Adar may be my favourite character in Season 2. His core desire to keep his people safe and free was understandable, even if the way in which he went about achieving that objective was questionable and seemed to move along at a far too rapid and convenient pace. Adar – whose actor was replaced in between Seasons 1 and 2 – isn’t played like a typical villain, and in a world where most of the heroes are paragons of virtue and the villains wicked and corrupt, those nuances made him – at least for me – one of the most interesting characters in the story.
Here’s something that confused me in Season 2. Maybe I’ve missed something, because lest we forget it’s been two full years since the first season of this show, but… don’t Orcs hate sunlight? Wasn’t a huge part of the plot of Season 1 that Adar and the Orcs wanted to trigger the eruption of Mount Doom so the sunlight would be blocked out and they could live happily? Isn’t that why they lived in tunnels and moved by moonlight?
Are Orcs okay with sunlight now?
The Rings of Power seems to have discarded this idea to fit the plot, with Orcs marching happily in the sun, fighting battles in the daylight, and making camp out in the open. Yet this was not only a fundamental building-block of the Orcs from Tolkien’s original work, but also a key part of what happened just a few episodes ago in Season 1. To make such an arbitrary change with no explanation and no apparent on-screen acknowledgement, even… I don’t know. I didn’t like it.
Although the show is a prequel, parts of The Rings of Power feel much more like the middle chapter of a story. Many characters reference unseen events, like the reign of Morgoth and an earlier conflict against Sauron, with some of these things becoming key narrative elements or character motivations. Celebrimbor, for instance, being driven to create a legacy that could rival the creations of Fëanor, is a huge part of how Sauron was able to manipulate him. But with so few flashbacks and so little background provided within the show itself, there were moments across all eight episodes where I felt I was watching a sequel without having seen the original. Many other stories play out this way, with the events we follow in the main narrative being influenced by things in the past, or with characters who have motivations linked to their backstories. But… to be blunt, a lot of those do a better job of explaining their backgrounds and characters. We didn’t need a full flashback episode to the First Age with young Sauron, young Celebrimbor, Morgoth, and so on. But we did need to get more context for some of these storylines as they unfolded, with more background provided to better explain what was going on. This was an element of the season that was lacking.
What is the Crown of Morgoth… and who is Morgoth, come to that?
Sauron’s plan this season was difficult to follow, convoluted, and seemingly counter-productive to his own goals in places. He simultaneously wanted to craft the Rings of Power in Eregion, skilfully manipulating Celebrimbor to this end. But he also wanted to seize control of Adar’s legions of Orcs – and the way in which he went about the latter threw the former into jeopardy from his perspective. I will caveat this by noting that Sauron did say, toward the end of the season, that he doesn’t know everything and can’t predict all outcomes… but even so. Both the ring-crafting and the siege of Eregion were by his design, and yet they worked almost completely at cross-purposes.
I have to be honest about this next point, and it is admittedly not the biggest because it concerns a single line of dialogue… but I hated hearing Celebrimbor call Sauron “Lord of the Rings.” It was just so on-the-nose and kitschy, and while I get the intention behind it and the twisted interpretation of those words, it really didn’t work for me and made me roll my eyes. It’s such a shame, too, as it came at the end of Celebrimbor’s otherwise excellent redemption arc.
Celebrimbor.
Sauron seemed to manipulate Celebrimbor with ease in the first part of the season, and I wasn’t wild about that. A bit more resistance from Celebrimbor, perhaps, or a more serious demonstration of Sauron’s power earlier might’ve eased that. But his storyline after regaining his senses went a long way to redeeming that side of the story, and I enjoyed seeing him reclaiming his position and trying to get the rings he had made as far away from Sauron as possible. I’m a sucker for a good redemption arc and a tale of sacrifice, and Celebrimbor’s delivered in the final couple of episodes of the season.
Let’s talk about a pet theory of mine that Season 2 demolished. We’d been following “the Stranger” and his proto-Hobbit friends, and although there were plenty of hints that this character was Gandalf, I wasn’t entirely convinced of that. It seemedalmost too obvious, and I wondered whether The Rings of Power might’ve tried to pull off a bit of a twist by making this character another wizard: Radagast, perhaps, but more likely Saruman. Knowing what we know of Saruman’s future, I felt that could be interesting.
The Stranger’s identity was in question across Seasons 1 and 2.
Instead, The Rings of Power was incredibly pedestrian, dropping obvious hints that led to an obvious conclusion. I’m not disappointed that my personal Saruman theory didn’t pan out, but I am a bit disappointed that the writing on this side of the show continues to be so… basic. Why bother “covering up” the identity of a character if everything they say and do makes it obvious who they are? And come to that… why bother going through this “amnesia” storyline at all? Why couldn’t Gandalf have emerged knowing his name but needing to discover his purpose? It just fell a bit flat for me.
I was excited to see Tom Bombadil in live-action for the first time, and the performance was spot-on. Rory Kinnear put in a spectacular performance to bring this enigmatic character to life, and everything from the costume to the accent to the design of his home was perfect. This version of Tom Bombadil is exactly how I pictured the character in my mind all those years ago.
Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow! Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow!
But – and you knew there was a “but” coming after all of that – what on Middle-earth is Tom Bombadil doing getting so involved in the plot? The whole point of the character, at least from what I recall of reading The Lord of the Rings a long time ago, was that he was ancient and powerful – but completely indifferent to the Ring, the quest against Sauron, and so on. Gandalf and Elrond felt that he’d just forget about the One Ring if it was left in his care, and that if Sauron were to win and conquer Middle-earth, Tom Bombadil wouldn’t come to their aid, nor even understand the nature of their quest.
It was pretty jarring, then, to see Tom Bombadil so engaged in the world and so helpful to both Gandalf and the Dark Wizard. Characters like this have to be used carefully because of the extent of their powers, and while I’ll entertain the idea that “TV show Tom” and “book Tom” are different characters who may have different origins and abilities… this was one area where I felt the decision to diverge so extensively from the source material was particularly notable and perhaps ill-advised. Tom Bombadil is a character who could easily be written into a corner, I fear.
Gandalf with Tom Bombadil.
With The Rings of Power being, as we discussed, so pedestrian and boring with its character identities, I have to assume that the Dark Wizard we met is Saruman. I hope not, though, because much of the power in the reveal of Saruman’s betrayal in The Lord of the Rings comes from his status as the leader of the wizards and the head of the White Council. Gandalf doesn’t realise the extent to which Saruman has fallen under the corruption of the power of the One Ring until it’s too late – the whole point of his character is that he’s a good wizard gone bad.
We simply shouldn’t be seeing Saruman talking about “taking over” Middle-earth after Sauron’s defeat in this era. There was always an arrogance or smugness to Saruman; a flaw in his character that Sauron could later exploit. But it shouldn’t be so readily apparent so early on, and working on the assumption that the Dark Wizard and Saruman are one and the same, I didn’t like his presentation for that reason. If, however, The Rings of Power is willing to switch things up and offer a different explanation for this character’s background and identity, I think some of that criticism can be rescinded.
Is this Saruman? I mean, it is, right?
Visually, The Rings of Power continues to be an impressive series. Because of my crappy internet connection, I struggled to watch every episode in 4K on Amazon, but when I could get full 4K working, there’s no denying that everything from physical props and makeup to animation and CGI all looked fantastic. The series is deliberately leaning into the aesthetic of Peter Jackson’s films, and I noted that in particular with the likes of the Adar’s troll and the Ents – the designs of both wouldn’t have seemed out-of-place in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
There was one oddity in set design, and it happened in Eregion. In short, the area just outside of Celebrimbor’s tower, when viewed from the side facing away from the tower, had the feel of an enclosed stage – something you might see in a theatre. When characters would enter and exit from one side or the other, I got the feel of watching a stage play rather than that I was looking at a real physical space. Galadriel, for instance, seemed to enter from “off-stage” at one particularly important moment in the penultimate episode, and that feeling rather took the shine off things.
Galadriel at Eregion.
Speaking of oddities with Galadriel: in the season finale, after she had been captured by Orcs and taken to Adar, there was an especially strange moment. This ties into what I was talking about before with The Rings of Power not really explaining enough about some of its characters or their abilities, because after Sauron arrived, Galadriel seemed to just… stand there. She was standing in the background as Adar and Sauron had their confrontation, as if she was just waiting for her cue to rejoin the scene. It was really quite weird to see her just standing idly in the background as Sauron revealed his sway over the Orcs, and the strangeness of the moment detracted from what should’ve been Adar’s emotional and impactful death scene.
We know that Sauron has powers over Elves, Orcs, and others, as he demonstrated when he forced Celebrimbor’s guards to all stab one another. But it wasn’t clear in that scene whether he was “commanding” Galadriel to be held in place or if she was supposed to be stunned or in shock. At several points in the sequence, Galadriel was visible over Sauron’s shoulder or in the background… but rather than feeling like Sauron had her trapped or that she was in shock, it just felt like a poorly-constructed scene, one in which she was waiting for her cue so she could rejoin the action. Having those sequences staged that way was a strange decision.
See how Galadriel is just sort of… standing there?
Morfydd Clark, who plays Galadriel, did as well as she could, I suspect, with the material she had. But Galadriel remains a difficult protagonist to root for, sometimes. The establishing episode of the series a couple of years ago portrayed her as single-minded and arrogant, and when we know how dangerous the titular Rings of Power are, her insistence on using and wearing her ring in Season 2 took on an uncomfortable dimension. Elrond came across as the voice of reason in those moments, especially in the first couple of episodes, and again I was reminded of those moments in Season 1 where Galadriel came across as being unreasonable.
I’m also not feeling Galadriel’s on-screen chemistry with either Elrond or Sauron. These are her two most significant partners, and both feel pretty flat. With Sauron, her anger and hatred should be coming to the fore much more, especially upon coming face-to-face with him. And with Elrond, I just don’t feel much of their friendship (or former friendship) from either of them through their performances or the script. Elrond is being played quite stoically, almost like a Star Trek Vulcan, and I guess that makes it harder to build up a warm relationship in some ways. But when I see Elrond with Durin, the difference is night and day. I adore Elrond and Durin as a pair, and their bromance was one of the absolute highlights of Season 1. But with Galadriel… they feel more like work colleagues than anything else.
Galadriel is played by Morfydd Clark.
I wish we’d got more of Durin and Elrond this season. Hopefully the stage has been set for more between them next time, particularly with Durin rising to assume the throne and resolving the internal ring-related conflict in the Dwarven kingdom. But with only a couple of short moments between them across this entire season… it was an absence that I definitely felt, particularly as less-impressive character pairs and groups came to the fore.
That being said, Durin’s story in Khazad-dûm was still enjoyable. We got more “politicking” this time, with Durin and Disa having to negotiate the king’s court after falling out of favour, as well as stirring up an army to aid the Elves later in the season. Spending more time in Khazad-dûm and getting to know some of these secondary characters a bit more was genuinely fun, and the Dwarves never cease to be entertaining.
Prince Durin.
King Durin – not to be confused with Prince Durin – was an interesting character, and his final act of sacrifice managed to hit the right emotional moments after he’d fallen under the ring’s spell for much of the season. I’m not sure what to make of the Balrog beneath Khazad-dûm, though. I mean, it doesn’t seem like it would be difficult for it to escape now that the Dwarves have opened up a pathway to its chamber, even if part of the tunnel has caved in.
We talked earlier about Sauron’s various schemes seeming to work against one another, and his delivery of Rings of Power to the Dwarf-Lords is another good example. Exacerbating the Dwarves’ natural greed and desire for resources very quickly poisoned the mind of King Durin, but this in turn sabotaged Sauron’s ring-making as the Dwarves refused to send more of the magical mineral mithril to Eregion. Again, Sauron’s line of “not knowing everything” is relevant… but if he created the rings with this goal in mind, shouldn’t it have been predictable? Or if the point of the rings is to give him power over the minds of the wearers, shouldn’t he have been able to force Durin to give him the mithril? Maybe I’m nitpicking and overthinking, but it feels like a bit of a contrivance to get to Sauron putting his own blood or essence into the ring-making process.
King Durin with his ring.
The same could also be said of Celebrimbor’s sudden inability to make more rings. Having worked on the three Elven rings, Celebrimbor quite quickly moved on to make rings for Dwarves under the tutelage of “Annatar,” but when the plot needed him to slow down, he suddenly lost confidence and found his abilities diminished. Was this Sauron’s influence? If so… again, it seems counterproductive to Sauron’s goals. And if it wasn’t due to Sauron poisoning his mind, why did Celebrimbor suddenly find the process difficult when it had been so easy days or weeks earlier?
The political intrigue in Númenor was interesting at first, but I’m afraid it became a bit repetitive as the season wore on. The following pattern seemed to repeat several times: Elendil would be in trouble, Queen or ex-Queen Miriel would order him to abandon her, and then he’d defy her orders. He’d get in trouble, she’d be brought in, and the cycle repeated.
Behind-the-scenes with Elendil in Númenor.
I liked the idea of the Númenoreans being angry with their ruler after the disastrous expedition to Middle-earth, and that there might be scheming politicians working behind her back to seize power and dethrone Miriel. That concept sounds much better on paper, however, than it came across in the show. Ar-Pharazôn and his son are leaning into the “evil for the sake of it” presentation that just doesn’t come across as all that interesting, and having been upstaged and humiliated by Elendil and Miriel several times… well, it’s obvious he won’t last very long.
The arrival of an Eagle at the Númenorean coronation was neat, though, and I liked the inclusion of this enigmatic race. Pharazôn and his supporters jumping on the idea of the Eagle’s arrival as signifying support for him instead of Miriel was also well done in that scene, and parts of this story hit at least some of the right notes. It just feels like something that needs a bit more time dedicated to it, as Ar-Pharazôn’s ascent to the throne played out pretty quickly across a few scenes. When you compare his scheming to someone like Littlefinger or Varys in Game of Thrones… well, you can see why it’s an unfavourable comparison for The Rings of Power.
Ar-Pharazôn schemed his way to the throne.
In terms of music, I enjoyed what was on offer in The Rings of Power. My first rule for any film or TV show’s soundtrack is that it should “do no harm;” i.e. not get in the way of or detract from the action on screen. That may be a low bar in some ways, but you’d be surprised how often even big-budget productions trip over it! Composer Bear McCreary did a great job with the score and soundtrack to The Rings of Power, and this might be one of the show’s strongest and best individual elements. Regardless of one’s opinion of the show overall, there’s no doubt in my mind that its soundtrack is fantastic.
Sticking with the music, there was one thing that I didn’t like – and it’s nothing to do with composition, it’s about story. One of the best parts of Season 1 was the song This Wandering Day, a hauntingly beautiful, folk-style, acapella composition. In Season 2, part of the plot saw Nori, Poppy, and the Stranger dissecting its lyrics, finding that they had a literal meaning that helped them navigate the way to Rûhn. I just wasn’t wild about this idea, as taking a beautiful song and hacking it apart, breaking down its lyrics to find, of all things, directions… it took away from the original sequence in which the song was featured. It didn’t feel necessary, as their getting lost was a pretty minor bump in the road compared to what was to come. I could’ve happily skipped this idea and those extra couple of minutes with the Stoors or learning a bit more about the Dark Wizard.
Composer Bear McCreary at the premiere for The Rings of Power Season 2.
More could’ve been done with the Southlanders as they made their escape from Mordor, eventually settling in an abandoned Númenorean outpost. I feel like we didn’t really get to spend enough time with Theo and his villagers, especially given the prominence of the Southlands in Season 1. Theo’s story was okay, and he got an arc of sorts as he wrangled with his feelings toward Arondir, as well as befriending Isildur. But I could’ve spent a bit more time with some of these characters, several of whose names I can’t even recall.
Arondir had some great moments this season, particularly as he dealt with the Ents and saved Isildur from some kind of worm-monster that could’ve come straight out of Dune! His scenes with Theo also packed a punch; the two have good chemistry together, and I hope we haven’t seen the last of either Theo as a new village healer or his relationship with Arondir.
Arondir with his bow.
However, Arondir seemed to die while fighting Adar, being hit multiple times and falling to the ground. At the very least, he seemed to suffer serious injury – but this was forgotten the next time he appeared on screen, and he was back to his usual self. I don’t know what happened here, exactly – and I’m pleased Arondir lives to fight another day, don’t get me wrong – but having built up to his conflict with Adar across several episodes, the way it was immediately ignored didn’t feel great. Maybe two different writers had different ideas for where to take the character?
I’m a romantic – or I can be, under the right circumstances! So I don’t begrudge the writers giving young Isildur a romantic interest in the form of the Southlander Estrid. However, the way this unfolded wasn’t really to my taste, with Estrid betraying Isildur, reconciling, revealing she has a partner already, potentially abandoning him for Isildur, and then being blocked at the last minute. It was just a bit too much soap opera drama for me, and while I liked other parts of both Estrid and Isildur’s individual story arcs, their romantic side fell wide of the mark.
Estrid and Isildur.
One of my favourite parts of the season was Isildur’s horse Berek being let loose to track him down. I adore stories about animals and when Berek was in danger in the spiders’ cavern it was one of the few moments in the entire season where I was genuinely on the edge of my seat! Whoever trained the horse did an excellent job, and the music and cinematography in this sequence kept it tense and emotional all the way through. When Berek was later captured, I was champing at the bit for Isildur and Estrid to rescue him, and Ar-Pharazôn’s son threatening him was the icing on the cake of that character’s evil-ness!
From one powerful and emotional horse story to one that fell flat. I’m a sucker for animals in fiction as we just discussed – I even cried about a digital horse when playing Red Dead Redemption II. So the scene where Elrond’s horse was killed should have hit me… but it really didn’t. Unlike with Berek and Isildur, I felt no real bond between Elrond and his nameless horse, and even a brief scene with Elrond apparently saying goodbye didn’t really make up for that. Isildur and Berek had love for one another; Elrond seemed, for much of the show up to that point, to see his horse as a tool, a vehicle to get from one place to another. And that made what should’ve been a powerful moment for his character fail to stick the landing.
Berek the horse.
So I think that’s everything I have from my notes.
It can be hard to judge middle seasons of a television show. How we feel about The Rings of Power Season 2 will be coloured not only by our opinions of Season 1, but also in time, whether Seasons 3, 4, and beyond successfully build to a satisfying narrative climax. I think this season moved things along in that regard, unfolding more of its storylines – though some were a bit too obvious and pedestrian, unfortunately. It also feels like a series doubling-down – for viewers who hated Season 1 and most of what it tried to do, I don’t see Season 2 “redeeming” The Rings of Power or responding in a concerted way to the criticisms hurled at it a couple of years ago.
For me, though, I generally had a good time. There were moments that missed the mark, storylines I was less interested in, and a couple of character pairs or groups that seem to be lacking in chemistry, but I can’t deny that I enjoyed much of what transpired on screen. The Rings of Power was exciting, tense, dramatic, and where it wanted to be, occasionally brutal and comedic. Taken on its own merit, I think it’s a decent fantasy show and I’m happy to see it continue.
One of the final shots from the season finale.
Whether The Rings of Power lives up to the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings or stands as a true successor to a series like Game of Thrones, though… I think the jury is out on that. It takes time for any series with an expansive cast of characters and intertwined, serialised storylines to find its feet, but The Rings of Power should now be in that position. It will fall to Seasons 3, 4, and 5 to do something great with the foundations that have been established here. Does that mean the series has finally justified its sky-high budget? Again, I think we have to wait and see.
Speaking of waiting and seeing: I can’t wait two full years for another eight episodes of television. Long wait times in between short seasons is a problem streaming shows on various platforms are suffering from, and I hope that now Amazon has gotten two seasons’ worth of experience with The Rings of Power, production on Season 3 can ramp up quickly. If the series really will go to five seasons and it’s gonna be a two-year wait for each one, we won’t be seeing the finale until at least 2030. I might not live that long – though, touch wood, I certainly hope I will(!) – so Amazon really needs to pull out all the stops to get future seasons into production much more quickly. I felt my enjoyment of Season 2 was hampered, in places, by forgetting who a character was or what happened to them two years ago. A recap certainly helped, but getting the next season ready faster will help a lot more.
So I hope this has been interesting! I’ll always be happy to spend more time in Tolkien’s Middle-earth, and while The Rings of Power may have some flaws and some storylines that I find less interesting, I’m still happy to go back to it and I enjoyed much of what was on offer in Season 2. Roll on Season 3 – and the next phase of Sauron’s plot!
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is available to stream now on Amazon Prime Video in the United Kingdom and around the world. Season 1 is also available on DVD and Blu-ray. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the copyright of Amazon MGM Studios, New Line Cinema, and/or the Tolkien Estate. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
Spoiler Warning: Spoilers may be present for some of the franchises/properties discussed below.
There are a handful of “big questions” that define one’s place in geekdom – and today it’s my turn to answer some of them!
I thought it could be a bit of fun to consider some of the biggest questions that geeks like us have to wrangle with. Which fictional character is stronger? Which gaming platform is the best? These questions are contentious, especially here on the interweb – but I hope you’ll engage with this piece in the spirit of light-hearted fun! That’s how I’m choosing to present my answers, in any case.
As I always like to say, nothing we’re going to talk about today is in any way “objective!” These are my wholly subjective takes on questions that are intended to evoke strong reactions, so I hope you’ll keep that in mind! Although I’ve said that these are ten of the “biggest” geeky questions, I’m sure you can think of others – so this is by no means a definitive list.
Let’s contemplate some big questions together!
I’ve considered myself a geek – and been considered a geek by others – for basically my whole life. As a kid and a teenager, I moved in nerdy circles and friend groups where the likes of fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and video games were frequent topics of conversation. And in the ’80s and ’90s, those things were far less “mainstream” than they are nowadays! It’s actually been really cool to see the likes of The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Marvel become some of the biggest entertainment properties on the planet – as well as the explosion in popularity of video games. When I was at school, and even into my young adulthood, admitting to being interested in those kinds of things could lead to mockery and even bullying!
For these questions today, I’ve set myself the rule of providing an actual answer – no cop-out, fence-sitting, “I like both equally” answers here! As I’ve already said, all of this is just one person’s opinion – and at the end of the day, this is supposed to just be for fun. So please try not to take it too seriously; none of this is worth getting into an argument over!
With the introduction out of the way, let’s answer some tough geeky questions!
Question #1: Who’s the best Doctor? Doctor Who
All of the Doctors – so far!
I don’t really remember watching much Doctor Who as a kid. The original incarnation of the long-running BBC sci-fi series was coming to an end when I was younger, and by the time I was getting interested in the genre, it was Star Trek: The Next Generation that really captured my imagination. As a result, I’m going to exclude all of the pre-2005 Doctors from consideration; I simply haven’t seen enough of any of them to really have a favourite.
Of the Doctors that have been part of the revived series, the Twelfth – played by Peter Capaldi – is my favourite… but with a big caveat! Capaldi gave the best individual performance as the Doctor in the role – hands down. No disrespect meant to any of the others… but I don’t think it’s even close. He’s a performer with exactly the right style, look, and gravitas – and in my view, he played the role absolutely perfectly. That’s why I didn’t hesitate when it came to naming him as my favourite!
Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor is my personal favourite.
But there’s a catch, as I said. Capaldi’s seasons as the Doctor – Seasons 8 through 10 of the post-2005 series – were almost universally terrible. There was one decent companion (Bill, played by Pearl Mackie) but her character was treated almost as an afterthought and she met a stupid and unsatisfying end. There were hardly any decent villains or antagonists, no truly standout episodes, and really very few memorable moments at all. In fact, Capaldi’s tenure as the Doctor marked a significant decline in Doctor Who’s quality… and the series doesn’t seem to have recovered.
In terms of the best seasons of the revived Doctor Who, I’d have to give the award – somewhat begrudgingly – to Seasons 2 through 4, which starred David Tennant in the title role. The quality of the stories produced at that time was so much higher, with some truly outstanding adventures in the mix. If only there was some way to go back in time and combine Capaldi’s performance with Tennant’s storylines. Where’s a Tardis when you need one, eh?
Question #2: Who would win in a fight: Batman or Superman? DC Comics
Wasn’t there a mediocre film dedicated to answering this question?
Uh, this one should be obvious. It’s Superman, right? It has to be – if you gave any other answer then I don’t think you’ve been paying attention! Who would win in a fight between an overpowered demigod and a billionaire with some expensive gadgets? Yeah… the demigod is gonna win this one. He could launch Batman into the sun, punch him so hard that every bone in his body would shatter, use his heat-vision on him from half a mile away… the list of ways in which Superman could not just defeat but murder and utterly annihilate Batman is nearly endless!
Superman is, I would argue, increasingly difficult to depict in film because of how blatantly overpowered he is. If you read my review of Zack Snyder’s Justice League a couple of years ago, you might remember me saying that the film flopped around, desperately trying to find a way to include the rest of its cast of superheroes… but to no avail. There was no getting away from the simple fact that Superman could do it all single-handedly without even breaking a sweat.
Superman on the cover of Action Comics #19 in 1939.
At the time the character of Superman was first created, all the way back in 1938, it wasn’t a problem. In fact, creating an “all-round, all-American hero” for comic books aimed at children was exactly the point. Superman is textbook escapism – he’s the perfect hero archetype that can do it all. In context, Superman works, and when all you want is a “good guy” to save the day and stop the evil villains, he’s perfect for the part.
But any story that puts Superman in genuine danger has to come up with a reason why. The man’s basically invincible, save for the mysterious crystal known as kryptonite, and I think at least some of Superman’s big-screen and small-screen adventures suffer as a result of that. But to get back on topic: Superman would win in a fight, and he’d win incredibly quickly and incredibly easily!
Question #3: Console or PC?
A Super Nintendo – or SNES.
In the early ’90s, the first home console I ever owned was a Super Nintendo. From then on, all the way through to the middle of the last decade, console was my preference. I liked the pick-up-and-play nature of consoles, with no need to check system requirements or fiddle with settings to just get a game running. The underpowered PCs that I had in the ’90s weren’t much good for gaming, so I think that’s part of it, too. But you have to also remember that, for a long time, consoles were just better in terms of performance – and especially in terms of value – than PC.
But nowadays I’m firmly on Team PC! I built my own PC for the first time a couple of years ago, and prior to that I had a moderately-priced “gaming” PC. Since about the middle of the 2010s, PC has been my platform of choice for practically everything. I will consider picking up Nintendo’s next machine when it’s ready, but my Nintendo Switch has been gathering dust since I stopped playing Animal Crossing and Mario Kart 8… so I’m not sure how great of an investment that’ll really be!
A very pretty gaming PC setup.
PC offers the best of both worlds. Wanna play an in-depth strategy game or city-builder with loads of options and menus that really need a mouse and keyboard to navigate? PC can do that. Wanna plug in a modern control pad to play a third-person adventure title? PC can do that too. Wanna install a virtual machine and play games from the Windows 95 era? PC can do that! Wanna emulate every console from the Atari 2600 to the Dreamcast and play games that are out-of-print everywhere? PC can do that too!
With Game Pass bringing a lot of new titles to PC on launch day, and with Sony even porting over some of its previously-exclusive titles too, PC really feels like the place to be. It’s a lot more expensive to get started with – and that’s still a massive point in favour of consoles for players on a budget. But once that initial expense is out of the way, the abundance of sales on platforms like Steam means that a lot of titles – even newer ones – can be picked up at a discount. I’m really happy with my PC as my main gaming platform, and I doubt I’ll be picking up an Xbox or PlayStation this generation.
Question #4: What would be the best fictional world to live in?
There are plenty of fictional worlds to choose from!
There are loads of absolutely awful answers that people give to this question! Who’d want to live in Star Wars’ fascist-corporate dystopia, for example, which seems absolutely terrible for anyone not blessed with space magic? Or any fantasy setting with a medieval level of technology? Sure, you might have a magic elf as your buddy… but if there’s no central heating, antibiotics, or flushing toilets… you’re gonna have a bad time!
My pick is simple: Star Trek’s 24th Century. There are things to worry about, sure: the Borg, the Cardassians, and the Klingons to name but a few threats! But there are so many wonderful inventions and technologies that would make life so much better. For me, as someone with disabilities, the idea of some or all of my health issues being cured is perhaps the biggest – but there are plenty of others, too.
The USS Enterprise orbiting Earth.
Star Trek does not depict, as some have tried to claim, a “communist utopia.” As we see on multiple occasions throughout the franchise, private property still exists, and people have a great deal of freedom and autonomy. Star Trek’s future could be more accurately described as a post-scarcity society – one in which technological improvements have brought unlimited power generation, food, and other resources to the people.
There are some dark spots in Star Trek’s future – but these tend to be places outside of or separate from the Federation. Assuming I could live somewhere in the Federation, and have access to replicators, warp drive, weather-controlling satellites, and Starfleet for defence… I think it would be bliss! And so much better than anywhere else I can think of.
Question #5: Martin or Tolkien?
Who’s the superior author?
I don’t need to think too long about this one! JRR Tolkien is, for me, one of the greatest authors of all-time. George RR Martin, in contrast, can’t even finish his own story, and seems far too easily distracted by other projects – including writing TV episodes and working on video games. And c’mon… he literally copied the “RR” part of Tolkien’s name for his own pen name!
Jokes aside, I think both writers are pretty great. Tolkien could be, in places, a little too black-and-white with his protagonists and antagonists, with the goodies being pure and virtuous and the villains being corrupt and evil. Martin’s work deliberately upends many of those notions, and he places imperfect and even selfish characters at the heart of his stories. Some of George RR Martin’s characters feel more nuanced – and dare I say more human – than Tolkien’s.
The Fellowship of the Ring at Rivendell from the 2001 film adaptation.
But Tolkien was a pioneer, writing the first modern fantasy epic. Martin, and countless other writers, are simply following in his footsteps. While Martin’s work is hardly derivative, some of the choices he makes in his writing are a reaction to the way Tolkien’s worlds and characters were set up. It’s impossible to critique A Song of Ice and Fire without making multiple references to Tolkien – whereas Tolkien’s work has always stood on its own two feet.
I would love it if George RR Martin would finish his magnum opus, but as time passes I feel less and less sure that he’s even interested in doing so. Now that Game of Thrones has finished its run on television, and Martin has seen the overwhelmingly negative reaction to its ending – which will have contained at least some elements that he planned to include in the remaining books – I just don’t get the impression that his heart is in it in the same way it was a few years ago. Tolkien’s work, in contrast, is complete and has been for decades – and people are still interested in new adaptations.
Question #6: Who’s the best Star Trek captain?
Multiple captains on a promo banner for “Star Trek Day.”
I’ve always struggled with this question. But I’ve gone on record several times here on the website as saying that if you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose – as this question is metaphorically doing – I’d pick Deep Space Nine’s Captain Benjamin Sisko. So that’s gonna be my answer!
There’s a lot to be said for Captain Kirk – Star Trek’s first captain. He paved the way for all of the others, and without him, Star Trek would not be the same today – if it even existed at all. And Captain Picard was my personal first captain; it was through The Next Generation that I became a Trekkie in the early ’90s. Without him and the crew he led, there’s a chance I would never have fallen in love with Star Trek in the way that I did. And all of the other captains from Janeway and Burnham to Archer and Pike all have wonderful qualities that make Star Trek into the franchise it is today.
Captain Benjamin Sisko.
But Captain Sisko has always stuck out to me. In the first few seasons of Deep Space Nine he only held the rank of Commander, so we got to see his rise to the rank of captain as the story of that show unfolded. He was also a man with a deeply traumatic past, having to come to terms with the death of his wife while raising his son alone. He was a fantastic leader – not just of a crew, but of a community. Sisko could reach out across the cultural divide to Ferengi, Klingons, changelings, Bajorans, and more. He turned DS9 from a military outpost into a friendly place to visit and a bustling port.
Although words like “scientist” and “explorer” might not be the first ones that spring to mind when we think of Captain Sisko, he had those traditional Starfleet qualities, too. We’d see him as a pioneer of exploring the Gamma Quadrant and the wormhole, as well as interacting with the non-corporeal Prophets – the very definition of seeking out new life! Sisko could also be a soldier and a diplomat when he needed to be – and to me, he embodies the very best of Starfleet in the 24th Century.
Question #7: Marvel or DC?
The logos of both Marvel and DC.
I don’t read comic books – and I never did, even as a kid. So my limited knowledge of both of these brands comes from their cinematic outings, not the original source material! I wanted to get that caveat out of the way before we got into the weeds with this one.
If you were to ask 100 people on the street to name a superhero, I think Superman and Batman would probably be the two names you’d hear most often. So DC, at least in my opinion, has produced the two most memorable and noteworthy superheroes. But Marvel, at least on the big screen, has a bigger and stronger ensemble – as we saw when Avengers Endgame briefly became the highest-grossing film of all time.
Batman & Robin (1997).
Although I want to say that I’ve gotten roughly equal enjoyment from DC and Marvel over the years, I promised you no fence-sitting and no cop-outs! Based on the strength of characters like Batman, who have starred in some really great films over the years, I think I have to give the win to DC. Marvel’s output is becoming increasingly convoluted, and just keeping up with the franchise to know who’s who and what happened last time can feel like a full-time job! At least DC still produces some standalone or semi-standalone films and TV shows that I can dip in and out of.
Aside from Batman and Superman, though, DC hasn’t really been able to successfully capitalise on its other superheroes – let alone turn them into household names. Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, and Green Arrow have all had limited success in a single film or TV series, but others have struggled. Batman may drag DC over the finish line this time… but there’s still room for improvement!
Question #8: Star Wars or Star Trek?
The Death Star at Yavin IV in Star Wars.
If you’ve read the name of this website, I’m sure you can guess which way this one’s going to go! Thankfully the whole “Star Wars versus Star Trek” rivalry that was a big deal a few years ago has more or less died out, and fans no longer feel quite so tribal about which is the best. There’s been a lot more crossover in recent years, with Trekkies and Star Wars fans happy to enjoy both franchises.
I consider myself a Trekkie first and foremost – so I’ll answer this question by saying that I prefer Star Trek over Star Wars. But that doesn’t mean I hate or dislike Star Wars by any stretch. In fact, some of my favourite entertainment experiences of all-time have come courtesy of the Star Wars franchise: games like Knights of the Old Republic and films like Rogue One are genuinely fantastic.
The cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2.
What I like about Star Trek is that many of its stories aren’t about fighting a villain or defeating an adversary – but about exploration, science, engineering, and just what it might be like to live in space in the future. Star Wars, by its very nature, is more violent, with more of a focus on conflict. That’s fine when I’m in more of an action mood – but there are times when a story about seeking out new life or learning to communicate is what I’m looking for.
It’s also worth pointing out that there’s a heck of a lot more Star Trek than Star Wars! At the time I first encountered the franchises, it wouldn’t be totally unfair to say that there were two good Star Wars films and one okay-ish one – at least in the opinion of a lot of folks! Star Trek already had more than 100 episodes of TV and five films under its belt, so there was plenty to get stuck into as a viewer in the early ’90s! Quantity over quality is never a good argument, of course… but if I’m enjoying something I’m always going to be happy to get more of it! Star Wars is slowly catching up to Star Trek now that Disney has commissioned several made-for-streaming series, but there’s still a long way to go to reach Star Trek’s 900+ episodes!
Question #9: Sci-Fi or Fantasy?
The NeverEnding Story (1984) was one of my favourite films as a kid.
This may come as a surprise, but fantasy was my first love long before I got interested in sci-fi, space, and the “final frontier!” Among my earliest memories is reading The Hobbit – a book that was originally intended for children, lest we forget. I can even remember pointing out to my parents that there was a typo on one page; the word “wolves” had been misprinted as “wolevs.” Aside from Tolkien’s legendary novel, I read other children’s stories including Enid Blyton’s The Faraway Tree, and watched films like The Neverending Story.
But it’s not unfair to say that sci-fi became a much bigger deal for me by the time I was reaching adolescence. Inspired by Star Trek: The Next Generation I immersed myself in science fiction, reading as many books about space and the future as I could get my hands on, and watching films like Alien and the Star Wars trilogy. TV shows like Quantum Leap, Space Precinct, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century graced my screens in the ’90s, as did more kid-friendly offerings like Captain Scarlet.
Star Trek: The Next Generation turned me into a sci-fi fan!
So while I can happily say that I enjoy both genres for what they offer, sci-fi has been my preference going back more than thirty years at this point! Star Trek opened my eyes to science fiction and remains one of my biggest fandoms to this day! But there are many other sci-fi films, shows, books, and video games that I’ve enjoyed – everything from Mass Effect and Foundation to Battlestar Galactica and Halo. Sci-fi is great escapism, and I love the feeling of being whisked away to another world or another moment in time.
Though I haven’t forgotten my roots as a fan of fantasy, and still enjoy many fantasy titles across all forms of media, if I had to choose I’d definitely say that I’m a fan of sci-fi first and foremost. Sci-fi feels broader and more varied in some respects – there are radically different presentations of humanity’s future, the kinds of aliens we might engage with, and so on. Modern fantasy tends to stick to a medieval level of technology and use the same kinds of magical spells and the same handful of races – Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and so on – in different combinations depending on the story.
Question #10: What’s your favourite anime/cartoon series?
There’s an anime adaptation of Shenmue.
I have to confess something at this point: I’ve never seen any anime. I don’t know why exactly – I’ve never really been in friendship groups where anime was a topic of conversation, and when I was a kid, there wasn’t any anime on TV or in the cinema that I can recall. I’ve yet to encounter an anime series that felt like a must-watch – with the only exception being the adaptation of Shenmue that I really ought to get around to watching one of these days! But until I do… no anime for me.
I had to think about this question for a while, though. There are some great adult animation programmes: Lower Decks, Futurama, Rick and Morty, South Park, and The Simpsons all come to mind. The Simpsons in particular was a pioneer of adult animation, and a series I remember with fondness from its ’90s heyday here in the UK! The fact that my parents – and many others of their generation – absolutely loathed The Simpsons was a huge mark in its favour for a renegade adolescent!
Phineas and Ferb.
But on this occasion, I’m giving the award to Phineas and Ferb. Regular readers might remember me talking about this series as one of my “comfort shows;” a programme I often return to when I need a pick-me-up. I recall watching a promo for the series circa 2007-08, and although kids’ cartoons on the Disney Channel should’ve held no appeal… something about Phineas and Ferb called out to me. I tuned in and I was hooked from almost the first moment.
Phineas and Ferb’s two-and-a-half story structure – with the kids making an invention, their sister trying to bust them for it, and special agent Perry the Platypus on a mission to fight evil – felt incredibly fun and innovative, and more often than not the storylines would intersect in creative and unexpected ways. There are also some fantastic moments of characterisation in Phineas and Ferb, particularly with the breakout character of Dr Doofenshmirtz. I was thrilled to learn that the series will be returning for two new seasons and a whopping forty new episodes, and I really hope it will be as good as it was the first time around.
So that’s it!
That’s all for now!
I hope this has been a bit of fun – and maybe bolstered my geeky credentials just a little. As I said at the beginning, I don’t think any of these subjects are worth fighting about or losing friends over, but I’ve had fun sharing my thoughts and nailing my colours to a few different masts!
The great thing about sci-fi, fantasy, gaming, and the wide world of geekdom is just how much of it there is nowadays. There are so many high-budget productions on the big screen, the small screen, and in the gaming realm that we’re really spoilt for choice. As much fun as it is to play favourites and pick one series or franchise over another… more than anything else I’m just glad to be living through a moment where geekdom is having its turn in the spotlight! That may not last forever – a return to action movies, westerns, or whatever else might be on the cards one day. So we should all make the most of it and enjoy it while it lasts!
It’s been interesting to consider some of these questions, and I hope reading my answers has been entertaining for you, too!
All properties discussed above are the copyright of their respective owner, company, distributor, broadcaster, publisher, etc. Some stock photos courtesy of Unsplash. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
Trekking with Dennis 