I've taken the liberty of checking out a novelization of the Doctor Who serial The Masque of Mandragora. The first two paragraphs of the introduction by Harlan Ellison make me want to go no further lest I be terribly disappointed. There's no story that can beat a potential geek fight:
"They could not have been more offended, confused, enraged and startled...and then an eruption of angry voices from all over the fifteen hundred person audience. The kids in their Luke Skywalker pajamas and the retarded adults spot-welded into their Darth Vader fright-masks howled with fury. But I stood my ground, there on the lecture platform at the World Science Fiction Convention, and I repeated the heretical words that had sent them into animal hysterics: 'STAR WARS is adolescent nonsense; CLOSE ENCOUNTERS is obscurantist drivel; STAR TREK can turn your brains into puree of bat guano; and the greatest science fiction series of all time is DOCTOR WHO! And I'll take you all on, one-by-one or all in a bunch to back it up!'"
(This heretic hadn't even seen the 3 Star Wars prequels!)
I really like Star Wars (I don't even consider the prequels). I've never been big into Star Trek but I'm sure it's not that bad. But I do agree that Doctor Who is superior. Not only is it great storytelling, it's got a frickin' legacy! 46 years?! C'mon! I just don't have the guts to say it in front of a bunch of geeks dressed up in their gear at a sci-fi convention!
No comments:
Post a Comment