Goth Chick News: Ridley Scott Fans Rejoice
Raise your hand if you’re a Ridley Scott fan.
Hands up now.
Okay, well that’s pretty much everyone so I’m probably about to make you all very happy.
For those of you who are less familiar with the offerings Scott is famous for, let me begin with a short history lesson.
In the recent past Ridley Scott was the director behind Robin Hood (the Russell Crowe version not that abomination with Kevin Costner), and Gladiator. In the 90’s it was Thelma and Louise, and Black Rain.
But way back in the late 70’s and early 80’s Scott hit consecutive home runs with only his second and third directorial outings; Alien in 1979 and Blade Runner in 1982.
The sci-fi and horror genres would never be the same.
Both movies took place in the future. Yet very contrary to most depictions of snowy white flight decks and Jetson-like gadgetry, Scott’s future was grimy, inconvenient and crawling with things that wanted you dead. Whether it was an erotic dancer who could crush your skull with her inner thighs or an eight-foot drooling crustacean that could eat off your face with not one but two protruding jaws, the movie-going-public was clearly scarred and addicted simultaneously.
The cult-of-Scott may not have been instantaneous but it was darn near close.
I’ve discussed 
Scarce Resources, by Brendan Detzner
Another week, another set of new television goodness from the non-cable networks. Seriously, after a year where there’s been very little mainstream science fiction and fantasy on television, it’s nice to see it coming back in such full force. I’m still divided on which of the new shows I most like (though I still probably lean, just a touch, toward Once Upon a Time), though, and both seem to have some potential.
I’m taking a bit of a break from the Romanticism and Fantasy posts, as I’ve got a few other things I’d like to write about. To start with, since I discussed Alan Moore’s Marvelman a few weeks ago, I thought I’d take a look now at V For Vendetta. V started as a series that ran, like Marvelman, in the early 80s in the black-and-white anthology magazine Warrior. Though the story was left incomplete when Warrior folded, in 1988 the series was republished in colour by DC Comics, and Moore and artist David Lloyd were able to finish it as they’d hoped. (Some spoilers for the book follow; also spoilers for Watchmen, oddly enough.)
Sometimes a film comes along which redefines a genre. It brings a new, vibrant life to traditional storytelling structures. It makes you look forward to the new tales that will be inspired by it.
The latest Apex Magazine is now 