Review: Nightflyers (1987)And (2018)
By William Pattison
For Horror Bob’s Blog
This time I’m reviewing and comparing the 1987 adaptation
and failed 2018 TV series of George RR Martin’s Gothic Horror/ Science Fiction
story he did before working on Game of Thrones.
Professor hires a spaceship to get to the source of weird
signals from deep space. The trip is cut short however when the ship's computer
gets jealous because the captain is in love with one of the female passengers
and it gets homicidal.
Yes, that is right. George RR Martin took the idea of a
Gothic haunted house story and put in in space years before Event Horizon.
The film is brilliantly executed and really captures the
feel of Martin’s story.
On the contrary theSYFY TV series goes totally against
everything the movie does right. They triple the size of the frieghter, The
NightFlyer and rather than keeping the cast of characters small so the audience
can really get to know them they filled the ship with a huge crew that is
mostly used for murder fodder. Most of the characters that made the original
story interesting are drown out, including the psychic characters
Also, in the film and the story one of the main thrusts were
therelationship between the changed sex clone of the original captain of the ship, Royd played
by Michel Pared), and the security chief of the expedition, Mirranda (played by
Catherine Mary Scott). In the TV series they changed the two main characters
and the villain black and the Royd (Roy Ellis in the TV series) and Miranda
didn’t have the attraction of the ones in the story or movie. Shoot, they even
changed all the character names in the series, except Adara.
Honestly the only good thing the TV series did was developed
Royd’s “mother”, Adara. In the film she is a Gastly monster with electrical
mind energy flashing over her zombie-like face. The TV Adara is far more human.
Unfortunately the TV series ends in a cliffhanger that will
never be resolved. The ending makes the series an all together waste of time
with nothing but plot holes.
The mivie and story end very well and complete the
storylines of Royd and Miranda.
All in all the film and original story of Nightflyers are
AWESOMETACULAR and the TV series is complete and utter DOGSHIT!!!
You can find the audiobook of the story and the movie on
Youtube. The TV series I believe you might find on Netflix or Apple TV
Keep on Creepin’ , Horror Bob’s Blog…
