Never Seen Star Wars

This was the title of a BBC radio and TV show were celebrities (although in the UK we use the term ‘celebrity’ rather loosely) would come in and talk about things they’ve never seen or read or done.  Usually things that have made quite a large impact on our pop-culture but for whatever reason you’ve stayed away from or not had time for.  Star Wars is obviously such a massive part of pop-culture now that certainly everyone must know who Darth Vadar is even if they’re not fans of sci-fi or fantasy, and it’s hard to imagine anyone not having seen at least one Star Wars film in their lives, although such people do apparently exist.

Personally, I have seen Star Wars.  All six movies to date, and even the christmas special.  I haven’t however ever watched any of the animated series, or the made for TV Ewok films.  Nor for that matter have I ever played Knights of the Old Republic.

Another big game franchise I’ve never played is Final Fantasy, even though I have played lots of other JRPG’s, like Phantasy Star, Tales Of games, Star Ocean, Chrono Trigger, the Sailor Moon RPG… a lot.  Just not the most famous series of them all, Final Fantasy.  I don’t know why really… I’ve seen a lot of the screenshots and art from it, and I guess the designs have just never really appealed to me.

I also like a lot of adventure games, but I’ve never played Tomb Raider.  There’s been a lot of hype about these games since the first one was released, and pictures of Lara Croft appearing all over games magazines prompting criticism about her being designed just to appeal to teenage boys… unfortunately my reasons for not playing it aren’t down to my pro-feminist agenda.  I just never thought Lara was that attractive.  Also I think when there’s a lot of hype around games it tends to actually just put me off them.  The new one though is written by Rhianna Pratchett, so I might give it a try.

Despite being a big sci-fi fan, I’ve never read anything by Philip K. Dick, even though I’ve obviously a lot of films based on his work like Blade Runner and Total Recall.  For that matter, I love the film Jurassic Park, but I don’t think I’ve ever read a Michael Crichton novel.

Other books I’ve not read… well, 50 Shades of Grey and the Twilight novels I’ve never read.  I have seen all the Twilight films now, and for the record, Team Jacob (at least before the weird with him imprinting on the baby, he was the only character who was actually nice and at least a little likeable).  Nor have I read The Hunger Games or any of the other YA novels that are like The Hunger Games.

Probably more surprising though since I am a fan of fantasy as well, is that I’ve never read Harry Potter.  Again, I’ve seen the films, but I think I was under the impression that I was too old for the books, even though people keep assuring me that they appeal to all ages.  Maybe I’ll give it a try… my nephew probably has a copy he can lend me to make up for stealing all my Red Dwarf DVD’s.

There are lots of TV shows I’ve not seen, since I don’t really watch that much TV.  Mainly I watch comedies and documentaries.  I’ve hardly watched any reality TV.  Just not my thing.  But there are lots of critically acclaimed shows I’ve never watched, like Dexter, Breaking Bad, Deadwood, Supernatural, Lost, Arrow, to name a few.