August 21, 2024 was the 35th anniversary of Prisoners of Gravity, the classic TVO show about science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comic books.
In celebration, David Clink and Troy Harkin released a special “Prisoners of Gravity: The Reunion” episode of their podcast, Two Old Farts Talk Sci-Fi. The guests were:
Commander Rick: Rick Green
Producer/Director: Gregg Thurlbeck
Co-Producer: Mark Askwith
Associate Producer: Shirley Brady
Most Frequent Guest: Robert J. Sawyer
You can listen to the full episode here:
https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/7ki6DjXgSBMenhx8BVXXu7
To learn more beyond the content of the podcast, here’s the show’s Wikipedia entry.
As I say, it’s hard to overestimate the impact this show had on me when I discovered it all those years ago. Growing up in Kingston, Ontario, I knew no one who was interested in science fiction and fantasy. Or at least not the way I was. It wasn’t a genre that my parents read (“too many weird names,” my dad would later confess), and none of the kids in school were into sci-fi beyond STAR WARS (which amounted to just three movies back then). My best friend went home in tears after I showed him an episode of DOCTOR WHO on TVO one night. And while the main branch of the Kingston Public Library had a pretty robust science fiction and fantasy section, I had no one with whom to share my interest. And certainly knew no one interested in writing the stuff (I’d identified that as my vocation in Grade 3).
And then somehow, I stumbled across Prisoners of Gravity on TVO. Dismissed by my younger brother as my (quote) “weird space show,” in those pre-internet days, Prisoners of Gravity was both a lifeline and the keys to a hidden kingdom. My discovery of the show coincided with my discovery of The Hobbit, and through it the Lord of the Rings, and with Star Trek: The Next Generation just as that show got really good in the third season. These works conspired with Prisoners of Gravity to set all my dials as an F&SF reader, watcher, and would-be writer.
Soon, I began to scour the TV Guide (which should be a reminder of just how long ago this was) to see when the next episode of Prisoners of Gravity would air and faithfully set my VCR to record. Sometimes as I was watching the playback, my dad would wander into the living room and catch the fake opening of Second Nature. An avid birder, dad would be intrigued by the appearance of what he thought must be a new nature show on TVOntario, only to be confused and dismayed when Commander Rick’s pirate broadcast cut in and Prisoners of Gravity proper actually began. He was pretty sure something had gone wrong with the VCR.
It was through Commander Rick that I began to understand the long, rich history of the F&SF genre. It was where I first heard the names (and often voices!) of luminaries in the field like Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler, Alan Moore, Nancy Kress, and (closer to home) James Alan Gardner, Tanya Huff, and Robert J. Sawyer, amongst others. Wait—Canadians can do this kind of writing, too???
I began to build a reading list from each episode. Now, when I was at the library or in a bookstore, I wouldn’t just grab whatever had the coolest looking cover. Instead, I would seek out specific works and specific authors for the first time. I began checking books out of the adult F&SF section, not just the kid’s stuff. At the local comic book shop, the owner raised his eyebrows when I suddenly graduated from Archie & Jughead Digests one week to the Watchmen trade paper the next.
There was an entire episode of Prisoners of Gravity on how you, too, could become a science fiction writer. I watched that one over and over again, transcribing the 10-point checklist that Commander Rick issued at the end of the episode as a distillation of all the wisdom imparted, and promptly taped it to my bedroom wall. I was gonna make it, baby, and here was the blueprint.
In fact, years later, it was my searching online for “whatever happened to Prisoners of Gravity” that led me to get serious about my dream of being a science fiction writer.
My search led me to Robert J. Sawyer’s website (I had first heard of Rob as an interviewee on Prisoners of Gravity and his website featured an extensive section on the show). The timing of my search happened to coincide with Rob’s stint as Writer-in-Residence at the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation & Fantasy in Toronto (named for Judith Merril, who I’d first heard of when she was interviewed on Prisoners of Gravity!—are we sensing a theme yet?)…and Rob was taking submissions for one-on-one sessions with writers!
From that search for Prisoners of Gravity came a meeting with Rob, a connection to my first-ever writers’ group, my first trips to sci-fi conventions meeting like-minded writers and fans, my first story submissions to paying markets, and ultimately my first sales and later award wins. I’ve even got to meet, get to know, and become friends with writers who I first saw featured on Prisoners of Gravity all those years ago.
So, thank you for this reunion episode about the show and thank you to everyone who brought Prisoners of Gravity to life all those years ago. It was a beacon to at least one young would-be writer, and I genuinely don’t know how or if I would have become a writer without it.