It was one of those rare occasion. Rarer than a red panda. Rarer than a motorcyclist doing the speed limit. Rarer, indeed, than a decent episode of Ghost Whisperer. Yes, SFX was interviewing for a post on the magazine. Good grief – somebody's actually leaving the mag! More on that next week (in the meantime, feel free to guess!)
As part of the interviewing process, Proper Dave put together a sci-fi quiz, to see which candidates knew their onions. A 100% score wasn’t a prerequisite for the getting the job, but this is SFX – surely staffers need to know their Arakis from their Endor!
But would you have made the grade? Purely for fun, we’re printing the quiz here - plus a few bonus questions we didn't ask at the interviews - so you can check if you would have measured up. There’s no prize, just the potential for an enormous sense of well-being. Answers are now supplied – just highlight the invisible text following the guestions.
So, are we ready?
1. In The Lord of the Rings, who or what is Narsil? The broken sword of the kings of Gondor
3. What links 1885, 1955, 1985 and 2015? Years visited in Back to the Future
4. What species is Quark in Deep Space Nine? Ferengi
5. What was the name of the chimpanzee played by Roddy McDowell in Planet of the Apes? Cornelius
6. What was the registration of the Starship Enterprise in the original series? NCC-1701
8. Which actor links new Who with the 1960s Doctor Who movies? Bernard Cribbins
9. Which science fiction author is credited with creating the Three Laws of Robotics? Isaac Asimov
11. Who created the TV series Alias and Lost? JJ Abrams
12. Who or what is Quatermass? Professor Quatermass was the central character in a BBC sci-fi series in the 1950s (created by the writer Nigel Kneale).
14. Who wrote the novels on which Blade Runner and Total Recall were based? Philip K Dick
16. With which iconic TV show would you associate Rod Serling? The Twilight Zone (or Night Gallery)
Oh, and by the way – the position's been filled!
