OK, so this movie isn't all that fantastic. Having been a LONG time fan of George R. R. Martin, and having literally cried real tears at the ending of this short story, I was a little disappointed in the way this was converted from story to movie. The many changes made no sense to me at all, and as is usual in a situation like this, the movie ends up being nearly terrible. Still, it has many redeeming features, including the To Die For gorgeous Michael Praed, the always fun Catherine Mary Stuart (playing what was a black amazon woman in the book as a rather uninteresting white girl - can't blame HER for that). It's really not the casts fault that the script was mangled. Even the crazy Michael Des Barres is great, but I would have rather seen the oh-so-cool pocket void-head explosion brought on by the blood-pressure-increasing psychic drug scene, over the silly cuts-off-half-his-head-and-he-keeps-on-fighting nonsense this movie had.<br /><br />The whole thing with Royd's "mother" was badly handled - in the book, she was sinister and creepy, terrifying and powerful, here she's kinda creepy and somehow pathetic, instead of tragic and still sympathetic as she is in the book.<br /><br />The book is MUCH better - all of Martin's short stories are just awesome - and I have to admit, I envisioned Michael Praed when I read Royd Eris's adventure, and that probably helped bring on the tears when it reached the end. The movie's ending is, in the sense that it didn't make me cry, better, but the tragedy that was Royd Eris's life in the book is really the better quality ending.<br /><br />Like Sandkings, the TV version takes out all the fun parts, dumbs down the smart parts, and assumes we can't deal with the complications and ideas as presented by Martin in the originals.<br /><br />Shame on whoever made the changes, you could have kept the same cast, and not changed the story any, and it would have been a MUCH better movie. All in all, it's not a bad sci fi romp, but don't expect much. Read the book after you see it, and you'll be amazed.