Knights of Guinevere
Entry updated 29 September 2025. Tagged: TV.
Australian/US animated online series (2025). Glitch Productions. Created and written by Zach Marcus, John Bailey Owen and Dana Terrace. Directed by Dana Terrace. Voice cast includes Zelda Khan Black, SungWon Cho, Lauren Kong, Michaela Laws, Erin Nicole Lundquist and Eden Riegel. One 26-minute pilot episode to date. Colour
Orville Park (Cho) shows his child Olivia (Kong/Lundquist) her inheritance: a magnificent new Theme Park floating in the sky; reference is also made to a tragedy in Olivia's past, but no details are given. The park's mascot is Princess Guinevere (Riegel), who comes in many guises and is played by AI Androids able to share their experiences (arguably a Hive Mind). Olivia is experimenting on one Guinevere (see Torture), who now takes the opportunity to escape, diving off the viewpoint.
Many years later, Olivia is old and there are parks on other planets too. The original park's rubbish is cast into the sea below (see Pollution), where a salvage ship recovers and sorts through the debris for the saleable: Frankie (Laws), one of the crew, finds a badly damaged Guinevere. Though her friend and fellow engineer Andi (Black) has just been fired from her low level job at the park, she still has access to a remote laboratory – so they take the android ("Gwen") there, hoping to rebuild it. En-route, one of Olivia's immense security knights (a Robot or perhaps a Cyborg) tries to kill them ("Goodly ladies, arrest thy steps, thine hearts I wouldst make mine") but Gwen becomes temporarily active and easily destroys their attacker. The pilot ends with Gwen restored and greeting her rescuers (portrayed in the end credits as knights).
Set in a future where humanity has colonized other worlds (see Colonization of Other Worlds) and Terraforming is mentioned, Park Planet – named after its owner – has the familiar set-up of an industrial Dystopia below the paradise it exists to maintain (see Clichés), with the positive messaging of company posters (often covered in graffiti) contrasting with the hardship and ill-health of the lower-tier workers: Frankie hallucinates and Andi seems to have an occupational disease. This being the pilot, deep lore is hinted at and many questions await answers, whilst any viewer aware that the final season of Dana Terrace's previous show The Owl House was reduced to three specials by the Walt Disney Company will be left in no doubt of her feelings toward that company (see Satire).
The pilot of Knights of Guinevere is an excellent sf animation with what promises to be a strong storyline and world-building; though these are early days, matters of Perception might prove to be significant. The show, which is redolent of what was once called the New Weird, contains much Horror and Humour: the characters well are written and the animation is stunning – beautiful and dark, frequently both. It was released on YouTube, passing 10m views in the first five days. [SP]
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