The Twilight Zone Has a Major Game of Thrones Connection

At first glance, a long and complex story like Game of Thrones may seem like the polar opposite of a surreal anthology series like The Twilight Zone, but the two actually share a major creative connection. Author George R.R. Martin had a long career before he began A Song of Ice and Fire, working as both an author and a screenwriter for TV. His first job as a staff writer was the 1985 revival of The Twilight Zone, where he wrote some of its most acclaimed episodes. The job was a perfect fit for Martin’s unique blend of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, yet it also contributed to his disillusionment with Hollywood. Without The Twilight Zone, we likely wouldn’t have Game of Thrones at all.

Born in 1948, Martin was well into his career when he took the job on The Twilight Zone. He had published numerous short stories, winning some prestigious awards in the process, as well as two novels that were financially successful and well-received. Sadly, according to Martin, it all came crumbling down with the release of his third novel, The Armageddon Rag. The book did not sell well, and consequently, publishers hesitated to pick up more of Martin’s work. He felt that it threatened to end his career altogether. The Armageddon Rag‘s only chance of makin money was through film producer Philip DeGuere Jr., who hoped to adapt the novel into a movie.

That movie never materialized, but it got Martin’s foot in the door in Hollywood. DeGeure was hired as a producer on The Twilight Zone, and he offered Martin a job writing on the series. Martin commuted from his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico to Los Angeles in order to take the lucrative position. He learned the business on the fly, and over the course of three seasons, rose through the ranks from staff writer to story editor to executive story consultant.

TV is a collaborative medium, but Martin is credited for writing the teleplay on seven episodes of The Twilight Zone. Looking at these, you can clearly see hints of Martin’s style and influence, but one in particular really stands out — Season 1, Episode 24, “The Last Defender of Camelot.” It has a medieval fantasy setting not unlike Martin’s later magnum opus, but it also helped drive Martin from the limitations of TV back to the boundless possibilities of prose.

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Return to Novels

In his book Dreamsongs, Martin describes how “The Last Defender of Camelot,” in particular, showed him the limitations of TV. He adapted the episode from a short story written by his friend and fellow author Roger Zelazny, which not only gave him great source material to work from, but earned Zelazny some money and credit as well. Martin had believed that from his vantage on set, he could ensure that the show did justice to Zelazny’s story, but he was quickly faced with the harsh and seemingly bizarre technical constraints of the series. He was told that he would need to give up either the horses in the scene, or the set piece of Stonehenge to keep the episode within budget. Martin called Zelazny from the set and let him make the decision, but the experience reminded him of how liberating the novel format could be.

In the early days of Game of Thrones, that freedom was a major selling point of the series. Fans recalled Martin’s musings on this and other disappointments in Hollywood, and how he had returned to novels to escape collaborators, budgets, and timelines. They celebrated the irony that the series he came up with, A Song of Ice and Fire, was then adapted into the most successful TV show of its time, without sacrificing much in the way of special effects — at least in the beginning.

Fans bring this up again now on a more somber note, as Martin throws shade at HBO and some of the writers and producers working on House of the Dragon. Many wonder why Martin is rehashing this issue when he himself seemed to make peace with it all the way back in 2007 — if not sooner. Having made the disappointing call to Zelazny from the set of The Twilight Zone, fans feel he should sympathize with the writers forced to slash episodes from House of the Dragon now.

Martin has proven himself a masterful storyteller on the page and the screen multiple times over now, and his best work may still be ahead of him. You can read some of his best short stories and personal musings in Dreamsongs, available now in print, digital, and audiobook formats. Westeros returns to the screen next year, first with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, then with House of the Dragon Season 3, both on HBO and HBO Max.