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Q. You write that the film of "The Martian Child" is bland. Here's something that might have saved it. The film is based on a book by openly gay science-fiction writer David Gerrold. His book was based on his own experience as a single gay parent who adopted a problem child who was convinced that he was from the planet Mars. The father's identity as a gay man was a major part of the book but the makers of the new film version seem to have deemed this theme irrelevant and have jettisoned the whole gay angle and made the father straight.
In short, they eliminated the very thing that made the original story interesting. Well, I suppose we can't risk getting the evangelicals of this country upset by making a movie that presents gay parenting in a positive way, can we? As always, Hollywood panders to the lowest common denominator. What could have been a groundbreaking film has now been irreparably lessened, and that is sad.
Michael D. Klemm, Buffalo, N.Y.
A. Institutional Hollywood sometimes seems afraid to offend anybody except those with open minds and good taste.