Post by boojam on Jan 6, 2016 14:29:32 GMT
Watched Sy Fy's Childhood's End. A famous SF novel by A.C. Clarke. It's philosophical and episodic structure makes it a very difficult adaptation. Restructured with a lot of soap opera and 'Arch' fake scares it is some one jumbled and does not work.
They did treat it with respect (no Sharknadoing!) and Charles Dance was great as Karellen.
Childhood’s End is A.C. Clarke’s rejigger of the ideas of H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon. (Some say C.S. Lewis, but I don’t see that much Lewis in Clarke, so to speak.) Out of Darwin, out of Wells, Stapledon (and others) were fascinated with biological evolution. Childhood’s End is an extension and rework of Stapleton’s novel Odd John (and other Stapledon ideas). Clarke was a disciple of Stapledon, tho I don’t know if he remained so.
There was a fascination in the first half of the twentieth century with ‘Homo Superior’ the further evolution of humans to some ‘high form of intelligence’ (theme appears again in 2001: A Space Odyssey). This was an idea popular in mid-20th century prose science fiction, coupled with a fixation on PSI powers, thought to have a scientific basis. PSI powers did not survive rigorous experimental investigation in the latter part of the 20th century. Likewise the notion of biological evolution to a Homo Superior is a somewhat discredited concept in modern models of biological evolution. Childhood’s End is more of a philosophical musing with a better dramatic framing than Olaf Stapleton’s fiction. It does not lend itself to dramatic visual narrative and that defeated show runner Matthew Graham. It could have been done better, but would have taken more imagination.
They did treat it with respect (no Sharknadoing!) and Charles Dance was great as Karellen.
Childhood’s End is A.C. Clarke’s rejigger of the ideas of H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon. (Some say C.S. Lewis, but I don’t see that much Lewis in Clarke, so to speak.) Out of Darwin, out of Wells, Stapledon (and others) were fascinated with biological evolution. Childhood’s End is an extension and rework of Stapleton’s novel Odd John (and other Stapledon ideas). Clarke was a disciple of Stapledon, tho I don’t know if he remained so.
There was a fascination in the first half of the twentieth century with ‘Homo Superior’ the further evolution of humans to some ‘high form of intelligence’ (theme appears again in 2001: A Space Odyssey). This was an idea popular in mid-20th century prose science fiction, coupled with a fixation on PSI powers, thought to have a scientific basis. PSI powers did not survive rigorous experimental investigation in the latter part of the 20th century. Likewise the notion of biological evolution to a Homo Superior is a somewhat discredited concept in modern models of biological evolution. Childhood’s End is more of a philosophical musing with a better dramatic framing than Olaf Stapleton’s fiction. It does not lend itself to dramatic visual narrative and that defeated show runner Matthew Graham. It could have been done better, but would have taken more imagination.