Childhood's End (tv mini-series based on the eponymous sci-fi novel)

[Kyriakos]

What do you think of it?

Going by wiki they changed a lot of things from Clarke's novel (and not just trivial things either).

Link to video.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

What do you think of it?

I think it's a terrible idea. I liked the book, but it's really one of those SF novels that I consider impossible to adapt.

Going by wiki they changed a lot of things from Clarke's novel (and not just trivial things either).

They would have to change a lot of things to make it work. If the trailer is to be trusted, the plot will start considerably earlier than it does in the book. That's pobably the right choice if you're going to adapt Childhoods End.

 

[Kyriakos]

^You mean considerably later, surely? In the book the triggering event is the space-race, and attempts to build a functional spaceship in the cold war era. In the series this isn't there at all, and the story starts (iirc) now (2015).

 

[GoodSarmatian]

It's been years since I read it, but iirc that's mostly proligue and most of the plot happens later.

 

[Lillefix]

I remember this as having the most

Spoiler :

depressing ending ever.

 

[warpus]

I read this book a long time ago, it's your classic "peaceful alien invasion" story from what I remember, right? And the aliens look like {censored/no spoilers from me}?

I dunno, I didn't think that story was a particularly good one to transition to the big screen. I mean, it's interesting and all, but it seems it's all been done before with V and all. Aliens come, seem peaceful, humans realize what aliens reallllly look like a bit later, etc. Not much new here.. or is there? Clarke wrote so many more books that seemed a lot more ideal for the big screen, but tbh I can't even remember the names of many. Guy has just written so many books, and I read through many of them when I was younger and a lot of them seemed like TV/movie candidates. The only reason I would make Childhood's End a movie or TV show would be for that dramatic "here's what the aliens look like" reveal. But that's just one moment and has been done before with V, sort of. Maybe I don't remember why else they might have picked this story though..

I guess if they change things around a bunch they can adapt this story for the modern day and make it a bit more unique, but.. then is it really going to be still Childhood's End? I hope they don't change the main part of the story, the physique of the aliens.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I just read the novel a little while ago. I haven't seen the tv adaptation, but I am wary of the changes they might have made (I haven't looked at the wiki page, since I would like to see it with fresh eyes eventually).

The novel did end on kind of a downer. I can easily imagine an adaptation that uses the "future of mankind" idea without all the wreckage, which would undermine the author's idea.

(Spoiler for the book; maybe or maybe not also for the show, which I haven't seen.)

Spoiler :

Clarke was saying that we can't truly move on without razing our past to the ground, which is kind of grim. Also kind of understandable, coming from a European in the wake of the Second World War. Clarke was born in 1917, and the book was published in 1953, so you can see why he might have felt that mankind's evolution, literally or figuratively, demanded that we leave the past fully behind us.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I read this book a long time ago, it's your classic "peaceful alien invasion" story from what I remember, right? And the aliens look like {censored/no spoilers from me}?

Yeah, there's no way aliens that look like that are going to work on the screen, even if they're voiced by Charles Dance.

 

[warpus]

I think that part is going to work out well enough, CGI is at a stage where we can easily make it happen and look realistic.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Actually the moment of the reveal was very well done, and it did work. Dance was good as usual. The plot is altered quite a bit, however

(don't click on the spoiler, cause it contains stuff spoilers do )

Spoiler :

The characters are not as in the book, eg no UN secretary general at all-- replaced by a rather average-Joe in some smalltown USA. I am pretty sure the black guy cured from being unable to walk, is not in the book either, but is the central character here.

The aliens are progressing. They aren't working for the over-intelligence due to being stagnant.

Ending is crucially the same as in the book, though (afaik)

 

[Glassfan]

What I always admired about Clarke was that he employed actual science phenomena - no FTL spaceships, etc. - and his plots are often driven by the consequences.

 

[timtofly]

What stands out so far to me, is that the "series adaptation" blames both God and science for human failure. I never read the book, but does he really think that human evolution should be organic and that science is too "sophisticated" for human good? The "overlords" were not supposed to interfere, but right the wrongs of evolution and put it back on course without science, and by extension technology that has stood in the way of human evolution. If the title is Childhood's End, does that mean we no longer have an "inner child", but it has "grown up"?

 

[onejayhawk]

There is no point in giving spoilers to the book and movie. Wiki does that.

Clarke intensely disliked religion. As a young writer, he corresponded with CS Lewis. They grew further apart as time progressed, up to Lewis' death. What is interesting is the idea that science is also at fault. Clarke was very much the scientist. His mysticism was of the science = magic vein.

J

 

[Kyriakos]

Spoiler contains YT scene of the reveal from the show, so don't watch if you don't know what that is

Spoiler :

playback disabled, so watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJy-6B5WR-s

Easily the best scene of the series, btw.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Hmm, looks better than expected but still a bit goofy.
I'm surprised that they have put Charles Dance in heavy make-up. I was expecting CGI.

 

[Glassfan]

One wonders why the aliens are depicted to resemble Tim Curry in Legend. One wonders how any planetary evolution could come up with flying cows.

 

[Kyriakos]

I suppose the novel has them in this form due to build-up/shock factor, although going by wiki it is argued there (but not the series; it is very very briefly mentioned in the series, but abandoned) that there was some kind of telepathic reason for the connotations the form had on humans.