Childhood's End (Sy Fy)

[Russ Smith]

Don't want to interrupt the Expanse thread with this so started new thread.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Russ Smith
I recorded the Childhoods End trilogy with extension at the end of each episode so I have about 10 minutes of the first Expanse. Will probably watch it.

Not sure what to make of Childhoods End, one of the first Clarke books I read some of changes they made for the tv version I don't like at all but I'm only 2/3 in that one.

Nice to see SyFy doing some shows that they're actually trying to be good as opposed to all the cheesy Sharknado stuff.
I never read the books but I have to say...it was sort of depressing. I wasn't sure what to expect so I had no real expectations of what the mini-series was about.

Basically...I heard alien....invasion.....I was in.
__________________


It is depressing although Clarke likes to poke at religion while doing his Sci Fi and that's sort of a central theme in this book.

There are things with the Sy Fy version I don't like,if you didn't know the book was a 1950's book you'd think it's a blatant ripoff of movies like Independence Day and even V, they even commented about Visitors, both of those movies take liberally from CE not the other way around.

The book very clearly says the overlords are a certain color but the miniseries makes them a different color for some odd reason. I don't know if it was a racial thing or what but it seemed like such a silly change to the book.

they eliminated a bunch of characters and changed some in ways that bugged me but the book is 60 years old so I guess a little updating is to be expected.

I'll probably watch the finale tonight on DVR so we'll see, 2/3 it's ok visually impressive but some things bug me. I do agree with one review, the beginning of the miniseries is very bad, they give the whole thing away in the very beginning, you're not supposed to know 5 seconds in that this turns out bad for humanity but they told us exactly that.

 

[Covert Rain]

I have to echo that I thought it was depressing but thought provoking.

 

[Russ Smith]

I have to echo that I thought it was depressing but thought provoking.

Yeah Clarke has a short story called 9 Billion Names of God that is essentially about a group of monks collecting a list of every known name there is for god in the world. To blow it for you at the end they finish the list and then it's essentially the end of the world everything blows up that's it.

In this book and in the miniseries they make several comments about god and the devil. In the miniseries Karellen tells a very religious woman " so many religions and they can't all be right, at most only 1 can be you knew that."

I don't know if Clarke was an atheist or not but he makes a big deal in this about the arrival of aliens ends religion as we know it. In the miniseries one character kills herself because she can't stand living without faith in god, I don't recall if that's in the book or not but it's another example of him provoking thought as you said.

I didn't like the 3rd part of it nearly as much, it was ok but it's a difficult book to create a movie out of anyways and as you said, it's depressing.

I'm still annoyed at the beginning, I guess the title sort of gives it away but they literally told you in the first 5 seconds of it that the Overlords were bad news for humans and then spent the next 2 hours trying to convince you their visit is great for humanity . That is supposed to be one of the twists, a if it seems too good to be true it probably is, but they gave that away at the very start.

 

[oaken1]

Yeah Clarke has a short story called 9 Billion Names of God that is essentially about a group of monks collecting a list of every known name there is for god in the world. To blow it for you at the end they finish the list and then it's essentially the end of the world everything blows up that's it.

In this book and in the miniseries they make several comments about god and the devil. In the miniseries Karellen tells a very religious woman " so many religions and they can't all be right, at most only 1 can be you knew that."

I don't know if Clarke was an atheist or not but he makes a big deal in this about the arrival of aliens ends religion as we know it. In the miniseries one character kills herself because she can't stand living without faith in god, I don't recall if that's in the book or not but it's another example of him provoking thought as you said.

I didn't like the 3rd part of it nearly as much, it was ok but it's a difficult book to create a movie out of anyways and as you said, it's depressing.

I'm still annoyed at the beginning, I guess the title sort of gives it away but they literally told you in the first 5 seconds of it that the Overlords were bad news for humans and then spent the next 2 hours trying to convince you their visit is great for humanity . That is supposed to be one of the twists, a if it seems too good to be true it probably is, but they gave that away at the very start.

I enjoyed the show,...do not recall if I ever read the book but the story did seem familiar to me.

do you wonder,....if the guy had not opened the "test Tube"...if maybe they would have just left? They did after all give him "free will" to open it or not as he saw fit.

 

[Stout]

The show was awful. I could only stomach to finish the first two episodes. I mean, it was as bad as the main character's other major show--Under the Dome. Just so clunky and cheesy. Add on to this that they ruined a sci-fi classic novel, and Syfy has just set itself back quite a bit, IMO.

 

[BillsCarnage]

The show was awful. I could only stomach to finish the first two episodes. I mean, it was as bad as the main character's other major show--Under the Dome. Just so clunky and cheesy. Add on to this that they ruined a sci-fi classic novel, and Syfy has just set itself back quite a bit, IMO.

It's Syfy - still hate that - and that's what they do. Have you watched any of the Sharktopus-whatever movies? Not even B-quality movies.

 

[bankybruce]

The show was awful. I could only stomach to finish the first two episodes. I mean, it was as bad as the main character's other major show--Under the Dome. Just so clunky and cheesy. Add on to this that they ruined a sci-fi classic novel, and Syfy has just set itself back quite a bit, IMO.

The second episode started out ok, but just ended so bad! Still watched the 3rd and was even more disappointed.

 

[Russ Smith]

The second episode started out ok, but just ended so bad! Still watched the 3rd and was even more disappointed.

Yeah they went too far off from the book almost like they were trying to see if they could make a series out of it decided they couldn't, so they ended it.

 

[Russ Smith]

I enjoyed the show,...do not recall if I ever read the book but the story did seem familiar to me.

do you wonder,....if the guy had not opened the "test Tube"...if maybe they would have just left? They did after all give him "free will" to open it or not as he saw fit.

I don't think they were going to leave but yeah they spent lots of effort to make humanity think they were in this to help,

One of the biggest things I didn't like was how they changed the time frame. in the book they wait 50 years before revealing what they look like, that's a huge deal in the book that they fully get that when people see them they're not going to trust them so they have literally 2 generations of people growing up with these overlords before they get to see them. In the miniseries it's 15, it completely changes that aspect of it.

I think it's supposed to be inevitable we're going to do this but we know it will work better if we gain your trust.

Which is again why I hated the beginning, when you read the book you're supposed to think there has to be a catch here right before they drop the other shoe, the miniseries took that suspense away way too early.

 

[Stout]

It's Syfy - still hate that - and that's what they do. Have you watched any of the Sharktopus-whatever movies? Not even B-quality movies.

I had hopes for it because Syfy has actually done some quality programming recently. Oh well.

Yeah they went too far off from the book almost like they were trying to see if they could make a series out of it decided they couldn't, so they ended it.

Yep.