ALL SCI-FI

Krel · Guest

The Alien ship looks like a fish skeleton to me. Laughing

David.

alltare · Quantum Engineer Joined: 17 Jul 2015 Posts: 351

Custer · Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2015 9:41 am Post subject:

Well, a number of reviews over at Archive.org aren't too keen on the sound balance, for the music and special effects in particular... just think of it as part of the quirky period charm of a 1966 BBC radio drama. Wow, its half-century is coming up next year!

alltare · Quantum Engineer Joined: 17 Jul 2015 Posts: 351

I don't have cable or dish, so I can't watch the CE 3-parter. Has anyone seen last night's episode? What do you think? Is it worth watching?

Robert (Butch) Day · Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 10:29 am Post subject:

Don't worry.It will be released on DVD/Blu-ray, probably sometime in late January.

The differences between the novel and the mini-series are huge.

I WILL NOT post my feelings about it until well after airing - but one can guess.
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

alltare · Quantum Engineer Joined: 17 Jul 2015 Posts: 351

Here we are, 3 months later. The DVD and BluRay were released on March 1, and they are $25 each at amazon. After reading the reviews at Amazon, I'm glad I missed the series on TV- it sounds like the 3 episodes were saturated with commercials. The discs will surely be much more enjoyable without those constant interruptions.

So here's my question: Is it worth 25 bucks, or should I wait until it gets cheap?

Krel · Guest

Didn't see the last episode, cable was having problems, also missed an episode of "The Expanse" because of that. Thanks Cox Cable. But then I didn't think the first two episodes were that great, so I'm not buying the DVDs to see the episode I missed.

David.

Robert (Butch) Day · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 10:59 am Post subject:

As promised (Boy! I shouldn't have done that!) my feelings.

They took a decent story and made a mish-mosh of it. What takes place in nearly a century of time they compress to between 20 to 25 years. Just to keep the human lead.
That human lead was made an American — specifically a citizen of the good 'ol US of A. In fact almost EVERY role was someone in the good 'ol Us of A.

The book was international.

One of the best scenes in the book was the diorama of the giant squid fighting the whale. It was used as a device so the Last Human could hide inside and go to Karelean's planet.

This mini-series reduced this to the bodies of a small whale and a medium squid encased in plastic wrap lying next to each other (along with samples of every other creature from Earth) and our current hero the same with oxygen bottles to keep him alive. Stupid. [By-the-way; HOW do you do that to bacterium and viruses?]

The ending of the book convey the feeling of a much greater conscienceness (although in a quasi-Hindu/Buddhist fashion).

The ending of the miniseries just makes the overmind selfish.

And all that's left for poor mankind and all the creatures on Earth — and, indeed, the Earth itself is pity and sadness.

All-in-all one of the worst adaptations ever.
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

Pye-Rate · Starship Co-Pilot Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 625

This was not adept, it was sausage made from the ocean garbage patch.
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The road to tomorrow runs through yesterday.

alltare · Quantum Engineer Joined: 17 Jul 2015 Posts: 351

Wow! Thanks for the feedback, guys. You have saved me $25.

orzel-w · Galactic Ambassador Joined: 19 Sep 2014 Posts: 1876

And I just removed it from my Netflix queue.
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...or not...

WayneO
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alltare · Quantum Engineer Joined: 17 Jul 2015 Posts: 351

Last week, I found a free download site that had all 3 HD episodes, so I have finally been able to watch CE. It's been so long since I read the book that I really can't make any direct comparisons except that I would have preferred the book's longer time line.

However, as a stand-alone made-for-TV movie, I thought SyFy did a pretty good job. Certainly better than what I had expected. My primary complaint is that it moves slowly quite often. I think the director could have easily cut 30 minutes of ponderous script without weakening the final product.

When the DVD/BluRay price drops to a reasonable amount, I'll probably buy it.

Gord Green · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 1:12 am Post subject:

I downloaded it as well and it was OK if you didn't know anything about the original

I think this was the best novel of Arthur C Clarke and one of the best Sci-Fi novels of all time and the TV version didn't come close, although it had its good points.

The novel was written during a very introspective era in our history and in the vein of Heinlien's STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND was focused on mans' evolution as an entity in the immensity of the Universe.

The only BBC version I'm aware of is the two part two hour adaptation written by Tony Mulhulland from a few years ago. I thought that adaptation was terrific and although it made logical updates to the original ( That all worked, by the way!) it came very close to the Arthur C Clarke "feel" of the original.

The Syfy channel version DID try to update the story but veared too far from the original to really work.