BBC War of the Worlds
Discussion
Zirconia said:
Hitch Hikers Guide.
Book, radio then TV then film.
All with differences. I have the. radio play scripts. Adams passed away before the film but it was his work.
Then Dirk Gently tv series, not as per book and years after Adams but I enjoyed it a lot.
Mr Wells is not around obviously. I hope it is something he would have approved of.
The radio series came first, followed by the book, then TV and film.Book, radio then TV then film.
All with differences. I have the. radio play scripts. Adams passed away before the film but it was his work.
Then Dirk Gently tv series, not as per book and years after Adams but I enjoyed it a lot.
Mr Wells is not around obviously. I hope it is something he would have approved of.
This series is currently being aired in New Zealand on Sunday evenings, and I managed to get hold of the first episode earlier today (episode 2 is on the 20th). As a die hard fan of the book I'm quite disappointed with how they've dealt with the Martians, but other than that it wasn't too bad. I'll avoid rambling on about it here and giving spoilers away, but although it was a pretty good show that clearly had a reasonable budget, some of the changes they've made left me a little sad. Looks like they'll be covering all of the major events of the book though, and it appears the series may be going beyond the scope of the book too.
Wonders about this. The BBC version or the Fox version?
Hate the search that indicates a link will say when it is aired and just says Autumn. Obvious hook to click the link.
If New Zealand has the first episode, is that a nod possibly to the special effects studio there assuming they did a lot of the work?
Hate the search that indicates a link will say when it is aired and just says Autumn. Obvious hook to click the link.
If New Zealand has the first episode, is that a nod possibly to the special effects studio there assuming they did a lot of the work?
Brigand said:
This series is currently being aired in New Zealand on Sunday evenings, and I managed to get hold of the first episode earlier today (episode 2 is on the 20th). As a die hard fan of the book I'm quite disappointed with how they've dealt with the Martians, but other than that it wasn't too bad. I'll avoid rambling on about it here and giving spoilers away, but although it was a pretty good show that clearly had a reasonable budget, some of the changes they've made left me a little sad. Looks like they'll be covering all of the major events of the book though, and it appears the series may be going beyond the scope of the book too.
Obviously. Faithfully adapting source material is - it seems - beyond the wit of any TV/film company.
Venturist said:
pidsy said:
Haha. It’s all good.
I was referencing the terrible version that Audible did.
I’m just hoping that if they do put any of the music in, it won’t be as bad as that version.
It could be a black screen for 2 hours and it would be better than Tom Cruises effort.
I quite liked it. The bit where the tripod first comes out of the ground and plays that foghorn sound - genuinely chilling. I was referencing the terrible version that Audible did.
I’m just hoping that if they do put any of the music in, it won’t be as bad as that version.
It could be a black screen for 2 hours and it would be better than Tom Cruises effort.
Zirconia said:
Wonders about this. The BBC version or the Fox version?
Hate the search that indicates a link will say when it is aired and just says Autumn. Obvious hook to click the link.
If New Zealand has the first episode, is that a nod possibly to the special effects studio there assuming they did a lot of the work?
The BBC version. The fact NZ are getting it first may have something to do with the series being heavily funded by ITV, so some of that money may have come from an NZ studio, or as you say the special effects team being from there.Hate the search that indicates a link will say when it is aired and just says Autumn. Obvious hook to click the link.
If New Zealand has the first episode, is that a nod possibly to the special effects studio there assuming they did a lot of the work?
I've heard rumours of the UK air date being mid-November on Sundays, but that's as reliable as the past two supposed air dates the BBC have hinted at.
Johnnytheboy said:
Obviously.
Faithfully adapting source material is - it seems - beyond the wit of any TV/film company.
It's a shame though, especially the changes they've made to the tripods (and not just what we saw of them in the trailer) really does make me wonder why they have to stray away from the source material, feels like change for change sake. You can see from the trailer you have the red headed woman, she plays a large part in the show despite the narrators wife playing hardly any part of the book, but I can see why they've added her. Much of the original book was second-hand accounts relayed by the narrator, so to show those parts we have this lady's perspective, which makes sense in the context of a TV show.Faithfully adapting source material is - it seems - beyond the wit of any TV/film company.
Brigand said:
Johnnytheboy said:
Obviously.
Faithfully adapting source material is - it seems - beyond the wit of any TV/film company.
It's a shame though, especially the changes they've made to the tripods (and not just what we saw of them in the trailer) really does make me wonder why they have to stray away from the source material, feels like change for change sake. You can see from the trailer you have the red headed woman, she plays a large part in the show despite the narrators wife playing hardly any part of the book, but I can see why they've added her. Much of the original book was second-hand accounts relayed by the narrator, so to show those parts we have this lady's perspective, which makes sense in the context of a TV show.Faithfully adapting source material is - it seems - beyond the wit of any TV/film company.
I expect changes can be for many reasons. Lord of The Rings was OK, but a few changes split the ending somewhat. Hobbit was sort of OK, not along the lines of the kids book it was meant to be but when turned into Dune, I though come on! Probably a success with a lot of people that never read the books.
I watched this a couple of weeks ago when in Canada. All I can say is that if you are a fan of the book, the original film, the radio play or Jeff Wayne's version you are unlikely to like this. To say it is very loosely based on HG Wells original is an understatement. I found it extremely disappointing and to make matters worse, it doesn't really finish. Even the aliens bear no resemblance to the originals, looking more like those from the series 'Falling Skies'. So many important aspects of the original were simply forgotten about.
If HG Wells hadn't written War Of The Worlds and you could regard this as a stand alone sci-fi series with no knowledge of the original it would be pretty good, but the whole time I was thinking that this is a very poor interpretation of a story that has been done much better many times before. Even the Tom Cruise film version was better as it didn't really pretend to owe much to the original.
From my perspective, 2 out of 10 is being generous (but I am a big fan of the original version).
If HG Wells hadn't written War Of The Worlds and you could regard this as a stand alone sci-fi series with no knowledge of the original it would be pretty good, but the whole time I was thinking that this is a very poor interpretation of a story that has been done much better many times before. Even the Tom Cruise film version was better as it didn't really pretend to owe much to the original.
From my perspective, 2 out of 10 is being generous (but I am a big fan of the original version).
I look forward to seeing this as a sci-fi fan. I don't recall reading the book but of course have seen the early film which was good for its time. The tom cruise film I thought stood well as a stand alone and as someone suggested borrowed the premise but showed it from another characters point of view. It was good that cruises character wasn't the saving the world hero, only doing his best for him and his family in the situation.
A few years ago I saw the Jeff Wayne musical stage show... hmmm.. ok..
Adaptation of books is difficult as often, certainly in the case of hitchhikers and some of the terry pratchett books, a lot of the humour and detail is in the narrative of the book not just in what the characters are saying or doing.
I saw the stage show of hitchhikers (with Andrew Sachs as the narrator) which was very enjoyable. The tv series was very good. The film was good too but had plenty missing as did the tv series of dirk gently. This was quite disappointing because of the feeling that the production, for me, missed some great parts of the story and I didn't think it was even close to resembling the book.
A few years ago I saw the Jeff Wayne musical stage show... hmmm.. ok..
Adaptation of books is difficult as often, certainly in the case of hitchhikers and some of the terry pratchett books, a lot of the humour and detail is in the narrative of the book not just in what the characters are saying or doing.
I saw the stage show of hitchhikers (with Andrew Sachs as the narrator) which was very enjoyable. The tv series was very good. The film was good too but had plenty missing as did the tv series of dirk gently. This was quite disappointing because of the feeling that the production, for me, missed some great parts of the story and I didn't think it was even close to resembling the book.
Gassing Station | TV, Film, Video Streaming & Radio | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff