http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/54.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net I don't know what to feel.

On the one hand, the Mars Trilogy is one of my favourite sci-fi series', right up there with Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space novels and the IMO near-flawless Culture universe by Iain Banks, plus JMS has written some of the most interesting(if occasionally shaky on the dialogue front) TV sci-fi ever produced and this sort of high concept hard sci-fi is right up his alley. On the other hand...I'm nervous.

I don't think I've ever even seen any stuff put out by Spike TV over here, it seems to be mainly focused on CSI, wrestling, reruns, and reality shows - that doesn't exactly scream "we're the guys to pull off a quality adaptation of a complex and extremely politically radical sci-fi series" to me. And I'm not kidding about the radical stuff; it deals with some pretty heavy themes relating to the intersection of ecology and economics, corporatism, sustainability and inequality, the line between libertarianism and anarchism, the futility of both blind utopianism and vacant cynicism...I don't know if any American network saving perhaps HBO would have a high enough opinion of their audience to think them ready for Arkady Bogdanov, Sax Russel, Hiroko Ai, and Coyote. I worry that a TV adaptation might manage to make a reasonably compelling narrative out of the relationships, conflicts, and machinations involving Toitovna, Boone, and Chalmers which comprise one of the main plot threads of the first book, but are they really going to have the sack necessary to run a show featuring an anarcho-syndicalist revolution against corporate power which casts the revolutionaries as, broadly, the "good guys"?]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/634244/7563741.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/634244/7563741.page GMT
Think the concept is definitely more suited to a series than movie, but like you say will be interesting to see how they deal with the political concepts when it gets further into the story. Looking back on some of the stories in Babylon 5, it gives me hope that they will remain faithful to the source material, and also when you consider that the story runs along similar lines to the US's own fight for independence, of a colony trying to shrug off imperialistic rule. Although, presumably it will have to be successful for several series before it gets to that point!

Good timing as well with Ridley Scott well on the way with an adaption of 'The Martian' which I believe is due out this year. ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/634244/7563859.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/634244/7563859.page GMT I don't know if a series will be able to come anywhere close to what I imagine from reading the books, but I'm certainly interested in seeing what it's like. Like Yodhrin it's one of my favourite series' of all time, so I really hope they can do it justice.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/634244/7563950.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/634244/7563950.page GMT B5 is superb. And vice-versa

My concern here is MJS has a very theatrical approach to TV writing (iirc he had a lot of theatre experience prior to TV). I have no problem with this, in fact one of the things I love most about B5 is the 'speechifying' and the fact the sets often look like a stage, when you're trying to tell a story that epic on a budget then that's a strength not a weakness. However I'm not sure how well that style would lend itself to the ultra-realism of Mars, which is as much about the various sciences and politics of colonization as the people and the stories they create.

Still, worth a try, likely better than 99.999% of current TV.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/634244/7563979.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/634244/7563979.page GMT