Childhood's End - 'The Overlords'

This is certainly a series that makes some bold visual choices.

Into a world on the brink of environmental collapse come the ships of an alien race. They temporarily halt all transport, silence all communication and harmlessly ground all aircraft, then use the images of dead loved ones to send a message. Karellen - the self-styled supervisor for Earth - announces that they are here to help and to prevent humanity destroying the planet and themselves. They choose Ricky Stormgren, a Missouri farmer and natural leader to be their sole contact with the people of Earth.

Media mogul Hugo Wainwright, distrustful of the aliens, dubs them the Overlords and uses social media propaganda to drum up distrust, while Ricky struggles to overcome resistance to the often high-handed methods of the planet's benefactors. The Overlords provide clean power and a massive programme of resource redistribution, but run roughshod over national sovereignty and personal property rights, resulting in a continuing support for Wainwright's Freedom League, while other groups voice fears that the Overlords will eclipse the concept of God. All the while, Karellen refuses to appear in his true form before the people of Earth.

Inner city kid and aspiring physicist Milo (who narrates the opening bookend from a post-apocalyptic future) is shot by a gang banger after his mother gets into a fight with a rival drug dealer, but the Overlords intervene, killing the shooter and restoring Milo to life, at the same time healing his lifelong paralysis. As their good works begin to drown out the Freedom League's message, the League kidnaps Ricky and threatens to kill him if the Overlords do not withdraw and allow humanity to fuck up the planet on their own schedule. Karellen acts to rescue Ricky, but not before allowing Wainwright's fanaticism to subvert his own message and thus removing the last organised resistance to the Overlords' project.

I was if nothing else impressed that they went full demon for
the Overlords.

In their last meeting, Ricky uses a camera to shoot a picture of Karellen through his one-way mirror, but he and his wife agree that Karellen was right to hide himself. Even fifteen years later, when the supervisor deems it time, the world is shocked to see his true appearance. The watching grown ups are horrified when Earth's 'guardian angels' turn out to be towering demons, but the children smile in acceptance.

This new miniseries adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's first successful novel makes a number of changes, for better and for worse. My familiarity with the source is limited to this opening part as I have only read 'Guardian Angel', the short story which Clarke adapted into the opening section of the eventual novel, so I'm not claiming to be an expert.

Like the earlier BBC Radio adaptation, the miniseries opens with a character in the end days of Earth, which is kind of OMG spoilers. It also massively compacts the timeline of the series, so that there can be continual protagonists, whereas in the book each section revolves around a different cast of characters, and the gap between the arrival and revelation of the Overlords is fifty, not fifteen years. I guess it makes sense to have a more consistent cast for television, but it makes a bit of a mockery of the whole concealment thing when they don't leave long enough for the generation who have grown up with the Overlords all their lives aren't in charge yet. Also, so far the series hasn't mentioned the Overlords' first visit to Earth, but that may come later.

Finally in the headscratching side of things, the book's ambassador for Earth is Rikki Stormgren, the Finnish Secretary-General of the United Nations, representing a form of international authority and more importantly hailing from a largely neutral nation. Switching this character for Missouri farm boy Ricky Stormgren puts the voice of the Overlords slap bang in the middle of perhaps the most hated international playground bully since the European empires of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and results in the aliens' directives being effectively issued by the USA, with Stormgren flanked by dodgy Secret Service assholes. This muddies the waters significantly. Stormgren even notes to Karellen that the worst thing for many people would be if the Overlords, the beings sitting in judgement of the world, were just other humans with a bit more tech throwing their weight around. In essence, by working through the US, this is what they become; the parallels are too great, despite their almost Communist agenda.

On the other hand, the series makes an excellent fist of updating the present-day setting. in particular with the Freedom League's use of social media and soundbites to obliquely liken the Overlords to the Nazis or to farmers fattening stock for market. The use of the image of planes being lowered between skyscrapers was also a very potent and bold visual, a gentling of the great American nightmare image of the 21st century.

So far, the adaptation has been pretty good, holding to the basic ideas of the book with just a little compression of time and an increased US focus. The fact that part two is called 'The Deceivers' instead of 'The Golden Age' however gives me pause.