Television: Will We See a Murderbot Television Series?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Tordotcom

I am a big fan of Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries, having read all seven in the series and looking forward to the eighth. So I was pleased to read late last year that the series will be coming to television.

If you are not familiar with the series, the best way to describe it is the tale of a security “construct” that has escaped its corporate tether and now needs to make its way in a human world. It starts its freedom acting like a petulant teenager more interested in old media adventures than humans, but it finds its way as the series continues, saving plenty of humans along the way from greedy corporations. It is just a fun read.

So in terms of television, Apple TV+ is working on a 10-episode first season, which includes Alexander Skarsgård (Succession) in the title role. Given that the main character, or Murderbot, is technically genderless and not interested in the topic of sex in the stories, I am surprised Skarsgårdis was given this type of role. You can read about some of the other actors in the series here.

Much of the story takes place within Murderbot’s head as it throws out sarcastic comments, so getting this onto the screen should prove interesting. Apple TV+ took great liberties with the Foundation series, but I hope that will not be necessary here.

I have yet to see a premiere date, so we are talking sometime in 2025.

Stay tuned.

Note: Apple TV+ is advertising a separate movie called Murderbot about a female robot gone crazy. You can ignore it.

Television: Last Days of the Space Age

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Hulu

If you are watching the list of fall shows, you might have noticed Hulu’s upcoming series Last Days of the Space Age. The new drama premieres on October 2, 2024.

Here is the summary from Hulu:

In 1979, a power strike threatens to plunge the region into darkness in Western Australia, while the city hosts the Miss Universe pageant and the US space station, Skylab, crashes just beyond the city’s suburbs.

The trailer provides a little more context, but there is a reason that Skylab is mentioned last in the short summary. The space age plays a small part in a bigger human drama. Fortunately, it is not really the end of the space age as much as the end of a bit of the space age as it falls from the sky. The real Skylab disintegrated in the Earth’s atmosphere on July 11, 1979, leading to debris falling into the Indian Ocean as well as Western Australia.

Once the International Space Station is nudged out of orbit in the coming years, we may have more debris fields generating television ideas. I just wonder if it will take another 45 years to make it to your screen.

This series may be as good as it gets on television until Andor returns next year. The space-related television pickings are pretty slim at the moment.

Update: To be fair, there are a few more shows to check out before the end of the year, including Dune: Prophecy coming on November 17 and another Star Wars series called Skeleton Crew premiering on December 3.

Television: The End of The Acolyte

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Scene from Disney’s Star Wars: Acolyte television series. (Lucasfilm)

I cannot say I am surprised that Disney’s new Star Wars television series The Acolyte has been cancelled after only one season. I watched a few episodes and gave up.

Given that Disney has decided to spread the Star Wars series very thin over multiple storylines, it seems that the goal has been more TV rather than better TV. Even the trick of dropping in the occasional cameo, be it Luke Skywalker or various versions of Darth Vader, has worn thin.

So while the first series, The Mandalorian, is going into its fourth season, the other series are more or less limping along. The best of the lot, Andor, missed 2024 completely and will have its second and last season next year. What if Disney had concentrated more on Andor and less on these other spin-offs (The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka)? Maybe we would be talking about season three of Andor and the franchise would have some new and true fans.

With all of this busyness with little to show for it, I was surprised to read that Disney was putting out a Mandalorian feature film that mashes together some of the television storylines. Are we now milking to death the still struggling offspring of the Star Wars family? Why?

Disney needs to use its cash and creative talent to come up with new sci-fi series. Look at The Expanse for some ideas or just visit the sci-fi section of the library.

All I know is that turning Star Wars into a money pit is not the way to go.

Television: PBS Documentary on Space Travel

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Greenwich Entertainment)

If you are looking for a television show on the hazards of space travel, PBS has created a worthwhile documentary titled Space: The Longest Goodbye. It is playing on your local PBS station as well as online.

Here is a little more about the series:

NASA’s goal to send astronauts to Mars would require a three-year absence from Earth, during which communication in real time would be impossible due to the immense distance. Meet the psychologists whose job is to keep astronauts mentally stable in outer space, as they are caught between their dream of reaching new frontiers and the basic human need to stay connected to home.

The series covers various attempts to understand the human mind when constrained to a small place, be it a rocket, a space station, or a planetary/moon base.

The PBS website also has more information on the series as well as comments from the participants. For example, the story “How Science Fiction Confronts the Real Isolation of Space” touches on our favorite movies and television shows to see what they say on the issue, from Black Mirror and For All Mankind to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien.

We still have a lot to learn about the human mind before we go any real distance into space or simply sit in place on the Moon or Mars. We may find that equipment challenges are the easiest challenges to resolve in future Artemis missions.

Television: New Star Wars Series Acolyte

Posted on by onespaceman2000

Do we really need one more Star Wars television series? Not really, but we will get one anyway. It starts tomorrow (June 4) and is called Acolyte. It reminds me of the movie Solo, which was made for no other purpose other than to mine the diminishing appeal of the Star Wars empire (financial empire, that is). We seem to be getting to the point of better special effects and the disappearance of any meaningful story.

Here is the pitch for the new series (and trailer):

In “Star Wars: The Acolyte,” an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems….

I would much rather see a bolder and better told story for The Mandalorian, or an earlier release of the second (and sadly last) season of Andor, which was pushed until next year. Instead, we get the a mishmash of old themes that represents one more stirring of a old pot.

This is a combination of everything that poisoned the original series – too many special effects in episodes I-III and a less than original story in episodes VII-IX. At least The Mandalorian was fun, and Andor gave us an interesting piece of the overall story (as did the movie Rouge One). The rest is chaff.

Nonetheless, the series will continue and we are expected to abide. As Darth Vader said in The Empire Strikes Back, “There is no escape. Don’t make me destroy you.”

Update: I ended my viewing after the second episode. The program was too stiff with little humor or self-awareness. I do not need to spend my time with CSI: Star Wars. I will await the return of Andor.

Credit: Disney+