Day of the triffids

[Lonemagpie]

Part 2 is fun so far - but the timescale is surely way off- this has to be months after part 1, at least...

This breakdown of government would never have happened if Mister Saxon was still in charge...

 

[Silvercrest]

well this Day of the Blind stuff is getting in the way of a plot that mostly seems to have been ripped from the other BBC series Survivors. Not nearly enough about the Triffards themselves.

Yeah but the story is about the blind as much, if not more, than the Triffids. At the end of the day it isn't the triffids that have laid humanity low, it's the blindness. This is probably even more emphasised in the 80's version than this one.

but why does that point need to be made? if its about how society would cope if a large % of it went blind, why have in the Triffids in it at all, unless of course we find out they caused the blindness somehow.

You haven't read the book, have you?

 

[Starkers]

Well having found pt 1 a bit lacklustre I have to say I really enjoyed the second part, although you're right, Lonemagpie, the timeline is iffy, when Jo breaks into the Chinese resturaunt the guy she gets the keys off looks like he died about an ahour ago, yet it must be months, weeks at least.

It's a shame they didn't spend more time on this because I'd have liked to see more of Durrant'as fiefdom before Mason blew the whistle, and I'd have liked to see a bit more of Torrance's army defending London...loved how he thought he was Churchill!

Still flawed, but much better, and I thought the Triffids were quite good in this part, also glad they didn't create a super weapon to destroy the Triffids, and that they ended up heading to the Isle of Wight too

 

[Starkers]

Civilisation could rebuild itself despite the blindness, with a modification of coker's plan. The triffids just make it an awful lot harder.

I kind of get what you mean (I think). Plotwise the Triffids are just there to hurry up the efforts to organise the blind into a new society.

How come so many hoodies survived the blinding? And how did the blind start so many fires? Were they all walking around holding petrol/Triffoil and matches?

There's at least one sequence in the original where a few blind people have set up rope and pullys to allow them to function...I think they're still got by Triffids mind you.

Is that the elderly couple? The husband gets chomped on the way out to dig up some cabbages IIRC.

And I knew the film reminded me of something else, although I didn't see it, Blindness.

That's the bit, yes.

 

[Reverend]

There's an 80s version? I'm only familiar with the old 60's film and I barely even remember that. With that in mind I thought part one was reasonably good, once you get past the inherently contrived premise.

 

[Starkers]

^Yeah the BBC made a 6 part series in the early 1980s...it's very good

Link

 

[Captain Pike]

I'm a fan of the David Maloney version. I'm looking forward to this new take on things.

I'll check it out through, um, other means once it's been out a little while..

 

[wamdue]

Yeah but the story is about the blind as much, if not more, than the Triffids. At the end of the day it isn't the triffids that have laid humanity low, it's the blindness. This is probably even more emphasised in the 80's version than this one.

but why does that point need to be made? if its about how society would cope if a large % of it went blind, why have in the Triffids in it at all, unless of course we find out they caused the blindness somehow.

You haven't read the book, have you?

ive not claimed to, ive said before this the first time ive actually seen Day of the Triffids

 

[Silvercrest]

Just pointing up the fact that everyone keeps talking about the '60s version, and the '80s version -- but the book addresses everything you said. It appears to be about how society would cope if a large percentage of the population went blind. There's a lot of conflict over the best way to restart civilization. But it's really about how humanity would cope if there was a competing species that was relatively intelligent, and better suited to blindness than we were. The answer is: Not very well.

In the book, the triffids weren't responsible for the blindness. Even though they were deadly and their origins were a little unclear, they were treated as nothing more than a nuisance... as long as we had the advantage of sight. Once that went away, the triffids became the top of the food chain.

Basically, that means the plot describes two different apocalypses, one which sets up the other. Maybe that comes across as a little odd to you?

It took a while for the triffids to increase to a sufficient population to be a real threat (and most of the characters didn't notice what was going on until it was too late). Once that happened, it came down to a real fight for survival. (It's comparable to what things would be like if the zombie apocalypse occurred AFTER civilization had already fallen.)

I haven't seen any of the later stuff, only the '60s movie (which totally missed the boat). But if you want to assess the '80s version or this latest one, then compare it to what I wrote above.

 

[wamdue]

the story is an interesting idea, but its not what I expected from the show.

 

[WillsBabe]

I need to re-read the novel. I read it after I'd seen the 80's version, but to be honest can't remember much about it. If nothing else, this new version has sent me back to the source material, which can't be bad.

 

[wamdue]

I have yet to see Part 2, obviously feel free to post spoilers, but my comments so far have been based on only seeing Part 1.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Anyone (in the UK) who's interested in watching the 80s version MSN has the full series up. http://player.uk.msn.com/sci-fi/day-of-the-triffids/

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

It was OK although I won't be in any hurry to rewatch it. It didn't really add anything new to distinguish it from what has gone before. Eddie Izzard's performance was acceptable, but he's so recognizable that I found him really distracting. It would have been better to cast a relatively unknown actor.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Anyone (in the UK) who's interested in watching the 80s version MSN has the full series up. http://player.uk.msn.com/sci-fi/day-of-the-triffids/

I was going to complain that I'd already linked to the Beeb's Triffid videos on Youtube. But your link led to Neverwhere, which I didn't catch first time around, so you win

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Anyone (in the UK) who's interested in watching the 80s version MSN has the full series up. http://player.uk.msn.com/sci-fi/day-of-the-triffids/

I was going to complain that I'd already linked to the Beeb's Triffid videos on Youtube. But your link led to Neverwhere, which I didn't catch first time around, so you win

There's the recent Quatermass too. There are other shows on there people might be interested in, too. Such as Bottom, Big Train, League of Gentlemen, Shameless, Mock the Week, etc.

 

[Captain Pike]

I finally caught the 2005 remake of The Quatermass Experiment on UKTV last week.

You could tell it was done live, though the actors did a fine job. The scene onboard the rocket was suitably creepy. But for me the whole thing fell apart when they got to the big monster reveal at the end and there was no monster. Nothing. This is the climax of the story, mind you. You just had to kind of imagine it. It was as if it had been changed to an invisible, spiritual entity.

I'm guessing the money run out or something? What was the story there?

 

[payndz201]

I'll have to watch the 1980s series to check (thanks for the link!), but I seem to remember the blinded people being more of a threat than in the new version, at least to start with. Once they got hold of some sighted people, they basically intended to use them as chained slaves to keep them fed.

Maybe it says something about me psychologically, but I found that every bit as terrifying a fate as being attacked by killer plants: being forced to do the bidding of an angry mob at the cost of your own freedom, and even safety. This time round, though, apart from a few scenes early on, the blind were pretty passive and laid-back about the whole situation.

 

[WillsBabe]

Just caught the second part. Still not impressed overall, but a couple of things I quite liked: Brian Cox's reaction when he hears his wife's voice on the tape is a nice moment, and I liked the actress playing Susan. Thought she had a nice quality to her. But really, were they intending to row to the Isle of Wight? It was all a bit middle class. But then so was the 80's version and I didn't level that against it as a criticism so I shouldn't level it against this, either. I really like Eddie Izzard but beyond looking really dapper and quite handsome, he just brought me out of the whole thing. I just kept thinking, "It's Eddie Izzard." Oh well.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Just caught the second part. Still not impressed overall, but a couple of things I quite liked: Brian Cox's reaction when he hears his wife's voice on the tape is a nice moment, and I liked the actress playing Susan. Thought she had a nice quality to her. But really, were they intending to row to the Isle of Wight? It was all a bit middle class. But then so was the 80's version and I didn't level that against it as a criticism so I shouldn't level it against this, either. I really like Eddie Izzard but beyond looking really dapper and quite handsome, he just brought me out of the whole thing. I just kept thinking, "It's Eddie Izzard." Oh well.

I really didn't like Eddie Izzard's character, he had no real reason for what he was doing... Just seemed like he woke up on the plane and thought "I'm gonna be a complete and utter bastard from now on."