There will be spoilers for the books in this thread, so if you haven't read the books, please don't read further...but do read the books, they rock!
How To Properly Do Riverworld As A Series
- Thread starter The Comedian
- Start date
Now then:
It occurred to me yesterday that if I were going to do Riverworld as a series, I would take on more (slightly more) of a Lost approach.
In the books, 35 billion human beings, everyone who ever lived between about 2 million BC and 2008 AD, wakes up naked, all at the same time, on the banks of the River. Everyone is hysterical and terrified, running around, freaking out.
I'd follow this exactly in the first episode. Introduce the main characters (Burton, Peter Frigate, the rest as detailed in the book, including the alien, Monat) and start revealing the secrets of the Riverworld, slowly - these people have no idea at first where they are and what happened to them or who's responsible. And yeah, you can easily get across the idea that everyone's naked with strategic camera angles.
That's just a brief synopsis to give you an idea - to me the real charm of the Riverworld novels was the incredible mystery of the place, confronted by a humanity which had been stripped of its technology, meaningful resources and even its clothes (at first), a humanity in the hands of beings about as powerful as the planet builders recently seen in Stargate Universe...and eventually overcoming all this to become masters of their fate.
A series could reveal new wonders, new cultures, and the heroes would slowly learn more about the Riverworld simply by getting out there, having a look around, and using their brains. Figuring out how to improvise and turn the situation to their advantage (like how the Riverboat used the grailstones to recharge)
And Burton would be the frakking hero, damn it.
I think it would be very doable if you didn't reveal all the mysteries at once and build the database as you went, so to speak. Plus the culture clashes were just plain interesting. The character combinations available would lead to some really funny or tragic plots. What happens when a 20th century American hooks up with a Jewish woman who knew Moses? Or a Roman soldier hooked up with a Victorian woman? What happens when you find your spouse and she's shacked up now with, say, Spartacus? That kind of stuff would be fun in itself.
Thoughts, opinions?
It occurred to me yesterday that if I were going to do Riverworld as a series, I would take on more (slightly more) of a Lost approach.
In the books, 35 billion human beings, everyone who ever lived between about 2 million BC and 2008 AD, wakes up naked, all at the same time, on the banks of the River. Everyone is hysterical and terrified, running around, freaking out.
I'd follow this exactly in the first episode. Introduce the main characters (Burton, Peter Frigate, the rest as detailed in the book, including the alien, Monat) and start revealing the secrets of the Riverworld, slowly - these people have no idea at first where they are and what happened to them or who's responsible. And yeah, you can easily get across the idea that everyone's naked with strategic camera angles.
That's just a brief synopsis to give you an idea - to me the real charm of the Riverworld novels was the incredible mystery of the place, confronted by a humanity which had been stripped of its technology, meaningful resources and even its clothes (at first), a humanity in the hands of beings about as powerful as the planet builders recently seen in Stargate Universe...and eventually overcoming all this to become masters of their fate.
A series could reveal new wonders, new cultures, and the heroes would slowly learn more about the Riverworld simply by getting out there, having a look around, and using their brains. Figuring out how to improvise and turn the situation to their advantage (like how the Riverboat used the grailstones to recharge)
And Burton would be the frakking hero, damn it.
I think it would be very doable if you didn't reveal all the mysteries at once and build the database as you went, so to speak. Plus the culture clashes were just plain interesting. The character combinations available would lead to some really funny or tragic plots. What happens when a 20th century American hooks up with a Jewish woman who knew Moses? Or a Roman soldier hooked up with a Victorian woman? What happens when you find your spouse and she's shacked up now with, say, Spartacus? That kind of stuff would be fun in itself.
Thoughts, opinions?
This is sooo doable. Any time they needed a stand-alone you could have a character encounter a new society and interact. If budget was an issue, raiding the nearest production's wardrobe combined with the generic "towel-like" cloths provided would work. Meanwhile, the underlying story would run through. They could easily get a season out of the first book(22 eps) and then drag through Book 2 over a season as well. Withthe idea that if ratings were good, stand-alones could stretch all that out.
If this was going to be made I'd like to see maybe 12 episodes a season so that the time could be spent on research and writing to try and make the characters as historically accurate as possible.
Burton should be the hero. In the books could be a bit of an ass and I think this works, making him a hero with flaws.
I'm not sure it would pass TPTB but i would keep Hermann Göring as a character. There needs to be characters that were villains in this world that are not villains in the next. Göring never becomes a hero but is a pathetic, sometimes sympathetic character in the Riverworld novels.
I would also have a set date that only people who died before a certain date can be on the Riverworld. I believe it was 1983 in the books but this could be moved as far as 2000. A point in the books was that people who claimed to have died after 1983 were agents. If the series airs on TV in 2011 then the destruction of the earth has to be set in about 2013. This way by the time it's revealed to the audience that the people who died after 1983 are agents and that the story they tell of the world ending isn't necessarily true.
The Alien, Monat, and the titanthope, Joe Miller, need to be in the starting company, however if Joe Miller needs to be a Neanderthal, for production reasons, I could accept that change.
(I haven't read these books in twenty years, I hope I'm remembering things right.)
Burton should be the hero. In the books could be a bit of an ass and I think this works, making him a hero with flaws.
I'm not sure it would pass TPTB but i would keep Hermann Göring as a character. There needs to be characters that were villains in this world that are not villains in the next. Göring never becomes a hero but is a pathetic, sometimes sympathetic character in the Riverworld novels.
I would also have a set date that only people who died before a certain date can be on the Riverworld. I believe it was 1983 in the books but this could be moved as far as 2000. A point in the books was that people who claimed to have died after 1983 were agents. If the series airs on TV in 2011 then the destruction of the earth has to be set in about 2013. This way by the time it's revealed to the audience that the people who died after 1983 are agents and that the story they tell of the world ending isn't necessarily true.
The Alien, Monat, and the titanthope, Joe Miller, need to be in the starting company, however if Joe Miller needs to be a Neanderthal, for production reasons, I could accept that change.
(I haven't read these books in twenty years, I hope I'm remembering things right.)
