At a Memorial Evening for James Blish, who died in 1975, Charles Monteith described Blish's Cities In Flight Tetralogy as "a greater and higher Star Trek" and there were advanced plans to film Cities In Flight which never materialized. Star Trek has come a long way since 1975 but, even now, if the Technic History were to be adapted appropriately, then its fictional history would be much richer than the one presented in the multiple Star Trek TV and cinema series.
Any screen dramatization of a novel should be a serial with every episode corresponding to a chapter or even to a chapter section. Even short stories like "The Saturn Game" or "Starfog" could become (shorter) screen serials if each of their scenes were to be dramatized with the deserved attention to detail. Thus, the forty three installments of the Technic History would provide the basis for an indefinitely long-running audiovisual series. In my opinion, extra scenes elaborating the contents of Anderson's texts would be a legitimate part of the dramatization process - I have seen this done with other novels - and would not require new stories about Nicholas van Rijn or Dominic Flandry to be written by other authors.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I like that! And I hope a good and ACCURATE screened versions of the Technic series might someday be made. I'm so tired of STAR DRECK and STAR BLAHS.
And some of those "elaborations" you suggested might try reading between the lines to show us more of characters we see either only briefly or not at all. Such as Leon Ammon and the widow of Georgios.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Since you have pointed it out, I really would like to see an older Ammon and Flandry reminiscing.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
An intriguing notion, and one I like! I do wish Anderson had shown us Ammon and Flandry meeting in later years, perhaps during a reception at the Coral Palace.
Ad astra! Sean
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