Friday 6 November 2020

Multi-Media SF

Any sf series begins in one medium and can spread to others with greater or lesser impact. Thinking about this generated two curious lists which I designate as "Drama" and "Paper," the main point being that Poul Anderson generated much "Paper," in his case prose fiction, but has not yet spread to "Drama," with the single exception of a "botched" film adaptation of The High Crusade. However, let us first consider the lists, which show some prominent examples, not every possible example.

SF That Began As Drama
TV: Star Trek
cinema: Star Wars
 
(This blog has compared Into Deepest Space, the sequel to Rockets In Ursa Major, with works by Poul Anderson. See here.)

Some Paper SF, Most Of It Dramatized
comics: Superman
a single novel: Planet Of The Apes 
a series of novels: Dune
a series of novels and short stories: the Technic History
 
Dune has been well visualized by three screen adaptations whereas the Technic History, crying out for such treatment, does have a minimal visual presence in book cover illustrations and in the ACE illustrated edition of A Stone In Heaven.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I also have a now vague recollection of Asimov's three original FOUNDATION books getting adapted into filmed versions. Considering how disappointing I eventually came to regard the FOUNDATION books at being, that merely increases my irritation at how OVERLOOKED Anderson's far better stories are.

Ad astra! Sean