New Dune miniseries

[DocShane]

Originally posted by Instar:
When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet, and when toast is dropped, it always lands with the buttered side facing down. I propose to strap buttered toast to the back of a cat. The two will hover, spinning inches above the ground. With a giant buttered cat array, a high-speed monorail could easily link New York with Chicago.

OT: ROTF LMAO !!!! Hehehehe....

Thanks Instar!

[Cheeze]

I happened to enjoy the mini-series more than the movie. Sure, having 6 hours to tell a story over 2 makes a HUGE difference. What I really liked in both Scifi miniseries was the focus on intrigue and the machinations of the major players, and how these either came to fruition or failed. On a production level, I enjoyed the many accents of the characters, that little detail caught my ear and was enjoyable. I liked the Baron Harkonnen character and how well the actor played that role. The Baron seemed more believable and less a caricature. His reappearance in Children of Dune and excellent presence was a welcome surprise. I rather liked all the players in both miniseries and how the characters were presented. The actress who played Alia/Aliyah(spelling?) is a real cutie!!

Sting was a far better Feyd, no doubt about that!

[DirectorTsaarx]

Originally posted by Master Belisarius:

quote:

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Originally posted by Aloofi:
So spice can be eaten and is a fuel at the same time?
Isn't that kind of wierd?
I guess I know now why I didn't like it in the first place.

Is not a fuel.
It's a drug that use the Navigator Guild's pilots to control the space ships in the transtellar travels.
This drug give them a "prescience" that they need to control the ships.

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Yeah, sorry for confusing the issue - I was trying to keep the explanation short and left out too much. The basic point is that the Guild has an effective monopoly on space travel, because of the Navigators; the House that controls spice production on Dune/Arrakis has a huge amount of power because the spice is essential for the Navigators to do their job; and as for the strategy of ruling the universe by controlling the spice, any House that attempted to do so would find itself at the receiving end of a large Imperial warforce, transported by some angry Guild Navigators. Of course, that's assuming that the House got farther than the planning stages before the Guild figured it out and started denying travel services to the plotting House. Kinda hard to take control of a planet when the only reliable transportation is based on a Guild that has a vested interest in protecting free access to the planet...

And, as others have mentioned, the strategic importance of Dune/Arrakis is the central point of the book and one of the major drivers for the postulated sociopolitical structure. (The other major driver is the ban on "thinking machines", a ban dating back to the "Butlerian Jihad", a war between "thinking machines" and humans).

BTW - no-one's mentioned the fact that the Dune series doesn't use sentient alien races: the Guild Navigators are mutated humans, the Bene Gesserit and Mentats are highly trained humans with drug-enhanced abilites, and the Tleilaxu are a weird sect of human society that's learned how to manipulate genetic codes.

[Will]

I liked both mini-series, "Dune" and "Children of Dune". Of course, I come from the perspective of only hearing that the Frank Herbert novels are excellent, and not experiencing that excellence for myself (yet). Since I don't really have an original to compare them to, I thought they were good.

Someone made a comment about the bad acting in the first original... sure, it wasn't the greatest acting, but it wasn't the worst. I was able to suspend disbelief, and that is enough for me. Perhaps I have been desensitized because of all of the bad acting (and writing, and directing, and ... etc.) I've seen in student films here...

Anyway, I'll probably go to a bookstore and grab the books sometime, and read them over the summer.

[Fyron]

Anyway, I'll probably go to a bookstore and grab the books sometime, and read them over the summer.

That is a most excellent idea. If only others would follow suit.

[Slick]

Originally posted by Will:
Anyway, I'll probably go to a bookstore and grab the books sometime, and read them over the summer.

I thought the books were great and the story had incredible depth. This series was one of the best I have ever read. I did find the story moved a little slow, though. I wouldn't change anything, but know that the "action per page" is kinda low.

I still remember while reading the first book "Dune" how guilty I felt taking a shower and seeing all that water just go down the drain. I also would have to periodically stop reading to get a drink because I would get incredibly thirsty - theory of suggestion, I guess. The only series to affect me that way. Wierd.

Even till today, when I start to feel stressed, that phrase goes through my head: "Fear is the mind-killer..."

Slick.

[ March 20, 2003, 07:18: Message edited by: Slick ]

[kalthalior]

I haven't read the entire series, (I am WAY behind on my planned reading -- SE4 seems to take up a lot of my spare time again lately!) but I enjoyed the miniseries quite a bit. As far as the Dune films go, I think the biggest problem people had w/ the Lynch Version when it was released is that so much was edited out to make it feature length that the film wound up having no continuity. Director's cut is much better IMO, I went from hating the movie to actually liking it (somewhat). I have to agree with whomever made the point about not including the sonic weapons in the Sci-Fi Version, they are emphasized as being really revolutionary tech in the book.