The Day of The Triffids - BBC Remake (2009)

[Dave]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

I watched Turn of the Screw and have now watched the first part of Triffids. I enjoyed both.

I rather enjoyed it once it got going. They are indeed treating it 28 Days Later with plants instead of zombies. Bit disappointed that Coker is an American, and that the substance of his role has been sacrificed to create a star part for Eddie Izzard.

We're only half-way through, but it looks like the '81 version will remain definitive. Rightly so.

Agree with all that, Danny Boyle admitted that he ripped off the start of 28 Days Later from Triffids so that similarity is hardly surprising.

I liked the updating of the story. I think a solar flare is more plausible than strange meteorites for the blindness. Harebrain has a point about the amount of TriffidOil that could be produced, but making Triffids a result of man's technology rather than alien seeds has more emotional appeal. It means there is less sympathy for Bill Mason though since his family were responsible.

I did like the fact that Eddie Izzard survived the plane crash in the loo with some life jackets, very plausible!

That was a little unlikely, but if he did then you could see why he would develop a god-complex.

Regarding the voice-over, there are many parts of Wyndham's books that are told rather than spoken. I guess it must be hard to adapt for TV. You cannot have a character speak everything they think or observe; it would be too false. I didn't have a problem with the way it was done.

I will certainly watch part two, just to understand what the comments about "mumbo jumbo" mean and to see the evil nun.

 

[AE35Unit]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

Its been a while since I read the book, cant remember, did Wyndham explain where the Triffids came from? It seems in this version they are already here, rather like the new War of the Worlds.

 

[Dave]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

Its been a while since I read the book, cant remember, did Wyndham explain where the Triffids came from? It seems in this version they are already here, rather like the new War of the Worlds.

It has been a while since I read the book too. I think I have always attributed some connection between the origin of the Triffids and the blindness that was not actually there. According to Wikipedia

The book implies they were bioengineered in the Soviet Union and then accidentally released into the wild when a plane carrying their seeds is shot down. Triffids begin sprouting all over the world, and their extracts prove to be superior to existing vegetable oils. The result is worldwide cultivation of Triffids.

Which is not really such a great departure from this TV version. I'm not certain that Wiki is correct though and I don't have a copy of the book to hand.

 

[AE35Unit]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

I dont remember any mention of Triffoil in the book at all!
Its quite ironic tho as there's a plant called Birdsfoot Trefoil (pronounced triff oil), which has leaves divided into 3 parts.

 

[Dave]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

What the freak was all that mumbo-jumbo at the end?

I've seen it all now. It seemed to me that putting the Triffid venom into the eyes made you immune to the sting. Bill had that done to him as a child and therefore didn't die from his sting at the farm. The people of the Zaire had somehow worked this out themselves and made the Masks. They all used the Mask at the end to add the venom to their eyes and were able to escape. A complete dog's breakfast, but does make some logical sense.

 

[PTeppic]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

Infusion through the eyes is one of the recognised (though little used) methods of administering noxious substances.

 

[blacknorth]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

The people of the Zaire had somehow worked this out themselves and made the Masks. They all used the Mask at the end to add the venom to their eyes and were able to escape. A complete dog's breakfast, but does make some logical sense.

Makes no sense at all to me, it's just made-up mumbo-jumbo that has no relation to The Day of the Triffids as I know and understand it. If the writer is going to depart from the novel in such a substantial way it has got to be good - an convincing enhancement. Remember that this Zairean (?) revelation means that mankind has found a way of rendering the Triffids harmless to humans. That's a huge departure.

 

[Harry Kilmer]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

Still got part 2 on my PVR - might get round to it later.

 

[AE35Unit]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

I've seen it all now. It seemed to me that putting the Triffid venom into the eyes made you immune to the sting. Bill had that done to him as a child and therefore didn't die from his sting at the farm. The people of the Zaire had somehow worked this out themselves and made the Masks. They all used the Mask at the end to add the venom to their eyes and were able to escape. A complete dog's breakfast, but does make some logical sense.

No no, if you look closely you'll see the masks have slits above and below the level of the eyeball, so the venom goes on the eyelids, which burn a little, hence the pain, and it then makes you smell like a triffid so you can walk among them unmolested. Thats what my other half pointed out to me, but then afterwards, when theyre outside, you see close ups of their eyes as if the venom is going into them, which wouldnt make sense at all!

 

[Ursa major]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

I didn't record the episode, so cannot be sure, but I don't recall Masen saying: "Don't forget to keep your eyes closed; the stuff is only meant to go on your eyelids."

This suggests that the stuff was meant to go in the eyes.

 

[blacknorth]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

No, they walked through the Triffids with their eyes wide open. There was no mention of eyelids or of closing eyes.

It suddenly occurred to Masen, from visual flashbacks to his mother in Zaire, that pouring Triffid poison through a native mask into your eyes meant that you were... what? Immune? A native voice repeating 'trust me' over and over again was meant to lend some homeopathic gravitas to it, but it did nothing of the sort.

There was no basis for this. It's a complete departure from the novel - something simply made up to provide the audience with a happier ending than a bunch of people marooned on the Isle of Wight. In fact, it shows an utter contempt for the original novel.

 

[PTeppic]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

They were obviously going for something very subtle and ingenious with how this poison in/near the eyes (in small amounts) makes the Triffids not attack. They were telegraphing it from the beginning ("why do they always go for the eyes?") but maybe we're all too stupid? Perhaps it's obvious if we were more astute... Will have to find the iPlayer version and see if that has anything.

 

[PTeppic]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

Will have to find the iPlayer version and see if that has anything.

Mission performed (if not accomplished): the mask has slits for the eyes, but a hole above the slit - which is where the poison is squeezed. Where their eyes open or closed? Either way, it creates a very dark, watery smudge round the rims of the eyes AND (perhaps more telling) their eyes do that pupil diffusion thing. But, what does it mean? They're not only not attacking with poison but not trying to entangle... it's a total back-off. Who knows...

 

[Dave]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

...it creates a very dark, watery smudge round the rims of the eyes AND (perhaps more telling) their eyes do that pupil diffusion thing. But, what does it mean? They're not only not attacking with poison but not trying to entangle... it's a total back-off. Who knows...

Also, when anyone was stung, their eyes turned milky grey - a little like the black oil in the x-files. I have no idea what it means.

There was no basis for this. It's a complete departure from the novel - something simply made up to provide the audience with a happier ending than a bunch of people marooned on the Isle of Wight. In fact, it shows an utter contempt for the original novel.

I understand your point of view, and I agree with your summation, it just doesn't bother me quite as much. It did say "Based on a book by John Wyndham". However, as I said earlier, I wish they would, for once, stop messing about with the book and just make a version that was faithful.

 

[blacknorth]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

I understand your point of view, and I agree with your summation, it just doesn't bother me quite as much. It did say "Based on a book by John Wyndham". However, as I said earlier, I wish they would, for once, stop messing about with the book and just make a version that was faithful.

I do feel rather strongly about it. Wyndham spent a large part of his career resisting the opportunity to write a sequel to Day of the Triffids, something which would have made him a fortune. I presume he felt he had very good reasons not to go back to the book. This is one of the reasons I disagree with Aldiss's Cosy Catastrophe theory - the fact the author didn't go back to clean up loose ends or to offer humans a victory over the Triffids. Yet the BBC appear to think they can do just that, making Wyndham's doubts about a sequel irrelevant. They gave us a fix-up - part original, part sequel.

I think there's another issue here, and it relates to the ongoing Doctor Who series. Yesterday, I was reading some comments on The End of Time at another forum and a user made the observation that the Doctor only had a couple of regenerations left. Another poster replied that that was irrelevant - because it's sf, they, the writers, can do whatever they want. Hm. I think we're seeing this attitude across the board now, especially in film and on TV. Isaac Asimov warned against the introduction of 'ad-hoc phenomenon' in science fiction - by that he meant the introduction of fortuitous devices and events that allow writers to escape the consequences of their plotting and characterisation. But Doctor Who couldn't exist without just that, and this very loose version of Triffids wouldn't either.

 

[Urien]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

I think part of the problem is that of author upon author. The screen writer and the director both want to bring something of their own to the party, especially when dealing with a very popular (and therefore well known) book. These changes are often jammed in under the guise of updating, reimagining, reinventing or modernising.

Often the worst abusers of these are theatre directors in their twenties; Macbeth set in a futuristic Yorkshire Dales tea shop run by cyborgs. The source material is so strong, how else do you make a name?

Faithful reproductions of books seem to be the exception not the rule.

 

[Ursa major]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

(Imagines Macbeth seeing a miner: "Is this a digger which I see before me, pick handle toward my hand?")


In opera, one may get away with it more easily because the public believes (correctly or not) that the plots of operas are generally a load of old tosh that could do with a bit of "sense" knocked into them. (And perhaps Shakespeare is almost invulnerable to this sort of mucking about.)

 

[PTeppic]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

Macbeth set in a futuristic Yorkshire Dales tea shop run by cyborgs.

"I'd buy that for a dollar"

 

[PTeppic]

Re: Day of the Triffids. 28th Dec 21:00 BBC1

And perhaps Shakespeare is almost invulnerable to this sort of mucking about.

I don't know anything about opera, but examples of Shakespeare such as Luhrman's Romeo & Juliet and the Christmas Day / DT Hamlet both seem to comfirm that any setting can be used and the words still make sense.