Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams

Alas, i'll have to wait for it to be released on Blu Ray. I caught an advert last night and i'm prety excited by it.
 
I felt the second episode was a bit naff, certainly not as good as the first episode.
Next week is Timothy Spall (looking quite thin) in 'the commuter' hopefully it'll pick up where episode 1 left off.
 
Possible spoiler
Electric Dreams - noted how one of the uses of telepathy was for sexual fantasy and not in a nice way. First time in SF that I've seen that done. Sadly think that PKD had that right (assuming it was in the original PKD, if not then the screenplay writers) - as in if that could be done it would be done. :(
 
The second episode - Impossible Planet - was very well done. The cast was excellent and there were a couple of moments of real humour. It follows the original story more closely than the first episode, but the ending is significantly altered.

If you aren't watching this series yet, you really should be.
 
I agree that the first episode was better, and also that the ending to the second episode was unimpressive, but I think there should always be this kind of show (like The Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits or even The Tales of the Unexpected) on TV, and so I feel it difficult to criticise one single episode too much until I have seen them all.
 
I got confused, so reread the original and was pleased to discover I was confused for good reason and was not remembering oddly.

I love the ending to the short story, and it's a shame they changed it.


I'm really hoping for one particular story, but I doubt it will be done. It's one of my favourites and so sneaky :)
 
I've just noticed that there was a Grauniad article about the series in the Science Fiction Book section (in addition to what was in the TV & Radio section). A couple of quotes from the article:
Ronald D Moore, the writer behind the Battlestar Galactica reboot, has adapted PKD’s “Exhibit Piece” (retitled “Real Life”) for Electric Dreams, and he says: “Very little remains of this story in the show, but the heart, and perhaps more importantly the brains behind the episode originate in this tale.”
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[Philip K. Dick's] UK publisher Gollancz has republished the Electric Dreams stories in an anthology with introductions by the writers who have brought them to TV. What stands out in almost all cases is that they’ve taken PKD’s central idea and built a narrative around it. This is typical: Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report … they all have at their heart the original concept from the source material, but PKD adaptations that slavishly follow the text are rare. The Man in the High Castle has already stretched to two seasons, far outstripping the original book.
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As I am sick, I just caught the first two episodes of this. Dare I say, better than Black Mirror? Sorry, U.K. Plus the intro is beautiful. Why aren't there more human looking robots as depicted in the intro???

I liked the first episode a lot better than the second. I think the second has been done way too many times and probably all instances of that were on Doctor Who. That and I didn't really get it. The android cooperating with them was fun, but the relationship between the old lady and the young guy was odd and made no sense. I thought they could have done a lot more with the concept, but I get that they were trying to go for the crappy con-artists angle. They could have been at least, good con-artists.

The first episode reminded me of Almost Human but with teeps instead of robots. Cool concept, especially how nature created it's own hood.

It's not as shocking as black mirror is, and I don't think it's supposed to be. It's more subtle.
 
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Only half way through the second episode and am enjoying them so far.

I wish people would stop comparing this series with Black Mirror, I don't know any reason too (other than the fact that they were both on Channel 4).
 
I enjoyed the first episode, and it looked great. The second episode looked great, but wasn't as good as the first. And some of it didn't make sense.
For a start, one of the characters was supposed to be the more likeable of the two con-artists, but he just went along with Benedict Wong after initially flat out refusing. As they seemed to be making enough money for it to be life-changing, why wouldn't he even suggest to Benedict Wong (as a compromise) to actually go to Earth? There was a fair bit that didn't seem believable.

I guess the Black Mirror comparison comes from slightly dark sci-fi? Though Black Mirror easily edges the darkness so far.
 
in the short story it turns out that Emphor III actually is Earth...

I'm looking forward to the rest :D

ETA: just found the list - looking especially forward to Autofac. THE MILK IS PIZZLED!
And to The Father-Thing
 
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AlexH said:
I guess the Black Mirror comparison comes from slightly dark sci-fi? Though Black Mirror easily edges the darkness so far.
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Fried Egg said:
I wish people would stop comparing this series with Black Mirror, I don't know any reason too (other than the fact that they were both on Channel 4).
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I compared it to Black Mirror because it's the only thing that is only remotely similar to it on TV at the moment, and being that there are not new episodes of Black Mirror yet, I am only looking forward to seeing this show more. In fact, I think it's slightly better than Black Mirror and takes itself more seriously. So consider that comparison a compliment.
 
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