# Apple TV turning Martha Wells Murderbot book series into an episodic TV series
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, apple
**Created:** [December 20, 2023, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883 "2023-12-20T14:26:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2025, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/41 "2025-05-20T21:13:46Z")
My theory (which I came up with at a book club discussion of the books) is that the organic parts are left over from spare human parts made to repair ordinary humans after injuries. Waste not, want not
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2025, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/42 "2025-05-20T23:00:22Z")
And spare humans parts from humans who did not survive injuries? Waste not want not …
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2025, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/43 "2025-05-20T23:05:57Z")
I had always assumed that all of Murderbot’s organic bits were of a single origin, with one genome (that they, of course, re-used for all of their SecUnits and possibly for all of their constructs for all purposes). But I don’t think it ever actually says that, and a bargain-basement hodgepodge would make it possible for it to be neuter even right down to its chromosomes…
Hm, maybe.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2025, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/44 "2025-05-20T23:14:45Z")
That too.
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### Author:  [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2025, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/45 "2025-05-21T12:48:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> There have been times (when the author goes by initials, or when they have an ambiguous first name) when I’ve been mistaken about the gender of an author. In at least some cases, on reading the book, I went “Wait, this was written by a woman? It doesn’t read like that.”, and looked it up and discovered my misconception.
When I read 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson in college, I somehow came away with the impression that it was written by a woman. I think I didn’t look at the author initially, got the vibe it was written by a female author, checked the name and saw “Kim”, and decided I was right.
Years later I read another book by him that I liked enough to look him up, and that’s when I realized he wrote 2312 and was in fact a man!
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Oh, and female SF authors (and maybe female authors in general, though I don’t have as much experience out of the genre) also seem to be much more likely to challenge the cishet default, or to otherwise seriously explore gender roles. If the Murderbot series were written by a man, it probably would be referred to as “he”.
That’s probably what made it a bit surprising that 2312 was written by a man, the book is set in the far future and has pretty different than stock conceptions of sex, gender, and technology used surrounding those - especially for a book from 2012.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2025, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/46 "2025-05-21T13:06:48Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#):
>
> Will star Alexander Skaarsgard as the Murderbot.
Or SecUnit, as everyone calls it.
The Murderbot series is fantastic but it won’t be easy to adapt, as so much of the story relies on SecUnit’s internal dialogue. I’m not sure how you portray it doing its favourite thing, which is literally just watching TV shows playing in its head. SecUnit’s internal dialogue isn’t just exposition dump, it’s a critical part of understanding the character and its arc.
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Though probably even if they did that, most viewers would default to assuming male.
SecUnit is cloned off a human and the descriptions imply the original looked male-ish. Alaxander Skarsgard just kinda LOOKS weird and robotic and a little bit asexual, he’s a very good choice.
Choosing the voice of Perihelion/ART will be an interesting casting decision as well.
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> One day I’d like to do a blind test (though I’m not sure how). It sure _seems_ like woman-authored sci-fi reads differently than male.
I never got any sort of sense like that from Murderbot books. Wells does such a good job creating her universe that I’m entirely absorbed in it.
On another note, I adore Wells’s descriptions of combat, because she actually thought through how a thing like SecUnit would fight in a logically consistent way.
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2025, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/47 "2025-05-21T14:24:14Z")
The show has been released, so you can watch it and see if it addresses your concerns (and I think it does).
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### Author:  [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2025, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/48 "2025-05-21T15:04:06Z")
After watching the first two episodes:
- Curiously enough the mannerisms make the Gurathin character (enhanced human) look much more “uncanny valley” to me than the SecUnit character. It looks like he is directed to played a distinctly neurodiverse character, not just a character who can directly access the feed with his brain,
- SecUnit’s internal monologue is spoken in his voice (without moving his lips, and in a very slightly different tone of voice). That is a bit confusing at first to me as someone from a country where all foreign-language material is dubbed - that has trained me to disregard a character’s lip movements, so it is harder for me to distinguish between SecUnit’s “speech bubbles” and “thought bubbles”.
Personally I’d have preferred SecUnit’s internal monologue to be displayed in a distinctive text box, but it seems (inferred from movie subtitles usually being not the full dialogue but an abridged version) that for a lot of people their reading speed is not up to reading dialogue in real time. I viewed the two episodes with “English CC” subtitles. For some other shows I have used the “English for the Hearing Impaired” subtitle option; that is also useful in providing full dialogue (but contains extraneous (to me) information like “Sound of footsteps” or “Ominous music”).
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### Author:  [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2025, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/49 "2025-05-21T15:10:07Z")
After bouncing hard on Murderbot and another Martha Wells book whose title I don’t remember (something about a Witch-king ) I’ve decided I have an aversion to her writing.
That said, I bounced off “The Expanse” and ended up loving the TV show, so I’ll give this a try and report back.
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### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/50 "2025-05-21T15:39:01Z")
> [@Chelonaut](#):
>
> So in the book murderbot also has both a human looking face, and a helmet that covers it most of the time. Murderbot is special in that it needs to hide that it has overridden the governor module, and so avoids eye contact. And so it is more prone to keep helmet up all the time than ordinary secunits, I guess is the rationale.
In the book series, he modifies his walk and even his height to appear less like a SecUnit because he’s worried that people will suspect that he is rogue. He doesn’t become more teamed up with Dr. Mensah’s group on a more permanent basis until the 3rd or 4th book, and he advertises himself as a security consultant with augments.
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### Author:  [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2025, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/51 "2025-05-21T19:51:20Z")
> [@Frodo](#):
>
> After bouncing hard on Murderbot and another Martha Wells book whose title I don’t remember (something about a Witch-king ) I’ve decided I have an aversion to her writing.
> That said, I bounced off “The Expanse” and ended up loving the TV show, so I’ll give this a try and report back.
That would be “Witch King” (published 2023). I also did not finish that book because I just could not make sense of the fantasy worldbuilding. Murderbot did grow on me (possibly because his unease with messy human relations and his escape into fiction resonates with me - replace _Sanctuary Moon_ with Karl May’s œuvre in my long-ago youth). I will now have a reason to eagerly await Friday evenings.
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### Author:  [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2025, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/52 "2025-05-21T21:22:04Z")
Having read all of the Murderbot books, and enjoying them immensely, I was apprehensive when I heard about this series. As @RickJay mentions above, the majority of the exposition in the books is Murderbot’s inner monologue, which is very hard to translate to a visual medium. In the books, we learn that SecUnits process information much faster than humans, so a page or two of inner thoughts in the books happen in in milliseconds and are generally imperceptible to human observers. So far in the first two episodes, the writes/directors are going with awkward pauses which I find grating.
I also don’t like how they are portraying the character Mensah, the leader of the Preservation Alliance survey team. In the books she is smart, an effective leader, and very capable of dealing with stress in crises. Having her subject to debilitating panic attacks in the show doesn’t sit well with me.
I’m going to keep watching, but so far I’m rating this at 3 out of 5 stars.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2025, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/53 "2025-05-21T21:41:56Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> I never got any sort of sense like that from Murderbot books. Wells does such a good job creating her universe that I’m entirely absorbed in it.
It’s not about the mechanical aspects of the prose. Though it’s hard to put my finger on it. Possibly just having a highly introspective protagonist with less than perfect mental resiliency is the signal here.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2025, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/54 "2025-05-21T23:45:55Z")
> [@moes\_lotion](#):
>
> Having her subject to debilitating panic attacks in the show doesn’t sit well with me.
That’s… not good.
Oh, and Mensah isn’t just the leader of the PreservationAux team. She is literally the head of government of the entire Preservation Alliance. I guess they’re supposed to keep doing their regular jobs while serving in government.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/55 "2025-05-22T01:34:50Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> SecUnit is cloned off a human and the descriptions imply the original looked male-ish.
Do they? Can you quote any? Because it seems to me that Wells was very careful to avoid that.
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### Author:  [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2025, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/56 "2025-05-22T12:54:39Z")
> [@moes\_lotion](#):
>
> Having read all of the Murderbot books, and enjoying them immensely, I was apprehensive when I heard about this series. As @RickJay mentions above, the majority of the exposition in the books is Murderbot’s inner monologue, which is very hard to translate to a visual medium. In the books, we learn that SecUnits process information much faster than humans, so a page or two of inner thoughts in the books happen in in milliseconds and are generally imperceptible to human observers. So far in the first two episodes, the writes/directors are going with awkward pauses which I find grating.
>
> I also don’t like how they are portraying the character Mensah, the leader of the Preservation Alliance survey team. In the books she is smart, an effective leader, and very capable of dealing with stress in crises. Having her subject to debilitating panic attacks in the show doesn’t sit well with me.
>
> I’m going to keep watching, but so far I’m rating this at 3 out of 5 stars.
I agree with all of this. It’s…OK so far, but if I’m honest with myself if I were not such a fan of the books I would probably not continue. It’s pretty boring so far, to be frank. The overabundance of awkward pauses - as you correctly identify - doesn’t help. But I will soldier on for a couple more episodes just to see if it finds its footing.
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2025, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/57 "2025-05-22T13:09:33Z")
> [@ShadowFacts](#):
>
> if I were not such a fan of the books
Huh. Those are mostly critiques of how the book has been translated to a different medium and the changes made; not about the show? ISTM that the disappointment is precisely _because_ you are such a fan of the books!
Speaking as someone coming into the show cold with no expectations, the differences from the books don’t bother me! It is a fun enough show. It’s not an Andor or a Severence. More in feel to a Ted Lasso but not as good. But fun enough. It has me wondering what evils The Corporation is up to on the planet.
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2025, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/58 "2025-05-22T13:10:33Z")
Mensah could still be an effective leader even with panic attacks. Maybe not a great “field” battle leader, but political leader? Sure. Perhaps more leaders on TV should be shown to suffer from relatively common mental health conditions.
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2025, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/59 "2025-05-22T13:17:08Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> Mensah could still be an effective leader even with panic attacks.
So far she is shown to be one.
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### Author:  [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2025, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/60 "2025-05-22T13:31:04Z")
> [@DSeid](#):
>
> Huh. Those are mostly critiques of how the book has been translated to a different medium and the changes made; not about the show? ISTM that the disappointment is precisely _because_ you are such a fan of the books!
There may be some truth to this, but my main critique of the show so far is that it is fairly boring, which has nothing to do with comparing it to the books. First episode, I give a pass, they have to spend most of the time introducing the world and the characters. But the second episode was, if anything, even more boring. The “interrogation” scene felt like it was 5 hours instead of 5 minutes. I hope they find a way to pick up the pace.
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