# Childhood's End adaptation starts tomorrow night on Syfy channel **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2015, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381 "2015-12-14T01:09:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/21 "2015-12-17T19:09:03Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > I’m a little annoyed that change means out of 7 billion people Karellen found fit to deem a random heterosexual white male American as the most worthy of being his spokesmen. :dubious: and a Young, hunky farmer, instead of the older, wiser dude, as in the book.:rolleyes: Would it have been so wrong to have a older guy be the protagonist? :mad: A young hunky farmer who can’t afford a razor, but can afford to keep his beard trimmer like that. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/22 "2015-12-17T19:47:25Z")
Obviously Karellen choose the hunky farmer to bring in female viewers for ratings. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/23 "2015-12-17T20:15:37Z")
You could tell that the scriptwriter was scientifically illiterate, though. That whole thing with the Overlords using glyphs that resembled constellations _as seen from the skies of Earth_ wasn’t in the book, as I recall. Which means the scriptwriter made it up for the screen adaptation. The way he talked about it, and about the “Carina system”, implied that he didn’t even understand the difference between a constellation and a star. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/24 "2015-12-17T21:50:44Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Obviously Karellen choose the hunky farmer to bring in female viewers for ratings. Don’t you know? American Farmers are the new SF heroes. Look at _Interstellar_, or _The Astronaut Farmer_. I swear, every time they gave a Long Shot of that farmhouse and the corn I wanted to say “If You Build It, He Will Come.” Which has a completely different significance, in this context. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/25 "2015-12-17T22:26:30Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Obviously Karellen choose the hunky farmer to bring in female viewers for ratings. What’s the most popular show on TV? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/26 "2015-12-17T22:54:57Z")
Community. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/27 "2015-12-17T23:06:42Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Community. Wrong again. NCIS, which stars the “silver fox” Mark Harmon, now 64yo. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/28 "2015-12-17T23:20:30Z")
Would the constellations be very different from Karellen’s home world though? I thought it was only 40 light years away, not sure if that would make huge differences or not. Another possible issue that bugged me a bit was Milo’s hypothesis: that they resembled folklore images of the devil because they had visited earth in the distant past, and we had subconsciously imprinted on them, but I’m mostly sure that likeness of Satan don’t date much past the middle ages… am I wrong? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/29 "2015-12-17T23:27:19Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > Another possible issue that bugged me a bit was Milo’s hypothesis: that they resembled folklore images of the devil because they had visited earth in the distant past, and we had subconsciously imprinted on them, but I’m mostly sure that likeness of Satan don’t date much past the middle ages… am I wrong? Good point: [http://www.swide.com/art-culture/the-depiction-of-satan-in-art-history-from-middle-ages-to-renaissance-and-beyond/2014/10/28](http://www.swide.com/art-culture/the-depiction-of-satan-in-art-history-from-middle-ages-to-renaissance-and-beyond/2014/10/28) ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/30 "2015-12-18T00:21:50Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > …Another possible issue that bugged me a bit was Milo’s hypothesis: that they resembled folklore images of the devil because they had visited earth in the distant past, and we had subconsciously imprinted on them, but I’m mostly sure that likeness of Satan don’t date much past the middle ages… am I wrong? Well in the book the Overlords look like devils because people in the Middle Ages starting have psychic premonitions of their arrival and the eventually destruction of Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/31 "2015-12-18T00:32:55Z")
Just binge watched this tonight, having forgotten most of the book over the past thirty years or more. Hmmm. I suppose _The Lark Ascending_ is a decent enough monument to humanity. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/32 "2015-12-18T00:33:23Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > There was one scene where Karellen has Amy put her hand on the disk on the board and he says he can now talk to the other voice or something. I assumed he meant unborn Jennifer. > > What purpose did it serve in the book? Rupert Boyce’s party was intended as more of a social thing, with no other purpose but to show off. The ouija board was there as an interesting entertainment with an Overlord, Rashaverak, watching. At one point Jan Rodricks asks “where is the Overlord’s sun?” and the Ouija board spells out a catalogue number which is that of the Overlord’s sun and, at the same time, Jean Morrel faints. In the book Jean Morrel is the original version of Amy Morrel. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/33 "2015-12-18T00:39:39Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Well in the book the Overlords look like devils because people in the Middle Ages starting have psychic premonitions of their arrival and the eventually destruction of Earth. Ahhh, ok. That’s not what I recall Milo saying, but I could be wrong, will have to rewatch. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/34 "2015-12-18T01:01:32Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Wrong again. > > NCIS, which stars the “silver fox” Mark Harmon, now 64yo. Says who? Thought it was Big Bang Theory. eta: googling now, looks like Empire beat BBT in the 18-49 demo. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/35 "2015-12-18T01:05:02Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > Would the constellations be very different from Karellen’s home world though? I thought it was only 40 light years away, It took 40 years to _get there_. When that under-Overlord was still learning English, he said it was “eleven and a hundred” light-years away. I’m gonna chalk this one up to the scriptwriter again, though. He doesn’t seem like the type that would understand why “no FTL travel” is significant. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/36 "2015-12-18T01:41:38Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > Rupert Boyce’s party was intended as more of a social thing, with no other purpose but to show off. The ouija board was there as an interesting entertainment with an Overlord, Rashaverak, watching. > At one point Jan Rodricks asks “where is the Overlord’s sun?” and the Ouija board spells out a catalogue number which is that of the Overlord’s sun and, at the same time, Jean Morrel faints. In the book Jean Morrel is the original version of Amy Morrel. Thank you. Did the book ever say how long-lived the Overlords were? One thing I really did like was at the end where you see Karellen and the other Overlord stand next to each other on their ship, talking to Milo while he was on Earth, you could visually tell that Karellen was older. Part of that I’m sure was due to Dance being older but Karellens’ horns were longer and bigger and it looked some some of his bone protrusions were also bigger and it may have just been me or my TV but it looked like the color of Karellens horns and chin bone beard weren’t as black as the younger one. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/37 "2015-12-18T02:03:03Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Thank you. > Did the book ever say how long-lived the Overlords were? You’re welcome. In the book there’s a conversation between Stormgren and a colleague in which it’s revealed that the Overlords are immortal “by our standards”. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/38 "2015-12-18T05:17:55Z")
The series had some moments… and the one glue that made those moments was the character Karellen. His apparition was brilliant in many ways: the physical appearance, the voice, the eyes and the suggestion of parental concern and empathy. Without Karellen this would have been an total abomination to the spirit of the novel. A real POS. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/39 "2015-12-18T14:38:45Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ecks](#): > > The book, like the movie never, never passes judgement on the Overmind- how could it? The Overmind is essentially a small-g god, and is above mortal moral judgements, and supposedly so far above ordinary beings that trying to understand it is pointless. Ascending to Overmind status is a natural part of a species development- The overlords just make sure they don’t freak out and destroy themselves before it happens. The destruction of the world is a side effect, consumed to fuel the transformation, and the new trancendant being doesn’t even notice what it’s doing- and probably wouldn’t care if it did. Yup. That was pretty impactful to me as a young atheist kid: the concept of god not as a personal or creating god but as an emergent meta-consciousness. In the case of Clarke’s _Childhood’s End_ the Overmind has no concern about humanity per se. It merely has identified another few billion more “neurons” developmentally near readiness to join its vast vast “brain” and sends the Overlords there to make sure the neurons reach maturity enough to make the transition without destroying themselves first. Its consciousness is beyond our understanding. The Overlord is where compassion for humanity comes in. I missed the book’s portrayal of the Overlords as multi-taskers. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381/40 "2015-12-18T15:11:40Z")
Is ascending to Overmind automatic for any species though? My impression was that at some point the Overminds _decided_ humans made the grade - Karellan said “a new path has been chosen” or something to that effect. So otherwise we would have just been kept as a non-space going species living happily alone? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-adaptation-starts-tomorrow-night-on-syfy-channel/740381.md?page=3)