# Childhood's End - SyFy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 11, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277 "2015-06-11T18:51:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/1 "2015-06-11T18:51:45Z")
The SyFy-lis channel (is that poisoning the well?) is doing _Childhood’s End_. Any chance it’s going to be good? I fully expect the demon/angel piece to be dropped. I’m planning on watching at least the first episode. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/2 "2015-06-11T19:04:03Z")
I can’t think of anything SyyyyyyFyyyyyy has ever done that was worth watching. They are the reason it took so long to trust other nontraditional producers like Netflix - they very much poisoned the well. CHE is unfilmable because there’s no director on earth who will fail to f\*ck with it to no good end. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/3 "2015-06-11T19:11:11Z")
I’ll watch it - but I have a bad feeling about this. No character is there for the entire story except Karellen. There is no love story. The only real traditional tension is when the SG gets kidnapped. And I have a horrible feeling that they’ll take “Village of the Damned” as a model for the kids. But we can always hope. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/4 "2015-06-11T19:39:29Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I’ll watch it - but I have a bad feeling about this. > No character is there for the entire story except Karellen. There is no love story. The only real traditional tension is when the SG gets kidnapped. And I have a horrible feeling that they’ll take “Village of the Damned” as a model for the kids. > But we can always hope. I’d just be typing this. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/5 "2015-06-11T19:47:59Z")
Ddamn, I’d love to see this as a film done correctly; it’s one of the bleakest hopeful stories I’ve ever encountered. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/6 "2015-06-11T21:09:21Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I can’t think of anything SyyyyyyFyyyyyy has ever done that was worth watching. They are the reason it took so long to trust other nontraditional producers like Netflix - they very much poisoned the well. > > CHE is unfilmable because there’s no director on earth who will fail to f\*ck with it to no good end. Eh, the re-imagined _Battlestar Galactica_ was worth a boatload of _Sharknados!!_ I mean, you don’t have to watch them… ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/7 "2015-06-11T22:23:27Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Ddamn, I’d love to see this as a film done correctly; it’s one of the bleakest hopeful stories I’ve ever encountered. I don’t know “Childhood’s End”, but if that’s what you’re looking for, I can recommend [Now and Then, Here and There](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_and_Then,_Here_and_There). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/8 "2015-06-12T00:08:58Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I don’t know “Childhood’s End”, but if that’s what you’re looking for, I can recommend [Now and Then, Here and There](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_and_Then,_Here_and_There). It is an Arthur C. Clarke novel about aliens coming to Earth and being rather nice about it. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2015, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/9 "2015-06-12T02:00:58Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I don’t know “Childhood’s End”, but if that’s what you’re looking for, I can recommend [Now and Then, Here and There](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_and_Then,_Here_and_There). I’m not even slightly otaku but occasionally I find one that I enjoy and the plot for that sounds interesting; I’ll give it a shot. Without spoilering things it’s difficult to explain what I meant by “bleakest hopeful”, tho. If you haven’t read the novel, you might want to pick it up. It’s a short yet engaging book. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/10 "2015-06-16T03:30:15Z")
I don’t think SyFy did a bad job with DUNE, tho it’s not the classic that I regard Lynch’s to be. To up the ante’, it’s been announced that Spielberg is doing Huxley’s Brave New World for SyFy. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/11 "2015-06-16T06:05:48Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > It is an Arthur C. Clarke novel about aliens coming to Earth and being rather nice about it. And, not spoilering anything, it is in no way a dystopia. At least not in the all too common sense of today. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/12 "2015-06-16T16:11:06Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I can’t think of anything SyyyyyyFyyyyyy has ever done that was worth watching. I found _Ascension_ entertaining, despite the plot holes. Ditto _The Lost Room_. I can’t recall anything else they’ve done that was worth the time. Wellllll, I have to admit that _Who Wants to Be a Superhero_ was also a guilty pleasure of mine. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/13 "2015-06-16T16:16:39Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > And, not spoilering anything, it is in no way a dystopia. At least not in the all too common sense of today. It has several of ACC’s signature brilliant prognostications/observations. One that’s come as true as it can without actual benevolent aliens coming along is the huge rise in amateur/semi-pro “classification” sciences. (In the novel, since the aliens obviously have solved the next ten thousand years of human advancement, hard science all but vanishes but there’s a huge increase in things like taxonomy and insect hunting.) The web has promoted this kind of amateur sciencing at the drudgery level like hardly anything before it. But then, Clarke clearly had a real crystal ball, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/14 "2015-06-16T16:36:25Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > The web has promoted this kind of amateur sciencing at the drudgery level like hardly anything before it. Sorry, I don’t know what you’re referring to. Can you elucidate? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/15 "2015-06-16T17:21:25Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I’ll watch it - but I have a bad feeling about this. > No character is there for the entire story except Karellen. There is no love story. The only real traditional tension is when the SG gets kidnapped. And I have a horrible feeling that they’ll take “Village of the Damned” as a model for the kids. > But we can always hope. Agreed on all points. I reread CE a few years ago and it holds up well. I have heard for years that Morgan Freeman loves CE and wanted to bring it to the big screen. Guess we might have to wait awhile for that. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/16 "2015-06-16T20:16:03Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Agreed on all points. I reread CE a few years ago and it holds up well. I have heard for years that Morgan Freeman loves CE and wanted to bring it to the big screen. Guess we might have to wait awhile for that. I thought he wanted to do Rendezvous with Rama, but maybe he wanted to this as well. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/17 "2015-06-16T20:18:35Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Sorry, I don’t know what you’re referring to. Can you elucidate? Sorry, that was murky. I mean that the web, in “wiki” mode, has enabled more low-level factfinding and categorization than we could have dreamed of before such universal collaborative capability. All 50 people who know something about an obscure subject can pool and correct their knowledge, to the benefit of the 1,000 who might be interested. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/18 "2015-06-16T21:10:21Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > I thought he wanted to do Rendezvous with Rama, but maybe he wanted to this as well. As great as is and as much as I would love it, there are only two scenes (maybe three) with any real action. I wouldn’t be surprised to see syfy place everyone into matrix-like pods. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/19 "2015-06-17T11:24:24Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Sorry, that was murky. I mean that the web, in “wiki” mode, has enabled more low-level factfinding and categorization than we could have dreamed of before such universal collaborative capability. All 50 people who know something about an obscure subject can pool and correct their knowledge, to the benefit of the 1,000 who might be interested. On this tangent, the ease of information interchange has turned us all into British country vicars pottering around with a litte bit of natural history we noticed in our backyards. Instead of just keeping journals about how the voles are acting year by year we can now integrate our observations with other vole fanciers immediately and get their feedback. Much more quickly than hoping to have a monograph published in The Annals of the British Vole Society and possibly being invited to read a paper at their monthly meeting. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277/20 "2015-06-17T13:39:43Z")
CE is IMHO a far better and more interesting book than _Rendezvous with Rama_, and would make a better movie or ministeries (despite the lamentable lack of voles in each). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhoods-end-syfy/722277.md?page=2)