Last night, ABC aired the third of their four planned episode of Masters of Science Fiction, a literate, intelligent science fiction television series. I continue to be enthused for the series, and hope for more episodes.
When I reviewed the first episode, I wondered if I might have enjoyed it more had I read the story upon which it was based. However, last night’s episode was based on Robert A. Heinlein’s “Jerry Was a Man,” a story which I know well (and like), so I’m now thinking I was originally wrong: knowing the story beforehand is probably not an advantage. Watching this episode, I found myself wondering why the writer and director made the changes they did. Sure, some changes were easy and didn’t really effect anything (for instance, the removal of the Martian scientist), but many of the little changes they made slowly built up to changing the ultimate reasons for why things happened in the story, and that did distract me. And some of the changes made me questions the characters’ motivations, which were crystal clear in the original story; these changes didn’t need to be made. (For instance, in the original story, Napoleon, the miniature elephant, is intelligent enough to carry on written conversations. In the television show, Napoleon continues to write the same thing over and over, leading the viewer to wonder if the genetic engineers can really do what they say they can, or if everything is a sham.)
I also wondered at the change in the Joes. When I first read the story, they were (as I recall), intelligent apes. When I watched it last night, they were men with plastic faces. This change seems almost too much, as if the producers didn’t think the audience would be able to sympathize with apes, and had to make them look human to play on our emotions. They went too far, I think.
The story itself was, and remains, an investigation of what, precisely, makes people people, as opposed to things (and in that respect, the presence of a Martian legally accepted as a “person” was important in Heinlein’s original). But after throwing away the key determinant that was pivotal in the original story, this episode takes an entirely too cynical view to show us that “Jerry Was a Man.”
A side note: this is the third of three episodes in which war—and specifically analogs to the current US war in Iraq—played central roles. I know the original of “Jerry Was a Man” didn’t have that focal point, so I’m now wondering how much of a political statement the producers of Masters of Science Fiction are trying to make. They’ve so far chosen excellent stories which have absolutely no need to make present-day political statements. They may be mis-serving the long-term viability of these episodes with such choices.
I’m looking forward to next week’s “The Discarded,” which is based on a Harlan Ellison story I haven’t read. The teasers last night put me in mind of Heinlein’s “Universe,” so it’ll be interesting to see if there are any great similarities between the two.