Which is the most difficult big IP in history to adapt?
Uncle Fish's answer is—
Base.
Author Isaac Asimov
Non-sci-fi fans may not be familiar with this IP.
But in terms of influence and fan base, it is definitely the "top stream" of science fiction.
"Star Wars" and "Avatar" all have to be called grandmasters in front of it.
Game of Thrones was also heavily influenced by it.
Unfortunately, due to the setting against the sky, the story is complex and the scene is grand.
For so many years, it has been regarded as a hot potato by major film and television companies.
Warner, Sony, HBO can only be deterred.
In the end, it was the apple that waved a big hand and chewed down this hard bone.
5 directors and 11 screenwriters were invited to work.
A single episode costs more than $5 million.
80 to 100 episodes are planned!
It can be described as a huge production.
In the midst of all the attention, the show finally began airing last week.
Is this money worth it?
Today Uncle Fish will come to test it——
《Base》
Foundation
The opening scene is a set of blockbuster special effects shots.
Fully explains what is meant by "rich and willful".
All kinds of cool spaceships are just daily travel tools for the characters in the play.
Because of the background of "Base", set in the distant future.
Humans launched an interstellar colonization movement.
And eventually built the Galactic Empire with a population of 8 trillion people.
The reigning emperor seems to have three, but in fact there is only one (Lee Pace).
To secure his rule, he opted for cloning.
As a result, the three forms of infancy, middle age and old age exist at the same time.
So the cycle, endless also.
Always the same emperor, the same set of governing concepts.
The degree of dictatorship can be seen.
He pursues an extreme policy of maintaining stability, simply and rudely treating dissidents —
With a big wave of his hand, he exploded in place.
Under such harsh rule, the Galactic Empire has gone through a history of twelve thousand years.
Until one day, the capital Chuantuo heard a discordant voice:
"The Galactic Empire will perish in five hundred years."
It's Dr. Sheldon (Jared Harris) who says this.
He predicted human behavior through calculations, believing that the destruction could not be reversed.
and will cause a dark age that will last for 30,000 years.
How could the Emperor bear such an argument?
He expected the doctor to spread rumors and incite panic among the people.
It was decided to arrest him for treason.
More importantly, overturn the Doctor's prediction and reinvigorate people's hearts and minds.
In order to achieve this goal, the Emperor must rely on external forces.
That is, the heroine of this drama -
Gayle (Lulo Bell).
She unraveled the mathematical conjectures that had plagued humanity for centuries.
It has become a rising star in the academic world second only to the doctorate.
Gayle is the only one who can understand the Doctor's conjecture and the only one who can overturn his conjecture.
The Emperor threatens Gayle:
Publicly overturn the Doctor's prediction, or else die.
Obviously, this is political persecution.
Gale had to choose between life and truth.
And she chose the truth.
In the "live broadcast" watched by 8 trillion people, it proved that the Doctor's prediction was correct.
The result, of course, was to provoke the wrath of the Emperor.
Gail was in a hurry and made a second prediction:
"If you kill the Doctor, the Emperor will die within 1 year."
Because the death of the Doctor will inevitably cause a chain reaction, and eventually affect the Emperor.
At the same time, the doctor also proposed a plan:
Although it could not prevent the collapse of the empire, it could reduce the destructive power of this disaster.
Shorten the Dark Age it produced from 30,000 years to 1,000 years.
The way to do this is to write a Galactic Encyclopedia.
It condenses the best achievements of human civilization for future generations to refer to when rebuilding their homes.
Fearing that the prophecy would come true, the Emperor did not execute Gayle and the Doctor.
Instead, exile them to the most distant planets.
The Doctor must take his supporters and build the base from scratch to write the Galactic Encyclopedia.
The main line of the play, thus began.
Gayle volunteers to follow the Doctor on board the ship.
She knew it was impossible to return to her hometown.
But between humans and individuals, she chose humans anyway.
Just as before between truth and life, she chose truth.
Making a choice is relatively easy, the hard part is persistence.
In the process of rushing to the base, everyone developed different degrees of self-doubt.
The first is the Doctor.
While he was able to predict the behavior of 8 trillion people, he could not predict individual choices.
Now in an enclosed space, he became the spiritual pillar of everyone.
On the surface, you must be confident and determined.
But deep down he was always afraid, worried that a small variable would be enough to overturn his predictions.
This is followed by Gale.
On the day of the trial, after she admitted the Doctor's prediction.
Chuantuo immediately carried out a large-scale terrorist attack, killing about 100 million people.
It's a human tragedy.
When she got on the spaceship, she developed a simulator.
By simulating the ecology of the endpoint star, she predicted that 5 years after landing, the people on board the spacecraft would have a 34.2% survival rate.
It seemed that no matter what the original intention, the result was just as tragic, which made her unbearable.
Finally, there is the crew.
That is, the supporters of the Doctor.
The crowd began to question the distribution of benefits.
As writers of the Galactic Encyclopedia, they must decide what deserves to be preserved as humanity's most precious spiritual heritage and what must be forgotten.
But this criterion is difficult to define.
During the long flight, the contradictions also became irreconcilable.
On a spaceship, for example, a pregnant woman must transfer embryos to in vitro for breeding.
Some people think that this way deprives oneself of the experience of being a mother and a human being.
The most dissatisfied of these is the doctor's adopted son Ruichi.
His biological father lost his job due to injury.
As a child, he had to steal things to survive on medical expenses.
Once, when I stole a book in a museum, I was caught by the doctor.
It was a hidden pain in his heart.
But during the meal, the doctor actually told the matter in front of everyone.
Causing him to be ridiculed, swept away by majesty.
This led him to believe that the Doctor had been corrupted and had lost his original intention.
At the same time, he also fell in love with Gayle and had a child.
He is worried about his child's future living environment, and he is increasingly questioning his original choice.
In the end, he personally ended the Doctor and pushed Gail into the only life capsule.
At this time, although it has not yet arrived at the base.
But the people on the spaceship were already torn apart in suspicion.
The current drama version has just aired the first two episodes.
But it has structured a huge worldview, a strong contradiction and conflict.
The end of each episode leaves a huge suspense.
It can be seen that the ambition of the creator.
Thematically, Al Qaeda is a wonderful political allegory.
The Emperor represented the conservative rulers, eager to maintain the status quo.
Only pursue the superficial prosperity of the Galactic Empire, while turning a blind eye to the devastation.
In order to stabilize the regime, he used extreme means to eliminate dissidents.
The scientific works of doctors and others will be banned.
Even those who have read the book are put to death.
After the terrorist attack, he acted on the inconclusive situation.
Suspecting that the border forces were involved in the terrorist attack, his ambassador was hanged in public.
The atmosphere of white terror pervaded the empire.
Ph.D. and Gayle represent intellectuals who see the truth.
They envisioned another possibility.
Believe in science and hope to use science to save lives.
Even if the truth is dead, it is necessary to make the truth public and awaken the people's resistance to the emperor's regime.
Although the collapse of the empire is inevitable, they still want to help the next generation of humanity rebuild their homes through the Galactic Encyclopedia.
It is full of compassion and compassion.
Although the Galactic Empire faces the threat of invasion of the outer star domain.
But it is clear that the greater threat comes from internal contradictions.
After The Doctor and Gayle published the prophecy, the whole society went into a state of torn turmoil.
In the midst of anxiety about the future, the people subconsciously choose to take sides.
Some stayed in the capital Chuantuo, while others followed the Doctor's Expedition Base.
Kawato is almost hellish, but the base is not heaven either.
But during the ship's long and difficult journey, the Doctor's followers also became suspicious.
If individuals are miserable, where is the future of humanity?
In the 1950s, when Asimov wrote Al Qaeda, he referred to the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
Today, the drama version of "Base" is more like a history of American decline.
The scene in the play where the terrorist organization blows up the Star Bridge is very similar to the scene of the attack on the Twin Towers of 911.
The Emperor sentenced innocents to death, but the applause of the citizens of the Empire was incessant.
Reminiscent of ordinary people brainwashed by rulers.
All kinds of settings are reminiscent of the intensified contradictions and conflicts in the United States.
The Floyd affair and the Weinstein incident set off a new round of racial and gender movements, respectively.
The struggle between the two parties and the fight between left and right have become more and more intense.
The arrival of the epidemic has undoubtedly exacerbated this rift.
Conservatism is revived, and anti-intellectualism is even more rampant.
Not only in the United States, but all over the world.
Those who tell the truth face silence and exile.
But there are still people like Gayle.
In any case, stand in the position of truth and sentient beings.
Do not succumb to hegemony, do not blindly worship authority.
Maintain a rare sobriety.
This idealism in the midst of chaos is the most impressive.
Of course, the speculative nature of the series is inherited from Asimov's original book.
With such a powerful blessing of the original, the theme and connotation are not too bad.
So, why is the rating of the drama version of "Base" just mediocre?
Douban 7.1 points, IMDb 7.7 points
Because word of mouth is polarized.
Those who give praise are basically ordinary viewers who have not seen the original work.
The difference score is in two cases:
First, fans of the original work are dissatisfied with the plot and people set up magic changes.
The male protagonist in the original book became a black woman, and the supporting roles also had a large number of sexual turns.
The plot does not restore the magnificent epic sense of the original work, and the love scenes are too much to reduce the pattern.
Second, dissatisfaction with casting is too politically correct.
The protagonists feature a large number of African-American actors.
Whether at home or abroad, word of mouth has shown serious polarization.
But if these factors are thrown away, the drama itself alone is still eye-catching.
Picturesque composition.
Texture full of points of service.
There are also top-notch film industry-grade special effects.
The sincerity of the crew can make people feel.
Crucially, the interpretation of the core of the original work does not deviate.
It conveys the spirit of Asimov's compassion and idealism.
As for the follow-up direction of the story, it is impossible to judge based on the existing two episodes.
Whether we can get better or better, let's wait and see.