His Dark Materials

[AllGoodDogs]

New BBC adaptation, looks so good, can't wait trailer here -

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Where did you get to in will’s story?

The Will stuff was stupendously creepy. Mrs C likely to haunt my dreams. I usually watch on iplayer in the daytime being as I am so suggestable ffs .

The last few scenes looked like they were incomplete/cut. The scene where the bears were fighting, and the scene afterwards when the new king bear was talking to Lyra. Did anyone else think this? I havent read the books.

I wonder if there was a bit of censoring - Lyra hiding her face from the fighting then suddenly talking calmly with Iorek suggests the gory bit might have been done but was cut. It lost impact if so.

Hasn’t Phillip P adapted classic fairy tales in a collection book?

Yes, Grimms, not Hans Christian Anderen, but of course he will have read them. Far more witches being nailed into barrels with bails through the barrel walls then being rolled down hill than I remember from my childhood. It's the main thing I remember from his version of Grimm.

When I realised it was late this week I wondered if it was a watershed issue, the details of the fight are pretty hideous and then they didn't show it.

Loopytiles We saw the break in at Will's and him taking his Mum to his teacher's to look after and last scene was him running away.

Wonder if we're going to see Cittàgazze next week?

The last few scenes looked like they were incomplete/cut.

I thought that, it felt very disjointed.

I wonder what those who haven't read the books made of last night. Even for someone familiar with the books, I was somewhat confused by the jumping from world to world and rushed pace of the events at and after Svalbard.

Hope they will show Citagazze, and Lyra and Will meeting, think they will, finishing with Roger/Asriel would be too depressing for a series ending.

V good scene with Will’s Mum (what’s her name!!) and Boriel. She retained composure and wasn’t putting up with his manipulation - positive portrayal of character with MH issues. He was so threatening and smooth.

Mrs Coulter also excellent.

I"ve got a bit of catching up to do as I've been out on Sundays lately. I've just watched last week's episdoe, but have to work a few things out before I watch this week's. I have read the books, but so long ago that I don't really remember the details ,so I don't know if some things are presented in the same way in the show as the book.

Mrs Coulter seems to think that she is doing the experiments for a good reason, that she genuinely thinks it will make the world a better place if they get it right? That people might not like her methods, but they would agree that the end goal is good, if they knew what she is doing?

Also, she seems to have maternal feelings towards Lyra and actually care about her, whereas before she seemed happy enough for her to be in pain or at risk. I can't tell if she just wants to control her and use her to get what she wants, or if she does honestly love her in some way.

In short, is Mrs Coulter thoroughly evil/bad, or flawed but with some goodness?

I think the Amber Spyglass is best for understanding Mrs Coulter's nature. In the books particularly Northern Lights, it's very much from Lyra's perspective where this glamourous figure steps into her life, utilises her then turns out to be the big baddie. The TV series has a more open perspective, so she is portrayed as showing some maternal moments, if conflicted. She is certainly determined and ruthless though and plays a very clever game in the patriachical world of the Magisterum. It's difficult to comment too much without spoiling, but one of the charms of the books is that the characters are realistic and complex. I can well imagine that suddenly on having a semi-independent child like Lyra into your life would stir up some unexpected maternal instincts.

The perspective is interesting with Will's background too and I'm really enjoying the way the detail of it has been brought in to overlap Lyra's timeline of Northern Lights. Will's viewpoint is much more of his mother's fears and obsessions appearing irrational, whereas we are seeing more substance to her fears being founded. The connections have been made much sooner than in the books, but that's probably necessary as otherwise it would feel like a seperate disjointed story that probably wouldn't work on TV. Books are more forgiving. Will and his mother are being represented brilliantly with justice being done to them.

My only criticism is the lack of armour in the battle. The book has a lot of detail about the gilt and pomp of Iofur's armour and the utilitarian function of Iorek's and how at the conclusion of the battle the rest of the bears cast aside their embellished armour and return to their true nature. The concluding move of the battle was Iorek charging up from feigning a wound, biting and ripping off Iofur's jaw. I can see why that wasn't included in full detail

The critical detail is that a bear who is acting to his true nature can not be tricked. Lyra and Iorek discussed this in Trollesund. Because Iofur craved to be human, he ceased to be acting like a bear enabling Lyra and Iorek to trick him and win. They gave it a go at explaining, but I'm not sure how that would be picked up by people unfamiliar with the books.

Thanks, that makes sense. I somehow like her having a few maternal moments, and she seems more realistic to have bit of good and bad, rather than my vague memory from the book that she was just evil.

@Loopytiles thanks

Has anyone else become completely Pullman-obsessed since this series started? I read the original trilogy about 15 years ago, and am revisiting it now, plus his other work. I find his worlds so intriguing! I sometimes lie awake at night thinking about daemons and gyptians and airships...

@ShinyGiratina I'm so with you on the bear fight. It's such a huge thing to leave their armour out.

Which book is this based on please (sorry Google just said HDM)
Watching with younger children I too felt like the worst had been hidden from the bear fight and was glad of it. Me and DD didn't watch the fight and waited until the others said it was over. Interesting to read about the Armour.

This is mainly Northern Lights Red, but with some bits that are from the past of The Subtle Knife that fit into the timeline if that makes sense.

I should be able to get past it, she's a very good actress, but I'm really struggling not to not see Will's mum as her character from Love Actually saying that Martine McCutcheon had a sizeable arse... I think it's the time of year that isn't helping with that!

The trilogy of books called His Dark Materials is by Philip Pullman:
Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

I’m wondering if they’re going to start bits of The Amber Spyglass soon - it’s not long after Will and Lyra meet that Lyra tracks down Mary Malone after all. Has she been cast, do we know?

Will’s mum also narrates Moon & Me, for those of you with babies/toddlers who are familiar with it

Ooh, just heard that The Secret Commonwealth will be on Radio 4 next week, every day at 12.00. Assume it will also be available from the website later. How exciting, have not read this yet (not available from my library and I am too tight to buy it)

Yes! I’m mildly excited - and I have read it.

Though I haven’t caught up with last Sunday’s TV episode - so haven’t read the last bit of the thread, which is painful ...

I'm reading it now. I'm enjoying it, but it feels like I haven't got very far through it yet, even though I'm nearly 200 pages in! I love the way it's sparkly under the dust cover.

Where's Will going?

To find answers to his questions ...

Although that was in some ways a marvellous episode I was a little disappointed with the change they made to the story of his mother. IIRC he leaves her with a woman. (If I say his elderly piano teacher you’ll have to forgive me if I’ve mis-remembered). Now, in the books Will was assumed to be white. (Purely because most people in England are.) And the woman his mother is left with is thus also assumed to be white.

I have no real objection to the scriptwriters swapping a female piano teacher for a male boxing coach - but, by making the boxing coach black they have given the impression that Will and his mother could only seek help from other black people - when the vast majority of the people in the area they lived would be white. It gives an odd impression. I don’t know whether they considered this and made, IMO, the wrong decision - or what. But there was absolutely no justifiable reason for this racial segregation. This isn’t America ...