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Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams


Bud the Baker

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Anthology Series based on Dick's short stories will shortly be appearing on Channel 4.

A cult sci-fi author during his lifetime, most of Dick's best work was written before mucho experimentation with LSD in the '60's. His work examines the inner workings of the mind, the gap between perception and reality and he deserves the critical acclaim of an author like Kafka whose work focussed on the same themes but that is often the fate of Sci-Fi authors.

Died in early '82 shortly before  Blade Runner (based on one of his short stories) was released as a movie. Subsequent fillums based on his work include Total Recall (twice), Screamers, Minority Report, A Spanner Darkly & The Adjustment Bureau plus on TV The Man in the High Castle. That's without considering his short story Second Variety which clearly influenced Terminator.

My favourite short story of Dick's is one where after destroying the Earth's environment we pack up and fly to Mars only to discover that the entire planet is a dump and that we'd flitted from there in the first place. :lol: 

My only worry is the number of Producers associated with the project as in TV production the old adage Too Many Cooks................... often turns out to be the case.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick's_Electric_Dreams

  

Edited by Bud the Baker
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Anthology Series based on Dick's short stories will shortly be appearing on Channel 4.
A cult sci-fi author during his lifetime, most of Dick's best work was written before mucho experimentation with LSD in the '60's. Most of his best work focusses on the inner workings of the mind, the gap between perception and reality and he deserves the critical acclaim of an author like Kafka whose work focussed on the same themes but that is often the fate of Sci-Fi authors.
Died in early '82 shortly before  Blade Runner based on one of his short stories was released as a movie. Subsequent fillums based on his work include Total Recall (twice), Screamers, Minority Report, A Spanner Darkly & The Adjustment Bureau plus on TV The Man in the High Castle. That's without considering his short story Second Variety which clearly influenced Terminator.
My favourite short story of Dick's is one where after destroying the Earth's environment we pack up and fly to Mars only to discover that's the entire planet is a dump that we'd flitted from in the first place. :lol: 
My only worry is the number of Producers associated with the project as in TV production the old adage Too Many Cooks................... often turns out to be the case.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick's_Electric_Dreams
  

Screamers? A Spanner Darkly?
I think you're the spanner for not doing your usual meticulous pre-post spell check [emoji41]
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5 minutes ago, Eric Arthur Blair said:


Screamers? A Spanner Darkly?
I think you're the spanner for not doing your usual meticulous pre-post spell check emoji41.png

What's wrong with Screamers?

Congrats for spotting Spanner it was a  deliberate one, honest. :clapping

3 minutes ago, Eric Arthur Blair said:

PS have you got a phone yet?

Not yet, I'm still unsure about the new millennium.................

PS - How did you do in TBBT quiz?

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  • 2 weeks later...
2 hours ago, Bud the Baker said:

Two days to go.

Apparently C4 are hoping that this will attract the same audience that enjoyed Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror which is now on Netflix or some other weird platform.

We shall see, that is those of us with taste.  :P

Unsure of what to expect.

Have set a series link* for it.

*That's the modern day equivalent of video taping it automatically.:P

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Episode 1: The Hood Maker

Well the producers had certainly thrown a lot of money at the project (unlike Bialystock & Bloom) and we were thrown into a barely functioning post-apocalyptic world where there seemed to be two types of folks teeps (with telepathic abilities) and norms.

From there we rushed headlong into familiar Dick territory with nothing quite what it seemed and everyone doublecrossing everyone else. :wacko: I won't put any spoilers in because I'm still not sure what happened, I'll have to watch it again but it was certainly a helluva ride.

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 Well fuck me sideways - during my slumbers they've only gone and made a new Blade Runner fillum BR: 2049 set 30 years after the original.

Despite 35 years having passed since the original it still features involvement from Ridley Scott, one of the original co-writers, Harrison Ford & Edward "origami" Olmos. 

Time for all you '80's duded to look out your trenchcoats and act all moody..................... 

*********************

As an aside it looks like there's gonna be another attempt at filming Frank Herbert's masterpiece Dune (am I the only one who loved the 1984 David Lynch version?). Rather worryingly the plan seems to be to make a franchise out of the series which is patchy and I'd argue in the case of the second novel unfilmable as it focusses on Paul/Maud Dib's disillusionment with the Jihad he has unleashed and more of a bridging novella to the third book Children of Dune.

It seems there are still plenty of strange worlds for filmmakers, to seek out and boldly direct.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Saw Blade Runner 2049 last night at the IMax at Braehead last night with EAB.

Visually stunning, excellent music both the original score and the soundtrack. :wacko:

Explores the themes from the original movie and has plenty of obscure references (both real & imaginary) from Kafka to the bible and a finale to match the original - just have to work out what it was all about now.

At 2hrs 43mins it's quite long but I didn't feel there was much slack although EAB thought 1 scene could've been deleted.

******************

A bit unsure about the ending which seems to contradict the premise of the fillum, careful about spoilers, but otherwise enjoyed it very muchily!

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