Scifi Channel to Make Ringworld Miniseries

Snaller writes "The Sci Fi Channel has listed its programming for the upcomming year, it includes the Farscape miniseries already mentioned by Slashdot, it also includes a miniseries based the legendary scifi story by Larry Niven: Ringworld. In the far future 4 travelers crash on a ring around a sun in a distant system. Shall be interesting to see how they depict the Puppeteers."

Comments

About time.

[kabocox]

It's about time some one makes this. Too bad it really needs to be on an IMAX though.

Re:Sweet!

[admiralh]

As long as they keep the whole sex bit out of the series, it should be very cool miniseries

True. Goodness knows that we shouldn't think of sex as part of normal human behavior, so it should never be depicted, nor even talked about in polite company, especially around the children (We MUST Protect the Children!). And then once we perfect in vitro fetilization and artificial gestation, there's no reason to have that disgusting sex whatsoever.

Re:Shall be interesting to see how they depict the

[tverbeek]

How in hell's name was Jar-Jar offensive!?

Not to rehash a years-old argument (how did you miss it?), but Jar-Jar reminded some viewers of how Jamaicans and African Americans have been caricatured in popular entertainment (e.g. loping, dim-witted, exaggerated mouths, speaking pidgin English). Some of the other aliens in SW:TPM were bore some resemblance to racial stereotypes as well (e.g. the trade federation reps =~ Chinese, Anakin's master Watto =~ Jewish), leading to some spirited debates about the subject.

Re:Surely there are better stories...

[Grab]

So cliche, character-wise. Let me count the ways...

- We have a brave genius human (male, naturally) who solves the problems. Check.
- We have an attractive but ditzy girl for him. Check.
- We have some sex. Check.
- We have some fierce aliens. Cat people'll do. Check.
- We have some cowardly aliens. Check.

But wait! the twist!

- We have *another* attractive girl for him, and the first attractive girl goes off with someone else, hence giving brave genius male some more sex!

I'm not even going to *start* on Engineers and Throne - too many targets, too little time. If erotic furries is your thing, knock yourself out. Otherwise read something better.

Like Asimov and Clarke, Niven has a major failing as an author - he can come up with astounding technical details, and then wrap them with a story that's for shit. Niven's obviously done *amazing* research into stuff, and invented whole civilisations and past histories like Tolkein would be proud of, but the story (which basically means things happening to people and how people react) could be any trash novel from anywhere.

Grab.

Re:Sweet!

[AnonymousKev]

I don't know why the OP wanted the sex scenes left out, but I'll give you my reasoning. It has little to do with protecting the children and a lot to do with protecting the part of my brain that shorts out when exposed to bad writing. Larry Niven writes about sex with the vocabulary of a 14 year old boy. (Least favorite line in Ringworld: "She impaled herself on him in ecstacy." Sheesh, that's forever lodged in my brain like an evil splinter)

I really liked the concepts presented in Ringworld, but the character interactions just seemed ... juvenille ... to me. Sorry if that runs counter to your own (well-reasoned, I'm sure) opinion.

If the sex scene contributes something to the story, by all means, include it. But if it's <pun>inserted</pun> only for shock value, then replace with with something clever that does further the plot.