[tv trailer] 3 Body Problem

[Arthur]

Humanity's first contact with an alien civilization.

 

www.imdb.com/title/tt13016388

 

[Dos_Box]

There is a Chinese TV version on YouTube (I think I linked to it last year), but the production values were quite low, so am very much looking forwards to this.

I just hope they don't ruin it!

Edited June 19, 2023 by Dos_Box

[LeMarchand]

I know writers are low down the pecking order in Hollywood, but "from the creators of Game of Thrones" - I think that George RR Martin would beg to differ about GoT and poor old Cixin Liu/Liu Cixin (the author of the book 3BP) doesn't even get a mention in the trailer.

[MartinT]

I think that George RR Martin would beg to differ about GoT and poor old Cixin Liu/Liu Cixin (the author of the book 3BP) doesn't even get a mention in the trailer.

 

At least it still has Chinese actors, rather than being fully 'Hollywooded'.

[Dos_Box]

I know writers are low down the pecking order in Hollywood, but "from the creators of Game of Thrones" - I think that George RR Martin would beg to differ about GoT and poor old Cixin Liu/Liu Cixin (the author of the book 3BP) doesn't even get a mention in the trailer.

 

I wonder if they omitted 'From the creators of Game of Thrones...Season 8'!

[LeMarchand]

At least it still has Chinese actors, rather than being fully 'Hollywooded'.

 

I was trying to find out who the voice-over was from (Carl Sagan, apparently) and came across a piece on the trailer and how it made sure to put its "megastars" Benedict Wong and John Bradley in. Not sure that Mr Wong is a "megastar", but must be nice for John Bradley to see himself described thusly.

[6Foot2]

[MartinT]

Video link:

 

The book by Cixin Liu is very good so I'm looking forward to this.

[Arthur]

https://youtu.be/mogSbMD6EcY

[LeMarchand]

Really looking forward to this.

[Dos_Box]

Really looking forward to this.

 

Me too, although it does mean I'll have to sign up for Netflix again!

[6Foot2]

Me too, although it does mean I'll have to sign up for Netflix again!

 

Or wait until it's distributed more widely?

 

[LeMarchand]

Or wait until it's distributed more widely?

 

 

Netflix rarely lets its "originals" be shown elsewhere.

 

At one stage the other streamers tried to follow this model, but recently some have started allowing Netflix access to their shows. "Suits", for instance, recently got a new lease of life on Netflix.

[Arthur]

[LeMarchand]

Well, it lived up to my expectations. Hope they get to finish the trilogy and that it answers some of my questions.

 

Anyway,

 

SPOILERS

 

FOR

 

THE

 

SHOW

 

and possibly

 

the books.

 

General grumbles out of the way first, the main one being why did D & D feel they had to use lots of mainly attractive female nudity in the "rehydration" scene? We saw that at least one character was (thank goodness!) rehydrated wearing clothes, so why not all/most of them? Similarly, Eiza Gonzalez is gorgeous, but why was she prancing around in what looked like a freezing cold house in very little clothing? Do such "beach houses" even exist in the UK?

 

On to more serious questions:

 

If the Shan-Ti don't understand stories/can't lie, how did they produce a computer game? I have a suspicion this might be answered later, though.

 

They can't risk various conventional ways to take the "Judgement Day" due to potential casualties/damage to the data, but Chekov's nano-cheesewire slicing the ship into ribbons is much safer?

 

If the Shan-Ti can totally mess with people's heads, can't they just drive the Wallfacers mad? Or the whole world, for that matter.

 

Not entirely sure how Auggie's nan-filaments have filter uses.

 

I'm hoping against hope that poor Will (or his brain) gets a happier ending.

[mavhc]

Did they make the game, or provide the tech for humans to make it?

 

Destroying 1% of the ship with nanowires is better than explosives destroying >1%

 

The proton computers are messing with the heads, but that's a limited resource, they also need to mess with every important physics experiment etc, that's why they resumed running them all, to use up the sophon resources. Now everyone knows they exist it's unlikely people would go mad

[Slarty66]

Well, it lived up to my expectations. Hope they get to finish the trilogy and that it answers some of my questions.

 

Anyway,

 

SPOILERS

 

FOR

 

THE

 

SHOW

 

and possibly

 

the books.

 

General grumbles out of the way first, the main one being why did D & D feel they had to use lots of mainly attractive female nudity in the "rehydration" scene? We saw that at least one character was (thank goodness!) rehydrated wearing clothes, so why not all/most of them? Similarly, Eiza Gonzalez is gorgeous, but why was she prancing around in what looked like a freezing cold house in very little clothing? Do such "beach houses" even exist in the UK?

 

On to more serious questions:

 

If the Shan-Ti don't understand stories/can't lie, how did they produce a computer game? I have a suspicion this might be answered later, though.

 

They can't risk various conventional ways to take the "Judgement Day" due to potential casualties/damage to the data, but Chekov's nano-cheesewire slicing the ship into ribbons is much safer?

 

If the Shan-Ti can totally mess with people's heads, can't they just drive the Wallfacers mad? Or the whole world, for that matter.

 

Not entirely sure how Auggie's nan-filaments have filter uses.

 

I'm hoping against hope that poor Will (or his brain) gets a happier ending.

I have read the Book trilogy so I can answer your questions.

Well some as a) I don't want to ruin the show if they actually get to make it b) The TV adaption is slightly different than the book and there are some parts of book two and three in series one.

 

1 ) If the Shan-Ti don't understand stories/can't lie, how did they produce a computer game? I have a suspicion this might be answered later, though.

It wasn't made clear but the Virtual reality game was created by the ETO as a recruitment tool with the help of the aliens technology.

 

2) They can't risk various conventional ways to take the "Judgement Day" due to potential casualties/damage to the data, but Chekov's nano-cheesewire slicing the ship into ribbons is much safer?

They decided on this as the nano fibres were invisible and the attack would be silent and would kill everyone on board before they realised what was happening.

In the book there is only a crew and Mike evans on board. There is no one else so the TV show added parents and children to give the scene more impact. The Chinese TV version was more like the book.

 

3) If the Shan-Ti can totally mess with people's heads, can't they just drive the Wallfacers mad? Or the whole world, for that matter.

Because they can't read Human minds they can't do this directly. But as shown in the show they can get others to try and kill the Wallfacers.

In the book the Shan-Ti have humans called Wallbreakers to spy on the wallfacers to figure out their ideas.

As for the whole world going mad, events in Book two could be seen as doing that ....

 

4) Not entirely sure how Auggie's nan-filaments have filter uses

The Shan-Ti wanted to stop humans creating this as they could use them to construct Space elevators. These would be used to construct spaceships in space.

The books describe it better than I can here!

 

5) I'm hoping against hope that poor Will (or his brain) gets a happier ending

Yes Book three. With some Fairy tales ....

The scene with him in a origami boat floating in season one is a nod to the last book.

 

I know I'm being a bit cryptic with some answers but I don't want to give too much away.

The first series barely scratches the surface of this epic story!

 

 

If the Shan-Ti don't understand stories/can't lie, how did they produce a computer game? I have a suspicion this might be answered later, though.

Edited May 3, 2024 by Slarty66

[LeMarchand]

Did they make the game, or provide the tech for humans to make it?

 

Destroying 1% of the ship with nanowires is better than explosives destroying >1%

 

The proton computers are messing with the heads, but that's a limited resource, they also need to mess with every important physics experiment etc, that's why they resumed running them all, to use up the sophon resources. Now everyone knows they exist it's unlikely people would go mad

 

I have read the Book trilogy so I can answer your questions.

Well some as a) I don't want to ruin the show if they actually get to make it b) The TV adaption is slightly different than the book and there are some parts of book two and three in series one.

 

1 ) If the Shan-Ti don't understand stories/can't lie, how did they produce a computer game? I have a suspicion this might be answered later, though.

It wasn't made clear but the Virtual reality game was created by the ETO as a recruitment tool with the help of the aliens technology.

 

2) They can't risk various conventional ways to take the "Judgement Day" due to potential casualties/damage to the data, but Chekov's nano-cheesewire slicing the ship into ribbons is much safer?

They decided on this as the nano fibres were invisible and the attack would be silent and would kill everyone on board before they realised what was happening.

In the book there is only a crew and Mike evans on board. There is no one else so the TV show added parents and children to give the scene more impact. The Chinese TV version was more like the book.

 

3) If the Shan-Ti can totally mess with people's heads, can't they just drive the Wallfacers mad? Or the whole world, for that matter.

Because they can't read Human minds they can't do this directly. But as shown in the show they can get others to try and kill the Wallfacers.

In the book the Shan-Ti have humans called Wallbreakers to spy on the wallfacers to figure out their ideas.

As for the whole world going mad, events in Book two could be seen as doing that ....

 

4) Not entirely sure how Auggie's nan-filaments have filter uses

The Shan-Ti wanted to stop humans creating this as they could use them to construct Space elevators. These would be used to construct spaceships in space.

The books describe it better than I can here!

 

5) I'm hoping against hope that poor Will (or his brain) gets a happier ending

Yes Book three. With some Fairy tales ....

The scene with him in a origami boat floating in season one is a nod to the last book.

 

I know I'm being a bit cryptic with some answers but I don't want to give too much away.

The first series barely scratches the surface of this epic story!

 

 

If the Shan-Ti don't understand stories/can't lie, how did they produce a computer game? I have a suspicion this might be answered later, though.

Humans making the game makes kinda sense, though I don't see how the Shan-Ti grasped the concept or (presumably) get it adapted for Tatiana at the end.

 

I still think there would have been many different ways to take the ship, but that was an incredibly cool visual.

 

The final conversation with Wade (with the scary body appearing next to him on the plane) suggests they can create hallucinations. If, say, Will was cured and the Wallfacer they could lock him in a wonderful life with Jin that he'd die a happy man in.

 

I get the space elevator idea (read "The Fountains of Paradise" many years ago) so I understand why the Shan-Ti would want the project halted. Still can't grasp how the fibres work as filters.

 

I very much appreciate the spoiler-free answers! Fingers crossed they get to finish the series.

[mavhc]

I assume you just make a grid/mesh of them and pump water though, perhaps they're better because the flow can be larger than other techniques

[LeMarchand]

I assume you just make a grid/mesh of them and pump water though, perhaps they're better because the flow can be larger than other techniques

 

Not from what you saw Auggie attach. I would have thought that the filter would just get clogged fairly quickly. It is a bit of a nitpick, though.

[Slarty66]

Humans making the game makes kinda sense, though I don't see how the Shan-Ti grasped the concept or (presumably) get it adapted for Tatiana at the end.

 

I still think there would have been many different ways to take the ship, but that was an incredibly cool visual.

 

The final conversation with Wade (with the scary body appearing next to him on the plane) suggests they can create hallucinations. If, say, Will was cured and the Wallfacer they could lock him in a wonderful life with Jin that he'd die a happy man in.

 

I get the space elevator idea (read "The Fountains of Paradise" many years ago) so I understand why the Shan-Ti would want the project halted. Still can't grasp how the fibres work as filters.

 

I very much appreciate the spoiler-free answers! Fingers crossed they get to finish the series.

No problem. I would recommend reading the books.

I'd say its the one of the best Sci-fi trilogy's I've read up there with Foundation and Dune.

The third book Deaths End is the best one with some real mind bending science and twists!

Second book follows a lot of what has been hinted at in the tv series.

If you do read it there is a chapter in book two The Dark Forest which when I read it I thought this has absolutely nothing to do with this story and I was so just awful. A lot of fans of the books talk about this.

But by book three it makes sense and I can see why the author included it.

The main difference is that the book has less main characters and are mostly Chinese.

I do think book two wasn't as well translated as the first and third book. Different translator for book two.

Although there are notes at the bottom of some pages explaining certain events and name as we in the west don't have the reference points I get the feeling that some of the dialogue is a bit lost in translation.

I totally understand why the Netflix version was made more international.

The Chinese TV version is closer to the Book and is worth watching.

Edited May 3, 2024 by Slarty66

[Rob_D]

The final conversation with Wade (with the scary body appearing next to him on the plane) suggests they can create hallucinations. If, say, Will was cured and the Wallfacer they could lock him in a wonderful life with Jin that he'd die a happy man in.

But that conversation is using one of (I think they said) the 2 sophons on earth. If there's only two of them, they can't really be tying one up for a whole human lifetime.

I get the space elevator idea (read "The Fountains of Paradise" many years ago) so I understand why the Shan-Ti would want the project halted. Still can't grasp how the fibres work as filters.

It's implied they used the nano-fiber tech to make the probe's sails. So I guess it's that she's using to make the filters (finer mesh means more filtering).

[jthompson]

A filter made of a tight enough mesh of nano fibres would allow water molecules through but anything else like bacteria or dirt particles would get minced into small enough pieces that they would prevent no health risk.

 

Not sure about chemical pollutants, mercury, etc though.

 

Also, it'd presumably be rather dangerous to have nano fibres out and about in public where they could be put to more malicious uses.

[jthompson]

Not familiar with the books at all, and whilst I found the story engaging and thought provoking, I found the cast pretty bland.

[Slarty66]

Not familiar with the books at all, and whilst I found the story engaging and thought provoking, I found the cast pretty bland.

I'd agree with the comment the cast were pretty bland, the book is the same.

I don't think Liu Cixin has that ability of creating interesting characters, something that a lot of Sci-fi does suffer from.

But his imagination is up there with Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke etc

In the first book a lot of the plotlines are experienced by one character. They changed it to five people to help with telling the story in the tv show.

It's worked in that a lot of complex ideas are explained in conversations between the cast.

But yes if they adapt the next two books the three main people that are featured I would say only two of the actors cast will be able to carry the epic story.

I thought the TV show laid the groundwork for the next twists in the show rather well.

I re-watched the series again after re-reading the trilogy and I would say the shows writers have made a very good job.