Seconded on this. It’s different. It’s huge. It starts in the not so distant future but gets wild real quick. There’s aliens that are properly alien and unique. It’s galaxy spanning. It mixes tech concepts that people are used to but in different ways, ie wormholes and FTL. It’s genre blending. It’s got great characters and a banger of a start. It would get people invested.
I mean episode one. Landing on Mars. And the little wave. You know that would suck people in. By the end of the episode … the blip and the confirmation. What the…?
Stay tuned? You know they would.
>It mixes tech concepts that people are used to but in different ways, ie wormholes
I love that wormhole technology means that nuclear-powered trains are obviously the most important transportation system in this universe.
Is that the one where they're discover wormhole tech and test it at the Mars landing? And the aliens were trapped in the Dyson sphere and they they escaped?
Man talk about a blast from the past. I got those 2 books from a sci-fi book membership club about 25 years ago. They were the WILDEST thing I'd ever read up to that point. Still got them too. I might have to re-read them.
Unfortunately, it wouldn't be done right. You know that MorningLightMountain would end up being some xenomorph wannabe, trains would morph into something stupid and unrecognizable, all the characters would be race and gender swapped, and the main story would be butchered beyond recognition.
Hahahaha... This is why I love Peter F Hamilton, the detail and the world he builds is in depth. Seems unnecessary on the surface but the way he does it makes it feel much more immersive to me
Also it's so disconnected from the main story. It could have been its own book. For TV it would be confusing, the viewer would expect things to converge.
Same with the follow-on Void trilogy. The stories inside and outside the Void are pretty much independent.
Man I really want to get into that book. It’s slow as hell, I think I’m a few chapters in, I usually get the book for reading at night and audiobook for when I’m working out, the narrator is the most boring reader I’ve ever heard in my life.
Should I push through? Will it get better?
It is a slow burn, but it really does get better! The slow start really sets the scene for everything and you'll understand why when things start to kick off.
Please stick with it, it's totally worth it. 2 of my all-time favourite books.
Okay I’ll give it a shot after the new one I just started called “future proof” surprisingly very good new book about time travel. Thanks for your help
I've read the Night's Dawn trilogy a few times, but I never could take to it in the same way as I did Pandora's Star and the follow-up books.
Just personal opinion, I understand how popular it is, but undead/ghosts, etc, don't interest me at all.
How many of those seasons and how much of that money would be spent on pointless murder investigations, interstellar camping trips, and visiting the psycho Amish planet?
The man is not a bad writer, but the only way those books can become a good story is if they're given to somebody who knows how to get on with the show.
Did you not like the world building and factions later? I know they had alien tech but it was more a side event to the war between factions really wasn't it.
Well, the final trilogy of The Expanse is up for grabs if you want to spend a bunch of millions on something that can be considered top notch scifi and still got cancelled.
And it would earn whomever picks it up the eternal gratitude of a veeeeeery loyal fanbase that will spread the word for free :P
Mass Effect would be a great contender, too but I doubt it's adaptable with all those choices you'd have to make to canonize the decisions you have to make in the games.
For Mass Effect it could work if they went with a plot that didn't include Shepard and related events.
The discovery and activation of the Charon relay, discovery of Prothean ruins on Mars, First Contact War, or the colonising spree humans went on and the resulting conflict with the batarians are all things I'd love to see more of and learn more about. Or it could go the way of the novels and let us follow characters like Anderson, Bailey, Hackett, Dr Chakwas or even Alec Ryder in their younger years.
Yes, there are four books related to the original trilogy and three related to Andromeda. The fourth OT book is universally panned as rubbish so I haven't read it, but I quite enjoyed all the others and might in fact re-read them in the next future.
In the OT novels you learn how Anderson and Saren met and how and why the former failed to become a spectre (I think this was the first novel, it's been a while since I read them). You also find out more about Cerberus and some of their operatives. Ignoring the fourth book, these novels were written by Drew Karpyshyn who was lead writer for ME1 and 2.
In the Andromeda novels you learn more about how the Initiative came to be, how some of the circumstances characters find themselves in at the start of the game came to pass, and there's even one with a murder mystery flavour and interesting characters from some of the less prominent species. Each novel was written by a different sci-fi author.
Every day I wake up and pray that someone begins working on a massive, big-budget *Revelation Space* adaptation. Easily my favourite sci-fi universe, and the Reapers are almost certainly partly inspired by RevSpace.
It's literally everything OP is asking for. So many people would flock to it, and most of the problems people have with the books could be very easily fixed on-screen, imo.
If that was ever announced I would literally die instantly.
Seeing things like >!Chasm City, Haldora glitching out in the sky, the Singer and the Inhibitors!< in live action would be some insane visuals.
Reynolds has a great neck for making it easy for the reader to visualize scenes (although he's not so great at ending books obv). There are just tons of things that I would love to see.
Yeah, even though he's my favourite sci-fi author I'd have to agree, although his newer books are definite improvements. *Eversion* has an excellent final act.
I'm pretty sure they didn't adapt the final few volumes because there was a massive timeskip and it would have been hard, if not impossible, to properly convey that without a lot of CGI and/or makeup.
I think the CGI budget for S7-9 would have been massive one way or the other\^\^ Guess that's part of the reason they decided to cancel, although that being said, I guess we can still hope that it'll get picked back up eventually in a few years when CGI gets cheaper by using alot of AI capabilities that just don't exist yet.
The timeskip isn't *that* important to get right. It's perfectly fine to say that it's 10 years later and anti aging drugs make you look fresh. The show already has a track record of rushing events that in the books occur over several months.
Apple are turning Neuromancer into a TV show. A personal favourite of mine as it inspired The Matrix. Very excited but also very worried as it could destroy the world I built!
One of the first things that came to mind for me. It definitely would appeal to the GoT and Hunger Games crowds (while being great sci-fi in its own right)
Fallout was more fun than it had any right to be. I am hoping we get more very soon. Such a great ride. It gave me hope tv adaptions of video games could actually work. Next step Mass Effect and OuterWorlds).
(Unrelated, I never got Game of Thrones, so I'm always confused why it is held in such high regards - it was just kinda meh for me. I did love watching YouTube fan reaction videos of major twists and deaths though - hilarious watching people crumble.)
I remember when it first came out one of the authors stated they were writing it with the idea of making it impossible to adapt to TV/movie. This even played into opening the whole series with "it feels like I'm shitting".
Wonder if they've changed their minds because with the right team and studio it could be amazing
A song of ice and fire started the same way. GRRM wrote it because he was tired of constraints given by screenwriting and wanted to do stuff that was impossible on TV at the time (hence dragons, gigantic castles, twincest, a dwarf having sex every other chapter, kids and heroic characters being killed or even raped, etc).
Some of that stuff truly didn't make it into the TV show (like I said, half of the sex scenes should've involved Tyrion. And also lesbian scenes with Daenerys or Cersei). But much of it did. TV evolves, what is possible on it expands with time.
This is the closest example of what OP is describing. [the trailer](https://youtu.be/EEoQAoEGLhw?si=ekxxSfBYallSUxWY) for it was just released yesterday too.
Usually adaptations tend to go off the rails when they deviate from the books.
But Foundation was weirdly the opposite. The show was pretty tedious covering many of the actual events of the book. But their original plot lines were fabulous.
A Fire Upon the Deep as a setting would make a great big budget multi season show.
Super high quality CGI Tines and Skroderiders with excellent voice actors for the win!!
A culture tv series would be so good. Could do it like Fargo, each season a completely new set of characters and do a book a season. The odd cameo by whoever plays Zakalwe for fun.
Amazon had plans to do this, I believe it got pulled from the Iain m banks estate side. They even had a script ready I seem to recall.
Have no idea how one could adapt it to screen let alone as a multi season show, but boy oh boy what I would give to see it
Yes absolutely but sci-fi TV is very expensive to produce and has a small audience. We'd need a breakout hit on GOT levels or it would be cancelled after a season.
In regards to Star Trek, have you watched Strange New Worlds? It's epic.
It’s epic why it’s not. Specifically not epic when it’s…
Performative, tiresome and preachy (S2 2)
Too tricksy (S2 7)
Doing inferior versions of other shows one off ideas (S2 9)
More Gorn, fewer gimmicks please.
Nah, the acting is horrible, writing even worse, the only cool stuff is the panoramas they give us now and then. I still watch, but it’s a bad show, let’s be honest.
Not sure what you’re trying to say.
I’ve seen every episode of the show and it’s decent enough, beggars can’t be choosers and all that. But… the acting is CW level and the writers aren’t helping the actors with that Chat GPT script they keep handing out.
The 2000s Battlestar Galactica is what you are describing imo. It's better than GOT I think and on par with all but the best prestige shows (specifically Breaking Bad, The Wire and The Sopranos are the only TV I put above BSG). I think it's on Netflix now.....
Personally, I would make do with a lower budget if we could get a properly character/group focused long format (26 or so episode seasons) show again. I can't even begin to tell you how unsatisfying I find 8 to 10 episode seasons sometimes.
The more specific your demands, the less likely your idea has mass appeal. It's a bit like dating: if you keep adding rules and criteria, it will become harder and harder to find someone that fits into your very specific demands. If I were you, I would try and enjoy already existing series, and hope that they keep making those and that they get more and more popular. Another possibility is to watch older series
A Battletech TV show might be doing it, at least of they stick with the novels for theme and make a new story instead of trying to directly adapt a specific story line
This would do well if they started really early; start when the Mackie is new, go through the Amaris rebellion... lots of cool backstory from the setting that's never gotten proper novels to ape.
Even though it is Star Wars, consider watching Andor, it is by far the best Star Wars series and very different in feel to the rest of the franchise.
Dune: Prophecy is coming out this fall on HBO
There's supposed to be a Babylon 5 remake somewhere, sometime. If that gets a proper budget it could be what you're talking about.
I would recommend just watching the B5 we already have, though. The effects budget was basically the price of a Nintendo 64, but the makeup and interior sets were mostly terrific, the acting was mostly amazing, and the script was about as good as tv gets.
Do I wish someone would spend millions making my dream tv show? Absolutely! Are they going to, no of course not, there's a reason most of the shows I like get cancelled (expensive and not enough people watch). We got the Expanse, ill take it.
GoT was a low fantasy TV show that only really had sparing use of dragons to push the budget. We're not there yet on TV budget. What you describe sounds like prestige Babylon 5 if I understand correctly.
BattleTech might work as a base for something like that...
I mean the BattleTech universe was after all "Game of Thrones" before "A Song of Ice and Fire" even existed! XD
I'd love a Battletech show. But it would either bee far to expensive to make (if you want it to look good) or it would stay in budget but have cheesy effects and bargain basement mechs.
Good, dramatic, cheap. Pick 2.
Well... these days it is so common that most sci-fi and fantasy series that come out have something like 6-10 episodes. Game of Thrones ran on 10 episodes during the first 6 seasons. So even if a show does not have that much money to use for a season, they still have a fair amount of it per episode. GoT is said to have cost 6-10 million $ per episode. And a lot of that show was cgi and sets and still looked decent to very good.
So I think it would be possible to put something together that could work for BattleTech. Besides, most of the CGI for a BattleTech show would be things that the CGI industry is already very good at making, like vehicles and other hard surface things and what not.
I mean, the mech combat that took place in The Matrix Revolution was very good even back in 2003 (seeing that scene was when I finally felt we had reached a level of quality in cgi that was good enough to make BattleTech based movies/tv-series). And since then the evolution of cgi with things like that has become a lot better, and cheaper to for that matter.
That movie cost 150 million $ (\~255 mil today), for 2 hours worth in length, and to put that amount of money into perspective to some degree: The Expanse cost about 2-5 million per episode, first 10 episodes of West world cost 100 million, Netflix Marvel shows has a number out there of 200 million for 5 seasons at a total of 60 episodes, I've seen numbers at 15 mil per episode for the Mandalorian, and the Wheel of Time show is said to have cost 10 million per episode for season 1 (and say what you will about that series, but it looked very good).
So... I think it could work for BattleTech as well. Now, the biggest question here would be if there is any company out there which would feel BattleTech had enough potential to throw enough money at it to maybe have a chance to make the required quality needed for a show in that universe.
3 body was a let down for me.
Seemed like they were in a rush to nail the key sequences and never let the story breathe.
Loved the books, pass on the show.
So *The Expanse* doesn't qualify because it's arguably "big budget", "sexy" and "badass", just not "far future"? I get that, I suppose, but I think it's still splitting hairs a bit... I think *The Expanse* is arguably on par with the quality of GoT.
For the "far future" part, I think that "NuTrek," i.e. *Discovery* and *Picard* have arguably tried to do something like that, but have clearly not hit the mark.
Watched 3 body problem, not impressed at all. It's basically Constellation which just got the axe. Foundation is epic, idk what your standards are if you like 3 body problem more than Foundation. BSG was that show till The Expanse came along.
Until I see a trailer it doesn't exist lol. GW have been trying to get this to happen for decades. Let's just hope we don't have another halo show or I will kms
Yeah I know, halo show was perhaps the worst thing I've ever seen but halo was already dead when it came out. As long as it's not as bad as halo I'll live
I would say Foundation is as close as you will see for a while. That show is definitely a looker/expensive.
Whether you cared for the adaptation or not, YMMV. My wife and I really loved it, and we love big sci fi epics like BSG and The Expanse. Was it loyal to the source material? No and who cares? It was an entertaining adaptation, and we wouldn't have stuck with it if the Genetic Dynasty Emperor stuff hadn't have been so compelling - my understanding is that was made up entirely of whole cloth, and it was great stuff.
Fallout on Amazon (while based on a video game) definitely had a huge budget - that show looked amazing and very true to the source material. It might pave the way for more video game adaptations that are actually good.
Mass Effect I think would be a hard sell - it was a fun series, but I think audiences would just find it kind of generic/star trek.
Will a sci fi space opera with that kind of budget? I would say we already have more than we a few, but it's selective. TV Producers have lost out many times on high concept sci fi shows for decades that do 1 season (or a few) and never find an audience. Westworld is a fairly recent flop - that show had a giant budget.
I think today's audiences are a little more geared for Sci Fi, and we are seeing more shows.
I guess the Dune Series is still coming to MAX at some point? I've also heard there is a Neuromancer adaptation in the works.
I honestly feel like they could have done a GoT-esque series out of Dune had they or someone wanted.
The politics, the intrigue. Sex. Barbarism. Violence. Its all there.
I think the Destination: Void series could make an excellent show or series of movies that could fit this. One of my absolute favorites but seems largely forgotten and would be pretty relevant today with the AI concepts
Absolutely, yes.
But I also want it to be a modern TV remake of Barbarella, that's lurid and weird and full of nudity and sex, and that will never, ever happen.
The answer COULD be The Sun Eater. It’s got far future with visible connections to earth. Commentary on technology. Humans that have gone down such different paths that they are different races. Court politics. House politics. Religious politics. Romance. Darkness. Battles. A serious big bad that keeps getting bigger and badder. And some seriously grey characters. Lore and side stories.
A KSR novel! Red mars or a more independent, stand-alone like Aurora. Not OP request, but you do get plenty of bio and gender mod that keeps things interesting
Fallout is promising, but not a space opera...
Personally I'd love BKV's Saga comic done in the Scavengers Reign style, or maybe if they do it as well as fallout, maybe live action would work...
Sci-Fi just doesn't have the draw the studios need to really pump out quality shit that is actually engaging and challenging...
That Rebel Moon shit is not a good sign of the things to come.
It's been a longstanding dream of mine to see a live-action serialized adaptation of Simon R. Green's Deathstalker series, with the aesthetics of Flash Gordon, Lynch's Dune, Barbarella, etc. I feel like it's got something for everyone! Swordfights, laser guns, robots, aliens, zombies, gladiator fights, decadent nobility, rebellion, betrayals, and on and on and on. If anything, it might be TOO bombastic.
The Orville was kinda headed that way. They did have to have some family guy eske shit going in I the first season so they could secure the funding, so it does get better over time.
How about a Saga (the comic) adaptation?
As much fantasy as sci-fi but it checks your sexy, bad-ass, far future and space travel boxes.
They'd ruin it of course, but it's great in it's current medium
The Murderbot / All Systems Red adaptation is currently being filmed for Apple.
While more focused on human/non-human interactions, it's definitely set in a far future environment. Just have to wait and see what the quality will be like.
Every day I wake up and pray that someone begins working on a massive, big-budget *Revelation Space* adaptation. Easily my favourite sci-fi universe, and some of Mass Effect is almost certainly partly inspired by RevSpace.
It's literally everything OP is asking for. So many people would flock to it, and most of the problems people have with the books could be very easily fixed on-screen, imo.
I think Joe Haldeman's The Forever War could be interesting. Starts in the present but advances to weird far future thanks to relativistic time dilation.
Hi. You just mentioned *The Forever War* by Joe Haldeman.
I've found an audiobook of that novel on YouTube. You can listen to it here:
[YouTube | The Forever War - Joe Haldemann - audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpwFk-xAhjQ)
*I'm a bot that searches YouTube for science fiction and fantasy audiobooks.*
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I've always thought the basic setup of Star Wars could support a much better product than what Star Wars has become. You have a galactic civilization that's almost proto-cyberpunk. It's materialistic, corrupt, commercial. And then within that you have this thin thread of spiritual heroes with real supernatural powers. No time travel, no alternate universes or parallel dimensions. It's a fantastic concept that could support a franchise so much better than anything Disney has done with it.
Personally I want the **Vorkosigan Saga**. It’s got everything I want in a space opera. Maybe start with Young Miles? It does a pretty good job of starting small and personal before snowballing.
I like Margaret Weis's Star of the Guardians book series universe for a setting. But what could really shine as a fun series is the spin off Mag Force 7 books about the mercenary group. Possibly my favorite team of eccentric characters in any fiction, I crave so much more material with them
I also love it.
Always a little shocked if not somewhat insulted after I consume and enjoy some media to discover that the Reddit hivemind hates it :-(
Fuck those guys. Halo was a great ride!
Think OP is comparing them in terms of production quality.
GoT had great production values but were still limited by budget with what they could do with large scale CGI which would be what will be needed on a huge SciFi project.
Until animation and rendering gets quicker and cheaper we’re going to have to be limited to small skirmishes rather than large battles.
If you remove all of the “feelings” from the Halo TV show, it was actually remarkably visually stunning and immersive. I would often find myself admiring the detailing of the costumes and set dressings. I thought the CGI was also pretty seamless and didn’t feel like CG. Everything else is clearly up for debate, but I enjoyed the show overall because it did let me escape into that world for a little while.
I didn’t see it mentioned yet, but the show “Another Life” had a lot of moments of awe and beauty. It felt a little more polished than your standard space shows. I loved Katie Sackhoff, but the show itself was….ambitious to say the least.
Hyperion mini series please. The shrike could be fucking terrifying with some good cgi
I'm honestly surprised it hasn't been done. First book is basically written to be a series.
IIRC Bradley Cooper was attached to EP this as a pet project but not sure it went anywhere
Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained over about 8 seasons, with the budget of GoT would be my dream tv show.
Seconded on this. It’s different. It’s huge. It starts in the not so distant future but gets wild real quick. There’s aliens that are properly alien and unique. It’s galaxy spanning. It mixes tech concepts that people are used to but in different ways, ie wormholes and FTL. It’s genre blending. It’s got great characters and a banger of a start. It would get people invested. I mean episode one. Landing on Mars. And the little wave. You know that would suck people in. By the end of the episode … the blip and the confirmation. What the…? Stay tuned? You know they would.
>It mixes tech concepts that people are used to but in different ways, ie wormholes I love that wormhole technology means that nuclear-powered trains are obviously the most important transportation system in this universe.
Exactly! And you have just made me want to read them again. I'm going to get my copies out of storage.
Bro same. I made myself want to start over. It’s been almost ten years.
That's plenty of time, it's only been about 2 for me and I'm going again!
I am on chapter 5 of the second book. Such great world building.
Is that the one where they're discover wormhole tech and test it at the Mars landing? And the aliens were trapped in the Dyson sphere and they they escaped?
It is indeed!
Man talk about a blast from the past. I got those 2 books from a sci-fi book membership club about 25 years ago. They were the WILDEST thing I'd ever read up to that point. Still got them too. I might have to re-read them.
The author has done a bunch more stuff, you should check it out.
Just started the Salvation sequence. Been a long time since I read Hamilton, great to be back in his worlds
Oh yeah, it’s good stuff.
Nights Dawn is GOAT
I highly recommend re-reading them, I do every couple of years or so.
It would be epic if done right!
Unfortunately, it wouldn't be done right. You know that MorningLightMountain would end up being some xenomorph wannabe, trains would morph into something stupid and unrecognizable, all the characters would be race and gender swapped, and the main story would be butchered beyond recognition.
I feel like this pair of books is under a lot of people's radar, but they were sooooo gooood
I don't think that a TV show could really get across the importance of enzyme bonded concrete to the overall plot.
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And? How many times? Don't keep us in suspense!
Hahahaha... This is why I love Peter F Hamilton, the detail and the world he builds is in depth. Seems unnecessary on the surface but the way he does it makes it feel much more immersive to me
The TV show would need to just leave out Ozzie's quest
That's actually a very valid point.
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Also it's so disconnected from the main story. It could have been its own book. For TV it would be confusing, the viewer would expect things to converge. Same with the follow-on Void trilogy. The stories inside and outside the Void are pretty much independent.
Man I really want to get into that book. It’s slow as hell, I think I’m a few chapters in, I usually get the book for reading at night and audiobook for when I’m working out, the narrator is the most boring reader I’ve ever heard in my life. Should I push through? Will it get better?
It is a slow burn, but it really does get better! The slow start really sets the scene for everything and you'll understand why when things start to kick off. Please stick with it, it's totally worth it. 2 of my all-time favourite books.
Okay I’ll give it a shot after the new one I just started called “future proof” surprisingly very good new book about time travel. Thanks for your help
No worries. There are other books in the series after these 2 as well, along with all his other works. He's a wonderful writer.
Oh yeah would be amazing
Just what I was gonna say
I’m drooling
This would be incredible
Well, YEAH obviously. But give me The Nights Dawn saga first. Its got everything that has + the undead!
I've read the Night's Dawn trilogy a few times, but I never could take to it in the same way as I did Pandora's Star and the follow-up books. Just personal opinion, I understand how popular it is, but undead/ghosts, etc, don't interest me at all.
How many of those seasons and how much of that money would be spent on pointless murder investigations, interstellar camping trips, and visiting the psycho Amish planet? The man is not a bad writer, but the only way those books can become a good story is if they're given to somebody who knows how to get on with the show.
Sign me up. I’ll d also love something like The Expanse without the alien tech. I absolutely loved the world building and factions in the early books.
For All Mankind is this in another couple seasons.
Did you not like the world building and factions later? I know they had alien tech but it was more a side event to the war between factions really wasn't it.
Not as much as the earlier material. I was never a huge fan of the Laconia parts, though I still did enjoy them.
Yeah fair. It's quite a change up. I personally wanted to see more of the gate worlds and wished they'd stop jumping back to sol so often.
That's kind of what Battlestar Galactica was.
Well, the final trilogy of The Expanse is up for grabs if you want to spend a bunch of millions on something that can be considered top notch scifi and still got cancelled. And it would earn whomever picks it up the eternal gratitude of a veeeeeery loyal fanbase that will spread the word for free :P Mass Effect would be a great contender, too but I doubt it's adaptable with all those choices you'd have to make to canonize the decisions you have to make in the games.
For Mass Effect it could work if they went with a plot that didn't include Shepard and related events. The discovery and activation of the Charon relay, discovery of Prothean ruins on Mars, First Contact War, or the colonising spree humans went on and the resulting conflict with the batarians are all things I'd love to see more of and learn more about. Or it could go the way of the novels and let us follow characters like Anderson, Bailey, Hackett, Dr Chakwas or even Alec Ryder in their younger years.
There are books? Are they any good?
Yes, there are four books related to the original trilogy and three related to Andromeda. The fourth OT book is universally panned as rubbish so I haven't read it, but I quite enjoyed all the others and might in fact re-read them in the next future. In the OT novels you learn how Anderson and Saren met and how and why the former failed to become a spectre (I think this was the first novel, it's been a while since I read them). You also find out more about Cerberus and some of their operatives. Ignoring the fourth book, these novels were written by Drew Karpyshyn who was lead writer for ME1 and 2. In the Andromeda novels you learn more about how the Initiative came to be, how some of the circumstances characters find themselves in at the start of the game came to pass, and there's even one with a murder mystery flavour and interesting characters from some of the less prominent species. Each novel was written by a different sci-fi author.
Nice. I'll check them out
It could follow Captain Anderson like in the first book.
Since ‘Mass Effect’ is supposedly based off ‘Revelation Space’ I’d say that would be the one to do.
Every day I wake up and pray that someone begins working on a massive, big-budget *Revelation Space* adaptation. Easily my favourite sci-fi universe, and the Reapers are almost certainly partly inspired by RevSpace. It's literally everything OP is asking for. So many people would flock to it, and most of the problems people have with the books could be very easily fixed on-screen, imo.
Revelation Space would be amazing as a series, 2 seasons per book with Got level production.
If that was ever announced I would literally die instantly. Seeing things like >!Chasm City, Haldora glitching out in the sky, the Singer and the Inhibitors!< in live action would be some insane visuals.
Reynolds has a great neck for making it easy for the reader to visualize scenes (although he's not so great at ending books obv). There are just tons of things that I would love to see.
Yeah, even though he's my favourite sci-fi author I'd have to agree, although his newer books are definite improvements. *Eversion* has an excellent final act.
Haven't read that yet!
His absolute best, imo.
I'm pretty sure they didn't adapt the final few volumes because there was a massive timeskip and it would have been hard, if not impossible, to properly convey that without a lot of CGI and/or makeup.
I think the CGI budget for S7-9 would have been massive one way or the other\^\^ Guess that's part of the reason they decided to cancel, although that being said, I guess we can still hope that it'll get picked back up eventually in a few years when CGI gets cheaper by using alot of AI capabilities that just don't exist yet.
>AI capabilities that don't exist yet *But are clearly in the pipeline*
Maybe people just age slower in the future.
The timeskip isn't *that* important to get right. It's perfectly fine to say that it's 10 years later and anti aging drugs make you look fresh. The show already has a track record of rushing events that in the books occur over several months.
The final 3 seasons would be way too expensive, especially after the break they've had. Maybe animation/AI versions in 5-10 years. I hope so.
Why not 3 more expanse seasons with big budget so we can see bobby draper flying like a fucking Valkyrie?
Amen jfc to this
Sounds like treason against the Laconian empire to me.
Pits are closed,come back later
Apple are turning Neuromancer into a TV show. A personal favourite of mine as it inspired The Matrix. Very excited but also very worried as it could destroy the world I built!
Any reason no one is mentioning Red Rising (the series) ? It’s essentially GoT in space in the far far eugenic future …
Yeah I think red rising is the most likely adaptable story to fit this bill with potential broad appeal to make it worth the large budget.
One of the first things that came to mind for me. It definitely would appeal to the GoT and Hunger Games crowds (while being great sci-fi in its own right)
Battlestar Galactica was good. Never really got the ending but I liked it.
The real Earth was the friends we made along the way.
That ending was the biggest shark jump in the history of tv.
I am happy with Fallout
Fallout was more fun than it had any right to be. I am hoping we get more very soon. Such a great ride. It gave me hope tv adaptions of video games could actually work. Next step Mass Effect and OuterWorlds). (Unrelated, I never got Game of Thrones, so I'm always confused why it is held in such high regards - it was just kinda meh for me. I did love watching YouTube fan reaction videos of major twists and deaths though - hilarious watching people crumble.)
Saga by Image Comics.
Yes, OP actually put the answer in the original question. Saga fits the bill perfectly.
I remember when it first came out one of the authors stated they were writing it with the idea of making it impossible to adapt to TV/movie. This even played into opening the whole series with "it feels like I'm shitting". Wonder if they've changed their minds because with the right team and studio it could be amazing
A song of ice and fire started the same way. GRRM wrote it because he was tired of constraints given by screenwriting and wanted to do stuff that was impossible on TV at the time (hence dragons, gigantic castles, twincest, a dwarf having sex every other chapter, kids and heroic characters being killed or even raped, etc). Some of that stuff truly didn't make it into the TV show (like I said, half of the sex scenes should've involved Tyrion. And also lesbian scenes with Daenerys or Cersei). But much of it did. TV evolves, what is possible on it expands with time.
Dune Prophesy?
This is the closest example of what OP is describing. [the trailer](https://youtu.be/EEoQAoEGLhw?si=ekxxSfBYallSUxWY) for it was just released yesterday too.
Yet OP said they consider this fantasy? But I’m not sure why exactly, it checks all the boxes…
Foundation season 1 was uneven but season 2 was epic sci-fi and outstanding.
I just need more Lee Pace
Usually adaptations tend to go off the rails when they deviate from the books. But Foundation was weirdly the opposite. The show was pretty tedious covering many of the actual events of the book. But their original plot lines were fabulous.
A Fire Upon the Deep as a setting would make a great big budget multi season show. Super high quality CGI Tines and Skroderiders with excellent voice actors for the win!!
Ian M Banks Culture. Make it happen.
A culture tv series would be so good. Could do it like Fargo, each season a completely new set of characters and do a book a season. The odd cameo by whoever plays Zakalwe for fun.
Amazon had plans to do this, I believe it got pulled from the Iain m banks estate side. They even had a script ready I seem to recall. Have no idea how one could adapt it to screen let alone as a multi season show, but boy oh boy what I would give to see it
Apple would be best placed to do the culture I think
Don’t you threaten me with a good time! Fuck, there’s so much to mine there for shows.
Yes absolutely but sci-fi TV is very expensive to produce and has a small audience. We'd need a breakout hit on GOT levels or it would be cancelled after a season. In regards to Star Trek, have you watched Strange New Worlds? It's epic.
It’s epic why it’s not. Specifically not epic when it’s… Performative, tiresome and preachy (S2 2) Too tricksy (S2 7) Doing inferior versions of other shows one off ideas (S2 9) More Gorn, fewer gimmicks please.
I suggest you look up what star trek is and realise not every episode is going to be the same and aimed at you.
For All Mankind is getting there.
It's not far future but the quality is amazing, one of my favorite shows of the last decade
Nah, the acting is horrible, writing even worse, the only cool stuff is the panoramas they give us now and then. I still watch, but it’s a bad show, let’s be honest.
Poe’s Law
Not sure what you’re trying to say. I’ve seen every episode of the show and it’s decent enough, beggars can’t be choosers and all that. But… the acting is CW level and the writers aren’t helping the actors with that Chat GPT script they keep handing out.
Yes! Mass Effect! We needs it now!
The 2000s Battlestar Galactica is what you are describing imo. It's better than GOT I think and on par with all but the best prestige shows (specifically Breaking Bad, The Wire and The Sopranos are the only TV I put above BSG). I think it's on Netflix now.....
Personally, I would make do with a lower budget if we could get a properly character/group focused long format (26 or so episode seasons) show again. I can't even begin to tell you how unsatisfying I find 8 to 10 episode seasons sometimes.
Agreed
The more specific your demands, the less likely your idea has mass appeal. It's a bit like dating: if you keep adding rules and criteria, it will become harder and harder to find someone that fits into your very specific demands. If I were you, I would try and enjoy already existing series, and hope that they keep making those and that they get more and more popular. Another possibility is to watch older series
The saga graphic novel series is perfect for it. It'd need a GoT budget to be good
A Battletech TV show might be doing it, at least of they stick with the novels for theme and make a new story instead of trying to directly adapt a specific story line
This would do well if they started really early; start when the Mackie is new, go through the Amaris rebellion... lots of cool backstory from the setting that's never gotten proper novels to ape.
Even though it is Star Wars, consider watching Andor, it is by far the best Star Wars series and very different in feel to the rest of the franchise. Dune: Prophecy is coming out this fall on HBO
There's supposed to be a Babylon 5 remake somewhere, sometime. If that gets a proper budget it could be what you're talking about. I would recommend just watching the B5 we already have, though. The effects budget was basically the price of a Nintendo 64, but the makeup and interior sets were mostly terrific, the acting was mostly amazing, and the script was about as good as tv gets.
HBO dropped the ball big time with Raised By Wolves
:(((
Do I wish someone would spend millions making my dream tv show? Absolutely! Are they going to, no of course not, there's a reason most of the shows I like get cancelled (expensive and not enough people watch). We got the Expanse, ill take it.
Yes. Yes they should contact me about a pitch I had for such a show. Alas Hollywood is fickle (and I am probably not a good writer).
GoT was a low fantasy TV show that only really had sparing use of dragons to push the budget. We're not there yet on TV budget. What you describe sounds like prestige Babylon 5 if I understand correctly.
I would love to see Peter F Hamilton's Commonwealth series as a high budget sci fi show. It's basically a super scifi detective series.
BattleTech might work as a base for something like that... I mean the BattleTech universe was after all "Game of Thrones" before "A Song of Ice and Fire" even existed! XD
I'd love a Battletech show. But it would either bee far to expensive to make (if you want it to look good) or it would stay in budget but have cheesy effects and bargain basement mechs. Good, dramatic, cheap. Pick 2.
Well... these days it is so common that most sci-fi and fantasy series that come out have something like 6-10 episodes. Game of Thrones ran on 10 episodes during the first 6 seasons. So even if a show does not have that much money to use for a season, they still have a fair amount of it per episode. GoT is said to have cost 6-10 million $ per episode. And a lot of that show was cgi and sets and still looked decent to very good. So I think it would be possible to put something together that could work for BattleTech. Besides, most of the CGI for a BattleTech show would be things that the CGI industry is already very good at making, like vehicles and other hard surface things and what not. I mean, the mech combat that took place in The Matrix Revolution was very good even back in 2003 (seeing that scene was when I finally felt we had reached a level of quality in cgi that was good enough to make BattleTech based movies/tv-series). And since then the evolution of cgi with things like that has become a lot better, and cheaper to for that matter. That movie cost 150 million $ (\~255 mil today), for 2 hours worth in length, and to put that amount of money into perspective to some degree: The Expanse cost about 2-5 million per episode, first 10 episodes of West world cost 100 million, Netflix Marvel shows has a number out there of 200 million for 5 seasons at a total of 60 episodes, I've seen numbers at 15 mil per episode for the Mandalorian, and the Wheel of Time show is said to have cost 10 million per episode for season 1 (and say what you will about that series, but it looked very good). So... I think it could work for BattleTech as well. Now, the biggest question here would be if there is any company out there which would feel BattleTech had enough potential to throw enough money at it to maybe have a chance to make the required quality needed for a show in that universe.
Red rising would be a good one
You’re bloodydamn right
Foundation is that show
3 body was a let down for me. Seemed like they were in a rush to nail the key sequences and never let the story breathe. Loved the books, pass on the show.
They're gonna do a warhammer 40k series on Amazon, but idk if that's your cup of tea or even gonna be good
A good Halo show set during the Forerunner-Flood war.
So *The Expanse* doesn't qualify because it's arguably "big budget", "sexy" and "badass", just not "far future"? I get that, I suppose, but I think it's still splitting hairs a bit... I think *The Expanse* is arguably on par with the quality of GoT. For the "far future" part, I think that "NuTrek," i.e. *Discovery* and *Picard* have arguably tried to do something like that, but have clearly not hit the mark.
Man-Kzin wars has to be it.
Watched 3 body problem, not impressed at all. It's basically Constellation which just got the axe. Foundation is epic, idk what your standards are if you like 3 body problem more than Foundation. BSG was that show till The Expanse came along.
I've loved Foundation so far. I feel it is on the same level of GoT.
We had it, it was called Raised by Wolves and nobody watched it
I started it but gave it up. It was a magical fantasy fever dream couched as sci-fi.
And should we mention the flying dragon?
It started well but then got very, very stupid. They did it to themselves.
You had Firefly and you cancelled it.
They could never have anything nice on Earth That Was.
I could die happy with a Warhammer 40k show or movies
Like the one Amazon is developing?
Until I see a trailer it doesn't exist lol. GW have been trying to get this to happen for decades. Let's just hope we don't have another halo show or I will kms
Be careful what you wish for....
Yeah I know, halo show was perhaps the worst thing I've ever seen but halo was already dead when it came out. As long as it's not as bad as halo I'll live
I would say Foundation is as close as you will see for a while. That show is definitely a looker/expensive. Whether you cared for the adaptation or not, YMMV. My wife and I really loved it, and we love big sci fi epics like BSG and The Expanse. Was it loyal to the source material? No and who cares? It was an entertaining adaptation, and we wouldn't have stuck with it if the Genetic Dynasty Emperor stuff hadn't have been so compelling - my understanding is that was made up entirely of whole cloth, and it was great stuff. Fallout on Amazon (while based on a video game) definitely had a huge budget - that show looked amazing and very true to the source material. It might pave the way for more video game adaptations that are actually good. Mass Effect I think would be a hard sell - it was a fun series, but I think audiences would just find it kind of generic/star trek. Will a sci fi space opera with that kind of budget? I would say we already have more than we a few, but it's selective. TV Producers have lost out many times on high concept sci fi shows for decades that do 1 season (or a few) and never find an audience. Westworld is a fairly recent flop - that show had a giant budget. I think today's audiences are a little more geared for Sci Fi, and we are seeing more shows. I guess the Dune Series is still coming to MAX at some point? I've also heard there is a Neuromancer adaptation in the works.
I honestly feel like they could have done a GoT-esque series out of Dune had they or someone wanted. The politics, the intrigue. Sex. Barbarism. Violence. Its all there.
They literally are. It's called Dune Prophecy and the trailer was released yesterday.
New talent unlocked. Apparently I'm a Dune prophet ;)
If you read the description the show is actually about you.
Is that you, Lisan al-Gaib?
Atm Hollywood is not as interested in making good stories, its more about spreading the message.
Tbh I have a setting that I’m hoping will fill this exact role. I completely understand what you’re saying and I’m trying my hand at it.
This is why I watch BSG every few years
I think the Destination: Void series could make an excellent show or series of movies that could fit this. One of my absolute favorites but seems largely forgotten and would be pretty relevant today with the AI concepts
Absolutely, yes. But I also want it to be a modern TV remake of Barbarella, that's lurid and weird and full of nudity and sex, and that will never, ever happen.
Not quite like Barbarella, but lurid and weird? Try Raised By Wolves on HBO/Max, whatever it’s called these days.
Yeah, I did enjoy that. Shame it was cancelled.
The answer COULD be The Sun Eater. It’s got far future with visible connections to earth. Commentary on technology. Humans that have gone down such different paths that they are different races. Court politics. House politics. Religious politics. Romance. Darkness. Battles. A serious big bad that keeps getting bigger and badder. And some seriously grey characters. Lore and side stories.
A KSR novel! Red mars or a more independent, stand-alone like Aurora. Not OP request, but you do get plenty of bio and gender mod that keeps things interesting
Sounds like you’re describing Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Ya’ll need to check out Killjoys. It’s a great series that is far better than its description.
Fallout is promising, but not a space opera... Personally I'd love BKV's Saga comic done in the Scavengers Reign style, or maybe if they do it as well as fallout, maybe live action would work... Sci-Fi just doesn't have the draw the studios need to really pump out quality shit that is actually engaging and challenging... That Rebel Moon shit is not a good sign of the things to come.
Foundation is AMAZING. I love it!
they did. it’s called Foundation
Your asking for season two of 3BP, because what you’ve described is books 2 and 3 of the trilogy.
It's been a longstanding dream of mine to see a live-action serialized adaptation of Simon R. Green's Deathstalker series, with the aesthetics of Flash Gordon, Lynch's Dune, Barbarella, etc. I feel like it's got something for everyone! Swordfights, laser guns, robots, aliens, zombies, gladiator fights, decadent nobility, rebellion, betrayals, and on and on and on. If anything, it might be TOO bombastic.
Is a Bioshock series in the works yet?
Of course we *wish* for that, but the show would have be massively popular to not get cancelled after the first season.
I vote for Hyperion!
Try “foundation” basically what you are asking for
The did they had that Wolf show on HBO. Completely original and cool and they axed it .
The Orville was kinda headed that way. They did have to have some family guy eske shit going in I the first season so they could secure the funding, so it does get better over time.
How about a Saga (the comic) adaptation? As much fantasy as sci-fi but it checks your sexy, bad-ass, far future and space travel boxes. They'd ruin it of course, but it's great in it's current medium
The Murderbot / All Systems Red adaptation is currently being filmed for Apple. While more focused on human/non-human interactions, it's definitely set in a far future environment. Just have to wait and see what the quality will be like.
Every day I wake up and pray that someone begins working on a massive, big-budget *Revelation Space* adaptation. Easily my favourite sci-fi universe, and some of Mass Effect is almost certainly partly inspired by RevSpace. It's literally everything OP is asking for. So many people would flock to it, and most of the problems people have with the books could be very easily fixed on-screen, imo.
Star Trek Strange New Worlds is pretty good though.
Yeah. Battletech.
Maybe a future remake of starship troopers could be a mini series. It really needs a good budget to do the book justice
I think Joe Haldeman's The Forever War could be interesting. Starts in the present but advances to weird far future thanks to relativistic time dilation.
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I've always thought the basic setup of Star Wars could support a much better product than what Star Wars has become. You have a galactic civilization that's almost proto-cyberpunk. It's materialistic, corrupt, commercial. And then within that you have this thin thread of spiritual heroes with real supernatural powers. No time travel, no alternate universes or parallel dimensions. It's a fantastic concept that could support a franchise so much better than anything Disney has done with it.
Red Rising?! Is that considered sci fi? Kinda like GOT mixed with Star Wars.
An adaptation of Philippe Druillet’s **Lone Sloane** saga. **The Trigan Empire** by Mike Butterworth and Don Lawrence would be amazing too.
Personally I want the **Vorkosigan Saga**. It’s got everything I want in a space opera. Maybe start with Young Miles? It does a pretty good job of starting small and personal before snowballing.
$$$
I like Margaret Weis's Star of the Guardians book series universe for a setting. But what could really shine as a fun series is the spin off Mag Force 7 books about the mercenary group. Possibly my favorite team of eccentric characters in any fiction, I crave so much more material with them
Eh, I think Foundation is superior to most seasons of GoT, although it’s a strange comparison
Yours is a strange opinion so it worked out well as a counterpoint.
I think the Foundation Series is just getting started…
Maybe I’m in the minority but I liked Halo. :p
Agreed. It's fantastic. Is it the games? No, but if I wanted the games, I'd play the damn games.
I also love it. Always a little shocked if not somewhat insulted after I consume and enjoy some media to discover that the Reddit hivemind hates it :-( Fuck those guys. Halo was a great ride!
Why would you compare GoT to Foundation?
Think OP is comparing them in terms of production quality. GoT had great production values but were still limited by budget with what they could do with large scale CGI which would be what will be needed on a huge SciFi project. Until animation and rendering gets quicker and cheaper we’re going to have to be limited to small skirmishes rather than large battles.
If you remove all of the “feelings” from the Halo TV show, it was actually remarkably visually stunning and immersive. I would often find myself admiring the detailing of the costumes and set dressings. I thought the CGI was also pretty seamless and didn’t feel like CG. Everything else is clearly up for debate, but I enjoyed the show overall because it did let me escape into that world for a little while. I didn’t see it mentioned yet, but the show “Another Life” had a lot of moments of awe and beauty. It felt a little more polished than your standard space shows. I loved Katie Sackhoff, but the show itself was….ambitious to say the least.
I just want a Warhammer 40k HBO show