A for Andromeda

[nmg]

Given that the 1961 original was lost in one of the great BBC tape purges of the 1970s (to make way for Match of the Day, no doubt), it's unsurprising that I've never seen A for Andromeda. Rather more embarrassingly, I've not read any of Fred Hoyle's novels.

ias and I watched the live remake of The Quatermass Experiment that BBC Four showed last year; I enjoyed it, but I didn't think that the plot had dated especially well, and the pacing required of a live production with outside broadcasts felt artificial. I've just seen BBC Four's remake of A for Andromeda, and I have to say that I was really rather impressed. Good dialogue, and an intelligent script - what more could one want? The closing quotation by Carl Sagan was a deft, if slightly in-jokey touch, considering the considerable conceptual debt that Contact (written 1985) owes to A for Andromeda. I shan't deign to comment on the similarities between AFA and the execrable Species.

In other news, I'm back from Sofia, and will possibly write something about that tomorrow.

Comments

[nmg.livejournal.com]

The original Quatermass Experiment was better than the remake, certainly, but I preferred Quatermass and the Pit (the 1958 series, not the 1967 remake).

I'd love to be able to compare last night's A for Andromeda with the original (not least because it was Julie Christie's debut), but in the absence of any surviving copies I'll be content with the remake.

ps: how are you getting on with LaTeX?

[clare42.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that was what he was on about!

Ah, the LaTeX. Uhm. Well I'm in Devon at the mo, but I have every intention of playing with it next week. :)