Terry Pratchett's "The Watch" - A diverse and inclusive steampunk BBC series inspired by the Discworld Novels

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Bird In Flight said:
I’m annoyed at Sybil. By all means cast a black actress but keep her true to her character- she’s meant to be an aristo animal hobbyist in her 40s. It doesn’t stop her being a strong woman just because she’s not Catwoman.
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I always thought that Sybil was akin to those... famous operatic sopranos, you know, not a diva but the kind of person who is larger than life without even trying, that was what made her a damn good character. Now I wonder if the people who will see the show and then read the books will be disappointed about Pratchett's original concept for the character. Urgh, they will probably be disappointed by everything, the main grivance probably being how much unwoke the story and the character are.
 
TungstenCarbide said:
I always thought that Sybil was akin to those... famous operatic sopranos, you know, not a diva but the kind of person who is larger than life without even trying, that was what made her a damn good character. Now I wonder if the people who will see the show and then read the books will be disappointed about Pratchett's original concept for the character. Urgh, they will probably be disappointed by everything, the main grivance probably being how much unwoke the story and the character are.
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I think it's more likely that people will see the show, decide it sucks and not bother to read the books because of it.
 
Well my yearning for brave and diverse and inclusive and inspiring new media caused me to look around for updates and here are a few bits I found. Nothing major or even particularly new, just shit I havent seen in the thread yet

1) The two wannabe space marine looking speds behind diversified Carcer are.....the goblins. Who are now mindless and faceless henchmen
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2) A press release of character descriptions from a while back has some...interesting spins on discworld characters. Sadly my sarcastic "now that he is black, carcer is going to be shown as achtcully a persecuted and misunderstood victim" quip in the OP was bang on
  • Richard Dormer as Sam Vimes, “Captain of The Watch, disempowered by a broken society that’s reduced his department’s jurisdiction to almost nothing”
  • Adam Hugill as Carrot Ironfoundersson, “the idealistic new recruit, raised by dwarfs, but really a human abandoned at birth”
  • Marama Corlett as Corporal Angua, “tasked with Carrot’s training and keeping the rookie alive”
  • Sam Adewunmi as Carcer Dun, “the wounded and wronged Carcer Dun, out to hijack destiny itself, take control of the city and exact a terrible revenge on an unjust reality”
  • James Fleet as The Archchancellor, “a wizard, magical advisor, and the Head of the Unseen University”
  • Ingrid Oliver as Doctor Cruces, “Head of The Assassins’ Guild”
  • Ruth Madeley as Throat, “the city’s best snitch, with a gang of freelance henchmen at her beck and call”
  • Hakeem Kae-Kazim as Captain John Keel, “former leader of The Watch and mentor to Sam Vimes, determined to save the corrupt and chaotic city”
  • Bianca Simone Mannie as Wonse, “a wizard hopeful in waiting that is frequently underestimated”
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3) Carrot appears destined to become a numale going by this behind the scenes makeup photo
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So to conclude..... holy hell am I lookin forward to see just how wretched this shit is
 
Noooooo, why would you bump this thread after I'd forgotten this show existed?
 
Nope. This does not exist. Fuck you, this is a fever dream created by drinking curdled RumChata.
 
Bender said:
Noooooo, why would you bump this thread after I'd forgotten this show existed?
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Because in the wake of Thundercats Roar shitting itself onto screens and High Guardian Spice rising from the dead, I have high hopes that this is going to become a shitshow worthy of song given everything that has been gleaned thus far about it and how utterly it sodomizes the corpse of the discworld series

Oh yeah and here is some food for thought. The BBC's "best" efforts with sci-fi/fantasy this past year have been the recent Doctor Who trainwreck which has been so historically bad and unpopular that its caused its lowest ratings ever and it may even be quietly heading towards cancelation. Thats the work of their A-team so just imagine the quality of the writing in this shit....
 
Judge Holden said:
Oh yeah and here is some food for thought. The BBC's "best" efforts with sci-fi/fantasy this past year have been the recent Doctor Who trainwreck which has been so historically bad and unpopular that its caused its lowest ratings ever and it may even be quietly heading towards cancelation. Thats the work of their A-team so just imagine the quality of the writing in this shit....
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No stop, this is illegal.
 
Judge Holden said:
Because in the wake of Thundercats Roar shitting itself onto screens and High Guardian Spice rising from the dead, I have high hopes that this is going to become a shitshow worthy of song given everything that has been gleaned thus far about it and how utterly it sodomizes the corpse of the discworld series

Oh yeah and here is some food for thought. The BBC's "best" efforts with sci-fi/fantasy this past year have been the recent Doctor Who trainwreck which has been so historically bad and unpopular that its caused its lowest ratings ever and it may even be quietly heading towards cancelation. Thats the work of their A-team so just imagine the quality of the writing in this shit....
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I know several people who have been huge fans of Doctor Who since the original series, and none of them have spoken about the latest series at all, so I assumed it already got cancelled last year after the Doctor became a woman.

But Discworld is sacred.
 
Bender said:
I know several people who have been huge fans of Doctor Who since the original series, and none of them have spoken about the latest series at all, so I assumed it already got cancelled last year after the Doctor became a woman.
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No, that would have been a mercy.

I've solidly watched Who since the revival in the aughts, and I can confirm that the last two seasons are a complete trashfire, and that's coming from someone who kept watching after Kill the Moon.

Bender said:
But Discworld is sacred.
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The Kiwi part of me wants this to be as godawful as it looks to get a response, but the ME part of me doesn't want this to be associated with Discworld in any shape or form.
 
Sable said:
No stop, this is illegal.
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Oooh lookie here....I just found a trailer for the main writers' previous work...

Yup. Terry Pratchett's work sure is in safe hands. Nothing to worry about
 
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Was Good Omens at least decent? It's only related to Discworld by a mere tiny thread, but it's just amazing how there are more failures of trying to adapt Pratchet's work than successes. I think the only Discworld media that got things right outside of the books was the two games.

Lord of the Rings was able to be properly adapted after two to three tries with movies. It's like people have a hard time with witty humor and sincerity.

Pratchet and Douglas Adams seem to hold records for most failed adaptations, I think trying to modernize it or make things literal or dark tend to ruin them.
 
Marissa Moira said:
Lord of the Rings was able to be properly adapted after two to three tries with movies. It's like people have a hard time with witty humor and sincerity.
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TBH, now you've gotten me interested in seeing what Peter Jackson would do if he got the rights to make a film adaptation of Jingo or Moving Pictures.
 
Judge Holden said:
Fookin hell I just remembered that CMOT dibbler is literally being played by a crippled midget lady in a wheelchair....
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Shit like this is why I cannot fucking wait for this horrorshow to hit screens. I want to see what the nadir of the BBC's uncaring woke idiocy looks like in the flesh
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I'm predicting Angua's going to be a woman human and a male wolf.

Edit: Ohhhh, and there's gonna be a joke where someone calls her a bitch.
 
Richard Dormer as Sam Vimes, “Captain of The Watch, disempowered by a broken society that’s reduced his department’s jurisdiction to almost nothing”
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No, no, no. He's not disempowered by a "broken society". The reason Vime's is a depressed alcoholic as much as anything is because society is working perfectly and that is depressing. Since the Patrician legalized the thieves guild crime has never been less of a problem. Muggings are carefully monitored to make sure nobody who has already had their allotted mugging this year is mugged twice, the city gets its cut of crime and the thieves guild deal with random, unlicenced crimes more effectively than the Watch ever could. The assassin's don't bother with ordinary people (and are in fact considered most dashing) and actually produce a healthy turnover in the ruling classes. The think about Ankh-Morpork that makes the entire set-up of Guards! Guards! work is that the Patrician has brought order to the ungovernable. It's the best the city has ever functioned. Vime's isn't depressed because the city has failed, he's depressed because it's better without him. Even when Carrot reinvigorates the Guard and Vimes somewhat proves its value, it still remains one more chess-piece on the Patrician's board that he's careful not to let upset the delicate balance he's achieved.

Marissa Moira said:
Was Good Omens at least decent? It's only related to Discworld by a mere tiny thread, but it's just amazing how there are more failures of trying to adapt Pratchet's work than successes. I think the only Discworld media that got things right outside of the books was the two games.
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Good Omens was... popular. I wouldn't say that it was decent. In fact the two things are often in contradiction, I find. It had a awful voice-over by God which was pretty much just reading the text of the book which you'd think would be a positive but it wasn't and was made even worse by the narrator they chose who had no feel for British humour whatsoever. Tennant and the other guy as Crowley and Aziraphale were both very good - best thing about the show, in fact. But on the whole I found it pretty tedious. I didn't finish it.

But for adaptations I thought Hogfather and Going Postal were both brave efforts. Whilst they had the budget of a school disco there was a LOT of love for the work evident and they didn't alter it like this abomination is doing. You have to look past the production values but if you do they're touching and reverent to the books. Or perhaps I just have a thing for very strict, sexy, women in black.

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Marissa Moira said:
Pratchet and Douglas Adams seem to hold records for most failed adaptations, I think trying to modernize it or make things literal or dark tend to ruin them.
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Eh, the Hitchiker movie was largely written by Adams himself and had a barbershop quartet of Dolphins. I liked it.
 

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Overly Serious said:
No, no, no. He's not disempowered by a "broken society". The reason Vime's is a depressed alcoholic as much as anything is because society is working perfectly and that is depressing. Since the Patrician legalized the thieves guild crime has never been less of a problem. Muggings are carefully monitored to make sure nobody who has already had their allotted mugging this year is mugged twice, the city gets its cut of crime and the thieves guild deal with random, unlicenced crimes more effectively than the Watch ever could. The assassin's don't bother with ordinary people (and are in fact considered most dashing) and actually produce a healthy turnover in the ruling classes. The think about Ankh-Morpork that makes the entire set-up of Guards! Guards! work is that the Patrician has brought order to the ungovernable. It's the best the city has ever functioned. Vime's isn't depressed because the city has failed, he's depressed because it's better without him. Even when Carrot reinvigorates the Guard and Vimes somewhat proves its value, it still remains one more chess-piece on the Patrician's board that he's careful not to let upset the delicate balance he's achieved.



Good Omens was... popular. I wouldn't say that it was decent. In fact the two things are often in contradiction, I find. It had a awful voice-over by God which was pretty much just reading the text of the book which you'd think would be a positive but it wasn't and was made even worse by the narrator they chose who had no feel for British humour whatsoever. Tennant and the other guy as Crowley and Aziraphale were both very good - best thing about the show, in fact. But on the whole I found it pretty tedious. I didn't finish it.

But for adaptations I thought Hogfather and Going Postal were both brave efforts. Whilst they had the budget of a school disco there was a LOT of love for the work evident and they didn't alter it like this abomination is doing. You have to look past the production values but if you do they're touching and reverent to the books. Or perhaps I just have a thing for very strict, sexy, women in black.

View attachment 1192453 View attachment 1192456





Eh, the Hitchiker movie was largely written by Adams himself and had a barbershop quartet of Dolphins. I liked it.
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Except here's the thing Ankh-Morpork is too silly a setting for most people, it supposed to make fun of bureaucracy. If it's not openly wacky and zainy screaming IM SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY then people get confused and miss the tongue and cheekness of it. You also can't shove lazy political allegories into it because not only is it already making fun of a corrupt government, anything serious like slavery would automatically be made fun of as part of it because the corrupt already monitor everything with zeal, and because writers are such fucking souless hacks devoid of any humor and with the IQ of a thimble they can't imagine anything outside the sphere of social media and it's political ideology.

Because these writers want to appear as smart people and smart people can't do silly, oh no smart people have to shove every spur of the moment news story into everything and give their fucking hot takes. Because crafting something fantastical with care is for chodes because fantasy isn't real, if everything represents reality and realism only then can we be free of this distracting entertainment that takes people away from political issues that matter more than the world because Twitter fucking says so.
 
Marissa Moira said:
Was Good Omens at least decent? It's only related to Discworld by a mere tiny thread, but it's just amazing how there are more failures of trying to adapt Pratchet's work than successes. I think the only Discworld media that got things right outside of the books was the two games.

Lord of the Rings was able to be properly adapted after two to three tries with movies. It's like people have a hard time with witty humor and sincerity.

Pratchet and Douglas Adams seem to hold records for most failed adaptations, I think trying to modernize it or make things literal or dark tend to ruin them.
Click to expand...
I liked good omens. It stuck to the actual story and was a higher budget than the other adaptations of his books. I think Gaiman put his foot down on changes being out out of respect for terry.
 
Ellesse_warrior said:
I liked good omens. It stuck to the actual story and was a higher budget than the other adaptations of his books. I think Gaiman put his foot down on changes being out out of respect for terry.
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That's probably the highest praise I've seen for any of Pratchett's adaptations, so I reckon I should go check it out.
 
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