Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Murderbot season 1, episode 2 & The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red.Apple TV+‘sMurderbothas managed to avoid a big mistake other adaptations of science fiction books often run into, and it has benefited greatly from it.Murderbotis an adaptation ofMartha Wells’The Murderbot Diaries, and more specifically the first book in the series,All Systems Red. It’s also proven to be a big hit so far:Murderbothas a 98% score on Rotten Tomatoesat the time of writing, and it could easily continue Apple TV+’s streak of making highly successful sci-fi shows.Murderbotis also one of Apple TV+’s most unique shows, and not just because of the socially awkward Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård).
Murderbot’s success might not be surprising given that it’s based on Hugo and Nebula Award-winning books, but that doesn’t always guarantee quality. There are plenty ofawful book adaptationsout there, and science fiction seems especially prone to being hard to translate to the screen successfully. FromThe Dark TowertoAllegiant, there are so many bad sci-fi book adaptations.Murderbotisn’t one of them, though, and it’s largely because it was able to avoid one massive mistake: taking too many creative liberties with its source material. In fact, by theending ofMurderbotepisode 2, the show had barely changed anything from the books.
Murderbot Episodes 1 & 2 Are An Almost Direct Adaptation Of The First Sci-Fi Book
Aside From A Few Changes, Murderbot Season 1 Is Very Close To The Events Of All Systems Red
Unlike other sci-fi adaptations,Murderbotis staying remarkably true to its source material. There are differences, of course.Murderbotchanged the SecUnit’s namesake, for example, and it also removed two of the main members of PreservationAux from thecast ofMurderbot. Those are relatively small changes, however, and for the most part,Murderbotis an almost direct adaptation ofAll Systems Red. It did throw in a bit of foreshadowing to the second book,Artificial Condition, butMurderbotepisodes 1 and 2 have really focused on staying true to Martha Wells’ original story.
Possibly the biggest example of howMurderbotis a faithful adaptation is Murderbot itself.Murderbot’s internal narration is a huge part ofThe Murderbot Diaries, and theMurderbotshow has already nailed it. Likewise, almost every major plot moment - from Murderbot saving Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski) to Gurathin’s (David Dastmalchian) suspicions of Murderbot - made it into the show. In fact,Murderbotactually hired Martha Wells, the original author, as a consulting producer for the show. Wells was directly involved with the adaptation, which almost certainly helped keep the show on track and convinced the showrunners to keep elements that other adaptations would have scrapped.
Murderbot’s Strong Book Accuracy Avoids Losing Some Of The Best Parts Of The Original Story
Murderbot’s Book Accuracy Means It Won’t Repeat The Mistakes Of The Dark Tower Or Allegiant
Murderbot’s accuracy in adaptingAll Systems Rednot only avoided alienating readers who enjoyed the books, it actually made the show better.By being faithful to the books,Murderbotnow gets to enjoy some of the best parts of Martha Wells' writing. We get to hear Murderbot’s internal monologue and its frankly hilarious observations about humanity, the Company’s various evil deeds, and we even get to see Murderbot be a great example of representation for non-binary characters. IfMurderbothad changed more from the books, we might have missed out on some of the things that madeThe Murderbot Diariesso beloved and popular in the first place.
The Murderbot Diariesis an inherently strange (in a good way) story. Many of its best features - Murderbot’s gender and its biting critiques of capitalism, for example - aren’t mainstream concepts. In a different studio or showrunner’s hands,Murderbotmay have scrapped those elements to appeal to a broader audience. To a different showrunner,Murderbotmay have seemed more appealing if SecUnit wasn’t wildly socially awkward, for example.Paul and Chris Weitz, however, recognized thatThe Murderbot Diarieswas popular precisely because it has so many weird ideas, andMurderbotis so much better for it.
The Perimeter
July 11
Staying true toThe Murderbot Diariescertainly helpedMurderbotsucceed, but even the few changes it did make have been great. Showing actual episodes ofThe Rise & Fall of Sanctuary Moonadded a hilarious way to contrastMurderbot’s corporate dystopia with the optimistic utopia ofStar Trek. Cutting down the number of members in PreservationAux has let each character get more screen time and development. Giving Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) panic attacks has deepened her character and made her leadership even more impressive. Somehow,Murderbotcracked the code to balance accuracy with adding in new flavor to a sci-fi adaptation.
