I have read original The Andromeda Strain novel when I was high school. For an juvenile male who tried to decide his future novel had a very serious effect on me. The characters , events and technologies even sci-fi elements were serious , all well explained and as reasonable as possible. By writing and publishing The Andromeda Strain at 1969 Michael Chricton had started techno thriller age in writing with realistic characters , non-dramatic , non stereotype and zero cliché plots and realistic , well explained techonologies and existing scientific knowledge&theories.
The Andromeda Strain movie made in 1971 was all time serious and again self explaining like the novel itself. Although there were some deviations from original novel it was not too jarring and disturbing to insult intelligence of audience...It was a complete adaptation to silver screen
Now we have The Andromeda Strain mini series. In fact I consider it as a production inspired from novel not an adaptation because there are several big differences between this mini series and novel itself. It is a watered down version of original novel. The writers considered updating the story to appeal seriously dumbed down TV audience (through technical jargon and dialogue is much closer to novel than 1971 movie) Ridley/Tony Scott production shows itself here and there and Mikhael Solomon is not a bad director. As for characters only Jeremy Stone as head medical expert of WILDFIRE stills exist in mini series and General Mancheck plays a more important part than novel itself. As for the mini what worked and what did not ?
-The beginning is exactly like original novel itself. In fact in my opinion better executed , -Entrance of WILDFIRE team to Pidemont was also very tense too ( like novel) -Unfortunetely when government conspiracy and stupid reporter Jack Nash story takes on downfall starts (these events were invented by scriptwriter and completely unrelated in the story of novel. I think they were just added to extend the story) -Updating other WILDFIRE team members (an Asian , a black and another character as gay ) is interesting -As story progresses other elements from OTHER Michael Chricton novels emerge (objects passed wormholes and went back through time , spread of Andromeda looked like a nanobot outbreak ) -Unnecessary romance subplot should have been dropped -Unlike the novel a solution and cure was found too easily...
So there are hits and misses in this new adaptation. If I were you I focus on positive points of this new Andromeda Strain version. It is not perfect and much weaker than original production but it is still easily watchable even for one time especially if you are tired of all awful third rate programming in TV. This movie gives some interesting challenges...
The Andromeda Strain movie made in 1971 was all time serious and again self explaining like the novel itself. Although there were some deviations from original novel it was not too jarring and disturbing to insult intelligence of audience...It was a complete adaptation to silver screen
Now we have The Andromeda Strain mini series. In fact I consider it as a production inspired from novel not an adaptation because there are several big differences between this mini series and novel itself. It is a watered down version of original novel. The writers considered updating the story to appeal seriously dumbed down TV audience (through technical jargon and dialogue is much closer to novel than 1971 movie) Ridley/Tony Scott production shows itself here and there and Mikhael Solomon is not a bad director. As for characters only Jeremy Stone as head medical expert of WILDFIRE stills exist in mini series and General Mancheck plays a more important part than novel itself. As for the mini what worked and what did not ?
-The beginning is exactly like original novel itself. In fact in my opinion better executed , -Entrance of WILDFIRE team to Pidemont was also very tense too ( like novel) -Unfortunetely when government conspiracy and stupid reporter Jack Nash story takes on downfall starts (these events were invented by scriptwriter and completely unrelated in the story of novel. I think they were just added to extend the story) -Updating other WILDFIRE team members (an Asian , a black and another character as gay ) is interesting -As story progresses other elements from OTHER Michael Chricton novels emerge (objects passed wormholes and went back through time , spread of Andromeda looked like a nanobot outbreak ) -Unnecessary romance subplot should have been dropped -Unlike the novel a solution and cure was found too easily...
So there are hits and misses in this new adaptation. If I were you I focus on positive points of this new Andromeda Strain version. It is not perfect and much weaker than original production but it is still easily watchable even for one time especially if you are tired of all awful third rate programming in TV. This movie gives some interesting challenges...