I watched the film when it was first out because STORMS! SHIPS! VAST OCEAN! SAILING! BIG WAVES! SAILING SHIPS! STORMY WAVES! That's pretty much all I paid attention to and I was pretty happy with it. The captain-doctor stuff seemed a) improbable and b) entirely derivative from Kirk-McCoy/Spock, anyway. Especially Maturin having all the qualities of McCoy and Spock in one. And then Mom told me in the books he was an intelligence agent too and I was like, Is there anything he can't do? (nope, seems to be the answer, except sail a ship, and that's only because he decides early on he can leave that in Aubrey's big capable hands. But he's not POB's Marty Stu, no not at all, uh-huh). And I decided the books sounded horribly tedious and with a book anyway you can't see all the lovely big waves and storms, so never mind.
If I ever made a film of the series I would start with the very first scene of the very first book at the concert, because a) AWESOME SCENE! (I picture the camera view as the credit titles play up in the air a bit coasting up the bay to Mahon in the evening, the concert music playing, we're watching the Pallas sail down the bay (but we don't understand the significance of that yet, just seems like scene-setting eye-candy) and we zoom in closer to the city and then closer to the Governor's House and then we go in through the French window and see the backs of a big blond naval lieutenant that nearly extinguished the gilt of his chair and the scruffy scrawny bewigged rusty-coated man next to him, dodging the waving arm of the officer beating the time... :-) and b) we understand the friendship from the get-go, and the importance of the music, and it makes more sense, than being Oh, one BAMF guy in one role, another complementary BAMF guy in the other, of course they are bosom buddies and of course nothing can stand against their combined BAMFery might, ho hum, haven't ever seen this before, huh.
More OOC stuff that would never be from the books: 1) In the very beginning, when the mids beat to quarters, Aubrey takes time to dress in full uniform instead of running instantly up on deck. Any captain would have been up in a trice under the circumstances, even if they were buck naked. Certainly Aubrey is described often as running up on deck and even up the rigging in just his nightshirt. (Also, under those particular circumstances, Hollum would have immediately informed the captain of the possible sighting, instead of dithering. I'm not sure the mids would have beat to quarters based on the slight possibility, unless that was in their orders, which it might have been. but if it were, again Hollum wouldn't have dithered - either he'd have orders to beat to quarters or if there'd been any doubt he would have informed the captain. But there wouldn't be any dithering.)
2) Dr Maturin leaves his sickbay during a very bloody battle to go fight. OK, that's a no, never. Maturin in the books was very clear that his role was to be the doctor. He would never leave his patients. He did not fight in the battles. Never. But the filmmakers had to show off his awesome BAMF fighting prowess too, entirely unnecessarily :P
3) Captain Howard, an excellent Marine officer and an excellent marksman, accidentally shoots a person. Nope. Would never happen. Gross slander! In the book it was Maturin's legendary clumsiness in falling from the deck onto a cannon during a storm that caused the injury. Which we never saw that legendary clumsiness, which was too bad, because great comic relief and emphasizes how they are from different worlds, and Maturin's a little bit human after all (there was only one little thing in a deleted scene, which they should have kept as it was perfect Maturin, and very funny :-)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-04-21 06:28 pm (UTC)If I ever made a film of the series I would start with the very first scene of the very first book at the concert, because a) AWESOME SCENE! (I picture the camera view as the credit titles play up in the air a bit coasting up the bay to Mahon in the evening, the concert music playing, we're watching the Pallas sail down the bay (but we don't understand the significance of that yet, just seems like scene-setting eye-candy) and we zoom in closer to the city and then closer to the Governor's House and then we go in through the French window and see the backs of a big blond naval lieutenant that nearly extinguished the gilt of his chair and the scruffy scrawny bewigged rusty-coated man next to him, dodging the waving arm of the officer beating the time... :-) and b) we understand the friendship from the get-go, and the importance of the music, and it makes more sense, than being Oh, one BAMF guy in one role, another complementary BAMF guy in the other, of course they are bosom buddies and of course nothing can stand against their combined BAMFery might, ho hum, haven't ever seen this before, huh.
More OOC stuff that would never be from the books:
1) In the very beginning, when the mids beat to quarters, Aubrey takes time to dress in full uniform instead of running instantly up on deck. Any captain would have been up in a trice under the circumstances, even if they were buck naked. Certainly Aubrey is described often as running up on deck and even up the rigging in just his nightshirt. (Also, under those particular circumstances, Hollum would have immediately informed the captain of the possible sighting, instead of dithering. I'm not sure the mids would have beat to quarters based on the slight possibility, unless that was in their orders, which it might have been. but if it were, again Hollum wouldn't have dithered - either he'd have orders to beat to quarters or if there'd been any doubt he would have informed the captain. But there wouldn't be any dithering.)
2) Dr Maturin leaves his sickbay during a very bloody battle to go fight. OK, that's a no, never. Maturin in the books was very clear that his role was to be the doctor. He would never leave his patients. He did not fight in the battles. Never. But the filmmakers had to show off his awesome BAMF fighting prowess too, entirely unnecessarily :P
3) Captain Howard, an excellent Marine officer and an excellent marksman, accidentally shoots a person. Nope. Would never happen. Gross slander! In the book it was Maturin's legendary clumsiness in falling from the deck onto a cannon during a storm that caused the injury. Which we never saw that legendary clumsiness, which was too bad, because great comic relief and emphasizes how they are from different worlds, and Maturin's a little bit human after all (there was only one little thing in a deleted scene, which they should have kept as it was perfect Maturin, and very funny :-)