Fans of beloved fantasy author Terry Pratchett have had reason to celebrate lately; Amazon adapted Good Omens, which Pratchett cowrote with Neil Gaiman, as a miniseries last year. And now, BBC America is making The Watch, a show set in the medieval-ish city of Ankh-Morpork, where crime is legal and law enforcement has a hell of a time keeping a cap on things.
Only we’ve known for a while that the show was only going to be “inspired by” Pratchett’s books — he wrote eight about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch during his long career — with the story “startlingly reimagined” as a “punk rock thriller.” Today, BBC America released a bunch of images from the show, and fans are less than pleased.
Image: The Watch/BBC America
Here we have Game of Thrones star Richard Dormer (Beric Dondarrion) as Captain of The Watch Sam Vimes, alongside Marama Corlett as Corporal Angua.
The objection fans have is to the look of the series. In the books, Ankh-Morpork is a medieval/Renaissance-era city on is way to becoming steampunk — the members of the City Watch wear armor — but as you can see above, this show kind of looks vaguely sci-fi, like something out of Doctor Who or Firefly.
Image: The Watch/BBC America
Here we have Vimes’ wife, Lady Sybil (Lara Rossi), burning someone alive, or watching them burn, or something. She’s not blameless, whatever’s happening.
Image: The Watch/BBC America
Above, we have Angua with Constable Cheery (Jo Eaton-Kent), a non-binary forensics expert.
Image: The Watch/BBC America
And finally, here’s Sam Adewunmi as baddie Carcer Dun; his minions are again giving me Doctor Who vibes. And way up top, you can see Adam Hugill as the idealistic human recruit Constable Carrot.
Now, speaking as someone who doesn’t have a dog in this fight — I’ve read a smattering of Discworld books over the years but nothing about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch — I think this looks kind of interesting. I mean, the pics look pretty cheesy, but that doesn’t have to mean bad.
But people who know Pratchett’s work way better than me don’t seem happy. For example:
I'll still give at least the first episode a go, but I feel like Discworld and Ankh Morpork has such a distinctive visual identity that it's disappointing to see this and not have any real ties to that
— Ben Fenby-Warren (@BenMaxWarren) January 17, 2020
Oh, you thought this was Discworld? Sorry you read that wrongly, it's actually set in Dicksworld, a generic sci-fi universe entirely populated by dicks. https://t.co/oGs8YTdbXy
— Elaine Scattermoon (@scattermoon) January 17, 2020
Wordplay.
The most pointed critique of all came from Terry Pratchett’s daughter Rhianna and former assistant (Pratchett himself passed away in 2015) Rob Wilkins, both of whom tweeted out a 2004 Slate article written by fantasy legend Ursula K. Le Guin about how a Sci Fi Channel adaptation of her Earthsea series “wrecked my books.” I think the message is pretty clear there.
If there are any Discworld fans in the audience, what do you make of all this? How about people coming to this series completely fresh? Whatever you think, The Watch is premiering later this year.
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h/t The Wertzone, The Guardian