El Cosmico here, with a few words to share from an astute reader with a sharp eye.

If you go over to the Sci-Fi Channel's Dune Website, you'll notice that they've added six new pictures to their gallery, listed under the heading "general".

As our man Jamis notes, there are a few things which we can glean from these new photos. First, we see that the Banquet Scene was filmed. In the novel, an entire chapter is devoted to this event, although this scene was left out of the feature film. Quoth Jamis, it "is a prime example of Frank Herbert's skill at weaving inner monologue with verbal warfare...all over dinner." Quite right.

Next, we notice a picture of a knife digging into the sand, which prompted our reader to note: "the only possibly related instance of this in the novel is Paul's desperate attempt to salvage buried emergency supplies after he and his mother have escaped Harkonnen attack. (And no, he doesn't use the knife to shovel. The method of retrieval is ingenious.)" Indeed.

Here's the rest of our reader's note:

The Count and Lady Fenring are nowhere to be seen, and Irulan's pictures are topped by one of Lady Fenring's lines. Looks like the Emperor's "errand boy" gets left out of this version as well.

Feyd's birthday gladiator match looks to be in, but since his opponent is obscured, there's no way to tell if the full importance will be included.

There is a picture showing Feyd and Alia. This NEVER happened in the book. The producers have tinkered with the story a little still, but it's better than what was necessary 16 years ago.

Well, most of these things encourage me. At the very least, this will be a more thorough telling of Dune. The question is, could anyone ever produce a version of this book that would satisfy the desires of even a majority of the novel's readers? Well, it's going to be one hell of a task to pull off. I think, at the very least, there will be many things to enjoy in this series.

-El Cosmico

mail me at: elcosmico@austin.rr.com