With the possible exception of “Rendezvous With Rama,” 1953’s “Childhood’s End” may be the most famous novel by Arthur C. Clarke that has nothing to do with Dave Bowman or Franke Poole.
Like other Clarke works, “Childhood’s End” depicts mankind’s first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Aliens arrive in city-size spacecraft (not dissimilar to those depicted in “Independence Day”) and proceed to transform the Earth into a war-free utopia. Though earthmen are suspicious of their new overlords, at no point do the extraterrestrials share a book titled “To Serve Man.”
Matthew Graham, who created the British time travel cop series “Life On Mars,” wrote the six-hour “Childhood’s End” miniseries. At least three people involved with “Sherlock: His Last Vow” -- director Nick Hurran, cinematographer Neville Kidd and editor Yan Miles -- are performing the same functions for “Childhood’s.” (Hurran was Emmy-nominated for “Vow”; Kidd and Miles won Emmys for the same TV-movie.)
Charles Dance – Tywin Lannister himself – stars as our new supervisor. Mike Vogel, who played Dale Barbara on “Under The Dome,” plays that supervisor’s liaison to humanity.
Other foreigners in the cast include Hayley Magnus (“Mental”) and Star Trek icon Colm Meaney (“Hell on Wheels”).
... It’s heady, unsettling stuff, adapted by Matthew Graham and brought to life with affecting performances, especially by Osy Ikhile as a scientist who becomes the final witness to the great transition.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... a bloated, quasi-familiar story that would have been better served by a shorter running time. That said, “Childhood’s End,” based on the 1953 novel by Arthur C. Clarke (so really, “V” and “Independence Day” owe a debt to him), is more thought-provoking than many Syfy miniseries of the recent past even as it stumbles through plot holes. …
... leaves a sense of a story not quite told -- the result, largely, of the fact that it deals so much in large themes and generalities and provides so little of character and detail. Even so, it’s entirely compelling drama, with a uniformly fine cast and dazzling special effects. …
... a provocative but not fully satisfying science-fiction vision, complicated in part by all the movies the novel influenced that were produced in between. … feels a bit like the CliffsNotes version of “Childhood’s End.” …
8 p.m. Monday-Wednesday. Syfy.
