{"id":881,"date":"2008-06-09T21:55:01","date_gmt":"2008-06-10T01:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=881"},"modified":"2022-11-05T09:51:51","modified_gmt":"2022-11-05T13:51:51","slug":"andromeda-strain-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/andromeda-strain-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s the end of the world in Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael Crichton’s<\/a> novel The Andromeda Strain<\/em> was first adapted into a feature film in 1971, and now into a television miniseries from executive producers Tony and Ridley Scott<\/a>. This 2008 incarnation is part feel-bad thriller, part wish fulfillment. As we thrill to the speculative illustration of how civilization might suddenly come to an end, we also can only hope the government does in fact have an elaborate and high-tech procedure in place for identifying and containing new contagious disease outbreaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original book is only nominally about a supervirus, evidently of extraterrestrial origin, that threatens the human race. It is actually more about how intelligent, well-meaning people can make subtle errors of judgement that may cascade into catastrophe. Chrichton would also employ Chaos Theory<\/a> as a key theme in his Jurassic Park<\/em> novels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Good times, good times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But the miniseries complicates this interesting theme with added government venality (a basically honorable president is undercut by a corrupt chief of staff), the media (a drug addicted reporter breaks the cover-up), and the environment (strip mining of the ocean floor leads to the crisis). To give but one example of the diminishing returns: in the book, a simple unnoticed glitch in a supposedly perfect computer system causes a dangerous communication blackout at the worst possible time. It’s both more plausible and more suspenseful than the miniseries version of events, in which General Mancheck (Andre Braugher) deliberately creates the blackout, to everyone’s mild and temporary frustration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book is not without its flaws, particularly an undramatic ending in which the continuously adapting virus eventually mutates into harmlessness. But the miniseries disappoints by giving the virus a definitive origin, indicating it is expressly targeted towards humans, and showing its definitive defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Andromeda Strain cast checks in for the long haul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Miscellaneous other thoughts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n