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TV AND THE TRIFFIDS
Posted by Charlotte on December 31, 2009
As a fan of sci fi and Day of the Triffids I was excited to hear the BBC were remaking the classic into a TV drama with non of the ridiculous plastacine looking menaces of the previous televisual attempt. But, after the screening, there are niggles as there will always be.
Though my problems range with the removel of the bleak, end of civilisation style tone from the book and the very black and white killing of evil characters, saving of good characters by the triffids (this is, developed characters, everyone else was fair play) and the lack of developed characters of colour — totally worth pointing out, though black men appear throughout as lackeys of arch nemisis Torrence, a huge emphasis is put on the mystical black tribe who save Bill Masen as a child (this is not taken from the book but added by the writers of the adaptation) — I want to draw attention to some points strictly concerning women — again, all developed female characters were white.
Reproduction.
In the book, when people are trying to organise to exist in this new future of the now blind and triffids on the move, repopulating the world with sighted babies comes up more than once. This is the kind of you will be coupled with the people in your sector, no choice, this is bigger than your choice situation – the sort of thing that reduces women to child carriers and not people.
At a time when in Britain we have fought against the reduction of our abortion access, where in N Ireland we have fought for the right to abortion at all and in America the goal posts move so often against the needs of women you have to be constantly on guard missing this theme is a missed trick.
Sci Fi as a tool for social change is one of my favourites, taking social elements that remain hidden in plain sight and churning them through alien invasion, space and the future sheds clarity out of context.
But the plot is almost entirely unsexed, whitewashed for the screen. What a waste of an opportunity.
Representation.
The men here are men of science and war, powerful roles which design the future and drive the narrative, something we’re all tediously familiar. Bill Masen, our main character being the all knowledgable post on Triffids only surpassed by his own father. The women have no education in that they are given no educated skills helpful in the apocolypse save nursing, and religion, facets which could be seen as making the female characters irrational and unreliable.
The women on the whole are passive, and apart from the “evil” mother superior putting the old and disabled out to feed triffids to protect her convent no women actively organise to make change. Jo, the lead female character, has only one adventure coming from seeking out Bill’s home, and when the silly woman driver crashes while trying to read a map and drive she is luckily discovered by Bill’s dad and saved.
Susan, the girl with a gun, whom Bill Masen picks up along the way struggles only once to be seen as the daughter of these two white middle class adults who have taken over her parenting but pretty much seems to accept it. In the book, with chance to grow, Susan is much more sceptical, much more capable and independent. Here her independence is shattered when she’s attacked by a Triffid almost getting herself killed and Bill in the process.
Bill Mason is surrounded by women who love him, three white blonde women, even if two are his “children”. Bill’s worth is partly derived by women’s reliance and love. Torrence, the baddy played by Eddie Izzard, has no women in his cadre, a group of men willing to shoot at order. The two women he does encounter, the blind woman at 10 Downing Street, who he abandons as his power begins to grow and barely notices when she’s dead in front of him and Jo, who he tries to woo with his power and lies and runs away from him offer him no affection or reassurance – an unloved man in this heteronormative world is of no worth.
I’m not saying that the book is without its gender balanced problems, and I’m not cruel enough to make you read through the sort of 5,000 word essay comparing this to all kinds of things I would enjoy, but it’s worth pointing out. In a TV adaptation where the writers saw fit to update a bioengineering, soviet era storyline to one of climate change and Genetic Modification why not erase the racism and give us women we can care about, women as active and real as us.
December 31st, 2009 at 4:44 pm
It seems a bit unfair to target a 2000 remake of a 1950s book for racism and sexism when pretty much EVERY televisual/film sci-fi adaptation is lacking in that regard.
Personally, the fact that British-Chinese characters are even included – albeit ever so superficially – is a huge step forward for me!
December 31st, 2009 at 11:25 pm
If you update the themes, as they did then why not update the ignorant attitudes? It wouldn’t have been hard.
And yes, most of tv is racist and sexist but I think choosing particular programmes and pointing out the problems specific to them serves as a clearer complaint than a blanket statement. And, as I said, I love the book of this adaptation and problems with it are already close to my heart.