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eBook – The Empire Striketh Back

eBook –  The Empire Striketh Back Full title :  William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back By : Ian Doescher  Iillustrations :  Nicolas Delort Score : 9/10 Year : 2014 Publisher : Quirk Books  eISBN :  978-1-59474-716-8 Based on  978-1-59474-715-1 (hard cover) Pages : 176 *  Language : English From Goodreads : Hot on the heels of the New York Times best seller William Shakespeare’s Star Wars comes the next two installments of the original trilogy: William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back  (and not reviewed as yet,  William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return.) Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter. Illustrated with beautiful black-and-white Elizabethan-style artwork, these two plays offer essential reading for all ages. Something Wookiee this way comes!  *** As he explains at the end, Ian Doescher
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TV show - The Tripods





TV Series - The Tripods 
Originally aired , 2 serials, total 26 episodes

Score: 6/10

 Read first my book series review here

 The Tripods trilogy TV adaptation is okay, but there are many notable changes, I'll discuss them quickly here.

Will is 17 and not 13, which allowed the writers to change and add certain aspects to his stories - they might work well in a visual form, but sometimes veer a bit too far from the books. Thus, there are whole new characters that weren't even mentioned, whilst Will's character is less heroic and troubled than his novel counterpart. 

The book deals with many topics that the show doesn't seem to want to address, which I can understand on 1980's standards. The adaptation could have been better if they had stayed closer to the story, not adding as much, nor deleting all the rest. 

By mid series 1, the adaptation starts to veer and the cap grows so much that around the middle of Series 2, the show takes a  whole different direction than book 2, only to finish at the same point - with several massive changes in story-line. 

The acting is ok, but very uneven. Will meets people in France, and it's far too clear that no French people were cast, and this is a serious drawback as the producers lacked in this regard. Not only there are strong accents of British actors but also, some language mistakes. Oops! 

In series 2, they just gave up, everyone speaks almost only in English and none of the other languages from the novel ; it's an improvement in comparison to very poorly delivered lines, but still lacks in effort. 

The intro & end credit musical theme had haunted all my teen years and I still think are part of the shows's main charm. 

Cinematography is highly uneven throughout the show. Some rare scenes are well done, others don't stand the test of time and lose the magic they held on a boy who grew up and saw a lot better over the years.

Nonetheless, there is something very kitch about this show and despite its lacks in financial backing to make it truly awesome, some of the practical effects and looks for a low-budget 1980's BBC show are quite alright and I liked the look of the tripods, both machines and 
creatures. 





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