Secretary General Stormgren of the United Nations finds himself in a unique position as ambassador to the Overlords, a group of enigmatic–and seemingly omniscient–alien beings whose ships have hovered over Earth’s major cities since their sudden arrival five years before.
Stormgren is regularly flown to one of the vessels to meet with Karellan, the apparent leader of the Overlords. However, Karellan conducts each encounter from behind a one-way mirror and thwarts Stormgren’s attempts to catch a glimpse of him.
It is not for another fifty years before Karellan reveals himself to the human race. During that time and shortly after, the Overlords bring peace and prosperity to the planet, ushering in a golden age for mankind, but also a stagnation in science, art, and general cultural development.
Over time, most of the Earth’s population becomes complacent and docile, as there is no longer a need to work for a living or struggle to make ends meet. However, a small colony forms on a remote island called New Athens with the purpose of maintaining independence from the Overlords and continuing the pursuit of art and culture.
It is around this time when the children of man begin to manifest extraordinary and frightening mental abilities. What does this development mean for the future of Earth, if indeed there is one?
What is the ultimate objective of the Overlords and are they, in fact, serving an even more powerful master?
Childhood’s End has become one of my all-time favorite science fiction novels. One of the golden age masters, Clarke adroitly covers a century of humanity’s relationship with the Overlords without losing momentum.
As with most films that find their genesis in a novel, the contrast between Clarke’s vision and SyFy’s lackluster mini-series are evident. SPOILER ALERT, but some examples include:
Stormgren (Mike Vogel) remains through far more of the series than he did the novel and dies of a slow, debilitating illness caused by his repeated flights from Earth’s surface to Karellan’s ship. This did not occur in the book.
The scientist character of Milo Rodricks (Osy Ikhile), who stows away aboard an Overlord ship to become the only human to see their world, was named Jan Rodricks in the novel and did not actually step foot on the Overlord’s home planet, but rather, one of their moons.
In the book, Jan had no girlfriend. Thus, the scene in the mini-series where the Overlords return Milo/Jan to Earth after his 80-year expedition and present him with the levitating, preserved corpse of his girlfriend was new for the film and utterly pointless to the story.
The ultra-religious character of Peretta (Yael Stone) did not exist in the novel, nor did anyone fire a gun at Karellan (brilliantly portrayed by Charles Dance). The fact that the SyFy film decided to focus rather heavily on the destruction of religion was a departure from Clarke’s novel, which devoted hardly a page to this.
The mini-series attempted to condense a century into six hours, all the while adding unnecessary characters and subplots and failing to clarify the main plot. Still, kudos to the SyFy channel for attempting to return to its roots. Childhood’s End was a refreshing and intelligent change from such tripe as Sharknado, various reality shows, and WWE wrestling (which has been thankfully moved to USA).
