Day of the Triffids 2009

[Darth Nostril]

Part 1 aired at 9 pm BBC1 Monday night, concluding Tuesday, same time.

Overall I liked it even though there were a few plotholes you could drive a bus through.
Spoiler

Like why did the sighted pro-rebuilding lot just vanish without helping when they needed every warm body to rebuild with and where did Coker magically find a dozen sighted thugs?

[Big Orange]

I like it, but not quite as grand as Dead Set from last year, it is as good as the remake series of Survivors. Its main flaw is trying to cram five to seven episodes of story into two. Eddie Izzard is great as an ambigious, charismatic villain and Joely Richardson is prime cougar material.

[NecronLord]

I enjoyed it greatly.

To my memory, the triffids in the book were both more and less dangerous - if they stung you, you were a gonner, but they couldn't just reach out and grab you with their roots. Am I correct?

I found it hard to credit that the military group we saw early on didn't retaliate against Izzard's gang.

[Bounty]

I thought it was incredibly mediocre. Would've been a 2 if it hadn't been for Izzard being such a wonderful bastard.

the absolute worst part was the girl showing up during Masen's Triffid hunt. "I can take care of myself! I want to help! Oh wait help the monsters caught me!" - yeah, that wasn't offensively contrived at all.

[Revy]

I've only seen the first part so far, but can someone explain why the whole planet was affected by the sunburst? Surely the people on the side of the planet facing away from the sun wouldn't have had a problem?

[NecronLord]

I've only seen the first part so far, but can someone explain why the whole planet was affected by the sunburst? Surely the people on the side of the planet facing away from the sun wouldn't have had a problem?

Was China, Japan or something like that shown? Because if not there's no real reason to think it did. We just didn't see any aid efforts from the other side of the globe. Especially if Western nuclear deterrance is still stopping those nations just rolling in and taking over.


I for one, were I a sub captain, wouldn't trust the aforementioned nations with a billion blind people who're not their citizens. Especially China (sorry, folks, but if you operate a huge system of prison labour camps, I ain't trusting you with my citizens, even when the alternative is triffids.)

Your mileage may vary, but if I were a Vanguard commander, a non-NATO (and I have my doubts about Japan's likely treatment of the blind, too) nation taking over the United Kingdom would be totally unacceptable, and result in destruction of their major cities.

Australia and New Zealand yes, but even assuming they started immediately, it could be years before any given group saw their efforts, especially with most or all of the US and Europe hit.

[Big Orange]

As in FlashForward with its "Black Out", I agree major countries like Australia and China probably wouldn't be badly affected by the super solarflare that all but demolished the UK and Europe. That insane yet ruthlessly pragmatic nun from Mission: Impossible (1996) was an engaging diversion, although Brian Cox and those two girls acted everybody else off the screen.

The CGI/puppetry for the triffids convinced for the most part and their sound effects were creepy enough, but it felt that this mini-series was an excercise of style over substance, with the plot rushed along and paving over things (like Izzard and his goons suddenly tracking the good guys down to a remote estate etc).

[Minischoles]

I've only seen the first part so far, but can someone explain why the whole planet was affected by the sunburst? Surely the people on the side of the planet facing away from the sun wouldn't have had a problem?

Was China, Japan or something like that shown? Because if not there's no real reason to think it did. We just didn't see any aid efforts from the other side of the globe. Especially if Western nuclear deterrance is still stopping those nations just rolling in and taking over.


I for one, were I a sub captain, wouldn't trust the aforementioned nations with a billion blind people who're not their citizens. Especially China (sorry, folks, but if you operate a huge system of prison labour camps, I ain't trusting you with my citizens, even when the alternative is triffids.)

Your mileage may vary, but if I were a Vanguard commander, a non-NATO (and I have my doubts about Japan's likely treatment of the blind, too) nation taking over the United Kingdom would be totally unacceptable, and result in destruction of their major cities.

Australia and New Zealand yes, but even assuming they started immediately, it could be years before any given group saw their efforts, especially with most or all of the US and Europe hit.

Australia was shown (Sydney in fact, about 9 minutes into the first episode), the phenomenon apparently was worldwide. Jo was in the London Eye and it was bright and it looked exactly the same as it was in Sydney, as well as the TV screens at 9:02 showing other locations looking very similar (in fact one of the screens shows a reporter at the Great Wall of China), so whatever the hell it was it conceivably affected every single country.

Overall it was a decent show, saved by Izzard playing a magnificent bastard almost to perfection, but as Big Orange said, the plot was very very rushed - which was good in parts, such as quickly getting away from Major Cokers scheme to handcuff sighted people to blind people, but in others i'd have liked to have seen more - like for example seen a little more of the London groups fight against the Triffids.

[Eviscerator]

Watched it recently and i found it nice , but a tad rushed.
The scene at whitehall was especially poignant, what with the blind security personnel banding together and firing wildly.
But who was the feller playing the violin and what was he playing? Another point is: why are all the security chaps at wherever there are blinded too? There must have been some on duty inside and would have missed the ""lightshow".

[Cykeisme]

I haven't seen this, but might I ask how severe the blinding event was depicted? From the posts here, I take it that they changed it from a strange meteor shower to a solar flare?
Was there some reason for everyone to go outside and look at the sky, as in the original story?

[Darth Tanner]

Was there some reason for everyone to go outside and look at the sky, as in the original story?

It was portrayed as a spectacular light show, I was surprised no one woke Izzard up so that he didn't miss such a once in a life time spectacle.

There must have been some on duty inside and would have missed the ""lightshow".

I'd imagine quite a lot of them took a quick break to have a look out a window or something. Some where shown to be still about afterwards however, just not many.

Overall I found it very enjoyable, despite the horrible plot holes and contrived nature of it. I found the main characters absolute horror at the idea of losing civil liberties in face of a extinction level criss a bit crappy however. And where the hell did all the blind go! The streets of London would have been full of them.

Just out of interest to the analysis side of things those Triffids must have a super energy creation system to have replaced our need for fossil fuels. Based on the statement that theres tens of thousands of farms and 20,000 triffids per farm then there's only 800,000,000 triffids based on a figure of forty thousand farms. That means a triffid produces over 38 barrels of oil a year, and that's ignoring the fact they would need to replace our gas and coal consumption as well to be a saviour for global warming that they are claimed to be.

[Eviscerator]

There must have been some on duty inside and would have missed the ""lightshow".

I'd imagine quite a lot of them took a quick break to have a look out a window or something. Some where shown to be still about afterwards however, just not many.

.

I find it unlikely that the Secret Service or other such professionally trained security personnel would jeopardize their principals by looking at the light show. I've seen both USSS and other such guards and it's a stretch to say you could get the time of day from them

Well if nothing else they were using Nuclear power to supplement the triffids and possibly hydro power. After all the dams are gonna stay there for quite a long period of ime

On a very basic minimum, people in bunkers, submarines, and missile silos would survive the flare. I can just see the Captain of a SSBN saying " Take us up to periscope depth for the lightshow" or the Cheyenne Mountain complex emptying to see it

Where exactly was the good professor going in whitehall and what was the piece the bloke who took a dive playing on the violin?