His Dark Materials Episode 03: The Spies

Blogger note: Apologies about the short post last time folks, I was having a major flare-up of my neurological symptoms. That’s thankfully passed now.

As I’ve said multiple times previously, the opening parts of Northern Lights were always going to be the hardest to adapt. The first two episode of the BBC’s His Dark Materials series did a good job of overcoming the hurdles, albeit with some stumbles on the way. Now that the set-up is out of the way the third episode dives headfirst into the adventure, and the results are very positive indeed.

Episode Review

The Spies has the first piece of completely original material in the series so far, in that things happen which definitiely didn’t in the book, as opposed to the other “new” scenes and plotlines, which consisted of things that presumably could have happened in the background of the more Lyra-focused novel. This is the first time the show’s creators are forging ahead without the grounding of the source material to anchor themselves to. Given that this is doubtless going to happen more as the show progresses, what we’re given here is promising: the scenes in question are tense and exciting and flesh out the characters involved in interesting ways that don’t diverge completely from what we saw in the book, and they still manage to connect neatly with the straight book-derived plotline.

I have so far been mostly pleased with the amount of story each episode is covering; all of the major plot beats are being given enough time to breathe, without lingering too long on anything in a way that would result in the rest of the episodes being compacted. At the end of The Spies Lyra and co are heading north, embarking on the truly magical and exciting parts of the story, and I think that development is coming at just the right time: we got enough time in Oxford and London to explore these alternate versions of our own world, but now I’m ready to get to the polar bears. I applaud the show’s creators for not rushing forward to the more audacious elements out of fear of losing viewers.

There is one flaw not in the book that this episode introduces: the revalations around Lyra’s past connections to the Gyptians. The book lays some groundwork for this by establishing that Lyra has frequent contact with them, something that’s only barely been implied in the show. I imagine that for non book readers, some of this information might seem to come out of nowhere. or then again, maybe not; this could be a result of me adopting the viewpoint of someone new to the story and reading flaws into the show that aren’t necessarily there.

This episode is where any doubts I had about Dafne Keene as Lyra are quashed; getting a wider array of other actors to share scenes with, she embodies Lyra’s wilder, angrier side and does a terrific job. The rest of the performances are equally strong, with several side characters getting more comfortable in their roles, and of course Ruth Wilson continues to be heaps of fun as Mrs. Coulter.

In terms of feel and tone, it’s undeniable that these three episodes are taking their own path. The atmosphere of most individual scenes tend to be slightly darker and more sombre, and the show is emphasizing elements that are more “epic” and adult-oriented. Personally, I’m fine with this; the show’s vision has sold me enough that I’m content to go with it. In terms of the choices of what to include and what to discard, it’s becoming more and more apparent that this isn’t Northern Lights: The Mini-Series, it’s His Dark Materials: Season One, if that distinction makes sense.

As a fan of the books, the series is so far giving me the best of both possible adaptational approaches: it’s faithfully depicting all the big moments and scenes, while being different enough to still feel fresh for someone who’s read the novel twenty times (to the point that it has me at times guessing what’s going to happen next). When it comes to live action adaptations, I can’t think of any higher praise than that.

Analysis

Following up on last episode’s big surprise: yes, that’s Will Parry, making a photographic appearance way the hell early. I’m pretty sure the guy Lord Boreal talks to under the bridge is the dude who Will ends up accidentally killing, so enjoy falling down a staircase, random henchman.

Actually, I said Will is showing up early, but if you keep in mind the timeline of the trilogy then all of this is stuff that concievably would have been happening at this point anyway. I think only a few days pass between Lyra heading north and when she crosses over into Citagazze, and Will presumably comes across like a day or two after that at most (there’s a bit of wiggle room in that Lyra spends some time wandering through otherworldly fog, and it’s not clear how much time is actually passing in concrete terms during this).

One of my remaining criticisms about the show is that its depiction of the Magisterium is trending a bit too heavily into cartoon villain territory, between the creepy priests with beetle daemons and the goons dressed in gestapo chic. However, I do like that the show is emphasizing that the Magisterium isn’t a monolythic organization but an umbrella of different parties and personalities, all of whom are theoretically working to the same purpose but who actually end up squabbling quite often. This is stuff that could be fertile ground for original material going forward.

One of the many adaptational challenges presented by His Dark Materials is how to handle Lyra reading the alethiometer. Given that in the book it’s a lot of internal mental processing, I imagine there’s a temptation to resort to something cheesy like actual visions.

Impressively, the series pulls it off entirely via dialogue and visuals, thanks to a combination of good CGI and Dafne Keene’s performance.

I grumbled about Farder Coram’s casting, but now that we’ve gotten to his scenes from the book the actor actually does a good job of capturing his appealing qualities. The same goes for John Faa: we see him giving a big rousing speech and waving his warhammer around, and he embodies the character better than previously.

Actually, the Gyptians as a whole come off more evocatively in this episode, being given more of a concrete aesthetic and cultural identity instead of looking like a bunch of random people in second-hand clothes.

As expected, the book’s anticlimactic revalation that Mrs. Coulter is Lyra’s mother has been changed again; it happens at roughly the same part of the story as in the book, but in a far more dramatic fashion. I still think the way the movie did it was better, but I get why holding off on a reveal that most people will already have guessed would be less viable in an eight-episode series than a two-hour movie.

There’s been some grumbling in the fandom about Ma Costa, who’s probably the most divergent from her book counterpart in terms of appearance and personality. Personally, I’m fine with it because to be honest, the character wasn’t that interesting in the book. She’s got an expanded role here, so it makes sense to give her some more depth.

The Gyptians capture and interrogate an Oblation Board goon, who they presumably don’t plan on leaving alive when they’re done with him. This wasn’t in the book, but it fits wit the Gyptians’ depiction since they get pretty ruthless in parts (justifiably, given what the Oblation Board has been doing to their children). We also get Lyra’s first moment of real Mrs. Coulter-esque bloodthirstiness in this scene, so it seems that aspect of her character has been preserved this time. I approve.

We see our first instance of a daemon dying. In the book they vanish in a burst of blue flame; here, they decay into a kind of ashy, Dusty substance…

One of my worries based on the trailers, that the series would be too po-faced and serious, has thankfully not come to pass, as there’s been plenty of humour and levity so far. For example: Lord Boreal, on a jaunt to our world, discovers the existence of wheel clamping.

In the book, none of the Gyptian women go on the campaign to the north. Ma Costa’s presence on the ship seems to imply that won’t be the case here.