The ''Space Odyssey'' series is a series of
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
novels by the writer
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.
He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...
. Two of the novels have been made into feature films, released in 1968 and 1984 respectively. Two of Clarke's early short stories may also be considered part of the series.
Literature
Short stories:
* "
The Sentinel" – short story written in 1948 and first published in 1951 as "Sentinel of Eternity"
* "
Encounter in the Dawn
"Encounter in the Dawn" (also known as "Expedition to Earth") is a short story by English writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1953 in the magazine ''Amazing Stories''. It was originally collected in the anthology '' Expedition to Ear ...
" – short story first published in 1953 (re-titled "Encounter at Dawn" or "Expedition to Earth" in some later collections)
Novels:
* ''
2001: A Space Odyssey'' – produced concurrently with the
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
and released in 1968
* ''
2010: Odyssey Two'' – 1982 novel, adapted as the 1984 film ''
2010: The Year We Make Contact'' with screenplay by
Peter Hyams
* ''
2061: Odyssey Three'' – 1987 novel
* ''
3001: The Final Odyssey'' – 1997 novel
Comic books:
* ''
2001: A Space Odyssey'' – 1976 oversized
Marvel single-issue comic book adaptation based upon the 1968
film of the same name
* ''
2001: A Space Odyssey'' – ten-issue Marvel comic book series based upon the 1968
film of the same name that ran from 1976 to 1977
* ''
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
'' – based on the 1984
film of the same name, originally published in ''
Marvel Super Special
''Marvel Comics Super Special'' was a 41-issue series of one-shot (comics), one-shot comic-magazines published by Marvel Comics from 1977 to 1986. They were cover-priced $1.50 to $2.50, while regular color comics were priced 30 cents to 60 cents, B ...
'' #37, then again as a two-issue miniseries; both versions published by Marvel Comics in 1984
Films
*''
2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968)
*''
2010: The Year We Make Contact'' (1984)
Future
It was reported on Yahoo Entertainment in 2000 that M.G.M. and
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...
were in discussions regarding turning both ''2061: Odyssey Three'' and ''3001: The Final Odyssey'' into movies (Hanks would reportedly play Frank Poole in the ''3001'' film). An update in 2001 stated that there was no further development on the project.
On 3 November 2014 it was reported that the U.S. cable channel
Syfy
Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...
had ordered a miniseries adaptation of ''3001: The Final Odyssey'' into production, planned for broadcast in 2015. The miniseries would be executive-produced by
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...
,
David W. Zucker
David W. Zucker is a television executive and executive producer, best known for producing ''The Good Wife''. He is currently the Chief Creative Officer for Scott Free Productions. He is also the executive producer of notable shows like Eric Gar ...
and
Stuart Beattie
Stuart Beattie (born 4 August 1971) is an Australians, Australian filmmaker. His screenplay for ''Collateral (film), Collateral'' (2004) earned him nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, Satellite Award for Best Original ...
; the latter would also be the primary script-writer. The estates of both Clarke and ''
2001: A Space Odyssey'' director
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
were reported as having "offered their full support", but the extent of their involvement was not known at the time. In February 2016, the series was mentioned as one of Syfy's "in development pipeline" projects during their press release for ''Prototype'', though no further announcements have been made since that time.
Development
The ''2001'' screenplay was written by Clarke and
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
jointly, based on the seed idea in "The Sentinel" that an alien civilization has left an object on the Moon to alert them to mankind's attainment of space travel. In addition, the 1953 short story "Encounter in the Dawn" contains elements of the first section of the film, in which the ancestors of humans are apparently given an
evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
ary "nudge" by extraterrestrials. The opening part of another Clarke story, "
Transience", has plot elements set in about the same time in human history, but is otherwise unrelated.
The 1972 book ''
The Lost Worlds of 2001
''The Lost Worlds of 2001'' is a 1972 book by English writer Arthur C. Clarke, published as an accompaniment to the novel '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''.
The book consists in part of behind-the-scenes notes from Clarke concerning scriptwriting (and ...
'' contains material that did not make it into the book or film.
Clarke's first attempt to write the sequel to ''2001'' was a film screenplay, though he ultimately wrote a novel instead that was published in 1982. Clarke was not directly involved in the production of the second film, although he did communicate with writer/director Peter Hyams a great deal during the production via the then-pioneering medium of
e-mail (as published in the book ''The Odyssey File'') and also made a non-speaking
cameo appearance
A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...
in the film. Kubrick had no involvement in the ''2010'' novel or film, or any of the later projects.
The ''Space Odyssey'' series combines several science-fiction narrative conventions with a
metaphysical
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
tone. Since the stories and settings in the books and films all diverge, Clarke suggested that the "continuity" of the series represents happenings in a set of
parallel universes. One notable example is that in the ''2001'' novel, the voyage was to the planet Saturn. During production of the film, it was decided that the special effects for Saturn's rings would be too expensive, so the voyage in the film is to Jupiter instead. The second book, ''2010'',
retcons
Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subse ...
the storyline of the first book to make the destination Jupiter as seen in the film.
Clarke stated that the ''
Time Odyssey'' novels are an "orthoquel" (a
neologism
A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
coined by Clarke for this purpose, combining the word ''sequel'' with ''ortho-'', the Greek prefix meaning "straight" or "perpendicular", and alluding to the fact that time is
orthogonal
In mathematics, orthogonality is the generalization of the geometric notion of ''perpendicularity''.
By extension, orthogonality is also used to refer to the separation of specific features of a system. The term also has specialized meanings in ...
to space in
relativity theory
The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical phenomena in ...
) to the ''Space Odyssey'' series.
Characters
*
HAL 9000
HAL 9000 is a fictional artificial intelligence character and the main antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's ''Space Odyssey'' series. First appearing in the 1968 film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', HAL ( Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer ...
is a sentient computer (or
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
) that becomes the primary antagonist of ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. HAL is also in the sequel novels and the film sequel ''2010''. In both films he is voiced by actor
Douglas Rain.
* Dr. David "Dave" Bowman serves as the
protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
of ''
2001: A Space Odyssey''. The character later appears in the sequel story released first as a book, ''
2010: Odyssey Two'', and then as a movie, ''
2010: The Year We Make Contact'', albeit as a non-corporeal entity, and also returns in two more books by Arthur C. Clarke, ''
2061: Odyssey Three'' and ''
3001: The Final Odyssey''. In the forewords to both ''2010'' and ''2061'', Clarke makes it clear that the plots of the movies and books do not necessarily follow a linear arc, and should be seen as taking place in
parallel universes, or as being variations of a main theme; consequently there are apparent inconsistencies in the character of David Bowman throughout the series. In the two movies, Bowman is played by
Keir Dullea
Keir Atwood Dullea (; born May 30, 1936) is an American actor. He played astronaut David Bowman in the 1968 film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' and its 1984 sequel, '' 2010: The Year We Make Contact''. His other film roles include '' David and Lisa ...
.
* Dr. Heywood R. Floyd first appears in ''
2001: A Space Odyssey'' as being in charge of the mission to investigate the alien Monolith found on the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
. After the events that took place in ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', he is the
protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
of ''
2010: Odyssey Two'' and ''
2061: Odyssey Three''. Floyd was born in 1958 in America, and by 1999 is chairman of the National Council of Astronautics, overseeing all American spaceflight operations. He has two daughters (only one in the movies, born 1994) and was widowed when his wife Marion died in a plane crash. In ''
2010: The Year We Make Contact'', Floyd has a new wife and a five-year-old son named Christopher. Floyd was played by
William Sylvester
William Sylvester (January 31, 1922 – January 25, 1995) was an American television and film actor. His most famous film credit was Dr. Heywood Floyd in Stanley Kubrick's '' 2001 A Space Odyssey'' (1968).
Life and career
William Sylves ...
in the film version of ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' and by
Roy Scheider in ''2010: The Year We Make Contact''.
* Dr. Frank Poole is an astronaut aboard ''
Discovery One'' on the first crewed mission to
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
in ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
in
the novel
''The Novel'' (1991) is a novel written by American author James A. Michener. A departure from Michener's better known historical fiction, ''The Novel'' is told from the viewpoints of four different characters involved in the life and work of ...
). He and
Dave Bowman are the only crew members who were not put on board in
suspended animation (
hibernation
Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic depression undergone by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It most ...
). His boyhood hometown was
Flagstaff, Arizona
Flagstaff ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2019, the city's estimated population was 75,038. Flagstaff's combined metropolitan area has ...
, where he visited the
Lowell Observatory
Lowell Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. Lowell Observatory was established in 1894, placing it among the oldest observatories in the United States, and was designated a National Historic Landmark ...
at its museums on many occasions. These visits sparked his interest in
astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...
and
astronautics, and hence he went to college to study these subjects.
[3001:The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke] He is the main character of ''
3001: The Final Odyssey''. In
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
's ''
2001: A Space Odyssey'', Poole was portrayed by
Gary Lockwood.
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...
once expressed interest in directing a film version of ''3001'', in which he would have played Poole, but this never came to fruition.
* Walter Curnow appears in the book and movie versions of ''
2010: Odyssey Two'' as the American engineer who designs ''Discovery'' and helps to build ''Discovery II'' to go back to
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
. When the joint Soviet-American mission on the ''Leonov'' is planned instead, Curnow is one of the three American experts to go on the trip, along with
Heywood Floyd
The ''Space Odyssey'' series is a series of science fiction novels by the writer Arthur C. Clarke. Two of the novels have been made into feature films, released in 1968 and 1984 respectively. Two of Clarke's early short stories may also be c ...
and
Dr. Chandra
The ''Space Odyssey'' series is a series of science fiction novels by the writer Arthur C. Clarke. Two of the novels have been made into feature films, released in 1968 and 1984 respectively. Two of Clarke's early short stories may also be co ...
. Curnow is one of the first people to set foot on ''Discovery'' again, along with Maxim Brailovsky. Due to his engineering expertise, ''Discovery'' becomes operational again. In the 1984 film adaptation, ''
2010: The Year We Make Contact'', Curnow is played by
John Lithgow
John Arthur Lithgow ( ; born , 1945) is an American actor. Lithgow studied at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before becoming known for his work on the stage and screen. He has been the recipient of numerous ...
.
* Dr. Sivasubramanian Chandrasegaram Pillai (often abbreviated to Dr. Chandra) is mentioned in the novel of ''
2001: A Space Odyssey'' as a scientist who instructed the computer
HAL 9000
HAL 9000 is a fictional artificial intelligence character and the main antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's ''Space Odyssey'' series. First appearing in the 1968 film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', HAL ( Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer ...
in its basic functions (in the movie, it was a "Mr. Langley"). He is a main character in ''
2010: Odyssey Two'' where it was established that he was in fact the creator of HAL, and he is a member of the joint Russian-American expedition to
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
on board the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
spacecraft ''Alexei Leonov''. Although the character does not make any further appearances in the ''Space Odyssey'' novels, he is briefly mentioned by an elderly
Heywood Floyd
The ''Space Odyssey'' series is a series of science fiction novels by the writer Arthur C. Clarke. Two of the novels have been made into feature films, released in 1968 and 1984 respectively. Two of Clarke's early short stories may also be c ...
in the novel ''
2061: Odyssey Three''. In the
movie version of ''2010'', Chandra was played by
Bob Balaban and is referred to as Dr. R. Chandra.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Space Odyssey series, The
Series of books
Science fiction book series
Fiction set on Jupiter
Novels about ancient astronauts
Book franchises introduced in 1968