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 uni ...
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 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" – 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 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
Peter Hyams (born July 26, 1943) is an American film director, screenwriter and cinematographer known for directing ''Capricorn One'' (which he also wrote), the 1981 science fiction-thriller '' Outland'', the 1984 science fiction film '' 2010: Th ...
* ''
2061: Odyssey Three'' – 1987 novel
* ''
3001: The Final Odyssey'' – 1997 novel
Comic books:
* ''
2001: A Space Odyssey'' – 1976 oversized
Marvel
Marvel may refer to:
Business
* Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company
** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment
** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe
** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics
* ...
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'' – 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 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, Beginning with issue ...
'' #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 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,
David W. Zucker and
Stuart Beattie; the latter would also be the primary script-writer. The estates of both Clarke and ''
2001: A Space Odyssey'' director
Stanley Kubrick 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 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
Transience or transient may refer to:
Music
* ''Transient'' (album), a 2004 album by Gaelle
* ''Transience'' (Steven Wilson album), 2015
* Transience (Wreckless Eric album)
Science and engineering
* Transient state, when a process variable or ...
", 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
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...
(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 ei ...
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 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 r ...
) 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
Douglas James Rain (March 13, 1928 – November 11, 2018) was a Canadian actor and narrator. Although primarily a stage actor, he is perhaps best known for his voicing of the HAL 9000 computer in the film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968) and i ...
.
* Dr. David "Dave" Bowman serves as the
protagonist 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 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 Sylve ...
in the film version of ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' and by
Roy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider (; November 10, 1932 – February 10, 2008) was an American actor and amateur boxer. Described by AllMovie as "one of the most unique and distinguished of all Hollywood actors", he gained fame for his leading and supporting ...
in ''2010: The Year We Make Contact''.
* Dr. Frank Poole is an astronaut aboard ''
Discovery One
The United States Spacecraft ''Discovery One'' is a fictional spaceship featured in the first two novels of the ''Space Odyssey'' series by Arthur C. Clarke and in the films '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968) directed by Stanley Kubrick and '' 20 ...
'' on the first crewed mission to
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the 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 slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
in ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (
Saturn in
the novel). He and
Dave Bowman are the only crew members who were not put on board in
suspended animation
Suspended animation is the temporary (short- or long-term) slowing or stopping of biological function so that physiological capabilities are preserved. It may be either hypometabolic or ametabolic in nature. It may be induced by either endogen ...
(
hibernation). His boyhood hometown was
Flagstaff, Arizona, where he visited the
Lowell Observatory at its museums on many occasions. These visits sparked his interest in
astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...
and
astronautics
Astronautics (or cosmonautics) is the theory and practice of travel beyond Earth's atmosphere into outer space. Spaceflight is one of its main applications and space science its overarching field.
The term ''astronautics'' (originally ''astron ...
, 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's ''
2001: A Space Odyssey'', Poole was portrayed by
Gary Lockwood
Gary Lockwood (born John Gary Yurosek; February 21, 1937) is an American actor. Lockwood is best known for his roles as astronaut Frank Poole in the film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968), and as Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell in the '' Star ...
.
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 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 slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
. 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 and
Dr. Chandra. 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.
* 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 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 slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
on board the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
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 in the novel ''
2061: Odyssey Three''. In the
movie version of ''2010'', Chandra was played by
Bob Balaban
Robert Elmer Balaban (born August 16, 1945) is an American actor, author, comedian, director and producer. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for ''Gosford Park'' (2001), in which he also appeared.
Balab ...
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