This was an interesting experience! I hadn’t read the Murderbot stories by Martha Wells before (have been on my list forever), so I went through All Systems Red in parallel to season 1 of the show. Both are excellent, and like The Expanse, provide a great example on how to adapt something to a different form of media.
The Story
In both forms, we are following a Security Unit (SecUnit) that has hacked the module that makes it obey humans. It…keeps working as a SecUnit, because doing any of the normal “rogue robot” things like killing all the humans around it and escaping would get it captured and melted down. That would be painful. Besides, all Murderbot (the name it chose for itself) wants to do is watch media. That’s easy enough to do while standing watch over a bunch of hippie scientists. Murderbot soon comes to realize that life is never that easy.
That new contract is where the two versions of the story show their differences. In the book, we don’t really get to know the human characters, other than Dr. Mensah. We don’t really need to, since the story focuses more on Murderbot’s internal struggle to pass as an unmodified SecUnit. By necessity, the TV show needs more for Murderbot to play off of, so each member of the Preservation
Alliance research team gets some development.
The Cast
Alexander Skarsgård plays Murderbot (SecUnits are robots with 3D printed human flesh) skillfully, balancing the robot and human aspects as Murderbot’s secret is found out. Noma Dumezweni is excellent as Dr. Mensah, the motherly leader of PresAux. The scene where Murderbot helps her with an anxiety attack by using one of his favorite episodes of media is perfectly played. I’d also highlight David Dastmalchian as Dr. Gurathin. Dastmalchian is having a heck of a run the past few years, and Gurathin is another character that gets a huge boost on the TV show. His traumatic backstory plays well into his immediate distrust of their SecUnit. Seeing the evolution of Gura’s relationship with Murderbot played out really shows off the cast’s acting chops. Skarsgård and Dastmalchian’s last interaction as Murderbot and Gurathin had me tearing up.
“The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon”
I couldn’t talk about Murderbot without mentioning “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon”. In the book, all we really know is that Sanctuary Moon is Murderbot’s favorite show. On TV, they expanded the importance of it, and filmed several scenes. Imagine the most soap opera-ish Star Trek clone you could have and you’d be close. The out-of-this-world outfits and campy dialogue delivered by Hollywood favorites John Cho, Clark Gregg, DeWanda Wise and Jack McBrayer leave me hoping for more scenes in the future. Considering Murderbot tends to use lean on Sanctuary Moon when trying to interact with humans, it’s a safe bet we’ll get more.
Murderbot is on AppleTV+ (there’s a 7-day trial), and many of the books are on Kindle Unlimited.
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