Based on His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Written by Jack Thorne
Production companies Bad Wolf, New Line Productions, Scholastic
Distributors BBC Studios (United Kingdom), HBO (international)
Dafne Keen as Lyra Belacqua (also known as Lyra Silvertongue), a girl who was raised at Jordan College.
Ruth Wilson as Marisa Coulter, an explorer and powerful figure at the Magisterium who is Lyra’s mother.
Anne-Marie Duff as Ma Costa, a Gyptian woman who previously nursed Lyra.
Clarke Peters as The Master of Jordan College.
James Cosmo as Farder Coram, an elderly Gyptian and Serafina’s former lover.
Ariyon Bakare as Lord Carlo Boreal,[2] an authoritative figure at the Magisterium who crosses between two worlds. In Will’s world, he is known as Sir Charles Latrom.
Will Keen as Father MacPhail, a Magisterium official.
Lucian Msamati as John Faa, the lord of the Western Gyptians.
Gary Lewis as Thorold,[2] Asriel’s assistant.
Lewin Lloyd as Roger Parslow, a kitchen boy who is Lyra’s best friend.
Daniel Frogson as Tony Costa, Ma Costa’s elder son.
James McAvoy as Lord Asriel Belacqua,[3] a scholar and explorer who is Lyra’s father.
Georgina Campbell as Adele Starminster, a reporter.
Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby, an aeronaut.
Ruta Gedmintas as Serafina Pekkala, a witch who is a member of a coven at Lake Enera, and Coram’s former lover.
Lia Williams as Dr Cooper, a Magisterium scientist operating in Bolvangar.[4]
Amir Wilson as Will Parry,[5] a secondary school student from Oxford, whose father disappeared 13 years ago.
Nina Sosanya as Elaine Parry,[4] Will’s sick mother.
Back in 2007, New Line Cinema made a movie based on the first novel in Pullman’s His Dark Materials series The Golden Compass. Despite an all-star lineup, good production values, and an already-existing fanbase, the movie, meant to be the opening salvo in a Harry Potter-like series, was something of a flop. Oh, it did well in places like the UK and Japan and other, more secular nations, but while the largely anti-religious themes of the source material were played down in the movie, they weren’t downplayed enough to mollify the Roman Catholic Church, the obvious model for The Authority in the novels. So the movie, trapped between an irate Church and a fandom disappointed by the excision of the main antagonist in the story and unhappy with smaller, even less necessary plot changes, ensured poor reviews and the series was still-born.
HBO and BBC side-stepped those errors in the first series based upon The Golden Compass. Oh, there are plot rearrangements: elements of the second book, The Subtle Knife, including Will and the fact that many other worlds exist, are scattered in this first series. But this series removes any doubt that the Church, albeit fictionalized, are the baddies. They back the maiming and murdering of children in a misguided effort to rid to world of evil, said evil being “that which is not understood,” a common failing in religious doctrine.
With eight hours of screen time to utilize, this version is much better suited for Pullman’s dense and multi-layered novel. The plot is intricate, the world-building complex and subtle, and the characterizations colored by cross-purposes, betrayal, and religious dogma.
The original movie tried to make up for the fact that much of the narrative focus had been stripped out and replaced by eye-popping special effects, especially in regards to the daemons, the visible, animal-form souls in Lyra’s world, and the armored bears. With fifteen years’ development in CGI, BBC could have opted to have even gaudier and more blatant reliance on those elements, and chose not to. As a result, Iofur Raknison remains totally plausible as an armored bear, but the emphasis is more on his personality and motivations, making him less of an anime meme and more of an actual character upon the stage. The daemons, including Lyra’s Pantalaimon, are counselors, rather than sidekicks.
Between the solid source material, editorial fearlessness, and good acting and production values, season one was a success, commercially and critically. Much of season two was already filmed by the end of season one, and I’ve no doubt that much of season three will be done by the time season two airs later this year, since a critical element in the resolution of the series is that of Lyra attaining adolescence. Dafne Keen, who plays Lyra, is already 15. Tick tick, tick tick. (If they go on to start filming the second set of volumes, The Book of Dust, this won’t be a problem.)
As for the Church, one commentator for a religious pressure group argued the series should be rated XXX because “I must impute to the His Dark Materials series, whether in novel or film format, an NC-17 rating for its power to destroy one’s worldview.” Just like images of genitalia do, I suppose.
If Pullman really has the power to “destroy one’s worldview” then he is indeed a magnificent author, and worthy of great praise.
The TV series lives up to that in all respects. I can’t wait for The Amber Spyglass (book 3) in which the true nature of God is revealed. They’ll probably want an NC-100 rating for that one—nobody under the age of 100 allowed to have their worldview destroyed.