The Andromeda Strain, Lost in Adaptation ~ Dominic Noble 

Thanks for having me in my video. I have now fulfilled a life long dream of becoming a scientist sex line operator.

The House feeling you are getting is probably from the fact that Michael Crichton was a medical doctor and also the creator of ER, the granddaddy of all medical dramas. So the trope of an innocuous word or phrase leading to a huge breakthrough was basically something Crichton invented.

It's called a "Batman Deduction". The 60's Batman series was renowned for huge leaps in logic by word association that turned out to be absolutely correct.

Crichton _was_ an MD Doctor, and it really shows in his attention to detail in all the medical and biological stuff.

Another minor change from the book to the movie: the book had automated anesthetic dart guns to shoot escaped lab animals, while the movie had _frickin laser beams_

Thisis the one of the best shows on youtube

The science hotline bit made me a) laugh and b) wonder what you'd think about Andy Weir's novel The Martian.

Rewatched this movie last night and I’ve gotta admit, Ruth is hands down my favorite character. She’s the most memorable one with well developed personality flaws and quirks that immediately distinguish her, dry sense of humor, always pushing forward, and she definitely gets the most comedic lines out of the four. Basically she’s iconic and I love her.

"...wailing like that stupid child!" "Oh my God. I've got it." "What?" "Whales. They are the secret that's gonna bust this thing wide open."

anyone else love that he's still going so far as to call people 'new beautiful watchers?' there's just such a sense of... decent goodness in this man that I think even youtube can see.

You know it's kind of refreshing to see a movie that has the characters take proper precautions with this sort of thing. It's usually, "touch the mysterious space goo with bare hands". It's like a sane version of Resident Evil, where they deliberately broke containment on the super dangerous lab.

So Rising Sun is "Humanity! Do not play God with....the Japanese?"

What's the number to that Science Hotline? I need that in my life...

That's cool that a major publisher asked you to review a book. Just means you're becoming a more notable RU-vidr. :) Keep up the good work, Dom!

Hey Dominic, HBO is doing The Golden Compass as a TV series. Are you going to do video series on it similar to your Game of Thrones and Series of Unfortunate Events videos?

I like the new look!!! You look very nice. If I may recommend some Mom advice, if you want the collars to lay flat against each other first put them on a hanger and use a hair straightener to “iron” them. You can use a hair straightener on cotton and other kinds of materials because the temperature goes lower then a normal iron does.

Hey nice, Pushing Up Roses Cameo. Great review.

10:50 im soooo glad you pointed out that all the negative attributes were dumped on the female scientist. When i watched this film for the first time , i must have been, 10 years old, my parents were quick to point this out at the time. AND that was a significant learning point in my life in terms of being aware of social inequalities. Bravo!

Ugh, I absolutely loath when audio book read time stamps, e-mail headers and other stuff we skip when reading. Is there ANYONE who enjoys that?

I really appreciated the imaginative approach this film took, with the computer-noise scoring (a bold but annoying choice) and the split screen etc. It really highlights the "declassified government report" style. The decontamination process, the experiments, the practicalities, even down to the guy on the World-Saving Team of Awesome being in surgery at just the wrong time is a bit of realism most films wouldn't bother with, but it is something that we would find in a recreation of something that actually happened.

I can just hear Roses' cackle when Dom pitched the Naughty Science Appreciation Line bit to her 😂 Perfect cameo! 🏆

You didn't even talk about how this is the only film michael had cameo in And because of this film he met Steven Spielberg

Actually despite the book ending ... its shocking how well the Andromeda Strain holds up. FYI they kind of had to tweak the ending since the movie came out after we landed on the moon.

Dominic: Guys I changed my channel name as a way to help mature my show and try to help myself with the algorithm. Also Dominic: *creates the skit at **4:10* All joking aside though, great video!

This is one of my all-time favorite classic sci-fi movies, and i think that’s *because* of its procedural nature. There’s plenty of “grrrr, shoot the aliens!” films, but in this case it’s “hey, LETS DO A SCIENCE!” 🤓 ps: hi PUR! 😙

Michael Crichton: writing asshole characters long before George RR Martin made it cool.

I was 10 years old when I read this book. My dad was adamant about reading the books before watching a film. I came into the film about 30 minutes before the end and he wouldn't let me rewind the VHS tape and watch the film until I read it. I had to read it with a dictionary (late 80s, no Google) but I did it in about two or three weeks. It set off a lifelong appreciation for Crichton's work and I was super-sad when he died.

This is one of the most accurate descriptions in novel / film of how scientific teams actually work. So much so only people with a BSc tend to enjoy it. Use this as a gold standard for accurate dramatisation & 95% of CSI inspired BS becomes as real as Doctor Who. One exception is BBC’s Silent Witness, which does indeed seem to take notes from Andromeda Strain in this aspect, and sometimes dramatically too, that show’s middle years best described as “Witness Silence”!

The novel was first popular among hard science fiction fans, as was most of Crichton's early work. Hard SF authors tended to work in the field that they wrote in, at least at the beginning of their careers. Crichton has an MD, and was working at the time he wrote the novel. One of his early tricks was to write an MD character in for him to identify with. "Terminal Man" was replete with places for him to hide and report.

I'm sure it's very hard work, and I want you to stay healthy, but I genuinely am enjoying the uptick in production rate. You're doing a great job, Dom, and I look forward to your videos!

I knew the voice on the phone sounded familar! That science hotline bit is wonderful surreal and one of those moments you can not easily explain if somebody were to just walk past the screen at that moment.

Dominic, Michael Crichton was a medical doctor before he turned to writing full time. His first book, published under his own name, was, "The Five Patients". He wrote five or six thrillers about a sort of James Bond type of guy while in medical school under an alias. He was an interesting man. Taken from us way too early.

I hope you don't mind me saying your new outfit looks rather ravishing mate

I love the weird random reasons shown at the end for not being able to support him on patreon, always brings a smile to my face.

I remember reading The Andromeda Strain when I was in high school and reading as fast as I could, at the edge of my seat, because it was so dramatic...and then the virus mutated and it was all fine. Had I been using the phrase at the time, I probably would have been shouting, WTF, Michael Crichton, WTF? During English class.

The Dom: the way this is written doesn't translate well to audiobook. Me, a litRPG fan: You have no idea...

I love the fact that Crichton wrote Andromeda Strain while in med school (it came out during his las year). As if the man couldn't get any cooler...

This may sound odd but The Andromeda Strain was one of my favorite movies as a kid! I'll have to remember to add The Andromeda Strain to my list of books I intend to read.

Prey was the first book I ever read by him, and it's still one of my all time favorite books.

congrats getting contacted by the publisher! keep it up

I really liked the book, and man this movie blew me away with how close it hewed to the plot of the book. Probably one of my favorite movies because of it, even with all the slow bits.

Damn, Dom, that waistcoat and shirt combo rocks!

15:00 this line aged so well I giggled

I just read Jurassic Park recently and I really loved the diagrams and whatnot the author put in, I'm the kinda guy that likes a picture here or there for reference since I find it hard to visualize everything in a book but having what at times were essentially little puzzles was really cool, I liked trying to figure out what was going on with the computer screens before reading what the characters said. Also I really love how Crichton makes technology such a believably fallible thing, the machines not working in this movie/book because of a tiny bit of paper feels so hilariously true to life. It's the sort of thing that in many stories would feel like Deus Ex Machina but Crichton always sets it up perfectly. When throughout the book it's regularly explained how ramshackle Jurassic Park is it makes it totally believable that such an insane amount of things go wrong, the machines we create as as fallible as we are and we should always remember that when trying to play God.

Another good episode, and an interesting book from the sounds of it. I went by the local book swap box the other day that we have next to our commuter train. To my surprise I found a book by Terry Pratchet, "Mort". Haven't read it but I have a sneaking suspicion I'm gonna like it.

You've just uploaded it and I can't get to stop buffering but I'm still going to say you did a good job on this episode 👍👏

I'd love to see you tear apart the adaptation of my favorite Crichton book: "Sphere".

not only is he hugely talented as a writer and director. He was a Medical Doctor. Which explains the basis of his early books, A Case of Need, The Andromeda Strain, Terminal Man and five patients.

Hey Dom, nice vest.

I love this movie so much. I would come across it at like midnight on a Saturday while channel surfing back in the old timey days and put the remote down every time, regardless of how far along it was. I still find it gripping and chilling in a strangely sterilized kind of way.

One of Crichton's novels, Binary, published under the pseudonym "John Lange" was made into the TV movie "Pursuit" with Crichton directing. It might be good for LIA.

The science hotline bit is the funniest thing I've seen all day. Your facial expressions, sir, were absolute gold.

Thank you Dominic for reviewing this. This was one of the movies I watched with my dad when ever I was sick as a kid.

When he sang about the middle aged men and their back sides- I fell in love. ♥️

Commenting even before I've watched the video to say I'm so excited to see you do this! This is one of my favorite movies, and very few people know about it.

Loved your skit to illustrate how much Mr. Chrichton's love of science.

I LOVE your vest in this video, it’s seriously amazing.

Hi Dom I LOVE you’re intro. Its definitely top 3 if not the best intro of all Chanel’s that I subscribe to

Thx for another great review Dominic~

I only just found your channel today, and I have to say, I am greatly enjoying it so far! Not just for the waistcoats, but the content as well!

Great video once again!

I absolutely love Crichton's novels. Thank you for the awesome work

Only just discovered this channel, and delighted to see The Andromeda Strain featured. I love both the book and the film, and you covered both excellently.

Quick upload! Thanks for the great video.

That "Science Hot Line" skit was great!

Great video as usual man.

I'm no scientist but the realism and detail in both the book and the film (or any Crichton book for that matter) makes me feel tingly and warm on the inside

Dr. Levid's personality kind of reminded me of Star Trek's Dr Leonard McCoy with her very abrasive attitude.

Great work!

That 'science ohhh~!' face you did there at the end was *amazing.*

When I was a boy, I always pronounced his name "crick-ton." There was nothing "different" about split screen in the '70s. It was the shaky cam of that era.

To this film's credit, it's very rare in movies that you see the scientific process portrayed somewhat realistically (i.e. as slow, careful, repetitive, and rigorous). It's not the greatest film, but an interesting experiment, probably of interest to certain academics if nothing else.

Loved it!

Lovely video as per usual

I really enjoy this book, and I am very happy to see it being talked about. Also I like how Dom said he likes to make the video at least 10 minutes long about 12 minutes in.

There’s not a single Andromedas Train in either version

Omg love that you included PushingUpRoses!

Great job. I've seen this movie in parts many times as it was frequently played on local tv back in the 70s.

Great video Dom

I wasn't aware of this book or movie until this episode. Thanks for another review!

Yeah new episode!

The soundtrack was made by Gil Melle. I thought it fit perfectly, he worked on music for Columbo. He used an instrument he invented (the percussotron) to do the soundtrack for The Andromeda Strain.

YES! The "hysterical/flawed female" character in this is just as upsetting as the "Lambert" character in "Alien." And MAJOR brownie points for featuring PushingUpRoses!

Great video as usual 👍

Damn it Dominic! I can't watch your shows as much because I end wanting to read them myself first. You provoked me to read. Thank you.

I love the book and the movie. I saw it first time on tv as a small child when I was home sick. I always loved the grumpy, non 'barbie-doll'' female scientist. and I actually think it's quite refreshing to see a woman who is NOT (even trying to be) sweet, smiling and accommodating. 😈

That was a masterful transition to talking about the algorithm 🤣

Excellent video!!

This book seems really interesting. I'll have to give it a read. Pushinguproses is always a delight to hear and having her cameo this way was fantastic XD

It’s the cross over special I never knew I needed!

Do you think you can do an extra review episode on the A&E TV special of the show, much like you did with Farenheit 451? I'm personally curious to see where exactly did this TV special fail? As an adaptation, it's quality as a special, or both?

Thanks for being awesome! Greetings from Switzerland!

The addition of deliberate acid rain as a world-wide antidote for Andromeda would have been a great add-on to the plot, however not particularly easy to film with emotional impact. Having it modify itself as a bit too DEM, but did encourage a sigh of relief to the audience.

One of my favorite films. I find procedurals really satisfying and this film scratches that itch. I also love all that late mid century tech and security.

This was my first video to watch from you, and I loved it! Subbed :)

I remember I had to read this book for Biology class in the 10th Grade. I read it TWICE! This is one of my favorite books of all time.

Levitt was the only epileptic character I had ever read and had not come across any other fictional epileptics. So when I read the book I audibly yelled with joy. So, even though Levitt was a MAJOR dick in the film I was still happy to see epilepsy on screen. Still love both the book and film tho.

That movie scared the bejesus out of me when I was a kid in the 1970s. It would run on tv in the late evening, and I'd lie in bed hearing it play on the big television downstairs and thinking the world really would come to an end if they didn't stop the nuke. Now you know I am old. *g*

The older film scared the hell outta me. It is honestly one of if not the most suspenseful films I have ever seen.

I got seriously excited when I heard PushingUpRoses' voice on the phone.