Written by Jonathan Klotz | Published
Hollywood is built on adaptations, incl Gone with the wind and Wizard of OzAnd, in the past few decades, it seems like every Philip K. Dick science fiction novel has made it to the screen. Science fiction novels are difficult to bring to life, which is why studios favor Dick’s works, which eschew the classic space opera style for a more grounded, psychological approach to technology. Budgetary concerns must be one of the biggest reasons why the works of E.E. Doc Smith, the father of space opera and, at one time, America’s most popular science fiction novelist, were not adapted. If you’ve never heard of Smith or read any of his novels, you’ve at least seen other projects that were heavily influenced by his novels, including Babylon 5 And Star Wars.
E. E. Doc Smith was born in Wisconsin in 1890 and became a chemical engineer in 1915 when a late-night discussion with a college friend about space travel planted the seed for what would become one of the greatest and most influential writing careers in history. Smith and his wife, Jane MacDougall, were hosting Carl and Lee Garbe when Carl tried to convince his friend to start writing down his imaginative ideas about space travel. Smith liked the scientific aspects but knew that a successful story had to include romance, which he thought was entirely inappropriate to provide.
Lee Garbe volunteered to write the romantic dialogue, and they formed a partnership that resulted in the popular Skylark series, which would eventually lead to the creation of the science fiction genre we now know as “space opera.”
Space lark
Space lark It now reads like a series of sci-fi clichés after another, but that’s because EE Doc Smith invented these tropes. Or rather, Smith and Jarbey took the classic tropes of Western movies and set them against an interstellar sci-fi backdrop, replacing six-packed archers and horses with massive galactic empires with lasers and spaceships. Rival scientists and their romantic partners provide personal drama as a war rages between rival factions on the planet Osnomy.
Sequence in amazing stories, Starting in 1928, Space lark It was neglected by serious literary critics of the time, but it immediately found a fan base. It’s often said that artists go unappreciated in their lifetime, but E.E. Doc Smith became an overnight sensation, and then part two, Skylark Threereleased in 1930, would include one of the most influential scenes in the history of science fiction: the attack on Mardonalia Castle. Writing alone, without Garbey’s dialogue assistance, Smith wrote the first epic battle in space and was admired by science fiction giants, including Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein (the father of military science fiction).
Lenses
After introducing space operas to the Skylark series, EE Doc Smith’s follow-up was, as he himself described it, a “galactic cop series”. For DC Comics fans, this series may seem familiar, as Lensman is about the highly advanced Aresian race that created the Galactic Patrol, formed from species that have been selectively bred for generations, including humans, who can use Lens. This special device grants superior mental abilities to its user. If this sounds like the Green Lantern Corps, you’re right.
Bigger and bolder than Skylark, The Lensman novels became epic in scope, covering billions of years, and cementing E.E. Doc Smith’s place among the pantheon of science fiction pioneers. Smith even wrote side stories set in the same universe, which were published as Spiral blasterthis had no effect on the main plot line, which follows failed Lensman, genius Neil Cloud, as he uses his wits to mathematically deduce how to blow up vortexes, and along the way, deals with gangsters and mob bosses on alien planets.
No Hollywood adaptations
EE Doc Smith was a star writer in his later years, even attending as many sci-fi conventions as he could, and helping influence your favorite writers, so why has Hollywood never adapted a Skylark or Lensman series? It is likely that the first wave of science fiction influenced by Smith’s novels in turn became so popular that they made the original stories seem derivative. The Skylark novels, in particular, feel like conspiracies Star Trek: The Original Serieswhile Lensman’s novels once again look like Green Lantern.
This is why the early Steampunk novels by Michael Moorcock appeared Air Warlord (published 1971) and Keith Loomer’s groundbreaking book Empire Realms (from 1962) It was not edited, but instead, we got it Deadly engines and Hugo. Pulp novels Dr. Savage I never got a movie, but Indiana Jones became a popular franchise. When a work is so influential that it creates a sea of homage and parody, in this case, an entire genre of literature and film, it gets lost in the process.
From superstar to forgotten, EE Doc Smith is still considered a legend by hardcore science fiction fans, but in popular culture, he has been replaced by Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clark, and Isaac Asimov, among others. Even his friend, Robert Heinlein, another pioneering writer, was largely ignored by Hollywood; Nevertheless Starship troopers It’s a classic game, and we’re getting a Warhammer 40K adaptation, while… The number of the beast It has been published since 1980, and although multiverses are now in vogue, it has never been adapted.
If Hollywood attempted to adapt the stories of E.E. Doc Smith, it would likely suffer the same fate as adaptations of the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the man who created Tarzan and also wrote John Carter of Mars. Disney adapted one of the greatest science fiction novels of the 20th century called The Slanderer. John Carterstarring Taylor Kitsch, which became the biggest box office bomb in history until Joker: Folie a Deux He took the crown. Disney didn’t know how to market the film and butchered the original story by trying to cover up and downplay the fantastical sci-fi elements of the story.
Sci-fi fans are accustomed to weak adaptations that miss the point of the original story, which is the most likely outcome of any big-budget Skylark adaptation. The closest we ever came to EE Doc Smith getting to the screen came thanks to J. Michael Straczynski, who attempted to adapt the Lensman novels. After nearly a decade of work on the project, it was abandoned due to budget issues regarding bringing the space opera epic to life.
George R.R. Martin, when he first wrote game of thrones He began A Song of Fire and Ice, saying that he wanted the novel to be “unfilmable.” E.E. Doc Smith never said it, but his stories are so wide-ranging, spanning billions of years, multiple planets, including the extreme opposites of a military fleet engaged in epic battles and couples discussing the fabric of reality inside their personal spacecraft, that Hollywood could never… He brings them justice.
EE Doc Smith was a visionary, a gifted creative talent whose vision can only be realized in one place: your imagination.