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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   1959 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 3, 2025

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The five novel sequence from The Thirteen-Gun Salute through the The Commodore is where I most like to get lost in though. One just flows into the the next.

The sequences are one off my favourite thing about the series. I really enjoyed The Mauritius Command > Desolation Island > Fortune of War > The Surgeon's Mate where it takes 4 novels for the protagonists to finally return to England for a debrief. I also like how where the novels begin and end is fairly inconsequential as the series covers most of a career over the Napoleonic wars and the War of 1812.

Even though the film could never live up to the novels, I have mixed feelings about a sequel. I think they still did a beautiful job, especially with the sound stage. I wish we could have had more of at least the same quality, but I'm afraid that any sequel moves would be a shameless cash grab at far lower quality.

I'd hope instead that as AI improves, film production costs will drop and it would become viable to make a film or tv series that can adequately portray naval life in the Age of Sail. It's historically been notoriously expensive to film things like this and I think it led to the end of the Hornblower TV Film series. (Which btw is up on YouTube)

My dream is to either have an updated streaming TV/Film series with a new cast, or complete AI generation with digital likenesses of Crowe and Bettany (which someone else wished for on The Motte a few weeks ago). There's so much material to mine in a 20 novel series, but I can see how it might not have mass appeal.

Edit:

To be fair to Maturin its clear he deals with chronic pain

I know. Others have said that Maturin has the most character development in the series and is perhaps the real lead character. His fallibility is why I like him. He is a leading physician and naturalist, invited to lecture at the Royal Society and salons in France. Perhaps the greatest intelligence agent of his Age.

And he is a simp for a very very particular type of woman, physically uncoordinated to the point where he would be drowned (or worse) many times over if he wasn't beloved by the crew and a drug addict. An idealist and despairing cynic with a deep deep hatred of authoritarianism. He is naive and ruthless all at once. Great character, and I have to sadly say that Paul Bettany didn't do him justice (probably for screenplay reasons).

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