Howard Waldrop's “Night of the Cooters" & George R.R. Martin's 1993 TV pilot, Doorways.

In other news, George R. R. Martin announced that Howard Waldrop's story, “Night of the Cooters,” has been adapted for film.  

It's been done on green screen with the long road ahead for the post production process.

I discussed Waldrop's story over here.

 

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In 1993, George R.R. Martian wrote a TV series pilot that got filmed but didn't find a home:

 

Largely, a low-tech operation, which can work (famously, the early episodes of Dr. Who), but it might have done better if it were shopped around ten years or so earlier.

Some intriguing premises here. Some unrealized plot ideas generated, but I'm curious how well that might have worked across an entire series. Great cast although they might have turned in better performances as they worked longer together, understanding their roles and relationships.

It opens on a woman running with and across traffic without explanation. Perhaps it needed more back story, or maybe needed to be shorter or even cut straight to the hospital.

The doctor eventually takes off with the stranger, which might have made more sense were he in love, but he doesn't seem to be. Maybe another explanation would have been forthcoming.

The character of Cat (her inability to speak or count) and those pursuing them across the parallel universes would have hopefully had made more sense as the series progressed. Also the rules of the universes could have been better explained such as a universe where there's no fuel yet we have hot air balloons.

IMDB rates it a 5.6, probably due to some of the above issues. Two years later, the show Sliders makes a go with a similar premise.

It's a shame Martin, the master storyteller, wasn't able to finish the project. There is a graphic novel that maybe fills in the gaps. But ah well, better he finish the Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire series.