Nautilus

 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne's classic proto-science fiction novel from 1870, has been adapted numerous times; but the least faithful of these has just dropped. Nautilus, a Disney+ production, is a virtual rewrite of the entire story. One of the attractions of the book is the author's preservation of the mystery surrounding Nemo; a name which means "nobody" in Latin. We know very little about him except he can speak an unknown language and he is a great engineer, being the builder of the Nautilus as well as its captain. It is only in the sequel/spin-off novel The Mysterious Island that we find out he is Indian and of royal lineage. This enigma is neutralized at the very start of the TV series. We are given Nemo's life story in the opening scenes. The Nautilus is not primarily built by him; instead it is the brainchild of a French scientist called Benoit who claims to have been forced to work for the East India Mercantile Company, although his story is questioned. Nemo himself is reduced to a slave in the shipyard being pushed around and beaten by EEEEEEEvil white Englishmen. Nemo steals the submarine during an uprising by the slaves and manages to escape with Benoit and a handful of the other prisoners. He picks up a few stragglers along the way, including a young woman called Humility, who certainly does not live up to her name. She is a Mary Sue who knows everything and can do everything, an icon of feminist perfection. She is accompanied by her austere French governess called Loti. The rest of the makeshift crew are a very international bunch of Africans, Indians, Chinese, a New Zealander and a mysterious bearded bald guy who nobody knows anything about. They are pursued by the Company who have a ship called Dreadnought which is very similar to a real ship of that name from the beginning of the 20th century. Like Verne's novel, the series is set in the 1850's yet the technology is about half a century ahead of its time; more so in the case of the Nautilus sub. They also visit a house with a refrigerator. This gives the series a distinct steampunk ambiance that reminded me of Dune, see: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2024/07/dune-watchread-party-review.html. The characters and their situation remind me a bit of Blakes 7, see: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2007/10/blakes-7.html. The baddies are all typical white British imperialists which include Humility's fiancé who is a spoilt and selfish aristocrat. They are cardboard cut-outs of white colonialist monsters, straight out of the pages of Frantz Fanon, sporting charisma in the minus figures. I'm surprised none of them wore monocles. There is a slight exception when it comes to Billy Millais, an old schoolmate of Nemo's. Humility is destined for an arranged marriage, but "breaks away!" to study science at university; but she has to disguise herself as a man of course because "Women!" are so "Oppressed!" Part of her disguise is a false moustache... I'm not sure that would work in reality.

The programme has its good sides. There is one scene where the submarine surfaces and the crew bribe some whalers not to kill some whales. Whaling has always been something that evokes horror and heartbreak in me, for some reason, and so I was inevitably drawn emotionally into that storyline. Some of the characters are quite likeable. Nemo himself is a kind, intelligent and courageous man, even though he is totally different in many ways from his original literary namesake. He is played by Shazad Latif, best known for his role in the TV programme Spooks. My favourite character is probably Jagadish, an elderly Indian who professes Marxist beliefs while seeking luxury wherever he can find it. He is an amiable buffoon, but when danger strikes he shows a lot of loyalty and bravery. His ending is tragic yet heroic. Even Humility develops and I warmed to her a bit in later episodes. There is also a storyline involving mind control. There are some amusing scenes, like when they have a 1914-style truce and the two sides play a game, not of football but cricket; and they play it on the Arctic icecap. As with Blakes 7, some of the Nautilus crew are rather shady and two-faced; and the viewer wonders which side they are really on. I was interested in the submarine itself. This is described in great detail in the book. At the time Verne was writing, submarines were very primitive and the inability to invent a power source that didn't need air hampered their capabilities. This problem was arguably only solved in the 1950's with the advent of nuclear power. (Interestingly the first nuclear-powered sub was also called Nautilus.) In the book the sub is driven by electricity generated from a sodium water machine. The sodium to fuel it is mined on one of Nemo's islands. It is doubtful that such a system could ever work because the reaction is too violent to release energy in a controlled manner. It would be like trying to power a car with dynamite, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODf_sPexS2Q. Several film adaptations have Nemo secretly inventing nuclear power, such as my own favourite, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvrK4G6xKZQ. In the case of the 2024 TV series the submarine has several additional features that make sense. It has hydroplanes to change the boat's angle, a way of extending or retracting the ram blades and armoured covers for the front windows. She is armed with torpedoes as well as a ram that are fired from internal reloadable tubes. But how is this Nautilus powered? I was hoping there might be a free energy plotline to this programme. I'd actually really welcome an adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with the submarine being driven by a zero point power-plant. It would make perfect sense because free energy, something like the Schauberger coil, would be the perfect propulsion system for a submarine. It is air independent, requires no fuel and can deliver a very high energy level for the volume and weight of its engine. My own fictional work, Roswell Redeemed has this as part of the story, see: https://hpanwo-bb.blogspot.com/2018/12/roswell-redeemed-is-here.html. There is a tiny hint of such a plot element, especially at the end; and the series is obviously intended to have a sequel. Despite all its positives, I quickly grew tired of the show's anti-whiteness, its misandry. It was the ruination of Star Trek, Star Wars and Doctor Who all over again. Despite my hopes that we had passed "peak woke", the forces of mind-bending are not letting go of their prey just like that. In one episode Nemo and Humility are arguing over which of them has the most victimhood and in the same episode they meet a "Black!" "Woman!" who used to be a slave on a sugarcane plantation. Game, set and match I think. So generally I have mixed feelings about Nautilus, including regret that it could have been so much better if they just cooled it with the white male historical guilt trips. Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15286302/.
See here for background: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2020/08/free-energy-portal.html.