ENTER SANDMEN

Think the new Dune: Prophecy’ TV series is bonkers? You should watch the SyFy Noughties ones, writes Greg Evans

- Greg Evans

A cult of superpowered women using genetic coding to take over the universe. A war between humanity and technology. Gigantic god-like sandworms.

Dune: Prophecy doesn’t exactly scream cosy Monday evening viewing, but such is the nature of Dune, a sci-fi franchise that is notoriously impenetrable and difficult to adapt both on the big screen and on television.

Prophecy, airing on Sky Atlantic and NOW, is a prequel series based on the 2012 novel Sisterhood of Dune by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert, the son of Dune creator Frank Herbert. Like the behemoth Denis Villeneuve movies led by Timothée Chalamet, the new series brings together a starry cast, including Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, and Mark Strong, and a production value that rivals the films. It tells the origin story of the Bene Gesserit, a collective of women who, through biological tampering, attempt to manipulate and control power in the universe throughout millennia.

Prophecy is the first Dune television show attempted since the early Noughties when two miniseries were made for SyFy (formerly the Sci-Fi channel). Curiously titled Frank Herbert’s Dune (2001) and Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune (2003) – a production decision out of respect for the author – these were essentially six feature-length episodes that faithfully followed the Dune story, specifically Paul Atreides’s arc from a naive teenager to a ruthless resistance leader and finally a blind preacher.

“They [SyFy] were trying to reinvent themselves as a serious product, not just a purveyor of old movies of relatively low-budget sci-fi. They wanted to step up and join the big leagues,” says John Harrison, who wrote both shows and directed the first.