Last night, I watched the television adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s The Color of Magic, starring Sir David Jason as Rincewind. He’s apparently a big television star in the United Kingdom, which I suppose explains why they keep miscasting him in these Discworld adaptations. In Hogfather, he played the crotchety old man Albert as a cheerful old man, and in this one he played an incompetent young wizard as an incompetent old wizard.
I remember fellow Pratchett fans pointing out that this could cause trouble in future plots where Rincewind and Albert interact, but I think the only time that actually happens is during a brief scene in Mort. Besides, I don’t think consistency in casting is a priority for the people making these television versions. I haven’t been able to watch Going Postal yet (we Americans have to wait on these things), but I understand that Charles Dance plays Vetinari in it, while it was Jeremy Irons playing the same role in TCoM. So if we ever see Rincewind or Albert in another one of these, it’s quite possible they’ll be played by totally different actors.
While Rincewind was too old, I liked most of the other portrayals. I was a bit disappointed when I learned that Twoflower wasn’t Asian, but I don’t really think it mattered much in the end.
It’s really only once we get to Interesting Times that Twoflower’s homeland being the Discworld equivalent of China and Japan becomes significant. And Cohen the Barbarian, played by the same guy who plays Filch in the Harry Potter films, was spot on.
For the most part, the plot of the first part followed The Colour of Magic, and the second part its immediate sequel The Light Fantastic. Some of the scenes from the second book were, however, interspersed throughout the first part, giving the whole thing more consistency. Overall, I think the changes made were mostly for the better. They cut out a few funny scenes from the books (I missed the gingerbread house episode, for instance), but most of them didn’t advance the plot much if at all, so I can see why they left them alone. And while they removed the Bel-Shamharoth encounter, there were still a few mentions of the dark god. I also appreciated that they added in a joke to explain how Twoflower went from not knowing Morporkian at all at the beginning of the book to being able to converse quite easily with other characters later on, which was one of Sir Terry’s biggest gaffes in his story. Seeing the Librarian in his pre-orangutan form was also a nice touch. There were a few changes that seemed unnecessary, and the jokes they added in were a bit out of place (I especially felt that about Rincewind’s “I think I need to boldly go” line in the Krull sequence). And why did they feel the need to change to references to Hogswatch to simply “the solstice” when Hogfather had already been filmed? Overall, though, I liked it.
I’m part of a Usenet Discworld/Pratchett book group, and most of the members on there were pretty confused if not pissed about David Jason. I also remember a lot of people being upset that Twoflower wasn’t Asian, but I guess this early on in the series, Pratchett was thinking of American tourists rather than Japanese ones. But, yeah, I have no idea why they went with an old version of Rincewind, and why Pratchett approved it, since all the art shows him as in his mid-30s to early 40s, and it’s implied that he’s fairly young and skinny. (Do you remember exactly how Rincewind was described in his first appearance?) I swear I heard Jeremy Irons came back as Vetinari for GP, but I could be wrong.
I think there were a few different ideas going into Twoflower. The information we get about the Counterweight Continent makes it sound like Pratchett was thinking of Asia, but many of the tourist’s traits could apply to tourists from pretty much anywhere.
While I don’t remember exactly, I think Rincewind was first referred to as looking like “a mere apprentice enchanter.” And his alternate-world identity was specifically said to be 32 or 33. A lot of time has passed in the Discworld since the earlier books (enough for Susan to be born and grow up, among other things), so I wouldn’t necessarily mind an older Rincewind in one of his later adventures. With TCoM, though, it really made no sense for him to be so old.
I guess when Twoflower was first thought up, his name was just a reflection on the silliness of fantasy names. We don’t see until IT that his name is echoed in all the other Agatean names (except for the royalty with “Asian” names).
I didn’t think of that! I guess by TLH (The Last Hero), Rincewind would have been in his fifties or so, making him only a generation younger than the current heads of staff, barring Ponder, who’s clearly anywhere from late 20s to early 40s. But, Cohen is in TLH, too, and it’s implied that he hasn’t really aged much since his earlier appearances. But Pratchett doesn’t really seem to like giving exact ages for most of his characters, just their general age ranges. You have to really go over the details of the history of Discworld to determine who was born when, which I know someone has done already.
Oh, wait, back to Cohen, there’s a fan theory that he was caught up in the fifteen-year time warp imposed on Lancre by the witches (at the end of WS I think), since he was in the Ramtops at the time, and that would explain why he didn’t die off until TLH. And Rincewind spent some time in the Dungeon Dimensions and traveling through the Dreamtime, so he might not have aged as we would expect–he could be mentally in his 50s, but physically any age at all.
I think Terry has said that the Agatean structure of names beginning with numbers comes from the Mayans, or something like that. He thought it was a convenient way of making foreign-sounding fantasy names. TCoM also mentions two countrymen of Twoflower’s, Nine Turning Mirrors and Ninereeds.
It’s probably true that time flows differently in the Dungeon Dimensions. I doubt even Rincewind could keep running away from unspeakable horrors for 15 years or more! So we really don’t know how old he is physically.
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