History Series / ChildhoodsEnd

''Childhood's End'' is a three-episode series on Creator/{{Syfy}} and based on [[Literature/ChildhoodsEnd the novel of the same name]] by Creator/ArthurCClarke, originally published in 1953 and based off of a 1950 short story of his. The plot concerns the AlienInvasion of a demonic alien race called the Overlords. After stopping war and establishing a world government, they start to maintain peace on Earth, but refuse to show any images of themselves. Humanity enters a golden age, but at the cost of their culture.

''Childhood's End'' is a three-episode series on Creator/{{Syfy}} and based on [[Literature/ChildhoodsEnd the novel of the same name]] by Creator/ArthurCClarke, originally published in 1953 and based off of a 1950 short story of his. The plot concerns the AlienInvasion of a demonic alien race called the Overlords. After stopping war and establishing a world government, they start to maintain peace on Earth, but refuse to show any images of themselves. Humanity enters a golden age.

* TheWorldIsNotReady: The Overlords refuse to show themselves because they think humanity won't understand. [[spoiler:Considering Karellen's the spitting image of Satan, this is entirely justified.]]
* YouMakeMeSic: As the newspaper meeting discusses the aliens, one person asks how exactly they're supposed to spell "Karellen", when they've only heard it spoken.

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy:

* CaliforniaDoubling: The series was filmed in Australia.

* TheMountainsOfIllinois: In some shots of Ricky's "[[CaliforniaDoubling Missouri]]" home there are some odd un-Missouri-like hills in the background.

** The Overlords reveal themselves to mankind after fifty years in the novel. This is to give the older humans like Ricky a chance to die off so the Overlords reveal themselves to humans already accustomed to having Overlords. In the series, though, 15 years allows the main cast to remain through the entire series.

** The glyphs the Overlords use to communicate amongst themselves are in the shapes of constellations ''as seen from Earth's sky.'' If this system of writing had really been invented by the Overlords, they would most likely have used the shapes of constellations from their own homeworld's sky. Constellations are imaginary patterns and only exist from a certain point of reference; people standing in another solar sytem would look at the same stars and see different shapes. And naturally, ''their own sun'' wouldn't be visible among their constellations.

** The glyphs the Overlords use to communicate amongst themselves are in the shapes of constellations ''as seen from Earth's sky.'' If this system of writing had really been invented by the Overlords, they would most likely have used the shapes of constellations from their own homeworld's sky. Constellations are imaginary patterns and only exist from a certain point of reference; people standing in another solar sytem would look at the same stars and see different shapes.

** The glyphs the Overlords use to communicate amongst themselves are in the shapes of constellations ''as seen from Earth's sky.'' If this system of writing had really been invented by the Overlords, they would most likely have used the shapes of constellations from their own homeworld's sky.
*** Most of those constellations would not look radically different as seen from Earth. However, seen from their own solar system, their ''own'' sun would of course have been missing from "their" constellation.

''Childhood's End'' is a three-episode series on Creator/{{Syfy}} and based on [[Literature/ChildhoodsEnd the novel of the same name]] by Creator/ArthurCClarke, originally published in 1953 and based off of a 1950 short story of his. The plot concerns the BenevolentAlienInvasion of an alien race called the Overlords. After stopping war and establishing a world government, they start to maintain peace on Earth, but refuse to show any images of themselves. Humanity enters a golden age.

** A TV in the background is showing ''[[{{Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined}} Battlestar Galactica]]'' as the Overlord ships first appear. Specifically, it's [[{{Main/Foreshadowing}} the fall of the twelve colonies]].

** When the Overlords arrive ready to completely dismantle Rickys house to encourage him to come out, it's very similar to when the Aliens arrive for Barry in ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind''.

''Childhood's End'' is a three-episode series on Creator/SciFiChannel and based on [[Literature/ChildhoodsEnd the novel of the same name]] by Creator/ArthurCClarke, originally published in 1953 and based off of a 1950 short story of his. The plot concerns the BenevolentAlienInvasion of an alien race called the Overlords. After stopping war and establishing a world government, they start to maintain peace on Earth, but refuse to show any images of themselves. Humanity enters a golden age.

* NightmareFuel: When the Overlords announce [[spoiler: there will be no more children born on Earth,]] there is a shot of a pregnant woman - whose stomach ''deflates'' as she screams in horror.

** Ricky[[note]]who in the book is not a farmer but is the Secretary General of the United Nations, and meets with Karellen in a small room on the spaceship, not a hotel suite[[/note]] talks to a friend about the glass that Karellen hides behind and with some speculation they build a flashlight-like device that should allow Ricky to see through the glass. Ricky attempts this but is one step ahead of him and manages to slip out - all Ricky sees is the hoofed foot still in the room as Karellen is stepping out and he hears Karellen laughing at Ricky's attempt to see him. This is in the series, but is merely Ricky taking a picture up against the glass.

* AdaptationExpansion: The characters love lives are unimportant to the book if even brought up in the first place. Here they are given a large amount of weight to appeal to the LowestCommonDenominator.

''Childhood's End'' is three-episode series on Creator/SciFiChannel and based on [[Literature/ChildhoodsEnd the novel of the same name]] by Creator/ArthurCClarke, originally published in 1953 and based off of a 1950 short story of his. The plot concerns the BenevolentAlienInvasion of an alien race called the Overlords. After stopping war and establishing a world government, they start to maintain peace on Earth, but refuse to show any images of themselves. Humanity enters a golden age.

** Ricky[[note]]who in the book is not a farmer but is the Secretary General of the United Nations, and meets with Karellen in a small room on the spaceship, not a hotel suite[[/note]] talks to a friend about the glass that Karellen hides behind and with some speculation they build a flashlight-like device that should allow Ricky to see through the glass. Ricky attempts this but is one step ahead of him and manageds to slip out - all Ricky sees is the hoofed foot still in the room as Karellen is stepping out and he hears Karellen laughing at Ricky's attempt to see him. This is in the series, but is merely Ricky taking a picture up against the glass.

** Instead of the bullet wound Milo is inflicted with being transferred over to the shooter, the book has a bullfight take place despite the overlords having expressly forbidden cruelty to animals. When the bullfighter stabs the bull at the end of the match, every spectator in the stadium and watching on TV feels the bull's pain.
** Ricky talks to a friend about the glass that Karellen hides behind and with some speculation they build a flashlight-like device that should allow Ricky to see through the glass. Ricky attempts this but Karellen managed to slip out almost in time - all Ricky sees is a hoofed foot still in the room as Karellen walks out and he hears Karellen laughing at Ricky's attempt to see him. This is in the series, but is merely Ricky taking a picture up against the glass.

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: No explanation is offered for why Ricky and his wife couldn't simply have used donor sperm to become parents, despite the practice having become routine since when the original novel was written.