REVIEW: His Dark Materials Season 1 Episode 1

Hold your daemons close everyone, because His Dark Materials is officially here.

Last night marked the Australian premiere of the new television adaptation of Philip Pullman’s acclaimed children’s fantasy series. Produced by BBC Studios, New Line Cinema and Bad Wolf for BBC One and HBO, and written by Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), this eight-part series follows the events of the first book in the trilogy, Northern Lights.

If, like me, you’ve been a longtime fan of the His Dark Materials books, you’ll know that this adaptation has been long overdue. You might also be a little bit wary, and for good reason – the stakes are incredibly high for this show. After a somewhat lacklustre film adaptation was released in 2004, there’s been significant trepidation about the prospect of the return of His Dark Materials to the screen. It’s a strange story set in an alternate world not too different from ours, where human souls take corporeal form as an animal daemon and an oppressive Christian body known as the Magisterium seeks to control the spiritual and intellectual life of the people. They’re also seeking an end to the pursuit of knowledge about Dust, a mysterious substance with huge implications for human consciousness that a young girl named Lyra becomes intricately entangled with.

Philip Pullman

Some have insinuated that the story is simply unfilmable, but it’s more than that. This series is truly beloved. For me, Pullman’s magnificent and groundbreaking children’s fantasy trilogy broke all the rules and completely changed my perspective of what fantasy can do. While the story was quite dark and meandered at times into some highly conceptual territory, Pullman never doubted the ability of his young readers to understand what he was writing about.

As a young reader, I recognised that and deeply appreciated Pullman for it. I’m now 26 years old, and I recently re-read the original trilogy in anticipation for the release of both the show and the book sequel, The Secret Commonwealth. To my pleasure, I found that same sense of wonder I had as a child still there within its pages, enriched this time with all of the nuance and understanding that adulthood brings. So I bit the bullet, signed up to yet another streaming service and settled in to watch episode 1 of the new adaptation of His Dark Materials.

Reader, I loved it.

Early reviews have been mixed, but I was honestly spellbound from start to finish and I really really want to talk about it.

First things first: Lyra.

Lyra Belacqua (or Lyra Silvertongue, as she is later christened by the armoured bear Iorek Byrnison) is perhaps one of the most beloved characters in all of children’s literature. A girl of rough manners, with a slippery tongue and piercing intelligence, Lyra was the hero of many a young reader, myself included. To be fair, no onscreen Lyra will ever quite live up to the Lyra inside my heart (though I do think Dakota Blue Richards, the Lyra of the 2004 movie, did a fantastic job with the material she was given) but I was eager to see how she would be brought to life this time around. Dafne Keen, whom you might recognise from Logan, is the latest actress to take on the role and I think she does an absolutely stellar job. She brings a wonderful intensity to the role and brings out Lyra’s playful impetuousness, as well as her profound loneliness. I’m confident that Lyra is in very safe hands.

And Pan! It was a delight to watch Pantalaimon, her daemon, brought to life, though he was a little underused and I’d love to see him become a more central character in future episodes – he is, after all, literally a part of Lyra.

Other honourable mentions should go to Clarke Peters, who plays the Master of Jordan College, and also to James McAvoy and Ruth Wilson. McAvoy is brilliant as Lord Asriel, Lyra’s uncle. He is portrayed on the show, as he is in the books, as a fierce proponent of knowledge and truth, but also as a brusque and tempestuous man who is intolerant of all impediments to his goal of discovering more about Dust – even if they sometimes takes the form of Lyra. Nevertheless, you can see just how much he does care about her, and there’s a gruff tenderness to him that I want to see explored further. As a child, I shared Lyra’s awe of him as well as her disappointment, and part of the beauty of Pullman’s books is that they explored the complicated nature of human beings. They showed us that good and evil could often coincide within the same person, and I’m keen to see how this plays out with the adult cast. I also can’t finish this review without mentioning Ruth Wilson as Mrs Coulter, the mysterious and alluring explorer who captures Lyra’s interest. While she’s been sickly sweet thus far and we haven’t yet seen much of Mrs Coulter’s vicious streak, I have no doubt that Ruth will bring it to life with terrifying precision in the episodes to come (watch season one of Luther and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about).

All in all, I have very few complaints. The plot was a touch slow and didn’t move too far into the first book, starting with the arrival of Lord Asriel at Jordan College with news of his discovery about Dust and ending with Lyra leaving Oxford by Mrs Coulter’s side. This just means that there’s plenty of room for this story to breathe over the next seven episodes, and the first episode does do a great job of introducing a couple of the major characters and setting up the conflict with the sinister kidnappers known as the Gobblers.

The show is also visually stunning – the production team have reproduced Lyra’s Oxford beautifully, from the Gothic spires of Jordan College to the rustic riverside abodes of the gyptians. Even the show’s more fantastical elements – the zeppelins, the daemons and, of course, the alethiometer – seem perfectly natural and authentic in this world. I also loved that the series began where the prequel La Belle Sauvage left off: with Lord Asriel banging on the door of Jordan College, claiming scholastic sanctuary for baby Lyra and Pan. It was a lovely touch.

This show looks set to become the full scale adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy that we have long deserved and I’m totally on board. Bring on the armoured bears!

Northern Lights

His Dark Materials: Book 1

by Philip Pullman

"Without this child, we shall all die."

Lyra Belacqua and her animal daemon live half-wild and carefree among scholars of Jordan College, Oxford. The destiny that awaits her will take her to the frozen lands of the Arctic, where witch-clans reign and ice-bears fight. Her extraordinary journey will have immeasurable consequences far beyond her own world...

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About the Contributor

Olivia Fricot

Olivia Fricot (she/her) is Booktopia's Senior Content Producer and editor of the Booktopian blog. She has too many plants and not enough bookshelves, and you can usually find her reading, baking, or talking to said plants. She is pro-Oxford comma.

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