Dune: Prophecy

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Dune: Prophecy is a six-part, seven-hour HBO miniseries based on Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson’s Great Schools of Dune trilogy (2012–2016). Brian Herbert is the son of Frank Herbert, the creator of Dune and the author of the first six Dune novels. After Frank Herbert’s death, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson began publishing a series of novels set in the Dune universe.

Only two of these novels, Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007), are based on Frank Herbert’s notes (for Dune 7). I found them disappointing. They were vast, sprawling pulps, cashing in on Frank Herbert’s brilliant world-building and eon-spanning plotlines but adding nothing important to them.

The rest of the Herbert-Anderson novels fall into the category of fan fiction, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But as much as I love Frank Herbert’s Dune and enjoyed Brian Herbert’s biography of his father, Dreamer of Dune (2003), I’ve never really given the Herbert-Anderson books a chance. So I didn’t know what to expect going into Dune: Prophecy.

But I really didn’t expect much, particularly after Denis Villeneuve’s two-part adaptation of Dune, which, unlike David Lynch’s Dune, gets worse with repeated viewings. Thus I was quite surprised at how good Dune: Prophecy is.

Dune: Prophecy is set 10,000 years before the events of Dune, about 80 years after the end of the Butlerian jihad against thinking machines, which had enslaved humanity and brought it to the verge of extinction. The human race must now figure out how to maintain both a galaxy-spanning political order and a technological civilization without the use of computers.

The answer is to expand the capacities of the human mind, which is the purpose of the Great Schools: the Bene Gesserit sisterhood (who focus on hyper observation, abductive reasoning, eugenics, and accessing the memories of their female ancestors), the Mentats (human computers), and the Spacing Guild (who have learned to navigate wormholes without computers). But, of course, everyone wants to cheat by secretly using computers to get advantages over their rivals.

I won’t spoil the plot of Dune: Prophecy, because I’d like you to see it. But I can say this: all the players from Frank Herbert’s Dune books are present 10,000 years before, principally House Corrino, House Atreides, House Harkonnen, and the Bene Gesserit sisterhood. Don’t be surprised. Frank Herbert was fascinated by the question of what sort of institutions can project and carry out plans over centuries. His answers were: aristocratic dynasties and initiatic spiritual orders.

The main focus of Dune: Prophecy is the Bene Gesserit sisterhood and House Corrino. The sisterhood, however, is run by two Harkonnen blood sisters, Valya and Tula, who even in this time have a blood feud with the Atreides, which is a secondary storyline. The Sisterhood, as usual, is scheming to control the throne and the great houses. The great houses, as usual, are scheming against each other.

And then, just as in Frank Herbert’s own stories, a wildcard is dealt. A soldier thought lost in the sands of Arrakis named Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel) shows up with unusual powers, knowledge, and charisma, and everyone else’s plans are thrown into chaos. But behind Hart, a shadowy new—or perhaps very old—threat is gathering its forces. So be sure to watch the next season of Dune: Prophecy.

There are two basic ways to carry on what Hollywood types call a “franchise” but I prefer to call a mythos.

First, you can do cynical remakes, reboots, and ripoffs, like most of Disney’s Star Wars spinoffs, which diminish the originals. (See my reviews of The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, and Solo.) To tell if a story is worthless, ask yourself if it would be of interest outside the franchise’s fictional universe.

Second, you can inhabit a preexisting fictional universe but tell new stories, with new characters—stories that would be compelling in any other universe as well. This is the case with Disney’s best Star Wars movie, Rogue One, as well as its brilliant prequel series, Andor. Dune: Prophecy is almost as good as Andor.

What do I like about Dune: Prophecy?

First, Dune: Prophecy delivers the sort of Byzantine plots-within-plots, schemes-within-schemes, that Frank Herbert is famous for. The story is carefully constructed, well-told, and well-paced, with some pleasing twists. Yes, it is all variations on Dune themes. But they are pleasing variations. Moreover, that’s what we’re paying for, and it is very much in the spirit of Frank Herbert, who has a deep metaphysical commitment to things that recur.

Second, the script is well-written. As with everything Dune-related, there is a lot of back story, which is related in an economical way without too much narration.

Third, the acting is generally quite good, even in minor roles. I particularly liked Emily Watson as Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen, Olivia Williams as Reverend Mother Tula Harkonnen, Chris Mason as Keiran Atreides, Mark Strong as the Emperor, and Barbara Marten as Sister Avila. The cast contains a lot of highly-talented stage and television actors from the British Isles, but the only “star” is Travis Fimmel, who is a bit over the top as Desmond Hart, but there’s no denying that he’s charismatic and sometimes terrifying.

Fourth, this series looks really good: interesting architecture, sets, clothes, props, and faces. The special effects and action sequences are also well-done.

Fifth, Volker Bertelmann’s atmospheric music is excellent.

There are some minor flaws. For instance, would an emperor really be referred to by his first and last name or greeted with applause? Would the Landsraad really meet in the imperial palace? Would an empress really be addressed as “Your Grace”?

The thing I most dislike about Dune: Prophecy is the same thing I dislike about almost all contemporary film and television: the oppressive diversity casting, which is simply not consistent with Frank Herbert’s Eurocentric vision of the imperium. There are just too many non-white faces, as well as white-looking people who are slightly off due to hybridization: French-Turkish, Australian-Sinhalese, Swedish-Berber, etc.

But there are two ways you can diversity cast. The least offensive way is to write a good story, find good actors to sell it, then sprinkle in some diversity around the edges, but be sure to demand good performances from everyone. That’s what they do in Dune: Prophecy. The worst of it is frontloaded, when we discover that the Bene Gesserit sisterhood was founded by a magic Negress. It gets better after that.

The most offensive forms of diversity casting are blatant blackwashing of white characters, foregrounding race by casting against stereotypes, and forcing us to suffer through talentless affirmative actors. There’s none of that here.

Of course there’s no reason to go in for racial diversity casting at all, because this whole series centers on the strong women of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood.

If you like Dune, you’ll enjoy Dune: Prophecy, which is off to a strong start and has all the makings of a great science fiction series. It is certainly on the level of the SciFi Network’s Children of Dune miniseries. But it doesn’t equal Andor or Firefly or the Battlestar Galactica reboot. Not yet, anyway. But I can hardly wait for season two.