Martha Wells’ series The Murderbot Diaries won over readers with its humor, complex world-building, and insightful commentary on what makes us human. The recent adaptation of her first novella, All Systems Red, has also left an impact, with Murderbot already receiving the green light for Season 2. Although the book and show share many wonderful traits in common, the adaptation introduced several significant changes, ranging from notable shifts in plot to entirely new characters.
Many of the changes from book to show make sense, as the book was solely told from Murderbot’s perspective while the show attempted to explore the story’s greater world. However, the reasoning behind other differences isn’t as immediately obvious, and the stage appears to be set for even bigger changes in the seasons to come.
As we eagerly await more of SecUnit’s story, here are the 8 biggest differences between All Systems Red and Season 1 of Murderbot.
8
The Miners’ Storyline
The main character of All Systems Red and Murderbot was a SecUnit, or Security Unity, that called itself Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård). Security Units were controlled by Governor Modules that forced them to obey their clients. In the novella, Murderbot was adamant that a glitch forced it to kill its previous clients, a group of miners, and that it hijacked its Governor Module to prevent such a glitch from happening again. However, in the show, the very first scene involved Murderbot hijacking its Governor Module and then questioning whether it should go on a killing spree.
Why it Matters
In the show, Murderbot eventually admitted that it wasn’t sure about the circumstances surrounding the miners’ deaths. The scene in which it was thinking of killing them could have been an implanted memory. However, by starting the show with the miners’ scene, Murderbot’s responsibility in what happened became more ambiguous. It’s possible that it will eventually be absolved of all wrongdoing, but currently, it feels like a much grayer character than the Murderbot of the books.
7
Leebeebee
Several characters from All Systems Red were either cut or incorporated into other characters in Murderbot, including Overse and Volescu. The show also added an entirely new character, Leebeebee (Anna Konkle), who originally claimed to be a survivor from DeltFall. In truth, she was part of GrayCris and took the group hostage in order to access their HubSystem. SecBot killed her before she could kill anyone else, leaving the others horrified about what else it could do, and possibly had already done.
Short-Lived, Big Impact
By introducing Leebeebee, Murderbot was able to showcase more of the differences between Preservation Alliance and Corporation Rim. Her advances on Murderbot also further established its disinterest in romantic and sexual relationships (outside of those on TV). Plus, her actions further revealed just how menacing GrayCris could be. For a character who wasn’t around long, she left quite an impression on the series.
6
More Sanctuary Moon
A lover of serials, SecBot’s favorite show was The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. Whenever it had a free moment—and sometimes, even when it was busy—it had the Star Trek-esque show on in the background. Multiple times in Murderbot, it used lines from Sanctuary Moon in order to better interact with the humans. It also sang the theme song to distract the rogue SecUnits and showed Mensah an episode in order to try and calm her down.
The Rise, the Fall
Sanctuary Moon was an important part of All Systems Red, but its inclusion in Murderbot was far more plot-relevant. Entire scenes from the show were included, creating a background story about a wronged bot who took revenge on a group of humans. Viewer response to the inclusion of Sanctuary Moon has been mixed, with some enjoying the show-within-a-show and others finding it over-the-top. Love it or hate it, it’s undeniable that Murderbot wouldn’t be the show it was without this focus on SecBot’s favorite show.
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5
More Creatures
Early on in both the book and show, Dr. Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski) was attacked by a creature while scouting out the planet. Murderbot was able to save her, and from that point on, the creatures didn’t play much of a role in the books. However, in the show, a different creature would later attack Mensah, and she’d discover several of their corpses. A pair of them also mated and left eggs on the Survey Crew’s habitat.
Small but Important Addition
The inclusion of these creatures makes the setting of Murderbot feel realer. It’s an alien world of alien creatures that pose a real threat to the characters. Plus, when the creatures’ eggs were attacked by a rogue SecUnit, one of the parents came back to defend them, thereby playing a significant role in the plot by saving the PresAux crew.
4
Throuple Focus
Poly-relationships were a fairly common thing in both All Systems Red and Murderbot. However, the show provided a much heavier focus on this element from the book. While several other polycules were mentioned, such as that of Mensah and her partners, the main throuple included Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu), Ratthi (Akshay Khanna), and Arada (Tattiawna Jones), with Pin-Lee liking Arada, Ratthi liking Pin-Lee, and Arada being interested in both.
Good and Bad Representation
Murderbot showed a relationship that was in many ways realistic—which also meant that it was messy. Ratthi wound up breaking up the throuple after revealing that he was falling for Pin-Lee, but not Arada. In many ways, the group handled the ups and downs of the relationship maturely. However, poly-relationships aren’t featured often in TV, so it’s kind of a bummer that the main one here ended so quickly.
3
SecUnit Factories and Indentured Servants
In All Systems Red, not much was revealed about how and where SecUnits were made. But in the show, several scenes were devoted to the indentured servants who created them. Later, these workers would be part of a protest that the SecUnits were told to stop. In general, their inclusion gave viewers a better glimpse of how Corporate Rim functioned—or rather, the fact that it didn’t.
The Cycle of Dehumanization
The contract workers were often cruel to the SecUnits, likely because they were treated poorly themselves. In this sense, their inclusion further played with the idea of dehumanization that was central to both the book and the show. Plus, watching the SecUnit manufacturing process was just plain eerie. In short, the SecUnit factories and indentured servants might not have played a huge role plot-wise, but they were an essential part of Murderbot’s world-building.
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2
Gurathin’s Backstory
In the novella, Gurathin (David Dastmalchian) was an augmented human who came to suspect that SecUnit was defective, and possibly dangerous. In the book, that’s basically all there was to his character, while in the show, he was given a much more fleshed-out backstory. It was revealed that he previously worked as a spy for Corporation Rim and suffered from substance abuse issues. At his lowest, Mensah gave him hope, leading to him turning on Corporation Rim and joining her team instead.
Other Changes
To be fair, not all the changes made to Gurathin were necessarily for the better. While he and Mensah were the most developed characters, some parts of his personality, such as his obsession with her, felt at odds with his original version. Still, Dastmalchian’s portrayal was a praiseworthy aspect of the series, as was Gurathin’s more defined motivations and deeper, more complicated relationship with SecUnit.
1
The Ending
Perhaps the biggest change from novella to show involved the last few scenes of the series. In the novella, the Survey Team bought SecUnit and brought it with them before it chose to go off on its own. Generally speaking, this is also what happened in the show, but with a few more twists and turns, including SecBot having its memories taken, almost being melted down, and needing Gurathin’s help to recover.
What Comes Next
Sure, Murderbot ended on a similar note to All Systems Red, but the difference lies in the details. Gurathin’s goodbye to SecUnit was bittersweet, as was it regaining its memories of the crew only to leave them soon after. In many ways, this ending has set the stage for Season 2 to explore similar themes and plotlines to those in The Murderbot Diaries. At the same time, it’s given the show full permission to follow a new path, much in the same way that Murderbot chose to create its own.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
