The challenges of adapting pandemic novel Station Eleven for HBO Max series, and why it has big changes from the book by Emily St John Mandel
- The show’s creator Patrick Somerville explains why he had no problem purposefully altering the book’s details, events, characters and characterisations
- Somerville was against a one-to-one mapping of the pandemic novel into a script, and says he ‘loved the book so much and wanted to do it justice’
The first minutes of Station Eleven take place during a stage play. When an actor suddenly pauses his lines and collapses, Jeevan, played by Himesh Patel, jumps up from his seat and rushes onstage to help. “He’s having a heart attack,” he says.
This scene is also the opening of the book on which the HBO Max series is based. In the 2014 bestseller, Jeevan is introduced as a paramedic-in-training, which is why he’s able to recognise the symptoms and begin CPR. On screen, however, Jeevan hasn’t yet made such a career change; instead, he calls out for a doctor while looking down helplessly at the collapsed actor.
It’s a small but significant tweak, says series creator Patrick Somerville. “He’s this guy who wants to help others but is not equipped to. To help the audience be present for his journey right along with him, it made a lot more sense that his dream of becoming a healer began in a moment that we get to watch ourselves, not something that happened weeks ago that we have to tell you about in some expository scene later.”
On screen and on the page, the action in Station Eleven takes place along numerous timelines before, during and after a devastating pandemic that nearly wipes out humanity.