Last week I covered the first story in a while concerning the Halo TV show coming from Showtime. The folks over at The Illuminerdi had gotten a look at the pilot script and had some concerns. I disagreed with those concerns, based on the info they provided. You can catch that news story Here.

One of the concerns the outlet had was that lead character Master Chief was as not one of the few surviving Spartans. By the time of the Halo games, most of those Spartans were killed in an attack against the planet Reach. However, the Halo games may start after this point, but the Halo story does not.

Fools Rush In

In my opinion, the Halo TV show shouldn’t be trying to jump into the latter stages of the story. They need to start at the start, well, roughly speaking. The central novel that defines the Halo Universe was called The Fall of Reach. Not only does that novel detail the battle of Reach, which took the lives of so many Spartans, but it also flashes back to the beginning of the Spartan II program and follows the creation of these super soldiers.

I suppose there is an earlier novel chronologically. First Contact tells the story of how Humanity colonized surrounding systems and then began a war. The war that Spartans were created for was a war between Earth and the UNSC vs various colonies, who wish to be separated. However, as this war hots up, Humanity is discovered by a coalition of aliens called The Covenant. For reasons I won’t go into The Covenant’s leaders decide that Humans are to be wiped from the face of the Galaxy. The genocidal practices of a technologically advanced super society forces Humanity into a war they cannot compete in.

What I’m saying, is that these events are too important to be left from the Halo TV show.

How Far Back Is Too Far Back?

I’m not saying that the Halo TV show should take several seasons to even introduce The Covenant as that would be rather boring. Instead, I think the model I would look at is the one used in The Fall of Reach. Begin the story just before the climactic events of Reach, but use flashbacks to explore the start of this war. The story shouldn’t be shying away from the fact that all the Spartans were kidnapped children, replaced with inferior clones that died young. These kids were then trained as soldiers and illegally experimented on throughout their childhoods. Many of them did not survive, or were left horribly damaged.

However, the rub, is that if this wasn’t done, Humanity would be extinct. That’s how important these Spartans become to Humanities war effort. Even the First Contact story could be explained in flashback form. Though, not necessarily right away. In fact, the start of this war is an event I’d rather see saved until we can see it from The Covenant’s POV. From the Human POV, some badass aliens just turn up and start glassing planets. But the Covenant perspective is very revealing to the overall story.

Balance

The perfect balance for me would be to see Season 1 and with the battle of Reach. However, the story of the Spartans and John (Chief) should also be explained in a flashback within Season 1. This will allow the audience to feel the sense of loss when most of those Spartans are killed. The sense of hopelessness we should feel as Humanities military world is destroyed along with all of their greatest weapons save a few.

I’d begin Season 2 with Master Chief and the crew he is with finding the first Halo. That would be starting to cover the game itself, and this is where things begin to get tricky. There is a novel of Halo the game. It’s not a very good book. It’s really hard to write a book about the events of the game, because most of it is Chief taking to Cortana only and killing a bazillion enemies. But there are ways to tell that story in a better way. For a start, the visual storytelling is a far better medium for the events of Halo, but they can also shift focus away from Chief more than the book did.

Wrap It Up, Fanboy

I have one final want from the Halo TV show. They have to use that iconic music from Halo, perfected in my opinion, in Halo 3. I’m a big score guy as anyone who reads my articles probably knows. If Showtime doesn’t use this score then they are making a huge mistake. If you don’t know what I’m talking about. Here is a small sample. This has been my ring tone for several years.

I hope you’ll agree it has that mysterious ethereal sci-fi quality. Yet, transitions to an epic military-style action score seamlessly. It’s sooo good.

What do you want to see from the Halo TV show? Similar to me, or are you hoping for something completely different from Halo? Leave your thoughts below as always.

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