The "droughtlander" is finally over as "Outlander" season 3 came back with more fierce scenes. But then, how does the latest series, which is based on Diana Gabaldon's novel "Voyager," stay true to the source material?
Executive producer Ronald D. Moore, who, together with his team, turned the book into a reality, revealed whether the TV series deviated from the original novel. He said via Radio Times, "I'd say it's mostly true to the book." He admitted that he found the third material far easier to adapt than its predecessor.
He further explained, "We played with the structure. In [Voyager] Jamie's journey is subdivided into individual chapters which we replicate in the show. It's almost like each chapter of Jamie's story in the book is an episode." While Jamie, Sam Heughan's character, did not have a good life in the novel, the narrative of Caitriona Balfe's Claire did not follow the same path.
Moore and his team decided to make tweaks and additions to the source and be creative when depicting the story of Claire on "Outlander" season 3. He quipped, "Claire didn't have an equivalent journey in the book." He said that in the book, most of Claire's perspective was in 1968. Apparently, they needed to deviate from the novel to portray her story in a better way.
The executive director elucidated, "We felt, 'Well, let's tell Claire's story in the 20<sup>th century as well." He said that in each Jamie episode, they also inserted Claire's story that was going on at the same time in the 20<sup>th century, including her relationship with Frank (Tobias Menzies), the birth of Brianna (Sophie Skelton), and her journey to become a doctor — narratives that did not fully exist in the novel.
When asked where these new Claire stories came from, Moore admitted that they brought that together "out of disparate pieces." He added that some were back stories mentioned in other Gabaldon books and previous seasons, while others were just invented by the team. He then said that this part of the TV series was "probably the biggest change from the book."
Previously, author Gabaldon quipped that "Outlander" season 3 series will answer the biggest mystery in the book — whether or not Frank was faithful to Claire during their marriage. The writer confessed that she purposely left that part of the narrative vague because she wanted the readers to make up their own minds depending on their views of the character.
Fortunately, the TV show will finally give a definitive answer to the readers' question. Gabaldon did not elucidate as to what side the team chose but assured that the series writers treated the character "fairly." To know more about the story, watch "Outlander" season 3 every Sunday at 8 p.m. ETD on Starz.
