With Dune: Part Two continuing to conquer the worldwide box office, it is also causing some level of controversy among those who feel passionately about the original source material by late author Frank Herbert.

Some Dune scholars argue filmmaker Denis Villeneuve did a disservice to the material by changing aspects of certain characters, such as the Lady MacBeth-ing of Lady Jessica as well as mostly excluding the character of Alia. These stalwart Herbert-ians may or may not have salient points, but we have literal evidence that a strongly faithful adaptation of the novel wouldn’t have worked either.

Last year, while preparing for the release of my book, A Masterpiece in Disarray: David Lynch's Dune – An Oral History, I discovered a copy of a 321-page screenplay adaptation of Dune written by Herbert himself.

In the world of 3 Body Problem, the title refers to two things: the complex physics problem that involves a planet that shares an orbit with three stars, and a VR game that characters play called “3 Body.” In Cixin Liu’s first book in the Three-Body series, Wang Miao finds himself playing the secret VR game, which is eventually revealed to be a recruitment tool for humans working with distant aliens.

In the new Netflix show, the VR world of “3 Body” comes to life in a very specific way. When Jin (Jess Hong) and Jack (John Bradley) enter this VR world, it’s simultaneously extremely convincing and intentionally uncanny.

To bring this mind-bending VR world to life, the director of the first two episodes of 3 Body Problem — Derek Tsang — had to thread a strange aesthetic needle. We have to believe the characters are overwhelmed by the immersive experience, but we also need to know this isn’t supposed to literally be another planet. To make this specific feeling land, Tsang tells Inverse that he had to go more low-tech than you might think.