Held my interest past the pilot episode. Interesting to learn more about the Bene Gesserit.  The show suffers from the usual HBO need to stick in boobies & gratutious sex scenes - like they don't think people would watch a show about strong women unless they make it titilating -sigh.  I never made it past the first trilogy, and that was many years ago, so can't judge how close the plot/characters adheres to the novels.

Based on the autobiographical book Memos from Purgatory (1961) by Harlan Ellison.

From archived tv.com trivia: A version of a British television play aired on the BBC only a few months earlier in their Suspense series. John Gregson, William Lucas and Jean Harvey played the roles here played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Roddy McDowall and Patricia Medina. The script, by Lewis Davidson, was trimmed slightly but otherwise unaltered.

From archived tv.com site: episode is based on the short story "Water's Edge" by Robert Bloch. The story was first published in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine (September, 1956).