Well….shit.
I pressed “RECORD” when I set up the X Space but apparently I have to hit “RECORD” AGAIN before starting the X Space. As a result, I didn’t record tonight’s X Space which was a brilliant discussion of the aforementioned shows with the amazing Dr. Ben Hunt.
Now I’m going to bed angry!
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Don’t go to bed angry, Joe. Just go to bed. 😉
Too bad it didn’t record. It was a good discussion. I’ll try to remember to look out for the recording icon next time I tune in.
I have a love-hate relationship with BSG. The original series was required viewing in my household as a kid. I was sceptical about the reboot, especially about the gender reversals of some of my favourite characters, but it turned out I loved the mini-series and devoured every episode of the new show. I love the gritty sci-fi, humans on the brink of extinction, doing whatever it takes to survive. I hate the bickering, back-stabbing, and, most of all, I hate the religious nonsense the Cylons brought with them. I get it, they’re wrestling with the nature of life, consciousness, sentience, etc and with that comes religion. But as a devout atheist, it just rubs me the wrong way. They’re machines. Get over it.
“33” was an amazing kickoff to the series. It was so tense. People were being pushed to their breaking points. The Cylons were so powerful, their technology so advanced. And we weren’t getting any answers. How were they following the fleet? We know that Boomer is a Cylon, were they simply tracking her? Why 33 minutes?
So good. It almost makes me want to rewatch it. I haven’t seen it since it first aired. A few YouTube reactors I follow have done first-time viewings of it. Maybe I’ll watch those.
I’ll be back shortly with my Black Mirror thoughts. Stay tuned.
I’m back.
I forgot to shout out Michael Rymer, the Australian director of “33”. I think he did a fantastic job juggling a lot of different characters in different locations but bringing out the gamut of emotions that everyone was going through. One thing I don’t miss about the late ’90s, early noughties, though, . . . that . . . bloody . . . shaky-cam!!!! Put the damn thing on a tripod and lock it off for God’s sake!
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Black Mirror swings wildly between prescience and ludicrousness and “USS Callister” definitely sits on the ludicrous end of the spectrum. Will we ever have photo-real computer simulations with brain-computer interfaces? Yeah, probably. Will we be able to take someone’s DNA and use it to create a digital version of that person with all their personalities and memories right up until the DNA was taken? No. That’s not how DNA works. If there was some sort of full body and brain scanning technology then, sure, but that’s a little harder to surreptitiously steal from someone.
I was obsessed with virtual reality during the ’90s when the computers, haptics and display technology was definitely not up to the job. Ironically, now that the technology has caught up and you can actually get some very immersive virtual environments, my interest in VR has waned. While I still enjoy dabbling with the technology it doesn’t excite me like it used to. Maybe it’s a symptom of getting old.
But “USS Callister” isn’t really about the VR or the cloning technology. It’s about the ethics of making a digital version of someone, without their permission, for your own enjoyment. Something that is even more relevant with the AI technology available to us today. It’s child’s play to create fake photos, video and audio of anybody by just feeding various AI tools with samples.
Robert Daly starts off as a sympathetic character in the real world. He’s shy and awkward and doesn’t garner much respect from his employees. Having worked for a few different CTOs in my time I can tell you, this is totally not what CTOs are like. There’s no way the board of the company would allow someone that shy to be leading the technology of a company like that. CTOs are directed and focused. They know exactly where they want the product to go and a good CTO motivates the team to work in that direction.
Likewise, the CEO James Walton is a caricature of CEOs. Lecherous, disinterested in the technology, disinterested in the company. The trope, of course, is that we’re supposed to hate Walton and feel sorry for Daly. And that is turned on its head in VR where Daly is the confident leader and Walton is the snivelling toady.
The whole “trapping someone in VR so you can do nasty things to them” thing has been done to death in Star Trek (and even once or twice in Stargate if I remember correctly). And Daly is one of the vilest perpetrators. Ultimately, I find the climax of this episode unsatisfying. The virtual slaves escape to freedom, sure, but Daly doesn’t really get his comeuppance. Sure, he’s trapped in the game he created (although I don’t understand why) but he never really repented for his sins. He is paying for crimes he feels he was justified in carrying out. There’s no character arc. He’s the same person from beginning to end.
And the people outside are completely oblivious of what has been going on. Even the real Nanette doesn’t know that she’s being blackmailed by her digital self, nor why she had to break into Daly’s home to steal the items from the fridge. I wanted real-life consequences for Daly. I wanted the real-life people to find out what had been happening to their digital clones. So while I loved the Star Trek parody nature of this episode I bumped hard on the technology and story resolution of this episode.
And that’s how I feel about a lot of Black Mirror, and in particular the most recent season. It’s very good at asking difficult questions and making you feel uncomfortable. But it often fails to stick the landing.
I agree with your general opinion on the series, but I do love the fact it takes big swings, seeking to address controversial topics in provocative ways.
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