Black Mirror is a series on Netflix that I somehow managed to not have watched until yesterday night and my goodness is it awesome. I’ve seen three episode of it and the USS Callister is by far my favorite so far but it also left me with a lot of questions and wanting to see more of what happens next. Something the other episodes didn’t do for me.
Warning Spoilers Ahead! You have been warned
I have watched the first three episodes of the fourth season and so far Episode 1 “USS Callister” stands out as the best of the bunch. It started out simple enough, you see a guy getting ready to got work that’s met with a string of unfavorable events and is basically down on his luck. Then you find out that he’s the CEO of a multi-billion corporation that’s dedicated to bringing the best video game experience of it’s time with a product known as “Infinity”. As the story progresses, things take an surprising turn and by the end of it you’re left asking many questions.
As a gamer, the notion of transferring your mind into a computer simulator has always been an interesting concept to me. VR gaming essentially comes close to bringing that level of immersion, but obviously pales in comparison to Infinity. To go full blown Swords Art Online is both intriguing and horrifying. Black Mirror’s ‘USS Callister’ took that idea even a step further and just made it plain scary to think about. Daly somehow adding people’s DNA into his own version of Infinity was both amazing and plain disturbing at the same time. Can you imagine waking up one day and realizing that you’re nothing more that 1’s and 0’s and are forced to live the rest of your immortal lives stuck inside a video game? Hmm, actually that doesn’t sound too bad now.
Now there are a couple of things that bothered me about the episode. First off, what happened to Jillian in marketing and everyone else who was unfortunate enough to have been copied by Daly? Are they still alive? Or did they get deleted, along with the Universe in the end? Speaking of the end, I felt as if the ending was a bit vague. After the crew escaped into the cloud and left Daly behind, was the universe deleting itself or rebooting? And if so, what’s gonna happen to Daly’s mind? Also how infinite is the cloud version of Infinity? So many unanswered questions.
Anyways the episode was great and there’s even talk of a spin off which I’d be more than happy to watch. According to Black Mirror’s director in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:
I was talking with Louise Sutton, who produced this and “Metalhead,” and she cooked up a brilliant idea of spinning it off into a TV series. I’d love to do a TV series of “USS Callister” — it’s probably one of the best pilots for a space show ever. And I made it! So I’m keen to see it as a TV series. I think Charlie might revisit it as a Black Mirror. Whether I’m the one to do it, I don’t know. Being a fan of the show as much as I am, and being a part of making it, I’d love to work with that crew and cast again. It’s a gift for a director.
Would you be down for a spin-off of USS Callister? Let me know in the comments below.
