Black Mirror episode analysis

So today after a lot of debate with myself, I am finally starting my analysis of the TV series Black Mirror. This act is actually motivated by me having recurring issues with the series, that no one else seemed to be noticing or willing to talk about. I will be doing this with a series of texts focusing on each episode of the show’s new season, while also elaborating on my overarching criticism of the series as a whole.


As you could all expect, the first thing I will be talking about is the beginning episode of the fourth season, USS Calister. Just to clarify something first, I am the biggest fan imaginable of Star Trek, especially the original series, and yes this is absolutely crucial information to understand my view on the episode. So in regards to USS Callister’s premise, I feel obligated to point out how brilliant it is, it is quite likely the best episode concept in the entire series. The idea of having Black Mirror and taking into account what it all represents, as one of the more cynical and pessimistic views of humanity’s future possible dedicating an episode to study and comment on Star Trek, which is quite literally its complete opposite. Which is regarded in the cultural zeitgeist of your age as the definitive utopic optimistic representation of humanity’s future is an incredible idea. The ethos of both series is just so diametrically different, which is shown really well in the ways something like technology is portrayed on both series. In Black Mirror technology and its implications are only portrayed on the way they dehumanize people, how they are only a tool bringing suffering and issues to our society (yes, I pretend to write more on the topic of this show bullshit technophobic attitude on my next text). In Star Trek technology is more akin to a tool which serves as the means to potentialize humanity to their full capacity, it being the means that enable them to start the biggest adventure in humanity’s history, the exploration of space. Sure some of its negative aspects like its potential for destruction or to replace mankind also gets to be portrayed (guess which one of this has a more nuanced portrayal). So, this is really a promising premise that could go in so many great ways, imagine how awesome of an idea would be to study how did society views of the future changed from the 60`s? Or even better a really ambitious team could have tried to dissect the core of Star Trek, studying its idealism, putting the visualization of humanity presented at Star Trek at test, using the cynical perspective of the series as a framework for that study.



                      (At least they tried copying the best, I guess)


But yeah, you will not be seeing be seeing anything of the immense potential I wrote above in the actual episode. Star Trek, its imagenery (which weirdly contains references to various entries in the franchise, even though everything else is related only to OS), the series structure and conflict, are not being used here because Black Mirror wants to study any ideals Star Trek has to offer. They are here only to portray just how much Star Trek is simply a misogynist power fantasy for insecure virgin adult males. So basically using it as a fancy backdrop for misogyny and escapism is this episode brilliant intent. You can pretty much get the portrayal of how indulgent this scenario is going to be, in the its opening minutes. They consist of a boring guy called Capitan just being a fucking genius by destroying an enemy ship, and receiving tons of praise and affection from everyone around him. Yeah, this what Star trek is guys, and just to make sure people got the subtle message, that they were trying to make this reality a power fantasy for virgins, of course they have to include bullshit like nobody in this world actually having sexual organs. Which you end up finding later in the episode, is literally the plot. The whole place where this star trekky universe exists is just actually a virtual reality, built by a genius programmer, for the purpose of literally escaping his work related stress and even going to extremes in the fantasy he created, such as creating artificial replicas of his coworkers and locking those replicas against their will, in this universe where he acts as a God.


So yeah this scenario has not much to do with actual Star Trek to justify the heavy usage of elements borrowed from the series. You could put this is any generic space opera and not much would be lost in terms of themes. Heck making this a commentary on gaming culture would make a lot more sense, what it has to say relates way closely to the current state of that than to OS. But of course, they just present the parallel with gaming lazily at the finale and do nothing with it. There are attempts to justify this better though, the commentary on women`s representation being the best example. Several aspects of women unequal representation on 0S are called out by this episode, they do not have the right the take weapons on the missions which gives the view of them not being capable as fighters. Their uniform clearly is way different than the ones from their male counterpart, only serving to objectify them in the minds of the audience. The fact most women in OS are only added as token romantic interests, but are pretty useless otherwise is also being pointed here. Rightfully so may I add, the way women are presented in the Original Series of Star Trek(OS) really holds some ugly misogynistic misconceptions about women, which are actually being pointed out. To what extent this matters as an issue is arguable, looking back to a fifty-year-old Television series expecting a feminist sensibility and perspective of the 21 century is simply absurd. Those forms of presentation and usage of female characters cannot be taken totally out of the context they were created, being really common in most media of the time. So I do not think they point to an especially chauvinistic worldview (for the time).



                    (Can you guess which one of the shows I am writing above is the better one?)


But no, my issue is not with those valid issues the episode is raising, but with the logical leaps the series is taken in using those to reach a simple conclusion. That Star trek just consists of a safe fiction, a work whose only purpose is escapism and serves to reassure ugly prejudices of the audience. Because that is in no way shape or form the case. Star trek is actively challenging the audience with its concepts and storylines, it was never going for empty comfort in any stage or entry in the franchise, but bringing real questioning of key aspects of the human existence, while never shying away of giving the audience uncomfortable answers. What I am writing about here is the series that has the first example in America television history, of showing a mixed racial kiss between two actors, breaking an old taboo and creating lots of controversy. It is also the same series that in the height of America’s persecution of communism in the country, and fight against the Soviet Union, dared to portray a Russian as a likeable main character, which btw never stopped talking about how great places on Russia were. Really Star Trek always tackled such difficult political, social and racial subjects in a surprisingly mature way, never simply following audience’s misconceptions. So yeah seeing it all portrayed as the ultimate form of safe escapist fiction here, is not only retarded, but insulting to an unbelievable level.


This episode just really does not have a strong understanding of what it is trying to do. The whole thing just feels like it wants to eat its cake and have it too. And is doing so by wanting to pass as this serious critique of the Star Trek universe, but at the same presenting the exact same structure and conflict, completely straight in an almost glorified manner. Take the conflict we have here, a Godlike powered man-child which tries to control the enterprise (no way I am using the knock-off Black Mirror names for the same things) and its crew. This is the most recurring kind of conflict in all of Star Trek, Q the most memorable antagonist in Star Trek is exactly as I described above. It also develops and ends in the same way, by having the crew cooperating and using their wits to defeat the treat, also both end with the promise of more adventures for the respective groups. Even some gimmicks like it all being part of a virtual reality aren’t that new, considering things like the holodeck in Star Trek the next generation. Sure the crews in the Black Mirror version have more internal conflicts than anything in Star Trek, but that is it in terms of innovating the structure.


This resemblance leads to some really badly handled ideas, like Dale (the creators idea of a star trek fan) being supposed to be a commentary on the moralist gary stu captain a la Kirk. That ends up being having absolutely nothing in common with that character type, and being exactly the same as most Star Trek antagonists. It also leads to thematic dissonance, by having the show glorifying the structure and conflict by portraying it as an exciting even heartbreaking at times tale. But at the same time condemning it, as purely escapist nonsense. Between the critiquing and playing straight of Star Trek elements, I ended up with no idea, what the overall message was supposed to be. And yes you can take that as either incompetence of the production team, or this episode actually pulling some too deep for me ideas.



                        (Deep and mature storytelling)


You know if this episode was actually awful and completely devoid of any merit, I would not be even bothering to talk about it. Which is sadly not the case, this episode’s storytelling is actually extremely efficient. I am not kidding, setting easily distinguishable and well defined personalities for 6 main characters is no small feat, but this episode manages to pull that off. Heck it even develops in an understandable way one of said characters. It is kind of a well-executed story overall, it establishes the setting with not much exposition, it manages to increase the tension of the conflict well, while having everything culminating in a well done climax. The whole thing is paced really effectively, all the plans and situations happening through the episode are well explained and make sense in context. If you were to look only at the mechanics of story and characters, it mostly works. It is not hard to understand why people would get invested in these characters, or in the conflict and situations they are being presented. But what is the purpose those elements are all working towards, what is the essence this episode wants to transmit? Just everything I have been laying out above, which is why no matter how good some of its parts may be, the whole is thing just come off as worthless for me.

To summarize, Star Trek is a legendary series, that deserves all its cultural importance and impact. It is a legend that will keep reverberating throughout the years, achieving some of the pinnacles of timeless storytelling. Black mirror is just a fad, and inviting the comparisons, or even daring to mock such a series only helps to delineate its flaws

                    (Since apparentely there are people reading now, could you tell me if you want me to,                                                          continue this series on Black Mirror?)