Black Mirror

[Russ]

Yeaaaaah. I dunno about that. I couldn't tell what they were really going for. The opening was a superficial parody of "Star Trek," but the ending uses worn-out genre tropes to become a typical chase/thriller. The episode becomes what it criticizes and does it for entertainment value.

I didn't see it as criticizing it so much as just having fun with it (and the aforementioned tropes).

And [

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there was a happy ending! This makes it fan service that also turns up its nose at fan service. (So, wtf, Brooker? What are you trying to get at?)

]

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down... -- Mary Poppins

I'm with Skitch on this one.

I couldn't take it as a jab at gaming, either, because what happens is more or less a dramatic variation on what people did while playing "The Sims," which predates the obsessiveness found in GamerGate and 4chan. I'm not sure what insight Brooker thinks he has, or if he has any at all. (Really, the script boils down to an 80 minute riff on Penny Arcade's "Dickwolves" comic strip from 2013.)

You have gone so over my head with this response, I'm just going to concede this one to you on points.

I was disappointed that the writers studiously avoided the main question---whether simulated people in a simulated world are "real" enough to matter. They take the answer on faith, as obvious, and then write characters who dismiss themselves as artificial. So that point seemed muddled to me too.

Not sure I see your point here as I didn't feel as though the characters were self-dismissing (especially given the [

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sacrifice that Jimmi Simpson's character made

]).

(Also, as a general criticism and in a fit of super-nerdiness I need to point out that if I made a digital copy of someone's DNA to reproduce them on a fucked up Holodeck that wouldn't include their memories and identity.)

Yes but wasn't that intentional for purposes of controlling/torturing them [

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(by essentially using Tommy as a virtual hostage)

]?

(Also, in another sort of fit, stealing the fucking lolipop would have done nothing because the DNA was digitized, which means the potential for millions of copies of that little boy, tucked away on servers all over the world.)

I thought he only uploaded the digital clones locally (ie, they weren't intended to go to the cloud).

But you make some good points. However, seeing as how I loved this episode, It appears that we are destined to agree to disagree.