Scifi TV: Where Science Meets Spirit.

If I had to describe a recurring theme across a number of current science fiction TV shows in three words, it would be: ALONE, TOO ALONE.

Questions and issues facing humanity (and hence, the screenwriter) are at the core of a lot of science fiction television. Sci-fi as a genre is often as fascinated with the human spirit, and the spiritual, as much as science. Emotionally, one recurring thematic thread in recent times is the desire for, or loss of, a sense of community.

On the technical front, the further we reach toward science beyond our present understanding, the more concepts begin to take on an element of mysticism. That’s human nature: our perception can only stretch so far.

I like giving wild concepts the benefit of the doubt. Who can guess the future? And the art of a lot of sci-fi is to meld present day concerns with unexpected possibilities: strange, vivid, often left-of-field ideas.

Perhaps because of technology, and the inherent disconnect that seems to have taken place in society, a lot of recent science fiction television offerings focus on human connectivity. And, you could argue, empathy: the lack, and the need. The pain of isolation is everywhere on TV.

The OA 

The most prominent example would be The OA, about a blind missing person who returns years later—with her sight. The first season aligns us with the lead character’s perspective. The fact she may be lying, or more accurately, lying to herself about certain aspects of her experiences, isn’t surprising; sci-fi has long had a passionate relationship with the unreliable narrator.

Underlying the science (which more informed minds have covered in other blogs) is a celebration of the power of community. The physical captives she left behind, and the psychological captives of suburban life she’s gathered.

Influencing it all is the mystical presence she envisions as a woman, beyond the everyday world.

The Creator, the Other, the Universe, the Unknown Entity… Some form of empowered consciousness—even if it’s just the universe itself—is scattered through a lot of science fiction.

The series Frequency explores the idea of communication between two time periods. By utilizing a father and daughter cop combo, both investigating the same serial killer at different points in history, the audience is reassured by the inference that somehow The Universe is interested in both karma, and closure.

Frequency

The plot plays with The Butterfly Effect, but at heart the story puts forth the idea that via a kind of science seemingly miraculous to our heroes, lives can be saved. What our heroine is really trying to save, is her own community: most notably a lover and mother. Without them she feels… alone.

Stranger Things

By being set in a small, insular community, from episode one Stranger Things highlights the idea of The Other versus those who belong. Most of the people in the town, courtesy of their everyday lives, already feel like The Other—long before another being shows up to take that niche. The series includes futuristic science so far ahead it communicates to the characters as mystical, or supernatural.

Killjoys

Killjoys is set in a space-faring future and follows three bounty hunters whose primary goal is survival. They form their own community (in a sense) and try to keep the past from interfering with the future. It’s a cutthroat dystopian world (well, worlds) with little celebration of human connection; trust is sparse, so the community they’ve created is of growing importance to them.

Sense8 focuses less on the science aspect of science fiction, and more on the human connection present in the story. Individuals around the globe experience each other’s lives through an unexpected mental connection, the surreality of which quickly builds bonds.

Sense8

A shadowy group hunt the connected, but the real focus is on the sense of community the linked “sensates” create despite being from very different cultures (and separated physically at the outset of the show). In some sense, each character gives the impression of being alone, or feeling isolated because of their perspective, experiences, or society’s perception of them.

Westworld showcases a faux community in the Wild West using androids for entertainment. One of the reasons for creating pseudo-people is to deny them basic rights, thereby providing an outlet for darker human impulses, without repercussion.

Westworld

The question is, of course, who are the androids, who are the people and which of these is showing the most “humanity”? A human creator provides the mystical, elusive character/persona here. The role of memory is a dominant theme too: if you don't remember an experience, or the people you're told/programmed to love, or hate, does that make you less human?

Humans

The show Humans also focuses on beings of artificial intelligence, this time designed as a stopgap for problematic areas of society. A dominant plot issue is that when human characters fill a duel role, i.e. work and home, replacing them with an android in one of these environments threatens their perceived place in a particular community. AI’s in this future are used, not integrated: the ultimate outsiders.

The Expanse

The Expanse is incredibly technically accurate, from a scientific perspective. Alongside politics and intrigues, the rejection, adoption and valuing of communities, some separated by space, is paramount to the plot. A ragged band of outsiders—survivors of a conspiracy that killed their crew—are forced to become a community, and peel back the layers of duplicity to figure out WTH is really going on.

Not a series, but a movie made for Netflix, iBoy is an interesting exploration of early (accidental) transhumanism. A teen is beaten and a part of his mobile embeds in his head. After the sexual assault of a friend, he takes on a local gang with his new “powers” i.e. the ability to interact with wireless technology via his mind.

It could be argued the lead’s most extreme state of information connectivity created a self-deception of empowerment and personal connectivity; when in reality, the character was at his saddest, and most isolated.

iBoy

The people in the flats he calls home in are the focal point; they’re his community, the ones he wants most to both protect, and punish. Yet when his actions lean more to revenge than empathy, a temporary disconnect from loved ones occurs. He feels—despite the flow of info available to his mind—alone.

 Sci-fi flavored entertainment can reflect the current cultural clime, and it’s clear that as we move forward the quality of human connection remains a contentious and worrying issue. 

Whether flying through space, traveling through time, or deciding who qualifies as human, feeling emotionally isolated and unable to connect with, or rely on a sense of community, is a persistent concern.