As usual, flashbacks to pre-mission training 5 years ago were again used, this time to put across the idea of blind obedience to authority figures, wherein the Milgram Experiment was trotted out. Basically, that infamous experiment proved that many people will knowingly inflict pain on another person if they're instructed to do so by a calm, detached superior. Here, trainee astronauts played a memory game of "Simon" where failure resulted in painful electric shocks -- first of themselves, then of a colleague. This training to be blindly obedient was actually quite worrying when you think about it: historically it partly explains why Nazi's at concentration camps went through with their heinous crimes (they were absolved of ultimate responsibility), and now it's being used so that future astronauts do exactly as they're told by? Wouldn't you rather train people to respect the chain of command but ultimately take responsibility for their own actions, if they're convinced it's for the greater good?
Anyway, Donner (Ron Livingstone) is confused that he can't access Pod 4's contents -- which seems to be the source of their hallucinations -- and Mission Control try to distract everyone from their curiosity by faking a solar flare event that will douse everyone in harmful radioactivity unless they get to a protected part of the ship. Again, flashbacks echoed this technique of false distraction, when a test was interrupted by an apparent fire and the class were evacuated. But in the present, having realized that NASA have tricked them, this only resolves their desire to access Pod 4, which opens and bathes them all in an orangey glow. So, the cat's out of the bag, and I guess we'll see what this mysterious "Beta" force is in episode 9. My guess is some kind of alien entity that needs to be returned to Venus. But I'm still confused that the crew weren't just told this was the mission all along; particularly as Ted (Malik Yoba) appears to have coped with the truth very well.
Overall, this was certainly the best episode Defying Gravity has done, from an admittedly poor bunch. It's also the first written by someone with a decent screenwriting pedigree (Desperate Housewives' Susan Nirah Jaffe), so while she was slightly hamstrung by what's gone before and the soapy format of the show, she did a good job job making it all look interesting and exciting. I'll even let it slide that this episode involved discussion of the Milgram Experiment and Schrödinger's Cat, which are both grossly overused in sci-fi circles. This was also the first time I only checked the time once and was surprised (and slightly disappointed) to see the episode only had four minutes left to run. It usually has another twenty minutes and my heart sinks.
It's still true that I don't really care about any of the characters or their backstories (of which only Donner and Zoe's is even half-memorable), I'm just naturally curious about this whole "Beta" mystery that's been ongoing since the start. If it proves to be of a ridiculous and totally implausible nature, expect a supernova of anger that they've strung me along to be so sorely disappointed. But, for now, I'm looking forward to getting some answers in the next episode.
28 November 2009
BBC2/BBC HD, 10.40pm
written by: Susan Nirah Jaffe directed by: Fred Gerber starring: Ron Livingston (Maddux Donner), Malik Yoba (Ted Shaw), Andrew Airlie (Mike Goss), Paula Garcés (Paula Morales), Florentine Lahme (Nadia Schilling), Karen LeBlanc (Eve Weller-Shaw), Ty Olsson (Rollie Crane), Eyal Podell (Dr. Evram Mintz), Maxim Roy (Claire Dereux), Dylan Taylor (Steve Wassenfelder), Christina Cox (Jen Crane), Laura Harris (Zoe Barnes), Ari Cohen (David Sellner), Barclay Hope (Candy Exec), William C. Vaughan (Arnel Poe), Dante Lee Arias (Roy Shaw), Michael St. John Smith (Board Member), Lara Gilchrist (Sharon), Bruce Dawson (Vapor Trails), Nicole Muñoz (Palestinian Girl) & Bob Paris (Beta Tech)
