'Star Trek' With Swearing

First thing I have to say: “Charlie Brooker, you let us down! Where was our 2017 wipe?"

To get why “USS Callister” was so good (and why Black Mirror goes further to the edge than any TV show in recent years) you have to understand who Charlie Brooker is. He’s not a writer, nor is he a comedian. He’s a commentator. He reviews TV programmes. He makes rude and well observed comments about our world. He has a turn of phrase which swings between cringe-worthy violence and the surreal. For example:

“Proper work" usually involves performing a task you hate on behalf of people you'd gleefully club to death with a bull's knee if only it were legal to do so.

His views are very human and very liberal but forget political correctness, which is why I was really looking forward to what he had to say about the events of the past year. But instead, I had to watch his Netflix series Black Mirror.

The basic idea of “USS Callister” goes back to things like The Last Starfighter and (God help us all) Tron, the really old version that we were told was computer generated but was basically just normal film reprocessed. People go into a computer game, which becomes their reality. They have to escape. It’s actually on a list of "stories that science fiction editors don’t want you to submit," along with robots developing sentience, and pacts with the devil. So far so unoriginal.

Except–Brooker isn’t a science fiction writer. He understands the conventions and he’s mined Star Trek for material. There are dozens of nods to fans, including one where the main villain strangles a crewman one-handed (clearly an homage to the work of Lord Vader). Even the camera work is recognizably copied, right down to the lens flare of the new Trek movies. It’s done with affection and accuracy, too.

But you can’t mistake Brooker’s characters. They may spend the whole run of the show wearing '60s space uniforms, but that’s as far as the similarities go. They swear, they have sex lives, and they talk about the pleasures of going to the lavatory. There’s even a crack about—well, “things that they have been adapted NOT to be able to do”—because Star Force was a wholesome, family show. It’s funny. But it’s very, very dark funny.

As is the villain. At the start of the show, Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) comes across as a shy nerd. People don’t like him and he seems a bit creepy but—as any science fiction geek will tell you—that’s how we often seem. People don’t like Sheldon Cooper much either really, lovely though he is. As the show goes on, Brooker shows us again and again how twisted and inadequate Daly really is. And how sickeningly ruthless.

“USS Callister” reminded me strongly of Harlan Ellison’s story: “I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream.” In that, a sadistic computer tortures the last remaining humans but refuses to let them die. And it’s the sheer nastiness of that edge which makes this show really something unique. You can't die here. Ever.

Plus Nannette Cole (Cristin Milioti). She begins as the new girl in Daly’s company, who finds herself copied into his personal reality. She takes control of the situation and is the one who organizes the captive crew in revolt. Even though she’s wearing a '60s mini dress and boots (very Sylvia Anderson) she’s a smart, modern lady, with dirty pictures on her social media account. It works well, because Brooker writes very strong female lead characters. In “Dead Set,” his main female lead faces a zombie holocaust, where the only survivors are housemates in “Big Brother” (but then, she’s played by Ray Winston’s daughter Jamie, so I don’t fancy the zoms chances, frankly...). Cole is no exception. Best of all, she develops into someone capable of taking "big chair decisions."

Look, forget doing remakes of Ghost Busters. Just give Cole her own ship. And maybe a swear box.

Why is this show so good? Maybe better than the current standard of real science fiction shows?

Someone outside the genre is taking a good look at it, and that makes this fresh. Conventions like "no swearing" and "limited disturbing violence" have been thrown out. Instead, what we get is a funny, unsettling, but equally exciting show.

Which I seriously feel deserves a spinoff series. Bring it on. The world is ready for a Space Opera with swearing and lavatories.