It probably hit a little too close to home for some people. Guys like Daly are disturbingly common in sci-fi fandoms, especially the Trek fandom. Men who feel they are owed respect, praise and women. When they don't immediately get it, they grow bitter and angry, causing them to lash out in any area where they have even a small amount of power. It also ties into the idea that fans own a franchise or feel it's superior to reality in some way. Becoming obsessed with it to the point where it is interfering with their lives. Daly's obsession with both Nanette and his game is shown as impacting his job. One of the employees mentions work on the update, telling him that they can go ahead and release it or add to it and release it on Christmas Eve. Later the CEO yells at him and it actually becomes the way his victims escape.
Fuck, I watched Jimmi Simpson through ten episodes of Westworld six months ago and couldn't place the face as I watched Callister.
I just saw it. That episode was critical of Star Trek fanboys who cannot relate to real life. Intelligent men who display anti social characteristics towards people especially women. Nice to see "Matt Damon" take on a negative role. But the ending was gold. The clone avatars getting to go on an adventure in that virtual universe. But i found the scene regarding Tommy disturbing. Murdering even clone avatars of children was very disturbing for me. I am glad evil " Matt Damon" got his just reward at the end. He held clones of people as hostages for his own demented pleasure.
I saw it as a sociopathic dysfunctional guy who just happens to obsess over Star Trek being a sociopathic dysfunctional guy. Not an attack on Star Trek fans.
The writers have said that the incarnation of the fictional "Space Fleet" TV series that they portray probably isn't what the show would "really' have been like. It's the show as seen through the eyes of a really troubled and asocial personality. I like that.
Skepticism is a fine thing, but these days so is the willingness to do an online search for oneself. Charlie Brooker's talked a lot about this episode:
It could be done as a spin-off about gaming, I suppose. Or a riff on Galaxy Quest - it would be odd at this point for them to back up and pretend that "Space Fleet" has its own independent reality, when they've created it so specifically as a piece of popular culture fiction-within-fiction. Or maybe they could just spin off a kind of twisted space opera series loosely based on it while dropping all the faux-Star Trek branding. Call it The Callister and get the South Park guys to produce and star.
It should be a series about the sentient programs having adventures in the cloud. Some episodes could be straight up adventure stories in the cloud, others could be them interacting with the real world, it is an online game after all. The office can be revisited occasionally but the copies are the more interesting characters, their real world counterparts are kinda blah, who wants a complete series about their mundane lifes? They obviously have to bring Walton back, he didn't die after all, I was surprised he didn't show up at the end with Shania and Valdack.
You know, the more that you use dramatic metaphors and symbols as representations of what computers and information technology do the less that any of it resembles the reality of such things - this episode already plays fast and loose with that (fairly, since that's not their interest in telling the story). So I don't think that's a particularly promising direction for them to go.
I thought it was very good. I love BM in general,and this was one of the better episodes thus far. I don't think anyone should be so insecure as to view this as an attack on fans or on the franchise. It's clearly not.
Obviously the main guy was meant to be Shatner, but which one was Spock? The blue gal or the one who looked like McCoy? Seriously it was quite good and not something that Black Mirror hasn't tried before but this time with the Star Trek mythos! I wonder if Bill shatner, if he could have at the time, done this to the actors under his command on the show? Well George Takei probably would say yes but I think he was more of a do the job and take the cash type a guy myself! I mean why trap the essences of people you don't know? JB
From what I understand, the "one who looked like McCoy" was the first officer. Blu gal was the tactical officer and the new arrived victim was the science officer.
Loved it, especially the Charlie-X riff. Aside from San Junipero this is my favourite episode of Black Mirror because it isn't all nihilistic and dark thank fuck! The show's at its best when it contains at least a smidgen of hope!