HBO's "Westworld", starring Anthony Hopkins/produced by J.J. Abrams

[RJDiogenes]

Okay, so there was shooting and explosions. Aside from Bernard, I don't recall any characters being remotely likeable.

British India was an odd choice for a park, given that there are only six. You'd think Victorian England would be a more popular scenario. Or, if the purpose is hunting, something along the lines of an African safari. And did he say something about "Klondike World?"

 

[Skipper]

British India was an odd choice for a park, given that there are only six.

I totally agree. I'm already on the fence about the attractiveness of the Western them park, because, really, unless someone wants to dedicate himself in a killing & rape spree, I don't know why anyone would like to take a vacation in a place without running water or electricity for an obscene amount of money.

And does anyone really think that a kid would be willing to come on holiday to a place without smartphones and the internet?!?

 

[Mudd]

Oh, smart phones and the Internet may be passe in Westworld's era other than for stuffy old folk.

What we know about the outside world is still tantalizingly indirect, and I hope it remains that way - detailed "worldbuilding" in media sf almost always turns the damned thing into something numbingly prosaic (see: Star Trek, Babylon 5). About the most interesting thing said was by Ford in the pilot:

"We've managed to slip evolution's leash now, haven't we? We can cure any disease, keep even the weakest of us alive and one fine day perhaps we shall even resurrect the dead, call forth Lazarus from his cave. Do you know what that means? That means we are done, that this is as good as we're going to get."

Even if one assumes that there's vast poverty out there somewhere beyond the wealthy enclaves, the breadth of a world economy and industrial system that can support a place like the Delos Parks as a recreational option is considerably beyond the world we live in now - in at least a literal sense. Metaphorically, I suppose, it works well enough as a version of the present day.

 

[DigificWriter]

I'm trying to remember if I've already said this, but we know that the series is set in the year 2052.

 

[Mudd]

No.

...a brief easter egg on the now-malfunctioning DelosIncorporated.com seems to assign a specific date to the park breakdown.

By visiting the buggy website and entering “reverie” into the admin box, you’ll be shown snippets of “corrupt footage” from Maeve’s escape with Hector, Armstice and Felix. Currently, a date in the top left corner has been changed to “XX/XX/XXXX” (HBO apparently got wise to the attention), but originally read “6/15/2052.”

You’re probably not alone to observe that said date seems surprisingly nearby, given the revelation that Dolores and Arnold’s original disaster at the park took place 35 years earlier, in 2018. That may, in fact, be why HBO replaced the original dated video in the first place, but Jonathan Nolan also told Entertainment Weekly that the series intends to reveal more details of the outside world as the Hosts themselves discover them:

"We don’t want to create the world’s largest mystery around it because we have equally interesting, or more interesting, character questions to ask. But I think the rule we’ve built from the beginning — whether it’s frustrating for the audience or not; hopefully it’s not — is you really only know as much as the host’s know. Our worldview is limited to theirs. They don’t know where they are yet. We tried teasing that in the finale, but it doesn’t seem fair that the audience would know if they don’t."

 

[Captain Shaw]

Have we seen any of the hosts that are made to look like native Americans kill anyone?
Someone suggested that they could be trying to rescue the humans.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Have we seen any of the hosts that are made to look like native Americans kill anyone?
Someone suggested that they could be trying to rescue the humans.

I don't believe we have. Plus, I was reminded by a review that the Host Dolores killed, as seen as a memory recording in the first episode, was a Ghost Nation tribesman.

 

[Mudd]

I like what the producers alluded to, about the Hosts trying to make free choices when all their experience and memories are of the world as a violent game where aims are accomplished by violence. So, if they're not going to violent that's something they'll have to come to on their own.

 

[DigificWriter]

No.

Something like the 2052 date can't be "walked back" regardless of how hard HBO might try, so, yes, we know the series is set in 2052.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Something like the 2052 date can't be "walked back" regardless of how hard HBO might try, so, yes, we know the series is set in 2052.

How so? Has someone said that year in the show or did the show feature a close-up of a screen with the date (or something else to that effect)?

 

[Mudd]

How so? Has someone said that year in the show or did the show feature a close-up of a screen with the date (or something else to that effect)?

No, they didn't.

It's like a tombstone that reads "James R. KIrk" - except, of course that the tombstone actually appeared in that show. This date was a bit of marketing fluff that tells you no more about what the writers and producers intend than some Paramount PR person writing "Each week on NBC the Enterprise explored distant galaxies" next to an upside down picture of the ship.

And it's a plain fact that we don't know who put the made-up date in the video, who approved it, or why it was removed. Any claim to the contrary is wishful thinking.

So no, we have no idea when the producers intend for the show to take place and won't know until they say so explicitly - and even that could be contradicted within the show.

That's the way this game is really played.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The flashbacks to young William seem quite similar to the modern world. I think the founding of the park is meant to be in the very near future.

 

[Mudd]

Arnold's home.

 

[DigificWriter]

How so? Has someone said that year in the show or did the show feature a close-up of a screen with the date (or something else to that effect)?

The 2052 date is "out in the open" and being cited - and taken - as a factual detail associated with the show. Removing it doesn't change that.

Plus, a date of 2052 is consistent with other information that has been confirmed about the series and/or shown on it, namely the fact that we know the series takes place during the 21st Century and the fact that we've seen a contemporary photograph showing modern-day New York in scenes that were set 30 years before the "present" events of the series.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

The 2052 date is "out in the open" and being cited - and taken - as a factual detail associated with the show. Removing it doesn't change that.

You didn't answer my question. When and where was the year "out in the open" in the show?

 

[DigificWriter]

You didn't answer my question. When and where was the year "out in the open" in the show?

It didn't come from the show; it came from the Delos website and a viral "security video" that was later removed and replaced with a video that didn't show the date.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It didn't come from the show; it came from the Delos website and a viral "security video" that was later removed and replaced with a video that didn't show the date.

So basically it means they changed their minds. ( assuming they had their minds made up in the first place).

 

[The Nth Doctor]

It didn't come from the show; it came from the Delos website and a viral "security video" that was later removed and replaced with a video that didn't show the date.

Thank you for finally answering my question and proving my point. Like with any other show and film, I only go by what actually appears on the show. Anything that appears in extra material is just that: Extra. The writers can change their mind at any point, so until it's actually stated directly on the show, I'll assume the time setting could be at any point. You're more than free to assume the website is and that's your prerogative, but I hope you realize it's okay for the rest of us to assume otherwise for the reasons I mentioned.

 

[DigificWriter]

Anything that appears in extra material is just that: Extra.

Not with this particular series.

Information provided by the Delos Destinations and Delos Corporate websites is just as valid as anything that's shown up on the series itself (the websites are the source of the official names for Shogun World and The Raj, among other things).

 

[Mudd]

Not with this particular series.

Yes, with this series like any other.

Information provided by the Delos Destinations and Delos Corporate websites is just as valid as anything that's shown up on the series itself .

No, it's not. You're entirely mistaken.

The 2052 date is "out in the open" and being cited - and taken - as a factual detail associated with the show. Removing it doesn't change that.

It having appeared in that context also doesn't make it part of the show's narrative or continuity -period, full stop.

Plus, a date of 2052 is consistent with other information that has been confirmed about the series and/or shown on it....

IOW, it's something that makes sense to you and you want to believe it. That's fine. That's a personal theory. It is not a fact.