Well, I suppose actual humans uploading themselves to the internet is better than a demon being scanned from an old book onto the internet, right?
Something about this episode is very dated, like most technology-related stories from the 1990s watched almost 20 years later. Granted, this was written by William Gibson and Tom Maddox, so the sci-fi aspects are certainly more credible than a lot of the other science fiction of the time, so I'm thinking it's probably just our 2013 sensibilities that make an episode like this one seem kind of ridiculous.
To be fair, it's still better than season one's 'Ghost in the Machine'.
But there was also some damn good horror in this. Mulder's virtual reality sequence was pretty horrific, even knowing it wasn't real. It's hard to tell a character that through the TV, you know? "Mulder, calm down, it's not real! There is no spoon!"
Speaking of which, I do find it interesting that this episode pre-dates The Matrix by slightly more than a year, because there were definitely a lot of Matrix-like elements to the story. Like fake Scully's ridiculous fight with the fake sexy nurses. Also, Mulder's seriously fucked up immersion experience. Sexy nurses and sloppy arm amputations. Though I suppose losing his arms would be quite the nightmare scenario. He's definitely into his porn.
Ahem.
There really couldn't have been much in this episode that was cheesier than the targeting effect on the computer monitors. The sentient program had to zoom in that much to target them? And it broadcast this? Really, if it's trying to kill the intruders, why let them in on the plan? Wait, I know! The AI was a Bond villain. It had to explain its evil and overly complex plan before putting all the pieces in motion.
But speaking of overly complex plans that were put into motion, Esther's plan was so convoluted it might just work. My first thought was that she was always intended to be the kill switch herself, but she was just collateral damage in a way, and outsmarted the program in the end. Her sacrifice would presumably ensure that the system destroyed itself, since she was in the trailer that housed its hardware.
Unfortunately for the world, she failed, at least as far as we know from the final scene of the episode. Plenty of episodes have ended this way, though - Mulder and Scully think they've solved the case, but some leftover piece has stuck around somehow and has the potential to completely reconstruct everything they spent the entire episode trying to dismantle. So I don't think it really means much, and it's unlikely we'll see it again or have it be relevant again. This show doesn't do Big Bads, so I'm not expecting it'll suddenly be the main driver of the plot in say, season 8 or something.
The Lone Gunmen's role was amusing here, because clearly they worship Donald, David, and Esther and want to do whatever they can both to save the world and to impress her. And as one might expect, they don't do a particularly good job of it, considering they almost get her killed.
There were aspects of this that reminded me of a lot of other science fiction, obviously - the human uplink to the AI was very Borg-like, and the implication at the end may be that Esther herself succeeded in going fully digital and now lives in cyberspace, and essentially is part of the AI, so maybe a little Tron, too. But there's also the Matrix and some less fortunate parallels, as well. Anyone remember the movie, 'The Net'? Because that kind of tracking is totally plausible.
Though it was pointed out to me recently that the one thing in the episode that might have been more ahead of its time was the ubiquitous availability of wireless internet access. It doesn't make sense that the laptop would be able to get a signal just about anywhere in 1998, but now, Esther would have a 4G phone and set up her own wireless hotspot.
It might even work in rural 'Fairfax County, Virginia', which looks nothing like what was shown in the episode. There's just not that much wide open space. There's plenty of undeveloped space (well, not a lot) but where there's no development, there are trees, not fields.
Also: 'Kill Switch' aired on February 15, 1998, less than six months after Skynet gained self-awareness on August 29, 1997. Coincidence?
Here's an interesting/slightly unbelievable fact about this episode: My mom's ex-boyfriend is in it. He plays Jackson in the cold open.
ReplyDeleteWhen I brought it up that he was on The X-Files, she noted that he died before the opening credits. But he's a dick who left her for another woman so I guess he deserves it.