Ooooh, I'm impressed with the new Steven Spielberg/Halle Berry sci-fi series Extant. It premiered on M-Net last night (23 July) at 21h30 and captured my imagination from the first moment.
In case you missed it ... the story centres round astronaut Molly Woods who returns home after spending 13 months in space and discovers she's pregnant. She was solo on her mission so the news is mind-bending to her of course, particularly because she experienced a "close encounter" while in space. She sees someone she loved in her past who's dead, pleading with her for help.
This is Molly's opening introduction to the show:
Molly: I went to space on a 13-month solo mission. I didn't come home alone. My husband created a life-like android called 'Humanich'. His name is Ethan: he's the prototype. This is a story about Earth, family. A story about survival.
Very interesting when you consider the name of the show. The meaning of Extant (from Wiktionary):
- Still in existence. [quotations ?]
- Currently existing; not having disappeared.
- Still alive; not extinct.
I love that you can apply this interpretation to various aspects of the story which make it multi-layered and trippy - exactly as sci-fi should be.
Halle Berry's super - really suits being at the centre of a cosmic adventure, espesh in that space suit of hers. It got me wondering ... when will we actually start wearing space suits? It would be a very enjoyable fashion - you'd always feel as if the future is now.
The show gives a strong sense of this - the world it's created isn't overly different from ours. Their technology's much more advanced than ours but considering how quickly technology moves, the action could be happening in a few years from now.
The technology themes are cool - questioning the line between technology and humanity - what is Ethan? Is he simply a techno Chucky? Is it possible that a robot could feel something if it's loved?
I believe it is. For instance, two robots I'm crazy about are my dishwasher and car. I'll often give them kiss (no jokes!) and when I do I often feel that the sheer force of my feeling for them gets ricocheted back at me and that they're crazy for me too. Ha!
This is my favourite part of the show - that it gives you so much to think about.