Review Welcome to Paradox (1998) - episode 8 "The Extra"

Was this episode the star of the series? Or just an extra who looked at the camera? Grade it now.

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Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5

Aired Sep 21, 1998 on Syfy

Daniel Gray has all the wealth a man could want, enough to have himself cloned multiple times for spare parts. Until that wasn't enough and he wanted more, much more.


CAST

Rodney Rowland ... Daniel Grey / C7 (as Rod Rowland)
Justine Priestley ... Sarah Dale
Peter Williams ... Dr. Ben Polaris
Garry Davey ... Dr. Caver
Michael Philip ... The Host
Ian Marsh ... Chief Attendant
Dean Barrett ... First Reporter
Eileen Pedde ... Second Reporter
Tanya Reid ... Third Reporter
Alison Matthews ... Agent
Gerald Wong ... Bodyguard
Mark Holden ... Clerk
Stacee Copeland ... Guest
Erick Kaffka ... Beta Cop


WRITTEN BY


William Harrison
 

Brimfin

Member: Rank 3
This one just didn’t work for me at all.

It started with millionaire Daniel Grey who had a stable of clones that he raises strictly for their future use as organ donors. I can see the sad logic in that; it makes a ghoulish sense. But then this bozo practically advertises it, bragging about it to the entourage that is following him – don’t know if that was his entourage or that of Sarah Dale, a big movie star (or whatever she was, don’t know if they really ever said) or both. He shows off his collection and Sarah decides she wants to have sex with his 24 year old clone. Why have him when you can have the original, he asks. Oh, you’re too corrupt, she replies. Well, have at it then, he tells her.

Of course, the clone, who’s supposedly kept semi-brain dead and has never had sex before, is great at it. Daniel knows because he and the entourage watch her on TV. Boy, this week’s batch of Betaville residents are just beyond the pale. When she says she felt like she was being watched, he tells her sure she was, just for her protection. She shrugs it off; I’m surprised she didn’t ask if she looked good doing it.

For some reason, Daniel really wants this girl. She’s not that great-looking, even seems a little too thin. I give the actress credit for giving her a little extra oomph in the performance, but it’s hard to believe this guy would want to have her that bad – especially if she’s the sort who would hop into bed with a supposedly semi-brain dead clone.

Anyway, the clone isn’t really brain dead; the doctor who takes care of him and the others says he’s surprisingly intelligent. Later it turns out he can actually talk, although he hasn’t bothered or tried in 24 years. And of course, like the sex, he’s instantly great at it. It’s hard to take the doctor seriously by the way, as he never once makes a point that this is slavery – keeping a person down so you can use his body parts down the line and then let him die. At one point Sarah even asks Daniel if she can “buy” his “slave”. There’s no great moral debate in this one.

Anyway, Daniel decides he’s going to have a brain transplant into the clone so he can be next in line to marry Sarah (who’s already had a few husbands, we hear). Again, he just announces this while she’s there with her entourage. You’d think he’d at least float the idea to her in private first, but I guess he thinks it’s a grand gesture sure to win the heart of a woman who might go to bed with him if he drops a few years. He decides to just switch brains with the clone and let him figure out how to handle his new older body. Meanwhile, Sara goes to see the surgeon who will perform the surgery and drops her robe to ask him for a favor. I’m not sure what the favor was, and it was never made clear. Poor Daniel. If he wanted to sleep with Sarah, apparently all he had to do was become a brain surgeon.

The surgery is performed. The new younger Daniel comes out and acts nicer, even mentioning he’ll get better food for his fellow clones. Sara suggests a trip to some romantic city (I forgot which) but Daniel has a better plan for her: take a long walk – off a short pier. Turns out the whole operation was a fraud apparently, but now they think the young Daniel is the original Daniel (though now he’s going by Carl, or Carlo if he takes Sarah’s advice). Meanwhile, the old, still older, Daniel is being kept prisoner seemingly scared out of his mind and being fed pudding. I guess that explains why two men who supposedly both had brain surgery don't have so much as a band-aid on their head, let alone a shaved head since it was brain surgery.

So what happened? Did they just not do the surgery? If so, why is Daniel suddenly a scared little wimp? Or did they move a little of Daniel’s brain into Carl? Of so, then why no sign of a surgery? What a mess. They couldn’t even get the punchline right on this story.

What was it Daniel said to the doctor before the operation, “Impress me”? Well, he didn’t and they didn’t. I’ll give this 3 black dresses that were supposed to look sexy but really didn’t.
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
Well, that worked for me. A lot!

(First, I'm sorry I've delayed my review for so long, but I started a new job and I'm overwhelmed. I just have extra time on the weekends, so I had to wait until Saturday so I could rewatch the episode and give my impressions.)

This is one of the good ones, one of the episodes I remember and think represents some of the best features of this show. We are introduced to Daniel Grey (and in fact I think this episode should've been called "Daniel Grey's Anatomy") who is, you know all rich and powerful. The episode also coveys several aspects of morality in Betaville, showing how corrupt and decadent this society is. This brings to mind stories about the last years of the Roman Empire. Something tells me Betaville is about to have some major political revolution of some sort.

Let's see what happens in this society.

- There's an elite (but then there's always an elite no matter the regime) and they enjoy immense wealth and power. But then, according to what we've seen so far, nobody is really poor in Betaville, and this is what makes elitism even more insidious. If ordinary people have an OK life, they are more likely to support the system. But of course the very rich get even richer.
- Clones are slaves, and people don't even question that anymore. This tells us this modern version of slavery is so ingrained in society's psique that most people will take it for granted. It's just part of the natural order.
- Masters have a life and death power over their property the clones.
- The elite gets entertainment where it can find, even at the cost of another person's humanity. Even Sarah, who is part of the elite, has to play according to the rules and do what she's supposed to do. Even if that involves being part of the spectacle.
- The only "journalists" who get to interview the powerful are gossip tabloid shills who make shallow questions. The reporters seemed to find silly comments about the Daniel + Sarah love thing to be something useful to be published. Well, if the public wants that...

Another interesting aspect was the medical one. The entire idea of the operation was that the recipient's body would maintain its basic motor functions intact. Indeed, it would make no sense to transplant an entire brain, just the higher functions. We'll get back to that.

Things I hadn't noticed back in 1998

- It turns out we never leard why Daniel Grey is rich and powerful. Profession: billionaire.
- This is the premise of the movie "The Island," with clones being used as sources of spare parts for the rich. The movie is very good and I recommend it. It's a smart premise and it worked in this episode very well. Anyway, the reason I didn't notice that in 1998 is because "The Island" is from 2005...
- Daniel Grey = Dorian Grey. Of course, of course. But instead of a portrait, this D. Grey has clones. Both Greys want to live forever and will make a pact with the devil, so to speak, to achieve their goal.
- It turns out Jason Priestly has a hot sister. I didn't know that.
- When I originally watched this episode, I imagined they would transplant parts of Daniel's brain into the clone's head. I mean, physically cutting his brain. yet, no incisions were made; it's all digital, and the brains are merely scanned, and then the recipient brain is "printed" with the desired pattern. This, of course opens a pandora's box for me. The fact that you can reproduce a pattern in another brain means the brain in the receiving end of the operation will behave like you, but it doesn't necessarily mean you'll wake up in that body. For all we know, we could end with two arrogant and smug Daniel Greys.
- The incidental music worked very, very well in this episode. It gave the eerie feeling you get from this futuristic and decadent society.
- Daniel's younger clones don't look like him at all. They could have done a better casting job.
- The actor was young, but ten years older than the clone's age, and probably ten years younger (perhaps younger) than the "old" Daniel. That was a smart choice, though the "old" guy still seemed too youthful to make the story believable. But he was quite pudgy (probably because of too much pudding.)

Grade

One of the best episodes in the show. This one gets 9 shades of Daniel Grey.

Replying to previously made observations:

Sarah Dale, a big movie star (or whatever she was, don’t know if they really ever said)
They did mention that. She calls herself a courtesan. He calls her "an actress" because he wants to be kind and wants to get into her pants.

For some reason, Daniel really wants this girl. She’s not that great-looking, even seems a little too thin.
Personally I find her very pretty, though a nasty person. But just because YOU didn't fall for her, it doesn't mean nobody would. Men have obsessed with much uglier women.

but it’s hard to believe this guy would want to have her that bad
Stranger things have happened. The heart wants what the heart wants, and it's expected taht someone who can have anything would obsess with something he cannot have for the first time.

You’d think he’d at least float the idea to her in private first,
It was a power play. it was a way of embarrassing and pressuring her. Apparently her standing (in social media?) is something important to her, so she's vulnerable to the public opinion, and he wants to use that.

Turns out the whole operation was a fraud apparently, (...) I guess that explains why two men who supposedly both had brain surgery don't have so much as a band-aid on their head, let alone a shaved head since it was brain surgery.
The episode shows no incisions being made. The brains are merely scanned and brain patterns are changed accordingly, as they showed it with those poorly made 1990s graphics. Since no cutting is made, no healing is necessary. It's an entirely different concept of surgery. But then this is a science fiction show.

So what happened? Did they just not do the surgery? If so, why is Daniel suddenly a scared little wimp? Or did they move a little of Daniel’s brain into Carl? Of so, then why no sign of a surgery? What a mess. They couldn’t even get the punchline right on this story.
OK< so you didn't understand it, but that doesn't mean the story was not well written. As stated earlier, they would "transplant" only Daniel's knowledge and personality into the clone's brain, but the motor functions would remain that of the clone's. Apparently knowledge and personality are two distinct things, located in distinct parts of the brain. But in the end they just copied Daniel's knowledge, not personality. So, "Carl" still cared about the children, and old Daniel still liked pudding. But now Carl can lay the piano and remember Venice.

At one point Sarah even asks Daniel if she can “buy” his “slave”. There’s no great moral debate in this one.
Which just shows how moral can change from society to society. The fact they don']t debate something they see as obvious and part of the natural order of things is very telling. You seem to be expecting OUR notion of morality in Betaville, which would be odd.

Sara suggests a trip to some romantic city (I forgot which) but Daniel has a better plan for her: take a long walk – off a short pier.
LOL! It was Venice.

Final pun of the week

The host ends his intro by saying, "But there's a hefty price to be paid... in more than just dollars." Of course there is. And it's paid in betacoins! Ha! See what I did there? Bitcoins, betacoins... Funny, isn't it?
 

Cloister56

Member: Rank 3
The host ends his intro by saying, "But there's a hefty price to be paid... in more than just dollars." Of course there is. And it's paid in betacoins! Ha! See what I did there? Bitcoins, betacoins... Funny, isn't it?
Heh is it Bee-ta or Bay-ta coins though?

The morals in Betaville seem to be a little all over the place. Last week it was suggested that the mind fence would be scrapped because "we are humans too" this implies that human well being is still a concern. In this weeks episode you are allowed to clone yourself and keep those clones essentially as pets and slaves. The two don't really gel for me, I suppose it is because as Mad-Pac says our protagonist is:

It turns out we never leard why Daniel Grey is rich and powerful. Profession: billionaire.
and the elite may have certain latitudes the poor do not but still slavery seems a little far fetched given what we have seen so far.
Again perhaps they have taken the view that like androids, clones are not people and thus are not afforded the same rights. Perhaps even because they are Daniel's own clones that exploits some kind of loop hole. I guess as they offer endless new organs the law makers might just excuse this for their own benefit too.

This is the premise of the movie "The Island," with clones being used as sources of spare parts for the rich. The movie is very good and I recommend it. It's a smart premise and it worked in this episode very well. Anyway, the reason I didn't notice that in 1998 is because "The Island" is from 2005...
Yeah the same concept is used in the Arnie movie 8th Day. There is a bit near the beginning where the star football player gets crippled, so they just pull the plug on him and replace him. The recent TV series (an prior to it book) Altered Carbon has a similar thread about clones. In both of these your memory gets transferred with you.
The question is who is really the real you? And this episode touches on that too.

It is something that has sparked my imagination since watching the Fly 2 (Fly Harder). In that it is made clear that a copy of you is made and replicated in pod 2, then the original is destroyed in pod 1. So you could watch yourself walk out of pod 2 exclaiming "It worked, I've been teleported" just before you are destroyed. That to me isn't teleportation it is copying or cloning.

In this episode Daniel believes they are going to transfer his consciousness into the clone and thus he will be young again. I thought what would happen was this would be done but then Daniel would watch helpless as his copied consciousness continued on leaving him behind. It became more complicated with the double dealing going on. It isn't made completely clear what has happened.
From what I can tell C7's personality was copied over and Daniel's back the other way, each got the others bodies and memories and abilities. So you get a talented but with a nicer personality Daniel and a C7 who seems reduced to almost the level of an animal.

Again this makes me think back to the Fly 2 (Fly another Day) at the end...

SPOILERS!!!!

The son of Jeff Goldblum is almost completely Fly. He climbs into the pod with the ceo and transports, he is cured and back to being human, the ceo is left as a mutated cripple. Earlier in the movie as similar fate befell son of Goldblum's dog which he was told was then killed humanely but was in fact kept alive for study at the bottom of a big pit. The movie ends with the mutated ceo crawling out into the pit to eat from a dog bowl.

This always sat badly with me, it seemed to be presented as a just punishment but that was a human being, no one deserves that fate. Similarly I think it is extremely cruel to reduce Daniel to such a level even despite his actions. I guess in this at least it is shown the doctor is trying to care for him.

Finally a similar concept is used in the Doctor Who episode "Mindwarp" where a dying alien transfers his consciousness into one of the Doctor's companions and Brian Blessed has to sort it out. (Bizarre that in the Catweazle forum the episode directly preceding Mindward, "The Mysterious Planet" has just been referenced, it's a small Doctor Who world)

Anyway I got a bit of track this week. Although the concepts are something I find fascinating and the twist with the double dealing did keep the suspense of what would end up happening to Daniel, I don't think it was a top notch episode. I think maybe I have seen the concept done better elsewhere. But having said that it was enjoyable.

7 more mind swap references I am dying to make, out of 10
 
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