Review Welcome to Paradox (1998) - episode 1 "The Girl Who Was Plugged In"

Did you feel plugged into this episode until the end or did you run like a girl? (Sexist alert!)

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Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
Aired Sep 14, 1998 on Syfy

P. Burke, A suicidal young woman who has been living homeless, gets a second chance at life when her mind is chosen to control an artificially grown body.


CAST

Nicholle Tom ... Delphi B.
Megan Leitch ... P. Burke
Peter Stebbings ... Paul
Brennan Elliott
Hrothgar Mathews ... Joe
Gerard Plunkett ... Carbondale
Michael Philip ... The Host
Samantha Ferris ... Woman Executive
John Tench ... Director
Adam J. Harrington ... Davey (as Adam Harrington)
Tobias Raineri ... Breath
Gillian Yates ... Valhala
Harmoni Everett ... Crease
Ingrid Tesch ... Psychomed Nurse
Erick Kaffka ... Beta Cop (uncredited)


WRITING CREDITS

James Tiptree Jr. ...(short story)


DIRECTED BY

Jorge Montesi
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
Wow, what a mixed bag! Not quite as I remembered it. I have to admit I only have vague recollections of this show, and that I was impressed back in 1998. Not so much because the stories were great, but because it was a bold show whose writers dared to innovate and take risks with unusual story themes. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. I'd say, in this particular case, it mostly didn't, but the fact this show was so open to experimentation was commendable.

In this story we can see the writers got some things right as far as the complexities of social media go, and other things quite off the mark. The episode definitely deserves a more detailed analysis I'll give tomorrow when I'm more rested.

Oh, and it seems we just found out another source James Cameron ripped off when creating his "Avatar" movie theme.
 

TheSowIsMine

What an excellent day for an exorcism
VIP
Well, this was very 90's.
The idea was ok, but the execution wasn't that good. The editing was off and it all seemed a bit rushed.
 

Brimfin

Member: Rank 3
The opening of the show was reminiscent of an old HBO drama in the 80’s called THE HITCHHIKER. (It’s listed as DEADLY NIGHTMARES in IMDB, even though it was never called that and actually featured a guy seen hitch-hiking.) The narrator figure, the hitch-hiker, would appear at the beginning of the show and do a short narration, and then would vanish until the end where he gives a closing comment. Michael Phillip has the same sort of duties here. One problem is that his opening monologue apparently also gives away plot points before the story even starts. That’s not okay in my book; I’ll have to kind of ignore the details in future episodes, although he didn’t do anything to really spoil this episode.

The story starts in a dystopian future. I hope not all the episodes are in the same general framework. As an anthology, I hope the places and premises are all different. Maybe they all have future technology as a common thread, but I can deal with that. This story has a strange premise. Advertising has been outlawed in the future. The excuse is that all the billboards and such cluttered up the landscape so they were prohibited. Additionally, there is talk of fairness – that how can one place really become known through advertising when everybody is advertising all at once? So what do they do here? They have a group of elite characters who go from glamour spot to glamour spot wearing designer clothing and highlighting certain products that then everybody rushes out to buy. But who decides what places and clothing gets highlighted? Why, some members of the elite corps, of course. One of their members even mentions that the whole system is built on nothing and all they are really doing is trying to keep it from collapsing on them. I’ll take a bunch of commercials over that kind of nonsense any day. That’s the fight we’re having right now in my country. People like me voted for Trump because the other party’s candidates were members of the elite who wanted to tell us what to do with our lives because they think we know better than us. Even now, they’re trying to tell us we chose wrongly and are doing everything they can to sabotage the current President. So far, thankfully, it isn’t working. But I digress.

The elite corps in this story is looking for a new character, but wants one with real emotion that the audience can relate to. They find a poor, sickly girl named P. Burke who longs to be with the elite club as so many do. They see her emotions and want to harness them. After she tries suicide, they rescue her and promise to help make her dreams come true. They hook her into a fancy device which allows her to control some kind of artificial being whom they’ve dubbed “Delphi B.” She looks similar but is like a glamorized version of Burke. (They are played by two different actresses as well.) It’s not clear exactly what Delphi is. She looks perfectly human and seems to be able to react in human fashion to things like sex. She emerges from a pool in mummy/gauze type wrappings which are peeled away. But is she a clone or some sort or a fancy android? It’s never made clear that I could tell.

By being plugged into the sensory chair, Burke is able to control the movements and speech of Delphi. When she’s plugged in, she can experience what Delphi is doing in a virtual reality type way. They take her out of the chair at night so that she can sleep; otherwise, she would just wear herself down to nothing. But Burke becomes addicted to being Delphi and eventually doesn’t want to sleep, eat or do anything else except be Delphi. To complicate matters more, she is an honest person. When she is made to wear a dress that gives her a rash, or take pills that make her sick afterword, she refuses to endorse such products because she doesn’t want other people to become sick or get rashes. The elites try to punish this behavior by giving her shocks from a pain sensor, versus rewards from a pleasure sensor that she gets if she behaves.

Another ingredient in the mix is a protester. I don’t remember his name; I’m going to guess it was Paul. He is the son of some bigwig who likes to get himself arrested so he can protest the current dismal state the world is in. The elite give him his own broadcast hoping people will quickly tire of him and forget he exists. But he surprises them with stunts like short circuiting people’s experience while wearing virtual reality glasses. (The scene was reminiscent of the youth crowd in CAPRICA who loved to wear the VR glasses and do wild and crazy things they normally could not do.)

Paul gets involved with Delphi and when they start zapping her pain sensors to punish her, he takes her to the lab to get them to remove the sensors. They try to explain to him that they can’t just remove the sensors. It is then that Burke emerges from her chair desperately reaching out to try to become the woman she has come to idolize. She collapses and dies but comes back to life inside Delphi. But it’s not a happy ending. Apparently Delphi isn’t a real entity and she can’t survive inside her. It’s like wanting to be an avatar in your favorite video game. If you became that avatar, you wouldn’t have any real existence. An avatar isn’t a human being. And so, Delphi quickly joins Burke in death. Be careful what you wish for; you might just get it.

This is my interpretation of what I saw. Others may see it differently. At the end, I thought I saw Burke moving a little while collapsed on the floor, but I think that was an unintentional error. It’s a strange, strange world that they create here.

Though Nicolle Tom has the starring role as Delphi, it is Megan Leitch who delivers the real powerhouse performance of the show. In the final scene where she slowly stumbles toward Delphi desperately wanting to become her, you can read the desire and longing on her face. By comparison, Delphi herself never seems anywhere as real as Burke is although I think that’s the whole point. One scene in which she tells another person she has to leave came off as phony, and I was so relieved to hear a director yell “cut.” The scene had been real enough to be a person doing movie acting (which she was doing), but not real enough to look genuine. That’s why it’s hard to play a bad actor (or actress). It’s easy enough to look bad when you’re doing an acting scene, but then you have to look genuine when you’re pretending to be the actor/actress when they’re not acting.

I would give the episode a 6, but because of Megan Leitch’s performance in her final scene I’m upping it to 7 fancy water-based resort hot spots that some elitists determined was worth using Delphi B to advertise.

By the way, I see this was listed as episode 5 on IMDB. Was there a particular reason we did this one first? Was it the first one filmed, maybe? Since it's an anthology, it's no big deal. I was just curious.
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
Here's my review, point by point.

The episode takes place in Betaville:

This may feel a little unusual now, as stories usually tend to be more grounded, taking place in real cities, but back in the day it was common to set stories in a fictional country or city. This avoids some problems such as, "How could this happen in the United States one day?" and "But that's against the law" or even "What year is this happening in?"

Betaville is a place of its own, and the name is clearly inspired in the French movie "Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution" in which a futuristic city/state named Alphaville is almost an oppressive character itself.

It's funny how the writers had no idea that in 2018 the term "beta," or "beta male" would be the inspiration for so many memes and jokes with totally unintended meanings. And it's ironic that so many men in this episode with all their heavy makeup and affected mannerisms would fit the description of "betas" (and I bet soy must be a very popular food in Betaville).

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. You open this door with the key of imagination...

All right. Clearly a Twilight Zone wannabe, but The Outer Limits is a strong influence too considering the show's exclusive focus on technology. But now in 2018, we have an unexpected bonus, because actually a direct comparison with Black Mirror has become much more relevant. How did writers predict things to come before the age of smart phones, a highly developed Internet or social media?

Advertising has been outlawed:

Simply put, this is ridiculous. Why would a seemingly capitalist society outlaw advertising? That was a gimmick the author used just to justify his plot premise. That would be forcing things, but perhaps we could guess that advertising had become so aggressive and intrusive that a more moralist congress would've decided to ban and outlaw advertising completely.

However, what would really make sense would be traditional advertising being banned not by the law of legislators, but the law of the market. We already know that traditional advertising and traditional media as a whole don't have the same influence they used to have, and alternative sources of advertising are proving to be more effective.

Well, at least the show seems to predict the rise of media influencers like YouTubers and Instagram models who do a lot of advertising. But the premise that influencers alone would suffice to advertise goods is limited; many customers want to understand rationally the advantages of a certain product, and not use it just because PewDiePie uses it.

Did I mention the word "author"?

The short story was written by James Tiptree Jr in the 1940s so this explain why so much of the concept sounds dated. I had already heard of this author before and have heard good things about him.

Fashion!

The show presents lots of "futuristic" fashion we're not likely to ever see in real life. But it does seem consistent and weird enough to be from another time and place.

Diversity and inclusion!

The show was made at a time the media was not yet obsessed with skin color + sexual orientation diversity. In the story, the two main character are White (blonde, in fact) and straight. Now if you take shows like Black Mirror or Electric Dreams in consideration, we're much more likely to meet characters like a small but strong and tough Black woman or an outspoken Lesbian Latina. But hey, I was really surprised to find out James, the author, was actually a woman. Now, that makes a lot of sense, come to think of it.

The cast:

I'm not so sure what they found so special about the "P. Burke" character, but it would make sense if they chose someone with no hopes and no connections for their little marketing experiment. Honestly, she's not bad looking at all, so it doesn't become clear why one blonde is such a mess and the other is "so perfect." OK, Delphi is played by a younger actress and a very pretty one, but I would'be preferred in Burke were older and uglier.

Photography and direction:

The scene in which Burke lies alone in a bed in a big room with sheets for walls and Brennan Elliot's character approaches has a very weird and effective feel that drives the concept of the how quite well. By the way, you may recognize Elliot as Graham, the TV host of Everlasting, the fictitious TV show in the real TV show UnReal.

Strange locations:

This show picks some strange locations as sets. In this case, the GTX Neuro Lab looks like a kind of power or industrial plant in the middle of a quarry.

Faust meets backwards Pinocchio

Like Faust, the protagonist of the classic tale, Burke makes a deal with the devil and pays for it with her life. And unlike Pinocchio, Burke is a real girl who wants to become an artificially made doll.

Plagiarism?

Did James Cameron copy the concept for his Avatar movie? I know he supposedly had the idea over ten years before the movie is made, but the short story is even older than that.

An uncomfortable position

Here's something I don't get. Burke seems to be standing propped against a vertical board and pretty conscious while she moves the doll with her mind, but later she seems unconscious. That seems pretty uncomfortable and if she can see her surroundings, she would not be abler to "get lost" in her character. And staying immobile for hours would be agonizing. After the first eight-hour session as Delphi she would want to run away for fresh air and not come back ever again. I think that issue is covered much more realistic in Surrogates, which I highly recommend.

Corporations are evil:

Sci-fi Canadian sows love this theme. Shows like Incorporated and Continuum have, well, continued this tradition.

Enter the Beetle

Ah, the New Beetle. What a sensation it was back in 98. How futuristic that car looked! It was beyond the show's budget to build a new futuristic car from scratch, or even adapt an existing vehicle as they cleverly did in UFO, so the next best thing was product placement! Which is very ironic in a story in which advertising has been outlawed, but I guess even in Betaville product placement was still a thing.

Tunnel system:

We also get to know Betaville's unusual solution for traffic: underground tunnels. Basically cars travel in pneumatic tubes! All nice and dandy in theory, but in practice imagine how hellish a traffic jam would be inside one of those claustrophobic tunnels.

Backwards Pinoccio?

In the end, Burke gets to live her dream: she becomes Delphi... and dies. OK, I'm glad she did die, because if she had lived and she had reached a happy ending that would have felt forced and contrived. And I can't believe James Cameron stole even that part and used it in the demise of Sigourney Weaver's character.

Grade:

I'll withhold my grade for the first 4 or 5 episodes so I can properly grade each in a better understood context. But I'd say this was an average-to-low episode. The show can do better.

This episode gets 7 itchy dresses no honorable celebrities would dare use as product placement.
 
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Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
By the way, I see this was listed as episode 5 on IMDB. Was there a particular reason we did this one first? Was it the first one filmed, maybe? Since it's an anthology, it's no big deal. I was just curious.
I'm following the DVD order. But that doesn't make any difference since, even though some episodes do have elements in common, there's no grand story arc (like, say, Black Mirror). So it doesn't matter the order in which we watch.

I think this is the first episode produced. We can notice that the show's opening has several scenes from this specific episode. (Unless the intro changes from episode to episode, which I doubt, but that could be the case.)
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
The excuse is that all the billboards and such cluttered up the landscape so they were prohibited.
Nice catch. Now I remember a few years ago an overzealous Mayor of São Paulo issues a "clean city act" in which all billboards were forbidden or something. It was madness and many people lost their businesses in the process. I remember the case of one particularly distraught businessman whose business was to make... billboards and signs.
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
Gone are the days when the Sages of the Single Season would sit idly by and wait for the conversation to come to them in their own dedicated episode thread. Now the Sages go wherever the conversations are!

(Sorry, but this meme was just too good to pass!)

The Omega Directive.jpg


This week - WEEK 4 - we have active conversations going on about seven different episodes! Pick one and start commenting!

(Well, the rest of the thread was about Catweazle. Since it was rejected on that forum, it loses its purpose to exist. Therefore I decided to delete it. I'll focus my energies where they'll yield fruit.)
 
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Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
Gone are the days when the Sages of the Single Season would sit idly by and wait for the conversation to come to them in their own dedicated episode thread. Now the Sages go wherever the conversations are!
OK, what the heck is this doing here? Well, since this is a Welcome to Paradox board, I'll edit out the Catweazle parts, since apparently nobody wants them.
 

Cloister56

Member: Rank 3
Realised at the very end of the episode that this show is called Welcome to Paradox not Welcome to the Paradox, strange how I added a definite article.

A really strong concept to start off the series. Creating connections between the human mind and a remote avatar be it organic or synthetic. This is something that is slowly becoming a reality, with recent developments in artificial limbs.

The movie Surrogates also played with this idea. Being able to operate avatars from the safety of your own home. Experience even the most dangerous things without any direct threat to yourself. You can be an idealised version of yourself (see Bruce Willis with hair again) or someone completely different. Sadly I think the movie botched the ending but it was enjoyable non the less.
Then you have as Mad-Pac mentioned Avatar itself. Though the use of such interesting technology is bizarre in that movie and I if the series continues technically (spoilers for avatar) as he has now transferred to the Navi it is no longer an Avatar.

Anyway back to the show. The reason for them creating this technology seems a bit silly. In the future direct marketing and advertising is banned. So to get round this they use individuals and condition them to obey instructions. They then get these people to be trend setters and use approved products to sell to the masses.
But if I follow it right, the conditioning leaves these clothes horses a bit devoid of emotion and the human touch thus leading them to develop the avatar technology.
That seems like a stretch but ok.
So the first candidate is a suicidal homeless lady, the theory being she will be more relatable.
I was a bit confused how that would work. Are they using Burke's backstory and just telling it to the public as if it was Delphi's?

Honestly, she's not bad looking at all, so it doesn't become clear why one blonde is such a mess and the other is "so perfect." OK, Delphi is played by a younger actress and a very pretty one, but I would'be preferred in Burke were older and uglier.
It would have seemed simpler to just take Burke and give her a makeover. Maybe she is TV ugly, they could have given her hobo teeth that would have solved it.

Anyway the whys are a bit weak but the idea is good and the parts with Burke work really well.
We watch as what starts as curiosity turns to obsession with being Delphi. She gets so bad she has to be sedated as she doesn't want to sleep or eat. This does make me think of the stories of obsessed gamers who have died.

https://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/19/world/taiwan-gamer-death/index.html

Gaming was an escape from reality and you could image especially with where Burke was coming from this would also happen with Delphi.


Though Nicolle Tom has the starring role as Delphi, it is Megan Leitch who delivers the real powerhouse performance of the show. In the final scene where she slowly stumbles toward Delphi desperately wanting to become her, you can read the desire and longing on her face.
That was an excellent scene, she was almost like a desperate junkie, her physical and mental health collapsing and she was still focussed on getting her fix.

She collapses and dies but comes back to life inside Delphi. But it’s not a happy ending. Apparently Delphi isn’t a real entity and she can’t survive inside her. It’s like wanting to be an avatar in your favorite video game. If you became that avatar, you wouldn’t have any real existence. An avatar isn’t a human being. And so, Delphi quickly joins Burke in death. Be careful what you wish for; you might just get it.
It's interesting reading your interpretation. It isn't made clear what exactly happens. I have a theory that when she disconnects from the chair that there is a short latent period a bit like when you unplug something but the power light remains on for a few seconds.
Although Burke was disconnected there was still some consciousness "powering" Delphi for a few more minutes before it ran out.
It did seem for a second that the show was going to pull an Avatar and have it all work out, logic be damned but then it crashed back to cold reality.
It reminds me of the Doctor Who episode "Silence in the Library" where a similar thing happens with the space suits called "Ghosting"

There is a strange scene where Delphi appears to wake up in bed with another man. If Delphi is asleep is Burke still connected? Did Delphi just sleep with that random guy?

The CEO's son Paul doesn't quite work for me. I understand that because he is the CEO's son he doesn't face the consequences of his actions. But it seems like they should keep a closer eye on him and perhaps prevent him causing so much havoc.

The look of the show is very 90's from the "futuristic" fashion and the, by today' standards, poor CGI. But it didn't really work against the show for me. If the concept is good I am happy to accept a few wonky visuals.

The intro and outro guy was suitably creepy.

One problem is that his opening monologue apparently also gives away plot points before the story even starts. That’s not okay in my book; I’ll have to kind of ignore the details in future episodes, although he didn’t do anything to really spoil this episode.
That is a problem if he gives stuff away. He needs to take a leaf from Stirling, set things up, give us some things to mull over and Welcome us to Paradox.

An interesting start to the series, I think some episodes might spark some nice discussions about different theories or interpretations.

7 silly faces you pull when advertising, sorry I mean definitely not advertising, a spa, out of 10.
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
The movie Surrogates also played with this idea.
Yes, Surrogates. Didn't I mention that or did I forget? Anyway, I liked the movie very much, though the concept starts falling apart if you look too closely. The original comic book is interesting too, though I didn't like the art.

It would have seemed simpler to just take Burke and give her a makeover. Maybe she is TV ugly, they could have given her hobo teeth that would have solved it.
Well, Delphi is over ten years younger and very pretty. As for Burke, I think the producers simply don't think casting realistically ugly people is an option, so they gave her some "ugly makeup."
 
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