Robots, Space, and the Stories In-Between by Richard O. '28
Using Sci-Fi to Procrastinate
One thing about me is I love science fiction. Whether it be movies, books, shows, or short stories, science fiction always gives me an opportunity to imagine life in a world different than ours and envision what future technology and future societies can look like. I actually talked a little about my science fiction obsession in my MIT applications since sci-fi is part of where I get my inspiration for wanting to be a part of the computer science world. That being said, I’ve found myself indulging and catching up on a lot of science fiction shows that I’ve been saving up during the school year in between my work hours this summer and decided to share a few of my many, many favorites:
Foundation
Richie Rating: 10⁹/10
Current Status: Finished/Caught Up
Concepts/Themes: Interplanetary Conflicts, Future Societies, Government, Corruption, Time Travel, Math, Technology, Ethics, Cloning, Artificial Intelligence, Space
Richie Analysis: If Star Wars and Dune had a baby, Foundation would be the child. This show is the pinnacle of what science fiction shows should look like. Cinematic production, intriguing storyline, and amazing acting all while bridging together so many different science and space concepts into one beautifully executed show. Basically, some super smart math professor predicts that the entire galaxy is about to enter into a state of chaos for several thousand years but is exiled for his predictions by the sitting empire and tries to gather people to fix things himself. It’s based off of an original novel series by Isaac Asimov with the same name that I have yet to read so I can’t really compare the accuracy of the adaptation, but either way this show is so amazingly well done. Getting to the end of episode 1 is all you need to be hooked on.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4QYV5GTz7c
Stills:
Pluto
Richie Rating: 10/10
Current Status: Finished/Caught Up
Concepts/Themes: Artificial Intelligence, Robots, War, Investigation, Emotions, Corruption
Richie Analysis: A beautifully written Japanese animated short series about an investigation into the death of several artificially intelligent robots that exist in a world where AI has reached the same level of intellect as humans. From AI ethics and politics to war and grief, this series has so many amazing layers and character lines that tie into one overarching story that really makes you contemplate a lot of different societal topics. It’s been a while since I’ve watched this, so the trailer below can give a better explanation as to what it entails.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NZJkzcvAtU [SUB]
Stills:
Invasion
Richie Rating: 9.8/10
Current Status: Finished/Caught Up
Concepts/Themes: Apocalypse, Survival, Future Technology, Military, Alien Communication, International Cooperation, Family, Friendships
Richie Analysis: Best apocalyptic sci-fi show out there. Essentially a colony of extraterrestrial creatures start overtaking earth and the show follows several different stories of characters all across the globe experiencing the same conflict and slowly begins to merge all their stories together. Lots of foreshadowing, political disputes, ethical discussions and conflict.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlaHxL3mHAU
Stills:
Lost in Space
Richie Rating: 9.5/10
Current Status: Been a while/Need to rewatch
Concepts/Themes: Robots, Space Exploration, Planetary Colonization, Problem Solving, Survival, Family, Friendships, Social Dynamics, Trust
Richie Commentary: Man it’s been so long since I’ve watched this one, but this show is what got me obsessed with space exploration shows. Used to watch it with my family and just remember being in awe after each episode. From what I remember the show follows a family on a ship on course to a planet in the Alpha Centauri star system but ends up getting marooned on another planet after their main ship gets damaged. Main character, Will Robinson, meets an AI robot and the show follows the family’s experiences as they try to return to their intended planet. Trailer below will give better details.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzmM0AB60QQ
Stills:
The Sand Man
Richie Rating: 9.5/10
Current Status: In progress (on ep7 of s2)
Concepts/Themes: Reality, Life, Death, Dreams, Greek Mythology, Ethics, Responsibility, Promises, Trust, Family, Relationships, Morals
Richie Commentary: Cinematic masterpiece. More of a magical fantasy-based show but is so beautifully produced that it deserves a spot up here. Main character is called Dream, and he essentially controls the dreams of humanity. But on top of that he has a lot of interesting relationships with people in the human world and outside of the human world. A lot of interplay between different mythologies such as Greek and Norse. Most episodes focus on a main plot but some of the more intriguing episodes drift away from it and focus on side characters
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJXamnPUm0I
Stills:
Scavenger’s Reign
Richie Rating: 9/10
Current Status: In progress (on ep 8)
Concepts/Themes: Space Exploration, Survival, Trust, Nature, Artificial Intelligence, Conflict
Richie Analysis: A beautiful animated series about several people who get deserted on a unique planet after using escape pods to get off of their damaged freighter ship. Some of these survivors get separated and the show follows each of their experiences on this planet that is home to some odd and interesting creatures and plants and how they adapt using the foreign life forms they encounter to survive.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWQH8cMpWTU
Stills:
Interstellar
Richie Rating: 9/10
Current Status: Been a while/Need to rewatch
Concepts/Themes: Space Exploration, Family, Trust, Decisions, Time, Reality
Richie Analysis: You should probably have heard of this movie by now. Anyways: a great story about a dad who goes up into space to get data on some viable alternatives for humanity to replace Earth with after their society began experiencing a mass food shortage. While in space he experiences some drastic time dilation due to different space phenomena, and the movie basically follows the experiences he has as well as those on earth (including his daughter) who experience time a lot faster than him.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LqzF5WauAw&t=19s
Stills:
For All Mankind
Richie Rating: 9/10
Current Status: In-Progress (on ep8 of s2)
Concepts/Themes: Space Race, NASA, Moon and Mars Exploration, Relationships, Family, Government, Conflict, Decisions, Trauma
Richie Analysis: A well written alternate retelling of the space race between the US and the Soviet Union during the latter half of the 1900s. Imagines a world where the Soviet Union set foot on the moon first and what the start of a mars race would look like. Really amazing show.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZS9M52Bd_w
Stills:
Silent Sea
Richie Rating: 8/10
Current Status: Been a while/Need to rewatch
Concepts/Themes: Moon Colonization, Climate Change, Scientific Discovery, Catastrophes, Trust, Mysteries
Richie Analysis: Loved this show. Essentially, earth began experiencing a water shortage due to climate change so several scientists are sent up to retrieve a sample of something that could help address it on an abandoned lunar base that experienced some sort of catastrophic event and bring the sample back to earth. Lots of suspense. Lots of mysteries. Great story. Watched this 3 years ago with my dad and brother and sadly still have yet to hear about a season 2.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af_Hj0MDBBQ
Stills:
3 Body Problem
Richie Rating: 7/10
Current Status: Complete/Caught Up
Concepts/Themes: Artificial Intelligence, Alien Societies, Friendships, Government, Scientific Advancements, Ethics
Richie Analysis: Honestly just a very…random show. Essentially there’s an intelligent species coming to earth and a ton of random phenomena start happening. And then the intelligent species send these weird VR goggles and start manipulating people’s visions and then manipulating people and then technology and yea. It’s just a crazy show. Lots of cool future technology ideas tied in, so definitely worth a watch.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lj99Uz1d50
Stills:
Dune I & II:
Richie Rating: 7/10
Current Status: Been a while/Need to rewatch
Concepts/Themes: Interplanetary Governments, Resource Acquisition, Family, Prophecy, Love, Survival, Conflict
Richie Analysis: I’m gonna be honest – when I watched both Dune movies I was barely paying attention to the plot and was honestly just fangirling over the visual effects, world designs, and camera work. So, yea I’m not even gonna try to tell you what it’s even about cause I honestly barely remember, so I’ll let the trailers do the talking and will probably rewatch for the plot whenever Dune III comes out.
Stills:
Another Life
Richie Rating: 7\10
Current Status: Complete/Caught Up
Concepts/Themes: Space Travel, Artificial Intelligence, Alien Interaction, Interplanetary Travel, Space Phenomena, Survival, Family, Cryogenic Sleep
Richie Analysis: Mmmmm. This show was alright. Watched the first season with my dad like 2 years ago. Ending of the first season made my jaw drop and I realized like a month ago that they made a second season so I finished watching that. But basically, some aliens leave an artifact on earth so a crew is put together to investigate and follow a signal it produces in hopes that they will uncover its origin. Pretty decent space travel show that shows you all the things that can go wrong in space though the second season was kind of meh.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAtBbgtMnZ8
Stills:
Severance
Richie Rating: 6.8/10
Current Status: In progress (ep5 of s1)
Concepts/Themes: Corporate Society, Memory Auditing, Family, Life Choices, Consciousness, Emotions
Richie Analysis: Unique show that follows these people who opt-in to a procedure at an office for a corporation called Lumon that basically makes them forget all their work memories when they leave the office and all their personal life memories when they re-enter the office. This essentially forces the workers to live two different lives. Interesting show that I think I need to keep watching.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEQP4VVuyrY
Stills:
Mickey 17
Richie Rating: 6.5/10
Current Status: Complete/Caught Up
Concepts/Themes: Survival, Cloning, Extraterrestrial Life, Corruption, Power, Politics
Richie Analysis: Movie about a guy who signs up to join a spaceship crew and work as an “Expendable” or disposable human worker that gets reprinted with the same memories every time he dies. Think I might’ve liked this more as a show because the whole story felt like it could’ve been slower, but it was a decent watch.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osYpGSz_0i4
Stills:
Honorable Mentions:
- Nat-Geo Mars Docu-Series, Manifest, Scythe (Novel Series), Pantheon, Zima Blue (Love, Death, and Robots), I Am Mother, Altered Carbons, Mandalorian
Upcoming Watches:
- Sentinal, Omniscient, Jung_e, Stowaway, Extrapolations, Silo, Bodies, Space Man, Andor