Through A Mirror Darkly

Star Trek: A Piece of the Action

So this could be considered Part Three of my loose-knit series on science fiction: The Distorted Society.

This is a sci-fi convention where there is an Earth…or another planet, at least somewhat Earth-like, that has some aspect of society that is a distorted version of our own.

Just being an alien planet does not fit into this trope; this is about an Earth (or a 'sort-of-Earth') that has a certain element of our society exaggerated, magnified or distorted).

Several episodes of Star Trek explored this kind of thing - there would be a Nazi-planet. Or a 1930's gangster-planet.

The Twilight Zone had a couple of these too, exploring various kinds of authoritarian societies on alternate Earths.

Sliders was an entire series based on the idea of characters who jumped (or 'slid', I suppose) to alternated versions of Earth where there would often be this kind of setting to deal with: there would be an Earth where the traditional gender roles were reversed, for example. I'm sure there were others; not every episode did this kind of distorted society but this series was built for that type of thing! A great premise that didn't totally deliver, I think because of various behind the scenes problems.

The Purge is a movie (or a few movies) built around this kind of thing: one day per year, nothing is illegal. I haven't seen it and it appears to be sort of a horror movie or thriller I think, but it qualifies here.

Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" was a famous example, featuring a small town that has a sinister tradition of a grim…you guessed it…lottery!


Black Mirror: Nosedive

The Black Mirror episode "Nosedive" was a fantastic story, I thought, perfectly told about a society where every interaction between people was followed by each person "rating" the other person. People's socioeconomic status depended on positive ratings from others. The main character is obsessed with raising her status and…well, I won't spoil what happens. It's kind of in the title. It gets the highest recommendation from me though - well worth a look if you haven't seen it!

Social media is excellent fodder for these kinds of sci fi stories actually - I think there have been a couple movies that explored different aspects of it. The Orville did an episode where citizens voted on criminals' guilt or innocent, judging strangers based on social media-type presentations. It was okay, but it was no "Nosedive". On the same show, Bortis is from a society/species made up entirely of males and there are some interesting episodes about that character and his planet.

The "twisted mirror" version of Earth can make for a fascinating science fiction story, and of course, a way to create ham-fisted allegories as well (I'm lookin' at you, Elysium!)

What do you think of the "distorted society" story in science fiction? I think my favorite was "Nosedive" from Black Mirror. How about you?


Have a good one!

Banes