Jonathan Frakes
The Discarded

THE MASTERS. It's a real shame that this series conceptualized by the USA TV channel ABC and with supervision from — none other than — Stephen Hawking did not gain much traction and instead turned out to be a true flop in terms of viewership, to the extent that the network decided to halt production after just one season (six episodes) and to suspend broadcasts: the last two episodes, for the record, never aired.

And yet the idea was good and noteworthy. Following the model established with the 'horror' genre, 'Masters of Science Fiction' was designed to be a quality entertainment product. Each film, considered more than an episode (there is no connection between each of the six chapters), brought to the screen a short story by a renowned science fiction author (from John Kessel to Robert Heinlein to Robert Sheckley), each time adapted by a different team of quality directors and actors. Each episode also had an educational content and opened and closed with an introduction and a final commentary by Stephen Hawking.

The idea was good and I must say that all six films are worth watching, and yet... And yet it didn't work. Why? Reading around on the web, it seems the product was considered too demanding. It was aimed only at consumers of the science fiction genre, and apparently among them, the majority preferred and continued to prefer mass science fiction like 'Star Trek' or 'Star Wars' over what I would call intelligent science fiction.

'THE DISCARDED', BEHIND THE SCENES. An intelligent sci-fi but certainly not complicated. After all, each film lasts between forty and forty-five minutes: objectively it's impossible to even attempt to delve into extensive scientific and speculative arguments, but after all, this was not the real mission of the project, which at most aimed to convey moral and educational messages. This demonstrates my old thesis that the science fiction genre should teach and transmit something, and the 'science' in question can and should primarily be a social science.

And how could it be otherwise in this story directed by Jonathan Scott Frakes, an actor known precisely for playing Commander William T. Riker in the television series 'Star Trek' (and in the subsequent movies) and who as a director has mostly worked on directing episodes of television series, from 'Star Trek' to 'Leverage', 'NCIS: Los Angeles'. A director therefore not new to the science fiction genre and also in terms of directing scenes with a certain scenic and action-packed impact.

The work from which what we can definitely call a short movie is derived is also titled 'The Discarded', like the film, and is a 1959 short story written by the writer Harlan Jay Ellison, an author (born in 1934 - still alive) who over the years has worked in several genres and not just specifically in science fiction, collecting numerous literary awards including the Hugo and Nebula. Her literary production is practically endless, as are the countless television and film adaptations taken from her works or directly written by her, especially in the field of science fiction.

The protagonists of the story told in 'The Discarded' are those who can be considered true 'outcasts'. They are human beings who, following the spread of a virus, have undergone more or less noticeable mutations, which are also degenerative among other things and apparently have an infectious nature. Hence their isolation aboard a spaceship which, at the time of the narration, orbits around Earth after unsuccessfully requesting to be hosted around the solar system and the various planets and satellites that have been 'terraformed'. It's worth mentioning that this is a 1959 story. Today, we know much more about terraforming than back then and thinking about planets and satellites of our solar system being 'terraformed' would suggest a remote and distant future, but the dynamics of the film instead suggest that the events are set in a near future. A near future to 1959, but also to ours.

THE SOCIAL THEME. 'The Discarded' is a film whose tones could at times even appear parodic and its contents altogether not very credible on a scientific level. The malformations are in some cases quite conspicuous and perhaps this also intentionally, to heighten a certain grotesque character in the settings' tones and in a drifting spaceship where corpses are thrown into space as if they were garbage. But in reality, the social themes are central and dominant, more than those that may involve the medical science field, as one might expect, given that the subjects are afflicted by the effects of what was the action of a virus. An aspect that is treated only marginally and at a certain point instrumentally for the plot's sake.

Basically, we don't know much from the contents about what is actually happening on planet Earth, as it is never truly shown except from afar through the spaceship's 'portholes', but we know that the 'outcasts' have been exiled and forced into isolation for decades against their will. They live in a spaceship aptly named 'gulag' and live in extreme conditions, eat synthetic foods, and die like flies. Mostly, they seem resigned to their end and their fate seems sealed to them, but all, even without showing hatred, anger, or resentment for what their fate has been, dream of returning to Earth.

This is a central element. The fact is that they, except for a few exceptions, seem to somehow reject themselves and their appearance. Bedzyk (Brian Dennehy), who is a sort of authority for the community and perhaps the only one among them endowed with sense and true pride, the only one truly making an effort to ensure there is some respect for the rules of common living on board, will affirm, not by chance, that the reason for their exile is that other humans do not want to see them. Labeled as monsters, a degeneration of the human race and treated as such, they have accustomed their minds to think in these terms.

But naturally, something happens. It seems that on Earth, after all, not everything is roses and that in fact, there may be some significant problems on that side too, and after decades, what will be an unexpected yet genuine direct contact will occur, giving hope to the 'gulag' inhabitants of being able to return home. And it is obviously this event, this contact, which in my creative writing course (obviously promptly abandoned after a couple of lessons) would be defined as a 'spark'.

We have a situation of stasis and suddenly here comes finally a contact with planet Earth. Although few of the outcasts show they still possess some sense, and after such lengthy isolation, the interest is general, and a split within the group is inevitable, in what we could define as yet another war among the poor. In fact, the ultimate frontier of a war among the poor. Since, after all, we are in space and aboard a spaceship.

CONCLUSIONS. Bedzyk will refer to their treatment as the same used in some situations with plague patients, left to their fate and in complete isolation. Watching the film, and for the characters' malformations and their deliberately grotesque appearance, a cinema classic like 'Freaks' by Tod Browning comes to mind. It's inevitable, because we are faced with a deliberate exhibition of what could be defined as oddities, real deviations from the so-called 'straight path' taken by humankind.

On the other hand, even a film like 'Freaks', over time, has become a cult, ok, it may have acquired some content of denouncement. The so-called display of monsters, pardon the play on words, and of those who were defined and exhibited as 'freaks of nature' is something that contains an inherently frightening content. But after all, think about it, if you put people in a circus or a cage, in a 'sideshow', even those who may be ordinary people, and make them an attraction, then you have automatically created monsters. Didn't the French do the same at the end of the 19th century with those who were once free citizens of New Caledonia lands.

This happened just about a hundred years ago, but the parallel that best fits this film can be found in our current society and in the absurdities of the global world. Who or what do the migrants constitute if not a category of outcasts. We watch them on television as if we were witnessing a show, a spectacle, and clearly, the media amplify the spectacle as they please, and this just as one would try to exhibit in the most grotesque way possible the freaks of nature. But do we have a real awareness of what we are watching? There is a lack of human contact, sometimes grasping the concept of what is truly real is really difficult, and after the news broadcast and/or when the TV is turned off, all this, this spaceship of outcasts disappears from our sight and our thoughts. It's as if all this doesn't exist. Yet it's there, sometimes just a few kilometers away, and not on some spaceship traveling the solar system.

Quotes.

1. 'From the beginning we have asked ourselves how life began, what the meaning of our existence is, and where we are going. We have strived to understand time, matter, the infinite universe, who we are, and if we are alone. Great minds have imagined the most astonishing and terrifying answers to these questions. We invite you to join us in this great endeavor.' (Stephen Hawking)

2. 'As we strive to improve and better ourselves and elevate humanity to its highest form, what will become of those who are less than perfect?' (Stephen Hawking)

3. 'Is it by chance that you know, just to divert the conversation from the previous nonsense, why we call the disease that condemned us to this prison what it is. I'm referring to what we affectionately call 'bloody stools'.

Do you know why we call it 'GIRM'? While past generations' plagues were called smallpox, yellow fever, or AIDS.

You know the etymological bases for which we indicate the disease we all share as GIRM. Well, it was initially called 'transmutant blood poisoning'. A silly or inappropriate term equal to chronic fatigue syndrome used for Epstein Barr virus or mononucleosis.

Then they decided to opt for TAS, the acronym later became ST, but many argued that the definition was incorrect, so they began calling it 'blood mutation' or 'bloody stools', a disgusting term, a stupid term.

Finally, when it had already affected millions of people, people started taking it seriously, especially when the president of Uruguay grew eleven more noses on the back of both hands, they called it, ta-daa!, 'The Beginning of Melancholy'. Then they gave the exact definition of the disease: 'Idiopathic Genomic Random Mutation.' The acronym is GIRM.' (Samswope)

4. 'Philistines... I am surrounded by Philistines.' (Samswope)

5. 'What monstrosities roamed the streets, some people had incomplete faces just like their minds.' (Eric Hoffer)